Page 148 - Arabian Studies (I)

132 Arabian Studies I
NOTES

1. Cf. Lisffn al-cArab and al-Qamus al-MuhTt, followed by the European
lexica, Golius, Freytag and Lane. For the academic conjecture to which I refer,
cf. Sir J. W. Redhouse, The Pearl-Strings: a History of the Resuliyy Dynasty of
Yemen (al-Khazrajfs al-cUqiid al-Lu'lu'Tyah), Leyden and London 1906-18(5
vols.), Ill, 137, n. 889, where in this note on the village Redhouse mentions in
the following order rats, mice, lizards and a kind of tree. Only after this list does
he mention flowing water. Cf. also 0. Lofgren, Arabische Texte zur Kenntnis der
Stadt Aden in Mittelalter, Uppsala 1936-50 (2 vols.), 113 and Index II,
Ortsnamen, 94, who has Thucbat without explanation. H.C. Kay, Yaman, its
early Mediaeval History, London, 1892, 267, n. 57 and Geographical Index,
offers Thacbat. Husayn b. cAlf al-Waysf, al-Yaman al-Kubra, Cairo 1962, 39,
gives Thacbat. Ma thacb/thacab means flowing water, while the noun thacb is
the wadi bed, plur. thucban. Thucbah is a rat or lizard, thucban a serpent and
thucbah or tha?b a species of mountain tree.
2. al-WaysT al-Yaman, 39.
3. C. Niebuhr, Description de TArabie, Amsterdam and Utrecht 1774, 211.
He says: ‘.. . Thobad dont il reste encore une partie des murailles et deux
mosquees.’
4. These were the only two mosques located in the village during a visit in
August 1972. If the locals are correct about the date of the jam?, this would
mean of course that it was not standing at the time of Niebuhr’s visit in 1763.
Either this information is incorrect and the jam? is older, or Niebuhr saw
another mosque not now standing in the village. See previous note. When pressed
about this al-Mu’ayyad, my informants insisted that he was the Zaydf imam and
not the Rasulid sultan. I am not, however, entirely convinced that they are not
mistaking the ruler concerned for the Rasulid of that name, in which case the
mosque could be Rasulid, and even that of al-Mujahid, the son of al-Mu’ayyad,
! described below in the historical notes.
5. M. Michaelis, Recueil de Questions Proposees a une Societe de Savants,
etc., Amsterdam and Utrecht 1774, Tab. IX at the end of the book.
6. Abu c Abdallah Baha’ al-Dfn al-Janadf, Kitab al-Suluk ff Tabaqat
al-cUlama’ wa’l-Muliik, Chester Beatty Library MS., No. 3110, ii, f. 178b; Yahya
b. al-Husayn, Ghayat al-Amaru fi A khbar al-Qu(r al-Yamam, Cairo 1968 (2
vols.), 301. Cf. also H. C. Kay, Yaman, 267, n. 56.
7. cUmarah al-Yamanf, TarTkh al-Yaman (Kay, Yaman), 37 and 56. Cf. also
Ghayat, 301.
8. The best, and certainly the most detailed, source for the history of the
Ayyubids in the Yemen is Kitab al-Simt al-GhalTal-Thaman fiAkhbar al-Muliik
min al-Ghuzz bri-Yaman by Badr al-Dfn Muhammad b. Hatim al-Yamf
al-Hamdanf, an edition of which the present writer has in the press. The book
also covers the reigns of the first two Rasulid sultans. Cf. C. Brockelmann,
Geschichte der Arabische Literatur, Leiden 1937-49 (2 vols., 3 supps.), I, 323
and Supp. 1,555.
9. Simt, British Museum MS., Add. 27, 541, ff. 114b— 115a, whose author
refers to Thacbat as mustaqarr al-mamlakah\cUqud, IV, 275; Lofgren, Arabische
Texte (Abu Makhramah), 182; Ghayat, 475.