Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

the arabs in late antiquity 679
much early and possibly genuine material and the creation of many new
accounts. 5 Most importantly, pre-Islamic Arabia played an important role
in early Islamic kerygma. In explanation of the success of Islam and the
Arab conquerors, Muslim scholars and transmitters interpreted Islam’s
emergence from Arabia as part of God’s divine plan. 6 Part of this conception
involved presentation of the pre-Islamic Arabs as naïve coarse barbarians
– ragged ignorant nomads and eaters of snakes and lizards, for
example – and Arabia as a quintessential wasteland. This contrasted sharply
with the powerful and sophisticated peoples of the empires to the north
and the richness and fertility of their lands; obviously, the Arab victories
against such formidable foes could only have been won by God’s permission
and as part of his plan for mankind. 7 This paradigm is manifestly kerygmatic,
and while it may at various points correspond to historical reality
it does not spring from that reality. In each case, then, the historian must
judge – often on insecure grounds – the extent to which the motifs and
stereotypes of this kerygma have affected his sources. 8
ii. the arabs in late antiquity
Extant references to ‘Arabs’ begin in the ninth century b.c., 9 and in ensuing
centuries attest to their presence in Arabia, Syria and Iraq and their interaction
with the peoples of adjacent lands, encouraged in part by the Roman
and Persian policy of using Arab groups to protect their desert flanks and
perform military functions as confederates and auxiliaries. In Syria, Arab
presence was prominent all along the fringe between the desert and the
sown, 10 and inscriptions and literary sources confirm that many Arabs took
up settled life in rural villages. 11 The hinterlands of inland Syrian cities were
partly populated by Arabs, and major cities such as Damascus and Beroea
(Aleppo) had significant Arab populations. In such situations Arabs certainly
knew Greek and/or Syriac, and perhaps as their first languages. 12
Arabs were also to be found through the pastoral steppe lands of northern
Mesopotamia, where monks in the Jacobite and Nestorian monasteries
occasionally comment on them. 13 In Iraq there were large groupings of
5 Ahlwardt (1872); H· usayn (1927) 171–86; Caskel (1930); Blachère (1952–66) i.85–127, 166–86;
Birkeland (1956); Arafat (1958); Caskel (1966) i.1–71 (with the review in Henninger (1966)); Crone
(1987) 203–30. 6 See the discussion in Conrad (forthcoming).
7 Conrad (1987b) 39–40 and n. 46;(1998a) 238.
8 The gravity of the source-critical problems is stressed in Whittow (1999), a detailed critique of the
volumes on ‘Byzantium and the Arabs’ by Irfan Shahı - d (specifically, Shahı - d (1995)), which, though full
of valuable information, pose serious problems and need always to be used with caution.
9 Eph�al (1984) 75–7; Macdonald (1995a).
10 Dussaud (1955) 51–161; Mayerson (1963); Sartre (1982).
11 MacAdam (1983); Millar (1993b) 428–36.
12 Nau (1933) 19–24; Trimingham (1979) 116–24; Shahı - d (1989) 134–45.
13 Nau (1933) 15–18, 24–6; Charles (1936) 64–70; Trimingham (1979) 145–58.
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