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, one of the three most famous ayyām [ q.v.], battle-days of the Arabs in pre-Islamic times, the other two being the First Day of al-Kulāb and D̲h̲ū Ḳār [ q.v.]. The yawm is variously dated to around A.D. 550 or 570. The two main contestants in this yawm were the tribes of Tamīm and ʿĀmir, in which ʿĀmir emerged victorious over Tamīm. The chief instigator of the yawm was the Tamīmī chief Laḳīṭ b. Zurāra, who wanted to avenge the ¶ death of his brother Maʿbad at the hand of ʿĀmir after he had been captured at the yawm of Raḥraḥān during the preceding year. Laḳīṭ was able …

, one of the Lak̲h̲mid kings of Ḥīra, who reigned ca. 575-580, being the third and last son of al-Mund̲h̲ir III ( ca. 505-54) to rule Ḥīra after his elder brothers, ʿArnr b. Hind (554-69) and Ḳābūs ( 569-ca. 574). His accession to the throne of Ḥīra [ q.v.] was not smooth. After the death of his brother Ḳābūs, there was an interregnum during which a Persian, Suhrāb, ruled Ḥīra for a year. There was opposition to his accession on the part of the population of Ḥīra because of his violence and possibly because of his heathenism. Finally, it was Zayd b. Ḥammād, the father of the poet ʿAdī b. Zayd [ q.v.] who …

, an old Arabian tribe that flourished in ancient times but had disappeared from the ethnographic map of Arabia before the rise of Islam. References to it in the non-Arabic sources from the Assyrian inscription of Sargon II in 715 B.C. to the Geography of Ptolemy (A.D. 136-65) attest both its antiquity and its Ḥid̲j̲āzī location; otherwise they are not informative. But a bilingual Greek-Aramaic inscription of the 2nd century, found in Ruwāfa in the northern Ḥid̲j̲āz, indicates that the tribe had entered the Roman cultural and political orbit and had intimate connections with Rome: inter a…

, a pre-Islamic Arab dynasty of ʿIrāḳ that made al-Ḥīra [ q.v.] its capital and ruled it for some three centuries from ca. 300 A.D. to ca. 600 A.D. Strictly speaking, the dynasty should be called the Naṣrids after their eponym, Naṣr, Lak̲h̲m [ q.v.] being the tribe to which they belonged. As semi-independent kings and as clients of the Sāsānids, the Lak̲h̲mids were the dominant force in the political, military, and cultural history of the Arabs during these three centuries before the rise of Islam. 1. History. The founder of the dynasty, whose floruit may be assigned to the last quarter of the ¶ 3…

, the last Lak̲h̲mid king of Ḥīra [ q.v.] and vassal of Sāsānid Persia. He was the son of al-Mund̲h̲ir IV [ q.v.] and Salmā, the daughter of a Jewish goldsmith from Fadak. In the annals of the Lak̲h̲mids [ q.v.], his reign ( ca. A.D. 580-602) was the most memorable after that of his grandfather, al-Mund̲h̲ir III (d. 554). His accession to the throne of Ḥīra he owed to ʿAdī b. Zayd [ q.v.], the famous Christian poet and statesman of Ḥīra, and the Sāsānid Hormuzd celebrated that accession with an especially splendid crown. Al-Nuʿmān was an assertive and strong ruler, and his reign witnessed…

a division of the great tribal group al-Azd who migrated from South Arabia, wandered in the Peninsula, and finally settled within the Roman limes ca. A.D. 490, having accepted Christianity and agreed to pay tribute. After a short period of co-existence with Salīḥ [ q.v.] as tributaries, ύπόφοροι, they overpowered the latter group and superseded them as the new Arab allies, σύμμαχοι, of Byzantium in A.D. 502-3. Their relations with the Empire were regulated by a treaty, foedus , according to which they received annual subsidies, annonae foederaticae, and in return they contributed …

, the most famous and important of all the annual fairs ( sūḳ [ q.v.], pi. aswāḳ ) of the Arabs in pre-Islamic times. It was situated to the southeast of Mecca between Nak̲h̲la and al-Ṭāʾif in the territory of the tribal group Hawāzin [ q.v.]. It shared with two other fairs, Mad̲j̲anna and Ḏh̲u ’l-Mad̲j̲az̄, proximity to Mecca and its being held during the Sacred Months. But it was the most important of the three, and was held in the month of Ḏh̲u ’l-Ḳaʿda, just before the start of the pilgrimage to ʿArafāt and Mecca. The sūḳ was strategically located in the middle of the Spice Route of Wes…

, a city in northern Yaman and a major urban centre in the Arabian Peninsula in ancient times. It was an agricultural, an industrial, and a trade centre, owing all this to the facts of geography. It was celebrated for its cereals, fruits and vegetables and also for its leather and textiles, situated as it was in the midst of a fertile wādī , which also bore the name Nad̲j̲rān. Its importance as a caravan city was owed to the fact that it was located at the intersection of two main caravan routes, one that ran from Ḥaḍramawt through Ḥid…

, A.D. 529-569, the most famous of all the kings of G̲h̲assān [ q.v.] in the military annals of Arabia, and in the history of Byzantium and of Monophysitism in the sixth century. As the phylarch and ally of Byzantium he led his mounted contingent against the Persians and their Arab allies, the Lak̲h̲mids, in the wars of Justinian’s reign and distinguished himself in two of its military operations: the battle of Callinicum, A.D. 531, and the Assyrian campaign, A.D. 541. At Yawm Ḥalīma [ q.v.] in A.D. 554 he triumphed decisively over the Lak̲h̲mid Mund̲h̲ir. As a believer in the One Nature o…

, an Arab tribe that the genealogists affiliate with the large tribal group, Ḳuḍāʿa [ q.v.]. Around A.D. 400, it entered the Byzantine political orbit and became the dominant federate ally of Byzantium in the 5th century, its foederati . It is practically certain that Salīḥ penetrated the Byzantine frontier from the region of Wādī Sirḥān. Ptolemy in his Geography speaks of a toponym, Ζαϒμαΐς, in northern Arabia, identifiable with the Arabic Salīḥid name, Ḍud̲j̲ʿum/Ḍad̲j̲ʿum, and one of the affluents of Wādī Sirḥān is called Ḥidrid̲…

, nisba Ṭāʾī, an Arab tribe, which like others such as al-Azd and Kinda, emigrated from the Arabian south and settled in the north, in the plateau of S̲h̲ammar [ q.v.], which contained the two ranges Ad̲j̲aʾ and Salmā, called after the tribe D̲j̲abalā Ṭayyiʾ As a result of their occupation of S̲h̲ammar, the north Arab tribe of Asad lost some of its territory but the two tribes fraternised and were called “the two allies”, al-Ḥalīfān. The two main subdivisions of the tribe were al-G̲h̲awth and D̲j̲adīla, part of whom lived on…

, lit. “the blue-eyed woman of Yamāma”, a semi-legendary figure of early Arabic lore. She was endowed with such piercing eyesight that she could descry an object some thirty miles away, hence the proverb absạru min Zarḳāʾ al-Yamāma . She belonged to the tribe of Ṭasm [ q.v.], but was married to a member of the sister tribe D̲j̲adīs. After the massacre of the former by the latter, a survivor, her brother, invoked the aid of the South Arabian king Ḥassān, who marched against D̲j̲adīs in Yamāma. Al-though Ḥassān’s army was camouflaged with leaf…

, a mare, or a valley, or a G̲h̲assānid princess, after whom was named one of the most famous of all the ayyām [ q.v.] of pre-Islamic Arabia, sometimes identified with the yawm of ʿAyn Ubāg̲h̲. It is possible that yawm Ḥalīma was the “day” which witnessed the victory of G̲h̲assān over Ṣalīḥ [ q.v.] late in the 5th century A.D. But more probably, it represents the victory of the G̲h̲assānid al-Ḥārit̲h̲ b. D̲j̲abala over the Lak̲h̲mid al-Mund̲h̲ir b. al-Nuʿmān, who was killed in the encounter. If true, the battle would have taken place in June, A.D. …

, the more common of the two Arabic names given in the Islamic sources to the famous Queen of Tadmur/Palmyra, the other being Nāʾila, undoubtedly identifiable with the Greek and Aramaic forms of her name, Zenobia and Bat̲h̲-Zabbay, both attested epigraphically. Al-Zabbāʾ “the hairy (?)” was possibly her surname while Nāʾila was her given name. In spite of embroideries and accretions that have accumulated around her in the Islamic sources, these are valuable as they document the Arab profile of the history of al-Zabbāʾ, on which the Classical sources…

, a pre-Islamic confederacy of various Arab tribes that adopted a common genealogy. The essential reliability of the Arabic historians’ accounts of this confederacy is supported epigraphically by a Sabaic, a Greek, an Aramaic, and a Syriac inscription and also by Ptolemy, in spite of some conflicting reports on its early history in the Arabian peninsula, with details that so far have not been open to verification. 1. The Arabian Peninsular stage. The history of Peninsular Tanūk̲h̲ belongs to the “Migration Period” in the history of Arabia, which witnessed the m…

, dernier roi lak̲h̲mide d’al-Ḥīra [ q.v.] et vassal de la Perse sāsānide. Il était le fils d’al-Mund̲h̲ir IV [ q.v.] et de Salmā, fille d’un orfèvre juif de Fadak. Dans les annales des Lak̲h̲mides [ q.v.], son règne (vers 580-602 de J. C.) est le plus mémorable après celui de son grand-père al-Mund̲h̲ir III (m. 554). Il dut de monter sur le trône d’al-Ḥīra à ʿAdī b. Zayd [ q.v.], le célèbre poète et homme d’Etat chrétien; le Sāsānide Hormuzd célébra cet avènement avec une couronne spécialement splendide. Al-Nuʿmān fut un roi autoritaire et puissant, dont le règne a vu des tensions …

, une confédération préislamique de plusieurs tribus arabes ayant adopté une généalogie commune. La véracité des récits des historiens arabes à propos de cette confédération est étayée par l’épigraphie sabéenne, grecque, araméenne, et syriaque et aussi par Ptolémée, malgré quelques relations contradictoires sur les débuts de son histoire dans la péninsule arabique, donnant des détails qui n’ont pas encore été vérifiés. I. Dans la Péninsule arabique. L’histoire des Tanūk̲h̲ péninsulaires appartient à la «période de migration» qui vit le déplacement de trib…

, ancienne tribu arabe qui était en plein essor dans l’antiquité, mais avait disparu de la ¶ carte ethnographique de l’Arabie avant la naissance de l’Islam. Les références à cette tribu dans les sources nonarabes depuis l’inscription assyrienne de Sargon II en 715 av. J.-C. jusqu’à la Géographie de Ptolémée (136-65 apr. J.-C.) attestent à la fois son ancienneté et sa localisation dans le Ḥid̲j̲āz; à part cela, elles ne donnent pas d’informations. Mais une inscription bilingue du IIe siècle en grec et en araméen, trouvée à Ruwāfa dans le Hid̲j̲āz septentrional, montre que …

, litt. «la femme aux yeux bleus du Yamāma», une figure semi-légendaire de la tradition populaire arabe ancienne. Les yeux bleus dont elle était dotée étaient si perçants qu’elle pouvait discerner un objet à trente milles de distance, d’où l’expression proverbiale, abṣaru min Zarḳāʾ al-Yamāma, «doté d’une meilleure vue que Zarḳāʾ al-Yamāma». ¶ Elle était de la tribu de Ṭasm [ q.v.] mais avait été mariée à un membre de la tribu-sœur de Ḏj̲adīs. Après le massacre des premiers par les seconds, son frère, un survivant, demanda l’aide du roi sud-arabique des Ḥ…

, branche du grand groupe tribal des Azd qui émigra de l’Arabie du Sud, erra dans la Péninsule et s’établit finalement à l’intérieur du limes romain vers 490 de J.-C, après avoir adopté le Christianisme et accepté de payer tribut. Après une courte période de co-existence avec les Salīḥ [ q.v.] en tant que tributaires (ύπόφοροι), ils étendirent leur autorité sur ce dernier groupe, qu’ils supplantèrent, et devinrent les nouveaux alliés (σύμμαχοι) arabes de Byzance en 502-3 de J.-C Leurs relations avec l’empire étaient régies par un traité, fœdus, selon lequel ils recevaient des subsi…