The Life & Character of the Seal of Prophets (sa) - Volume I — Page 4
Seal of the Prophets - Volume I 4 Upon the second degree comes the record of such nations and sovereignties as were, in that era, situated in the close proximity of Arabia. Among them, the Royal Empires of Rome and Persia are particularly worthy of mention. Since the geographical boundaries of Arabia met with these two nations, minimal mention of Arabia can be found at some places in the historical accounts of these sovereignties. However, certainly, this mention is very brief and pertinent to affairs only trivial in nature; therefore, no real insight can be derived in regards to the internal state of the country on the basis of this implicative information. The history of Jewish nations and the Bible can also be placed under this category, as indications towards Arabia are found at various instances. Pre-Islāmic Traditions and Poetic Verses Upon the third degree are the internal narrations of the Arabs themselves and in reality, these very narrations serve as a solid base in the study of Pre-Islāmic history. The art of writing and composition was not prevalent among the Arabs, but the method in place for the preservation of verbal narrations from generation to generation was very common. For this purpose the Arabs were gifted with an exceptional memory – the likeness of which cannot be found in any other nation. 1 A distinctive class existed in every tribe, which was responsible for safeguarding to memory the historical account of their own tribe as well as that of surrounding tribes with integrity and loyalty of the highest calibre. Among the Arabs, this art was known as ‘Ilmul- Ansāb , meaning, ‘The Science of Genealogy’. In history, the names of many have been recorded from the Pre-Islāmic era, as experts in this art. In this manner, this knowledge was transferred from one generation to the second, from second to third and so on and so forth, and thus, the history of every tribe was vouchsafed in the hearts of its narrators. In this context, another excellent means through which ancient Arabian history has been safeguarded are the poetic verses composed by poets of the Pre-Islāmic era, as they also seem to encompass particular aspects of the history of Arabian tribes. In the Pre-Islāmic era, the art of poetry among the Arabs had reached such heights that in the opinion of various critics, poetry of Islāmic era was unable to contest in various aspects, despite the positive 1 Life of ‘Mahomet’, Sir William Muir, p. xvi, Reprint of the 1894 Ed. , Published by Voice of India New Delhi