The Elegies on the Prophet in their Historical Perspective

Extract

Of the poems found in the Sīra, four only are introduced as elegies on the death of the Prophet Muḥammad, all of which are ascribed to Ḥassān b. Thābit. They can, however, be seen on internal evidence to be the work of later Anṣarīs, and to reflect the inferior status to which the Anṣārīs were reduced after the sack of Madlna in 63/683; a consciousness of the restriction of their importance to the part they, as a community, played in supporting the Prophet in the early stages; a degree of resigned resentment at their meagre share in the fruits of power, and an intense sentimentality in concentrating their thoughts on the Prophet himself, with whom their glorious past was closely connected. They wished to view this as a personal relation and a privilege which by then was in fact a consolation. Occasionally one also senses Shi'ī undertones in the sentimental adulation of the Prophet (clearly a remote figure), and, as will be demonstrated below, one also notices the occurrence of the epithet “mahdi” and words of the same root. Both these tendencies are of particular significance in relation to the late Umayyad and early ‘Abbāsid periods.