, who was dethroned in the year 637. His
capital was Bosra, on the road between the Persian Gulf and the
Mediterranean. Nowadays the district is chiefly occupied by
nomads; to the Hebrews it was known as Bashan, famous for its
flocks and oak plantations. We can still discern the traces of
troglodyte dwellings of this epoch. The afore-mentioned Jabalah
was a convert to Islam, but, being insulted by a Mahometan, he
returned to Christianity and betook himself to Constantinople,
where he died. But in the time of Abu'l-Ala, the Ghassanites were
again in the exercise of authority. "These were the kings of
Ghassan," says Abu'l-Ala, "who followed the course of the dead;
each of them is now but a tale that is told, and God knows who is
good." A poet is a liar, say the Arabs, and the greatest poet is
the greatest liar. But in this case Abu'l-Ala in prose was not so
truthful as in poetry; for if Jabalah's house had vanished, the
Ghassanites were still a power. The poet, for our consolation,
has a simile (_quatrain_ 77) that may be put against a passage of
Homer:
As with autumnal harvests cover'd o'er,
And thick bestrown, lies Ceres' sacred floor,
When round and round, with never-weary'd pain
The trampling steers beat out th' unnumber'd grain:
So the fierce coursers, as the chariot rolls,
Tread down whole ranks, and crush out heroes' souls.
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