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Chapter 11 - Arabian Names

from Part II - Non-Babylonian Names

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2024

By
Ahmad al-Jallad
Edited by
Caroline Waerzeggers  and
Melanie M. Groß
Caroline Waerzeggers
Affiliation:
Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, The Netherlands
Melanie M. Groß
Affiliation:
Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, The Netherlands

Summary

After discussing the historical processes that led to Arabian names being recorded in Babylonian texts, especially during the reign of Nabonidus in the mid-sixth century BCE, the chapter offers an extensive overview of the Arabian toponyms, ethnonyms, and anthroponyms that are attested in these records.

Keywords

Arabian names in Babylonian textstoponymsethnonymsanthroponymswawationtheophoric names
Type
Chapter
Information
Personal Names in Cuneiform Texts from Babylonia (c. 750–100 BCE)
An Introduction
 , pp. 185 - 193
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This content is Open Access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/cclicenses/

Introduction

The term ‘Arabian’ in cuneiform sources is primarily geographic, covering a range of toponyms, ethnonyms, and anthroponyms ultimately stemming from the arid regions to the west and south of Mesopotamia. As such, the term encompasses a wide array of languages, some known and attested independently in the Arabian epigraphic record, such as Sabaic and Taymanitic. In other cases, the cuneiform sources constitute our only evidence for the shadowy vernaculars of North Arabia and the Syrian Desert in the first millennium BCE. During this period, Arabia was home to several independent writing traditions that made use of variants of the South Semitic alphabet, a sister script to the Phoenico–Aramaic script. There thrived a rich writing culture in the south-western corner of the Peninsula, in what is today Yemen. Four principal languages are encountered in the epigraphic record: Sabaic, Minaic, Qatabanic, and Hadramitic (Reference Stein, Weninger, Khan, Streck and WatsonStein 2011). The oases of North and West Arabia also boasted their own scripts and dialects: Dadanitic (at Dadān, mod. al-ˁUlā), Taymanitic (at Taymāˀ), and Dumaitic (at Dūmat, mod. Dūmat al-Jandal) (Reference MacdonaldMacdonald 2000). These materials provide important comparanda when trying to identify Arabian names in cuneiform transcription and in trying to locate their source.

Historical Background

Beginning in the Neo-Assyrian period, contacts between Arabians and Mesopotamian states begin to increase. The Neo-Assyrians carried out several military campaigns against the inhabitants of northern Arabia, specifically targeting the oasis city of Adummatu, mod. Dūmat al-Jandal (Reference Eph‘alEph‘al 1984, 20–53). At the same time, these sources record a growing presence of Arabians in Babylonia (Reference Eph‘alEph‘al 1974). A number of inscriptions in the South Semitic alphabet – written on seals and clay tablets – have also been discovered in the environs of Babylonia, independently attesting to the presence of Arabian groups in the region (Reference SassSass 1991, 43–68).

Principles for Distinguishing Arabian Names in Babylonian Sources

Arabian names in Babylonian sources are usually identified on the basis of linguistic features that distinguish them from Northwest and East Semitic. One of the most salient isoglosses is the preservation of word-initial w, which has merged with y in the Northwest Semitic languages, and the presence of a non-etymological word-final u – what is termed wawation (Reference Al-Jallad, Donner and Hasselbach-AndeeAl-Jallad 2022). Arabian names are also identified based on their association with groups of people labelled ‘Arabian’ in the sources, as well as on the basis of etymology (Reference ZadokZadok 1981, §1). The number of Arabian anthroponyms, tribal names, and toponyms in first millennium BCE Babylonian sources is comparatively small but nevertheless attests to the growing presence of Arabians in southern Babylonia and the importance of Arabia in trade and other external affairs of the country.

Toponyms

In 552 BCE, Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, campaigned in North Arabia and conquered several oasis settlements. The Harran stele (Reference SchaudigSchaudig 2001, 486–99; Reference Weiershäuser and NovotnyWeiershäuser and Novotny 2020 no. 47) furnishes us with the longest list of Arabian toponyms:

  • urute-ma-a: This refers to the North Arabian oasis town of Taymāˀ, attested in the local Taymanitic inscriptions as tmˀ (Reference EskoubiEskoubi 1999, 239–41; Reference HayajnehHayajneh 2001, 81–95). It is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as תֵּימָא (Jeremiah 25:23).

  • uruda-da-(nu): Dadān was an important oasis to the southwest of Taymāˀ, also mentioned in Jeremiah 25:23 as דְּדָן. The town boasted its own script and writing tradition (Reference MacdonaldMacdonald 2000; Reference KootstraKootstra 2023). The name is attested both in the inscriptions of Taymāˀ and Dadān as ddn.

  • urupa-dak-ku: This renders fadak, an Arabian oasis southwest of Dadān, located near the modern site of al-Ḥāˀiṭ, and which carries the same name today (Reference Hausleiter and SchaudigHausleiter and Schaudig 2016, 236–7). It is unclear whether the plosive p in cuneiform transcription is a faithful representation of the town’s name or whether the use of pa- was simply an approximation of the spirantised f, characteristic of Arabic today. A cuneiform inscription of Nabonidus has been discovered at this site, possibly mentioning the name of the settlement as p[a-dak-ku] (Reference Hausleiter and SchaudigHausleiter and Schaudig 2016).

  • uruḫi-ib-ra-a: This appears to render the name of the oasis of Khaybar, which is about 60 kilometres as the bird flies southwest of Fadak. The spelling, however, does not match its current name, which goes back at least to the seventh century CE. Like te-ma-a, it appears that the oasis’ name in the middle of the first millennium BCE was Ḫibrāˀ.

  • uruiá-di-ḫu: This oasis lies about sixty kilometres south of pa-dak-ku and is known today as al-Ḥuwayyiṭ, but locals apparently still know the uninhabited site as yadīˁ (Hausleiter and Schaudig, forthcoming). The anthroponym ydˁ is common in the Ancient North Arabian inscriptions and may suggest that the town bore the name of a person (Reference HardingHarding 1971, 663).

  • uruiá-at-ri-bu: The final site on Nabonidus’ campaign is today the most well-known and important of these settlements, yaṯrib, the capital of Mohammad’s state and the site of his burial. The cuneiform spelling is a faithful transcription of the Arabian name. It is next attested in an undated Nabataean inscription from the area of al-ˁUlā (Reference Al-TheebAl-Theeb 2002 no. 163), and finally in Islamic-period sources, where its name was officially changed to al-Madīnah.

Ethnonyms

The Arabians mentioned in cuneiform sources belong to several social groups, ranging from the macro-identity, arab, to tribes and smaller clans and families.

  • lú/kura-ra-bi: The term ‘Arab’, which first appears in Neo-Assyrian documents, is an umbrella label covering the inhabitants of the ‘distant desert’ of North Arabia, and sometimes elsewhere. Not all whom this title encompasses identified as a self-conscious community or were necessarily speakers of a language we would call Arabic (Reference MacdonaldMacdonald 2009). By the eighth century BCE, Arabian groups had settled in southern Babylonia, in the territories of Bīt-Dakkūri and Bīt-Amukāni (Reference Eph‘alEph‘al 1974). A settlement called Ālu-ša-Arbāyi ‘City of the Arabians’ was located near Nippur (Reference ZadokZadok 1977, 224–7). It seems clear that arab was a macro-label encompassing several ethnic/social groups, as evidenced by the compound name te-mu-da-a ar-ba-a-a, which could refer to an Arabian, belonging to the tribe/clan of Thamūd (Reference ZadokZadok 1977, 224–7).

  • uruqi-da-ri: Reference ZadokZadok (1981, 66) suggests a connection between this toponym, which is attested in a Neo-Babylonian document from Nippur (BE 8/1 65), with Neo-Assyrian qid-ri-na, an Arabian settlement in Bīt-Dakkūri possibly named after the large Arabian confederacy of Qedar. The name is attested in the Bible (Gen 25:13; 1 Chron 1:29), and a Qedarite king, Gušam son of ˁAmru, offered a votive bowl to the deity hnˀlt ‘the Goddess’ at Tell al-Maskhūṭah in the Nile Delta (Reference RabinowitzRabinowitz 1956). The vocalisation in cuneiform transcription – alongside the spelling of the name in the Tell al-Maskhūṭah bowl as qdr – suggests an original pronunciation of qidar rather than qaydar.

  • lúsa-ba-ˀ, lúša-ba-ˀ-a-a: This term transcribes the name of one of the four principal states of South Arabia, sabaˀ, mentioned in the Bible as שְׁבָא (e.g., Gen 25:3). Some have suggested that the references to the Sabaeans in cuneiform texts are in fact to a trading outpost in the Ḥigāz, perhaps near Dadān, rather than to the kingdom itself (Reference Macdonald and AvanziniMacdonald 1997; Reference RetsöRetsö 2003, 135). The spelling of the name with sa in a Neo-Babylonian fragment in contrast to ša- in the southern Babylonian inscriptions from Sūḫu (Reference Zadok, Berlejung and StreckZadok 2013, 317; Reference DietrichDietrich 2003, 4) may suggest that the initial sibilant was not identical to either sound and was therefore approximated in different ways depending on the scribe.

  • lúta-am-da-a-a: Ran Zadok has connected this name with the famous Arabian tribe Thamūd (Reference Zadok, Berlejung and StreckZadok 2013, 317), attested already in Neo-Assyrian records. A close linguistic match may be found in the Jordanian toponym wādī ṯamad, in the area of Madaba. The form ṯmdn is attested once in Safaitic (KRS 2271) and would correspond to the anthroponym Itam-da-nu, which Zadok suspects is linguistically related to the tribal name (Reference Zadok, Berlejung and StreckZadok 2013, 317). The Arabic meaning of the root ṯmd is ‘to dig a well or channel’, and is comparable to the meaning of nbṭ, which later gives rise to the ethnonym nbṭ ‘Nabataean’.

Anthroponyms

One-Word Names with Wawation

  • Igu-da-du-u (Gudādû): This name appears to be formed with the qutāl noun pattern, which is quite common in the Arabic onomasticon (Reference Zadok, Berlejung and StreckZadok 2013, 318; 2004, 205). It may be compared to Safaitic gdd or Nabataean gdw (Reference NegevNegev 1991, 18), although the latter appears to belong to a different noun pattern. The basic sense of this root is ‘to cut’, but also gives rise to words meaning ‘lot’ and ‘fate’.

  • Ikal-li-lu-ú (Kallilû): Reference Zadok, Berlejung and StreckZadok (2013, 318) connects it with Aramaic klylˀ and Arabic iklīl ‘crown’. A similar name is attested in Safaitic as kll, but the vocalisation is unclear. G. Lankester Harding suggests a connection with Arabic kālilun ‘weary’ (Reference HardingHarding 1971, 504). Kll may be a divine name, if it is to be connected with the South Arabian ˁbdkllm ‘worshipper of kll’ (Reference HardingHarding 1971, 400) and the Arabic theophoric name ˁAbd-kulāl, preserved in Islamic-period sources.

  • Ibal-ta5-mu-ˀ (Baltam(mu); Reference Zadok, Berlejung and StreckZadok (2013, 319)): The root bśm is common to Arabic and Northwest Semitic, but wawation suggests that this name has an Arabic source. The name bśm is attested at Taymāˀ, and Palmyra bsm (Reference StarkStark 1971, 11). The word seems ultimately to come from a Northwest Semitic source meaning ‘spice’, ‘perfume’, Aramaic besmā.

  • Is/šam-šu-ˀ (Šamšu; Reference Zadok, Lipschits and BlenkinsoppZadok 2003, 532): This name is derived from the common Semitic word for ‘sun’. The name śms is common in Safaitic (Reference HardingHarding 1971, 258), and may be a shortened form of the theophoric name ˁAbd-śams ‘worshipper of Shams’, which is common in the Arabic onomasticon until the rise of Islam (Reference CaskellCaskell 1966, 131), of which this name could be a hypocoristic form.

  • Išab-pu-ú (Šabbû): Zadok connects this name with the Arabic root šbb ‘to cut’ (Reference Zadok, Berlejung and StreckZadok 2013, 308), but it is also possible to see in it the sense of ‘youth’. The name is common in Ancient North Arabian, attested as śb in Safaitic and Hismaic, and a possible diminutive form in Dadanitic, śbb (Reference HardingHarding 1971, 337). The name šby is attested in Nabataean (Reference NegevNegev 1991, 61), as well as in Palmyrene (Reference StarkStark 1971, 50), perhaps with a hypocoristic y.

  • Izu-uḫ-ru-ˀ (Zuḫru): This wawated name is given in Aramaic transcription as zˁrˀ, which Zadok interprets as the replacement of wawation with an Aramaic hypocoristic ending ˀ (Reference Zadok, Berlejung and StreckZadok 2013, 318). The Aramaic spelling may further suggest that its original vocalisation was zuġru ‘small’. This spelling does not find any parallels in the Ancient North Arabian onomasticon, but note that the root for ‘small’ is in fact zġr in many modern Arabic vernaculars. One can rule out late Aramaic influence as the phoneme ġayn is preserved; thus, it seems to be a native Arabic biform of the root.

  • Iia-ˀ-lu-u/ú (Yālû): Reference Zadok, Berlejung and StreckZadok (2013, 318) identifies this as a form of the name wˀlw, which is widely attested in the Ancient North Arabian onomasticon (Reference HardingHarding 1971, 645). This connection posits a change of w > y, which is typical of the Northwest Semitic languages and in the local vernacular of Taymāˀ (Reference KootstraKootstra 2016, 84–5), and may suggest that the name was drawn from that area. On the other hand, one might see in this name a prefix-conjugated verb, yaˁlu ‘to go up’. The personal name yˁly, which reflects a confusion of the w and y in the root ˁlw, is common in Ancient North Arabian (Reference HardingHarding 1971, 677) and Nabataean (Reference NegevNegev 1991, 34). A similar confusion of roots is encountered in the Arabian name ia-u-ta-ˀ, attested in Neo-Assyrian sources (Reference Eph‘alEph‘al 1974, 111), which appears to correspond with Safaitic yṯˁ, attested in Greek transcription as ιαιθεου (Reference Winnett and HardingWinnett and Harding 1978 no. 3562 and Greek 2).

One-Word Names Derived from Verbs

Iia-a-šu-pi: Reference Zadok, Berlejung and StreckZadok (2013, 319) connects this name with Arabic Yasūf, from swf ‘to endure’. While such a name is not attested in the Ancient North Arabian onomasticon, the name yśf is found once in Safaitic (CEDSQM 15) and attested in Sabaic and Qatabanic (DASI, s.v.). The name would appear to be a prefix-conjugated form of the root śwf ‘to adorn’. The representation of Arabian s2, a lateral sibilant, with šu rather than lt, as in baltam (see ‘One-Word Names with Wawation’), may suggest inconsistency in the representation of this foreign sound, similar to the representation of Sabaic s1 in the name sabaˀ.

One-Word Names With the ān Termination

The final -ān termination appears to be a hypocoristic suffix commonly used in Arabic names. Names of this sort do not take wawation in Nabataean and the same rule appears to be observed in cuneiform sources.

Theophoric Names

The commonest theophoric element in Arabian names in pre-Islamic times is ˀil ‘god’; this holds true in both South Arabian and in the Ancient North Arabian inscriptions. Other elements like ˀab ‘father’, ˀaḫ ‘brother’ are attested as well. Arabian names in Neo-Babylonian sources reflect these trends.

References

Further Reading

For an overview of Arabs in cuneiform sources, see Israel Eph‘al (1984) and Jan Retsö (2003). On Arabs in Babylonia during the eighth century BCE, see Israel Eph‘al (1974). The works of Ran Zadok on the Arabian onomasticon in cuneiform sources are indispensable; for the latest summary, see Zadok (2013) and the bibliography there. See Benjamin Sass (1991) on Arabian inscriptions in Babylonia.

Al-Jallad, A. 2022. ‘One wāw to rule them all: the origin and fate of wawation in Arabic’ in Donner, F. M. and Hasselbach-Andee, R. (eds.), Scripts and Scripture: Writing and Religion in Arabia circa 500–700 CE. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Al-Theeb, S. 2002. Nuqūsh Jabal Umm Jadhāyidh al-Nabaṭiyyah. Riyadh: Maktabat al- Malik Fahd al-Waṭaniyya.Google Scholar
Caskell, W. 1966. Ǧamharat an-nasab. Das genealogische Werk des Hišām ibn Muḥammad al-Kalbī, Vol. 2. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Dietrich, M. 2003. The Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.Google Scholar
Eph‘al, I. 1974. ‘“Arabs” in Babylonia in the 8th century BC’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 94/1: 108–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eph‘al, I. 1984. The Ancient Arabs: Nomads on the Borders of the Fertile Crescent, 9th–5th Centuries BC. Jerusalem: Magnes Press/Hebrew University.Google Scholar
Eskoubi, Ḫ. M. 1999. Dirāsah taḥlīliyyah muqāranah li-nuqūš min minṭaqah (rum) ǧanūb ġarb taymāˀ. Riyāḍ: wazīrat al-maˁārif.Google Scholar
Harding, G. L. 1971. An Index and Concordance of Pre-Islamic Arabian Names and Inscriptions. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Hausleiter, A. and Schaudig, H. 2016. ‘Rock relief and cuneiform inscriptions of king Nabonidus at al-Ḥāˀiṭ (province of Ḥāˀil, Saudi Arabia), ancient Padakku’, Zeitschrift für Orient-Archäologie 9, 224–40.Google Scholar
Hayajneh, H. 2001. ‘First evidence of Nabonidus in the ancient North Arabian inscriptions from the region of Taymāˀ’, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 31, 81–95.Google Scholar
Kootstra, F. 2016. ‘The language of the Taymanitic inscriptions and its classification’, Arabian Epigraphic Notes 2, 67–140.Google Scholar
Kootstra, F. 2023. The Writing Culture of Ancient Dadan. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A. 1997. ‘Trade routes and trade goods at the northern end of the “Incense Road” in the first millennium BC’ in Avanzini, A. (ed.), Profumi d’Arabia: atti del convegno, Saggi di storia antica 11. Rome: L’ “Erma” di Bretschneider, pp. 333–49.Google Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A. 2000. ‘Reflections on the linguistic map of pre-Islamic Arabia’, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 11, 39–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A. 2009. ‘Arabs, Arabias, and Arabic before late antiquity’, Topoi 16, 277–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Negev, A. 1991. Personal Names in the Nabatean Realm. Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University.Google Scholar
Rabinowitz, A. 1956. ‘Aramaic inscriptions of the fifth century BCE from a North-Arab shrine in Egypt’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 15/1, 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Retsö, J. 2003. The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sass, B. 1991. Studia Alphabetica: On the Origin and Early History of the Northwest Semitic, South Semitic and Greek Alphabets, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 102. Freiburg/Göttingen: Universitätsverlag/Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Schaudig, H. 2001. Die Inschriften Nabonids von Babylon und Kyros’ des Großen, samt den in ihrem Umfeld entstandenen Tendenzschriften. Textausgabe und Grammatik, Alter Orient und Altes Testament 256. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Google Scholar
Stark, J. K. 1971. Personal Names in Palmyrene Inscriptions. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Stein, P. 2011. ‘Ancient South Arabian’ in Weninger, S., Khan, G., Streck, M. P., and Watson, J. C. E. (eds.), The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook. Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft 36. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 1042–72.Google Scholar
Streck, M. P. 1999. ‘Review of S. W. Cole 1996. The Early Neo-Babylonian Governor’s Archive from Nippur’, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 89, 286–95.Google Scholar
Weiershäuser, F. and Novotny, J. 2020. The Royal Inscriptions of Amēl-Marduk (561–560 BC), Neriglissar (559–556 BC), and Nabonidus (555–539 BC), Kings of Babylon, Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian Empire 2. University Park: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Winnett, F. V. and Harding, G. L. 1978. Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Zadok, R. 1977. On West Semites in Babylonia During the Chaldean and Achaemenian Periods. An Onomastic Study. Jerusalem: Wanaarta.Google Scholar
Zadok, R. 1981. ‘Arabians in Mesopotamia during the Late-Assyrian, Chaldean, Achaemenian and Hellenistic periods chiefly according to the cuneiform sources’, Zeitschrift der Deutsschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 131/1, 42–84.Google Scholar
Zadok, R. 2003. ‘The representation of foreigners in Neo- and Late Babylonian legal documents (eighth through second centuries BCE)’ in Lipschits, O. and Blenkinsopp, J. (eds.), Judah and the Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian Period. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, pp. 471–589.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zadok, R. 2013. ‘The onomastics of the Chaldean, Aramean, and Arabian tribes in Babylonia during the first millennium’ in Berlejung, A. and Streck, M. P. (eds.), Arameans, Chaldeans, and Arabs in Babylonia and Palestine in the First Millennium BC, Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien 3. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp. 261–336.Google Scholar
Al-Jallad, A. 2022. ‘One wāw to rule them all: the origin and fate of wawation in Arabic’ in Donner, F. M. and Hasselbach-Andee, R. (eds.), Scripts and Scripture: Writing and Religion in Arabia circa 500–700 CE. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Al-Theeb, S. 2002. Nuqūsh Jabal Umm Jadhāyidh al-Nabaṭiyyah. Riyadh: Maktabat al- Malik Fahd al-Waṭaniyya.Google Scholar
Caskell, W. 1966. Ǧamharat an-nasab. Das genealogische Werk des Hišām ibn Muḥammad al-Kalbī, Vol. 2. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Dietrich, M. 2003. The Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.Google Scholar
Eph‘al, I. 1974. ‘“Arabs” in Babylonia in the 8th century BC’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 94/1: 108–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eph‘al, I. 1984. The Ancient Arabs: Nomads on the Borders of the Fertile Crescent, 9th–5th Centuries BC. Jerusalem: Magnes Press/Hebrew University.Google Scholar
Eskoubi, Ḫ. M. 1999. Dirāsah taḥlīliyyah muqāranah li-nuqūš min minṭaqah (rum) ǧanūb ġarb taymāˀ. Riyāḍ: wazīrat al-maˁārif.Google Scholar
Harding, G. L. 1971. An Index and Concordance of Pre-Islamic Arabian Names and Inscriptions. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Hausleiter, A. and Schaudig, H. 2016. ‘Rock relief and cuneiform inscriptions of king Nabonidus at al-Ḥāˀiṭ (province of Ḥāˀil, Saudi Arabia), ancient Padakku’, Zeitschrift für Orient-Archäologie 9, 224–40.Google Scholar
Hayajneh, H. 2001. ‘First evidence of Nabonidus in the ancient North Arabian inscriptions from the region of Taymāˀ’, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 31, 81–95.Google Scholar
Kootstra, F. 2016. ‘The language of the Taymanitic inscriptions and its classification’, Arabian Epigraphic Notes 2, 67–140.Google Scholar
Kootstra, F. 2023. The Writing Culture of Ancient Dadan. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A. 1997. ‘Trade routes and trade goods at the northern end of the “Incense Road” in the first millennium BC’ in Avanzini, A. (ed.), Profumi d’Arabia: atti del convegno, Saggi di storia antica 11. Rome: L’ “Erma” di Bretschneider, pp. 333–49.Google Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A. 2000. ‘Reflections on the linguistic map of pre-Islamic Arabia’, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 11, 39–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, M. C. A. 2009. ‘Arabs, Arabias, and Arabic before late antiquity’, Topoi 16, 277–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Negev, A. 1991. Personal Names in the Nabatean Realm. Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University.Google Scholar
Rabinowitz, A. 1956. ‘Aramaic inscriptions of the fifth century BCE from a North-Arab shrine in Egypt’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 15/1, 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Retsö, J. 2003. The Arabs in Antiquity: Their History from the Assyrians to the Umayyads. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sass, B. 1991. Studia Alphabetica: On the Origin and Early History of the Northwest Semitic, South Semitic and Greek Alphabets, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 102. Freiburg/Göttingen: Universitätsverlag/Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Schaudig, H. 2001. Die Inschriften Nabonids von Babylon und Kyros’ des Großen, samt den in ihrem Umfeld entstandenen Tendenzschriften. Textausgabe und Grammatik, Alter Orient und Altes Testament 256. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Google Scholar
Stark, J. K. 1971. Personal Names in Palmyrene Inscriptions. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Stein, P. 2011. ‘Ancient South Arabian’ in Weninger, S., Khan, G., Streck, M. P., and Watson, J. C. E. (eds.), The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook. Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft 36. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 1042–72.Google Scholar
Streck, M. P. 1999. ‘Review of S. W. Cole 1996. The Early Neo-Babylonian Governor’s Archive from Nippur’, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie 89, 286–95.Google Scholar
Weiershäuser, F. and Novotny, J. 2020. The Royal Inscriptions of Amēl-Marduk (561–560 BC), Neriglissar (559–556 BC), and Nabonidus (555–539 BC), Kings of Babylon, Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian Empire 2. University Park: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Winnett, F. V. and Harding, G. L. 1978. Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Zadok, R. 1977. On West Semites in Babylonia During the Chaldean and Achaemenian Periods. An Onomastic Study. Jerusalem: Wanaarta.Google Scholar
Zadok, R. 1981. ‘Arabians in Mesopotamia during the Late-Assyrian, Chaldean, Achaemenian and Hellenistic periods chiefly according to the cuneiform sources’, Zeitschrift der Deutsschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 131/1, 42–84.Google Scholar
Zadok, R. 2003. ‘The representation of foreigners in Neo- and Late Babylonian legal documents (eighth through second centuries BCE)’ in Lipschits, O. and Blenkinsopp, J. (eds.), Judah and the Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian Period. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, pp. 471–589.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zadok, R. 2013. ‘The onomastics of the Chaldean, Aramean, and Arabian tribes in Babylonia during the first millennium’ in Berlejung, A. and Streck, M. P. (eds.), Arameans, Chaldeans, and Arabs in Babylonia and Palestine in the First Millennium BC, Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien 3. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp. 261–336.Google Scholar

References

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  • Arabian Names
  • Edited by Caroline Waerzeggers, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, The Netherlands, Melanie M. Groß, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, The Netherlands
  • Book: Personal Names in Cuneiform Texts from Babylonia (c. 750–100 BCE)
  • Online publication: 02 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009291071.013
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  • Arabian Names
  • Edited by Caroline Waerzeggers, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, The Netherlands, Melanie M. Groß, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, The Netherlands
  • Book: Personal Names in Cuneiform Texts from Babylonia (c. 750–100 BCE)
  • Online publication: 02 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009291071.013
Available formats
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  • Arabian Names
  • Edited by Caroline Waerzeggers, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, The Netherlands, Melanie M. Groß, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, The Netherlands
  • Book: Personal Names in Cuneiform Texts from Babylonia (c. 750–100 BCE)
  • Online publication: 02 January 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009291071.013
Available formats
×