Zarqa al-Yamama

'SHARPER THAN ZARQA AL-YAMAMA' BECAME A PROVERB, which is how her story survived. She is the batch's one figure whose gift is a sense rather than an office — and the one whose warning is believed and still does not save anybody.

Domains

• far sight
• foresight and warning
• the war of tasm and jadis

Sources

• Reference treatment of Zarqa al-Yamama: a legendary blue-eyed woman of the al-Yamama region who lived in pre-Islamic Arabia and belonged to the Jadis tribe; she was said to have had exceptional intuition, sharp eyesight and the ability to predict events before they occurred, such that the phrase 'sharper than Zarqa al-Yamama' became a popular saying. Her tribe relied on her powers to detect enemies and defend their land, as she was believed to be able to see riders a week's distance away; she warned her people about the tribe of Tasm, who held power and authority, and a conflict eventually arose between the two tribes, leading the story to a tragic end.