NOTES
FOREWORD THE WHEEL AND THE HOURGLASS
If Yemen were to be united . . . strengthened: Ibn Fadl Allah al-Umari quoted in Tim Mackintosh-Smith’s introduction to Searight and Taylor, p. 12.
a recent United Nations report . . . ‘battle-related deaths’: UNDP Arab Human Development Report 2016, quoted in the Guardian, 2 January 2017.
The Arabs would have won . . . rotten in themselves: Atiyah, p. 185.
Shacb . . . family of mankind: Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. shcb.
that wisdom descended . . . the tongues of the Arabs: Jahiz, quoted in Ibn Khallikan III, p. 163.
The first known ancient inscription . . . dates from 853 BC: Hoyland, p. 59.
A distinguished historian . . . Albert Hourani: Albert Hourani, p. xiii.
words and ideas . . . like cream into a churn: Ibn Khaldun, Muqadimmah, pp. viii-ix; Arabic in Ibn Khaldun, Rihlah, p. 266.
O mankind . . . that you may know one another: Qur’an, 49:13.
civilization . . . where the Bedouins took over: Ibn Khaldun, Muqadimmah, p. 119.
even cannibals . . . have their own rationalities: Montaigne quoted on cannibals in Rennie, p. 52; Sahlins on cannibals in the London Review of Books, 9 May 2013, p. 29.
what Jorge Luis Borges . . . called ‘the Zahir’: Borges, p. 189.
This is a country . . . is ever present: Harold Ingrams, Yemen, p. 36.
to make the past ever present: Adonis, Thabit I, p. 19.
an antique autocracy: Morris, Sultan, p. 23.
Time present and time past . . . contained in time past: T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, ‘Burnt Norton’, part 1.
a village shaykh . . . species of ‘Frank’: Harold Ingrams, Yemen, p. 36.
the hourglass that swallows you / Night and day: Qabbani, p. 760.
INTRODUCTION GATHERING THE WORD
The main function . . . is to gather the word of all: Dresch, Tribes, p. 100.
Before sunrise on a winter’s day . . . : the story of Abu Sufyan in Yathrib/Medina appears in Baladhuri, p. 47.
The captive . . . called Abu Sufyan. Some sources assert that Abu Sufyan was not a captive, but was in Yathrib/Medina to negotiate with Muhammad. Cf. EI2, s.v. ‘Mucāwiya’.
noble messenger: Qur’an, 69:40.
This community will split into seventy-three sects: quoted in the hadith collections of Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah and al-Tirmidhi.
By the night . . . to different ends: Qur’an, 92:1–4.
We have sent it down . . . that you may understand: Qur’an, 12:2.
The a’rab are the worst . . . to His messenger: Qur’an, 9:97.
Of the a’rab . . . and the Last Day: Qur’an, 9:99.
a unifying national ideology . . . an Arab national hero: cf. the views of al-Arsuzi in Suleiman, p. 157.
the third stage in the series of conquests: Hitti, p. 361.
someone who has found . . . a precious necklace: Mas’udi IV, p. 386.
deepest strand of ‘being Arab’: cf. p. xxiii, above.
’asabiyyah, ‘group solidarity’: cf. p. xix, above.
mystical tongue . . . recitation of poetry: Retsö, p. 40.
the most deadly force . . . draw blood: Whitman, p. 334.
A poet . . . to lead them to that world: Johann Gottfried von Herder quoted in Ascherson, p. 205.
To walk . . . was to become incomprehensible: Robb, p. 14.
morally and spiritually a nation long before Muhammad: Nicholson, p. 72.
Muhammad ‘gathered . . . the word of Islam’: Ibn Khaldun, Rihlah, p. 391.
how language . . . can win dominance: cf. the ideas of Martin Nowak in Supercooperators.
faster . . . than could religious dogma: cf. Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 93.
Awake, O Arabs . . . your knees: al-Yaziji, Diwan, quoted in Antonius, epigraph.
’Arabiyyah . . . of the Arab world: Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 196.
there are four different dialect words . . . and nāy: cf. Munsif al-Marzuqi, ‘What language will the Arabs speak in the next century?’, article on aljazeera.net, 6 November 2011.
the ‘Baharnah’ . . . a ‘bedouin’ one: cf. Owens, Handbook, pp. 434 and 437.
Fear the reed . . . and theriac: Kurdi, p. 431.
to split the stick: cf. Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. cṣw.
Both poetry and prose . . . secondary to the words: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 450.
organic relationship . . . blasphemy: Adonis, Poetics, pp. 83–4.
To understand . . . understanding Arab history: Adonis, Thabit I, p. 31.
saying ‘Yes’ . . . to God’s commands: cf. Adonis, Thabit IV, p. 233.
the management and training of horses, camels etc.: Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. sws. Siyasah also went through a long period meaning, additionally, ‘non-canonical punishments inflicted by a ruler to maintain his authority’: EI2, s.v. Siyāsa.
Everybody . . . found our voice: Soueif, pp. 145–6.
An anecdote from early ninth-century al-Kufah . . . two come together and unite: Ibn al-A’rabi’s biography, including this story, is in Ibn Khallikan II, pp. 375–6.
CHAPTER 1 VOICES FROM THE WILDERNESS
Other comparisons . . . to the rest of Eurasia: cf. the comparison between India and Europe in Keay, pp. xxii–xxiii.
an arena of more fitful empires . . . into nation-states: cf. once more Keay, p. xxiii.
around 160 million: figures are the approximate ones for 2015.
A ‘wave theory’ . . . the Nile: e.g. Hitti, pp. 11–12.
This, the most recent ‘major wet period’ . . . the monsoon: Hoyland, p. 10, and Parker and Rose, pp. 29 and 33.
The early tenth-century geographer . . . most minimal of landscapes: Hamdani, Sifah, pp. 270–1.
In the green garden . . . eighty dams: Hamdani, Iklil VIII, p. 29.
the locations . . . are still known in the area: Mawsu’ah, s.v. ‘YaḤṣub’.
a catchment area of 10,000 square kilometres: Daum, p. 58.
a parable for societal . . . the Qur’an: Qur’an, 34.
The wormwood has put forth leaves . . . sprung forth: Jahiz, part 1, p. 229.
There is a plausible theory . . . ‘camel herd’: Hess, pp. 24–5.
madar wa-wabar . . . udder[-milking]: e.g. in Jahiz, part 1, p. 174.
O mankind . . . that you may know one another: Qur’an, 49:13.
some scholars argue . . . anachronistic: e.g. Piotrovsky, p. 136, and Iryani, p. 311.
the tribes of Asir . . . Nizari descent: Hamdani, Sifah, p. 230.
two major sections . . . ‘brothering’: Dresch, Tribes, pp. 329f.
A pedigree . . . resulting connection: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 99.
that [they] may know one another: Qur’an, 49:13.
a background shade . . . tell one other apart: cf. Jahiz, part 2, p. 37.
Ernest Gellner . . . criticized for it: e.g. by Varisco, p. 65. See also Zubaida, pp. 34–8 and 65.
in Arabian history . . . a ‘dialogue’ between badw and hadar: cf. Abd Allah, pp. 260–1.
Recent studies . . . changes in climate: see in particular the work of Rémy Crassard.
People were herding . . . irrigation systems: see Harrower, passim.
The sixth-century poet . . . legendary capital of Ad: Imru’ al-Qays, p. 161.
Have you not seen . . . Ad?: Qur’an, 89:6.
What He did … with a thunderbolt: Qur’an, 41:15.
or a ‘barren’ wind: Qur’an, 51:41.
It is tempting . . . major wet period: cf. Mackintosh-Smith, Yemen, p. 192. All references are to the original 1997 edition unless otherwise stated.
the earliest surviving Arabic history . . . their destruction: Abid, p. 344.
when at last the destructive wind . . . impart the news: Abid, pp. 353–4.
Those who discuss . . . reporting it: Abu ’l-Fida’, Mukhtasar part 1, p. 98.
maintained links . . . with levies: Macdonald, Development, p.
19.
knowing their own nemesis . . . ready-carved tombs: Abid, p. 401.
Aribi . . . who know neither overseers nor officials: Hoyland, p. 8.
that first known Arab, Gindibu: see pp. xxi–xxii, above.
the oldest . . . a thousand of them: Hoyland, p. 59. Hoyland gives an excellent summary of the earliest references to Arabs, pp. 59ff.
Robert Hoyland . . . called themselves: Hoyland, pp. 5–8.
remarkably coy . . . first Assyrian mention: in the al-Namarah inscription, on which see below, pp. 66–7.
named . . . enemies in mind: Tha’alibi, p. 257.
Waki’ . . . ‘Desert Rat son of Colcynth’: Baladhuri, p. 408. Waki’ was passed over for the post of governor in Khurasan because he was ‘too rough and desert-Arab’: Baladhuri, p. 410.
Others that appear in the Assyrian texts . . . ‘Hamdanu’: EI2 I, p. 562.
the 30,000 the king claims to have seized: Hoyland, p. 60.
Within my land one bought a camel . . . for a few pence: Hoyland, p. 61.
The most powerful . . . called Qedar: Macdonald, Development, p. 14.
the Assyrians imposed . . . Tabua: Hoyland, p. 134.
A reference in Herodotus . . . in the fifth century BC: Hoyland, p. 63.
The people in Arabia asked . . . Assurbanipal: Hoyland, p. 62.
To begin with, Arabs . . . of the southern kingdoms: there is a lone appearance of a’rab in a single Sabaean inscription of the seventh or sixth century BC: Hoyland, p. 230.
it is clear . . . typical [South Arabian] culture: Beeston, ‘Kingship’, p. 257.
linguistic and cultural . . . conversion: cf. Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 93.
All Arabs are one . . . and their language is one: Jahiz, part 3, p. 112.
From Sam . . . and the Sabaeans: Ibn Khaldun, Rihlah, p. 389.
It may be useful . . . hard to achieve: Keall, p. 98.
scores of thousands of graffiti: Macdonald, Development, p. 16.
the word ‘Arab’ doesn’t appear in them: Macdonald, ‘Nomads’, p. 371, n. 435.
far away . . . neither overseers nor officials: cf. p. 30, above.
have their own writing . . . for amusement: Macdonald, Development, p. 7.
About 18,000 Safaitic graffiti are known: Macdonald, ‘Nomads’, p. 304.
where with luck . . . consistent: Macdonald, ‘Nomads’, p. 384.
spent the [early spring] . . . and fed on truffles: Macdonald, ‘Seasons’, p. 3.
S1lm . . . distressed, overshadowed’: Macdonald, ‘Nomads’, p. 366.
he was very love-sick . . . and had joyous sex with her: Hoyland, p. 207.
graffiti-writers add ‘something rude’: Macdonald, Development, p. 16.
does the verb ’tm . . . fuck?: Winnett, p. 239.
this is his camping place year after year: Hoyland, p. 206.
a torrent made him flee . . . trust not the torrent-bed: Macdonald, ‘Seasons’, p. 2, with my rhyming version of the rhyming original.
clearly played . . . culture and economy: EI2 VIII, pp. 761–2.
the camel was created from the rimth bush: Jahiz, part 1, p. 232.
The history of the camel has been much written about: most interestingly by Bulliet.
it was domesticated . . . in the third millennium BC: e.g. Diamond, p. 167.
probably in the south-east of the Arabian Peninsula: e.g. Hoyland, p. 90.
that first datable mention of Arabs – 853 BC: see pp. xxi–xxii, above.
a riding camel . . . buried with its owner: Mas’udi III, p. 149; Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. blw.
bearers of men, stanchers of blood, buyers of women: Suyuti II, p. 455.
the second caliph . . . reach by camel: quoted in Lewis, Arabs in History, p. 126.
[Arabs] own the land . . . owning all of it: Mas’udi II, p. 121.
[Arabs] weighed up . . . reason and perception: Mas’udi II, p. 120.
their origins . . . of the settled populations: cf. EI2 I, p. 872.
[disparate people] joined or mixed together: cf. Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. crb.
many other long-enduring names . . . ‘to come together, gather’: cf. Hamdani, Sifah, p. 197.
Sabaic hmr, a ‘type of pact, alliance between communities’: Beeston et al., s.v. ḤMR II.
’arab originally meant ‘desert people, nomads’: e.g. Dunlop, pp. 5–6; Hitti, p. 41; Lewis, Arabs in History, pp. 2–3.
Some scholars . . . well into the Islamic period: e.g. Retsö, p. 51.
’arab could conceivably mean ‘from the west’: Retsö, pp. 52–3.
those who entered . . . or his property: Retsö, p. 598 and passim.
we are ‘in utter confusion’ over the meaning: Husayn, p. 27.
It is doubtful whether the term . . . ethnic sense: Romila Thapar quoted in Keay, p. 19.
both are mobile, migrating . . . eventually fossilizes: on arya, see Keay, pp. 20, 24, 34–6, 59, 132, 151 and 153.
perhaps that Semitic root . . . a wider, ‘Afroasiatic’ family: for different views see Owens, Handbook, pp. 15–16.
two verb paradigms . . . recorded in AD 2005: Owens, Linguistic History, pp. 29–30.
Greek kalamos . . . Arabic sayf, ‘sword’: cf. Gelder, p. 400, n. 717.
a pre-Semitic ‘Mediterranean substratum’: Giovanni Garbini in Daum, p. 105.
a ‘dialect bundle’ . . . North Arabian: Macdonald, Development, pp. 16–17.
The distinguishing feature . . . ‘al-’ definite article: Hoyland, p. 201.
Herodotus, who says that ‘Alilat’ . . . deity of the Arabs: Hoyland, p. 607.
the graffito of the grieving S1lm: p. 36, above.
Even the Prophet Muhammad . . . those who used it: an example is preserved in the hadith, Laysa mina ‘m-birri ‘m-ṣiyāmu fi ‘m-safar, ‘It is not part of piety to fast while travelling.’ Hibshi, p. 22.
a tomb inscription of AD 267 . . . with Nabataean touches: Healey and Smith, passim, Macdonald, Development, p. 19.
the oldest known Arabic . . . an otherwise Aramaic text: Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 32.
some very old . . . features: e.g. Versteegh, Arabic Language, pp. 18–21 and 24.
after the debacle at Babel . . . across the land: Mas’udi II, pp. 132–6.
80 for ‘honey’: Suyuti I, pp. 320–1.
200 for ‘beard’, 500 for ‘lion’: Suyuti I, p. 257.
800 for ‘sword’: Chejne, p. 10.
1,000 for ‘camel’: Hitti, p. 22.
an old saw amongst Arabists . . . is not entirely untrue: e.g. rāsh, ‘to eat much, to eat little, a camel with hairy ears’. Hava, s.v. rwsh.
the droppings of bustards . . . by loudness: Tha’alibi, pp. 92–3.
the sound of locusts eating: Tha’alibi, p. 152.
the spaces between the fingers: Tha’alibi, p. 66.
no fewer than fifty Arabic dialects . . . Qur’anic vocabulary: al-Wasiti cited in Rabin, Ancient West-Arabian, chapter 3. Cf. Suyuti I, pp. 209–12.
The Arab tongue . . . that person be a prophet: Suyuti I, p. 53.
no one can know . . . what was and what shall be: Jahiz, part 2, pp. 11–12.
Robert Hoyland sees language . . . first millennium BC: Hoyland, p. 230.
the most important condition of ’arab identity: Hoyland, p. 254, n. 1.
An improved type of camel saddle was developed: Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 24.
the graffiti . . . in what is now Lebanon: Hoyland, p. 65.
on a corridor wall . . . in Roman Pompeii: Gysens, passim.
CHAPTER 2 PEOPLES AND TRIBES
It was the seat . . . ‘thib’ means ‘be seated’: Yaqut, s.v. Ẓafār.
If a Tamimi [Arab] comes . . . in his father’s loins: Abu Nuwas, pp. 510–11.
the islamized Himyari . . . pious king concludes: Mas’udi II, p. 305.
the proto-Sabaeans . . . well after 2000 BC: Knauf, p. 84.
is the survivor . . . around 1200 BC: Knauf, p. 79.
some scholars . . . beginnings of South Arabian civilization: e.g. Maigret, pp. 220–4.
these peoples formed . . . in South Arabia: cf. Beeston, Descriptive Grammar, p. 1.
The virtuous circle . . . touched on: pp. 24–5, above.
the earliest Sabaic inscriptions . . . for rain: Daum, p. 49.
the last Sabaic inscriptions . . . occupying the south: Mawsu’ah, s.v. Abrahah.
give as an offering . . . of their villages: Iryani, p. 287.
its ‘two gardens’ mentioned in the Qur’an: Qur’an, 34:15.
The depth of the deposits . . . work of irrigation: EI2 VI, p. 559.
the two gardens covered 9,600 hectares . . . expanse: EI2 VI, p. 563.
They came in . . . the summer rains: Hoyland, pp. 137 and 161.
The conditions . . . in other pilgrimages across Arabia: Hoyland, p. 161.
the House of Ilmaqah: Iryani, p. 339.
he may have been . . . of vegetation: Giovanni Garbini in EI2 VIII, p. 665.
one scholar has seen . . . sun deity: Jacques Ryckmans in Daum, p. 107.
The Sabaeans . . . ‘worship the sun’: Qur’an, 27:24.
the Sabaic verb wqh, ‘to command’: Beeston et al., s.v. WQH.
represents . . . the collective will of the sha’b: Beeston, ‘Kingship’, p. 262.
The Sabaeans were . . . ‘children’ of Ilmaqah: Beeston, ‘Kingship’, p. 267.
Sam’ay’s own patron . . . pilgrimage to Marib: Robin, p. 96; Ghul, p. 147.
Ta’lab also reminds . . . on each of two days: Ghul, p. 148.
Ta’lab even tells . . . several centuries later: Ghul, p. 152.
al-Hamdani . . . pre-Islamic struggles: cf. Wilson p. 23.
over a hundred places . . . South Arabian inscriptions: Abd Allah, p. 341.
sanctuaries . . . define group unities: Iryani, p. 447.
the title mkrb . . . as ‘unifier’: Iryani, p. 330.
the role . . . as head of the Commonwealth: Beeston, ‘Kingship’, pp. 264–5, cf. Beeston in EI2 IV, p. 747.
he established every . . . alliance: Serjeant, South Arabian Hunt, p. 109, n. 358.
and hold fast . . . divided among yourselves: Qur’an, 3:103.
the Muslim community . . . as its basis: Hitti, p. 120.
Pliny the Elder . . . merchant’s expenses: Mackintosh-Smith, Yemen, p. 39.
Arabs Page 71
