ABSTRACT
We have already seen that the tribes in the latter part of the Umayyad period were seen as ʕarab, a concept which was the basis for the Yemeni claims of being the foremost of ʕarab. We have also indicated that this pan-tribal meaning was not invented by the Yemenis but existed before the time of Wahb b. Munabbih, i.e. before Ad 720. The identification of the tribes as ʕarab should be compared to another, namely that between ʕarab and Muslims. The identity of Muslims and ʕarab was drastically expressed in a poem which Naṣr b. Sayyār, the last Umayyad governor in Khurasān, is said to have sent to the caliph Marwān II, informing him about the rapidly growing Abbasid revolt: I see among ashes the gleaming of coal; It is on the verge of flaring up; For fire is kindled by two pieces of wood, and the beginning of war is speech, and if you do not quench it it will cause a war. It is ready for a work from which young men will get white-haired. I say from astonishment: I wish I knew whether the Umayyads are awake or asleep. If they are our people may they wake up. Then say: ‘Stand up! for the time of arising has come! Flee [o woman] from your men and say to Islam and the ʕarab “farewell!”’ 1
