Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā: Abandoned Dwellings, Recognition After Twenty Years, and Greeting the Ruins (Verses 1–6)

1. Zuhayr’s Muʿallaqah: a change in poetic atmosphere

The third Muʿallaqah is attributed to Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā al-Muzanī. Whereas the previous poems included extended first-person adventure and boasting, Zuhayr’s poem becomes especially notable for reflections on reconciliation, human obligation, and hard-won wisdom after its prelude at an abandoned dwelling.

The first six couplets unfold a single scene in stages: silent traces, faint marks like tattoos on a wrist, wild creatures moving through the site, recognition after twenty years, and finally a greeting addressed to the ruins. They should be read as one coherent opening movement.

2. The poet and historical background

Zuhayr belonged to the Muzaynah tribe. The edition’s introduction connects the Muʿallaqah to the conflict known as Dāḥis and al-Ghabrāʾ, fought between groups associated with ʿAbs and Dhubyān/Fazārah. A dispute over a horse race escalated into prolonged bloodshed.

According to that introductory narrative, Haram ibn Sinān and al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAwf helped reconcile the parties and bore substantial blood-money obligations from their own wealth. This context clarifies the poem’s later praise and ethical reflection, but it is explanatory introduction rather than part of the poem’s original verses.

3. Nasīb at the ruins: memory meets observation

A classical qaṣīdah often begins with standing at the traces of a deserted encampment (al-wuqūf ʿalā al-aṭlāl). The poet sees a site in the present while its remains call up an earlier life. Zuhayr opens with a question rather than a statement of certainty.

Here dimnah and dār are not merely words for a house: they mark the gap between a once-inhabited place and the silence left behind. The sequence from uncertainty to slow recognition becomes the inward movement of the opening scene.

4. Verse 1: recognizing an unresponsive campsite

أَمِنْ أُمِّ أَوْفَى دِمْنَةٌ لَمْ تَكَلَّمِ ۞ بِحَوْمَانَةِ الدَّرَّاجِ فَالْمُتَثَلَّمِ
Meaning: Are these the darkened traces of Umm Awfā’s dwelling, silent and unable to speak, at Ḥawmānat al-Darrāj and al-Mutathallam?

The initial question tests memory as much as location. Dimnah refers to darkened remains of an old habitation, potentially marked by ash, earth, and animal traces. Lam takallami attributes silence to the site as though a dwelling might otherwise answer its former visitor. The effect is to make absence audible.

5. The question and attribution in a-min Umm Awfā

A-min combines the interrogative hamzah with min: are these traces associated with Umm Awfā? The principal nominal expression is dimnatun, a surviving mark of habitation.

Umm Awfā is a personal designation, while Ḥawmānat al-Darrāj and al-Mutathallam are place names. Joining the person to specific localities anchors the speaker’s memory in a distinctive past, rather than in an anonymous desert setting.

6. Lam takallam: negation, jussive, and imagined silence

Lam negates the imperfect with past-time reference and places it in the jussive. Takallam(i) belongs to the root k-l-m and the derived pattern tafaʿʿul, related to takallum, speaking. Here the verb is assigned to a place; it is not a literal claim that the dwelling once used language.

The final kasrah in poetic performance relates to sound and metre, not to a different normal grammatical case for the verb. The attribution of speech to ruins is a form of personification: the speaker seeks an answer from a place that can no longer give one.

7. Verse 2: traces like tattoos on a wrist

وَدَارٌ لَهَا بِالرَّقْمَتَيْنِ كَأَنَّهَا ۞ مَرَاجِيعُ وَشْمٍ فِي نَوَاشِرِ مِعْصَمِ
Meaning: Another dwelling of hers lies at al-Raqmatayn; its remaining marks resemble the faint or recurring lines of tattooing visible around the raised parts of a wrist.

Marājīʿu washm points to the fine, dispersed lines of a tattoo. Nawāshir miʿṣam evokes the visible surfaces or vein-like features about the wrist on which such lines appear. The simile transfers the delicacy of a nearly effaced bodily mark to the traces of a deserted dwelling.

8. Marājīʿ washm and the image of a faded pattern

Washm is a mark tattooed on the skin. Marājīʿ evokes lines that survive, return to view, or appear after fading. Together the words suggest not simply a mark, but the fragility and uneven survival of a pattern.

The deserted place likewise retains no fully preserved structure; time, rain, and wind have thinned its remaining lines. What the poet compares is not the dwelling’s size but the fineness of the traces and the difficulty of recognizing them.

9. Grammar and rhetorical structure of verse 2

In wa-dārun lahā bi-l-raqmatayn, dārun introduces another dwelling and lahā connects it with Umm Awfā. Ka-annahā combines the comparative particle ka-anna with the feminine pronoun, and marājīʿu washmin supplies the comparison's predicate.

The tenor is the surviving trace of the residence; the vehicle is a tattoo’s lines on a wrist; the point of likeness is their fineness, diminished visibility, and scattered appearance. The comparison is about memory and traces, not a direct compliment about adornment.

10. Verse 3: wild creatures among abandoned dwellings

بِهَا الْعِينُ وَالْآرَامُ يَمْشِينَ خِلْفَةً ۞ وَأَطْلَاؤُهَا يَنْهَضْنَ مِنْ كُلِّ مَجْثَمِ
Meaning: Wide-eyed wild animals and pale gazelles now move through the place in turns, while their young rise from their various resting places.

Al-ʿīn refers to large-eyed wild creatures, especially wild cattle in the traditional explanation, and al-ārām to light-colored gazelles or antelope. Animals roaming freely through a former human encampment create an important contrast: a place once occupied by people has passed back into the world of wildlife.

11. Al-ʿīn and al-ārām: two animal terms

Al-ʿīn derives its descriptive force from the width of the eye. In this line it is not a plural referring to human eyes, but an epithet for wild animals. Al-ārām denotes white or pale gazelle-like animals.

TermMeaning here
العِينWide-eyed wild animals
الآرَامWhite gazelles or antelope
أَطْلَاؤُهَاTheir young

Together, the three terms replace the human presence with a lively natural scene.

12. Yamshīna khilfatan: feminine-plural reference

Yamshīna is an imperfect verb marked with nūn al-niswah, indicating a feminine plural subject. Likewise, yanhaḍna presents the animals' young as rising with feminine plural agreement. Such agreement is attested for animate animal groups and should not be reduced to a simplistic rule that every nonhuman plural must always have singular feminine agreement.

Khilfatan means alternately or in succession. It gives the description a rhythm: some animals move away while others appear in their place.

13. Aṭlāʾuhā and majtham: young animals and resting places

Aṭlāʾ is used for the young of animals; majtham is a place where a creature settles or rests. Min kulli majtham widens the scene: youngsters rise not from one fixed corner but from resting spots across the site.

This picture makes the apparently empty place into a different sort of inhabited world. The poet seeks the memory of a woman's home, yet finds not human residents but the current life of wild creatures. That contrast provides visible evidence of passing time.

14. Verse 4: recognition after twenty years

وَقَفْتُ بِهَا مِنْ بَعْدِ عِشْرِينَ حِجَّةً ۞ فَلَأْيًا عَرَفْتُ الدَّارَ بَعْدَ تَوَهُّمِ
Meaning: I stopped there after twenty years and, only with difficulty and after an uncertain impression, managed to recognize the dwelling.

ʿIshrīna ḥijjatan uses ḥijjah to mean a year, not the ritual pilgrimage in this context. Fa-laʾyan suggests laborious, delayed recognition, and baʿda tawahhum the uncertain impression that preceded it. The tentative question in verse 1 now begins to find an answer.

15. Ḥijjah and tawahhum: time versus uncertainty

Ḥijjah here is a synonym for sanah, a year. Two decades help explain why the ruined site is difficult to identify. Tawahhum, however, is not a measure of time but a mental condition: the speaker has not yet moved from a vague impression to certainty.

TermMeaning in context
حِجَّةYear
لَأْيًاWith difficulty
تَوَهُّمUncertain supposition

16. Fa-laʾyan ʿaraftu: emphasis on effort

Waqaftu and ʿaraftu are first-person past verbs: the speaker first stops and only then recognizes. Between them, min baʿdi ʿishrīna ḥijjatan makes the long interval explicit.

The accusative expression fa-laʾyan stresses how difficult the recognition is. Omitting its force would turn the line into an instant recollection, whereas the poem depicts stopping, examining, doubting, and finally identifying the site. The sequence gives the scene psychological depth.

17. Verse 5: hearthstones and a channel around the tent

أَثَافِيَّ سُفْعًا فِي مُعَرَّسِ مِرْجَلٍ ۞ وَنُؤْيًا كَجِذْمِ الْحَوْضِ لَمْ يَتَثَلَّمِ
Meaning: I recognized the blackened hearthstones where a cooking pot had stood, and a nuʾy—the earthen channel or protective barrier near a tent—like the remaining base of a water trough, still not broken down.

Athāfī are the stones on which a cooking vessel rests; sufʿan describes their darkening from smoke; mirjal is the cooking pot; and nuʾy a small earthen channel or barrier directing rainwater away from a tent. Identification now rests on tangible, everyday remains.

18. Athāfī and mirjal: the domestic past

In an early Arabian campsite, the cooking vessel could be supported by athāfī, a set of hearthstones. Even when the pot is gone, the stones’ position and smoke-darkened surface can preserve evidence of domestic activity. Muʿarras mirjal specifies the place where such a cooking pot had rested.

This matters because the poet does not point to a monumental building or ceremonial gateway. A few dark stones evoke cooking, living, and eventual departure—the everyday history of a household reduced to traces.

19. Nuʾyan ka-jidhm al-ḥawḍ: the surviving edge

A nuʾy is an earthen ridge or channel constructed near a tent to divert rainwater. Jidhm al-ḥawḍ refers to the remaining base or edge of a water trough. Their shared feature is a raised, durable boundary still visible in the ground.

Lam yatathallam indicates that this remnant has not yet been breached or broken. Unlike the hearthstones, which recall cooking, the channel points to the dwelling’s protective arrangement. Together the two kinds of evidence make recognition more secure.

20. Why athāfī is connected to the preceding verb

Verse 5 begins with athāfiyya, but its syntax depends on the preceding ʿaraftu al-dāra (“I recognized the dwelling”). The commentary understands the word through an appositional/badal relation: as if the speaker said, “I recognized the dwelling—its hearthstones and its channel.”

Sufʿan describes the darkened condition of the stones. Without this cross-verse link, verse 5 becomes an isolated list. With it, the hearth and channel are understood as the evidence supporting the recognition claimed in verse 4.

21. Verse 6: a greeting addressed to the ruins

فَلَمَّا عَرَفْتُ الدَّارَ قُلْتُ لِرَبْعِهَا ۞ أَلَا انْعَمْ صَبَاحًا أَيُّهَا الرَّبْعُ وَاسْلَمِ
Meaning: Once I knew the dwelling, I said to its deserted site: “May your morning be pleasant, old abode, and may you remain safe.”

Fa-lammā ʿaraftu al-dāra completes the act of recognition, and qultu li-rabʿihā turns the empty dwelling into the addressee. Alā inʿam ṣabāḥan is a conventional early Arabic greeting and wish for well-being; a wooden literal paraphrase would lose its social and emotional force.

22. Fa-lammā ʿaraftu and qultu: sequence and response

Lammā here marks time and succession with a conditional flavor. ʿAraftu is a past verb, its -tu ending is the first-person subject, and al-dāra is the direct object. Qultu reports the action that follows recognition.

In li-rabʿihā, rabʿ is governed by the preposition lām, and -hā refers back to the mentioned dwelling. The grammatical sequence is unambiguous: first inspection and recognition, then address and greeting.

23. The two wishes: inʿam ṣabāḥan and wa-slam

Alā attracts attention as an opening particle. Inʿam ṣabāḥan is a conventional expression of greeting and blessing, with ṣabāḥan specifying the morning. Ayyuhā al-rabʿ is a vocative address, and wa-slam wishes continued safety.

The imperative forms are not practical orders: their addressee is an inanimate ruin. Here the imperative becomes a wish or benediction. The paired greetings make the speaker’s attachment to the former dwelling and his sorrow at its loss more perceptible.

24. Personification and longing: why address an empty site?

At the outset the site is described as lam takallam—it does not speak. In verse 6 the poet nevertheless addresses it directly: ayyuhā al-rabʿ wa-slam. The two moments complete one another: the house cannot respond, yet the speaker keeps speaking to it.

This is personification, presenting the inanimate as though it could participate in human exchange. The aim is not to report a literal conversation, but to convey how attachment to a place survives the departure of its people.

25. A vocabulary and technique map of the six verses

The opening changes focus step by step: silence of the site, delicacy of visible marks, movement of animals, distance in time, tangible remains, and finally a greeting.

Term / expressionMeaning or technique
دِمْنَةDarkened traces of a campsite
مَرَاجِيعُ وَشْمFaint tattoo marks: simile
خِلْفَةًMovement by turns
عِشْرِينَ حِجَّةًAn interval of twenty years
أَثَافِيّ / نُؤْيHearthstones / water barrier
أَيُّهَا الرَّبْعُDirect address to the ruins

The order shows how describing a place gradually becomes an account of memory and feeling.