The Hostage, or Who was Who? A Story from Pre-Islamic Arabia

A story with the well-known motif of someone who offers his own life as surety for a friend condemned to die, and who is saved in the nick of time by this loyal friend, is found in several versions in classical Arabic sources, where it is set in pre-Islamic times at the court of the Lakhmid king in al-īra. These sources show a bewildering profusion—one could say confusion—of names of persons involved, either famous or obscure. Curiously, a certain Sharīk who, as the voluntary hostage, is one of the heroes in some versions plays a distinctly unheroic part in another, where he is said to have refused to act as bail. The article presents the main versions of the story and discusses the possible reasons for the discrepancies.