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ZI 11
Zaid Inan 11 (''Zaid ʿInān 11'', abbreviated ZI 11), also known as the Hymn to Almaqah or MB 2004 I-94, is a 3rd century AD Sabaic poem discovered as a votive inscription stored at the Temple of Awwam in the city of Marib from pre-Islamic South Arabia. Marib was the capital of the Kingdom of Saba, located in modern-day eastern Yemen. The poem is a religious-military hymn dedicated to the glory of the god Almaqah, who in the text is called Kahl. ZI 11 shows Kahl leading an army of Sabaeans into Al-Yamama (then called al-Jaww), a region that he pierces and conquers in a triumphant victory. According to the inscription, this campaign is part of Kahl's "rising in the East" (meaning to overcome the night). The poem also reveals a development in pre-Islamic religion as Kahl absorbs the properties and functions of several deities that had come before him in the pantheon. According to some historians, this represents an ongoing trend in South Arabian religion at the time towards the em ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sabaic
Sabaic, sometimes referred to as Sabaean, was a Old South Arabian, Sayhadic language that was spoken between c. 1000 BC and the 6th century AD by the Sabaeans. It was used as a written language by some other peoples of the ancient civilization of South Arabia, including the Himyarites, Ḥimyarites, Ḥashidites, Ṣirwāḥites, Humlanites, Ghaymānites, and Radmānites. Sabaic belongs to the South Arabian Semitic languages, Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. Sabaic is distinguished from the other members of the Old South Arabian, Sayhadic group by its use of ''h'' to mark the grammatical person, third person and as a causative prefix; all of the other languages use ''s1'' in those cases. Therefore, Sabaic is called an ''h''-language and the others ''s''-languages. Numerous other Sabaic inscriptions have also been found dating back to the Sabean colonization of Africa. Sabaic is very similar to Arabic and the languages may have been mutually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pre-Islamic Arabian Inscriptions
Pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions are inscriptions that come from the Arabian Peninsula dating to before the rise of Islam. They were written in both Arabic and other languages, including Sabaic, Hadramautic, Minaic, Qatabanic. These inscriptions come in two forms: graffiti, "self-authored personal expressions written in a public space", and monumental inscriptions, commissioned to a professional scribe by an elite for an official role. Unlike modern graffiti, the graffiti in these inscriptions are usually signed (and so not anonymous) and were not illicit or subversive. Graffiti are usually just scratchings on the surface of rock, but both graffiti and monumental inscriptions could be produced by painting, or the use of a chisel, charcoal, brush, or other tools. These inscriptions are typically non-portable (being lapidary) and were engraved (and not painted). Both graffiti and monumental inscriptions were also intended for public display. Pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Creation Myth
A creation myth or cosmogonic myth is a type of cosmogony, a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it., "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the universe and its inhabitants came to be. Creation myths develop through oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions." While in popular usage the term ''myth'' often refers to false or fanciful stories, members of cultures often ascribe varying degrees of truth to their creation myths. In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truthsmetaphorically, symbolically, historically, or literally. They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical mythsthat is, they describe the ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness. Creation myths often share several features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in nearly all known religious traditions. They are all storie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pre-Islamic Arabian Inscriptions
Pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions are inscriptions that come from the Arabian Peninsula dating to before the rise of Islam. They were written in both Arabic and other languages, including Sabaic, Hadramautic, Minaic, Qatabanic. These inscriptions come in two forms: graffiti, "self-authored personal expressions written in a public space", and monumental inscriptions, commissioned to a professional scribe by an elite for an official role. Unlike modern graffiti, the graffiti in these inscriptions are usually signed (and so not anonymous) and were not illicit or subversive. Graffiti are usually just scratchings on the surface of rock, but both graffiti and monumental inscriptions could be produced by painting, or the use of a chisel, charcoal, brush, or other tools. These inscriptions are typically non-portable (being lapidary) and were engraved (and not painted). Both graffiti and monumental inscriptions were also intended for public display. Pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quran
The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides its religious significance, it is widely regarded as the finest work in Arabic literature, and has significantly influenced the Arabic, Arabic language. It is the object of a modern field of academic research known as Quranic studies. Muslims believe the Quran was orally revealed by God to the final Islamic Prophets and messengers in Islam, prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad through the Angel#Islam, angel Gabriel#Islam, Gabriel incrementally over a period of some 23 years, beginning on the Night of Power, Laylat al-Qadr, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632, the year of his death. Muslims regard the Quran as Muhammad's most important Islamic view of miracles, miracle, a proof of his prophet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pre-Islamic Arabic Poetry
Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry is a term used to refer to Arabic poetry composed in pre-Islamic Arabia roughly between 540 and 620 AD. In Arabic literature, pre-Islamic poetry went by the name ''al-shiʿr al-Jāhilī'' ("poetry from the Jahiliyyah" or "Jahili poetry"). This poetry largely originated in the Najd (then a region east of the Hejaz and up to present-day Iraq), with only a minority coming from the Hejaz. Poetry was first distinguished into the Islamic and pre-Islamic by Ḥammād al-Rāwiya (d. 772). In Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid times, literary critics debated if contemporary or pre-Islamic poetry was the better of the two. Pre-Islamic poetry constitutes a major source for classical Arabic language both in grammar and vocabulary, and as a record of the political and cultural life of the time in which it was created. A number of major poets are known from pre-Islamic times, the most prominent among them being Imru' al-Qais. Other prominent poets included Umayya ibn Abi as-Salt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abu Karib
Abū Karib As’ad al-Kāmil (), called "Abū Karīb", sometimes rendered as As'ad Abū Karīb, full name: Abu Karib As'ad ibn Hassān Maliki Karib Yuha'min, was king ( Tubba', ) of the Himyarite Kingdom (modern day Yemen). He ruled Yemen from 390 CE until 420 CE, beginning as a coregency with his father Malkikarib Yuhamin (r. 375–400) followed by becoming sole ruler in 400. As'ad is cited in some sources as the first of several kings of the Arabian Peninsula to convert to Judaism, although contemporary historians have ascribed this transition to his father. He was traditionally regarded as the first one to cover the Kaaba with the kiswah. Biography Abu Karib As'ad was the son of Malikikarib Yuha'min. He first came to power as part of a co-regency with both his father Malikikarib Yuha'min and his brother Dhara' Amar Ayman in 375 CE. After the death of Malikikarib Yuha'min in 385 CE, only Abu Karib and his brother Dhara' Amar Ayman were left to rule. Around the year 400 CE ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malkikarib Yuhamin
Malkīkarib Yuha’min (r. 375–400) was a king (Tubba', ) of the Himyarite Kingdom (in modern-day Yemen), succeeding his father Tharan Yuhanim. Byzantine sources and contemporary historians credit him with converting the ruling class of the Himyarite Kingdom from paganism to Judaism in pre-Islamic Arabia#Southern Arabia/Yemen, Judaism (whereas later Islamic sources ascribe this event to Abu Karib, his son). These events are chronicled by the fifth-century ''Ecclessiastical History'' of the Anomoeanism, Anomean Philostorgius and the sixth-century Syriac language, Syriac Book of the Himyarites. Such sources implicate the motive for conversion as a wish on the part of the Himyarite rulers to distance themselves from the Byzantine Empire which had tried to convert them to Christianity. Malkikarib was likely at an advanced age when he took the throne as he immediately initiated a coregency with his children. He first entered into a coregency with his son Abīkarib Asʿad (Abu Karib). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rahmanan
Raḥmānān ( Musnad: 𐩧𐩢𐩣𐩬𐩬 rḥmnn, "the Merciful") was an epithet and theonym predominantly used to refer to a singular, monotheistic God from the fourth to sixth centuries in South Arabia (though the term originates much earlier in Syria), beginning when the ruling class of the Himyarite Kingdom converted to Judaism and replacing invocations to polytheistic religions. The term may have also been monolatrous until the arrival of Christianity in the mid-sixth century. During the reign of the Christian Himyarite king Sumyafa Ashwa, Jesus was referred to as the son of ''Raḥmānān''. A few decades later, during the reign of Abraha, Jesus was also described as the Messiah of ''Raḥmānān''. Etymology The root ''r-ḥ-m'' and its derivative words, originally referring not to a deity but just the notion of mercy, appears in Akkadian (sometimes an epithet for the god Ninurta), Hebrew (occurring in the Hebrew Bible), Old Aramaic (especially as an epithet for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pre-Islamic Arabian Monotheism
Monotheism as the belief in a supreme Creator being, existed in pre-Islamic Arabia. This practice occurred among pre-Islamic Christian, Jewish, and other populations unaffiliated with either one of the two major Abrahamic religions at the time. Monotheism became a religious trend in pre-Islamic Arabia in the fourth century CE, when it began to supplant the polytheism that had been the common form of religion until then. Transition from polytheism to monotheism in this time is documented from inscriptions in all writing systems on the Arabian Peninsula (including those in Nabataean, Safaitic, and Sabaic), where polytheistic gods and idols cease to be mentioned. Epigraphic evidence is nearly exclusively monotheistic in the fifth century, and from the sixth century and until the eve of Islam, it is solely monotheistic. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry is also monotheistic or henotheistic. An important locus of pre-Islamic Arabian monotheism, the Himyarite Kingdom, ruled over South Arabia, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Yamama
Al-Yamama () is a historical region in south-eastern Najd in modern-day Saudi Arabia. Only a handful of centralized states ever arose in the Yamama, but it figured prominently in early Islamic history, becoming a central theater in the Ridda wars immediately following Muhammad's death. Despite being incorporated into the Najd region, the term 'al-Yamama' remains in use as a traditional and historical term to reference or emphasize the region's ancient past. The current headquarters of the Saudi government in Riyadh, for example, is known as the Palace of Yamamah. Etymology The 13th-century geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi mentions a number of etymologies for ''al-Yamama'', including the root word ''hamam'' (Arabic for " domesticated pigeon") but the historian G. Rex Smith considers them unlikely. Instead, Smith holds that it is more likely the name ''al-Yamama'' is the singular form of the Arabic word for wild pigeons, ''yamam''. History From the pre-Islamic period through the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
