Ansars helpers

• ansar: (Arabic) helper, aider, patron → in the history of Islam, the Ansar were those inhabitants of Medina who welcomed and aided Mohammed and the Muhajirun (emigrants) who fled with him from Mecca in 622 → J. S. Atherton comments that according to Thomas Patrick Hughes, whose Dictionary of Islam Joyce is known to have consulted, the Ansars were Mohammed's amanuenses, who wrote down the words of the Koran from the illiterate Mohammed's dictation → cf. FW 425.18-20, in which Shaun contemplates using a similar method to write the Book of Lief
  • Wikipedia
  • Dictionary of Islam

• answers → see shebby nine lines above

• ansa: (Italian) riverbend