Leg over Leg: Volumes One and Two

2.1.11

Dear God, how much blood they have shed! How many a soldier they have destroyed! How many a virgin’s honor they have defiled! How many a time they have violated the sanctity of the home, thrown men into confusion before their families, tormented bachelors, made wives into widows and sons into orphans, reduced houses to ruins, pillaged wealth, ripped veils from the faces of decent women, made off with treasure chests, ravished that which was protected, and violated sanctuaries! Were such things done by those who, before them, were custodians of

al-Anṣāb,

“al-Anṣāb were stones that formerly stood around the Kaaba [of Mecca] at which they used to celebrate and make sacrifice to other than God Almighty”

or al-Kaʿabāt,

“al-Kaʿabāt, or Dhū al-Kaʿabāt, was a holy house that belonged to the tribe of Rabīʿah which they used to circumambulate”

or al-Rabbah,

“a kaaba belonging to the tribe of Madhḥij”

or Buss,

“a holy house belonging to the tribe of Ghaṭafān built by Ẓālim ibn Asʿad when he saw Quraysh circumambulating the Kaaba of Mecca and running between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah: he measured the holy house [of the Kaaba], took a stone from al-Ṣafā and a stone from al-Marwah, and then returned to his people, built a holy house of the same size as the house [of Mecca], set down the two stones, and said, ‘These are al-Ṣafā and al-Marwah’ and he set up his own pilgrimage to rival that of Mecca. Then Zuhayr ibn Janāb al-Kalbī raided [Ghaṭafān] and killed Ẓālim and demolished his house”

or ʿAbdat Marḥab,

“an idol that used to be in Haḍramawt”

or al-ʿAbʿab,

“an idol”

or al-Ghabghab,

“an idol”

or Yaghūth,

“an idol belonging to the tribe of Madhḥij”

or al-Bajjah and al-Sajjah,

“two idols”

or Saʿd,

“an idol belonging to the Banū Milkān”

2.1.12

or Wadd,

“an idol; also spelled Wudd”

or Āzar,

“an idol”

or Bājar,

“an idol worshipped by the tribe of al-Azd; also pronounced Bājir”

or Jihār,

“an idol of the tribe of Hawāzin”

or al-Dawwār,

“an idol; also pronounced al-Duwwār”

or al-Dār,

“an idol, after whom ʿAbd al-Dār, the founder of a clan [of the tribe of Quraysh], was named”

or Suʿayr,

“an idol”

or al-Uqayṣir,

“an idol”

or Kathrā,

“an idol belonging to Jadīs and Ṭasm³⁹² that was broken to pieces by Nahshal ibn al-Raʾīs, who then attached himself to the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace”

or al-Ḍimār,

“an idol worshipped by al-ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās³⁹³ and his company”

2.1.13

or Nasr,

“an idol of the Dhū l-Kilāʿ tribe in the land of Himyar”

or Shams,

“an ancient idol”

or ʿUmyānis,

“an idol belonging to the tribe of Khawlān by whom they would swear against their flocks and their crops”

or al-Fils,

“an idol belonging to the tribe of Ṭayyiʾ”

or Juraysh,

“an idol of the Days of Barbarism”

or al-Khalaṣah,

“an idol that was in a holy house called ‘the Yemeni Kaaba’ belonging to the tribe of Khathʿam”

or ʿAwḍ,

“an idol belonging to the tribe of Bakr ibn Wā’il”

or Isāf,

“an idol set up by ʿAmr ibn Luḥayy³⁹⁴ at al-Ṣafā”

or Nāʾilah,

“another idol that he set up at al-Marwah; sacrifices were made both to it and the preceding” (according to one definition)

or al-Muḥarriqah,

“an idol belonging to the tribe of Bakr ibn Wāʾil”

2.1.14

or al-Shāriq,

“an idol of the Days of Barbarism”

or al-Baʿl,

“an idol that belonged to the people of Ilyās, peace be upon him”³⁹⁵

or Suwāʿ,

“an idol worshipped in the days of Nūḥ, peace be upon him; it was submerged by the Flood, then Satan made it reappear, and it was worshipped and came to belong to the tribe of Hudhayl and pilgrimage was made to it”

or al-Kusʿah,

“an idol”

or al-ʿAwf,

“an idol”

or Dhū al-Kaffayn,

“an idol belonging to the tribe of Daws”

or Manāf,

“an idol”

or Yaʿūq,

“an idol belonging to the people of Nūḥ, or a righteous man of his time who died, and when they mourned for him, Satan came to them in the shape of a person and told them, ‘I shall make you a representation of him in your sanctum so that you shall see him whenever you pray’; so they did that with him and with seven of their righteous men after him, and in the end things reached a point at which they took these representations as idols and worshipped them”

or al-Ashhal,

“an idol who gave his name to the tribe of Banū ʿAbd al-Ashhal Luḥayy, of the Arabs”

or Hubal,

“an idol that was in the Kaaba”

2.1.15

or Yālīl,

“an idol”

or al-Baʿīm,

“an idol; also a statue made of wood and a doll made of condiment”

or al-Asḥam,

“an idol”

or Nuhm,

“an idol belonging to the tribe of Muzaynah, whence the name ʿAbd Nuhm”

or ʿĀʾim,

“an idol”

or al-Ḍayzan,

“an idol”

or al-Madān,

“an idol”

or al-Jabhah,

“an idol”

or al-Lāt,

“an idol” belonging to the tribe of Thaqīf “named after a man in whose house parched barley meal used to be moistened (yulattu) with clarified butter; then the word was shortened”; it is to be found in ʿUrwah’s hadith “al-Rabbah”³⁹⁶

or Dhū al-Sharā,

“an idol belonging to the tribe of Daws”

2.1.16

or al-ʿUzzā,

“an idol, or a gum-acacia tree, that was worshipped by [the tribe of] Ghaṭafān, the first to adopt it as an idol being Ẓālim ibn Asʿad; at the top of Dhāt ʿIrq,³⁹⁷ nine miles from al-Bustān. He built a holy house over it and called it Buss, and they used to hear a voice inside. The Prophet (God grant him blessings and peace) sent Khālid ibn al-Walīd, and he knocked down the house and burned the tree”