Arabs

by Tim Mackintosh-Smith

  When their descendants . . . exterminated each other: Hamdani, Sifah, p. 331.

  70,000 youths . . . ruined them for evermore: Shaykhu, pp. 625–39.

  I’ve wept for Zayd . . . how fearful: Abu ’l-Fida’, Mukhtasar part 1, p. 100.

  Both the Byzantines . . . from their own people: Kennedy, pp. 368–9.

  Your rule . . . is the pride of every Yemeni: Mas’udi II, p. 108.

  personal animosity . . . denunciation: cf. EI2, s.v. al-Nucmān b. al-Mundhir.

  Today the ’arab have demanded . . . and have won: Shaykhu, p. 136.

  CHAPTER 5 REVELATION, REVOLUTION

  When Quraysh rebuilt . . . his wisdom: Mas’udi II, pp. 278–9.

  Because . . . that had been the Prophet’s custom: EI2 IV, p. 320.

  istalama . . . ‘gaining security with a deity’: Beeston et al., s.v. S1LM.

  unworked stones . . . at Bethel in Genesis: Genesis, 28:11–19.

  they would select . . . around the Ka’bah: Ibn al-Kalbi, pp. 28–9.

  The most binding oaths . . . on sacred stones: e.g. Ibn al-Kalbi, p. 15.

  an alliance of Qurashi clans . . . the making of vows: EI2 III, p. 389.

  Abraham’s son . . . during the building of the Ka’bah: Hitti, p. 100.

  originally white . . . ‘Age of Ignorance’: EI2 IV, p. 321.

  Muhammad returned . . . once more the Black Stone: Baladhuri, p. 49.

  the Islamic-period story . . . divine inspiration: for all these stories, see Mas’udi II, pp. 46–9.

  Abd al-Muttalib . . . digging the well out: Mas’udi II, p. 127.

  ‘Macoraba’ . . . the site of Mecca: Hitti, p. 103.

  a Sabaic word . . . ‘temple’: Beeston et al., s.v. KRB.

  an Arabian toponym . . . between hills: e.g. Piamenta, s.v. ghrb.

  In the traditional histories . . . fought for control: Mas’udi II, pp. 49–51.

  possibly no later than . . . Mudar and Iyad: EI2, s.v. Iyād.

  it was Khuza’ah . . . the One God: Mas’udi II, p. 56; Ibn Khallikan II, p. 286.

  Amr ibn Luhayy . . . from Syria: Mas’udi II, p. 238.

  Hubal (‘spirit, vapour’ in Aramaic): Hitti, p. 100.

  something imaginary . . . resulting connection: Ibn Khaldun quoted on p. 26, above.

  taqarrasha, ‘to gather people together’: cf. p. 39, above.

  qarsh, ‘making money’: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 135.

  The following verses . . . slither of snakes: Suyuti I, pp. 273–4.

  seedy Khuza’i . . . skinful of wine: Mas’udi II, p. 58.

  the position of Quraysh . . . Lakhmids and Himyaris: Mas’udi II, pp. 59–60.

  they were able to gain . . . routes in general: Ibrahim, p. 344.

  Byzantine–Persian hostilities . . . dominated by Mecca: EI2 X, p. 789; Lewis, Arabs In History, pp. 29–30.

  The network . . . covered much of the peninsula: Serjeant, South Arabian Hunt, p. 62.

  the new – for Meccans . . . merchant ventures: Kurdi, pp. 59–60.

  mudarabah . . . trading ever further away: Ibrahim, p. 344.

  winter and summer journeys: Qur’an, 106:2.

  Ma’in . . . close relations with Gaza: Mackintosh-Smith, Yemen, p. 39.

  Muhammad’s uncle . . . during the pilgrimage: Lecker, p. 349.

  Amr ibn al-As . . . rich land of the Nile: cf. Kennedy, p. 73.

  Abu Sufyan . . . in what is now Lebanon: Baladhuri, p. 131.

  The old everyday dialect . . . far from high Arabic: cf. Ferguson.

  as late as . . . South Arabian tongues: Rabin, Ancient West-Arabian, chapter. 1.

  selected . . . innate linguistic ability: Ibn Faris quoted in Suyuti I, p. 166.

  rain on parched earth: Gelder, p. 199.

  15,000–20,000 by the early seventh century: Atiyah, p. 21.

  its Qur’anic title of umm al-qura: e.g. Qur’an, 6:92.

  the Ethiopians . . . on the Day of the Elephant: see p. 90, above.

  the mountain of Arafat . . . local side-show: EI2 III, pp. 31–2.

  tribal groups . . . totemic animal: Ibn al-Kalbi, pp. 4-6; EI2 IX, p. 424.

  One interpretation . . . the area around Mount Arafat: EI2 XI, p. 441.

  the pilgrimage fell in . . . a three-month truce: EI2 III, pp. 31–2.

  Muslim geographers . . . ‘the navel of the earth’: Yaqut, s.v. al-Kacbah.

  the same term . . . sacred stone: Hornblower and Spawforth, s.v. omphalos.

  a womb that expands . . . numbers of pilgrims: e.g. Ibn Jubayr, p. 148.

  at a cost of 100 dirhams . . . the arrows drawn: EI2 IV, pp. 263–4.

  Qusayy . . . al-Lat, Manat and al-Uzza: EI2 V, p. 692.

  a pair of statues . . . turned to stone: Ibn al-Kalbi, p. 8.

  the Ka’bah . . . gallery of Quraysh ancestors: Mas’udi II, p. 278; see p. 104, above.

  the meeting-houses . . . all the clans together: Mas’udi II, p. 277.

  an image of Jesus and Mary . . . paraphernalia: Harawi, p. 85.

  Ka’bah of Najran . . . Christian victims: EI2 VII, p. 872.

  Ka’bah of Sindad . . . seems to be known: Ibn al-Kalbi, pp. 38–9.

  We’ve been the family of Allah . . . long past: Mas’udi II, p. 129.

  The ‘Comforter’ . . . to console the world: New Testament, John, 14:16.

  is interpreted . . . as Muhammad: cf. Qur’an, 61:6.

  Muhammad is supposed . . . signs of divine grace: Mas’udi I, p. 75.

  Abu Bakr . . . declared his prophethood: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 32.

  Satih, the supposedly boneless seer: p. 93, above.

  a Persian nobleman’s . . . birth is nigh: Ibshihi, pp. 467–8.

  the later the sources . . . the life of the Prophet: EI2 IX, p. 662.

  Collectors of hadiths . . . 5,000 are supposed to be reliable: the figure of a million is ascribed to Ahmad ibn Hanbal (Ibn Khallikan I, p. 40). Al-Bukhari is said to have collected a slightly more credible 600,000 (Ibn Khallikan II, p. 324). Abu Dawud weeded out his own half million and came up with 4,800 ‘sound’ hadiths (Ibn Khallikan I, p. 383).

  Muhammad himself forbade . . . that far: Mas’udi II, p. 270.

  beyond Ma’add . . . the record was unreliable: Mas’udi II, p. 274.

  ‘Genealogists,’ he said bluntly, ‘tell lies’: Mas’udi II, p. 270.

  from a poorer clan of Quraysh: EI2 VI, p. 146.

  the two grandsons . . . cut bloodily apart with a sword: EI2 X, p. 841.

  the Umayyad line . . . free-for-all: Ibrahim, p. 347.

  the Umayyads . . . the ruling elite of Quraysh: Ibrahim, p. 353.

  By some accounts, he spoke Ethiopic: EI2 VII, p. 862.

  Muhammad was sent . . . Sa’d ibn Bakr: Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon I, p. vii.

  late Sabaic inscription . . . wet-nursed by nomadic a’rab: Iryani, p. 138.

  Caliph Abd al-Malik . . . to the badiyah: Jahiz, part 1, p. 251.

  as late as the 1920s . . . badiyah boarding school: EI2 VI, p. 160.

  They are not a’rab . . . people of their qariyah: quoted in Abd Allah, p. 294.

  It has been claimed . . . their nomad neighbours: e.g. EI2 VI, pp. 145–6.

  the elect wear silk . . . youthful cupbearers: e.g. Qur’an, 76:12–21.

  Its gardens are watered . . . underground: e.g. Qur’an, 61:12.

  he had named one of them Abd Manaf . . . Abu Talib: EI2 VII, p. 362.

  he sacrificed . . . to the goddess al-Uzza: Ibn al-Kalbi, pp. 16–17.

  Muhammad began emulating . . . overlooking Mecca: EI2 X, p. 98.

  he told his wife . . . that he was turning into a kahin: Karsh, p. 11.

  the diagnosis of . . . Umar: EI2 VIII, p. 93.

  His shaytan . . . is keeping him waiting!: EI2 IX, p. 407.

  iqra’ . . . revealed by Gabriel to Muhammad: Qur’an, 96:1.

  I am no reciter: Kilito, pp. xix–xx.

  according to Ibn Hisham’s biography . . . both senses: EI2 VIII, p. 96.

  the hy
mnist Caedmon . . . ‘I cannot sing’: James Sutherland (ed.), The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes, Oxford, 1975, p. 1.

  compared to Isaiah’s angel . . . with a burning coal: EI2 IX, p. 450.

  it is enough to compare . . . birds in the air: quoted in Jones, ‘Qur’an’.

  By the sun . . . veiling it: Qur’an, 91:1–10.

  Muhammad would . . . distance himself from them: Jahiz, part 1, pp. 123 and 124.

  There can be no kahinhood after prophethood: EI2 V 99.

  This is indeed the word . . . how little you reflect!: Qur’an, 69:40–2.

  Do you not see . . . that they would never do?: Qur’an, 26:225–6.

  Lines attributed . . . like the Day of the Elephant: Shaykhu, pp. 219–31.

  On the Day of Resurrection . . . false: Shaykhu, p. 219.

  So set your face towards religion . . . people do not know: Qur’an, 30:30.

  he was . . . an opponent of Muhammad: Mas’udi I, pp. 70–1.

  elegies on those killed in Muhammad’s raids: Shaykhu, pp. 222–5.

  Orientalists . . . tried to show the opposite: Husayn, pp. 147–52.

  that there might well be some authentic material: EI2 X, p. 839.

  I have submitted . . . mountains firm upon it: Shaykhu, pp. 621–2.

  Zayd would go . . . to the One God, Allah: EI2 XI, pp. 474–5.

  ‘Islam’ . . . after the move to Medina: EI2 III, p. 165.

  With an alphabet . . . sets out upon a journey: Ascherson, p. 204.

  the influences . . . the longest and bloodiest war: Whitman, p. 400.

  printed and electronic . . . oral tradition: EI2 V, p. 426.

  Recite! . . . Who has taught by the pen: Qur’an, 96:1–4.

  South Arabia . . . priestly scribes: cf. p. 61, above.

  By the pen and what they write: Qur’an, 68:1.

  the written symbol . . . indicated by it: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 31.

  script that fills the ears of him that sees it: quoted in Ibn Khallikan II, p. 51.

  seems in itself a form of oratory . . . the visible: Byron, p. 271.

  The pen is a second tongue: Jahiz, part 1, p. 37.

  The revelations . . . imported papyrus: Rabin, ‘Beginnings’, p. 28, n. 2.

  Umar . . . happened to find in his sister’s house: EI2 VIII, p. 835.

  a form of aide-mémoire . . . Muhammad’s followers: Schoeler, p. 430.

  the scribes of the revelation: Baladhuri, pp. 453–4.

  a verse . . . to prompt him: al-Zamakhshari cited in Jones, ‘Word Made Visible’, pp. 7–8.

  one of the scribes . . . descended to criticize him: Baladhuri, pp. 454–5.

  earlier ones . . . ‘writing, book’: Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 55.

  Or do you have . . . telling the truth!: Qur’an, 37:156–7.

  Muhammad was from . . . a scripture: EI2 V, p. 403.

  the story mentioned . . . predicting his prophethood: p. 124, above.

  Abu Bakr’s first reaction . . . to write at all: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 32.

  Stories . . . some ability to write: e.g. Jones, ‘Word Made Visible’, pp. 5–6.

  Benedict Anderson argues . . . language: Anderson, passim.

  I could not help . . . knowing how to use it: Lévi-Strauss, p. 300.

  It had . . . raised commerce to new levels: cf. Kurdi, pp. 59–60.

  by which you . . . ancient script of Himyar: Suyuti II, p. 297.

  seventeen Qurashis . . . to include women: Baladhuri, pp. 453–4.

  five of them acted as his secretaries: Kurdi, p. 60.

  If all the trees . . . would not be exhausted: Qur’an, 31:27.

  the commentator . . . doesn’t surprise: Jahiz, part 1, p. 153.

  Edward Said . . . an Orientalist cliché: cf. Rippin, p. 42.

  In it are verses . . . from our Lord: Qur’an, 3:7.

  magoi . . . tradition in Media: Hornblower and Spawforth, s.v. magus.

  Muhammad compared . . . clang of a bell: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 70.

  the ideas . . . are secondary to the words: see p. 12, above.

  has denied Muhammad . . . original authors: Gelder, p. xxvii.

  is not merely a carrier . . . itself is content: quoted in Kaye, p. 447.

  I saw the Almighty . . . without understanding: quoted in Chejne, p. 12.

  Ibn Qutaybah . . . speech of the Qur’an: quoted in Adonis, Thabit II, p. 172.

  The proof . . . together by belief in it: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, pp. 73–4.

  If you [Muhammad] had spent . . . Allah has united them: Qur’an, 8:63.

  challenged . . . and disabled their minds: Mas’udi II, p. 299.

  the first conquest: cf. pp. 5–6, above.

  was built on a magical foundation . . . dying: quoted in Adonis, Thabit IV, p. 114.

  Muhammad . . . on the verge of disappearing: Retsö, p. 626.

  ’arab . . . guardians of local cults: cf. p. 39, above.

  The Qur’an . . . to the Arabic language: quoted in Adonis, Thabit IV, p. 114.

  the Qur’an is the equivalent . . . of Christ, the Logos: EI2 V, p. 427.

  Our [Arab] community . . . lives in a language: al-Marzuqi (aljazeera.net).

  The Hijaz . . . in the Mediterranean-Arabian world: cf. EI2 VIII, p. 155.

  a tentative early monotheism . . . the God of Heaven: Iryani, p. 412.

  a new indigenous monotheism . . . ‘the Merciful’: Iryani, pp. 395–6.

  several Meccan Christians are known by name: e.g. Ubayd Allah b. Jahsh (EI2 VII, pp. 862–3), Adi b. Hatim (Ibn al-Kalbi, p. 52) and Waraqah b.Nawfal (Shaykhu, pp. 616–18).

  The hanif . . . chapter of the Qur’an: Mas’udi I, pp. 67-8; Mas’udi II, pp. 226–7.

  Say, ‘He is Allah, One . . . ’: Qur’an, 112.

  the poet Imru’ al-Qays . . . snapped them: Imru’ al-Qays, p. 12.

  Banu Hanifah had an idol . . . they ate him: Ibshihi, p. 463.

  an oath . . . the Christian God: Ibn al-Kalbi, pp. 30–1.

  By al-Lat . . . Allah, verily He is greater than both: Ibn al-Kalbi, p. 15.

  And if you ask . . . they will surely say, ‘Allah’: Qur’an, 43:87.

  And if you were to ask . . . surely answer, ‘Allah’: Qur’an, 29:63.

  Muhammad’s father . . . a hundred camels: EI2 I, p. 42.

  most people felt happier . . . via intermediaries: cf. Mas’udi II, p. 126.

  The old South Arabians . . . shared deity: cf. pp. 53–4, above.

  habl Allah, Allah’s uniting and binding covenant: Qur’an, 3:103.

  the Sabaean term . . . hbl: Serjeant, South Arabian Hunt, p. 109, n. 358.

  the shared concept . . . his grandson Muhammad put it: for Abd al-Muttalib’s words, see p. 124, above. Muhammad’s phrase is in Hamdani, Sifah, p. 41. Cf. Abu Bakr quoted in Jahiz, part 3, p. 114.

  Muhammad began . . . two years into the revelations: EI2 V, p. 411.

  Say . . . the Most Beautiful Names: Qur’an, 17:110.

  In the name of Allah, al-Rahman, al-Rahim: Qur’an, 1:1.

  ‘Al-Bari’ . . . attributes of the One God: Iryani, p. 414.

  they, too, were increasingly . . . Zoroastrian: cf. Hoyland, p. 27.

  To understand . . . the key to Arab history: cf. pp. 12–13, above.

  And if your Lord . . . will not cease to disagree: Qur’an, 11:118.

  they would spend . . . the night awake in prayer vigils: EI2 X, p. 97.

  Woe to every slanderer . . . cast into the crushing Fire!: Qur’an, 104:1–4.

  Ibn Hisham tells . . . the community: quoted in Adonis, Thabit II, p. 170.

  a whole chapter . . . of hellfire: Qur’an, 111.

  a son of Abu Bakr . . . in the coming Raid of Badr: EI2 I, p. 110.

  CHAPTER 6 GOD AND CAESAR

  Abu Sufyan . . . with their braided locks!: cf. p. 2, above.

  But I have never seen . . . his sputum: Ma’arri, p. 37.

  O Allah . . . the ties of blood!: al-Tabari quoted in Nicholson, p. 158.
<
br />   ‘severance’ is what it meant to the Meccans: EI2, s.v. Hidjra.

  some early activists . . . almost as apostasy: Crone, passim.

  Muhammad had first . . . fallen through: Nicholson, p. 158.

  his father’s father . . . his own Yathribi mother’s house: EI2 I, p. 80.

  a sort of loose garden city . . . shelter from attack: EI2 V, p. 994.

  legend sees . . . Nebuchadnezzar’s campaigns: Baladhuri, p. 25.

  Medina was conquered by the Qur’an: Baladhuri, p. 17.

  One of his first acts . . . tax-free zone: Baladhuri, p. 24.

  the traditional market-day . . . congregational prayers: EI2 VII, p. 368.

  The simple mosque . . . palm-frond awnings: Baladhuri, p. 16.

  much of its shape . . . Jewish scripture: see on this e.g. Hitti, pp. 125–6.

  it confirms the book of Moses in the Arabic tongue: Qur’an, 46:12.

  Muhammad’s message . . . a true religion: Carmichael, p. 53.

  Ritual ablutions . . . at Marib and elsewhere: Doe, pp. 163 and 166f.

  it seems the southerners . . . to Yathrib: cf. Qur’an, 9:108; Baladhuri, p. 14.

  The usual ‘Orientalist’ take . . . Muhammad: EI2 VII, p. 368; cf. Hitti, p. 118.

  The new polity . . . taking decisions: cf. EI2 V, pp. 995–6.

  most such alliances . . . performed around fire: EI2 III, pp. 388–9.

  Abd al-Muttalib . . . hung it up in the Ka’bah: Schoeler, p. 425.

  The pagan Meccans . . . ‘the family of Allah’: p. 124, above.

  the new community is fathered . . . the first monotheist: Qur’an, 22:78.

  Muhammad’s own wives . . . ‘mothers’ of the community: Qur’an, 33:6.

  closer to the believers than their own selves: Qur’an, 33:6.

  these dissidents . . . adopted Christianity: Baladhuri, pp. 13–14.

  Muhammad’s original Constitution . . . its polytheists: EI2 VII, p. 367.

  Kulayb . . . set off the War of the Camel’s Udder: pp. 94–5, above.

  the traditional tribal grazing-grounds . . . the ummah: EI2 XII, p. 694.

  submitted their faces . . . the Meccan Ka’bah: cf. the verses by Zayd ibn Amr, p. 132, above.

  O you who believe . . . surely he is one of them: Qur’an, 5:51.

  the expulsion in 626 . . . the survivors were expelled: Hitti, p. 117.

  Qur’anic verses descended in justification: cf. e.g. Baladhuri, p. 28.

  The latter are clearly historical . . . to modern conditions: Allawi, p. 130.

  when they could work . . . north of Medina: Baladhuri, p. 43.