Page 97 - DILMUN 13_Neat

‫ﻹ‬

DILMN

that the Lakhmids wcre thought, on occasion, to have burncd captive cncmies. Later Arab
sources are not always clcar about which lakhmid kings they arc refcrring to when this
epithet is uscd (Rothstcin 1899:46٠47). Two traditions are most commonly encountered.
According to Yiqat (I, 364) and lbn al-٨thir (1, 49), the Lakhid king 'Anr b. Hind
(rcigncd 554-57) rcccived thc nicknane al-Muharriq at-T١٦' bccause he burned alive 1
captive mcmbers of the 'Tmin tribe in order to avcnge the murder of his brother (Rothstein
1899:47; Jacob 1897:145; Wcnsinck 1913:352; Fahd 1968:13, n.7). Imru' a١-Oays, an carly
Lakhmid king whose tombstone was found by R. Dussaud in 191 at a١-Nanara in southern
Syria, was also known as ''al-Muharriq al-Akbar', but the rcason for this is ١ot clear (Fa١,d
1968:13, n.7).

According to another tradition, the use of the name among the Lakhnids goes back to
the fact that they burned date plantations in the central ٨rabian district of a١-Ya١ama
(Rothstein 1899:47). In a different context, Yiqit (I٧, 425) notcs that a village in
al-Yamina was callcd al-Muharraqa (fem.) aftcr it ٧as burnt down n the 5th ccntury conflict
between the Hanif and 'baid tribes (Wtistenfeld 1874:2; Fahd 1968:131, n.5)

ln addition to the use of the epithet for ccrtain Lakhmid kings, 'Muhyarriq'' was also
applied to their rivals, the Ghassanids, by Ibn Outaiba and al-albi (N5ldeke 1888:7). Abu
'[-Fda' attributes this to the fact that the Ghassanids, in their turn, burnt the Lakhmid
capital al-IHira (Rothstein 1899:47). Among the Ghassanids, however, A١ Mubarriq''
became an actual dynastic name, whereas among the Lakhmids it was restricted to
individuals (Fahd 1968:13, n.3).

These cases, as Rothstein noted in the last century, generally involve burning, and it was
his belief that this accounted for the associaiton made by the various Arab writers between
al-Muharriq, the idol whose name means 'the burner', and the various persons who earned
the epithet al-Muharrig. Fahd has questioned this explanation, pointing to the fact that
al-Mundir III, the Lakmid king who sacrificed 4 captive nuns in 529 as well as the son of
his Ghassanid rival al-Hirith b. Jabala in 544, was not known by the name al-Muharriq
(Fahd 1968:13-131). Yet, as Fahd himself notes, these sacrifices were explicitly made to
al-'aa, not al-Mularriq, nor were al-Mundir's victims ever said to have perished by fire
(cf. Rothstein 1899:81; Graf 1947:16, 19).

Not all references to al-Muharri are to the pre-lslamic diety, or to Lakhmid and
Ghassanid kings, -however. Rothstein was of the opinion that Muharriq (without the article)
referred, in some cases, to a mythical, human hero in mankind's remote past (Rothstein
1899:48-49; cf. Guidi 1921:21). Citing a verse quoted by al-Bakr ''our dress is a shining
suit of amrour from Muharriq's inheritance, the color of heaven, decorated with its stars'
after Wistenfeld 1869:16) Rothstein suggested that far from being a Lakhmid king, sa
early Arab writers sometimes thought and F.W. Schwarnlose, in his 1886 treatise on
pre-lslamic weaponry, believed (Schwaarlose 1886:324), Muharriq was a semi-mythical
blacksmith. Mtyh and history had, Rothstein believed, become confused and Muharriq's
real nature thereby masked. Nor is it difficult to imagine that coufnsion could easily airse
between al-Muharriq, a god associated with fire, and Muharriq, a hero wose craft involved
its use. As N5ldeke pointed out in 1888, however, the Arab writers who praised Muharriq as
a maker of good swords andarmour no longer knew to whom this name referred (Nildeke
1888:7, n. 2).

24