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The Ka'bah of Sindad

The Iyid[1] had another Ka'bah in Sindad[2], [located] in a region between al-Kufah[3] and al-Basrah[4]. It is the one which al-Aswad ibn-Ya'fur[5] mentions [in one of his odes][6]. I have, however, heard that this house was not a place of worship. Rather it was a celebrated edifice; consequently al-Aswad mentioned it.

A certain man of the Juhaynah[7] named 'Ahd-al-Dar ibn-Hudayb[8] once said to his people, "Come let us build a house (to be located in a spot in their territory called al-Hawra')[9] with which we would rival the Ka'bah[10], thereby attracting [unto us] many of the Arabs," They deemed the suggestion very grave and refused to heed his behest. Thereupon he said:

"I had wished that a house be raised, Free of iniquity and removed from sin. But those who, when called upon to face a crisis, 		 

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Steal away and tilde in rite outskirts of Qawdam[11], Have demurred and refused my request. They clamor and cry, and insist that no one should give them orders, And when entreated they turn away--some withdraw like the mute and the dumb. They withhold their charity and conceal every insult Among their kin, as the mark of the brand [on the mule] is hid[12]."

 

 
 

FOOTNOTES

1. Ishtiqaq, p.285.

2. Sifah p 176; Buldan vol. iii, pp. 164-165.

3. Sifah pp. 8, 45; Buldan vol. iv, pp. 322-327.

4. Sifah p 45ff; Buldan vol. i, pp. 636-653.

5. Al Shi'r w-al-Shu'ara, pp. 134-135.

6. ibid. p. 134; Sifah pp 171, 231.

7. Ishtiqaq, pp.319-320.

8. Unidentified.

9. Sifah p 171.

10. Of Mecca.

11. Buldan, vol. iv, pp.196-197.

12. cf. ibid., pp 196-197.