Arabs
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Another glass! . . . Harem warder of stars: quoted in Irwin, p. 145.
he lasted less than . . . partisans of his nephew: EI2, s.v. Ibn al-Muctazz.
Ibn al-Mu’tazz had himself . . . the caliphate’s decadence: Irwin, p. 143.
Let’s chuck this age in . . . to the fiery pit: Mas’udi IV, p. 298.
Our alien amir . . . took off, alas!: Mas’udi IV, p. 299.
al-Radi, faded away of dropsy at the age of thirty-one: EI2, s.v. al-Rāḍī.
he was blinded . . . to drown his screams: Mas’udi IV, pp. 342–3.
‘That,’ said his uncle . . . Now we need a third: Mas’udi IV, p. 343.
al-Mustakfi was dethroned . . . band of Iranian hillmen: Mas’udi IV, p. 371.
their father, Buwayh . . . buried treasure: Ibn Khallikan II, pp. 190–1.
serving in the armies . . . greater power themselves: EI2, s.v. Buwayhids.
the Hamdanids . . . generally pro-Shi’ah: EI2, s.v. Ḥamdānids.
‘Al-Muti’ . . . with no power to command or forbid: Mas’udi IV, pp. 371–2.
Mu’izz al-Dawlah the Daylamite spoke no Arabic: Karsh, p. 64.
an ‘Iranian intermezzo’: Minorsky quoted in EI2, s.v. Buwayhids.
Adud al-Dawlah . . . verses in praise of wine: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 264.
Tughril . . . could only speak to the caliph via an interpreter: Hitti, p. 474.
Tughril . . . marriage with the caliph’s daughter: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 34.
Alp Arslan . . . after his uncle’s death: EI2, s.v. Alp Arslān.
the first Turk to cross the Euphrates: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 36.
ruled an empire . . . emperor of the world: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 143.
nothing but his title: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 145.
the killing in 1138 . . . by Ghiyath al-Din: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 102.
to crown Saljuq princes . . . ceremonial armlets: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 38.
The non-Arab rulers . . . destruction of Arabness: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 166.
Arabs turned in on themselves: Ibn Khaldun, Rihlah, p. 394.
I wish . . . peace and blessings be upon him: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 255.
The best marksmen . . . all the wealth in the world: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 145.
The madrasah’s origins . . . further than Nizam al-Mulk: Albert Hourani, p. 163.
the eponymous Nizamiyyah . . . basis of all learning: cf. Hitti, p. 410.
later madrasahs … including Sufism: Albert Hourani, p. 163.
some aspects . . . imitated from the madrasah: Hitti, p. 410.
You’ve built fine colleges . . . from perdition: Maqrizi II, p. 375.
The university student . . . late Abbasid madrasah: Rabin, ‘Beginnings’, p. 19.
madrasahs . . . continuity of the old Arab empire: cf. Hodgson II, p. 48.
madrasahs were pro-Sunni, anti-Shi’ah: cf. EI2 I, p. 20.
the former in the southern . . . other non-Arabs: Ibn Khaldun, Rihlah, p. 386.
al-Muttaqi . . . his Turkish protectors/persecutors: Mas’udi IV, p. 340.
Sayf al-Dawlah . . . raids into Byzantine territory: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 193.
To petticoats . . . multicoloured underlapping train: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 191.
the meeting-place of writers . . . their palace gates: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 191.
with an amount of cash . . . about his guests: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 454.
descendants of Arab tribesmen . . . Persian-speakers: cf. p. 250, above.
a Persian version of the Qur’an: Kennedy, pp. 261–2.
Ya’qub . . . made of silver: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 402.
he took an army deep into . . . Persia and Iraq: Mas’udi IV, pp. 200–2.
the lieutenant-governor . . . from the caliph: Hitti, pp. 452–3.
Ahmad ibn Tulun’s father . . . on Iraqi home ground: Mas’udi IV, pp. 210–13.
the Abbasids . . . in the middle of things: cf. p. 263, above.
the caliph reasserted himself over Egypt and Syria: Hitti, p. 455.
a common name . . . because camphor is so white: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 449.
He had been bought for . . . eighteen dinars: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 283.
You think the earth of Egypt . . . made it belly-dance: Ibn Khallikan, p. 285.
A well-hung . . . with no balls?: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 284.
The sun of Egypt . . . made it all Arab: quoted in Suleiman, p. 80.
His immovability . . . a wry nickname, ‘the Black Stone’: EI2, s.v. Kāfūr.
their ancestor . . . his actual father was a Jew: Maqrizi I, pp. 348–9.
When he was securely . . . ‘We hear and obey!’: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 40.
the full caliphal look . . . with jewelled turban: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 187.
variously into books . . . and downright sadism: Ibn Khallikan, s.v. individual Fatimid caliphs.
an Armenian . . . Sayf al-Islam, ‘the Sword of Islam’: EI2, s.v. Fāṭimids.
they had roamed . . . points further west: EI2, s.v. Hilāl; Kennedy, p. 205.
still almost entirely Berber . . . Arab-founded towns: cf. Owens, ‘Dialect History’, p. 732.
The Arabs outnumbered . . . most of their lands: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, pp. 29–30.
the mass migrations numbered a . . . million: cf. Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 96.
the Berber languages . . . highland areas: Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 96.
Formerly, the whole region . . . in ruin: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 119.
the traveller . . . death at the hands of malefactors: al-Abdari quoted in Mackintosh-Smith, Tangerine, p. 52.
the Mediterranean . . . thus cursed by Allah: Maqdisi, p. 28.
Ibn Khaldun . . . his wife and five daughters were drowned: Ibn Khaldun, Rihlah, p. 295 and n. 1364.
Al-Ma’qil . . . the great Arabian grouping called Madhhij: EI2, s.v. al-Macqil.
Sir: You know who we are . . . Greetings: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 185.
in 929 Abd al-Rahman III . . . hallowed office: EI2, s.v. cAbd al-RaḤmān III.
in the shape of a bird . . . its finest part is its tail: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 162.
Tariq ibn Ziyad’s largely Berber incursion: cf. p. 254, above.
followed by a wave of Arab settlers: Kennedy, pp. 309–10.
al-Azd, al-Aws . . . Arabic letters of one such list: Maqqari VIII, pp. 231–5.
His distant ancestor . . . shifted to North Africa: Ibn Khaldun, Rihlah, pp. 50–8.
Abd al-Rahman II . . . at the conservatoire in Medina: EI2 IV, p. 822.
al-Qali . . . the old Arabian homeland: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 122, III, p. 522.
the caliph of Cordova commissioned . . . two capitals: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 146.
al-Hakam, ordered . . . De materia medica: Mathews, p. 91.
he had agents . . . illuminators were to be seen: Jabiri, p. 302.
Al-Hakam’s library . . . contained 400,000 volumes: EI2 VI, p. 198.
Cordova, a city with . . . seventy libraries: Atiyah, p. 71.
competition . . . levels of literary patronage: cf. Ibn Khallikan II, p. 158.
every individual . . . follow accepted authority: Jabiri, p. 309.
Ibn Rushd . . . into the European Renaissance: Jabiri, pp. 322–3 and 344.
O Palm . . . have my old friends forgot: Nicholson, p. 418.
letters addressed . . . at Medina: e.g. Ibn Khaldun, Rihlah, p. 286.
King Offa’s Arabic coinage: pp. 263–4, above.
In Nomine Domini: Non Deus Nisi Deus Solus: Kennedy, pp. 316–17.
intoxicated . . . with Arab eloquence: Hitti, pp. 515–16.
studying alongside Muslims in . . . Cordova: Hitti, pp. 530–1.
an Arabic Bible for the Christian ‘Mozarab’ population: Lewis, Arabs in History, 134.
musta’rib . . . of that other peninsula, Arabia: cf. p. 30, above.
about 4,000 . . . Arabic loan words in Spanish: Versteegh, Arabic Language, p. 228.
> the Abbasid caliph al-Qa’im . . . ibn Qabban: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 105.
the Arab Staatsnation . . . to being a Kulturnation: Grunebaum, p. 8.
culture . . . when they have lost all else: quoted in Jabiri, p. 38. The original goes, ‘La culture, c’est ce qui demeure dans l’homme lorsqu’il a tout oublié.’
Arabs had . . . fallen: cf. p. 307, above.
nations and fictional characters . . . run out of steam: Rushdie, p. 391.
poems were engraved . . . sleeves of robes: e.g. Ibn Khallikan I, pp. 119 and 482–3.
Such lines of descent . . . back 1,500 years: e.g. the twentieth-century author’s own line in Kurdi, pp. 211–16.
al-Sahib ibn Abbad . . . library of manuscripts: p. 278, above.
Is this the hand of Qabus . . . tawus [a peacock]?: Ibn Khallikan II, p. 275.
extraordinary momentum . . . buildings of the world: Byron, pp. 198–9.
Arab historians call him ‘the last real caliph’: Hitti, pp. 469–70.
CHAPTER 11 THE GENIUS IN THE BOTTLE
low humour, sharp satire and touches of smut: cf. EI2, s.v. Khayāl al-Ẓill.
al-Radi was ‘the last real caliph’: cf. p. 347, above.
Such as I / live when we die . . . flatulence: Abu ’l-Fida’, Mukhtasar part 4, p. 132. The translation, somewhat loose but very much in the spirit of the original, is from Mackintosh-Smith, Thousand Columns, p. 53.
he and his family . . . had to sell their clothes: Ibn Hajar II, p. 142.
Crusaders shared . . . baronial wars: Atiyah, p. 44.
against the pagans . . . among the Christians: Fulcher of Chartres quoted in Karsh, p. 73.
the navel of the world . . . of their treasures: Fulcher of Chartres quoted in Karsh, pp. 73–4.
European chroniclers . . . even cannibalism: Maalouf, pp. 39–40.
The slaughter of Muslims . . . 360 years earlier: Maalouf, pp. 50–1.
The sultans were at loggerheads . . . the country: Ibn al-Athir quoted in Karsh, p. 77.
in 1111, another plea arrived . . . to expel them: Maalouf, p. 83.
the Saljuq sultan mobilized . . . refused to join it: Karsh, p. 77.
The men of war . . . went to the winner: Ibn Jubayr, pp. 260–1.
in expiation . . . to drink alcohol: Maqqari II, pp. 385–6.
reciprocal alms-giving: Ibn Jubayr, p. 259.
al-Harawi . . . his Muslim pilgrim-guide: Harawi, p. 31.
They have the qualities . . . in carrying loads: Usamah, p. 132.
a few of the older Frankish hands . . . polish: Usamah, pp. 134 and 140.
would address me as ‘my brother’ . . . do not disobey her: Usamah, p. 132; translation in Mackintosh-Smith, ‘Interpreter of Treasures: Encounters’, p. 38.
Benedict . . . or perhaps ‘of the Ape’: Usamah, pp. 40 and 41.
the Frankish lord of al-Shaqif . . . of Muhammad: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 506.
Dikiz (de Guise), Shanbur (Chambord): Maalouf, p. 276.
Franjieh . . . and Bardawil (Baldwin): Hitti, p. 670.
the Abbadid mini-dynasty . . . of al-Hirah: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 12.
The Franks . . . busy fighting each other: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 16.
It is better . . . swine of the Franks: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 469.
according to a German . . . Muslim subjects in line: Suchem, p. 8.
his young grandson . . . keep the family alive: Ibn Khallikan III, pp. 20–1.
the ancient Lakhmid ruler . . . ‘king of all the Arabs’: pp. 67–8, above.
Arab rule dwindled . . . faded away: Ibn Khaldun, Rihlah, p. 56.
that Arab fall in the east: cf. p. 307, above.
the daughter of al-Andalus: Ibn Jubayr, p. 297.
The meadow-land . . . for all the rest’s a wilderness: Maqqari I, p. 210.
Yusuf ibn Tashfin . . . ‘al-Himyari’ in the traditional histories: Norris, p. 35.
Ibn Khaldun would dismiss the claims: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, pp. 14–15.
the myth . . . is still alive: e.g. in MuḤammad Ḥusayn al-FaraḤ, cUrūbat al-barbar, San’a, 2004.
Muhammad ibn Tumart forged . . . the Prophet: cf. EI2 III, p. 1064.
Yusuf ibn Abd al-Mu’min . . . minds of the day: Ibn Khallikan III, pp. 477–9.
Ah, the wonders of the world . . . Kumyah: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 480; the Qur’anic quotation is Qur’an, 36:78.
there were attempts . . . dismissed them: Ibn Khallikan III, pp. 481–2.
The great commander . . . quote poetry: Ibn Khallikan III, pp. 507 and 513.
his younger brother composed . . . Arabic verses: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 152.
Saladin exhumed . . . for reburial in Medina: Ibn Khallikan I, pp. 137–8.
corpses . . . Meccan rites before burial: e.g. Ibn Khallikan I, p. 180.
the Egyptians had fought . . . home town, Medina: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 211.
Turanshah . . . punishing posting: Ibn Khallikan I, p. 160.
Another Ayyubid . . . lost his mind: Ibn Khallikan I, pp. 436–7.
turned in on themselves: p. 328, above.
England’s Black Prince . . . on his bed-curtains: Tuchman, p. 294.
Boccaccio embroidered . . . in the Decameron: Boccaccio, Decameron, Oxford University Press, 1993, pp. 652–68.
He has the longest entry . . . Arab origin: Ibn Khallikan III, pp. 481–519.
Spanish uses . . . 4,000 Arabic loan words: p. 344, above.
Sicilian dialect . . . terms used by farmers: Carmichael, p. 256.
Piazza Ballarò . . . Indian monarch, Balhara: Yule I, p. 241. ‘Balhara’ itself is from a Prakrit title meaning ‘well-beloved king’.
military and associated innovations . . . dyestuffs: Hitti, pp. 663–8.
English . . . 2,000 Arabic-origin words: Cannon, passim.
a cheque . . . a quarter of Baghdad: the examples are from Cannon. One or two are disputed by the Oxford English Dictionary.
up the Amazon . . . mamalucos (mamluks, slaves): cf. Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, Words in Air, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York, 2008, p. 317. In the French Caribbean colonies in the eighteenth century, a mamélouc was specifically a person with one black great-great-grandparent. Patrick Leigh Fermor, The Traveller’s Tree, Penguin, London, 1984, p. 243.
Chile’s Robinson Crusoe Island . . . an aldea: cf. Gavin Young, Slow Boats Home, Penguin, London, 1986, pp. 322–4.
Alfonso VI . . . called himself ‘King of the Two Faiths’: Atiyah, p. 66.
a scholar of high lineage . . . with great favour: Ibn al-Khatib III, p. 48.
their students were known as arabizantes: Versteegh, Arabic Language, pp. 1–2.
We [Italians] . . . extinguished genius of Italy!: quoted in Kilito, p. 2.
he would refuse . . . medications with Arabic names: Kilito, p. 38.
the old Graeco-Italian wind rose . . . Souróko for the south-east wind: Patrick Leigh Fermor, Mani, Penguin, London, 1984, pp. 275–6.
The Island of Anqiltarrah . . . It always rains there: Idrisi II, p. 944.
Hastinkash (Hastings) . . . Aghrimas (Grimsby): Idrisi II, p. 880.
Rujar al-Mu’tazz bi ’llah . . . [the Pope] of Rome: Idrisi I, pp. 3–4. To pick a nit, he was in fact the Strengthener of the Antipope Anacletus II.
William II . . . including his head chef: Ibn Jubayr, pp. 297–300.
lofty palaces . . . from such temptation: Ibn Jubayr, p. 298.
Of this ancient city . . . its famous name: Ibn Jubayr, pp. 193–4.
polymaths like the Syrian Ibn Wasil: Abu ’l-Fida’, Mukhtasar, part 4, pp. 38–9.
poets like the Egyptian Ibn al-Qalaqis: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 310.
it is as if they do not believe . . . God’s earth: Ibn Jubayr, pp. 193–4.
a young man . . . to go about incognito: Ibn Jubayr, pp. 203–4.
Fi ’l-harakah barakah . . . pain can lead to gain: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 270.
that made me forget home . . . greediest glutton: Ibn Khallikan III, p.
270.
spent the last part . . . outside Aleppo: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 268.
he longed to translate himself . . . never took root: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 273.
the greatest calamity of all: Abu ’l-Fida’, Mukhtasar, part 3, p. 122.
Khwarizm Shah . . . let the Mongols in: Baghdadi, pp. 126–7.
al-Nasir . . . Khwarizmian invasion of Iraq: Abu ’l-Fida’, Mukhtasar, part 3, p. 136.
the Khwarizmian generals . . . let them in: Abu ’l-Fida’, Mukhtasar, part 3, p. 128.
The news of the Tatars . . . forget all histories: Baghdadi, p. 136.
Probably not until the end . . . seen again: quoted in Maalouf, p. 235.
that whitens the hair . . . of the godless Tatars: Ibn Khallikan III, p. 271.
The same traveller . . . raids by the Khafajah tribe: Ibn Jubayr, p. 187.
Baghdadi townsfolk . . . battling each other: Serjeant, South Arabian Hunt, pp. 23–5.
the vizier . . . raid on a Shi’i town: Abu ’l-Fida’, Mukhtasar, part 3, pp. 193–4.
The fate of al-Musta’sim . . . kicked to death: Abu ’l-Fida’, Mukhtasar, part 3, p. 194.
is said to have made complete forecasts . . . into the Tigris: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, p. 261. It is known (Dunlop, p. 178) that al-Kindi predicted a slightly later date for the destruction – AH 693/AD 1293. His margin of error is thus a creditable 7 per cent.
Only in war . . . divination too will perish then: Osip Mandelstam, ‘Tristia’, 1922, translated by C.M. Bowra.
tribal Arabs . . . raid into the settled heartland of Iraq: Carmichael, p. 246.
[There were] Ad and Thamud . . . desert origins: Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, pp. 121–2.
Al-Radi . . . the last to preach at Friday prayers: p. 347, above.
the imams descended from . . . Quraysh: p. 363, above.
Abu Sufyan . . . discipline never seen among Arabs: p. 2, above.
masters . . . fending off the tyrannous and aggressive: Maqrizi II, p. 214.
al-Nasir . . . a great-grandson reigned after him: cf. Hitti, p. 673.
boundless in multitude . . . scarce contain them: Ibn Battutah I, p. 41.
on a rock between two lions: p. 69, above.
he went about playing . . . to the Mamluk fold: Ibn Hajar, s.v. Muhannā.
Fayyad . . . badly behaved: Ibn Hajar, s.v. Fayyāḍ.
they adopted Persian . . . cultural first language: cf. Chejne, p. 81.
Arabic was further diminished: cf. Nicholson, pp. 446–7.