Workshop: Documents/Inscriptions from pre-Islamic Southern Arabia, Institute for Advanced Study

Documents/Inscriptions from pre-Islamic Southern Arabia A series of hands-on lectures by Christian Robin (IAS School of Historical Studies and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). There are two objectives. The first to give an overview of the epigraphic documentation of pre-Islamic Arabia and existing tools, and the second to present the state of the art on some of the issues for which significant progress has been made in recent years, through new epigraphic discoveries and the re-examination of older documents.

The topics are:

• Arabs and Ḥimyarites; shaʿb and ʿashīrat; the introduction of the horse.
• The territorial extension of the kingdom of Ḥimyar; the “kingdom” of Kinda.
• Judaism of Ḥimyar; the names of God, especially Raḥmānān.
• The reign of Abraha; the Christianity of Ḥimyar; Christian Arabs.
• The polytheistic god al-Lāh (comparison with alLāt); Daughters of Īl.
• The tribal map and Arab-Islamic genealogies; permanence and breaks.
• Arab-Muslim scholarly tradition and archeology (writing, ritual practices, political history, chronology).
• Arabic language and South Arabian languages
• Long distance trade
• Public finances

REVISED DATES: January 21, 23, 28, 30, and February 3, 2020

Time: 4-6 pm

Location: Fuld Hall room 307, IAS

This event is part of the Near Eastern Studies Workshops sponsored by Professor Sabine Schmidtke. Knowledge of a Semitic language, ideally Arabic, is recommended.

RSVP to nitschke@ias.edu.