To Sir William Jones, who first directed the attention of the learned in Europe to the rich treasures contained in the ancient literature of Hindustan, belongs also the honour of having been the first to translate the Seven Arabic Prize Poems into a European language.
174, preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, are some forty others which were also hung up in the Ka‘ba. * Of these "Prize Poems" seven, entitled The Mu‘allaqāt, par excellence, are preserved in many of the European libraries: they are the composition of Imra’u-’l-Qays Tarafa Zuhayr Lebīd ‘Antara ‘Amr and El-Hārith Īnd in the Pocock MSS., No. The bards having recited their eclogues-in which there was little variety of subject: most of them commencing withĪ lament for the departure of a fair one, and a description of her personal charms passing abruptly to an account of the noble qualities of the poet's horse or camel, or a eulogium on his tribe, and his own prowess in battle-judgment was impartially passed on their respective merits and those poems which were considered as most excellent were afterwards written upon silk, in characters of gold, and hung up in the Temple-hence, it has been supposed, they were called Mu‘allaqāt, or "Suspended," and also Mudhahhabāt, or "Gilded" (not "Golden," as the term is usually rendered). Jones, "the poets, for the convenience of the measure, or sometimes for their singular beauty, made use of them all and as the poems became popular these words were by degrees incorporated with the whole language: like a number of little streams which meet together in one channel, and, forming a most bountiful river, flow rapidly into the sea." The several tribes of the peninsula vied with each other in sending their best poets to represent them at the ‘Ukātz assembly. "For, as every tribe had many words peculiar to itself," says Sir W.
II.-THE MU‘ALLAQĀT OR, SEVEN ANCIENT ARABIC PRIZE POEMS.ĪBOUT the end of the sixth century-the most brilliant period in the ancient history of the Arabs-the Arabic language attained its greatest perfection, in consequence, it is said, of the poetical contests which took place at the annual fair that was held at ‘Ukātz during the month of pilgrimage ( Dhu’l-hajj). Arabian Poetry: Introduction: II.-The Mu‘allaqāt, or, Seven Ancient Arabic Prize PoemsĪrabian Poetry, by W.
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