Arabs

by Tim Mackintosh-Smith

  Fire’s kindled . . . of corpses and of heads: cf. p. 258, above.

  al-Abbas’s sons . . . to Central Asia: cf. pp. 194–5, above.

  Hisham’s own corpse . . . burnt: Mas’udi III, pp. 219–25; Ibn Khallikan III, p. 260.

  50,000 workmen laboured . . . to build it: Mas’udi III, p. 318.

  al-Mansur soon commanded . . . Karkh: Baladhuri, p. 289.

  over each one al-Mansur built . . . pavilion: Mas’udi III, pp. 299–300.

  Here is the Tigris . . . China: Ya’qubi quoted in George Hourani, p. 64.

  He made a bid . . . it was accidental: Mas’udi III, pp. 302 and 315–16.

  Al-Mansur had him killed . . . Abbasid Trotsky’s name: Mas’udi III, pp. 303–6.

  The leaders . . . of course decapitated: Mas’udi III, pp. 307–11; Hitti, p. 290.

  two brothers . . . the known world: Ibn Khallikan I, pp. 337–8.

  to travel express . . . more than 1,500 kilometres: Mas’udi III, p. 397.

  myrobalans . . . arrive fresh: Baladhuri, p. 415.

  Surviving dissident descendants . . . Atlantic: Mas’udi III, pp. 307–8.

  the ancestral Mauritanian stronghold . . . Baghdad: Mackintosh-Smith, Landfalls, pp. 252–4.

  most Persians . . . were still Zoroastrian: EI2 X, p. 226.

  Drink . . . from a kindly Lord: Mas’udi IV, pp. 337–8.

  the late ninth-century Baghdad comedian . . . grammarians: Mas’udi IV, p. 253.

  the camp-followers of the caliph’s army: Suyuti II, p. 354.

  The most important stage . . . from those times: Adonis, Thabit III, p. 149.

  the Mu’tazilah . . . his ethical responsibilities: EI2 I, p. 326.

  The reason why books . . . there is no more ‘then’: quoted in Jabiri, p. 222.

  that hypothetical city of the philosophers: cf. Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 257, and p. 217, above.

  wrote to the Byzantine . . . initial reluctance: quoted in Jabiri, p. 222.

  Al-Mamun was fascinated . . . QED: Ibn Khallikan III, pp. 83–4.

  the ancient metrologists . . . into that of practice: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 83.

  the sciences of the non-Arabs . . . ‘traditional sciences’: Chejne, p. 72; Jabiri, p. 135.

  al-Qasim ibn Sallam . . . time of al-Ma’mun: Ibn Khallikan II, pp. 265–6.

  he had been schooled . . . as a youth: EI2, s.v. al-Ma’mūn.

  in 816 al-Ma’mun . . . his daughter in marriage: Mas’udi IV, pp. 28–9.

  a niggling rumour . . . swapped the two bodies: Qazwini, p. 392.

  Shi’i pilgrims . . . curse, triply, al-Rashid’s grave: EI2 XII, p. 605.

  an ecumenical body . . . fizzle out and die: EI2 X, pp. 139–40.

  at a fork in the path of pilgrimage: cf. p. 185, above.

  Allah taught Adam . . . all things in creation: Qur’an, 2:31.

  Arabic versions . . . for an enthusiastic Umayyad prince: Jabiri, p. 194.

  the sum paid . . . 500 gold dinars a month: Ibn al-Nadim quoted in Nicholson, p. 359, n. 2.

  the pay . . . was twenty dirhams a month: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 124. On the translation movement in general, see for example Mas’udi IV, pp. 314–15, Carmichael, pp. 167–70, Nicholson, pp. 358–60.

  Ibn al-Nadim . . . in Umayyad times: Kurdi, p. 92.

  al-Rashid . . . ‘cooking of the books’: EI2 IV 419.

  the oldest known . . . about 800: Bloom, p. 17.

  The smoothness . . . cursive Arabic scripts: Bloom, p. 22.

  the kiss-curl of the beloved is the letter waw: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 351.

  the lovers entwined are a lam-alif: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 326.

  Perfume the literature . . . ink their precious scent: Kurdi, p. 421.

  A scholar of Nishapur . . . take down his words: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 398.

  the wazir Ibn al-Furat . . . the bursting email inbox: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 201.

  an official with loose bowels . . . too late: Ibn Khallikan III, pp. 256–7.

  Abu Tammam . . . poring over pre-Islamic verse: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 42.

  al-Sahib ibn Abbad . . . 400 camels to transport it: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 124.

  he grew up in Baghdad . . . lands of the Levant: Mas’udi I, pp. 7 and 10.

  the salon of the poet . . . extremes of empire: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 375; cf. pp. 194–5, above.

  I was reciting . . . reached both East and West: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 92.

  The caravan . . . will surely always follow you: quoted in Gelder, p. 280.

  Al-Kindi . . . in the name of religion: cf. EI2 V, p. 122.

  It is right and proper . . . different from our own: quoted in Jabiri, p. 240.

  the emperor Theophilus . . . turbans and kaftans: Mathews, pp. 77 and 91.

  Tang-era Guangzhou . . . in fashion: Whitfield, pp. 89 and107.

  The last Umayyad . . . Abbasid revolution: cf. pp. 258 and 264, above.

  to Islam and to the Arabs – farewell!: Mas’udi III, p. 255.

  ’ajamiyyah khurasaniyyah, non-Arab and Khurasani: p. 260, above.

  Al-Mughirah . . . the viceregal throne: p. 189, above.

  ‘ornamentalism’: cf. David Cannadine’s Ornamentalism, Oxford University Press, 2002.

  al-Saffah . . . in public audience: Mas’udi III, p. 279.

  some of the Umayyads had done so too: Mas’udi I, p. 247.

  a turban adorned with gems: EI2 X, p. 57.

  court astrologers . . . of the ‘Magi’: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 246; EI2 X, pp. 226–7.

  al-Mansur’s assassination . . . Sasanian shahs: Jahiz, part 3, pp. 140–1.

  a story about the third Abbasid . . . close companions: Mas’udi III, pp. 321–2.

  al-Mu’tasim . . . meaning of the word kala’: Ibn Khallikan III, pp. 48–9.

  the children of slaves . . . unacknowledged: cf. the story of the poet Antarah, e.g. in Nicholson, p. 115.

  The other mothers were . . . Abyssinian: cf. Hitti, p. 332.

  The world has intermingled . . . Samarkand: quoted in Baerlein, p. 105.

  ‘Barmak’ is Sanskrit . . . monastery: Mas’udi II, pp. 238-9; EI2 I, p. 1033.

  al-Rashid . . . poking out of individual collars: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 170.

  the old taboo – as old as the pre-Islamic Lakhmid kings: p. 91, above.

  al-Rashid married . . . a son born: Ibn Khallikan I, pp. 170–1; Mas’udi III, pp. 385–91.

  How could she . . . with a Persian client?: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 19.

  the Barmak . . . against al-Rashid: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, pp. 19–21.

  When you were . . . bereft of husband, and of child: Mas’udi III, p. 391.

  The fall of the house of Barmak has never been explained: EI2 I, p. 17.

  Vicious court rivalries . . . al-Fadl ibn al-Rabi’: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 256.

  He was the last . . . to renew that ancient link: Ibn Jubayr, p. 152.

  When Allah . . . provides reasons for it: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 256.

  united and flourished . . . disunited and perished: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 200.

  united to destroy . . . themselves: quoted in Keay, p. 243.

  al-Kisa’i was visiting . . . they had not been born: Mas’udi III, pp. 360–1.

  gem-studded boots: Mas’udi IV, p. 318.

  her growing son . . . ghulamiyyat, ‘gamines’: Mas’udi IV, p. 318.

  the Sarah versus Hagar . . . syndrome: cf. al-Mas’udi III, p. 400.

  al-Mu’tamin . . . in charge of the Byzantine marches: EI2 III, p. 234.

  an act of great symbolism . . . in the Ka’bah at Mecca: cf. p. 151, above.

  the proclamation . . . fell down: Mas’udi III, p. 364.

  Most astonishing . . . to wipe his nose!: Mas’udi III, pp. 404–6.

  interior decoration . . . gold gill-rings: Mas’udi III, p. 403.

  Brother fought brother . . . goods looted: Mas’udi III, p. 409.

  Severed . . . tales told to others near and far: Mas’udi III, pp. 409–10.

  the
ancient people . . . ‘as tales once told’: Qur’an, 34:19; cf. p. 73, above.

  Al-Amin said . . . It is barren: Mas’udi III, p. 421.

  ‘Muhammad ibn Zubaydah’: e.g. Baladhuri, p. 304.

  al-Mansur . . . in preference to Arabs: Mas’udi IV, p. 315.

  al-Ma’mun . . . on the official payroll: Baladhuri, pp. 415–16.

  The result . . . Hellenistic civilization: e.g. Carmichael, pp. 58 and 154.

  the questions . . . a genitive case: Jahiz, part 1, pp. 256–7.

  How long . . . your beard’s going grey?: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 530.

  One lexicographer benefited . . . a bedouin tribe: Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon I, p. xxxiv.

  Some researchers paid . . . for their information: Suyuti II, p. 431.

  some informants moved . . . to sell their knowledge: Jabiri, p. 84.

  how often do grammarians . . . defend her?: Ma’arri, p. 321.

  a two-year war . . . time of al-Rashid: Abu ’l-Fida’, Mukhtasar, part 2, p. 13.

  raiding the Mecca pilgrim caravans . . . in 898: Mas’udi IV, pp. 261–5.

  Arab personality began to be conscious of itself: Jabiri, p. 192.

  you haven’t a Tamimi hair . . . drink ostrich piss: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 363.

  anyone with literary . . . pre-Islamic tribes: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 316.

  al-Isfahani’s . . . 1,700 of them: EI2, s.v. Abū ’l-Faradj.

  the emigrant . . . in twentieth-century São Paulo: EI2 V, pp. 1256–7.

  It may not be an exaggeration . . . foundation of the state: Jabiri, pp. 88–9.

  strange to the culture: Ajami, Dream Palace, p. 128. It is coincidental that Ajami’s surname means ‘non-Arab’: his ancestors moved to Lebanon from Iran (Ajami, Dream Palace, p. 14).

  I am exhausted by my Arabness . . . a punishment?: Qabbani, p. 857.

  ‘gigantic bluff’: the phrase is from Philip Ziegler, Soldiers, Plume/Penguin, 2003, p. 324.

  the non-Arab mawali . . . for the Arab community: Drory, p. 42.

  Ibn Khaldun agreed . . . scholarship by non-Arabs: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, pp. 428–30.

  Two [bedouin] men differed . . . It’s zaqr: Suyuti I, p. 207. Cf. the English ‘saker’.

  the philologists’ policy . . . only acceptable one: Ibn Khallikan II, pp. 223 and 232; Suyuti I, p. 146.

  grammar, syntax . . . the first formal Arab sciences: cf. p. 238, above.

  The rules of grammar . . . its whole thought-world: Jabiri, pp. 124–7.

  empirical Arabic minds . . . at the margins: cf. Jabiri, pp. 344–5.

  Abd al-Samad ibn al-Fadl . . . not in the observation: Jahiz, part 1, p. 131.

  from the period . . . 4,000 grammarians: Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 74.

  al-Sahib ibn Abbad’s 400-camel-load library: p. 278, above.

  sixty camel-loads . . . on Arabic philology: Suyuti I, p. 74.

  By Abbasid times . . . without an enormous effort: Mas’udi IV, p. 239.

  in polite court circles . . . about the year 900: EI2 I, p. 570.

  a philologist . . . speaking ‘Indian’: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 232.

  a poet . . . casting a spell on the river: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 58.

  a grammarian . . . parodying the Qur’an: Mas’udi IV, pp. 239–40.

  the scholars were . . . distinguished by their dress: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 389.

  Nazar and ra’y . . . suspicion of heresy: Mas’udi IV, pp. 86 and 319.

  To shut the gate . . . to shut down thought: Adonis, Thabit III, p. 218.

  He who interprets . . . happens to be right: Adonis, Thabit I, p. 16.

  Guide us to the straight way . . . who went astray: Qur’an, 1:6–7.

  Guide us to the Straight Way . . . (such as the Christians): version in Translation of the Meanings of the Noble Qur’an in the English Language, Medina, AH 1417, 1:6–7.

  the ‘Preserved Tablet’ mentioned in the Qur’an: Qur’an, 85:22.

  members . . . of the [Arabic] alphabet: quoted in Jabiri, p. 226.

  Born in Fars . . . Buddhist and Hindu societies: EI2 III, pp. 82–102.

  He advocated . . . clothing thirty orphans: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 262; Abu ’l-Fida’, part 2, pp. 70–1.

  the most ancient pre-Islamic pilgrimages . . . to Marib: pp. 51–2, above.

  subversion of the most dangerous sort: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 262.

  views differed . . . as they did over Jesus: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 261.

  One day I took him his plate . . . was disbelieved: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 261.

  al-Hallaj moved his hand . . . dirhams were scattered: Ma’arri, p. 23.

  the pre-Islamic su’luks, or ‘vagabond’ poets: pp. 99–101, above.

  the Sudanese visionary Mahmud Muhammad Taha: p. 154, above.

  CHAPTER 10 COUNTER-CULTURES, COUNTER-CALIPHS

  I went by boat . . . say nothing in reply: Mas’udi IV, p. 337.

  It means in Turkic, ‘Horsetail’ or ‘Yaktail’: EI2, s.v. Badjkam.

  to be akhzar . . . as un-Arab as possible: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 167.

  until the time . . . like hammered shields: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 131.

  utruku ’l-turka . . . they leave you alone: Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. trk.

  the caliph’s tutor tried . . . shindig along the Tigris: Mas’udi IV, pp. 337–8.

  And so . . . their rank was lost: Mas’udi IV, p. 315.

  Revenues from agriculture . . . under the Umayyads: cf. p. 199, above.

  supposedly conservative . . . true figures: Mas’udi IV, pp. 207–8.

  one of these Arab sharifahs . . . your mawla now!: Mas’udi IV, p. 208.

  There are mills . . . the wages of the millers: Khusraw, p. 143.

  a raid on Mecca in 930 . . . from the Ka’bah: Ibn Khallikan I, pp. 264–5.

  In philosophy . . . Mithraism have been detected too: EI2 III, pp. 1075–6.

  the three captured Persian princesses . . . nobility: cf. pp. 200–1, above.

  The story of Harun . . . consummate the union: cf. pp. 283–4, above.

  Nor is any Arab superior . . . except in piety?: p. 169, above.

  My father never urged . . . disdainful sovereignty: van Gelder, pp. 35–6.

  Ahl al-Taswiyyah, the Levellers: Jahiz, part 3, p. 3.

  created you . . . the most pious: Qur’an, 49:13.

  You were herdsmen . . . addressing the deaf: Jahiz, part 3, p. 6.

  Al-Jahiz believed . . . the empire and Islam: cf. EI2 IX, pp. 514–15.

  The Book of the Stick, has already been mentioned: pp. 11–12, above.

  pre-Islamic reliefs . . . later centuries BC: Serjeant, South Arabian Hunt, pp. 66 and 104.

  camel-riders of the ninth century BC: Hoyland, p. 92.

  an extension of the orator’s hand . . . his gestures: Jahiz, part 3, p. 46.

  Orators are to be found . . . of inspiration: Jahiz, part 3, p. 11.

  He and other defenders . . . lost political control: cf. Husayn, p. 183.

  He who speaks Arabic is an Arab: Adonis, Thabit II, pp. 182–3.

  the ‘splitting of the stick’: p. 12, above.

  he dislikes foreigners knowing his language: Kilito, p. 87.

  and feels they have ‘robbed’ him of it: Kilito, p. 91.

  Do not speak Arabic in the house of the Moor: quoted in Patrick O’Brian, HMS Surprise, HarperCollins, 1993, p. 89.

  In Egypt and North Africa . . . Copt and Berber Shu’ubis: Suleiman, p. 60.

  Non-Arab Muslims . . . short-lived statelets: EI2 VII, pp. 807–8.

  By the eleventh century . . . movement in the East: EI2 IX, p. 515.

  Abu Nuwas . . . laying into backward bedouins: cf. p. 47, above.

  the old macho bedouin . . . drooling over pretty boys: Abu Nuwas, p. 559.

  the poet spent a long spell . . . Harun al-Rashid: Husayn, p. 176.

  the ‘North–South split’ . . . of Umayyad times: cf. pp. 241–3, above.

  Urban lampoons . . . would persist for centuries: e.g. Ge
lder, pp. 107–8.

  Ottoman nationalists: EI2 IX, p. 515.

  opponents of Arab Nationalism: Suleiman, p. 238.

  even Marxists: EI2 IX, p. 515.

  Saddam Husayn’s . . . war of the 1980s: Suleiman, p. 63.

  likened to the Qarmatis: by the Grand Mufti of Iraq, quoted in baraqish.net, December 2016.

  and to . . . Abrahah the Ethiopian: by a Yemeni shaykh of the al-Shayif clan, quoted in baraqish.net, December 2016.

  al-Mansur . . . power-base in Khurasan: Baladhuri, pp. 415–16.

  Turks . . . are the bedouins of the non-Arabs: Jahiz quoted in Pellat, p. 97.

  The Turk has two . . . at the back of his head: Jahiz quoted in Pellat, p. 93.

  his mother was herself a Turkic slave-concubine: Hitti, p. 466.

  Al-Mu’tasim founded . . . foreign troops to it: Mas’udi IV, pp. 53–4.

  Samarra’ has been likened to Versailles: Nicholson, p. 263.

  al-Mu’tasim’s jester . . . po-faced courtiers: Mas’udi IV, pp. 49–50.

  they were divided . . . scale model of the empire: Mas’udi IV, pp. 54–5.

  six variant ways of writing the name in Arabic: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 29.

  Sword tells more truth . . . lights of heaven: quoted in Irwin, p. 132.

  The poet . . . moral foundation of the Islamic state: Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych, p. 64.

  ancient Arab heroism . . . by an army of Turks: Mas’udi IV, p. 60.

  al-Abbas ibn al-Ma’mun . . . on Constantinople: Mas’udi IV, p. 60.

  He was exceedingly drunk . . . buried together: Mas’udi IV, pp. 120–1.

  he died of a chill . . . and a poisoned scalpel: Mas’udi IV, pp. 133–4.

  Mother, give up . . . two shirts instead of one: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 494.

  Bugha and Wasif . . . A polly-parrot’s squawk: Mas’udi IV, p. 145.

  the Turks eventually . . . beheaded him: Mas’udi IV, pp. 164–5.

  How marvellous . . . their guest in his own caliphate: Mas’udi IV, p. 169.

  Moving quickly . . . in a poisoned bedsheet: Mas’udi IV, p. 176.

  swoop down on him . . . in gaol a few days later: Mas’udi IV, p. 177.

  to whitewash over . . . his own business: Mas’udi IV, pp. 189–90.

  some of his more sybaritic subjects . . . Turkish guard: Mas’udi IV, p. 183.

  a complex power-struggle . . . Turkish factions: EI2, s.v. al-Muhtadī.

  killed by a drunken Turk . . . his victim’s blood: Mas’udi IV, p. 186.

  He replied . . . as quickly as possible: Mas’udi IV, p. 186.