islam as that of abu nuwas will not be missing amongst those practising this poetry of old tribal rivalry: he took the part of the southern arabs.

thus we see that at the time when the caliphate was already becoming an instrument in the hands of foreign praetorians the rivalry between northern and southern arab tribes was still very real to arab society and was still of topical importance. as late as the fourth century there are echoes of/this racial poetry in the work of a poet from antioch, resident at basra, abu 'l qasim aliii attanukhi ,who in panegyric on his tribe produced the hyperbole:

quda'a is the son of malik, the son of himyar-

there is nothing higher for those wishing to ascend to a high grade.

the framework of the prophetic and tendentious traditions was misused for racial rivalry, much as for any other party interests in islam. scholars of both parties set their pens to paper in order to cover the aspirations of their group with the hallowed the authority of sayings by muhammed. it almost seems that the southern arabs were more diligent in this respect, since the greater part of this tendentious traditionsis in the service of their ambitions. we shall later see that sayings aiming at the glorification of the ansar also belong to this series. many sayings show the yemenites as representatives of the spirit and religion in islam, in contrast to rabi'a and mudar, who are described as brutal, harsh and unfeeling. the himyar are even called ra's al-'arab 'the heads of the arabs' and to the other southern arab tribes: madhij, hamdan , ghassan, etc., an honourable position in the body politic of islam is also allotted: one becomes the head of his body, another its skull, shoulder-blade or hump.

there are fewer traditions favouring the northern arab tribes in general, accept for the glorification of the qurashites, or rather of