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The historical background to the elegies on 'Uthmān b. 'Affān attributed to Hassān b. Thābit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

W. 'Arafat
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Extract

A total of 32 poems, including some of doubtful authenticity, are ascribed to Hassān b. Thābit in his Dīwān or elsewhere, which can be wholly or partly classified as elegies. It is remarkable, however, that in this total there is not a single poem on an Ansārī while no less than eight are on 'Uthmān b. 'Affān, as compared with only four on the death of the Prophet. Equally remarkable is the fact that there is a wide variety of style and method of treatment not only among the poems as a whole but among poems on the same subject.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , June 1970 , pp. 276 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1970

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References

1 These are nos. XX, XXX, XXXI, XXXII, XXXIII, CLVII, CLXII, CLXIII in Hirschfeld's, edition (‘E. J. W. Gibb Memorial’ Series, XIII), Leyden and London, 1910Google Scholar, corresponding in the new edition of the Dīwān by W. 'Arafat (now printing, and will appear in the ‘Gibb Memorial’ New Series) to nos. 28, 29, 30, 31, 155, 160, 161.

2 Isḥāq, Ibn, Sīra, ed. Wüstenfeld, , 323Google Scholar; ed. Saqqā and others, Cairo, 1955, I, 479.

3 Sīra, 734; II, 301.

4 See Aghānī, xv, 30, and Ṭabarī, i, 3245.

5 al-Athīr, Ibn, al-Kāmil, III, 152–3Google Scholar, Ṭabarī, I, 3069.

6 loc. cit.

7 op. cit., III, 151.

8 See Ṭabarī, I, 2508, 2959, 3057, et passim; al-Barr, Ibn 'Abd, al-Istī'āb (ed. Bajāwī, , Cairo, , 1958), 470Google Scholar; al-Imāmah wa 'l-siyāsah, I, 64–5.

9 Ṭabarī, I, 2937, et passim.

10 Although one reads (Ṭabarī, I, 3005) that 'Amr b. Ḥazm of the Anṣār opened the door of his house, thus permitting the rebels to have access to the besieged 'Uthmān, a more favourable account is given of them later (ibid., I, 3009). In response to an appeal from 'Uthmān who could overlook the Ḥazm family in their house, they allowed a son of 'Amr b. Ḥazm to take a message from 'Uthmān to 'Alī complaining that the rebels had been preventing water being taken to him. Further on (I, 3011), one reads that the Ḥazm family supplied water to 'Uthmān when they could elude the watchers.