The Historians' History of the World 08

[3] Die alte Geographie Arabiens, p. 293. Berne, 1875.

[4] Cf. S. A. Barton. A Sketch of Semitic Origins (New York, 1902), Ch. 1, where the various opinions of the subject are compared.

[5] Var. Σαρακηνοί as a tribe.

[6] Cureton, Spicilegium Syriacum, 16 ult.

[7] The powerful Shammar of the present day, some who live in Nejd, the ancient home of the tribe, and some in the Mesopotamian desert, belong to the Tai.

[8] That whole peoples should be called after certain frontier tribes by neighbouring nations is not altogether an unusual phenomenon, as everybody knows.

[9] These forms have to a certain extent survived to our own day, as the name of an Iranian people in Transirania and elsewhere, who accepted the Arab religion earlier than their neighbours and were consequently called “Arabs.” In the same way later Syrians often call all Moslems “Taits.”

[10] Acta Martyr. ed. St. Ev. Assemani, 2, 345, 1.

[11] Migne, Patrol. græca, 79, LXXIX, 611 seqq.

[12] The proper translation of εὐδαὶμων in this connection. The usual felix or the Horatian beatus (Carm. 1, 29, 1) is like our “happy,” too strong.

[13] The name was extended to the whole peninsula, a country extremely poor as a whole. Ἀραβία ἔρημος, Arabia Deserta, stood only for the Syrian desert, and the Arab country to the southwest, with Petra as its capital, is Ἀραβία Πετραία, Arabia Petræa, as in Ptolemy, and elsewhere.

[14] Genesis xxxvii, 25.

[15] Reste arabischen Heidenthums, II, 93.

[16] For a lively description of it see Wellhausen, Reste, II, 89 seqq.

[17] See, for example, Joshua xi, 20; 1 Samuel xv, 33.

[18] S. Nilus in Migne, Patrol. græca, 79, lxxix, 611 seqq.

[19] The translation of salat by “prayer” gives rise to misunderstandings. It is a religious exercise performed according to strict rule, with set formulæ and ceremonies (bending of the body, prostration, etc.). Voluntary prayer is du’a.

[20] The historical works of this admirable scholar deserve the strongest recommendation, particularly his Culturgeschichte des Orients unter den Chalifen, 2 vols. Vienna, 1875-1877.

[21] Babylonia (Arab Irak) should not be included, as is often done, in the term Mesopotamia, which last should be restricted to the very different region to the north, known in Arabic as Jezira.

[22] The portions of northern Africa west of Egypt and the Moslem parts of western Europe (Spain).

[23] “All men are become Arabs” was said in the year 728 or 729, in reference to an Iranian stock converted to Islam. Those who thus spoke would have used the word Tadjik for Arab (vide supra, p. 4); the Arabic chronicle restores Arab.

[24] Goldziher has rendered a most important service by proving how slight the importance of this form is on purely historic grounds, and how everything that passed as valid in certain circles was ascribed without more ado to the prophet himself. See particularly Part II of his Muhammedanische Studien (Halle, 1890).

[25] But “the most precious heritage in art, poetry, and history, which the Greek spirit has bequeathed to us was never accessible to Orientals.” (T. J. de Boer, Geschichte der philosophie in Islam, Stuttgart 1901, p. 26.)

[26] The Arabs deserve great credit for the mere fact that they adopted that brilliant invention, the Hindu numerical system, and passed it on to the Europeans. It is singular that the latter continued so frequently to employ the extremely inconvenient Roman numerals.

[27] Cf. Snoucke-Hurgronge, Mekka (two parts, The Hague, 1888 and 1889).

[28] Cf. de Goeje, Mem. sur les Carmathes de Bahraïn et les Fatimides (Leide, 1886). In this connection we may observe that in our own days the Dutch, with de Goeje at their head, have rendered far greater services in the elucidation of the history and geography of the Arabs than the schools of any of the great nations.

HISTORY IN OUTLINE OF PARTHIANS, SASSANIDS, AND ARABS