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DILMN

‫ﺍ‬. Sprenger, 1875

Nowadays one calls Tylos the Bahrain islands, formerly Owil, which is also the name of
c٥ th٣١e idfols worshippcd by the tvo Wiil tribes, Bakr and Taghlib. The Wiil were closed
!ated to the inhabitants of thc (Arabian coast, the 'Abd al-Oays, and while they
rshippel Ow?l, there may have been shrine on the island as well. Mas'‫ﺕ‬di reports that the

abitants of the island wcre the Bana Ma'n and Bna Misnir, both of which probably‫ﺓ‬
:onged to the 'Abd al-Oays'' (Sprcnger 1875: 154‫ﻥ‬.

:T: Bent, 189

To ١anure their date-groves they use the fins of a species of ray-ifsh called Awa,l Which,
‫ ﺯ‬eway, was an anciehnt name of the lslatnd of Bah(rein' (Bent.189: 9

:. Glaser, 189

hTe ٨ualites (PIiny, Nat. Hisn. ٧I, 157 are perhaps not identical, but certainly related in
ame and origin to the inhabitants of the island Owil ( ‫ ﺃﻭﺍﻝ‬... As much as one is inclined to
ok for the Aualites .٠٠ on the island Owil.., it is nevertheless certain that Pliny was
inkng of a westerly, inland area. Thcre is in fact an Owal ( ‫ ﺃﻭﺍﻝ‬in the Hidji, called Owil
] Hidjiijja, which is very close to Es Suweida, about one day's journey northwest of
ledina on the pilgrim route from Egypt and Syria. Hamdani discusses the place in his
jeirat, p. 13, 1. 18f٤. Pliny's Aualites might thcn be the inhabitants of Owal el hidjai‫ﺯ‬ja,
2٠ in the area northwest of EI Medina ...That the name Owal in the east and in the interior
ows one to infer a relationship betveen the tribes involved, is self evident. Perhaps in
iny's day the Aualites were in fact only in the interior (near Medhina and later emigrated in
tr to the east, together perhaps with the Lihyanites; or perhaps these western tribes had
aways had branches on the Persian Gulf, so that movement back and forth took place in all
:riods' (Glaser 189: 81-83.

.G. Lormier, 198

According to tradition Awil was the name of the ifrst occupier (of the island, the brother
'a cenrain Na'asan whose name also is supposed to suvrive in that of Jarrat mm Na'asan'
pirmer 198: 186.

.B. Prideaux, 1912

Dne of their islands, Awal, is named after a god, and another of their gods was called
uharriq. At the present day Muharraq is the name of the second largest island and town in
e group, the town alone containing about 2, inhabitants' (Prideau; 1912: 62.

. Hommel, 1926

.. Now at the beginning of lslam the Arabic name of the island was wil, i.e. whale (1,
d the present name is Samak, which again means 'fish' ٠٠. and the Arabs report that wil
slao the name of an idol worshipped by the wto Wail tribes Bakr and Taghlib...
Cf. as documentation the verses of the Old Arabina poets cited by Yiqit 1, 395, Bakri131

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