Ansar

“ That the Babylonians regarded them as being of different genders, however, is conceivable enough. The Greek form of the first, Assoros, moreover, implies that, in course of time, the n of Anšar became assimilated with the š (as was usual in Semitic Babylonian) , and on account of this, the etymology that connects Anšar with the name [pg 066] of the Assyrian national god Aššur, is not without justification, though whether it be preferable to that of Delitzsch which makes Aššur to be really Ašur, and connects it with ašaru, meaning “holy,” is doubtful. ”

“ Even in this you may gauge the amount of faith or confidence the Ansar had in the word of their Emirs, and the amount of credence a European might give to their tales when they lied to, and deceived each other with such charming impartiality. ”

“ Narrated Ibn 'Abbas:
Allah's Apostle (in his fatal illness) came out wrapped in a sheet covering his shoulders and his head was tied with an oily tape of cloth till he sat on the pulpit, and after praising and glorifying Allah, he said, "Then-after, O people! The people will go on increasing, but the Ansar will go on decreasing till they become just like salt in a meal. So whoever amongst you will be the ruler and have the power to harm or benefit others, should accept the good of the good-doers amongst them and excuse the wrong-doers amongst them." ”

“ The spelling of the name is against our connecting it with the word asiru, “he who blesses” or “consecrates,” from which the Assyrian asirtu, “sanctuary,” is derived, like the name of the Canaanitish goddess Ashêrah.289 On the other hand, the native Assyrian etymology is as inadmissible as the endeavours of our eighteenth century lexicographers to find Greek or Latin derivations for Anglo-Saxon words. The Assyrian scribes saw in Assur merely the old elemental deity Ansar, “the firmament,” who was himself nothing more than the Sumerian spirit of the “heavenly host.” ”

“ The Ansárys inhabit that chain of mountains which runs as a continuation of Mount Lebanon, from Dayr Hamýry to Antioch, comprehended between the two parallels 34° 40 ́ and 36° 20 ́ north latitude. They are tributary to the pashas of Tripoli and Damascus, but their obedience is uncertain and their contempt of authority general, because necessarily suffered to go unpunished. In the centre of their mountains, they have certain strongholds, where the troops of the plains, which had been occasionally sent against them, had always been foiled. ”

“ The Prophet forbade them such a transaction.
Number 184: Narrated Ghailan bin Jarir:
We used to visit Anas bin Malik and he used to talk to us about the Ansar, and used to say to me: "Your people did so-and-so on such-and-such a day, and your people did so-and-so on such-and-such a day."
Number 185: Narrated Ibn 'Abbas:
The first event of Qasama in the pre-lslamic period of ignorance was practiced by us (i.e. Banu Hashim) . A man from Banu Hashim was employed by a Quraishi man from another branch-family. The (Hashimi) laborer set out with the Quraishi driving his camels. ”

“ What certainly did not contribute to render their progress less difficult and dangerous was the circumstance that war at this moment was waged between the Queen of the Ansarey and the Pasha of Aleppo. The Turkish potentate had levied tribute on some villages which owned her sway, and which, as he maintained, were not included in the ancient composition paid by the Ansarey to the Porte in full of all demands. The consequence was, that parties of the Ansarey occasionally issued from their passes and scoured the plain of Aleppo. ”

“ I hope that you will live long so that some people will benefit by you while others will be harmed. O Allah! Please fulfill the migration of my companions and do not make them turn back on their heels. But (we feel sorry for) the unlucky Sad bin Khaulah." Allah's Apostle lamented his death in Mecca.
Number 274: Narrated Anas:
When 'Abdur-Rahman bin Auf came to Medina and the Prophet established the bond of brotherhood between him and Sad bin Ar-Rabi-al-Ansari, Saud suggested that 'Abdur-Rahman should accept half of his property and family. ”

“ Ansard. Granted; but she talks like the heroine of a romance. Listen. (Ansard reads.) “The beauteous and divinely moulded form of the angelic Angelicanarinella pressed the dank and rotten straw which had been thrown down by the scowling, thick-lipped Ethiop for her repose—she, for whom attendant maidens had smoothed the Sybaritic sheet of finest texture, under the elaborately carved and sumptuously gilt canopy, the silken curtains, and the tassels of the purest dust of gold.”
Barnstaple. Tassels of dust of gold! only figuratively, I suppose.
Ansard. Nothing more. ”

“ Few women ever brought such a blessing to her tribe as this Juwairiyah.
After the severe fighting, whilst the soldiers were watering their panting camels at the well Al Mirisiyah, a violent quarrel was nigh bringing Ansars and Mohadjirun to blows.
Jajjah, leading Umar's horse by the bridle, hustled Simana ibn Ubair, an ally of the Banu Auf ibn Khazraj, in order to deprive him of his turn at the well. Simana turned upon him, and the two adversaries, locked in murderous embrace, rolled on the ground, Simana shouting: 'Help! O comrades of the Ansars!' and Jajjah: 'Help! ”

“ On the other hand, on the first reading of the epistle I formed the impression that it was a literary fiction dating from the time of Khusro when the tradition made of Ardeshir the model of political sagacity and the founder of the entire organisation of the empire. The letter impressed me as a historical, theological, political and moral dissertation which in the shape of a correspondence between the grand Herbed Tansar and the king of Tabaristan, ill-informed regarding the new state of affairs and hesitating to submit himself to Ardeshir, was calculated to instruct contemporaries. ”

“ What man hath challenged thee to battle?"
Anshar made answer and said: "No man hath challenged me. It is Tiamat, the woman, who hath resolved to wage war against us. But fear not and make merry, for thou shalt bruise the head of Tiamat. O wise god, thou shalt overcome her with thy pure incantation. Tarry not but hasten forth; she cannot wound thee; thou shalt come back again." The words of Anshar delighted the heart of Merodach, who spake, saying: "O lord of the gods, O fate of the high gods, if I, the avenger, am to subdue Tiamat and save all, then proclaim my greatness among the gods. ”

“ It is unfortunate that the second tablet is so badly preserved. We are dependent largely upon conjecture for what [Pg 422] follows the failure of Anu's mission. From references in subsequent tablets, it seems certain that Anshar sends out Ea as a second messenger and that Ea also fails. Tiâmat is determined upon destroying the gods, or at least upon keeping from them the 'decision of fates.' Anshar, it will be seen, stands at the head of the pantheon, and it seems natural that he, and not one of his offspring, should be the final victor. ”

“ But before leaving the subject, it will be proper to call attention to the rôle that a god Anshar plays in the Babylonian-Assyrian cosmological system. Anshar and Kishar are the second pair of deities to be created, the first pair being Lakhmu and Lakhamu. In the great fight of the gods against the monster Tiâmat, it would appear that, according to one version at least, Anshar sends Anu, Ea, and finally Bel-Marduk, in turn to destroy the monster. He appears, therefore, to have exercised a kind of supremacy over the gods. ”

“ Thane calmly reached over and took the bottle from Pyuf. He filled his glass and looked at the bottle, then at Pyuf, Astrid, and Reine. "All right. We have our bottleneck. And we have our cork—the Onzarian fleet. Just how do you propose we shove the cork into the bottle?"
Astrid was the first to answer. "We'll take the fleet! The Onzarians are ready for freedom!" After that they were all talking. The underground had convinced the people of the truth. They were ready to rise up and throw off the yoke of Candar. There was conflict between the government and the religion. ”

“ Antar, the ferocious lion, felt his heart assuaged in the midst of slaughter, and in the concussion of heroes and warriors. He exhibited terrors amidst the concourse of heroes, and scattered whole armies over the plains and the mountains. King Monzar cried out aloud to his troops, and they exposed themselves to the enemy: roused afresh was the flame of war; it fiercely raged, and its sparks flashed; the dust blackened the whole land, so that both earth and heaven were veiled. The ground tottered under the hoofs of the noble steeds, until the sweat even moistened their entrails. ”

“ Anshar despatched his son Anu; but Anu was afraid, and made no attempt to oppose her. He sent Ea; but Ea, like Anu, grew pale with fear, and did not venture to attack her. Merodach, the son of Ea, was the only one who believed himself strong enough to conquer her. The gods, summoned to a solemn banquet in the palace of Anshar, unanimously chose him to be their champion, and proclaimed him king. “Thou, thou art glorious among the great gods, thy will is second to none, thy bidding is Anu ”

“ Pyuf pointed with his cigarette. "Take a look at those warps. All nine of the principal ones, crossing the Galaxy between the Allied Systems and the Darzent Empire, pass within a parsec of Onzar. A faster-than-light fleet going either way has to surface at the Onzar Confluence. And Candar, no matter how he sounds to you or me, is no fool. He, you can bet, has taken some long quiet looks at a map like this and he knows his position. So does Darzent. So do the people who are presumably running things in the Allied Systems."
Thane stood up. ”

“ That such tendencies to glorify Ashur may justly be sought for in part of the religious literature is proved by a version of one of the series of tablets giving an account of the creation, and which assigns to Anshar the work of building Esharra,—i.e., the earth,—that, according to another version, belongs to Marduk. [242] Evidently, then, just as the Babylonian theologians sought to glorify Marduk at the expense of Bel, so Assyrian theologians, or such as stood under Assyrian influences, did not hesitate to replace Marduk by their own favorite, Anshar. ”

“ Walter Andræ, the eminent explorers of the German Orient Society, had, in 1903, begun their exhaustive excavations at Kalah Sherghat that it was demonstrated that its imposing ruins were none other than those of Assur, the first capital of ancient Assyria. It was here that Asur, the national god of Assyria, had his favorite sanctuary—a god that was not only supreme over all the gods of the Babylonian pantheon but was also their lord and master, “the King above all gods.” [386] King Sennacherib addresses him as
King of the totality of the gods, his own creation, father of the gods. ”

“ In 1747 he, without ceasing to be a member of the board, commanded the Channel fleet which on the 3rd of May scattered a large French convoy bound to the East, and West Indies, in an action off Cape Finisterre. Several men-of-war and armed French Indiamen were taken, but the overwhelming superiority of Anson’s fleet (fourteen men-of-war, to six men-of-war and four Indiamen) in the number and weight of ships deprives the action of any strong claim to be considered remarkable. In society Anson seems to have been cold and taciturn. ”

“ On the 27th of August, the Centurion came in sight of a fertile and, as Anson supposed, inhabited island, which he afterwards found to be one of the Ladrones and named Tinian. Fearing the inhabitants to be Spaniards, and knowing himself to be incapable of defence, Anson showed Spanish colors, and hoisted a red flag at the foretopmast head, intending by this to give his vessel the appearance of the Manilla galleon, and hoping to decoy some of the islanders on board. The trick succeeded, and a Spaniard and four Indians were easily taken, with their boat. ”

“ Antar having finished these verses, the chiefs and the warriors were astonished at his eloquence, and they repaired with the spoil and plunder to the presence of King Monzar, who started up to meet Antar, kissed him between the eyes, and could only congratulate him on his safety, for he was confounded at such instances of his bravery. Horseman of the day, he cried, protector of Abs and Adnan! all that the Persians have left this day be thine, O Knight of the time and age! for thou hast earned it by thy sword and thy spear. Thou hast brought peace and comfort to the Arabs. ”

“ Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard’s sketch
Without losing a moment, Assur-nazir-pal marched down the course of the Khabur, hastily collecting the tribute of the cities through which he passed. The defenders of Sura were disconcerted by his sudden appearance before their town, and their rulers came out and prostrated themselves at the king’s feet: “Dost thou desire it? it is life for us;—dost thou desire it? it is death;—dost thou desire it? what thy heart chooseth, that do to us!” ”

“ Your advice is most judicious, said Monzar; act, O Vizier, as it seems fit to you; I will oppose nothing you say. So Amroo went to repose himself; and then Monzar reported to him the deeds of Antar, how he had slain Khosrewan, and destroyed an army of twenty thousand horse, and had given victory to the Arab warriors after their defeat and flight; the Vizier was astonished at Antar’s acts, and intrepidity, so superior were they to any thing hitherto known in deserts or towns. ”