OF all the delegations that are said to have come to pay homage to the Prophet in Madina in A.H. 9, none received so much attention from Arab historians as the delegation of the trībe of Tamlm. They tell1 of a boasting competition between members of the delegation and representatives of the Prophet, which resulted in their defeat and subsequent conversion to Islam. This explanation of the conversion of the Tamīmīs, which was accepted in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2 does not appear, however, to be warranted by the circumstances. Moreover, the confusion apparent in the whole story casts grave doubt at least on its details as well as on the degree of importance usually assigned to it, and, furthermore, the poems connected with the story appear to be of later date.