blue eyed of Yamamah

Zarqa Al-Yamama is called Al-Yamama, and her country was named after her. As for Zarqa, it is because her eyes are blue. It has been mentioned that her name is Anz bint Luqman bin Aad, and that she sees things from a distance of three days’ walk; When Jadis, from the Tasm tribe, was killed, a man from that tribe went to Hassan bin Tuba’. The latter incited the man to fight and bring the spoils. So he prepared an army, and when he approached (Jaw), which is a place near Al-Yamamah, and they were three days’ walk away from it, Al-Yamamah looked at the army, and each of them was carrying a tree for cover. So she told her people what she had seen, saying: “O my people, trees have come to you or donkeys have come to you.” So they lied to her, and she said: “I swear to God, trees have crawled... or donkeys have taken something to drag.” They also lied to her, and in the morning Hassan invaded them, took Zarqa al-Yamamah and cut open its eyes to extract black veins of antimony from them. She was the first Arab to use kohl (kohl). She was the first Arab to use kohl.

The lesson from Zarqa Al-Yamamah’s story

The story of Zarqa Al-Yamamah is like a myth. Some deny the possibility of the story occurring scientifically. In any case, the purpose is not to investigate the extent of human visual acuity or the theory of the end of the horizon for the observer resulting from the sphericity of the Earth. Rather, it is to search for the lesson represented in the necessity of listening to the advice of those with previous experience, whose people were of the same opinion. He knew about her ability to see from long distances.

The dove and the sight in Arabic proverbs

Due to the sharpness of Al-Yamamah’s blue eyes, the Arabs applied the proverb “More sight than Al-Yamama’s blue” to a person with keen vision. They also said in vision, “More sight than a horse,” and “More sight than a Mala’ eagle,” and Al-Mula’ is the name of a plateau or desert, and they said that because the desert eagle has more sight. It is faster than a mountain eagle, and they said, “It has more sight than a crow.” Ibn al-A’rabi said that the Arabs call the crow one-eyed, because it always closes one of its eyes, relying on one eye to see, due to the strength of its sight.