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[German version] ( al-Kūfa). Like Basra, founded in the early period of Islamic conquests (AD 639). Garrison city south of what was later Baghdad, on the right bank of the Euphrates, near the capital city of the Lakhmids, al-Hira. K. soon became the new capital city of Iraq and superseded Sassanid Ctesiphon, that from then on slowly declined. During the Caliphate ( Caliph) of Ali, K. rose for a short time to the status of overall capital city, and remained after Ali's murder (AD 661) a centre of Shiite agitation ( Shiites). However, it lost in importance after the founding of Baghdad. Toral-Nieh…

[German version] (Μαρανῖται; Maranîtai). According to Agatharchides (De Mari Erythraeo 88 GGM 1,177), Arab tribe that settled in the coastal strip of the Red Sea. Sources tell of their conflict with the Garindaneîs (Γαρινδανεῖς), who took advantage of an absence of the M. to seize for themselves, in an underhand manner, their possessions and estates. Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (Freiburg)

[German version] (Ναβαταῖοι/ Nabataȋoi, inscription NBṬW), Arabian people in north-west Arabia, with Petra as their capital, probably originating in the Ḥiǧāẓ. Their relationship with the Aramaic tribe of the Nabaiati (7th cent. BC [1]), attested in cuneiform texts, and the Neḇāyôṯ of the Bible (Gn 25:13; 28:9; 39:3; Is. 20:7) is disputed. According to Diod. Sic. (2.48f.; 19.94-100), Antigonus [1] I undertook two unsuccessful expeditions to the ‘land of the Arabs who are called Nabataeans’ in 312 BC. They appear at this time as tradin…

[German version] (Lat. Homeritae: Plin. HN 32,161). Arab tribe, attested epigraphically from about AD 100. The Ḥ. held the political hegemony in southern Arabia between AD 100 and 590. The centre of their kingdom was  Saphar (in Plin. HN 25,104: Sapphar) on the plateau south of modern Yarīm. From there the Ḥ. gradually conquered the ancient Southern Arabic kingdoms of  Qatabān,  Sabaʾ and  Ḫaḍramauṭ. In the mid-4th cent., Judaism and Christianity began to spread while simultaneously the attempts of the Sassanid and Byzantine empires to influence the Ḥ. kingdom increased (cf.   Leges Ho…

[German version] (Ζααβράμ, also Ζαβάμ/ Zabám, Ζααράμ/ Zaarám, Ζάμβρα/ Zámbra). City on the western coastal strip of the Arabian Peninsula. According to Ptol. 6,7,5 domain (βασίλειον/ basíleion) of the Kinaidokolpites (cf. also Steph. Byz. 293,16, where it is Ζαδράμη/ Zadrámē). Z. was probably the seat of power of a dependent prince (elsewhere in Ptol. μητρόπολις/ mētrópolis) and according to [1. 65] was in Marsā Ibrāhīm (Portuguese: Massabraim), the port of the Al-Līṯ oasis to the south of Jeddah (see [5]); others [2; 3; 4] locate Z. nearer to Mecca in the Wā…

[German version] According to Ptol. 6,7,6 (Μάμαλα κώμη; Mámala kṓm[e]), settlement of the Cassanitae on the west coast of Arabia. Probably the same as Ṣalīf or Lōḥiyya. Not to be confused with Mamali. Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (Freiburg) Bibliography H. v. Wissmann, De mari Erythraeo (Stuttgarter Geogr. Stud. 69), 1957, 300, 42b.

[German version] [1] W. I Sixth Umayyad caliph (born AD 668, reigned 705-715; Umayyads A.), continued his father Abd-al-Malik's policy of Islamization. He had the church of Saint John standing on the site of the Temple of Hadad/Jupiter in Damascus (C.) converted into a mosque (Umayyad mosque; see Arabic-Islamic cultural sphere I. A.) and had the al-Aqṣā Mosque built in Jerusalem and the Mosque of the Prophet in Medina (Yaṯrib). Under his rule the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (in 711) and of Cho…

[German version] (Μάκκαλα; Mákkala). According to Ptol. 6,7,41, a city in Arabia Felix. We should probably reject the obvious identification with the modern harbour town of Mukallā/Yemen on the south coast, as it is inconsistent with the sequence of place names in Ptolemy. It corresponds rather with Manqal in the hinterland of Mélan óros (Μέλαν ὅρος, Arabic as-Saudāʾ). Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (Freiburg) Bibliography H. v. Wissmann, Zur Geschichte und Landeskunde von Altsüdarabien (SAWW, Phil.-histor. Klasse 246), 1964, 417 (map).

[German version] (Ὄμανα/ Ómana, Ὄμμανα/ Ómmana, Ptol. Geog. 6,8,7; Periplus maris Erythraei 27,36). Bay on the south coast of Arabia. Its identification is uncertain, but it could be Chāh Bahār or Tiz, both of which are located in a small bay. Other suggestions have been Ṣuḥār between Masqaṭ and Musandam.  On this bay the eastern Arabian tribe of the Omani (᾿Ομανῖται, Plin. HN 6,149; Ptol. Geog. 6,7,24) is said to have founded the incense port of Omanon (Ὄμανον ἐμπόριον, Ptol. Geog. 6,7,36; 8,22,12), situated at the end of the trade route coming from Sabbatha. Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (Frei…

[German version] [1] see Mariaba see Mariaba Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (Freiburg) [German version] [2] City in Arabia Felix According to Ptol. 6,7,37 (Μάρα μητρόπολις; Mára mētrópolis), city in the interior of Arabia Felix, mostly identified with the Sabaean capital Mārib ( Mariaba). Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (Freiburg) Bibliography City i H. v. Wissmann, Zur Geschichte und Landeskunde von Altsüdarabien (SAWW, Philos.-histor. Klasse 246), 1964, 417 (map).

Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (Freiburg) [German version] A. History of the concept (CT) The concept of acculturation originally derives from the conceptual apparatus of American-style Cultural anthropology, and is based on the concept of culture essentially developed by S. Tylor, which, in the course of the 20th cent., gradually replaced the normative-judgmental concept of culture that had been dominant until then. As an alternative to the latter, which classified human societies on a scale between primitive people…

[German version] One of the cities that according to Plin. HN 6,160 was destroyed by Aelius [II 11] Gallus in 24 BC. M. was then situated in modern Ǧauf (in modern Yemen) and is probably identical with modern Maǧzı̄r south of Yaṯill in Wādī 'l-Farḍa. Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (Freiburg) Bibliography H. v. Wissmann, Zur Geschichte und Landeskunde von Altsüdarabien (SAWW, Phil.-histor. Klasse 246), 1964, 84 (map), 140 J. F. Breton, Les fortifications d'Arabie Méridionale du 7e au 1er siècle avant nôtre ère (Arch. Ber. aus dem Yemen 8), 1994, 100 (map).

[German version] ‘The law of the (rather: for the) Himyarites’ (Latin Homeritae, an Arab tribe ruling Yemen between the 3rd and 6th cent. AD), a collection falsely attributed to bishop Gregentius of Ẓafar. However, it is not a genuine southern Arabian law code but a Byzantine literary work of the 6th cent. AD reflecting the administration and urban life of the empire under consideration of certain peculiarities of Himyar [1. 567-620]. Together with the ‘Martyrium of Arethas’ [2], the Vita of Gregentius [3] and the ‘Dispute with the Jew Herban’ ( Sancti Gregentii disputatio cum Herbano…

[German version] Leader of a religious revolutionary movement in Sassanid Iran under King Cavades [1] (AD 488-496, 498/9-531). The fundamental characteristic is a strong social egalitarianism. A basic difficulty in researching Mazdakism is that almost all information originates from sources that are hostile to it. The only contemporary report is found in the Syriac chronicle of Joshua Stylites. Byzantine (Procop. BP 1,5-11; 2,9; Agathias, Historiae 4,27-30; Ioh. Mal. 465, 633 and 653 Migne) and Arabic sources from a late…

[German version] Abū Ǧaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Ǧarīr al-Ṭabarī (AD 839-923). Significant Persian-Arab historian, lawyer and Koranic commentator. His 'Universal History' ( Taʾrīḫ) begins with a creation story; histories follow of Israel, ancient Persia and pre-Islamic Arabia. After an account of the life of Muhammad, T.'s chronicle is constructed annalistically and contains a detailed presentation of the Islamic campaigns of conquest and the periods of the Umayyads and the Abbasids up to AD 915. The significance of T.'s hi…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: India, trade with (Μόσχα Λιμήν/ Mόscha Limḗn, Ptol. 6,7,10; Peripl. maris Erythraei 32). Port on the south coast of Arabia Felix in the territory of the Adramitai tribe (Hadhramaut). It was probably situated on the present-day Ḫaur Rūri (Yemen), where recent excavations indicate a strongly fortified town. According to inscriptions on some finds, it was founded on the orders of the king of Hadhramaut. M. might have been the port of Zafar but Zafar appears to have been founded later. Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (Freiburg) Bibliograph…

[German version] According to Plin. HN 6,158 a people in the interior of southern Arabia, which has not been successfully identified. It may be derived from the name of the modern town of Ḏamār, to the southeast of Ṣana'a. In Plinius the two (also unlocated) cities of Sagiatta and Canthace are classed as theirs. The context suggests that the Z. lived in the territory of the Homeritae at Sapphar (Ẓafār). Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (Freiburg) Bibliography E. Glaser, Skizze der Gesch. und Geogr. Arabiens, vol. 2, 1890 (repr. 1976), 136, 142 f. J. Pirenne, Le Royaume Sud Arabe de Qataban et…

[German version] (Ζεερῖται/ Zeërîtai, Ζειρῖται/ Zeirîtai or Εἰρῖται/ Eirîtai). A people in Arabia mentioned in Ptol. 6,7,24 but still not unequivocally located. [1] places their territory in Wādī al-Irḍ (modern Wādī Banī Ḥanīfa near Al-Riyāḍ), and therefore central Arabia; [2] in the area of Oman as far as the Wādī al-Dawāsr, and therefore dispersed across the whole of the Al-Rub al-Ḫālī desert. Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (Freiburg) Bibliography 1 A. Sprenger, Die alte Geographie Arabiens, 1875 (repr. 1966), Nr. 395 2 E. Glaser, Skizze der Geschichte und Geographie Arabie…

[German version] (also Septem Fratres). Term for a chain of seven mountains on the African coast near the Straits of Gibraltar (Ptol. 4,1,5: Ἑπτάδελφοι ὄρος/ Heptádelphoi óros; Mela 1,5; Plin. HN 5,18; It. Ant. 9,3), and later probably for the settlement there, the modern Spanish Ceuta (by way of Arabic  Sabṭa). Archaeological remains bear witness to S. as a significant ancient centre for producing salted fish [1]. From the late Roman period there is a basilica [2]. After a failed attempt at conquest by the Visigoth king Theudis in 534, the emp…

[German version] Region in southern Arabia mentioned in a partly extant naval report of 323 BC in Theophr. Hist. pl. 9,4,2 (Μαμάλι/ Mamáli), probably Mamal near modern Aṣīr in Saudi Arabia on the coast. Toral-Niehoff, Isabel (Freiburg) Bibliography H. v. Wissmann, De mari Erythraeo (Stuttgarter Geogr. Stud. 69), 1957, 300 n. 42b Id., M. Höfner, Beiträge zur historischen Geographie des vorislamischen Südarabien (AAWM, Geistes- und sozialwiss. Klasse), 1952 no. 4, 76, 82, 85f., 95, 104, with maps Id., Zur Geschichte und Landeskunde von Altsüdarabien (SAWW, Philos.-histor…