Sources please? A biased website is not corroborating evidence.

Submitted by zzazzeefrazzee (United States), Jul 2, 2008 at 15:46

"Arabia is an abbreviation from the Sanskrit Arbasthan. Arba in Sanskrit means horse."

According to whom? Oberoi and Poak? What are their sources? What citations do they give in support of this very unusual claim? While they are routinely mentioned on Hindu ultra-nationalist websites, this in no way verifies heir claim.

"Early history of Islam in the 6th and 7th centuries was a time of destruction and a break with all records, scriptures, images, education . . . all ceasing and beginning a time of abysmal ignorance."

That's funny, because on this very board, we have discussed a number of Pre-Islamic literary sources and archaeological evidence. I myself have posted many citations. Did you bother to read any of them?

"According to the Encyclopedia Islamia, Arabs are ignorant of their own history."

I've never heard of an Encyclopedia Islamia, but I have heard of the Encyclopedia of Islam, which has been published in several editions. Now, which article in this encyclopedia are you citing? Can you find anything even remotely similar to Oak and Oberoi's claims therein?

"The pre-Islamic history of Arabia is the story of Indian Kshatriyas over that land, with the people following a Vedic way of life. Ex. Mecca is from the Sanskrit Makha, signifying a shrine of fire worship. See also the Shivalinga, or the Mahadeva emblem in the Kaaba shrine in Mecca."

Again, this is just unsubstantiated hyperbole by a couple of "researchers", who are very popular among ultra-nationalists in India. This is not a claim made by any objective scholarship. Please corroborate this claim using any standard scholarly source- such as the Encyclopedia of Islam.

"Sources of pre-Islamic Arabia were discovered in poetry, the social life and customs described in Saya-Ul-Okul . . . the book also contains an elaborate description of the Kaaba Mecca shrine, the town, and the annual fair known as Okaj . . . now called the Haj."

The library system in Turkey does use modern standard conventions. If this manuscript of "Sayar al-'uqul" (note that your sources never employ Arabic transliteration standards, much less Persian or Turkish, since they only bent on ascribing everything to Sanskrit!) exists, then it must have an accession number. What is it?

Secondly, if there are in fact printed editions of this text, then they must necessarily have a full citation, yes? So, what is it?

It is even very likely that it can be found in worldcat:

www.worldcat.org

Please provide a full citation for this text.

Once again, you are simply copying and pasting information verbatim from a Hindu Ultra-nationalist website. Could this be the one?

http://www.hinduunity.org/articles/islamexposed/preislamicarabia.html

Best of luck finding and corroborating the sources for all of these claims, Leonard.

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