The Banu Thaqif ( Arabic : بنو ثقيف , romanized : Banū Thaqīf ) is an Arab tribe which inhabited, and still inhabits, the city of Ta'if and its environs, in modern Saudi Arabia, and played a prominent role in early Islamic history.
86-650: During the pre-Islamic period , the Thaqif rivaled and cooperated with the Quraysh tribe of Mecca in trade and land ownership. The tribe initially opposed the Islamic prophet Muhammad , but following the Muslim siege of Ta'if in 630, they came to terms and embraced Islam. The Thaqif's inter-tribal networks and their relatively high education helped them quickly advance in the nascent Muslim state. They took on an especially important role in
172-525: A "faraway, half-mythical place" . Dilmun is also described in the epic story of Enki and Ninhursag as the site at which the Creation occurred. The promise of Enki to Ninhursag, the Earth Mother: For Dilmun, the land of my lady's heart, I will create long waterways, rivers and canals, whereby water will flow to quench the thirst of all beings and bring abundance to all that lives. Ninlil ,
258-573: A Muslim comes to me, I will return his family and money to him, and give him a hundred camels). Malik came with that, so he went out to the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, from Taif, and he was Malik. So he ran until he came to his camel, where he ordered it to be imprisoned, so he rode it. So he followed the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, and caught him in Al-Jaranah or in Mecca , and
344-655: A Persian dominion under a Yemenite vassal and thus came within the sphere of influence of the Sassanid Empire. After the demise of the Lakhmids, another army was sent to Yemen, making it a province of the Sassanid Empire under a Persian satrap . Following the death of Khosrau II in 628, the Persian governor in Southern Arabia, Badhan , converted to Islam and Yemen followed the new religion. Lihyan , also called Dadān or Dedan,
430-616: A new city there and named it Batan Ardashir after his father. At this time, Eastern Arabia incorporated the southern Sassanid province covering the Persian Gulf's southern shore plus the archipelago of Bahrain. The southern province of the Sassanids was subdivided into three districts of Haggar ( Hofuf , Saudi Arabia), Batan Ardashir ( al-Qatif province , Saudi Arabia), and Mishmahig ( Muharraq , Bahrain; also referred to as Samahij ) (In Middle-Persian /Pahlavi means "ewe-fish". ) which included
516-744: A part), and the Iranian religions . The ʿĀd nation were known to the Greeks and Egyptians . Claudius Ptolemy 's Geographos (2nd century CE) refers to the area as the "land of the Iobaritae" a region which legend later referred to as Ubar . The origin of the Midianites has not been established. Because of the Mycenaean motifs on what is referred to as Midianite pottery , some scholars including George Mendenhall, Peter Parr, and Beno Rothenberg have suggested that
602-625: A secretarial position in the Iraqi administration. Ziyad became the powerful governor of Basra in 665, and after al-Mughira's death, was assigned the governorship of Kufa as well, making him the viceroy of Iraq and the eastern Caliphate. He enacted major reforms to Iraq's military organization and restarted the Muslim conquests into Central Asia. After his death in 673, he was succeeded by his son Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad , while several more of his sons gained deputy governorships and important commands. Their education, experience with Iraqi affairs, and close ties with
688-423: A verdant land that was part of a wide trading network; he recorded: "That in the island of Tylos, situated in the Persian Gulf, are large plantations of cotton tree, from which are manufactured clothes called sindones , a very different degrees of value, some being costly, others less expensive. The use of these is not confined to India, but extends to Arabia." The Greek historian, Theophrastus , states that much of
774-475: Is locally named Ḥajar Asfal . Qataban was one of the ancient Yemeni kingdoms which thrived in the Beihan valley. Like the other Southern Arabian kingdoms, it gained great wealth from the trade of frankincense and myrrh incense, which were burned at altars. The capital of Qataban was named Timna and was located on the trade route which passed through the other kingdoms of Hadramaut, Saba and Ma'in. The chief deity of
860-476: Is now Yemen's modern capital, Sana'a . According to South Arabian tradition, the eldest son of Noah , Shem , founded the city of Ma'rib. During Sabaean rule, Yemen was called " Arabia Felix " by the Romans, who were impressed by its wealth and prosperity. The Roman emperor Augustus sent a military expedition to conquer the "Arabia Felix", under the command of Aelius Gallus . After an unsuccessful siege of Ma'rib,
946-849: Is taken to be a representation possibly of the Jewish king Malkīkarib Yuhaʾmin or more likely the Christian Esimiphaios (Samu Yafa'). The Aksumite intervention is connected with Dhu Nuwas , a Himyarite king who changed the state religion to Judaism and began to persecute the Christians in Yemen. Outraged, Kaleb , the Christian King of Aksum with the encouragement of the Byzantine Emperor Justin I invaded and annexed Yemen. The Aksumites controlled Himyar and attempted to invade Mecca in
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#17330558745711032-669: The Arabian Peninsula before Muhammad's first revelation in 610 CE, is referred to in Islam in the context of jahiliyyah ( lit. ' The period of ignorance ' ), highlighting the prevalence of paganism throughout the region at the time. Some of the settled communities developed into distinctive civilizations. Information about these communities is limited and has been pieced together from archaeological evidence, accounts written outside of Arabia, and Arab oral traditions that were later recorded by Muslim historians . Among
1118-675: The Banu Sa'd and cousins of the Banu Nasr and Banu Amir . The Thaqif may have adopted their descent from Hawazin to secure an alliance with the nomadic Hawazin tribe of Banu Amir. Before this, when the Thaqif lived in the outskirts of Ta'if , the tribe claimed lineage from the Iyad . When the Banu Amir drove out Ta'if's dominant tribe, the Adwan, the Thaqif proposed to settle in the city and cultivate its lands under
1204-648: The Battle of Badr in 624. After Muhammad captured Mecca and gained the submission of the Quraysh, his emergent Muslim polity came under threat by the Thaqif in Ta'if and the tribe's nomadic Hawazin confederates. They viewed with alarm the greatly boosted position of Muhammad, now with their chief rival, the Quraysh, behind him. Muhammad moved to subdue the Thaqif and Hawazin in the ensuing Battle of Hunayn . The Thaqif–Hawazin coalition under Malik ibn Awf al-Nasri gained an early advantage but
1290-511: The Garden of Eden story. Dilmun appears first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the end of fourth millennium BCE, found in the temple of goddess Inanna , in the city of Uruk . The adjective "Dilmun" is used to describe a type of axe and one specific official; in addition there are lists of rations of wool issued to people connected with Dilmun. Dilmun was an important trading center from
1376-725: The Kassite dynasty in Mesopotamia. Dilmun, sometimes described as "the place where the sun rises" and "the Land of the Living", is the scene of some versions of the Eridu Genesis , and the place where the deified Sumerian hero of the flood, Utnapishtim ( Ziusudra ), was taken by the gods to live forever. Thorkild Jacobsen 's translation of the Eridu Genesis calls it "Mount Dilmun" which he locates as
1462-471: The Marib Dam , was built ca. 700 BCE and provided irrigation for about 25,000 acres (101 km ) of land and stood for over a millennium, finally collapsing in 570 CE after centuries of neglect. The first known inscriptions of Hadramaut are known from the 8th century BCE. It was first referenced by an outside civilization in an Old Sabaic inscription of Karab'il Watar from the early 7th century BCE, in which
1548-672: The Qur'an , old Arabian poetry , Assyrian annals (Tamudi), in a Greek temple inscription from the northwest Hejaz of 169 CE, in a 5th-century Byzantine source and in Old North Arabian graffiti within Tayma . They are also mentioned in the victory annals of the Neo-Assyrian King, Sargon II (8th century BCE), who defeated these people in a campaign in northern Arabia. The Greeks also refer to these people as "Tamudaei", i.e. "Thamud", in
1634-456: The Quraysh of Mecca in both agriculture and trade, the two tribes often participating in joint caravans while also competing for ownership of Ta'if's agricultural estates. Before and after the advent of Islam in c. 630 , the Thaqif and Quraysh, especially the latter's influential Umayyad house, forged considerable marital ties. The Thaqif was divided into two sections: the more prestigious Banu Malik or Banu Hutayt, which consisted of
1720-627: The Sabaeans and the Minaeans , and Eastern Arabia was inhabited by Semitic-speaking peoples who presumably migrated from the southwest, such as the so-called Samad population . From 106 CE to 630 CE, Arabia's most northwestern areas were controlled by the Roman Empire , which governed it as Arabia Petraea . A few nodal points were controlled by the Iranian peoples , first under the Parthians and then under
1806-554: The Sasanians . Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was diverse; although polytheism was prevalent, monotheism was still a notable practice among some of the region's inhabitants, such as the Jewish tribes . In addition to Arabian paganism, other religious practices in the region included those of the ancient Semitic religions , the Abrahamic religions (of which the emerging Islam would become
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#17330558745711892-624: The early Muslim conquests and occupied prominent roles in the emergent Caliphate, especially in the wealthy region of Iraq. The Quraysh paid less attention to Sasanian Iraq than to Byzantine Syria in the leadup to the conquests of those two regions in the mid-to-late 630s. As the Muslim war efforts in Iraq began to intensify, the Thaqafites, as well as the Ansar natives of Medina, played the leadership roles and contributed significant numbers of men there, along with
1978-424: The pre-Islamic period , living in the city of Ta'if , which they built a wall around. The tribe benefited from hosting the pilgrims visiting the idol of al-Lat housed in the city, as well as the pilgrims passing through on their way to the nearby sanctuary town of Mecca . The tribe prospered from cultivating Ta'if's orchards and agricultural lands, and from the caravan trade. The Thaqif cooperated and competed with
2064-572: The 3rd century CE, the South Arabian kingdoms were in continuous conflict with one another. Gadarat (GDRT) of Aksum began to interfere in South Arabian affairs, signing an alliance with Saba, and a Himyarite text notes that Hadramaut and Qataban were also allied against the kingdom. As a result of this, the Aksumite Empire was able to capture the Himyarite capital of Thifar in the first quarter of
2150-458: The 3rd century. However, the alliances did not last, and Sha`ir Awtar of Saba unexpectedly turned on Hadramaut, allying again with Aksum and taking its capital in 225. Himyar then allied with Saba and invaded the newly taken Aksumite territories, retaking Thifar, which had been under the control of Gadarat's son Beygat, and pushing Aksum back into the Tihama . The standing relief image of a crowned man,
2236-650: The 5th century, Beth Qatraye was a major centre for Nestorian Christianity , which had come to dominate the southern shores of the Persian Gulf. As a sect, the Nestorians were often persecuted as heretics by the Byzantine Empire , but eastern Arabia was outside the Empire's control offering some safety. Several notable Nestorian writers originated from Beth Qatraye, including Isaac of Nineveh , Dadisho Qatraya , Gabriel of Qatar and Ahob of Qatar. Christianity's significance
2322-452: The 7th century CE, Eastern Arabia was controlled by two other Iranian dynasties of the Parthians and Sassanids . By about 250 BCE, the Seleucids lost their territories to Parthians , an Iranian tribe from Central Asia . The Parthian dynasty brought the Persian Gulf under their control and extended their influence as far as Oman. Because they needed to control the Persian Gulf trade route,
2408-706: The 8th and 7th century BCE, there was a close contact of cultures between the Kingdom of Dʿmt in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia and Saba. Though the civilization was indigenous and the royal inscriptions were written in a sort of proto- Ethiosemitic , there were also some Sabaean immigrants in the kingdom as evidenced by a few of the Dʿmt inscriptions. Agriculture in Yemen thrived during this time due to an advanced irrigation system which consisted of large water tunnels in mountains, and dams. The most impressive of these earthworks, known as
2494-629: The Bahrain archipelago that was earlier called Aval . The name, meaning 'ewe-fish' would appear to suggest that the name /Tulos/ is related to Hebrew /ṭāleh/ 'lamb' (Strong's 2924). The Christian name used for the region encompassing north-eastern Arabia was Beth Qatraye, or "the Isles". The name translates to 'region of the Qataris' in Syriac . It included Bahrain, Tarout Island , Al-Khatt, Al-Hasa , and Qatar. By
2580-408: The Banu Amir's protection, in exchange for giving the latter half of the crop. While this narrative could be related to polemics against the tribe, such as another account which claims the Thaqif descended from Thamud , the historian Michael Lecker suggests it may reflect an actual phase in the tribe's history. Unlike its nomadic Hawazin counterparts, the Thaqif was a settled, or 'urban', tribe from
2666-551: The Greek geographers, for instance, we read of two islands, named Tyrus or Tylos , and Arad, Bahrain , which boasted that they were the mother country of the Phoenicians, and exhibited relics of Phoenician temples." The people of Tyre in particular have long maintained Persian Gulf origins, and the similarity in the words "Tylos" and "Tyre" has been commented upon. However, there is little evidence of occupation at all in Bahrain during
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2752-685: The Hawazin and Thaqif tribes to the Muslim war in Hunayn, so they were defeated and their money, family and offspring fell into the hands of the Muslims. Ibn Ishaq said: "The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, said to the delegation of Hawazin on the authority of Malik bin Auf al-Nasri, What did he do? They said: He is in Taif with Thaqif . The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, said: (Tell Malik that if
2838-536: The King of Hadramaut, Yada`'il, is mentioned as being one of his allies. When the Minaeans took control of the caravan routes in the 4th century BCE, however, Hadramaut became one of its confederates, probably because of commercial interests. It later became independent and was invaded by the growing Yemeni kingdom of Himyar toward the end of the 1st century BCE, but it was able to repel the attack. Hadramaut annexed Qataban in
2924-506: The Kingdom of Maīin, as far away as al-'Ula in northwestern Saudi Arabia and even on the island of Delos and Egypt. It was the first of the Yemeni kingdoms to end, and the Minaean language died around 100 CE . During Sabaean rule, trade and agriculture flourished, generating much wealth and prosperity. The Sabaean kingdom was located in Yemen, and its capital, Ma'rib , is located near what
3010-759: The Lihyanites fell into the hands of the Nabataeans around 65 BCE upon their seizure of Hegra then marching to Tayma , and finally to their capital Dedan in 9 BCE. Werner Cascel consider the Nabataean annexation of Lihyan was around 24 BCE under the reign of the Nabataeans king Aretas IV . The Thamud ( Arabic : ثمود ) was an ancient civilization in Hejaz , which was a flourished kingdom from 3000 BCE to 200 BCE. Recent archaeological work has revealed numerous Thamudic rock writings and pictures. They are mentioned in sources such as
3096-591: The Malik ibn Hutayt clan of the Jusham branch, and the Ahlaf ('Allies'), which consisted of the rest of the Jusham branch and all of the Awf branch. Though there were often clashes between the two sides, by the eve of the Muslim capture of Ta'if in 630 the two sides were on relatively equal footing in their control of Ta'if. The Thaqif contributed some men to the Quraysh against Muhammad during
3182-451: The Messenger of God, peace be upon him, returned his family and money to him, and gave him a hundred camels." After Malik's conversion, Muhammad used him over his people and those with him and remained with them until the war of conquests took place, where he participated with his tribe in the Battle of al-Qadisiyya , and they had an interest in it, as he witnessed the conquest of the city of Damascus and resided there, and it became for him
3268-452: The Midianites were originally Sea Peoples who migrated from the Aegean region and imposed themselves on a pre-existing Semitic stratum. The question of the origin of the Midianites still remains open. The sedentary people of pre-Islamic Eastern Arabia were mainly Aramaic , Arabic and to some degree Persian speakers while Syriac functioned as a liturgical language . In pre-Islamic times,
3354-1498: The Muslim army back to fight. Abbas did so, and approx 100 Muslims came back to the battle. After seeing those soldiers fight, the rest of the Muslim army returned. The Muslims won; Awf and his army fled to Ta'if. A verse of the Qur'an was revealed on this incident. Muhammad and his army laid siege to Ta'if , but they failed to take the city. Malik ibn Awf's full name was Malik bin Awf bin Saad bin Rabia bin Waelah bin Dahman bin Nasr bin Muawiya bin Bakr bin Hawazen bin Mansour bin Ikrimah bin Khasfah bin Qais Aylan bin Mudar bin Nizar bin Maad bin Adnan bin Adad. Malik bin Auf al-Nasri al-Saad had led
3440-404: The Muslim community and, in the words of the historian Hugh N. Kennedy , Muhammad had "secured the allegiance and services" of another "able and experienced group" as he had done with the Quraysh. As with the latter, the Thaqafites marshaled their political knowhow and tribal contacts in service of the Muslim state as its formed and expanded its territory. Among the Thaqafite delegates to Muhammad
3526-493: The Parthians established garrisons in the southern coast of Persian Gulf. In the 3rd century CE, the Sassanids succeeded the Parthians and held the area until the rise of Islam four centuries later. Ardashir , the first ruler of the Iranian Sassanians dynasty marched down the Persian Gulf to Oman and Bahrain and defeated Sanatruq (or Satiran ), probably the Parthian governor of Eastern Arabia. He appointed his son Shapur I as governor of Eastern Arabia. Shapur constructed
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3612-405: The Persian Gulf. Alexander had planned to settle the eastern shores of the Persian Gulf with Greek empires, and although it is not clear that this happened on the scale he envisaged, Tylos was very much part of the Hellenised world: the language of the upper classes was Greek (although Aramaic was in everyday use), while Zeus was worshipped in the form of the Arabian sun-god Shams. Tylos even became
3698-579: The Qatabanians was Amm , or "Uncle" and the people called themselves the "children of Amm". The Himyarites rebelled against Qataban and eventually united Southwestern Arabia (Hejaz and Yemen), controlling the Red Sea as well as the coasts of the Gulf of Aden . From their capital city, Ẓafār , the Himyarite kings launched successful military campaigns, and had stretched its domain at times as far east as eastern Yemen and as far north as Najran Together with their Kindite allies, it extended maximally as far north as Riyadh and as far east as Yabrin . During
3784-400: The Quraysh, particularly its Umayyad house, well-positioned the Thaqafites to administer Iraq and its eastern dependencies under the Umayyad caliphs. According to Kennedy, Mu'awiya contracted the governance of Iraq and the east "to what must have been seen as a Thaqafi mafia". The Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ( r. 685–705 ) appointed the Thaqafite al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf over Iraq and
3870-459: The Roman general retreated to Egypt, while his fleet destroyed the port of Aden in order to guarantee the Roman merchant route to India . The success of the kingdom was based on the cultivation and trade of spices and aromatics including frankincense and myrrh . These were exported to the Mediterranean , India, and Abyssinia , where they were greatly prized by many cultures, using camels on routes through Arabia, and to India by sea. During
3956-436: The Sumerian goddess of air and south wind had her home in Dilmun. It is also featured in the Epic of Gilgamesh . However, in the early epic " Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta " , the main events, which center on Enmerkar 's construction of the ziggurats in Uruk and Eridu , are described as taking place in a world "before Dilmun had yet been settled". Gerrha ( Arabic : جرهاء ), was an ancient city of Eastern Arabia, on
4042-476: The Ta'if, fought in the battle along with the Thaqif tribe. He was a prominent knight who commanded armies and held a high rank among his people. He converted to Islam before Muhammad 's death. In the year 619, Prophet Muhammad's uncle Abu Talib died and a few weeks later his wife Khadija also passed away. As a result, the Prophet was deprived of the care and support he received from his uncle in his public life and from his wife at home. The position in Makkah
4128-461: The Thaqafites played the central role in the front that was opened in southern Iraq, around the port of al-Ubulla , and neighboring Khuzistan . The commander there, Utba ibn Ghazwan al-Mazini , was married into the Thaqif, and his successor was the Thaqafite companion of Muhammad, al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba . These Thaqafites founded Basra , the chief garrison city of the Muslim Arabs in southern Iraq, in c. 638 and continued to be prominent in
4214-427: The Thaqif and they blockaded the roads leading into Ta'if. The siege compelled the Thaqif to send a delegation led by one of their chiefs, Abd Yalil , to Muhammad to negotiate their conversion to Islam. After the submission of the Thaqif, its idols in Ta'if were destroyed and the tribe lost the religious prestige it previously held as the idols' guardians. Despite their defeat, the Thaqif became firmly incorporated into
4300-456: The Thaqif leaders to proselytize, Awf and the leaders condemned his teachings. The Thaqif leaders sent their slaves to chase him out of the town, throwing stones and other things at him, until his feet bled. Awf participated in the Battle of Hunayn after the Conquest of Mecca . Before the battle began, Awf ordered his fighters to shoot arrows at the Muslims. The Muslim fighters began to flee. Muhammad ordered Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib to call
4386-474: The Umayyad caliph Yazid II ( r. 720–724 ) and was the mother of his son, Caliph al-Walid II ( r. 743–744 ). Al-Hajjaj generally was not tribally partisan in his administrative and military appointments, but nevertheless paid special favor to his Thaqafite kinsmen. He appointed three of al-Mughira's sons, his brother Muhammad, and several other family members as district governors, while commissioning his capable nephew, Muhammad ibn al-Qasim , as
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#17330558745714472-481: The United Arab Emirates comprised the ecclesiastical province known as Beth Mazunaye. The name was derived from 'Mazun', the Persian name for Oman and the United Arab Emirates. During Minaean rule, the capital was at Karna (now known as Sa'dah ). Their other important city was Yathill (now known as Baraqish ). The Minaean Kingdom was centered in northwestern Yemen, with most of its cities lying along Wādī Madhab . Minaean inscriptions have been found far afield of
4558-411: The ancient Greek name for Muharraq island. Herodotus 's account (written c. 440 BCE) refers to the Io and Europa myths. ( History, I:1). According to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel. These people, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the Erythraean Sea ( the eastern part of the Arabia peninsula ), having migrated to the Mediterranean and settled in
4644-417: The area belonged to the Dilmun civilization, which was conquered by the Assyrian Empire in 709 BCE. Gerrha was the center of an Arab kingdom from approximately 650 BCE to circa 300 CE. The kingdom was attacked by Antiochus III the Great in 205-204 BCE, though it seems to have survived. It is currently unknown exactly when Gerrha fell, but the area was under Sassanid Persian control after 300 CE. Gerrha
4730-434: The city through later decades. The literacy of the Thaqif in the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods was on par with the Quraysh, and was a key factor in the Muslim state's recruitment of Thaqafite tribesmen to important administrative positions. Al-Mughira founded the tax administration in Basra, and was later appointed governor of Kufa in 642, remaining in the post until he was dismissed in 645. Knowledgeable in Persian ,
4816-459: The city where they possessed large herds of goats and sheep. Militarily, they lacked horses and camels, but could mobilize some two thousand riflemen equipped with matchlocks. In the present day, members of the Thaqif, both settled and nomadic, continue to reside in Ta'if. Pre-Islamic Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia ( Arabic : شبه الجزيرة العربية قبل الإسلام , romanized : shibh al-jazirat al-'arabiyat qabl al-islām ), referring to
4902-425: The collapse of the Kassite dynasty, Mesopotamian documents make no mention of Dilmun with the exception of Assyrian inscriptions dated to 1250 BCE which proclaimed the Assyrian king to be king of Dilmun and Meluhha . Assyrian inscriptions recorded tribute from Dilmun. There are other Assyrian inscriptions during the first millennium BCE indicating Assyrian sovereignty over Dilmun. Dilmun was also later on controlled by
4988-415: The conqueror and governor of Sind . During his travels to Arabia, including Ta'if, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt noted that the Thaqif remained "a very powerful tribe" which controlled most of Ta'if's gardens and agricultural lands, as well as elsewhere along the eastern ridges of the Hejaz mountains. They constituted half of Ta'if's inhabitants at that time, while part of the tribe lived as Bedouins outside of
5074-447: The conqueror of Sind in the 710s, and pro-Alid revolutionary Al-Mukhtar Ibn Abi Ubayd . The Thaqif is a branch of the Hawazin , a major tribal grouping of the Qays , but is often counted separately from the Hawazin in the traditional Arabic sources. According to Arab genealogical tradition, the progenitor of the Thaqif was Qasi ibn Munabbih ibn Bakr ibn Hawazin, whose epithet was 'Thaqif'. This supposed genealogy made them 'nephews' of
5160-501: The conquest and administration of Iraq, providing the Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs capable and powerful governors for that province and the eastern Caliphate. Among their notable governors in Iraq were al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba (638, 642–645), and al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (694–714), while major Thaqafite commanders included Uthman ibn Abi al-As , who led the first Muslim naval expeditions in the 630s, and commander of Islamic conquest of Persia Abu Ubayd al-Thaqafi , Muhammad ibn al-Qasim ,
5246-399: The east in 694. Although coming from Ta'if, al-Hajjaj benefited from his tribal ties with the Thaqif of Iraq. Like the other Thaqafites who administered Iraq, al-Hajjaj had been a man of letters, in his case, working as a teacher before taking up a military career. He married several Qurayshite women, including an Umayyad, while his niece, the daughter of Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi , married
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#17330558745715332-450: The head of the bay behind the islands of Bahrain. Bahrain was referred to by the Greeks as Tylos , the center of pearl trading, when Nearchus came to discover it serving under Alexander the Great . From the 6th to 3rd century BCE Bahrain was included in Persian Empire by Achaemenians , an Iranian dynasty . The Greek admiral Nearchus is believed to have been the first of Alexander's commanders to visit this islands, and he found
5418-405: The islands were covered in these cotton trees and that Tylos was famous for exporting walking canes engraved with emblems that were customarily carried in Babylon. Ares was also worshipped by the ancient Baharna and the Greek empires. It is not known whether Bahrain was part of the Seleucid Empire , although the archaeological site at Qalat Al Bahrain has been proposed as a Seleucid base in
5504-648: The land with maritime trade between diverse regions as the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia in the early period and China and the Mediterranean in the later period (from the 3rd to the 16th century CE). Dilmun was mentioned in two letters dated to the reign of Burna-Buriash II (c. 1370 BCE) recovered from Nippur , during the Kassite dynasty of Babylon . These letters were from a provincial official, Ilī-ippašra , in Dilmun to his friend Enlil-kidinni in Mesopotamia. The names referred to are Akkadian . These letters and other documents, hint at an administrative relationship between Dilmun and Babylon at that time. Following
5590-510: The language of the bureaucracy in Iraq, and having gained considerable experience among the Arab tribal soldiery who settled in Iraq, he was reappointed by Caliph Mu'awiya I ( r. 661–680 ) as governor of Kufa in 661 and held office until his death in 671. Through al-Mughira's good offices with the caliph, he secured the pardon of his protege, the adoptive Thaqafite Ziyad ibn Abihi , in 664. Ziyad had been educated by al-Mughira's cousin, Jubayr ibn Hayya ibn Mas'ud ibn Mu'attib, who served
5676-428: The late fourth millennium to 1800 BCE. Dilmun was very prosperous during the first 300 years of the second millennium. Dilmun's commercial power began to decline between 2000 BCE and 1800 BCE because piracy flourished in the Persian Gulf. In 600 BCE, the Babylonians and later the Persians added Dilmun to their empires. The Dilmun civilization was the centre of commercial activities linking traditional agriculture of
5762-404: The most prominent communities were the Thamud , who arose around 3000 BCE and lasted to around 300 CE; and the earliest Semitic-speaking civilization in the eastern part was Dilmun , which arose around the end of the 4th millennium BCE and lasted to around 600 CE. Additionally, from around the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE, Southern Arabia was the home to a number of kingdoms, such as
5848-406: The nomadic tribes who lived near the region, such as the Banu Tamim and the Banu Bakr . Caliph Umar appointed the Thaqafite Abu Ubayd ibn Mas'ud as the conquest's overall commander in 634, but he was slain during the Battle of the Bridge , where the Sasanians defeated the Muslims. While the overall command in Iraq eventually passed to the Qurayshite companion of Muhammad, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas ,
5934-423: The parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt and Assyria... The Greek historian Strabo believed the Phoenicians originated from Eastern Arabia. Herodotus also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Eastern Arabia. This theory was accepted by the 19th-century German classicist Arnold Heeren who said that: "In
6020-453: The population of Eastern Arabia consisted of Christianized Arabs (including Abd al-Qays ), Aramean Christians, Persian-speaking Zoroastrians and Jewish agriculturalists. According to Robert Bertram Serjeant , the Baharna may be the Arabized "descendants of converts from the original population of Christians (Aramaeans), Jews and ancient Persians (Majus) inhabiting the island and cultivated coastal provinces of Eastern Arabia at
6106-418: The second half of the 2nd century CE, reaching its greatest size. The kingdom of Hadramaut was eventually conquered by the Himyarite king Shammar Yahri'sh around 300 CE, unifying all of the South Arabian kingdoms. The ancient Kingdom of Awsān in South Arabia (modern Yemen), with a capital at Ḥagar Yaḥirr in the wadi Markhah, to the south of the Wādī Bayḥān, is now marked by a tell or artificial mound, which
6192-567: The site of Greek athletic contests. The name Tylos is thought to be a Hellenisation of the Semitic, Tilmun (from Dilmun ). The term Tylos was commonly used for the islands until Ptolemy's Geographia when the inhabitants are referred to as 'Thilouanoi'. Some place names in Bahrain go back to the Tylos era, for instance, the residential suburb of Arad in Muharraq , is believed to originate from "Arados",
6278-403: The starting point for a trader's route, making the location within the archipelago of islands comprising the modern Kingdom of Bahrain , particularly the main island of Bahrain itself, another possibility. Various other identifications of the site have been attempted, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville choosing Qatif , Carsten Niebuhr preferring Kuwait and C Forster suggesting the ruins at
6364-568: The tide turned and the Muslims routed the coalition, taking thousands of Hawazin women and children captive and considerable booty. The Muslims proceeded to besiege Ta'if , where many of the Bedouin warriors of the Hawazin took refuge. Many of the Qurayshites in the Muslim army were motivated to prevent the Thaqafites from capturing their estates near Ta'if. When the siege faltered, Muhammad succeeded in turning Malik ibn Awf and his Bedouin warriors against
6450-614: The time of the Arab conquest". Other archaeological assemblages cannot be brought clearly into larger context, such as the Samad Late Iron Age . Zoroastrianism was also present in Eastern Arabia. The Zoroastrians of Eastern Arabia were known as " Majoos " in pre-Islamic times. The sedentary dialects of Eastern Arabia, including Bahrani Arabic , were influenced by Akkadian , Aramaic and Syriac languages. The Dilmun civilization
6536-410: The time when such migration had supposedly taken place. With the waning of Seleucid Greek power, Tylos was incorporated into Characene or Mesenian, the state founded in what today is Kuwait by Hyspaosines in 127 BCE. A building inscriptions found in Bahrain indicate that Hyspoasines occupied the islands, (and it also mention his wife, Thalassia). From the 3rd century BCE to arrival of Islam in
6622-540: The west side of the Persian Gulf . More accurately, the ancient city of Gerrha has been determined to have existed near or under the present fort of Uqair . This fort is 50 miles northeast of al-Hasa in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia . This site was first proposed by Robert Ernest Cheesman in 1924. Gerrha and Uqair are archaeological sites on the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula . Prior to Gerrha,
6708-513: The writings of Aristotle , Ptolemy , and Pliny . Before the rise of Islam , approximately between 400 and 600 CE, the Thamud completely disappeared. Malik ibn Awf Malik ibn Awf ( Arabic : مالك بن عوف ) was a companion of Muhammad and a leader of the Hawazin tribe of Ta'if . Before he converted to Islam, he was one of the commanders in the Battle of Hunayn against the Muslims. His tribe,
6794-654: The year 570 CE. Eastern Yemen remained allied to the Sassanids via tribal alliances with the Lakhmids , which later brought the Sassanid army into Yemen, ending the Aksumite period. The Persian king Khosrau I sent troops under the command of Vahriz ( Persian : اسپهبد وهرز ), who helped the semi-legendary Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan to drive the Aksumites out of Yemen. Southern Arabia became
6880-611: Was Uthman ibn Abi al-As of the Banu Malik, who Muhammad appointed as his amil (agent, governor, or tax collector) over the Thaqif. When most of the Arab tribes discarded the authority of the Muslim state following Muhammad's death in 632, in what became known as the Ridda wars , Uthman played an important role in preventing the Thaqif from similarly defecting. With the Ridda wars' conclusion in 633, Uthman and several Thaqafis played command roles in
6966-412: Was 2 miles from the Persian Gulf near current day Hofuf . The researcher Abdulkhaliq Al Janbi argued in his book that Gerrha was most likely the ancient city of Hajar, located in modern-day Al Ahsa , Saudi Arabia . Al Janbi's theory is the most widely accepted one by modern scholars, although there are some difficulties with this argument given that Al Ahsa is 60 km inland and thus less likely to be
7052-422: Was a powerful and highly organized ancient Arab kingdom that played a vital cultural and economic role in the north-western region of the Arabian Peninsula and used Dadanitic language. The Lihyanite kingdom went through three different stages, the early phase of Lihyan Kingdom was around the 7th century BC, started as a Sheikdom of Dedan then developed into the Kingdom of Lihyan tribe. Some authors assert that
7138-511: Was an important trading center which at the height of its power controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes. The Sumerians regarded Dilmun as holy land . Dilmun is regarded as one of the oldest ancient civilizations in the Middle East . The Sumerians described Dilmun as a paradise garden in the Epic of Gilgamesh . The Sumerian tale of the garden paradise of Dilmun may have been an inspiration for
7224-423: Was becoming more and more difficult for him. So he travelled to Tai'f, a town in the mountains about forty-five miles away from Mecca, where the tribe of Thaqif lived, to seek their support to defend himself against his tribe. At the same time, he wished that they would accept the message with which Allah had sent him. Malik ibn Awf criticized Muhammad when he came to Ta'if to spread Islam. When Muhammad went to
7310-502: Was described by Strabo as inhabited by Chaldean exiles from Babylon , who built their houses of salt and repaired them by the application of salt water. Pliny the Elder (lust. Nat. vi. 32) says it was 5 miles in circumference with towers built of square blocks of salt. Gerrha was destroyed by the Qarmatians in the end of the 9th century where all inhabitants were massacred (300,000). It
7396-482: Was diminished by the arrival of Islam in Eastern Arabia by 628. In 676, the bishops of Beth Qatraye stopped attending synods; although the practice of Christianity persisted in the region until the late 9th century. The dioceses of Beth Qatraye did not form an ecclesiastical province , except for a short period during the mid-to-late seventh century. They were instead subject to the Metropolitan of Fars . Oman and
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