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[German version] I. Names and concept, sources The name and concept of the Phoínikes (Φοίνικες)/Phoenicians (= P.) were formed in the Greek world [1]. Those designated by it understood themselves primarily as citizens or members of a union of cities, e.g. as Tyrians, Sidonians or - after the shared cultural region - as Canaanites [2]. In this they were referring to a political or ethnic identity derived from the Ancient Near Eastern Bronze Age. The various designations can only be reconciled from case to cas…

[German version] (Λάβαι; Lábai: Pol. 13,9.; Steph. Byz.). City on the north-east coast of Arabia in the Gerrhaean coastal area of Chattēnía (Arabic al-Ḫaṭṭ), south of al-Qaṭīf and opposite Bahrein. Their ethnicon is Labaíoi, and probably with a conjecture of g to l the Gabaíoi (Str. 16,4,4) are indicated here, who as merchants travelled from their capital Gerrha to Hadramaut in 40 days. Arab geographers of the Middle Ages also mention Laʿbā as the name of salt pans along the coast of that region. Müller, Walter W. (Marburg/Lahn) Bibliography H. v. Wissmann, Zur Kenntnis von Ostarabien…

[German version] (Masala, Plin. HN 6,158). City of the Homeritae (Ḥimyars) in Arabia Felix, certainly identical with the port of Mesalum (Plin. HN. 12,69), from which white myrrh was exported. It may be equated with the ruined town of al-Aṣala, dialect am-Aṣala (13° 13′ N, 45° 28′ E), in the delta of the Wadi Banā on the Arabian Sea northeast of Aden. Müller, Walter W. (Marburg/Lahn) Bibliography H. von Wissmann, s.v. Zamareni, RE Suppl. 11, 1325-1329.

[German version] (Λαικηνοί/ Laikēnoí, Λαιηνοί/ Laiēnoí, Λεηνοί/ Leēnoí, Ptol. 6,7,22). Tribe who settled to the east of the central Arabian mountain range of Zámēs. Their name is not mentioned in any other ancient source and has to date not been satisfactorily interpreted. Perhaps the L. should be identified with the aṣḥāb al-Aika, the ‘people of the thicket’ or, rather, the ‘people of al-Aika’ mentioned in the Koran (15,78 et passim), a prehistoric people allegedly annihilated by the wrath of God. Müller, Walter W. (Marburg/Lahn)