Pre-Islamic Arabian battles resembled ritualized sport more than war

Evidence

Reading the Ayya¯m al-‘Arab, I am irresistibly reminded of American football: there is the same element of sport, and one has the impression that the battles recorded in the Ayya¯m al-‘Arab were only slightly more dangerous to life and limb than American football. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1927

Categorization

• CANDY: Delightful and immediately tweetable analogy — pre-Islamic battles as organized sport.
• SHARE: Send to anyone interested in early Islamic history or the anthropology of ritualized warfare.