the sabaean and Thureophoroi mod.

**Moros** · 07-13-2009, 00:56

I don't have it in my outdated sabaic lexicon. I believe I had it in a later version which got lost after my laptop crashed. When I update it again I'll drop it by.

Any other sabaic words you might need?

Also further on javelins. It's not because of lack of historical data something didn't exist or wasn't used for miliatry purpose. Quite a few scholars tought sabaean didn't use the bow much, as the inscriptions studied by Beeston seem to suggest. However a victory stele full of archers carrying the chopped of hands of the defeated (some silly custom from there) shows that it wasn't the case.

Either way, while I'd avoid javelins from Sabaean elite units, more bedouin like units would surely be using javelins.

**Moros** · 07-17-2009, 21:26

The Sabaic 'RṂH' probably means Lance/spear. But it's not sure.

**Ibrahim** · 07-18-2009, 07:20

Originally Posted by Moros

The Sabaic 'RṂH' probably means Lance/spear. But it's not sure.

rmh?

its almost definitely a lance or thrusting spear (80% so)-the same word is in arabic, and has the exact same meaning.

don't they have a word similar to hirbah or 'lt? that's the word for javelin in arabic*(by the the century it specifically referred to a pilum like weapon). acually, do they have nay for javelin?

*in later ages it cam to refer to bayonets, harpoons, and lances of the european type, but I'm sticking with the consice meaning as per "lisaanu ul-3arab"

oh, and I'll consider giving them javelins, just not now. (and yeah, I have those two new units ready for nabatu (AtB)-just need to reskin the sabaean version)

**Moros** · 07-18-2009, 19:44

The dictionary I use isn't exhaustive and it's based on inscriptions. You can't expect them to have found and translated every word they had. A lot of inscription are to be publiced and translated. A lot of them contain words not yet translated,...
I didn't even find a word for shield, only for the leather used to cover it.

**Watchman** · 07-18-2009, 20:28

And let's not forget people had a rather annoying habit of being rather vague with their terminology - nevermind now the meaning of the words themselves tending to change over time. I've read of Abbasid lexigraphers getting grey hairs trying to figure out what the fig this and that word actually referred to but some two centuries earlier...

**Moros** · 07-19-2009, 12:14

Originally Posted by Watchman

And let's not forget people had a rather annoying habit of being rather vague with their terminology - nevermind now the meaning of the words themselves tending to change over time. I've read of Abbasid lexigraphers getting grey hairs trying to figure out what the fig this and that word actually referred to but some two centuries earlier...

Yeah and when we're talking about sabaic we've got more a language recorded and written for more than thousand years.

**Azathoth** · 08-09-2009, 06:27

@Moros: Do they teach you how to examine ancient art for evidence of this and that in school?

Because that looks more than anything like a fossil to me.

@Ibrahim: Atl is a word for javelin? That's reminiscent of the "atlatl" spear-thrower Cro-Magnon used, which is interesting.

I notice that often when you post transliterated Arabic words they have a number in them. How the heck is that pronounced?