Now Nabigha and A'sha enjoyed greater celebrity than any of the poets represented in the Mocallaqat, with the exception of Amra'al-Qais, and it is therefore not surprising that scholars, of a somewhat later date, appended a poem by each of these to the Motallaq5.t, without intending by this to make them an integral part of that work. This is clear, for instance, from the introductory words of Tibrizi (d. A.D. 11o9) to his commentary on the Motallaqat. Appended to this he gives a commentary to a poem of Nabigha, to one of A'sha, and moreover one to that poem of 'Abid which, as we have just seen, Ibn Qotaiba had counted among the seven. It is a pure misunderstanding when Ibn Khaldiin (loc. cit.) speaks of nine Moiallaqat; and we ought hardly to lay any stress on the fact that he mentions not only Nibigha and A'sha, but also 'Alqama, as Molallaqa-poets. He was probably led to this by a delusive recollection of the Col lection of the "Six Poets," in which were included these three, together with the three Moeallaqa-poets, Amra'al-Qais, Zuhair and Tarafa.
The lives of these poets were spread over a period of more than a hundred years. The earliest of the seven was AMRA'AL QAIS (q.v.), regarded by many as the most illustrious of Arabian poets. His exact date cannot be determined; but probably the best part of his career fell within the midst of the 6th century. He was a scion of the royal house of the tribe Kinda, which lost its power at the death of King ljarith ibn `Amr in the year 529. (See Tabari's Geschichte der Perser and Araber . . . iibersetzt von Th. Noldeke [Leiden, 1879], p. 17i.) The poet's royal father, Ijojr, by some accounts a son of this liarith, was killed by a Bedouin tribe, the Bana Asad. The son led an adven turous life as a refugee, now with one tribe, now with another, and appears to have died young. The anecdotes related of him as well as his poems, imply that the glorious memory of his house and the hatred it inspired were still comparatively fresh, and therefore recent. A contemporary of Amra'al-Qais was VIBID IBN ABRAS, one poem of whose, as we have seen, is by some authori ties reckoned among the collection. He belonged to the Banii Asad, and is fond of vaunting the heroic deed of his tribe—the murder of Hojr—in opposition to the victim's son, the great poet.
The Mo'allaqa of 'AMR hurls defiance against the king of 1-pra, 'Amr son of Mundhir, who reigned from the summer of 554 till 568 or 569, and was afterwards slain by our poet. (See
Noldeke's Tabari, pp. 170, 172.) This prince is also addressed by HARITH in his Molallaqa. Of TARAFA, who is said to have attained no great age, a few satirical verses have been preserved, directed against this same king. This agrees with the fact that a grandson of the Qais ibn Kh5,lid, mentioned as a rich and influential man in Tarafa's Molallaqa (v. 8o or 8i), figured at the time of the battle of Dhu-Qar, in which the tribe Bakr routed a Persian army. This battle falls between A.D. 604 and 610.
The Moiallaqa of ViNTARA and that of ZUHAIR contain allusions to the feuds of the kindred tribes `Abs and Dhobyin. Famous as these contests were, their time cannot accurately be ascertained. But the date of the two poets can be approximately determined from other data. Kelp, son of Zuhair, composed first a satire, and then, in the year 63o, a eulogy on the Prophet ; another son, Bujair, had begun, somewhat sooner, to celebrate Mahomet. `Antara killed the grandfather of Almaf ibn Qais, who died at an advanced age in A.D. 686 or 687 ; he outlived (Abdallah ibn Simma, whose brother Duraid was a very old man when he fell in battle against the Prophet (early in A.D. 630) ; and he had communica tions with Ward, whose son, the poet tOrwa, may perhaps have survived the flight of Mahomet to Medina. From all these indica tions we may place the productive period of both poets in the end of the 6th century.
To the same period appears to belong the poem of eALQAMA, which, as we have seen, Ibn Khaldan reckons amongst the Motallaqat. This too is certainly the date of NABIGHA, who was one of the most distinguished of Arabic poets. For in the poem often reckoned as a Moiallaqa, as in many others, he addresses himself to No`man, king of Hira, who reigned in the two last decades of the 6th century. The same king is mentioned as a contemporary in one of eAlqama's poems.
The poem of A`SHA, sometimes added to the Moeallaqat, con tains an allusion to the battle of Dha gar (under the name "Battle of Hinw," v. 62). This poet, not less famous than N5,bigha, lived to compose a poem in honour of Mahomet, and died not long before A.D. 630.