The ARABI (Arabs Recount Arabia Before Islam) series aims to investigate the narration about pre-Islamic Arabia built in the Arab-Muslim Tradition and compare it, whence possible, with the historical data resumed from direct (epigraphic and archaeological) and external sources.
Each volume introduces some short tales, both in Arabic original and English translation, as examples of how the Tradition itself recorded and re-narrated events and characters of Pre-Islamic Arabian history; these stories are selected preferably among unpublished texts or texts which are not yet translated in English. The tales are preceded by a brief critical study discussing the historical and cultural context either those same tales are framed in, or the sources narrating those tales were collected and written down.
Introduction: Story before History
Handling the sources of Arabic historiography on Pre-Islamic Arabia
Himyar Dynasty
Inventions and inventiones of the Arabic-Islamic Tradition about the sequence of the Himyar dynasty
Tales
1. The legacy of Saba'
2. The birth of Abu Karib As'ad al-Kamil
3. Why Bilqis, instead of a man, ruled over Himyar?
4. The four kings and their sister Abda'a
5. The story of king Yusuf Du Nuwas
Bibliographical references
Table
Stratigraphy, Architecture, Material Culture
The IMTO excavations of Bronze and Iron Age remains on Jabal Salut
