Art. XV.—The Poetry of Mohamed Rabadan, of Arragon

Extract

The portion of Rabadan's poem given in the present part of the Journal relates the history of Shaibeh or Abdulmutalib, the son of Heshim, and of his son Abdullah, the father of the Prophet. It contains a narrative of the offering up of Abdullah in sacrifice by his father, with regard to which see the following observations of Sir Wm. Muir, vol. i., p. cclix. That writer believes the story, because, as he says, “the simple desire to establish an analogy (between it and Abraham's intended sacrifice), had there been no facts to found the story on, would have led to a very different fiction; for Abraham was commanded to offer up his son, and the Mussulmans believe he acted piously in obeying; whereas they hold Abdulmutalib, who was borne out by no such divine order, to have been wrong both in the vow and in his attempt to fulfil it.” These observations are supported by this poem, for Rabadan does not appear to draw any analogy between the sacrifice by Abraham and that by Abdulmutalib, whereas by using similar expressions he seems very clearly to intend to point out the analogy between the Deluge and the end of the world. The opinion which Sir W. Muir describes as the prevailing one with respect to Abdulmutalib's act is here spoken by the sage Ykrama.