The Second Day of Awara

The second day at Awara, related by Ibn al-Athir among the days of the Arabs before Islam. On it Amr ibn al-Mundhir al-Lakhmi raided the Banu Darim after the killing of a son of his who had been with Zarara ibn Udas. ¹

Amr had left his son As'ad with the Tamimi Zarara, and Suwayd ibn Abd Allah ibn Darim killed him and fled to Mecca. When Zarara died he charged his son with a chamberlainship. ¹

Amr raided the Banu Darim, having sworn that he would kill a hundred of them. He marched until he reached Awara, but they had been warned of him and they dispersed. He sent out his raiding parties, and they brought him ninety-nine men, apart from those they had killed in their raids, and he burned them. ¹

A man of the Baraji passed by and smelled the smell of cooked meat, and thought the king was preparing food, so he made for it. Amr asked him who he was, and he answered that he was an envoy of the Baraji. Amr ordered him thrown into the fire to complete the hundred, and his saying became a proverb. ¹

Ibn al-Athir says that it was said that Amr was called the Burner for this, and that Jarir taunted al-Farazdaq with it in his poetry. ¹

The date is approximate.