What is it about?
The front cover of the book is illustrated with two images. The first shows the outline of a lion that was carved into a stone surface by Old Arabic speakers in late antiquity. The accompanying inscription spells out “lion” in Thamudic letters. To the right of the first image is a diagram in Arabic that shows part of the genealogy of the Asad (“lion”) tribe of the pre-Islamic Rabīʿah ibn Nizār tribal confederacy. As can be seen from the diagram, some portions of this tribe also had animal names; one was called al-Nimr, “the panther,” and another was called Bakr, “juvenile male camel that has reached the age when it has cut its front incisor teeth.” By combining these two images I am trying to convey my belief that the Arabs’ practice of giving animal names to kinship groups is very old. The rest of the preliminary material provides the reader with an overview of the book’s contents and includes a list of the abbreviations used in the appendices.
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Why is it important?
The preliminary material introduces the reader to the topics in Volume 1 of the book and provides a guide to the appendices found in Volume 2.
Perspectives
I have divided into two volumes in order to separate the discussion of the topic from the raw data used to support the book’s arguments. Readers can follow the arguments by opening Volume 1 and then turn to the tables and appendices in Volume 2 to see how I have used the data to support my arguments.
Dr. William Charles Young
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This page is a summary of: Preliminary Material, January 2024, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004690370_001.
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