Some Verses by Ḥassān b. Ṯābit al-Anṣārī Not Included in His "Dīwān"

Many poems and fragmentary verses have been ascribed to Ḥassān b. Ṯabit al-Anṣārī (d. ca. 40/659). In some sources of Southern-Arabian cultural or political orientation—as al-Hamdānī’s Kitāb al-Iklīl , the commentary to Naswān al-Ḥimyarī’s Qaṣīda al-ḥimyariyya , and particularly the anonymous Waṣāyā almulūk (occasionally ascribed to al-Aṣmaʿī or to al-Ḫuzāʿī)—about fifty lines by Ḥassān are found which are not recorded in his “official” dīwān . Here a brief investigation is conducted in order to reconstruct the poems which could be ascribed either to Ḥassān b. Ṯābit or one of his forgers. A collation of those same verses is then presented together with an English translation. Keywords : Arabic poetry; Ḥassān b. Ṯābit; qaṣīda .

The fame of Ḥassān b.Ṯābit b. al-Munḏir b. al-Anṣārī (d.ca.40/659) is due to his being "the poet of the Prophet".Being considered a ḫaḍramī (i.e., a poet who lived and was active before and after the Hijra), his poems and his life itself can be seen as a precious source for events contemporary to the rise of Islam.In other words, he might be defined as the earliest poet of the Islamic Era and the latest and historically most genuine of the ǧāhiliyya poets.
As happened to many acclaimed poets of ancient times, many fake poems and verses have been ascribed to Ḥassān: his dīwān was collected in various versions, more or less extended, and his prestige easily led forgers to put sentences under his authority in order to give strength to some opinion or other.
The last edition of Ḥassan's dīwān, prepared by Walīd ʿArafāt, one of the most eminent experts on the poet, includes indeed two recensions of the dīwān itself, as well as a section of "poems added from other sources".
1 This latter section counts more than one hundred poems or fragments, often consisting in a single verse (though some fragments might be related to each other, according to metre, rhyme and topic).
I will focus here on some of these fragments which I had occasion to investigate on manuscripts often not considered in the editions of the sources in which those same fragments are preserved.Those sources are mostly texts of Yemenite provenance that clearly supposed to find in Ḥassān's verses evidences of an Anṣār-Yemen linkage.At the end of this paper there is a tentative reconstruction of the Arabic text of those poems and fragments with an English translation.
A thirty-seven verse long qaṣīda (in ṭawīl metre, rhyme -ar) is reported in the commentary on the Qaṣīda Ḥimyariyya by Našwān b.Saʿīd al-Ḥimyarī,2 in support of evidences about Ḏū al-Qarnayn (quoted in verse 18).This poem was known to al-Hamdānī, who quoted separately verses 14-16 (Iklīl I, p. 51; these were included in the Dīwān as fragment n.304, p. 474), verse 25 (Iklīl VIII, p. 86) and verses 26-27 (Iklīl VIII, p. 230-31).Actually the chapter on Ḏū al-Qarnayn found in the commentary on Našwān seems to be reported from some work of al-Hamdānī that is missing.

3
Seven verses, in the same metre and rhyme, are then in the anonymous Wa ṣāyā almulūk (formerly ascribed to al-Aṣmaʿī or al-Ḫuzāʿī).
4 These verses exalt the figure of Yaʿrub b.Qaḥṭān, claimed to be the first to speak in pure Arabic and the one who gave culture and civilization to the Arabs-who previously were barbarians and naive as little birds.
Metre, rhyme and topic, all suggest that these fragments belong to one and the same poem that might have been extended on certain occasions-in respect of the audience or the context, as it often happened in oral poetry-either by the author himself or the possible forger.
However authentic the single verses or hemistiches may be, all these fragments can be inserted in the frame of an elegiac qaṣīda on the glories of the (alleged) ancestors of al-Anṣār.The sad introduction about the overcoming old age of the poet (verses 1-11) leads to the resigned realization of the relentless fate of life, and then to the remembrance of glorious figures passed by.This structure is common to many faḫr poems, since ǧāhiliyya times, and later became a sort of cliché, in which the nostalgia for the strength of youth is paralleled with that for the glory of the past.
It is here that we possibly can perceive, especially in the self-ironic accents of verses 2-9, the genuine tune of an elderly sensitive seventh-century poet.What looks like mere additions-with their highly formulaic structure-are the verses in praise of families or clans, where the simple change of a name or a word would suffice to serve the purpose.Therefore I consider this poem-or at least its second part and the fragments that could be added-to belong to what ʿArafāt classified as the second class of the poems collected in Ḥassān's dīwān, i.e., "poems by later Anṣārīs, particularly those who lived after the year 63 a.h." 5 Yet, variants occurring in various manuscripts may be evidence of an evolution of the poem itself among those who transmitted it: for example, the lack in a later manuscript (the one abbreviated here as "L") of verses 33-35 quoting specifically the Anṣār may be seen either as the result of a damnatio memoriae in some tradition or as an addition by some anṣārī not accepted by all traditions.The same can be said of the variant occurring in verse 37: if the expression "the kings of Syria" is a comparison referring to some specific moment, then the variants "kings of the earth" or "kings of humanity" will clearly have to be read on a more general and universal level, detaching the comparison itself from its historical context.These ambiguities lead us to suppose that a core part of the poem can be Ḥassān's authentic production to which variants and additions would have been added in the years after his death.
To this same category probably also belong some other sparse lines found in the same sources.Two of them are quoted separately in Iklīl VIII (p.108 and p. 130), but ʿArafāt considered them fragments of the same poem since they share the same metre and rhyme.

6
In the commentary on Našwān's Qaṣīda Ḥimyariyya, a third verse in the same metre and rhyme and with similar subject and formula is reported.
7 A fourth verse, unnoticed by ʿArafāt, is introduced both in Iklīl and in the commentary to Našwān.

8
In these four verses some peculiar Yemenite figures and their homelands are exalted, and it is not surprising that they were preserved only by two Yemenite champions such as al-Hamdānī and Našwān al-Ḥimyarī.Due to the scarcity and the hard formulaic shape of these fragments, it is problematic to relate these to other poems by Ḥassān of the same metre and rhyme, 9 so that one probably should count them among the group of spurious verses that were attached to similar poems on certain occasions.
Finally, another single verse, not included in Dīwān Ḥassān, is quoted in Wa ṣāyā 10 (here Appendix, Poem 3) as it is similar to some faḫr verses of Maḏḥiǧ tribesmen who magnify the fires they light to signal their camps to travellers.This verse is actually found only in one copy of Wa ṣāyā (manuscript C 68 ar. of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, here abbreviated "A"), the one used for the 1997 edition.It contains a metaphor that can be supposed to compare bonfires-only addressed as "them" (-hā)-to red gemstones or or the light of fireflies glowing in the night.This too could actually be attached to any poem by any poet.
I would conclude with the following remarks: 1) 45 verses ascribed to Ḥassān b.Ṯābit are likely to belong to one single poem, composed of mixed material, genuine (i.e.Ḥassān's) and spurious; it is noteworthy that the respective verses are recorded in sources of Yemenite inspiration, in which the boasting of alleged Anṣār's ancestors fits with the general tune of a Ḥassānic poem, whatever the single object of boasting might be.
2) The other fragments of otherwise unknown poems are recorded, again, in sources of "Yemenite" inspiration, and they could as well be the result of a 'forgery'.Nevertheless, they are quoted separately as they were fragments of some already known and acknowledged poems that are missing, poems that may either originate from, or be attached to, Ḥassān himself.
3) The total of these fifty lines of poetry ascribed to Ḥassān b.Ṯābit confirm his fame and increasing authority, particularly among Yemenite-oriented scholars/philologists from the ninth to the twelfth century and on.19 Throughout a tended [bow] string he went after the sun at its set to look into its eyes when it spares (?)

Bibliography
20 And climbed to it when it rises in the morning and noticed it in its constellation when it appears, 21 As a trustee for heaven gates, in daytime and at night, a constant watcher that never gets tired.
22 He shut an iron barrier up melting it, from a spring of pouring copper that did not appear; 23 There he forcedly threw down Gog and Magog till the day they would be called to a pay-off and scattered away.
14 This verse is lacking in A.
15 I retain that these two words (as appear in P2) are here meant as rare and strange words (ġarāʾib), whose meaning is respectively "cooing" (thence "funerary moan") and "to travel at night".In some manuscripts these same words are replaced with non-sense words (būnḫ wa-dūnḫ, būḥ wa-dūḥ), likely meant to be "barbarous" words.
24 Was there among Sabaʾ a glory like their glory?They had a reputation [of] pure essence and substance.
25 In Baynūn there have been a kingdom and lords and in Nāʿiṭ an ancient and proud kingdom; 26 Under Asʿad's swords 16 were people, he included them in a glorious and invincible kingdom 27 The nobles of earth were all acting humbly when their nobles mentioned the hunting Ḥimyar.
28 In al-Kafr we were leaders and those of authority, and the abundant 17 equipment is [something] to remember. 18 29 And [we were] the first to host the Prophet Muḥammad, we supported and hosted-and we [continue to] defend and support-30 the shining fortunate Aḥmad, the authoritative, just as we were lions in the space when we raged.
He could take the stars of luck just by stretching out his hand, [while] hands [trying to do so usually] are [too] small and short.
*‫يزهر‬ ‫اهلل‬ ‫من‬ ‫نور‬ ‫وجهه‬ ‫على‬ 13 15 he, throwing, does not go further than my shoulder, nor than my throat!17g The chicks of birds are not like adults/their elders, just as shining gold does not equal brass!18 Ours is the king Ḏū al-Qarnayn, did he get his kingdom from created humans that a sculptor created?