finds of Sabaean products . . . as early as 800 BC: Hoyland, pp. 38–9.
an altar to the god . . . in the second century BC: Dunlop, p. 7.
mummified, . . . to his home country: EI2 I, p. 887.
the compiler of the Greek Periplus . . . Red Sea: Mackintosh-Smith, Yemen, p. 143.
an Arabian ‘nation far off’ . . . the Sabaeans: Joel, 3:8.
the Nabataeans . . . spoke a form of Arabic: Macdonald, ‘Nomads’, p. 381; Macdonald, Development, p. 19.
prince Wahballat . . . ‘Caesar Wahballat Augustus’: Hoyland, pp. 1930–4.
claiming descent from Cleopatra: Hoyland, p. 75–6.
Iam pridem Syrus . . . and ways of life: Juvenal, Satires, no. 3, l. 62.
The Nabataean realm was annexed by Rome in AD 106: Hoyland, p. 73.
Palmyra . . . took it over in AD 272: Hoyland, pp. 74–5 and 76.
They should have pondered . . . who disturbed it: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 73.
In time, nabat . . . an antonym to ’arab: EI2 VII, p. 836; Jahiz, part 1, p. 227.
clashes between rm . . . (Philippus): Macdonald, ‘Nomads’, pp. 341–2.
its importance . . . emerged in the 1970s: Abd Allah, p. 266.
Ijl ibn Sa’d al-Lat . . . Athtar Shariqan: Hoyland, p. 232.
that oldest known Arabic . . . rhythm: Hoyland, pp. 211-12; pp. 42–3, above.
a Greek history . . . odai, ‘popular songs’: EI2 IX, pp. 225–6.
the archive of . . . their nobility: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 330.
Turbans . . . are their archives: Suyuti I, p. 273. The ‘girdles’ are shawls or belts bound about the loins by a person squatting, so he can maintain his squatting position.
One theory . . . a mystical, oracular tongue: Retsö, p. 40.
the original meaning . . . that which others cannot: Suyuti II, p. 416.
‘Go!’ urged al-Shanfara . . . flees by night: Irwin, p. 19.
mutual borrowing . . . in Najd: Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 39.
to use the terms . . . Kulturnation was forming: cf. Grunebaum, p. 5.
Mecca . . . best of all in Arab speech: Suyuti I, p. 166.
the a’rab . . . and its hjr-people [townspeople]: Abd Allah, p. 286.
the third century AD . . . a purely epigraphic language: EI2 VIII, p. 663.
the learned Yemeni . . . Sabaic features: Rabin, Ancient West-Arabian, chapter 5.
South Arabians were forbidden . . . script: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 163–4.
he shall be a wild ass . . . against him: Genesis, 16:12.
The Assyrians . . . fondness of Arabs for raiding: EI2 I, p. 525.
Arab Banksys . . . prayers for booty: EI2 VII, pp. 761–2.
usually a quarter . . . of any particularly desirable items: EI2 II, p. 1005.
the Sanskrit word for ‘cow’ . . . that for ‘war’: Keay, p. 25.
Fertility . . . to eat up anyone weaker: Jahiz, part 1, p. 232.
You may criticize me . . . dearer far to me than old: Shaykhu, p. 769.
Urwah ibn al-Ward . . . raiding to support themselves: Shaykhu, pp. 892–906.
an eleventh-century Arab . . . no notice of them: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 135.
the man who . . . ruled my adoptive country: see pp. 504–6, below.
His hands filled . . . the Arabs fell under his sway: Shaykhu, p. 144.
Allah, when He wished . . . borne home on your back: Mas’udi II, p. 227.
Recently discovered . . . major wet period: Harrigan, pp. 2–11.
Undoubted horses . . . perhaps to 2000 BC: Harrigan, pp. 7–9.
Horses for riding . . . of the last millennium BC: EI2 I, p. 884.
a period . . . fourth to second centuries BC: Hoyland, p. 188.
like camels . . . with deceased warriors: Hoyland, p. 175; cf. p. 37, above.
a passing mention . . . in Bahrain: Baladhuri, p. 85.
By the running horses . . . to the dawn raid: Qur’an, 100: 1–3.
charging, fleet-fleeing . . . high by the torrent: quoted in Irwin, p. 10.
some tribes could field . . . the Horseman or Cavalier: EI2 IV, p. 1144.
The combination . . . second to fourth centuries AD: EI2 I, p. 884.
South Arabian states . . . fielded only footsoldiers: Iryani, p. 242.
On clouded nights . . . smiling all the way: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 216.
the invention . . . of the saddlebow: Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 24.
to begin with . . . made of wood: Jahiz, part 2, p. 9.
one of the best aids for . . . striking with a sword: Jahiz, part 2, p. 7.
the fall of Petra . . . disturbed peninsular trade: cf. Piotrovsky, pp. 158–9.
The Arabs were always . . . power to the Age: Rogan, p. 8.
a developed form . . . becoming Arabic: Bellamy, p. 33.
The Namarah epitaph is . . . standard, unified Arabic: Abd Allah, p. 293; Owens, Linguistic History, pp. 20–1.
‘This’, it begins . . . the seventh day of Kislul: quoted in Hoyland, p. 79.
Later Arab historians . . . in Persian-dominated Iraq: e.g. Mas’udi II, p. 98.
a Persian inscription . . . of the Sasanian empire: Hoyland, p. 79.
he and at least part . . . had ‘gone over’ to Rome: EI2 V, p. 632.
one Arab historian . . . become a Christian: al-Tabari in Hoyland, p. 79.
he appointed as viceroys . . . Romans: after Bellamy, in Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 31.
Procopius . . . leaders in this period: Sizgorich, p. 1012.
the British promoted . . . Sharif Husayn of Mecca: Atiyah, p. 133.
stuck . . . between two lions, Persia and Rome: Qatadah quoted in Kister, p. 143.
CHAPTER 3 SCATTERED FAR AND WIDE
this might well be . . . Imru’ al-Qays’s epitaph: Abd Allah, p. 275.
Shammar . . . far north and east into Arabia: Mawsu’ah, s.v. Shammār.
the Himyari . . . ‘Shammar destroyed it’: e.g. Ibn Khallikan II, p. 262.
he had led Himyaris to Tibet: Mackintosh-Smith, Yemen, pp. 33 and 46.
Along the way . . . called Madhhij: Hoyland, p. 79.
Madhhij . . . moved south en masse: Abd Allah, p. 276.
King of Saba . . . Arabs of the Highlands and Lowlands: Daum, p. 52.
to pursue vendettas . . . was destruction: Iryani, p. 329.
Ibn Khaldun observed . . . North Africa: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 119.
The Sabaeans . . . word was gathered: Mas’udi II, p. 181.
the trouble began . . . fifty men could not have rolled: Mas’udi II, p. 186–7.
There was for Saba . . . far and wide: Qur’an, 34:15–16 and 19.
final, irreparable breach . . . in the seventh century: EI2 VI, pp. 563–4.
the infiltration . . . over the two preceding centuries: EI2 VI, p. 564.
‘these human rats’ . . . its last [independent] state: Iryani, p. 329.
a great diaspora . . . pre-Islamic damburst: EI2 VI, p. 564.
The kings . . . both badw and hadar dwell: Hamdani, Sifah, p. 325.
Tarifah . . . led the migration of her people, Ghassan: Abid, part 2, p. 287. Tarifah appears in some sources, with a letter-dot, as Zarifah.
the unveiling of meaning: Jahiz, part 1, p. 35.
By the truth of . . . what is recited by me: Abid, part 2, p. 290.
the story of the Marib Dam . . . Arab ‘national’ epic: Hoyland, p. 233.
nations . . . getting history wrong: quoted in Suleiman, p. 27.
there were large-scale tribal movements across Arabia: EI2 I, p. 528.
tribes recognizable . . . Strabo and Pliny: Hoyland, pp. 26 and 231.
if they strap . . . on their horses: quoted in Jahiz, part 1, pp. 203–4.
You shall be fugitives . . . children’s land: quoted in Ajami, Dream Palace, p. 70.
the Assyrians’ Aribi . . . ‘neither overseers nor officials’: p. 30, above.
Most of Ghassan . . . freedom and poverty: Abid, part 2, pp. 2
94–7.
beginning with . . . the exalted title basileus, ‘king’: Hoyland, p. 81.
Most of them . . . differed from imperial orthodoxy: EI2 II, pp. 1020–1.
they led a semi-mobile life . . . fixed capital: Nicholson, pp. 53–4.
al-Jabiyah . . . included a monastery: EI2 II, p. 360.
they maintained . . . Aramaic for writing: Hitti, p. 78.
they wrote in Nabataean . . . of the region: Hoyland, pp. 241–2.
the later Ghassanid . . . performed in ‘rumiyyah’: EI2 IV, p. 820.
Eugene Rogan’s insight . . . empowering Arabs: p. 66, above.
from the Syriac . . . ‘encampment’: EI2 II, p. 360.
Byzantine influence . . . many of their people: EI2 III, p. 462.
an aged sage . . . arabized Nabataeans: Jahiz, part 1, p. 227.
In about 544 . . . put him to death in revenge: Hitti, p. 79.
the Lakhmid rulers . . . stop the incursions: Kister, p. 153.
The Lakhmids . . . raiding with trading: Kister, pp. 155–6, 161–2 and 167.
speaking Arabic but writing in Syriac: Hitti, p. 84.
they used the Nabataean script: Hoyland, pp. 241–2.
used by Adam to write on clay tablets: Suyuti II, p. 293.
the ‘Preserved Tablet’: Qur’an, 85:22.
The more down-to-earth . . . Iraq: Kurdi, pp. 18–19 and 41.
they grew . . . out of Nabataean script: Macdonald, Development, pp. 20–1.
with influences from other . . . writing systems: Jones, Review of Beatrice Gruendler, p. 429.
very few graffiti . . . earlier than the fifth century: Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 33.
it reached Mecca ‘a little before Islam’: Ibn Khallikan II, pp. 163–4.
fewer than a score of Meccans could write: Baladhuri, p. 453.
An experiment by . . . Hisham: Jahiz, part 1, p. 299.
marked by relics dim . . . on ancient stone: Nicholson, p. 120.
it helps to know . . . to read it: cf. Haeri, p. 74, and Shouby, p. 297.
unvowelled and undotted . . . read in 300 ways: 300 sounds a lot, but the first stalk could represent five possible consonants, each with three possible short vowels, the second pair of stalks another five consonants and three vowels plus the no-vowel sign, and (5 × 3) × (5 × 4) = 300.
written Arabic is . . . a ‘foreign’ language: cf. Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, pp. 439–41.
This may have been going on since . . . Amr ibn Adi: EI2 IX, p. 450.
the evolving ‘high’ language . . . in central Arabia: p. 60, above.
healthy competition . . . in ‘collecting’ poets: EI2 IX, p. 226.
the later part of the sixth century was its high point: cf. EI2 VIII, p. 119.
al-Nabighah’s description . . . let it be thus: Mas’udi II, pp. 99–100.
one of the kings of al-Hirah . . . when in wudu’: Shaykhu, p. 417.
gave orders . . . those of al-Basrah: Suyuti I, p. 197.
the elusive original sense . . . different origins: pp. 38–9, above.
linguistic ‘nationalism’ . . . century onwards: e.g. Suleiman, p. 32.
Arabs love their language . . . in a way less human: Jabiri, p. 75.
Thinking . . . employed by Arabs: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, pp. 419–20.
Abu Hayyan . . . the syntax of reason: quoted in Jabiri, p. 258.
I think in Arabic . . . therefore I am an Arab: quoted in Suleiman, p. 121.
I’m an Arab . . . I’m no good at foreign gabble!: Jahiz, part 1, p. 207.
big blocs . . . Byzantines or Persians: cf. Hoyland, p. 240.
the now ailing Himyari . . . ‘king of the Arabs’: EI2 I, p. 526.
When the ’arab became one . . . cast in one instant: slightly adapted from the quotation in Retsö, pp. 21–2.
CHAPTER 4 ON THE EDGE OF GREATNESS
to track a tribe like Anazah . . . cousins still live: EI2 I, pp. 482–3.
who we sense are still here . . . never once fallen: Jabiri, pp. 38–9.
the Himyari King Yusuf . . . in about the year 518: Daum, p. 53.
the event is commemorated . . . in the Qur’an: Qur’an, 85:4–10.
raids by ’arab tribes . . . had been increasing: e.g. Iryani, pp. 136–8.
central state rulers relied . . . for protection: Iryani, p. 46.
a late Himyari inscription . . . in a united kingdom: Iryani, pp. 324 and 345.
King Yusuf . . . into the waves: Mackintosh-Smith, Yemen, p. 42.
One of these is recorded . . . the year 552: Hoyland, p. 55. Other dates are proposed, e.g. 547 in Daum, p. 53.
‘Chapter of the Elephant’ . . . armed with pebbles: Qur’an, 105.
he reigned 260 years or . . . rather less than that: Mas’udi II, p. 78.
Aren’t the cattle of al-Sawad . . . a vile abomination: Mas’udi II, pp. 100–1.
A people’s fortunes . . . kings are Persians: quoted in Suleiman, p. 236.
There is even an idea . . . Persian presence in Arabia: Retsö, p. 17.
a hereditary line . . . West Africa: cf. Jahiz, part 1, p. 147.
the role of the poet . . . their emulators for cash: Jahiz, part 1, pp. 105–6.
The force was . . . supernatural inspiration: cf. Nicholson, p. 73.
captured poets . . . being slaughtered: Shaykhu, p. 79.
enemy orators . . . wrecking their enunciation: Jahiz, part 1, p. 134.
deadlier . . . in the dark of night: Jahiz, part 1, p. 117.
We have cut off his hand . . . Khusraw’s battle-banners!: Shaykh Muhammad bin Rashid Al Maktum, ode beginning Usūd al-jazīrah Ḥimāt al-diyār, 2015. baraqish.net accessed 7 November 2015.
The title . . . of the ancient Hebrew kōhēn: EI2 IV, p. 421.
their ability to divine . . . ‘rolled up like a gown’: Mas’udi II, p. 179.
prophets connect . . . falsehood: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 80.
a ‘word-gathering’ role: cf. Rabin, Ancient West-Arabian, chapter 11, n. 6; Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. zcm.
their own raiding and plundering increased: e.g. Iryani, p. 151.
the total dead . . . for three years of hostilities: Shaykhu, p. 526.
a clumsy-hoofed she-camel called . . . ‘Mirage’: Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. srb.
But now such folk . . . to tear!: Nicholson’s translation, Nicholson, p. 57.
‘War! War! . . . filled with its roar!: Shaykhu, p. 241; Nicholson’s translation, Nicholson, p. 60.
The forty-year roar . . . intervention of the Lakhmid king: Hitti, p. 90.
much of the account . . . Islamic-era squabbles: Husayn, p. 240.
the War of Dahis . . . cheating in a horse race: Nicholson, p. 61.
You have sundered . . . what you’ve done: Shaykhu, p. 155.
a list of towns . . . two opposing factions: Hamdani, Sifah, p. 237.
he had appointed . . . killed a third brother: Shaykhu, pp. 1–6.
an old-fashioned . . . tribal poet-lord: EI2 IX, pp. 115 and 226.
the Servant of [the sky-god] Qays: cf. EI2 IV, pp. 803–4.
breastbone burnished . . . hairpins stray: translation in Mackintosh-Smith, ‘Interpreter of Treasures: A Portrait Gallery’, p. 39.
Imru’ al-Qays is the forerunner . . . made it flow: Suyuti II, p. 405.
the last ruler . . . before Islam: Abd Allah, p. 296.
a lot of Imru’ al-Qays’s biography . . . ibn al-Ash’ath: Husayn, pp. 206–7.
from Hadramawt to Asia Minor to Bahrain: cf. Imru’ al-Qays, pp. 55–60.
Have I not worn out . . . glittering of mirage?: Imru’ al-Qays, p. 43.
The young Imru’ al-Qays . . . ‘vagabonds’: Imru’ al-Qays, p. 5.
poetry . . . is free from ideology: Adonis, Poetics, p. 72.
the most notable . . . that of Sufism: Adonis, Thabit IV, p. 163.
rode to the place . . . gnawed at his flesh: translated in Mackintosh-Smith, ‘Interpreter of Treasures: Food and Drink’, p
. 40.
a sayer of words . . . to the farthest bounds: Irwin, p. 19.
Sons of my mother . . . jackal with long hair: Irwin, p. 19.
the absolute individualism . . . all around it: Dunlop, p. 28.
the case of Urwah ibn al-Ward: pp. 62–3, above.
All those wealthy chiefs . . . in my hand before I ask: Shaykhu, p. 906.
eternity in men and women: Whitman, p. 335.
was so revered . . . young and old, could recite it: Shaykhu, p. 203.
Arab unity is a madman’s notion . . . a fair parallel: quoted in Karsh, p. 8.
metrical units . . . ‘tent, room, house’: cf. Adonis, Poetics, pp. 25–6.
the Persians left . . . those who came before them: Pellat, p. 132.
A line of poetry . . . uninhabited is no good: Gelder, p. 278.
A few critics . . . the entire canon: cf. Husayn, passim.
the descriptions . . . are most admirable: Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon I, p. x.
one hungry chilly dusk . . . in the fold: Imru’ al-Qays, p. 81.
those who, like the clan . . . protection in his wanderings: Imru’ al-Qays, p. 141.
Himyari . . . itching from the crupper: Imru’ al-Qays, p. 80.
the parallel idea of hasab . . . future generations: cf. EI2 III, p. 239.
the obligation to follow . . . one’s ancestors: Grunebaum, p. 15.
Buddhist dharma . . . society on track: cf. Keay, pp. 97 and 149.
Quraysh . . . ancestors in the pre-Islamic Ka’bah: Mas’udi II, p. 278.
You can deny God . . . the Prophet: quoted in EI2 VII, p. 377.
a love and a lodging . . . the trace is obliterated?: Irwin, p. 7.
many of the Safaitic graffiti . . . loved ones: EI2 VIII, p. 762.
al-A’sha . . . advertisements for plainer girls: Shaykhu, pp. 360–1.
Contestants . . . duelled in verse: EI2 IX, p. 226.
Where now are Thamud . . . this din of yours: Jahiz, part 1, p. 131.
his super-tribal importance . . . Sage of the Arabs: Mas’udi I, p. 69.
It was the Prophet . . . without exception: Jahiz, part 1, pp. 25–6.
There is on the face of the earth . . . to protect you: Gelder, p. 111. Here din is translated as ‘religion’.
founded a collective memory: Hoyland, pp. 242–3.
a large part . . . wellspring of our imagination: Adonis, Poetics, p. 32.
supra-tribal . . . ethno-cultural group: Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 37.
a mythical land . . . we all agreed to dream: Rushdie, pp. 129–30.
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