The elder Muraqqish was the great-uncle of Tarafa of Bakr, the author of the Mu'allaqat, and took part in the long warfare between the sister tribes of Bakr and Taghlib, called the war of Basus, which began about the end of the 5th century CE.
The tribe traces its lineage to the large branch of North Arabian tribes (Adnanites) known as Rabi'ah, which also included Banu Bakr, 'Anizzah, Banu Hanifa and Anz bin Wa'il (in southern Saudi Arabia).
Taghlib |
The other tribes of Rabi'ah were far more prominent in the events of late pre-Islamic Arabia and the early Islamic era (see Banu Hanifa, Taghlib, and Bakr).
For this reason, we may suppose, he not only received into the collection a poem of the famous poet Tarafa, of the tribe of Bakr, but also that of another Bakrite, Harith, who, though not accounted a bard of the highest rank, had been a prominent chieftain; while his poem could serve as a counterpoise to another also received the celebrated verses of Harith's contemporary 'Amr, chief of the Taghlib, the rival brethren of the Bakr.
Under attack by the Damascenes, and with members of his family starting to desert him, Abu Taghlib moved further south to the region of Lake Tiberias.