Обсуждение:Удод
Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition / Hudhud
Hudhud — the hoopoe, belongs to the order Scansores and bears a remarkable tuft of feathers on its head. Only a part of what is related concerning its habits and character can be mentioned here. Its piety is particularly emphasized. In Umayya b. Abi ’l-Ṣalt (ed. Schulthess, in Beiträge zur Assyriologie , viii, 26, 84 f.; cf. also Ibn Ḳutayba, al-S̲h̲iʿr , 279 f.) there is a story that the hoopoe enshrouded its dead mother and carried the body on its back and head till it found a resting-place for it; this is why its back is brown; but it is also related that the tuft of feathers was a reward for this act.—When its mate dies, the hoopoe does not look for a new wife.—When its parents grow old, it feeds them. It bears different kunyas in Arabic, e.g. Abū ʿIbād , Abu ’l-Sad̲j̲d̲j̲āda , after the numerous bows of its tuft as it walks. It makes its nest in dung so that it has an unpleasant smell. Its feathers, heart etc. are used in various ways. The Prophet is said to have forbidden it to be killed; hence, according to some, its flesh is forbidden (though other schools regard it as permissible). The hoopoe plays a prominent part in the legend of Solomon and Bilḳīs [q.v.], which was apparently already developed by Muḥammad’s time as may be concluded from Sūra XXVII, 20 ff. In this passage we are told that Solomon assembled the birds and the hoopoe was missing. When he arrived late, he gave an account of the queen of Sabaʾ and was entrusted by Solomon with the bearing of a letter to the Sabaeans.
The later writers as a rule give the whole story as follows. The hoopoe possesses the power of seeing where water is through the earth. He was therefore used by Solomon on his pilgrimage to Mecca to find water. But on one occasion the hoopoe whom Solomon had appointed for this purpose, named Yaʿfūr, or Yag̲h̲fūr, while on the journey, took a trip to the south and reached the garden of Bilḳīs where he made the acquaintance of another hoopoe named ʿUfayr. The latter told him a great deal about the queen of Sabaʾ. In the meanwhile Solomon was looking in vain for water for his army (or according to another versions for ritual ablution). He sent the vulture ( nasr ) to assemble the birds and as the hoopoe was missing the eagle ( ʿuḳāb ) was sent to fetch him. But he was already on his way back and was brought by the eagle before Solomon, who talked to him severely but finally, after hearing his account of Bilḳīs, sent him with a letter to the Sabaeans.
Another version of the beginning of the story relates that Solomon on his pilgrimage was being carried with all his retinue on a carpet by the winds to Arabia. The birds were ordered to fly above the carpet in such a compact mass that those sitting on it should be entirely protected from the sun. But Solomon detected a little ray of light in one place; so he concluded that one bird was missing. He then held a roll-call and it was found that the hoopoe was absent; the story continues as before.
It is also related that the hoopoe once invited Solomon and his army to a feast on an island. When the guests had arrived, he threw a dead locust into the sea and said “Now eat, O thou Prophet of God! If ¶ the meat be lacking, there is at least plenty of sauce”. Solomon and his soldiers laughed for a year at this joke.
On the relationship of the Jewish hoopoe-legend to the Muslim, see M. Grünbaum, Neue Beiträge zur semitischen Sagenkunde , Leiden 1893.
In North Africa, hoopoes are made out of silk, feathers, etc., and used for magical purposes (Doutté, Magie et religion dans l’Afrique du Nord , 270).
Bibliography Damīrī, s.v. hudhud
Ḏj̲āḥiẓ, Ḥayawān, index
Ḳazwīnī, ʿAd̲j̲āʾib al-mak̲h̲lūḳāt, ed. Wüstenfeld, i, 425 f.
Grünbaum, Neue Beiträge, 200 ff.
idem in ZDMG, xxxi, 206 ff.
Weil, Biblische Legenden der Muselmänner, 243 ff.
the commentaries on the Ḳurʾān to Sūra XXVII, 20ff.
Ṭabarī, i, 576 ff.
T̲h̲aʿlabī, Ḳiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, 1290, 335 ff.
W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, London 1859, I, 105 (with illustration)
Salzberger, Die Salomolegende in der semitischen Literatur, Berlin 1907, i, 75 ff.
Cite this page Wensinck, A.J., “Hudhud”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 10 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_2926>
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