Page 69 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

A St. George of Dhofar

T. M. Johnstone

Contemporary folk-tales and early narrative literature abound in
accounts of heroes with more than human powers, who are
required, as part of the unceasing battle against the forces of
darkness and evil, to perform deeds of great daring and skill. Many
such, recorded in the Stith Thompson Motif-index, are concerned
with the hero’s struggles with monsters.1 The killing of dragons or
serpents is among the commonest of such contests. Thus Ker in his
Epic and Romance says, speaking of Beowulf, ‘Almost every one
of any distinction and many quite ordinary people in certain
periods of history, have killed dragons; from Hercules and
Bellerophon to Gawain, who, on different occasions, narrowly
escaped the fate of Beowulf; from Harald Hardrada (who killed
two at least) to More of More Hall who killed the dragon of
Wantley’.2
It is not, therefore, too surprising to find, in a Dhofari folk-tale,
the hero of the famous cycle of popular tales, Abu Zayd al-Hilall,
as the slayer of a huge serpent3 which has been terrorising the good
folk of the land it has selected for its depredations.
Abu Zayd, known in Dhofar (Zafar) as Bu Zld il-Hilall, though
usually connected with Northern Arabia, has been shown to have
equally important, and it would seem earlier, connections with
South Arabia.4 The Namarah tribe of the ancient B. Hilal still
inhabits the Wadi Jirdan in Southern Arabia, and there are other
Hilall tribes in territories nearby, similarly left behind in the great
Hilall emigration.5 According to recent report, the history of the B.
Hilal and the poems of the Hilall cycle are still part of the living
tradition of this area.6
The Dhofari folk-tale translated and discussed here was
recorded, in Mahri and Jiball (Sheri), by ‘All Musallam al-Mahrl,
with whom I have worked for many years, and who has helped me
to build up a large collection of stories, true ($idq) and fiction
(kidhb), which are being prepared now for publication.
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