Allah Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==History of usage== ===Pre-Islamic Arabians=== {{See also|Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia}}{{Middle Eastern deities}} Regional variants of the word ''Allah'' occur in both pagan and Christian pre-Islamic inscriptions.<ref name="Robin304"/><ref>{{cite book | last = Hitti | first = Philip Khouri | title = History of the Arabs | publisher = Palgrave Macmillan | year = 1970 | pages = 100–101}}</ref> Different theories have been proposed regarding the role of Allah in pre-Islamic [[Polytheism|polytheistic cults]]. According to the Islamic scholar [[Ibn Kathir]], Arab pagans considered Allah as an unseen God who created and controlled the Universe. Pagans believed worship of humans or animals who had lucky events in their life brought them closer to God. Pre-Islamic Meccans worshiped Allah alongside a host of lesser gods and those whom they called the "daughters of Allah."<ref name="auto"/> Islam forbade worship of anyone or anything other than God.<ref>{{Cite book|last=IslamKotob|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uTJoiXp3pS4C|title=Tafsir Ibn Kathir all 10 volumes|publisher=IslamKotob|language=en}}</ref> Some authors have suggested that polytheistic Arabs used the name as a reference to a [[creator god]] or a supreme deity of their [[Pantheon (religion)|pantheon]].<ref name="EoI"/><ref>Zeki Saritopak, ''Allah'', The Qu'ran: An Encyclopedia, ed. by Oliver Leaman, p. 34</ref> The term may have been vague in the [[Mecca|Meccan religion]].<ref name="EoI">L. Gardet, ''Allah'', Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. by [[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb|Sir H.A.R. Gibb]]</ref><ref name="GodEoQ">Gerhard Böwering, ''God and his Attributes'', Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, ed. by [[Jane Dammen McAuliffe]]</ref> According to one hypothesis, which goes back to [[Julius Wellhausen]], Allah (the supreme deity of the tribal federation around [[Quraysh]]) was a designation that consecrated the superiority of [[Hubal]] (the supreme deity of Quraysh) over the other gods.<ref name="Robin304"/> However, there is also evidence that Allah and Hubal were two distinct deities.<ref name="Robin304"/> According to that hypothesis, the [[Kaaba]] was first consecrated to a supreme deity named Allah and then hosted the pantheon of Quraysh after their conquest of [[Mecca]], about a century before the time of [[Muhammad]].<ref name="Robin304"/> Some inscriptions seem to indicate the use of Allah as a name of a polytheist deity centuries earlier, but nothing precise is known about this use.<ref name="Robin304"/> Some scholars have suggested that Allah may have represented a remote creator god who was gradually eclipsed by more particularized local deities.<ref name= Berkey>{{cite book|author=Jonathan Porter Berkey|title=The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800|url=https://archive.org/details/formationofislam0000berk|url-access=registration|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-58813-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/formationofislam0000berk/page/42 42]}}</ref><ref name="Peterson2007">{{cite book|author=Daniel C. Peterson|title=Muhammad, Prophet of God|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9zpbEj0xA_sC&pg=PA21|date=26 February 2007|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-0754-0|page=21}}</ref> There is disagreement on whether Allah played a major role in the Meccan religious cult.<ref name= Berkey/><ref name= Peters107>{{cite book|author=Francis E. Peters|title=Muhammad and the Origins of Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0OrCo4VyvGkC&pg=PA107|year=1994|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-1875-8|page=107}}</ref> No iconic representation of Allah is known to have existed.<ref name= Peters107/><ref name="Zeitlin33">{{cite book|author=Irving M. Zeitlin|title=The Historical Muhammad|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sbhJJ7AOLL4C|date=19 March 2007|publisher=Polity|isbn=978-0-7456-3999-4|pages=33}}</ref> Allah is the only god in Mecca that did not have an idol.<ref>"Allah." In The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Ed. John L. Esposito. Oxford Islamic Studies Online. 1 January 2019. <http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e128>.</ref> Muhammad's father's name was [[Abd Allah ibn Abd al Muttalib|{{transliteration|ar|DIN|ʿAbd-Allāh}}]] meaning "the slave of Allāh".<ref name="GodEoQ"/> The interpretation that Pre-Islamic Arabs once practiced [[Abrahamic religions]] is supported by some literary evidence, being the prevalence of [[Ishmael]], whose God was that of [[Abraham]], in pre-Islamic Arab culture.<ref>The Treasury of literature, Sect. 437</ref><ref>The Beginning of History, Volume 3, Sect.10</ref><ref>The Collection of the Speeches of Arabs, volume 1, section 75</ref> ===Islam=== {{main|God in Islam}} {{see also|Names of God in Islam}} ==== Before Muhammad ==== In Islam, it is believed that all [[Prophets and messengers in Islam|prophets]] were adherents of Islam, which is considered the primordial faith since the creation of the world and heavens by Allah. According to this perspective, every human is born a Muslim, into a state of "[[Fitra]]" (natural disposition), often interpreted as an innate inclination towards Islam.{{sfn | Nasr | Dagli | Dakake | Lumbard | 2015 | p=991}} [[File:Istanbul, Hagia Sophia, Allah.jpg|thumb|Medallion showing "Allah [[Jalla Jalaluhu]]" in the [[Hagia Sophia]], [[Istanbul]], Turkey]] [[File:Dcp7323-Edirne-Eski Camii Allah.jpg|thumb|150px|Allah script outside the [[Old Mosque, Edirne|Old Mosque]] in [[Edirne]], Turkey]] ==== Present day ==== In Islam, ''Allah'' is the unique, omnipotent and only deity and [[Creator deity|creator of the universe]] and is equivalent to [[God in Abrahamic religions|God in other Abrahamic religions]].<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="EncMMENA"/> ''Allah'' is usually seen as the personal name of God, a notion which became disputed in contemporary scholarship, including the question, whether or not the word ''Allah'' should be translated as ''God''.<ref>Andreas Görke and Johanna Pink Tafsir and Islamic Intellectual History Exploring the Boundaries of a Genre Oxford University Press in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies London {{ISBN|978-0-19-870206-1}} p. 478</ref> According to Islamic belief, Allah is the most common word to represent God,<ref name="EoQ">Böwering, Gerhard, ''God and His Attributes'', Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān, Brill, 2007.</ref> and humble submission to his will, divine ordinances and commandments is the pivot of the Muslim faith.<ref name="Britannica"/> "He is the only God, creator of the universe, and the judge of humankind."<ref name="Britannica"/><ref name="EncMMENA"/> "He is unique (''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|wāḥid}}'') and inherently one (''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|aḥad}}''), all-merciful and omnipotent."<ref name="Britannica"/> No human eyes can see Allah till the Day Of Judgement.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Quranic Arabic Corpus - Translation|url=https://corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp?chapter=6&verse=103|access-date=2021-04-11|website=corpus.quran.com}}</ref> The Qur'an declares "the reality of Allah, His inaccessible mystery, His various names, and His actions on behalf of His creatures."<ref name="Britannica"/> Allah does not depend on anything.<ref>{{Cite web|title=112. Surah Al-Ikhlaas or At-Tauhid – NobleQuran.com|url=https://noblequran.com/surah-al-ikhlaas-or-at-tauhid/|access-date=2021-04-11|language=en-US}}</ref> God is not a part of the Christian Trinity.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Quranic Arabic Corpus - Translation|url=https://corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp?chapter=5&verse=73|access-date=2021-03-30|website=corpus.quran.com}}</ref> God has no parents and no children.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Quranic Arabic Corpus - Translation|url=https://corpus.quran.com/translation.jsp?chapter=112&verse=3|access-date=2021-03-30|website=corpus.quran.com}}</ref> The concept correlates to the [[Tawhid]], where chapter 112 of the [[Quran|Qur'an]] ([[Al-Ikhlas|''Al-'Ikhlās'']], The Sincerity) reads:<blockquote> :[[]]<ref>[[Arabic script in Unicode]] symbol for a Quran verse, U+06DD, page 3, [http://www.evertype.com/standards/iso10646/pdf/09419-encode-koranic.pdf Proposal for additional Unicode characters]</ref> SAY, God is one GOD; : the eternal GOD: : He begetteth not, neither is He begotten: : and there is not any one like unto Him.<ref>[[Sale, G]] [[AlKoran]]</ref></blockquote>and in the [[Ayat ul-Kursi]] ("Verse of the Throne"), which is the 255th verse and the powerful verse in the longest chapter (the 2nd chapter) of the Qur'an, ''[[Al-Baqarah]]'' ("The Cow") states: <blockquote>Allah! There is no deity but ''Him'', the Alive, the Eternal. Neither slumber nor sleep overtaketh ''Him''. Unto ''Him'' belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Who could intercede in ''His'' presence without ''His'' permission? ''He'' knoweth that which is in front of them and that which is behind them, while they encompass nothing of ''His'' knowledge except what ''He'' wills. ''His'' throne includeth the heavens and the earth, and ''He'' is never weary of preserving them. ''He'' is the Sublime, the Tremendous.</blockquote> In Islamic tradition, there are [[99 Names of God]] (''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|al-asmā' al-ḥusná}}'' lit. meaning: 'the best names' or 'the most beautiful names'), each of which evoke a distinct characteristic of Allah.<ref name="EncMMENA" /><ref name="Ben">{{cite book |last=Bentley |first=David |title=The 99 Beautiful Names for God for All the People of the Book |publisher=William Carey Library |date=September 1999 |isbn=978-0-87808-299-5 }}</ref> All these names refer to Allah, the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name.<ref name="Tao-Islam"> {{cite book | last =Murata | first =Sachiko | year =1992 | title =The Tao of Islam : a sourcebook on gender relationships in Islamic thought | location =Albany NY USA | publisher=SUNY | isbn =978-0-7914-0914-5 }}</ref> Among the 99 names of God, the most famous and most frequent of these names are "the Merciful" (''[[Rahman (name)|ar-Raḥmān]]'') and "the Compassionate" (''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|ar-Raḥīm}}''),<ref name="EncMMENA" /><ref name="Ben" /> including the forementioned above ''al-Aḥad'' ("the One, the Indivisible") and ''al-Wāḥid'' ("the Unique, the Single"). Most Muslims use the untranslated Arabic phrase ''[[Insha'Allah|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|in shā’a llāh}}]]'' (meaning 'if God wills') after references to future events.<ref>Gary S. Gregg, ''The Middle East: A Cultural Psychology'', Oxford University Press, p.30</ref> Muslim discursive piety encourages beginning things with the invocation of ''[[Basmala|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|bi-smi llāh}}]]'' (meaning 'In the name of God').<ref>Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, ''Islamic Society in Practice'', University Press of Florida, p. 24</ref> There are certain phrases in praise of God that are favored by Muslims, including "[[subhan'allah|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|Subḥāna llāh}}]]" (Glory be to God), "[[Alhamdulillah|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|al-ḥamdu li-llāh}}]]" (Praise be to God), "[[Shahada|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|lā ilāha illā llāh}}]]" (There is no deity but God) or sometimes "''lā ilāha illā inta/ huwa''" (There is no deity but ''You''/ ''Him'') and "[[Takbir|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|Allāhu Akbar}}]]" (God is the Most Great) as a devotional exercise of remembering God ([[dhikr]]).<ref>M. Mukarram Ahmed, Muzaffar Husain Syed, ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', Anmol Publications PVT. LTD, p. 144</ref> [[File:Khalili Collection Islamic Art txt 0222.1.jpg|thumb|right|Silk textile panel repeating the name Allah, North Africa, 18th century]] In a [[Sufi]] practice known as ''dhikr Allah'' ([[Arabic]]: <big>ذكر الله</big>, lit. "Remembrance of God"), the Sufi repeats and contemplates the name ''Allah'' or other associated divine names to Him while controlling his or her breath.<ref>Carl W. Ernst, Bruce B. Lawrence, ''Sufi Martyrs of Love: The Chishti Order in South Asia and Beyond'', Macmillan, p. 29</ref> For example, in countless references in the context from the Qur'an forementioned above: # Allah is referred to in the second [[Personal pronoun|person pronoun]] in Arabic as "''Anta'' ([[Arabic]]: <big>أَنْتَ</big>)" like the [[English language|English]] "''You''", or commonly in the third person pronoun "''Huwa'' ([[Arabic]]: َهُو)" like the English "''He''" and uniquely in the case pronoun of the [[Oblique case|oblique]] form "''Hu/ Huw'' ([[Arabic]]: هو /-هُ)" like the English "''Him''" which rhythmically resonates and is chanted as considered a sacred sound or echo referring Allah as the "Absolute Breath or Soul of Life"—''Al-[[Nafs]] al-Hayyah'' ([[Arabic]]: النّفس الحياة, ''an-Nafsu 'l-Ḥayyah'')—notably among the 99 names of God, "the Giver of Life" (''[[Al Muhyi|al-Muḥyī]]'') and "the Bringer of Death" (''[[Al Mumit|al-Mumiyt]]''); # Allah is neither male or female (who has no gender), but who is the essence of the "Omnipotent, Selfless, Absolute Soul (''an-[[Nafs]],'' <big>النّفس</big>) and Holy Spirit" (''ar-[[Rūḥ]],'' <big>الرّوح</big>) - notably among the 99 names of God, "the All-Holy, All-Pure and All-Sacred" (''[[Al Quddus|al-Quddus]]''); # Allah is the originator of both before and beyond the cycle of creation, destruction and time, - notably among the 99 names of God, "the First, Beginning-less" (''[[Al Awwal|al-Awwal]]''), "the End/ Beyond ["the Final Abode"]/ Endless" (''[[Al Akhir|al-Akhir/ al-Ākhir]]'') and "the Timeless" (''[[Al Sabur|aṣ-Ṣabūr]]''). According to [[Gerhard Böwering]], in contrast with pre-Islamic Arabian [[polytheism]], God in Islam does not have associates and companions, nor is there any kinship between God and [[jinn]].<ref name="EoQ"/> Pre-Islamic pagan Arabs believed in a blind, powerful, inexorable and insensible fate over which man had no control. This was replaced with the Islamic notion of a powerful but provident and merciful God.<ref name="Britannica"/> According to [[Francis Edward Peters]], "The [[Quran|Qur’ān]] insists, Muslims believe, and historians affirm that [[Muhammad]] and his followers worship the same God as the Jews ({{Qref|29|46}}). The Qur’an's Allah is the same Creator God who covenanted with [[Abraham]]". Peters states that the Qur'an portrays Allah as both more powerful and more remote than [[Yahweh]], and as a universal deity, unlike Yahweh who closely follows [[Israel]]ites.<ref name="Peters1">F.E. Peters, ''Islam'', p.4, Princeton University Press, 2003</ref> ===Christianity=== The [[Arab Christians|Christian Arabs]] of today have no other word for "God" than "Allah".<ref name="Cambridge">{{cite book |author1=Lewis, Bernard |author2=Holt, P. M. |author3=Holt, Peter R. |author4=Lambton, Ann Katherine Swynford |title=The Cambridge history of Islam |publisher=University Press |location=Cambridge, Eng |year=1977 |page=32 |isbn=978-0-521-29135-4 }}</ref> Similarly, the [[Aramaic]] word for "God" in the language of [[Assyrian Christians]] is ''ʼĔlāhā'', or ''Alaha''. (Even the Arabic-descended [[Maltese language]] of [[Malta]], whose population is almost entirely [[Catholic Church|Catholic]], uses ''Alla'' for "God".) [[Arab Christians]] have used two forms of invocations that were [[affix]]ed to the beginning of their written works. They adopted the Muslim ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|bismillāh}}'', and also created their own [[Trinity|Trinitized]] ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|bismillāh}}'' as early as the 8th century.<ref name="Thomas"/> The Muslim ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|bismillāh}}'' reads: "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful." The Trinitized ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|bismillāh}}'' reads: "In the name of Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God." The [[Syriac language|Syriac]], [[Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]] invocations do not have the words "One God" at the end. This addition was made to emphasize the [[monotheism|monotheistic]] aspect of Trinitarian belief and also to make it more palatable to Muslims.<ref name="Thomas">Thomas E. Burman, ''Religious Polemic and the Intellectual History of the Mozarabs'', [[Brill Publishers|Brill]], 1994, p. 103</ref> According to [[Marshall Hodgson]], it seems that in the pre-Islamic times, some Arab Christians made pilgrimage to the [[Kaaba]], a pagan temple at that time, honoring Allah there as God the Creator.<ref>Marshall G. S. Hodgson, ''The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization'', [[University of Chicago Press]], p. 156</ref> Some archaeological excavation quests have led to the discovery of ancient [[pre-Islamic Arabia|pre-Islamic]] inscriptions and tombs made by [[Arab Christians]] in the ruins of a church at [[Umm el-Jimal]] in Northern [[Jordan]], which initially, according to Enno Littman (1949), contained references to Allah as the proper name of God. However, on a second revision by Bellamy et al. (1985 & 1988) the 5-versed-inscription was re-translated as "(1)This [inscription] was set up by colleagues of ʿUlayh, (2) son of ʿUbaydah, secretary (3) of the cohort Augusta Secunda (4) Philadelphiana; may he go mad who (5) effaces it."<ref>James Bellamy, "Two Pre-Islamic Arabic Inscriptions Revised: Jabal Ramm and Umm al-Jimal", ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', 108/3 (1988) pp. 372–378 (translation of the inscription) "This was set up by colleagues/friends of ʿUlayh, the son of ʿUbaydah, secretary/adviser of the cohort Augusta Secunda Philadelphiana; may he go mad/crazy who effaces it."</ref><ref>Enno Littmann, Arabic Inscriptions (Leiden, 1949)</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Type and Spread of Arabic Script|last=Daniels|first=Peter T.|year=2014}}</ref> The syriac word ܐܠܗܐ (''ʼĔlāhā'') can be found in the reports and the lists of names of Christian martyrs in South Arabia,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.syriaca.org/work/254|title=The Himyarite Martyrs (text) —}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=James of Edessa the hymns of Severus of Antioch and others." Ernest Walter Brooks (ed.), Patrologia Orientalis VII.5 (1911)., vol: 2, p. 613|pages=ܐܠܗܐ (Elaha)}}</ref> as reported by antique Syriac documents of the names of those martyrs from the era of the [[Himyarite]] and [[Aksumite]] kingdoms<ref>Ignatius Ya`qub III, The Arab Himyarite Martyrs in the Syriac Documents (1966), Pages: 9-65-66-89</ref> In [[Ibn Ishaq|Ibn Ishaq's]] biography there is a Christian leader named Abd Allah ibn Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad, who was martyred in Najran in 523, as he had worn a ring that said "Allah is my lord".<ref>Alfred Guillaume& Muhammad Ibn Ishaq, (2002 [1955]). The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Isḥāq's Sīrat Rasūl Allāh with Introduction and Notes. Karachi and New York: Oxford University Press, page 18.</ref> In an inscription of Christian martyrion dated back to 512, references to 'l-ilah (الاله)<ref name=Kugener>{{Cite book|title=M. A. Kugener, "Nouvelle Note Sur L'Inscription Trilingue De Zébed", Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, pp. 577-586.}}</ref> can be found in both Arabic and Aramaic. The inscription starts with the statement "By the Help of 'l-ilah".<ref>Adolf Grohmann, Arabische Paläographie II: Das Schriftwesen und die Lapidarschrift (1971), Wien: Hermann Böhlaus Nochfolger, Page: 6-8</ref><ref>Beatrice Gruendler, The Development of the Arabic Scripts: From the Nabatean Era to the First Islamic Century according to Dated Texts (1993), Atlanta: Scholars Press, Page:</ref> In pre-Islamic Gospels, the name used for God was "Allah", as evidenced by some discovered Arabic versions of the [[New Testament]] written by [[Arab Christians]] during the pre-Islamic era in Northern and Southern [[Arabia]].<ref>Frederick Winnett V, Allah before Islam-The Moslem World (1938), Pages: 239–248</ref> However most recent research in the field of Islamic studies by Sydney Griffith et al. (2013), David D. Grafton (2014), Clair Wilde (2014) & ML Hjälm et al. (2016 & 2017) assert that "all one can say about the possibility of a pre-Islamic, Christian version of the Gospel in Arabic is that no sure sign of its actual existence has yet emerged."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sidney H Griffith, "The Gospel in Arabic: An Enquiry into Its Appearance in the First Abbasid Century", Oriens Christianus, Volume 69, p. 166. "All one can say about the possibility of a pre-Islamic, Christian version of the Gospel in Arabic is that no sure sign of its actual existence has yet emerged.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The identity and witness of Arab pre-Islamic Arab Christianity: The Arabic language and the Bible|last=Grafton|first=David D|year=2014|quote=Christianity [...] did not penetrate into the lives of the Arabs primarily because the monks did not translate the Bible into the vernacular and inculcate Arab culture with biblical values and tradition. Trimingham's argument serves as an example of the Western [[Protestant]] assumptions outlined in the introduction of this article. It is clear that the earliest Arabic biblical texts can only be dated to the 9th century at the earliest, that is after the coming of Islam.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Sidney H. Griffith, The Bible in Arabic: The Scriptures of the 'People of the Book' in the Language of Islam. Jews, Christians and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World, Princeton University Press, 2013, pp242- 247 ff. }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Arabic Bible before Islam – Clare Wilde on Sidney H. Griffith's The Bible in Arabic|date=June 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Senses of Scripture, Treasures of Tradition: The Bible in Arabic Among Jews, Christians and Muslims|last=Hjälm|first=ML|publisher=Brill|year=2017|isbn=978-90-04-34716-8}}</ref> Additionally ML Hjälm in her most recent research (2017) inserts that "manuscripts containing translations of the gospels are encountered no earlier than the year 873"<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hjälm|first=ML|title=Senses of Scripture, Treasures of Tradition, The Bible in Arabic among Jews, Christians and Muslims (Biblia Arabica)|publisher=Brill|year=2017|isbn=978-90-04-34716-8|quote=By contrast, manuscripts containing translations of the gospels are encountered no earlier then the year 873 (Ms. Sinai. N.F. parch. 14 & 16)|edition=English and Arabic}}</ref> [[Irfan Shahîd]] quoting the 10th-century encyclopedic collection [[Kitab al-Aghani]] notes that pre-Islamic Arab Christians have been reported to have raised the battle cry "''Ya La Ibad Allah''" (O slaves of Allah) to invoke each other into battle.<ref>Irfan Shahîd, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century, Dumbarton Oaks Trustees for Harvard University-Washington DC, page 418.</ref> According to Shahid, on the authority of 10th-century Muslim scholar [[Al-Marzubani]], "Allah" was also mentioned in pre-Islamic Christian poems by some [[Ghassanid]] and [[Tanukhids|Tanukhid]] poets in [[Syria]] and Northern [[Arabia]].<ref>Irfan Shahîd, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century, Dumbarton Oaks Trustees for Harvard University-Washington DC, Page: 452</ref><ref>A. Amin and A. Harun, Sharh Diwan Al-Hamasa (Cairo, 1951), Vol. 1, Pages: 478-480</ref><ref>Al-Marzubani, Mu'jam Ash-Shu'araa, Page: 302</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page