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> > > > > > The Attitude of Some of the Medina Poets during the Fourteenth/Twentieth Century toward the Harb Tribe and its Role in the Arab Revolt against the Turkish Government

The Attitude of Some of the Medina Poets during the Fourteenth/Twentieth Century toward the Harb Tribe and its Role in the Arab Revolt against the Turkish Government

The memory of the Harb’s violations against the city of Medina was expressed two centuries later by a voice issuing from the same mosque that had been dishonoured by the ACrāb in the twelfth/eighteenth century; it was the voice of Muhammad alCUmarī ⁽¹⁾, one of the major poets of Hejaz in the mid-fourteenth/twentieth century. In one of his not fully published poems, he severely attacked the harb for their part in the revolt led by Sharīf Husayn ibn CAlī ⁽²⁾ against the Ottoman government, although the poet’s attitude seems to have been more favourable toward the institution of the Islamic caliphate, at that time represented by the Ottoman Sultan. What concerns us here, however, is how the poet sought to remind the tribe of what they had done throughout many centuries, not only against the inhabitants of the city but also against the visitors to the city from around the Islamic world who had suffered as much as the inhabitants:

رُويداً بَنِي حَرِب تغاديكم الحَرْبُ

ويَجْتَاحُ ما خُوِّلْتُم الطَّعْنُ والضَّرْبُ

فأنتم قدحتم للشَّقَاءِ زنادها

وطَارت شراراً لا تَبُوخُ ولا تَخْبُو

فصبراً على ذل أمر مغبة

من الصاب لا يسطعيه الحلق والقلبُ

معاذ إله العرْش يُرجِّي أموركم

ولمَّا يُجَازى ذلك النَّهْبُ والسَّلْبُ

قروناً ثمان تَعْبَثُون بوفْدِهِ

حَجيجاً وعُمَّاراً إلى بيْتِهِ تَصْبُو

ألم تعْلَمُوا أنَّ الجَهَالة غُبُّها

وخيمٌ وأنَّ البَغْي مركبه صَعْبُ ⁽³⁾

("Slowly, Banū Harb, the war will call upon you, and the thrust and striking will sweep away what was conceded to you. You dispensed the sparks [of war] inflicting misery and spread [the flame of war] around, which neither is assuaged nor dies. We must be patient for the shameful end that comes with bitter taste unpalatable to the throat or heart. God of the throne refuses to postpone your doom, since he has not punished your plundering and theft. For eight long centuries you committed outrages against God’s delegation of pilgrims seeking for His house [at Mecca]. Did you not know that the end of foolishness is fraught with danger and the way of injustice is hard?").

It should be noted here that the poet al-CUmarī was critical of Sharīf Husayn ibn CAlī for two main reasons. First, the attachment of the Harb tribe along with his troops ⁽⁴⁾ in the revolt against the Ottoman rule aroused his opposition because of the animosity which had long existed between the tribe and the civilian population of the large cities of Hajaz, especially medina which was the first target of this tribe during many centuries. Second, Sharīf Husayn became allied with the British during the Arab revolt ⁽⁵⁾ and it seems that the poet did not place much faith in the promises of the british government, as he expressed elesewhere in his poem:

فَقُل لي مَتَى وَفَتْ بعَهْد لِحَاكِمٍ

فهل هو إلاَّ العَهْدُ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ الغَصْبُ

("Tell me when she [the British government] fufilled its promise to any ruler. Is it a Promise to be followed up by force?").

It seems that the main factor influencing the poet’s opposition to Sharīf Husayn’s alliance with the British was his religious attachment to the Ottoman government which he looked upon as a sacred custodian of the caliphate whose role was to protect Islam. Thus, he addressed his speech to the Sharīf as follows:

فَهَلا شَكَرْتَ اللَّه في ظِلِّ دولة

بها عُصِمَ الإسلام وانهزَمَ الحِزْبُ ⁽⁶⁾

("Will you not thank God, being in the protection of a government by which islam has been preserved and the gang [of opponents] has been routed?").

The poet did not hesitate to express his strong support for the Ottoman rule, a support which has been interpreted by the late critic CAbd al-Quddūs al-Ansārī as a sudden attitude adopted after his long silence and deliberate exile from political life. On account of his personal friendship with the military ruler of Medina, CAbd al-Majīd, he drifted towards the government from which he had formerly distanced himself. This new-found fervent support expresses itself in the closing lines of his poem:

سلام على دار الخلافة خالداً

وحيَّا لُيوث العَصْر مَا زمْزمَ الرَّكْبُ ⁽⁷⁾

وقَارنَ نَصْرُ اللَّه أعلا لوائها

وسِيقَ على أعدائها الويْلُ والرُّعْبُ

("Peace be upon the immortal realm of the caliphate and welcome to the lions of the present time while the caravan hums its way along. May the support of God both raise their [he Ottoman’s] banner higher and fill its enemies with affliction and fright").

Muhammad al-CUmarī al-Maghribī was born in 1282/1865. he came to Medina in 1303/1885 and there took his education under the contemporary CUlama' and poets of Medina. He came later to be considered as one of the major poets of Hejaz, where he lived under three different governments: the Ottoman, the hashimite, and the SaCūdī. He died in Medina in 1365/1945. See CAbd al-Quddūs al-Ansārī, "Al-Shaykh Muhammad al-CUmarī", al-Manhal (Oct., 1957) p. 163-5. Abū Bakr records that the poet led a quiet life during the Hashimite government in Hejaz and was cautious of the situation and events which took place during al-Husayn ibn CAlī’s time. (A.H. fī al-Hijāz, p. 109).	[1]
"Husayn b. CAlī, Amīr and 'Grand Sharīf' of Mecca and the Hidjāz from 1326/1908 to 1335/1916, and King of the Hidjāz from 1335/1916 to 1343/1924, was… born in Istanbul in 1270/1835 or 1273/1856, passed his youth partly in the Hidjāz and partly in Istanbul, where he was, after 1311/1893, a permanent resident and political détenu… [He died in Amman], mid-summer 1931. He was buried in the Haram al-Sharīf at Jerusalem". (S.H. Longrigg, art. "Husayn b. CAlī", EI2, vol. III, p. 605f). See also Amin al-Rayhānī, Mulūk al-CArab, vol. I (Beirut, 1924) p. 23-68.	[2]
These verses are cited from a poem provided for me by al-Sayyid CAlī Hāfiz, who was well acquainted with the late poet al CUmarī during his life in Medina. The complete poem, like the rest of his poetical works, is still unpublished. CAbd Allāh al-Hāmid stated that al-CUmari’s Dīwān used to be kept by the late poet CUbayd Madānī (who was a student of al-CUmarī but it was borrowed from him and was not returned. (Al-ShiCr fī al-Jazīrat al-CArabiyya [Riyadh, 1402/1982] p. 386). One of al-CUmari’s poems which was provided for me by CAlī Hāfiz was signed by the poet himself and may be a part of his lost Dīwān.	[3]
Sulaymān Mūsā stated that "after Sharīf Husayn spread his domination throughout the territories of Hejaz and won the loyalty of its inhabitants, including the civilians and the Bedouin, he shifted his interest to widen his domination over the two major tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, CUtayba and Harb". (Al-Harakat al-CArabiyya Sīrat al-Marhalat al-Ulā li-Nahdat al-CArabiyyat al-Haditha, 1908-1924, 2nd ed. [Beirut, 1977] p. 52.) See also Mustafa Tilas, al-Thawrat al-CArabiyyat Al-Kubrā (Damascus, 1978) p. 348.	[4]
"In 1916 the revolt of the Shereef of Mecca gave the signal for the downfall of Turkish rule. This revolt, liberally backed by England, gained the active or passive support of the Arab elements throughout the Turkish Empire". (L. Stoddard, The New World of Islam [London, 1922] p. 146).	[5]
Al-CUmarī, op. cit., p. 164.	[6]
On the word rakb, see p. 74, 1.56SH.	[7]