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Arabs

Page 74

by Tim Mackintosh-Smith


  overlook . . . with gracious forgiveness: Qur’an, 15:85.

  Anthropology . . . as violent and uncivil: Varisco, p. 10.

  never . . . so impressive as this: Burton, closing words of chapter XXXI.

  Whatsoever . . . your Lord will remain: Qur’an, 55:26–7.

  There were almost thirty . . . a third of them: Mas’udi II, pp. 287–8.

  they belong to . . . the ‘Days of the Arabs’: cf. EI2 IX, p. 661.

  a son of Abu Bakr . . . on the pagan Meccan side: p. 146, above.

  So did al-Abbas . . . dynasty of caliphs: EI2 I, p. 9.

  We are the Tariq girls . . . love you: quoted in Gelder, p. 94.

  another uncle . . . gnawed his liver: EI2 VII, p. 264.

  the angel Gabriel . . . an outmoded jinni: Husayn, p. 116.

  Hassan eulogizing . . . fine wine and kisses: Ma’arri, p. 167.

  Throw dust in the faces of the panegyrists: Mas’udi II, p. 300.

  A’sha Qays . . . life of Medina: Shaykhu, pp. 365–6.

  the only prophet . . . made licit: Jahiz, part 3, p. 114.

  its chapter called ‘The Spoils of War’: Qur’an, 8. See e.g. 8:41.

  warnings of hellfire . . . no one cheated: Qur’an, 3:162.

  those whose hearts are reconciled: Qur’an, 9:60.

  Do prophets come with a sword?: cf. the title of David Sizgorich in American Historical Review.

  hijrah would come . . . garrison towns: Hoyland, p. 102; Crone, p. 367.

  One authority bluntly glosses hijrah . . . as ‘military service’: EI2 II, p. 1006.

  an aim of ‘de-islamizing’ Arab history: p. 5, above.

  in Samir Kassir’s opinion . . . its current malaise: Kassir, pp. 34 and 92.

  Islam . . . ‘unseparated Siamese twins’: Pintak, p. 202.

  Banu Shaybah . . . sacristans of the goddess al-Uzza: Ibshihi, p. 464.

  were granted the keys . . . to the Ka’bah today: EI2 IV, p. 320.

  The Shaybah clan . . . opening the Ka’bah: EI2 IX, p. 389.

  in the case of al-Taif . . . to invest the town in 631: Baladhuri, p. 63.

  Muhammad’s Qurashi ancestors . . . the peninsula: cf. Serjeant, South Arabian Hunt, p. 62.

  The only phenomenon . . . a political system: Lévi-Strauss, p. 299.

  public announcements . . . fixed to the wall of the Ka’bah: EI2 VIII, p. 835.

  Medina also had a recent tradition of literacy: Kurdi, pp. 60–1.

  he gave orders . . . how to write: Kurdi, p. 61.

  a hadith . . . dictated to his cousin and son-in-law Ali: Mas’udi IV, p. 171.

  a land-grant written on . . . a palm-branch: Baladhuri, p. 23.

  demands for tribute from . . . Dumah: Baladhuri, pp. 67–9.

  a letter to the Hadramis . . . to Medina: Jahiz, part 1, p. 181.

  the Yemenis . . . by the time of Islam: Ibn Khallikan, pp. 163–4.

  I have sent you a scribe: quoted in Adonis, Thabit IV, 22.

  Medina was ‘conquered’ by it: Baladhuri, p. 17.

  stunned their hearing and disabled their minds: p. 139, above.

  4,000 loudspeakers . . . 9 kilometres away: BBC, ‘News From Elsewhere’, 14 July 2014.

  How often have tribes . . . got to submit: quoted in Chejne, p. 14.

  Martin Nowak’s . . . insertion of ideas: Nowak, Supercooperators, passim.

  Christian Arabs . . . from north-eastern Arabia: EI2 XI, p. 219.

  the Byzantine emperor . . . Abyssinian highlands: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 377.

  numerous marriages: eleven according to Rogerson, p. 109.

  Does royalty give itself to trade?: Lecker, p. 353.

  he employed nomad tribes . . . as persuaders: EI2 XI, pp. 219–20.

  a response to Persian encroachment . . . subcontinent: Retsö, p. 17.

  Khalid ibn Sinan al-Absi . . . last prophet before himself: p. 141.

  saved Arabia from . . . fire-temples: Mas’udi I, p. 67–8.

  Muslims will rejoice at . . . the Byzantines: Qur’an, 30:4.

  Abu Bakr . . . his Arab opponent, al-Aswad: Baladhuri, p. 110.

  I have never heard . . . unless it be Antarah: Shaykhu, p. 797.

  the origin of the Arabs and the material of Islam: Jahiz, part 1, p. 188.

  the worst in unbelief and hypocrisy: Qur’an, 9:97; cf. p. 4, above.

  The a’rab say . . . belief has not yet entered your hearts: Qur’an, 49:14.

  Between us, Lord . . . with no begetter!: Serjeant, South Arabian Hunt, p. 12.

  It is very doubtful . . . as a universal religion: EI2 VII, p. 372.

  a social and political . . . spiritual experience: EI2 IX, p. 452.

  believing without belonging: Davie, passim.

  its doctrine of total . . . unitarianism: cf. Adonis, quoted on pp. 12–13, above.

  I do not know if shall meet you . . . except in piety: Jahiz, part 1, pp. 183–4.

  nor is black superior to white: e.g. the version quoted in Rogerson, p. 208.

  he was a fan . . . with fully open mouth: Jahiz, part 1, p. 182.

  an old woman asked . . . nubile virgins!: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 9.

  was once spotted . . . a fine camel you’ve got!: hadith on the authority of Jabir.

  Suggestions as to his age . . . sixty-five lunar years: Mas’udi II, pp. 290–1.

  doubts about the dating of the Day of the Elephant: p. 90, above.

  Muhammad rarely appeared in public unveiled: Jahiz, part 3, p. 40.

  the concept of ’arab . . . disappearing altogether: Retsö, p. 626.

  gathered the Arabs together upon the word of Islam: p. 9, above.

  Muhammad . . . the fall of Ghassan and Kindah: Jahiz, part 1, p. 181.

  Arabs . . . kingship through prophecy: quoted in Adonis, Thabit I, p. 29.

  mosaics and columns . . . in the Meccan Ka’bah: Mas’udi III, p. 92.

  The mosque also incorporated . . . the Sabaeans: Razi, p. 254.

  CHAPTER 7 CRESCADERS

  Islamic historians . . . have been Jewish: Baladhuri, pp. 106–7.

  the others . . . accusation of harlotry: Beeston, ‘So-Called Harlots’, pp. 20–1.

  the ‘harlots’ . . . front teeth knocked out: Beeston, ‘So-Called Harlots’, p. 19.

  an old punishment for subversive orators: Jahiz, part 1, p. 134.

  Azerbaijan . . . for a time as governor: Lecker, passim.

  a pretty spouse . . . ‘Hail to our lord!’: Jahiz, part 1, p. 237.

  Abu Bakr’s ‘election’ . . . as arbiter, not autocrat: cf. Lewis, ‘Concept’, p. 6.

  Abu Bakr took over . . . a rubber-stamp: cf. Lewis, ‘Concept’, p. 7.

  Ali and other members . . . six months: Mas’udi II, pp. 307–8; EI2 IX, p. 420.

  within a week or two . . . began to fall apart: Mas’udi II, p. 306.

  This world . . . worship it as they were wont to do: Ibn al-Kalbi, p. 32.

  the goddess al-Uzza . . . ashes before his eyes: Ibn al-Kalbi, pp. 21–2.

  you snapped . . . as the poet Imru’ al-Qays had done: pp. 141–2, above.

  you the called them bastards . . . in their rain hymn: p. 167, above.

  Malik ibn Nuwayrah . . . described in chapter 2: p. 65, above.

  Different versions of the story exist: EI2 VI, pp. 267–8.

  Malik had been one of the delegates . . . alienated: Ibn Khallikan III, pp. 215–16.

  Other tribes went on praying but not paying: Baladhuri, p. 99.

  like Muhammad . . . to call his followers to prayer: Baladhuri, p. 96.

  Frog, daughter of two frogs! . . . a hostile lot: Gelder, p. 112.

  Musaylimah, who suggested . . . from Muhammad: Baladhuri, pp. 93–4.

  Musaylimah was killed . . . different accounts: Baladhuri, p. 98.

  Sajah may have been Christian . . . defeat: Baladhuri, p. 104; EI2 VIII, p. 738.

  So too did Tulayhah . . . on his own defeat: Baladhuri, pp. 101–2.

  You are better . . . defend them!: Gelder, pp.
112–13.

  Tulayhah’s prophetic pretences . . . camels to Medina: EI2 X, p. 603.

  Islamic polemic . . . prostrated itself to him: Baladhuri, p. 109.

  who captivated . . . by his discourse: Abu ’l-Fida’, Mukhtasar, part 1, p. 155.

  he expelled the Muslim . . . readily accepted Islam: Baladhuri, pp. 109–10.

  the Marxist ideologues . . . nationalist: Mackintosh-Smith, Yemen, p. 44.

  We left Shurayh . . . overwhelmed with vultures: Baladhuri, pp. 90–1.

  Abu Bakr . . . people to fight the Byzantines: Baladhuri, p. 111.

  Today you live . . . so too will the further lands: Jahiz, part 1, pp. 187–8.

  Umar . . . designated before his death: Lewis, ‘Concept’, p. 7.

  the Persian Threat . . . unprovable theory: cf. pp. 165–6, above.

  the first campaigns . . . to unify arabophones: cf. Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 93.

  Abu Sufyan . . . bought estates in Byzantine territory: cf. p. 121, above.

  the emperor Heraclius . . . lost Byzantine territory: Hitti, pp. 147–8.

  a force of 24,000: Baladhuri, p. 112.

  Most of the scattered . . . to the Muslim side: Baladhuri, pp. 119–20.

  prostration . . . in the Syrian Orthodox Church: cf. William Dalrymple, From The Holy Mountain, HarperCollins, 1997, p. 105.

  In Damascus . . . seventy years: Baladhuri, p. 133; cf. Kennedy, p. 86.

  Muslims and Christians . . . to reach their mosque: Ibn Shakir quoted in EI2 I, s.v. Architecture.

  a prince . . . medicine and alchemy: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 300.

  As for the Jews . . . another Byzantine governor: Baladhuri, p. 139.

  the ‘100,000’ troops guarding its walls: Baladhuri, p. 144.

  an Arab woman . . . killed seven Byzantine soldiers: Baladhuri, p. 121.

  Named after a river . . . in the Yarmuk gorges: cf. Kennedy, pp. 83–5.

  Go on! Prune the Foreskinned Ones with your swords!: Baladhuri, p. 137.

  the Byzantine side relied on . . . other tribes: Baladhuri, pp. 136 and 164.

  Jabalah is said . . . implications of Islam: Baladhuri, pp. 137–8.

  al-Mughirah parleying . . . on his throne: Baladhuri, p. 253; Kennedy, p. 113.

  the West of the East . . . described Islam: Lévi-Strauss, p. 405.

  Yazdgard III . . . thrown into a central Asian river: Kennedy, pp. 190–1.

  the Persian capital . . . Asia Minor: cf. Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 129.

  it fell at some time between 636 and 638: Kennedy, p. 109.

  Arab forces . . . may have numbered 12,000: Kennedy, p. 108.

  a Persian army . . . 120,000 by some accounts: Baladhuri, p. 252.

  Spindles! Spindles! . . . chain-mail that we wore: Baladhuri, p. 256.

  there was a single palm-tree . . . at the Sawad yet?: Mas’udi II, p. 326.

  the captured Persian . . . honeycombs: Mas’udi II, pp. 320–1.

  the last of the thirty . . . to goggling Arabs: Baladhuri, p. 282.

  Huraqah . . . the Arab victor of al-Qadisiyyah: Mas’udi II, pp. 102–4.

  Hind . . . an expert on ancient Arabia: Mas’udi III, pp. 33–4.

  home only to owls . . . from the skulls of the dead: Mas’udi II, pp. 102–5.

  It was demolished . . . third successor, Uthman: Mawsūcah, s.v. Ghumḍān.

  the aged warrior-hero, Durayd ibn al-Simmah: cf. p. 62, above.

  The youth tried to kill . . . your ancestresses: Shaykhu, pp. 772–3.

  the pre-Islamic belief . . . never complete his journey: Ibshihi, p. 466.

  Khalid ibn al-Walid . . . juices in their stomachs: Kennedy, p. 75.

  The leaders . . . had to expand or collapse: Kennedy, pp. 56–7.

  it was . . . exceptional and miraculous: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 255.

  they would send out saraya . . . in charge: e.g. Baladhuri, p. 224.

  Arab warrior’s kit . . . and his horse: Baladhuri, p. 310. ‘Broadsword’ is tentative, reading mikhfaq for the mkhff (vowels uncertain) of the edition I have to hand.

  Caliph Umar . . . to leave with his family: Baladhuri, p. 434.

  If you travel . . . down among your nether bits: Jahiz, part 3, p. 121.

  The second decisive showdown … to Arab forces: Kennedy, pp. 171–2.

  he scraped together . . . newly conquered Iraq: Baladhuri, p. 296.

  A single generation of Arabs . . . nicely put it: Hitti, p. 259.

  one ‘very tentative’ estimate . . . of the conquests: Atiyah, p. 35.

  Ibn Khaldun gives . . . time of Muhammad: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 140.

  Umar managed to field . . . battle of Nihawand: Kennedy, p. 171.

  five of Muhammad’s first cousins . . . Samarqand: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 31.

  How far between his birth and his death . . . Qutham: Baladhuri, p. 398.

  in AH 200 al-Abbas’s descendants . . . number 33,000: Mas’udi IV, p. 28.

  the same very unusual . . . migrations: the feature is an intrusive syllable between participles and pronominal suffixes. Owens, Linguistic History, pp. 160–2.

  Caliph Umar . . . could not be reached by camel: cf. p. 37, above.

  Umar was not pleased . . . ‘ticks on sticks’: Baladhuri, p. 416.

  it would be taken . . . in the eighth century: Keay, p. 183.

  An Arab army . . . south of the Caspian: Baladhuri, p. 326.

  You fought the foe . . . you drew your prick: Baladhuri, p. 412.

  O Lord . . . fighting the unbelievers!: Kennedy, p. 214.

  as big as or bigger than the Roman: cf. Dunlop, 18.

  that vigorous, vegetal ataurique . . . the Old World: cf. pp. 13–14, above.

  Never since . . . won in any city: Mathews, p. 41.

  what might be called . . . the ‘Crescades’: I was pleased to coin this, and then discovered that others had done so already. The trouble with the internet is that one can find out very quickly that one isn’t as original as one thought.

  In the Name of Allah . . . sufficient as a witness: Baladhuri, p. 174. The last sentence is Qur’an, 13:43.

  Exactly the same tax . . . in 2014: Daily Telegraph, 27 February 2014.

  To withhold tax . . . termed kafara: e.g. Baladhuri, pp. 176 and 379.

  the Mardaite Christians . . . excused the poll-tax: Baladhuri, pp. 161–2.

  the Christian Arab . . . barbarians: Baladhuri, pp. 181–3; Suleiman, pp. 56–7.

  the value of masonry . . . tax-deductible: Baladhuri, p. 280.

  40,000 . . . were massacred: Baladhuri, p. 378; Kennedy, p. 184.

  half a million peasant farmers: Baladhuri, p. 266.

  I fear . . . smash each other’s faces in: Baladhuri, pp. 261–4.

  the annual revenue . . . at the end of the seventh century: Baladhuri, p. 266. Such comparisons are exceedingly difficult to make, but the dirham might be thought of as being worth about couple of US dollars, or perhaps a little more.

  the people of al-Ruha . . . at the [main] gate: Baladhuri, p. 174.

  he offered . . . the right to despoil the corpse: Baladhuri, pp. 250–1.

  al-Mughirah . . . and are humbled: Baladhuri, p. 253. The Qur’anic quotation is Qur’an, 9:29.

  ‘40,000 head’ of slaves . . . region of Sistan: Baladhuri, p. 382.

  We have cooled . . . Dahir’s head: Baladhuri, p. 423.

  Al-Hajjaj . . . dissuaded Sawad peasants from converting: EI2 VII, p. 971.

  he even expelled . . . the poll-tax of the unbeliever: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 355.

  Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz . . . in post-conquest Sind: Baladhuri, pp. 425–6.

  among the Berbers of North Africa: Baladhuri, pp. 228–9.

  by AD 750 . . . embraced Islam: Karsh, p. 43.

  they were not just a fath . . . of those lands: Jabiri, p. 141.

  three daughters . . . captured Persian women: Ibn Khallikan II, pp. 127–8.

  such offspring had been . . . socially inferior: Lewis, ‘Crows’, p. 89.


  the chaste Arabic . . . interloping mother-tongue: Jahiz, part 1, pp. 10–11.

  When Umar saw . . . keep yourselves rough: Jahiz, part 3, p. 9.

  an affiliate of an Arab tribe: EI2 X, p. 846.

  Arabs . . . between ten and twenty mawla followers: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 208.

  a group of Shaybani . . . refused to mix: Jahiz, part 3, p. 24.

  the tribes disappeared: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 100.

  the arrant faking . . . al-Muktafi: Ibn Khallikan III, pp. 315–16.

  the poet Abu Nuwas . . . in the country: Abu Nuwas, pp. 524 and 571.

  the grammarian . . . to avoid seeing him: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 397.

  al-Farra’ himself was of . . . Daylamite origin: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 290.

  the Persian . . . king of al-Hirah: p. 91, above.

  The term for the opposite union is iqraf: e.g. Ibn Khallikan II, p. 47.

  loathsome infection: Hava, s.v. qrf.

  the uncircumcised ones will penetrate us!: Baladhuri, p. 334.

  And Allah has made . . . broad roads: Qur’an, 71:19–20.

  hijrah was keenly . . . apostasy: p. 148, above.

  Muhammad had cursed . . . after hijrah: Crone, p. 356.

  You moved . . . to your new dar hijrah, ‘migratory home’: Crone, p. 363.

  Arabs already there . . . to settled areas: Baladhuri, p. 151.

  Our thickets . . . the earth beneath us is gold: Jahiz, part 1, p. 205.

  It was de rigueur to teach . . . horsemanship: Jahiz, part 1, p. 239.

  you and they . . . to die in sweaty Sind: Ibn Khallikan III, pp. 249–50.

  in 671, 50,000 men were moved . . . to Merv: Kennedy, p. 237.

  Bernard Lewis . . . relied on ‘desert-power’: Lewis, Arabs in History, p. 54.

  the developed Islamic usage . . . not ‘severance’, but ‘town’: cf. Crone, p. 375; p. 53, above.

  misr is an ancient Semitic . . . ‘border(-town)’ there: cf. EI2, s.v. Miṣr.

  its public buildings . . . on extended raids: Baladhuri, pp. 337–8.

  later in the seventh century . . . they were expelled: Baladhuri, pp. 362–5.

  al-Basrah had a population . . . 120,000 dependants: Baladhuri, pp. 340–1.

  captives . . . built a mosque ‘in the Kabul style’: Baladhuri, p. 384.

  our teak and ivory . . . and our rolling river: Jahiz, part 1, p. 150.

  when famine struck . . . in the steppelands: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 249.

  ordered the commanders . . . stay in their midst: Baladhuri, p. 113.

 

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