Battle of Ascaran

Islamic lore is heavy on the "Battle of the Camel" between 'Ali on the one side, and the rest of the Hijazi aristocracy on the other. 'Uthman al-Umawi had been killed. All the antiUmayyads then bickered amongst themselves, chasing 'Ali to the Iraq out east. 'Ali won and became the caliph of all the antiUmayyads. The battle is called of the Camel because ...

At the time, outsiders called this dustup the "Askaran" in Armenian. Scholars refer to 'Aisha's name for her camel, 'Askar. It always smelt of folk-etymology and of poetry to me.

I learn here that 'askar in the Iraqi dialects of Arabic means "camp". There's another link you have to pay for.

This makes more sense. Maybe the 'Askar (Syriac 'Askhara) was a nascent misr like al-Hira of old. Sites were fluid in those days, Tawwaj used to be an important misr in southern Fars and was later abandoned. Other amsar like Mosul near Nineveh and Tunis near Carthage have overtaken the ancient cities; heck, Najaf has overtaken al-Hira and indeed even al-Kufa.

BACKDATE 10/27