We are the crows of ʕakk[1], ʕakk!
Naḥnu ġurābā ʕakk ʕakk
نوع الشعر: نشيد
الشاعر: مجهول
منطقته: يمن
عصر: جاهلي
نحن غرابا عك عك
نحن غرابا عك عك
عكٌّ إليك عانية
عكٌّ إليك عانية
عبادك اليمانية
عبادك اليمانية
كيما نحج الثانية
كيما نحج الثانية
لبيك اللهم هبل
لبيك يحدونا الأمل
الحمد لك والشكر لك
والكل لك نخضع لك
Type of poem: Song/hymn
Name of poet: Unknown
Region of poet: Yaman
Era: Pre-Islāmic
We are the crows[2] of ʕakk[1], ʕakk!
We are the crows of ʕakk, ʕakk!
ʕakk, to you we submit!
ʕakk, to you we draw near!
Your slaves from the Yaman are here!
Your slaves from the Yaman are here!
For our pilgrimage anew!
For our pilgrimage anew!
We are at your service, O divine Hubal!
We are at your service, from you we obtain hope!
Praise be to you and gratitude too!
And all the world and to you we submit!
[1] An ambiguous figure of Tribe ʕakk from the pre-Islāmic age (Jāhiliyyah, the age of "ignorance") bearing that same given name or title originating in the Yaman by the name of any of: ʕakk b. ʕadnān, brother of Maʕd b. ʕadnān, or al-Ḥariṯ b. ad-Dīṯ b. ʕadnān, or ʕakk b. al-Ġawṯ b. Badr b. Zayd b. Kahlān, or ʕakk b. ʕadnān b. Badr b. Zayd b. Kahlān, or ʕakk b. ʕadnān b. ʕabdi-llāh b. al-Azd, or ʕakk of Tribe Sabaʔ (e.g. Sabean, the biblical Sheba,) b. Yašjub b. Yaʕrub b. Qaḥṭān. (naturally, he may never have existed in that shape or form and Arab genealogies are mostly made up and genealogists are liars who should be ashamed of themselves for making up silly things that somehow evolved into a peculiarly fascinating subject of discussion not unlike British weather)
This tribe, as many others, would perform an annual pilgrimage (Ḥajj) to Makkah whom would have said "crows" lead ahead of them, chanting the first of the two verse pairs ("We are the crows of ʕakk, ʕakk!", etc.) while circambulating the Kaʕbah, to which the other members of the tribe would respond with the second of the two verse pairs ("ʕakk, to you we submit!", etc.) on every second turn.
As evident from the subsequent verses, the tribe worshipped Hubal, an ancient Arabian deity or idol that may or may not have been of either Syrian or even Mesopotamian origin.
[2] The Arabs at the time referred to people of the darkest of complexions of (primarily East) African origin and beyond as crows, primarily slaves - although not entirely (cf. Aġribatu l-ʕarab, "crows or ravens of the Arabs", the name given to a group of Arabic poets who were of African origin or partly African parentage.)
