People are sometimes cranky, and just itching for a reason – any reason – to go on the warpath. Only such innate cussedness could explain something as inexplicable as the Al-Basus War. A bloody tribal conflagration in Arabia that lasted for forty years, it was triggered by an insult to somebody’s camel.
Petty Causes and Serious Consequences
Disagreements and disputes can all too often escalate into diplomatic crises or protracted bloody wars. The initial causes of such disagreements and disputes might be petty. Once the fighting starts, however, it could be hard to stop. Few examples illustrate that better than a disagreement in fifth century Arabia about whose camels get to drink first at a well. The disagreement escalated into a dispute in which a camel was injured, and that in turn morphed into a tribal war that lasted for forty years. The key figure whose often-cantankerous personality was instrumental in initiating the conflict was Kulayb ibn Rabiah (440 – 494), a chieftain of the Arab Taghlib tribe in the pre-Islamic era. A warrior and poet of great renown, Kulayb was even better known for his pride (or arrogance) and fondness for asserting his dominance and preeminence over others.
The Overbearing Kulayb
At pain of death, none could graze their camels, water their flocks, or hunt in land claimed by Kulayb without his permission. His excessive territoriality backfired. One day, Kulayb got ticked off at a camel that wandered into his territory, and shot it with an arrow, injuring it. As seen below, that ended up costing not only his life, but the lives of thousands who got drawn into one of history’s pettiest wars. To be fair, though, Arabs really cared about their camels. Camel herds were not just the basis of their wealth: out in the desert, one’s camel was one’s lifeline. In the Old West, horse thieves were often hanged because stranding somebody in the wilderness without a horse could kill him. The stakes were even more extreme in Arabia, where getting stuck in a desert hundreds of miles from water without a camel was sure death.
Avenging an Injured Camel
Most people define their territory with physical markers – fences, ditches, signs, or the such. Not Kulayb ibn Rabiah. He wanted to be different and chose another method. Kulayb, which means “little doggie”, was a nickname bestowed upon him because of a little dog he kept in front of his tent. He defined his territory by the radius of the sound of its barking. If you could hear Kulayb’s dog, you were in Kulayb’s territory. His followers and fellow tribesmen ate up Kulayb’s exaggerated machismo, but others were not too thrilled.
Kulayb was married to Jalilah bint Murah, a beauty from the frenemy Bakr tribe, with whom the Taghlibs traded and sometimes raided. He asked her if she knew of a prouder man than him. She replied that she did: her brother, Jassas. Kulayb didn’t like that, and set out to punk his brother-in-law. Jalilah’s aunt, Al-Basus, had a favorite camel that accidentally wandered into grazing lands claimed by Kulayb. So he shot and wounded it with an arrow. When Al-Basus saw what Kulayb had done, she raised a fuss, and berated her nephew Jassas for allowing his aunt and the Bakr tribe to suffer such an insult. Stung, Jassas stabbed Kulayb with a spear, mortally wounding him. The dying Kulayb wrote a message on a rock with his blood, demanding vengeance. The result was the Al-Basus War between the Taghlib and Bakr tribes, which lasted for forty years.
_________________
Some Sources & Further Reading
Ayoub, Mahmoud – The Crisis of Muslim History: Religion and Politics in Early Islam (2005)
Grunge – How One Camel Caused a Ruthless 40-Year War
Ithraeyat – A Camel That Launched a War
