Legends from the Pre-Islamic Arab world

(Ta'i, Hatim al- / Mundhir, Al-Nu'man ibn al-). [The legend of King Al-Nu'man and the legend of Hatim al-Ta'i].

€ 6,500.00

One part of a larger manuscript collection of poetry and folk tales revolving around the battles and alliances of the Arab Lakhmid King of al-Hira, Al-Nu'man III ibn al-Mundhir (ca. 552-609 CE), especially his dealings with the Persian King Khusrow II (ca. 570-628 CE). The second half of the manuscript, folded into the narrative as a story within a story, is the legend of Hatim al-Ta'i, famous for his poetry and great generosity across Arabic and Persian folk literature, whose tomb appears in the Thousand and One Nights tales, and who is particularly associated with the Lakhmids and al-Hira. The work describes his mother, from whom he learned his generous ways, his childhood, and his estrangement from his father-figure, as well as including some of Hatim al-Ta'i's adulthood deeds and poems.

The first half of the manuscript focuses on martial deeds and great gatherings of Arabian knights in the battles of the pre-Islamic era, just on the cusp of conversion. Appearing in the role of villains are the Rum, or the Byzantine Empire, against whom King Al-Nu'man fought in the Byzantine-Sasanian War of 572-91, though he was himself an Arab Nestorian Christian. The alliance between (and later betrayals of) the Persian and Arab kings also has an historical basis, as King Al-Nu'man is said to have taken in the young exiled Khusrow II when he was still a prince.