Ghepter 4. The Hamziyya of Aidams h. /thrn ai-Sh.eik illi. A .K. 1162 A.B.1749. The first half o? the eighteenth century produced a poet, Sayyid Aidarus bin Athman al-Sheikh Ali whose work is of speci8l distmction in being the ciaeat coinplete epic yet known to us, the Hamziyya. it dates frcm A.D. 174S and apart from condieratj.ons of theme and style, it is cf particular mterest frorc the fsct thet it is written ln an older form cf the Swahili language than any cther^i^ work cf which an entire manuscript has yet been found. The Haniiiiyya of Sayyia Aidarus is e metnoal rimed tranalation mto Swahili frorn the Arabic of the poem Ummul-Kura SU /kryUc^ /§ -^S-^ico which was --- (i) ccmposed by the renowned Arabian poet, Al-Eusiry, in the Xillth century. The term hamziyya m Arahic prosody 13 a generic cne applioable to any poem riming in the letter hamz8;and