War Songs

'Antarah ibn Shaddad, Richard Sieburth, James E. Montgomery

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781479829651
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Poesía de Oriente Medio

APPENDIX 1

IBN QUTAYBAH (D. 276/888): BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON ʿANTARAH IBN SHADDĀD OF ʿABS IN THE BOOK OF POETRY AND POETS¹⁰⁴

1.1

ʿAntarah’s full name is ʿAntarah ibn ʿAmr ibn Shaddād ibn ʿAmr ibn Qurād ibn Makhzūm ibn ʿAwf ibn Mālik ibn Ghālib ibn Quṭayʿah ibn ʿAbs ibn Baghīḍ. Ibn al-Kalbī states that “Shāddād was his grandfather on his father’s side. His name eclipsed that of the father, so ʿAntarah’s lineage is traced through his grandfather. ʿAntarah’s name is properly ʿAntarah ibn ʿAmr ibn Shaddād.” Others, however, contend that Shaddād was his uncle, i.e., his father’s brother, and that it was he who raised ʿAntarah, which is why his lineage is traced back through him.

1.2

ʿAntarah’s father did not recognize him as his son until he had reached manhood, because his mother was a black slave called Zabībah, and during the Jāhiliyyah the Arabs would consider the children of slaves to be slaves, no matter who their father was. Zabībah’s other sons, ʿAntarah’s brothers, were also slaves. ʿAntarah was recognized by his father after a raid by an Arab tribe that resulted in a number of ʿAbs losses. The men of ʿAbs gave chase, but the raiders fought back and defended the plunder they had taken. ʿAntarah took part in the pursuit, and when his father shouted, “Attack, ʿAntarah!” he replied, “Slaves do not attack. They’re much better at milking camels.” “Attack and you are a free man,” his father said. Then ʿAntarah charged the foe, declaiming:

Every man guards

his woman’s cunt,

black or white.

By the thick fuzzy lips—

This I swear.¹⁰⁵

He fought bravely that day, and won back the plunder that ʿAbs had lost. From that day on, his father called him his son and gave him his name.

1.3

There were three “Arab ravens”: ʿAntarah, whose mother, Zabībah, was black; Khufāf ibn ʿUmayr al-Sharīdī of Sulaym, who traced his lineage through his black mother, Nadbah; and al-Sulayk ibn ʿUmayr al-Saʿdī, who traced his lineage through his black mother, Sulakah.

1.4

ʿAntarah was the fiercest warrior and the most generous of men. He had not composed more than two or three verses of poetry when one day a fellow tribesman launched a vicious verbal attack on him, shaming him for not being a poet and for being the black son of a black mother with black brothers. “It is customary for people,” ʿAntarah replied, “to help one another through sharing food, but neither you nor your father nor your grandfather has ever attended such a communal gathering. It is also customary for people to be summoned to take part in raids and thus to win renown, but none of us has ever seen you in the vanguard of a raiding party. In times of confusion, not one of you, neither you nor your father nor your grandfather, has ever attended a tribunal where a decision was to be taken. You are about as much use as a weed growing in a wasteland. I, however, do not shirk from war. I share my spoils and refrain from begging. I am generous with what I possess. My judgment and resolve are unerring. You’re about to find out about my skills as a poet.” The first major ode he composed was “Did Poetry Die in its War with the Poets?”¹⁰⁶ It is his finest poem, and they called it “the Golden Ode.”

1.5

ʿAntarah participated in the War of Dāḥis and al-Ghabrāʾ with exemplary bravery, and distinguished himself in combat.

1.6

According to Abū ʿUbaydah, ʿAntarah was a man who made his living from raiding. When he grew too old and feeble to take part, he found himself destitute in the aftermath of the Battle of Jabalah Ravine, when ʿAbs, laden with the blood monies they had to pay, returned to live among the Ghaṭafān. He was owed some camels by a member of Ghaṭafān, so he decided to go and call in the debt. He had reached a spot between Sharj and Nāẓirah¹⁰⁷ when a cold wind sprang up after a summer rainstorm. The wind gave the old man a chill, and he was found dead on the spot.

1.7

Also according to Abū ʿUbaydah, during the War of Dāḥis and al-Ghabrāʾ, ʿAntarah killed Ḍamḍam of Murrah, the father of Ḥuṣayn and Harim, an event he mentions in the following verses:

I feared I’d die before war’s mill

could grind Ḍamḍam’s sons to dust.

Unprovoked, they vowed revenge

and stained my honor.

There’s still time for them to act!

I killed their father—

carrion for gimpy hyenas

and grizzled vultures!¹⁰⁸

1.8

No one can quibble over the assertion that he was the first poet to develop the following motif:

and the lone hopper, look,

screeches its drunken song

scraping out a tune

leg on leg like a one-armed man

bent over a fire stick.¹⁰⁹

1.9

This is quite simply a truly great image.

This motif too is original:

I squander all I have on drink—

keeping my honor whole.

Sober again, I’m lavish still,

ʿAblah, as you know.¹¹⁰

1.10

As is this:

The noble line of my tribe

accounts for half of my station—

my blade takes care of the rest …

When the squadron flinches,

fear in their eyes,

I am better than any man

with nobility on both

sides of his family.¹¹¹

In other words, half of my lineage belongs to ʿAbs, and I use my sword to defend the rest of my lineage, the half that belongs to the blacks, and in this way I bring it honor.

1.11

The following verses are excellent:

“Stay back,” my woman pleaded,

as if the Fates were going

to let me step aside and avoid them.

Death is a pool we all must drink fr...