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, a great and powerful Bedouin tribe of Central Arabia, second only in importance to the ʿAnaza or ʿUnayza [ q.v.], and playing a significant role in the history of Arabia in the last 150 years or so. Doughty describes them as having pasture grounds extending from al-Ṭāʾif [ q.v.] in the Ḥid̲j̲āz in the west to al-Ḳaṣīm [ q.v.] in northern Nad̲j̲d in the east. The name appears in various renderings in the travel accounts of Europeans, e.g. the ʿAteyba, pl. elʿAteybân of Doughty, and the ʾOṭeybah of Palgrave; according to J.J. Hess, the modern pronunciation use…

(a. pls. sufun , safāʾin , safīn ), a word used in Arabic from pre-Islamic times onwards for ship. Seamanship and navigation are in general dealt with in milāḥa , and the present article, after dealing with the question of knowledge of the sea and ships in Arabia at the time of the birth of Islam, not covered in milāḥa, will be confined to a consideration of sea and river craft. 1. In the pre-modern period. (a) Pre-Islamic and early Islamic aspects. The most general word for “ship” in early Arabic usage was markab “conveyance”, used, however, …

, banū (later, dialect: Benī Sed), Arab tribe. They are a tribe related to the Kināna [ q.v.]; the awareness of this interconnexion remained remarkably alive, though it had little practical effect owing to the great distance separating them. The homelands of the Asad are in North Arabia, at the foot of the mountains formerly inhabited by the Ṭayy [ q.v.]. In contrast to the latter, the Asad led a mainly nomadic life. Their grazing lands extended to the south and south-east of the Nefūd, from the S̲h̲ammar mountains [ q.v.] to the Wādi ’l-Rumma in the south, and beyond it in the neigh…

(a.), plural usually al-usūd , al-usud, al-usd, the most usual word for lion. It is also frequently found as a personal or tribal name (see following article; concerning the presumable etymology and connexions with other roots, see dicussion by C. de Landberg, l.c., II/11, 1237-40). The old poetic word, which has been more and more replaced by al-asad, is al-layt̲h̲ ; this is found not only in Semitic languages (Akk. nēšu , this, however, generally only in prose: Landsberger, l.c., 76), but also, according to Koehler ( Lex . in VT Libros , 481b), in Greek λῖς, λεῖς where it is also use…

, an old Arab tribe and in recent usage, until the motor age, in the pronunciation ʿAgēl, the name for caravan-leaders and camel-dealers. 1. The tribe. Its genealogy is ʿUḳayl b. Kaʿb b. Rabīʿa b. ʿĀmir b. Ṣaʿṣaʿa of the Hawāzin branch of the Ḳays-ʿAylān [ q.v.]; among the larger sections are the ʿUbāda and Rabīʿa b. ʿUḳayl as well as the Ḵh̲afād̲j̲a [ q.v.] b. ʿAmr and al-Muntafiḳ [ q.v.] b. ʿĀmir b. ʿUḳayl. Al-Muḳallad b. Ḏj̲aʿfar, the ancestor of the dynasty of the ʿUḳaylids [ q.v.], traced his descent directly from Ḥazn b. ʿUbāda. Al-Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī ( Nihāya , 297) bes…

, the two largest and most powerful combinations of tribes in ancient Northern Arabia. The name Rabīʿa is a very frequent one in the nomenclature of the Arab tribes. More important tribes of this name within the Muḍar group are the Rabīʿa b. ʿĀmir b. Ṣaʿṣaʿa, from which came the Kaʿb, Kilāb and Kulayb, then the Rabīʿa b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Kaʿb, Rabīʿa b. Kilāb, Rabīʿa b. al-Aḍbaṭ and Rabīʿa b. Mālik b. D̲j̲aʿfar; also the Rabīʿa b. ʿUḳayl and Rabīʿa b. D̲j̲aʿda; three branches of the ʿAbd S̲h̲ams also bear this n…

, kellek, kelik (Turkish-Arabic) is a curious raft made of bags of goat’s hair, which is already known from the sculptures of Nineveh and has hardly changed in the course of centuries. It is the Akkadian kalakku , Syriac kəlakkā . The word, particularly mentioned by travellers in Mesopotamia and Persia, is said to be typical for the upper part of the Tigris. The kelik used between Diyārbekir and Bag̲h̲dād is put together as follows. On a layer of 100 to 300, and sometimes even 400, inflated goatskins, each tied up with two strings one metre long and made ¶ of liquorice-fibre, are laid five bars of ka…