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THE ARABS IN ANTIQUITY The question of ethnicity continues to be fundamental as we progress into the new mil lennium. Modem claims of ethnic identities are often supported with historical arguments, and the modem Arab nationalist movements in the Middle East are no exception: they have from the beginning leaned heavily on history to support their cause. The Arabs in Antiquity describes the history of the people called Arabs from the ear liest occurrence of the word around 850 BC until the first century of Islam. It studies all the main instances of the word in Akkadian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Ancient and Middle Persian and Epigraphic South Arabian sources during more than 1400 years. The history of the Arabs in antiquity is described from their first appearance at the battle of Qarqar in Syria in 853 BC via their wars with the Assyrian kings, their appear ance in the Bible, their role in the Persian empire and its successor, the Greek empires in the Middle East until the arrival of the Romans. The role of the Arabs in the Nabataean kingdom is thoroughly described as well as their relationship to the Roman emperors. Special attention is paid to their role in ancient South Arabia and the descrip tion of them in Jewish literature, both rabbinical and non-rabbinical. An analysis of the context and nature of the sources presents a new interpretation of the identity of the ancient Arabs as they relate to the Arabs of the first Islamic century. Rather than as an ethnic group, they appear as a community worshipping certain gods. They are charac terized by being subject to certain taboos, such as prohibition from wine-drinking, and their intimate connection with the camel is another special feature. The Arabs of antiq uity thus resemble the early Islamic Arabs more than is usually assumed, being united by common bonds of religious ideology and law. Jan Retso gained his PhD from Goteborg University in 1983 and was appointed Professor of Arabic there in 1986. His main field of work is Arabic and Semitic lin guistics, especially comparative and diachronic studies, in which he has published two monographs and a series of articles. In addition, he has published several articles on the history of pre-Islamic Arabia and the ancient Near East. THE ARABS IN ANTIQUITY Their history from the Assyrians to the Umayyads Jan Retso I~ ~~~!~~n~~~~urzon LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2003 by RoutledgeCurzon 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutiedgeCurzon 270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016 Transferred to Digital Printing 2005 RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2003 Jan Retsii Typeset in Times by MRules All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library ofC ongress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-7007-1679-3 CONTENTS Preface xi Maps xiv-xviii Prolegomena 1 Which Arabs? 1 Arabs and bedouin: present-day evidence 1 Method of investigation 7 Notes 9 PART I The remembered origins 11 1 Arabs in early Islam 13 Sources 13 General historical background 17 The view ofa medieval Muslim sociologist: Ibn Khaldun 18 The view ofa medieval Muslim belletrist: al-Ga/;lil. 21 Notes 22 2 Arabs as a people 24 f arab and f agam 24 farab as a nation of tribes 28 The 'real' farab 30 The original fariba peoples 34 The language of the f arab 40 The land of the farab and their villages 48 Excursus: the language ofQuraysh 51 Notes 53 3 The Arabs as a section of society 63 farab and Muslim 63 f arab and mawla 66 f arab and muhagirun 69 farab, Quraysh and the early Muslims 71 farab, 'lan~ar and their successors 74 The farab among the tribesmen 76 Notes 79 v CONTENTS 4 The neglected cousins 82 The'lafrlib 82 The 'lafrlib in the Qur'llin 87 Notes 93 5 Arabs in the eyes of outsiders 96 Arabs and Muslims in non-Arabic sources from the first century AH 96 Arabs in the early Arabo-Islamic tradition: attempt at a summary 99 Notes 101 PART II The forgotten origins 103 6 The problem of the earliest Arabs 105 Introduction 105 Pre-Islamic Arabs in modem scholarship: a shorl survey 105 Excursus: nomadism in the Middle East 113 Notes 116 7 Arabs in cuneiform sources 119 Syria at the beginning of the first millennium Be: sources 119 Political outline 121 The road to Qarqar 124 Excursus: the sons of Qe.turah 128 Tiglath Pileser III 129 Excursus: the earliest Arabs in the Old Testament 136 Sargon II 147 Sennacherib 153 Esarhaddon 158 Assurbanipal: the sources 161 The course ofe vents 166 Excursus: the people ofA ttar-shamayin 168 Excursus: a shorl historical and redactional survey on the text of the Rassam cylinder 169 The late Judaean kingdom and Arabia 171 Excursus: the Queen of Sheba 173 Nebuchadnezzar II 176 Nabonidus 181 Nabonidus, Cyrus the Great and the Arabs 184 Individual Arabs in the Chaldaean and early Achaemenid periods 189 Arabs down to the rise of the Achaemenids: attempt at a summary 191 Notes 193 8 The Old Testament and Arabia 212 Introduction 212 The P tables 214 The lists ofJ 219 Ishmael and his descendants 220 vi CONTENTS The story about Ishmael 222 Arabs in the Old Testament: a summary 228 Notes 229 9 The age of the Achaemenids 235 Introduction 235 The sources for the period 540-335 Be 235 Cambyses and the Arabs 236 The testimony from the Persians 237 Scylax of Caryanda 240 Hecataeus of Mytilene 240 Hecataeus'successors 242 Herodotus of Halicarnassus 243 Geshem the Arab 250 Greeks and Arabs from the end of the fifth century Be until Alexander 251 Excursus: Arabia in the list ofa rkhonts in Xenophon's Anabasis VII:8 256 Notes 257 10 Alexander the Great and the Arabs 263 Sources 263 The Mediterranean campaign 264 Alexander and the Arabian peninsula 266 The Arabian expeditions 269 Excursus: the location and role of Gerrha 273 Arabs from Cambyses to Alexander: a preliminary synthesis 274 Notes 277 11 The heirs of Alexander 282 Antigonus 282 The events of3 12 Be: Antigonus in Arabia 283 The expedition in 312 Be: analysis 285 Two early Hellenistic authors on Arabia: Euhemerus and Iambulus 290 The Ptolemies and the Arabs 294 The Red Sea expedition of Ptolemy II 295 Arabs in Ptolemaic Egypt 300 Eratosthenesfrom Cyrene 301 The Seleucids and the Arabs 308 Arabs around Palestine in the age of the Maccabees 311 Arabs in Syria in the age of the Maccabees 314 Arabs from Alexander to Demetrius: attempt at a summary 317 Notes 319 12 Between the Greeks and the Romans 329 The Middle East in the second half of the second century Be 329 Sources for the events down to the battle ofA ctium 330 Mesene 332 Osrhoene 333 vii CONTENTS Syria-Palestine until the age ofA lexander Jannaeus 334 Alexander Jannaeus and the Arabs: the course of events according to Josephus 340 Evaluation of the evidence 343 Iigranes the Great 346 The arrival of the Romans 349 Posidonius ofA pamaea 351 Notes 358 13 The Nabataean problem 364 Arabs, Nabataeans and Jews during the Roman conquest: the events 364 The problem: were the Nabataeans Arabs? 366 Nabataeans and Arabs before 65 BC: the literary sources 367 The Nabataeans before 65 BC: the non-literary testimony 368 Arabs and Nabataeans: a first evaluation 369 Arabs and Nabataeans after the Roman conquest: the sources 371 Arabs and Nabataeans after the Roman conquest: Josephus' account 372 The solution: Herod's legacy 373 The Arabo-Nabataean kingdom 375 The king ofA rabs and Nabataeans 377 Excursus: who were the Nabataeans? 378 Notes 383 14 Arabs and Romans until the time of Trajan 392 Arabs and Romans in the Middle East 392 Arabs and the battle of Carrhae 393 Arabs and the Parthian invasion after Carrhae 395 Arabs and the anti-Caesarians 396 When Antony and Cleopatra ruled the East 398 Rome and the Arabs in the reign ofA ugustus 399 Excursus: the expedition ofA elius Gallus to Yemen 402 luba's book on Arabia 403 Excursus: 'the lturaeans, the Arabs' 407 Excursus: Emesa 408 Excursus: the arabarchia 409 Arabs in the time of Claudius 412 Arabs in Adiabene 413 Arabs in the time ofN ero: Corbulo's testimony 414 Arabs in the New Testament 416 Arabs and the Great Jewish Revolt 418 The Periplus Maris Erythraei 421 Arabs in the Middle Eastfrom the end of the Seleucids to Trajan: a summary 422 Notes 423 15 Arabs in the age of the good emperors 432 Sources for the second century AD 432 The reign ofTrajan and its results 433 Claudius Ptolemy 436 viii CONTENTS An anonymous source on Arabs from the second century AD 438 Arabs between Romans and Parthians before the Severian dynasty 439 The Arabs at Edessa 440 The Arabs at Hatra 442 Excursus: farab in the Hatra texts: region or people? 447 Notes 448 16 From the Severians to Constantine the Great 454 Sources for the period from Septimius Severus to Theodosius 454 The course of events from Septimius Severus to Diocletian: general outline 455 Septimius Severus and the Arabs 457 Philippus Arabs 460 The Orient in turmoil: Shiipur I and Palmyra 461 The rise and fall of Palmyra 462 The three empires: interaction around AD 300 466 The king of all Arabs: the text from an-Namlira 467 Historical interpretation of the text 470 The Namlira inscription and the kings of al-lfira: the Arabic tradition 473 Analysis of the story 476 The evidence from contemporary documents 480 Arabs in literary texts from the third century 485 Arabs in the outgoing second century: the testimony of Clement of Alexandria 486 Origen 486 Hippolytus'Diamerismos 487 The Book of the Laws of Countries 490 Uranius' Arabica 491 Glaucus 493 Notes 494 17 The disappearing Arabs 505 The emergence of the Taieni and the Saraceni 505 Eusebius of Caesarea 506 Basil the Great 509 Epiphanius 510 Other testimonies from the early fourth century 511 Thefourth century: Arabs in the waning 512 The time ofJ ulian the Apostate: the testimony ofA mmian Marcellinus 513 Excursus: Ammian's description ofA rabia and Arabs and its background 514 Arabs and Saracens from the end of the fourth century 517 The.tayyafe 520 Arabs versus Saraceni and .tayyaye 520 Notes 521 18 Arabs in Talmudic sources 526 Notes 532 ix

Description:
The history of the Arabs in antiquity from their earliest appearance around 853 BC until the first century of Islam, is described in this book. It traces the mention of people called Arabs in all relevant ancient sources and suggests a new interpretation of their history. It is suggested that the an
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704 Pages·2002·48.9 MB·English
by  Jan Retso
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THE ARABS IN ANTIQUITY The question of ethnicity continues to be fundamental as we progress into the new mil lennium. Modem claims of ethnic identities are often supported with historical arguments, and the modem Arab nationalist movements in the Middle East are no exception: they have from the beginning leaned heavily on history to support their cause. The Arabs in Antiquity describes the history of the people called Arabs from the ear liest occurrence of the word around 850 BC until the first century of Islam. It studies all the main instances of the word in Akkadian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Ancient and Middle Persian and Epigraphic South Arabian sources during more than 1400 years. The history of the Arabs in antiquity is described from their first appearance at the battle of Qarqar in Syria in 853 BC via their wars with the Assyrian kings, their appear ance in the Bible, their role in the Persian empire and its successor, the Greek empires in the Middle East until the arrival of the Romans. The role of the Arabs in the Nabataean kingdom is thoroughly described as well as their relationship to the Roman emperors. Special attention is paid to their role in ancient South Arabia and the descrip tion of them in Jewish literature, both rabbinical and non-rabbinical. An analysis of the context and nature of the sources presents a new interpretation of the identity of the ancient Arabs as they relate to the Arabs of the first Islamic century. Rather than as an ethnic group, they appear as a community worshipping certain gods. They are charac terized by being subject to certain taboos, such as prohibition from wine-drinking, and their intimate connection with the camel is another special feature. The Arabs of antiq uity thus resemble the early Islamic Arabs more than is usually assumed, being united by common bonds of religious ideology and law. Jan Retso gained his PhD from Goteborg University in 1983 and was appointed Professor of Arabic there in 1986. His main field of work is Arabic and Semitic lin guistics, especially comparative and diachronic studies, in which he has published two monographs and a series of articles. In addition, he has published several articles on the history of pre-Islamic Arabia and the ancient Near East. THE ARABS IN ANTIQUITY Their history from the Assyrians to the Umayyads Jan Retso I~ ~~~!~~n~~~~urzon LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2003 by RoutledgeCurzon 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutiedgeCurzon 270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016 Transferred to Digital Printing 2005 RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2003 Jan Retsii Typeset in Times by MRules All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library ofC ongress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-7007-1679-3 CONTENTS Preface xi Maps xiv-xviii Prolegomena 1 Which Arabs? 1 Arabs and bedouin: present-day evidence 1 Method of investigation 7 Notes 9 PART I The remembered origins 11 1 Arabs in early Islam 13 Sources 13 General historical background 17 The view ofa medieval Muslim sociologist: Ibn Khaldun 18 The view ofa medieval Muslim belletrist: al-Ga/;lil. 21 Notes 22 2 Arabs as a people 24 f arab and f agam 24 farab as a nation of tribes 28 The 'real' farab 30 The original fariba peoples 34 The language of the f arab 40 The land of the farab and their villages 48 Excursus: the language ofQuraysh 51 Notes 53 3 The Arabs as a section of society 63 farab and Muslim 63 f arab and mawla 66 f arab and muhagirun 69 farab, Quraysh and the early Muslims 71 farab, 'lan~ar and their successors 74 The farab among the tribesmen 76 Notes 79 v CONTENTS 4 The neglected cousins 82 The'lafrlib 82 The 'lafrlib in the Qur'llin 87 Notes 93 5 Arabs in the eyes of outsiders 96 Arabs and Muslims in non-Arabic sources from the first century AH 96 Arabs in the early Arabo-Islamic tradition: attempt at a summary 99 Notes 101 PART II The forgotten origins 103 6 The problem of the earliest Arabs 105 Introduction 105 Pre-Islamic Arabs in modem scholarship: a shorl survey 105 Excursus: nomadism in the Middle East 113 Notes 116 7 Arabs in cuneiform sources 119 Syria at the beginning of the first millennium Be: sources 119 Political outline 121 The road to Qarqar 124 Excursus: the sons of Qe.turah 128 Tiglath Pileser III 129 Excursus: the earliest Arabs in the Old Testament 136 Sargon II 147 Sennacherib 153 Esarhaddon 158 Assurbanipal: the sources 161 The course ofe vents 166 Excursus: the people ofA ttar-shamayin 168 Excursus: a shorl historical and redactional survey on the text of the Rassam cylinder 169 The late Judaean kingdom and Arabia 171 Excursus: the Queen of Sheba 173 Nebuchadnezzar II 176 Nabonidus 181 Nabonidus, Cyrus the Great and the Arabs 184 Individual Arabs in the Chaldaean and early Achaemenid periods 189 Arabs down to the rise of the Achaemenids: attempt at a summary 191 Notes 193 8 The Old Testament and Arabia 212 Introduction 212 The P tables 214 The lists ofJ 219 Ishmael and his descendants 220 vi CONTENTS The story about Ishmael 222 Arabs in the Old Testament: a summary 228 Notes 229 9 The age of the Achaemenids 235 Introduction 235 The sources for the period 540-335 Be 235 Cambyses and the Arabs 236 The testimony from the Persians 237 Scylax of Caryanda 240 Hecataeus of Mytilene 240 Hecataeus'successors 242 Herodotus of Halicarnassus 243 Geshem the Arab 250 Greeks and Arabs from the end of the fifth century Be until Alexander 251 Excursus: Arabia in the list ofa rkhonts in Xenophon's Anabasis VII:8 256 Notes 257 10 Alexander the Great and the Arabs 263 Sources 263 The Mediterranean campaign 264 Alexander and the Arabian peninsula 266 The Arabian expeditions 269 Excursus: the location and role of Gerrha 273 Arabs from Cambyses to Alexander: a preliminary synthesis 274 Notes 277 11 The heirs of Alexander 282 Antigonus 282 The events of3 12 Be: Antigonus in Arabia 283 The expedition in 312 Be: analysis 285 Two early Hellenistic authors on Arabia: Euhemerus and Iambulus 290 The Ptolemies and the Arabs 294 The Red Sea expedition of Ptolemy II 295 Arabs in Ptolemaic Egypt 300 Eratosthenesfrom Cyrene 301 The Seleucids and the Arabs 308 Arabs around Palestine in the age of the Maccabees 311 Arabs in Syria in the age of the Maccabees 314 Arabs from Alexander to Demetrius: attempt at a summary 317 Notes 319 12 Between the Greeks and the Romans 329 The Middle East in the second half of the second century Be 329 Sources for the events down to the battle ofA ctium 330 Mesene 332 Osrhoene 333 vii CONTENTS Syria-Palestine until the age ofA lexander Jannaeus 334 Alexander Jannaeus and the Arabs: the course of events according to Josephus 340 Evaluation of the evidence 343 Iigranes the Great 346 The arrival of the Romans 349 Posidonius ofA pamaea 351 Notes 358 13 The Nabataean problem 364 Arabs, Nabataeans and Jews during the Roman conquest: the events 364 The problem: were the Nabataeans Arabs? 366 Nabataeans and Arabs before 65 BC: the literary sources 367 The Nabataeans before 65 BC: the non-literary testimony 368 Arabs and Nabataeans: a first evaluation 369 Arabs and Nabataeans after the Roman conquest: the sources 371 Arabs and Nabataeans after the Roman conquest: Josephus' account 372 The solution: Herod's legacy 373 The Arabo-Nabataean kingdom 375 The king ofA rabs and Nabataeans 377 Excursus: who were the Nabataeans? 378 Notes 383 14 Arabs and Romans until the time of Trajan 392 Arabs and Romans in the Middle East 392 Arabs and the battle of Carrhae 393 Arabs and the Parthian invasion after Carrhae 395 Arabs and the anti-Caesarians 396 When Antony and Cleopatra ruled the East 398 Rome and the Arabs in the reign ofA ugustus 399 Excursus: the expedition ofA elius Gallus to Yemen 402 luba's book on Arabia 403 Excursus: 'the lturaeans, the Arabs' 407 Excursus: Emesa 408 Excursus: the arabarchia 409 Arabs in the time of Claudius 412 Arabs in Adiabene 413 Arabs in the time ofN ero: Corbulo's testimony 414 Arabs in the New Testament 416 Arabs and the Great Jewish Revolt 418 The Periplus Maris Erythraei 421 Arabs in the Middle Eastfrom the end of the Seleucids to Trajan: a summary 422 Notes 423 15 Arabs in the age of the good emperors 432 Sources for the second century AD 432 The reign ofTrajan and its results 433 Claudius Ptolemy 436 viii CONTENTS An anonymous source on Arabs from the second century AD 438 Arabs between Romans and Parthians before the Severian dynasty 439 The Arabs at Edessa 440 The Arabs at Hatra 442 Excursus: farab in the Hatra texts: region or people? 447 Notes 448 16 From the Severians to Constantine the Great 454 Sources for the period from Septimius Severus to Theodosius 454 The course of events from Septimius Severus to Diocletian: general outline 455 Septimius Severus and the Arabs 457 Philippus Arabs 460 The Orient in turmoil: Shiipur I and Palmyra 461 The rise and fall of Palmyra 462 The three empires: interaction around AD 300 466 The king of all Arabs: the text from an-Namlira 467 Historical interpretation of the text 470 The Namlira inscription and the kings of al-lfira: the Arabic tradition 473 Analysis of the story 476 The evidence from contemporary documents 480 Arabs in literary texts from the third century 485 Arabs in the outgoing second century: the testimony of Clement of Alexandria 486 Origen 486 Hippolytus'Diamerismos 487 The Book of the Laws of Countries 490 Uranius' Arabica 491 Glaucus 493 Notes 494 17 The disappearing Arabs 505 The emergence of the Taieni and the Saraceni 505 Eusebius of Caesarea 506 Basil the Great 509 Epiphanius 510 Other testimonies from the early fourth century 511 Thefourth century: Arabs in the waning 512 The time ofJ ulian the Apostate: the testimony ofA mmian Marcellinus 513 Excursus: Ammian's description ofA rabia and Arabs and its background 514 Arabs and Saracens from the end of the fourth century 517 The.tayyafe 520 Arabs versus Saraceni and .tayyaye 520 Notes 521 18 Arabs in Talmudic sources 526 Notes 532 ix

Description:
The history of the Arabs in antiquity from their earliest appearance around 853 BC until the first century of Islam, is described in this book. It traces the mention of people called Arabs in all relevant ancient sources and suggests a new interpretation of their history. It is suggested that the an
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