Kinship & marriage in early Arabia / By W. Robertson Smith ; with additional notes by the author and by Professor Ignaz Goldzither ; edited by Stanley A. Cook.

  • Smith, W. Robertson (William Robertson), 1846-1894.
Date:
1903
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Kinship & marriage in early Arabia / By W. Robertson Smith ; with additional notes by the author and by Professor Ignaz Goldzither ; edited by Stanley A. Cook. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    feud of Yemen and Ma'add. But when we turn to the A^/idnl, 777 s^. we find that “the genealogists are at variance as to Coda'a, some maintaining him to be a son of Ma'add and brother of Nizar, while others make him to be Himyarite.” The evidence on each side consists of verses in which Coda'a is referred to Ma'add or to Himyar respectively. The later singers of Coda'a maintained the Him- yarite genealogy and made a number of verses to support it;^ but this, says Moarrij (a noted scholar who died a.h. 195), dates only from the last days of the Omayyads, and all older poets before and after Islam refer Coda'a to Ma'add.^ And ac- cordingly the Aghdnl shews that the famous Codaite poet Jamil, of the tribe of Sa'd Hod- haim (died a.h. 82), repeatedly speaks of his race as Maaddite. It appears then that in this case the genealogy that ultimately prevailed was based on a deliberate falsification of old tradition. The motive is ex- plained by the noted genealogist Abu Ja'far Mohammed ibn Habib (died a.h. 245), quoted in the Taj, 5461: “Coda'a was always known as Maaddite till the feud between Kalb and Cais- 'Ailan arose in Syria in the days of Merwan ibn Al-Hakam; then the Kalbites inclined to the Yemenites and claimed kin with Himyar to get their help the more readily against Cais.” In point of fact, at the battle of Marj Rahit (a.h. 64) 1 So B. Hish. p. 7, 1. 7. 2 [Cp. Jarir’s Dlwan (Cairo), i. 107io.—A. A. B.]