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44 Arabia Arabic-Jewish Philosophy

without mentioning any particular locality. As regards the passage Lam. R. iii. 7, it is doubtful whether "Sugar" (thus in Buber's The Land, edition) is the name of a place at all, although Arabia lias towns bearing the names of " Sajur " and " Sawajir. " It is evident, from a remark in the Tosefta (Ber. iv. 16) and the Midrash (Gen. R. lxxxiv. 16), that the Arabs traded only in skins and naphtha, and not in spices and sweet-scented stuffs, and that southern Arabia must therefore have been altogether unknown to the Jews of Palestine.

The Arabs are spoken of as typical nomads. A very ancient source (Ohalot xviii. 10) speaks of their tents as unstable abodes, because the occupants wandered about from one place to another. Thus the settled Arameans looked down with contempt upon the Arabs, to whom, about the }r ear 70, the phrase " contemptible nation " (rpSK> DD1N) came to be applied (Ket. 666) and even in later times it was regarded as most humiliating for a woman to marry an Arab (Yer. Ned., end). Concerning the gods of the Arabs, mention is made ('Ab. Zarah US) of the idol Nashra (or Nishra), a deity revered by the tribes of both the south and the north (see Wellhausen, "Reste Arabischen Heidenthums," 2d

(Shab. vi. 6; see Rashi's reference to the passage, p. 65a) that it was already then the custom for women— even for Jewesses living in Arabia— when they went out-of-doors, to cover the entire face, exIn their journeys in the cept the eyes, with a veil. desert the men, too, used a face-cloth, about an ell square, as a protection from the flying sand (M. K. 24a; Mishnah Kelim xxix. 1; compare commentary Among the Jews, however, this covof Hai Gaon). ering of the face was customary only as a sign of

mourning (M. K. I.e.). There was, furthermore, a difference between the sandals of the Arabians and those of the Arameans, the latter being provided with an easy lacing arrangement, whereas the former were bound firmly to the feet with leather thongs (Shab. 112a; Yeb. 102a; compare Hananeel on the passage in Shab. which is also cited in Aruk, Of the s.v. nan, ed. Kohut, iii. 436a).

and the literature cited there). The passage states that this god's temple was open the year round; and it is further recorded that the "hajj [annual pilgrimage] of the Tayites" OjT'tn NDJn) was not always held upon the same date, or (according peculiar to Rashi) not regularly every year. religious custom is mentioned (Yer. Ta'an. ii. 656; Midrash Jonah, in Jellinek, "B. H." i. 100, and Ta'anit 16a). The tribes are also especially characterized as being given to immoral excesses; and the proverb runs that " the Arabs are guilty of ninetenths of all the immorality in the world " (Kid. 496 Esther R. [i. 3] however, has " Alexandria " in place of "Arabia," and assigns to the Ishmaelites nine measures of "stupidity " [DlE'StS]). In a passage badly mutilated by censors (Shab. 11a) Abba Arika (Rab), who lived about the first half of the third century, remarks that he would rather be ruled by an Ishmaelite than by a Roman, and by a Roman rather than by a Parsee. A century later, however, conditions seem Habits and to have changed for the worse. It is Customs known that in the first half of the of the fourth century the Arabs seized the People. lands of both Jewish and non-Jewish inhabitants of Pumbedita, and compelled the rich proprietors to make out deeds of sale Similar conditions at that to them (B. B. 1686). time prevailed at Nehardea, where it was unsafe to leave cattle unguarded in the fields because the Arabs (Bedouins) that frequented the district stole whatever was within their reach (ib. 36m). Interesting, also, as bearing upon the life of the Arabs, are the allusions in the Mishnah to " the caldron of the Arabs," by which is meant an improvised fireplace for baking, and which consisted of a cavity, lined with clay, in the ground (Men. v. 9 Kelim v. 10). At a much later period, the chief food of the Arabs seems to have consisted of meat (Hul. 396). As to the garb of the Arabs, the Mishnah states ed., p. 23,

A

,



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,

Weapons, arms

of the

Arabs

binical literature.





44

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

little is

said in rab-

Their usual weapon

on their travels through the desert was the spear (B. B. 74a) and a small shield is mentioned as having been also used in mock combats (Kelim xxiv. 1). Another Arabian custom noted in the Talmud is that of wrapping meat in the skin of the animal and carrying it homo on the shoulders from the slaughMention is also made of the ter-houses (Pes. 656). wonderful faculty the Arabs were held to possess, of ascertaining, by merely smelling the ground, how far removed they were from a spring or other source of water (B. B. 736). The Arabs are represented in Jewish sources as magicians and idolaters of the lowest type. An authority of the third century relates that he himself witnessed an Arab slaughter a sheep in order to make predictions from its liver (Lam. R., introduction, xxiii.). Another source of about the same period notes that the Arabs worshiped the dust that remained clinging to their feet (B. M. Religion 866). In regard to the language of and the Arabs, Jewish sources contain Language, more than twelve "Arabic" words,

expressly designated as such, which Brilll, not all of which, however, are really Arabic. Thus, for instance, for 'awila, "boy" (Gen. R. xxxvi., beginning), is given the Arabic 'aiyil; for patia, "youth" (ib. lxxxvii.), Arabic, fatan; while the other words adita, " robbery, " mkkaia, " prophet, " and others, are originally Aramaic words used >j the Nabatoeans. Other words, again, ikeyubla, "ram," kabaa', "to rob, "can not be found either in the Arabic or in any dialect of the Aramaic, and can only refer to the dialect of Arabian Jews. See Ishmabl and Rabba bar bar

have been collected by

=

Hana. Bibliography



rsrull,

FremdsjwachUche Redensarten und

Augdrttckllch ate Fre mdxpraclilich Bezelchnete W/irter in den Talmuden und Midrasehim, 1869, pp. 4046; Frankel, AramUteche FremdwOrter, pp. 2, 38, 39: Noldeke. in Z. D. M. O., xxv. 123. J.

SK.

ARABIAN" NIGHTS

L. G.

Popular name of a collection of tales written in Arabic under the title " Alf Lailat wa Lailah " (One Thousand and One Nights),

and rendered familiar to all Europe by Galland's French adaptation of 1703-1717. The constituent