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DILMN

welihausen 1887: 64; Fahd 1968: 47. nfortnatcly, we know virtually nothing about the

nature of ٨wil, but scvcral clues point to the antiquity of this god. ٨w٦l can alrcady be

found as a thcophoric elenent in the personal name S/Sn-a٠١٤٠al, meaning ''offspring of

‫ﺀ‬١w١٨ ٨'', noa hist of officials fro Nineveh dating to the Neo-Assy:rian period (2ado;k 1977

119, ٨. 64. Furthcrmore, it may cvcn be present in the carly second millennium in the

٨١orite nane‫ﺀ‬ ,‫ﺕ‬la known from an Old Babylonian text cxcavated at Ab-٠-١٨٨-٨٠bibataI,

ancient isurra, a site located c. 2 knms. NNW of Nippur (2adok 1981: 5, n. 56.

Lct us considcr thc t٧o tribes said to have worslipped Aw٦١٠ The Bakr b. W5'i١ were
locatcd in castcrn Arabia. According to 'TabarT, the Sasanian emperor Sapur II encountered
them in a--Hagar, modern Hofuf, when hc campaigned in eastern Arabic c, 325 (Noldeke
1879: 56, 67. The Taghlib, on thc other hand, were based further north in the desert 2one
betwccn Arabia, Mcsopotamia, and Syria. TabarT tells us that after reaching Medina in his
Arabian canpaign, Sapur turncd north towards the Roman-Sasanian frontier, whcre he
encountered the Taghlib. Of the Taghlib captured by Sapur, TabarT writes: He settled some
of the Taghlib in Bahrain, namely in Darin, which is also called laig, and in hatt' (N6ldee
1879: 57.

Tabari used Bahrain'' to refer to the east Arabian mainland, just as it was always used
by the early Arab geographers (Wistenfeld 1874; c.f Thilo 1958: 34. Darn is clearly
recognivable as the main town on the island of Tarut, Al-hatt was the traditional name
given to the coastal strip between al-Oatif and al-'qayr (Thilo 1958: 59. The passage
'Darfn, which is also called Haig' has always been problematic, since Haig' could not be
identiffed with any recognied toponym. Recently, however, Beaucamp and Robin
suggested a slight emendation, so that the text can be read 'Dirln and Samihig' (Beaucamp
and Robin 1983: 174. Samahig, a varient of Muharraq's former name M‫ﺓ‬smahig, is retained
in the name of a small village of Muhyarra‫ﻭ‬, Samahiji, which; in Lorimer's day, counted 15
reed huts of Bahirinah' (Lorimer 198:1268. Thus, the new Reading provides us with an
importantpiece of information: members of the Taghlib, worshippers of Awal, were present
ni the Bahrain islands by the early 4th century.

In view of this piece of evidence, Beaucamp and Robin have suggested that the island of
Awal may have taken its name from that of the Taghlib idol (Beaucamp and Robin 1983:
18. T. Fahd has proposed; moreover, that the root of the name Awal is 'w‫ﺇ‬. This is the
ame root from which EI and Allah are derived, with the meaning 'to direct, administer,
preside over the destinies of a group of people', hence the connotation of ''primaey' (Fahd
1968: 4748. While it is possible that the Taghlib who had been re-settled on Bahrain named
their new home after their God Awal, nothing suggests that Aw5l was the main God
worshipped by the Taghlib.

There is, however, another possibility. Exactly one hundred years ago the great Scottish
scholar W. Robertson Smith suggested a different etymology for Awal which may provide a
better explanation for the use of the name of Bahrain. Wail and Awal, he wrote, seem to
eb connected. The former is derived by Ibn Doraid, p. 79, from wa'ala 'he took refuge,' and
the latter would then be a variation of Wi'٨l 'asylum,' primairly not the God but a sanctuary.
hTe name Band Maw'ala, 'sons of asylum' (Ibn Dor. 16, lends some plausibility to this
iew ٠٠. (Smith 1885: 194. Following Roberston Smith, therefore, one could suggest that
the name Awal was acquired by the island because it served as a place of asylum or refuge.

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