Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- PART I THE LATE ANTIQUE CONTEXT
- PART II UNIVERSALISM AND IMPERIALISM
- PART III REGIONALISM
- 10 Arabia
- 11 The Islamic east
- 12 Syria
- 13 Egypt
- 14 The Iberian Peninsula and North Africa
- PART IV THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF EARLY ISLAMIC HISTORY
- Conclusion: From formative Islam to classical Islam
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section
- References
10 - Arabia
from PART III - REGIONALISM
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2011
Edited by
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- PART I THE LATE ANTIQUE CONTEXT
- PART II UNIVERSALISM AND IMPERIALISM
- PART III REGIONALISM
- 10 Arabia
- 11 The Islamic east
- 12 Syria
- 13 Egypt
- 14 The Iberian Peninsula and North Africa
- PART IV THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF EARLY ISLAMIC HISTORY
- Conclusion: From formative Islam to classical Islam
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section
- References
Summary
The history of the Arabian Peninsula after the shift of the capital of the empire to Damascus is largely neglected by the universal histories. For example, al-Ṭabarī mentions in one line the conquest of Oman in 280/893, completely ignoring the major civil war that had led to it. Local sources for certain regions, such as Oman, Ḥaḍramawt and Najd, are very deficient as well. This fact is perhaps the reason for the assumptions sometimes voiced by modern scholars: that the central government was not interested in the Peninsula (except in the holy places), and that its history was largely tribal, cyclical and trivial. As will be shown below, these assumptions may be correct when applied to certain regions, such as Najd and Ḥaḍramawt, but not to others, such as Oman, Baḥrayn and the main parts of the Yemen.
Only a few generalisations may be made. The Peninsula never constituted one province, or one political unit, and its internal administrative and political divisions often changed. From the second/eighth century independent and semi-independent polities appeared, and regions underwent cycles of unification and fragmentation. Broadly speaking, society in Arabia, both settled and nomad, remained tribal, and ruling dynasties usually never became full-fledged states. The Peninsula in general lacked the features characteristic of other parts of the Islamic world, namely, court society, sophisticated central bureaucracy, highly developed civilisation and a fixed system of raising standing armies. Apart from that, there were great differences between the various regions.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The New Cambridge History of Islam , pp. 395 - 447Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
References
, Taʾrīkh umarāʾ Makka al-mukarrama, Damascus, 1413/1992.
, Muṣannaf ʿAbd al-Razzāq, ed. , 11 vols., Beirut, 1403/1983.
, Sīrat al-Hādī Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn, ed. , Beirut, 1972.
, al-Mufīd fī akhbār Ṣanʿāʾ wa-Zabīd wa-shuʿarāʾ mulūkihā wa-aʿyānihā wa-udabāʾihā, ed. , 1985.
, Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ, 10 vols., Beirut, 1405/1985.
, al-Ḥijāz fī ṣadr al-Islām: dirāsāt fī aḥwālihi al-ʿumrāniyya wa-l-idāriyya, Beirut, 1410/1990.
, ‘Mulkiyyāt al-arḍ fī al-Ḥijāz fī al-qarn al-awwal al-hijrī’, al-ʿArab, 3 (1969) –1005.Google Scholar
, Taʾrīkh ʿUmān fī al-ʿuṣūr al-Islāmiyya al-ūlā, London, 1420/1999.
, Taʾrīkh Ḥaḍramawt, Jiddah, 1968.
Dirāsāt wa-buḥūth fī taʾrīkh al-Yaman al-Islāmī, Beirut, 1418/1998.
, Maṣādir al-fikr al-Islamī fī al-Yaman, Beirut, 1408/1988.
, Muʾallafāt ḥukkām al-Yaman, ed. Elke Niewoehner-Eberhard, Wiesbaden, 1979.
, Taʾrīkh al-rusul wa-l-mulūk, ed. , 10 vols., Cairo, 1960.
, Tuḥfat al-zaman fī taʾrīkh al-Yaman, ed. , Beirut, 1407/1986.
, Ansāb al-ashrāf, vol. V, ed. , Jerusalem, 1936.
, Futūḥ al-buldān, ed. , Beirut, 1403/1983.
, Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, ed. and , 23 vols., Beirut, 1413/1993.
, al-ʿIqd al-thamīn fī taʾrīkh al-balad al-amīn, ed. , and , 8 vols., Cairo, 1378–88/1958–69.
, Shifāʾ al-gharām bi-akhbār al-balad al-ḥarām, vol. II, ed. , Beirut, 1405/1985.
, al-Zuhūr al-muqtaṭafa min taʾrīkh Makka al-musharrafa, ed. , Beirut, 2000.
, Ṣifat jazīrat al-ʿArab, ed. , Beirut and Ṣanʿāʾ, 1403/1983.
, Takmilat taʾrīkh al-Ṭabarī, ed. , Beirut, 1957.
, al-Taʾrīkh wa-l-muʾarrikhūn bi-Makka min al-qarn al-thālith al-hijrī ilā al-qarn al-thālith ʿashar, Mecca, 1994.
(attrib.), Annals of Oman to 1728, trans. and annot. , Cambridge and New York, 1984.
(attrib.), Kapitel XXXIII de anonym arabischen Chronik Kasf al-Ghumma al-Gami` li-Akhbār al-Umma, ed. and trans. , Hamburg, 1938.
, Fī shimāl gharb al-Jazīra, Riyadh, 1981.
, Madīnat al-Riyāḍ ʿabra aṭwār al-taʾrīkh, Riyadh, 1386/1966.
, ‘Muʾallafāt fī taʾrīkh al-Madīna’, al-ʿArab, 4 (1969) –100, 262–7, 327–34, 385–8, 465–8.Google Scholar
, al-Muʿjam al-jughrāfī li-l-bilād al-ʿArabiyya al-Suʿūdiyya, Riyadh, 1399–1401/1979–81.
, ‘al-Rabadha fī kutub al-mutaqaddimīn’, al-ʿArab, 1 (1966) –27, 546–50, 625–31, 724–7.Google Scholar
, al-Silāḥ wa-l-ʿudda fī taʾrīkh Judda, ed. , Damascus, Beirut and Medina, 1988.
, Najd before the Salafī reform movement, Reading and Riyadh, 2002.
, Ḥaḍramawt ʿabra arbaʿat ʿashar qarnan, Beirut, 1410/1990.
, al-Iktifāʾ bi-mā taḍammanahu min maghāzī rasūl allāh wa-l-thalātha al-khulafāʾ, ed. , 4 vols., Beirut, 1417/1997.
, The Yemen in early Islam 9–233/630–847: A political history, London, 1988.
, Ittiʿāẓ al-ḥunafāʾ bi-akhbār al-aʾimma al-Fāṭimiyyīn al-khulafāʾ, ed. , Cairo, 1368/1948.
, Taʾrīkh al-Yaman al-Islāmī min sanat arbaʿ wa-miʾatayn ilā sanat alf wa-sitt, ed. , Beirut, 1986/1407.
, Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī maʿrifat al-aqālīm, ed. , Leiden, 1906.
, ‘Banū Nabhān in the Omani sources’, in , and (eds.), New Arabian Studies, 4 (Exeter, 1997) –95.Google Scholar
, Darb Zubayda: The pilgrim road from Kūfa to Mecca, Riyadh, 1980.
, al-Rabadha: A portrait of early Islamic civilization in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, 1986.
, Taʾrīkh madīnat Ṣanʿāʾ, ed. , Ṣanʿāʾ, 1401/1981.
, al-Tuḥfa al-laṭīfa fī taʾrīkh al-Madīna al-sharīfa, 3 vols., Cairo, 1376/1957.
, Tuḥfat al-aʿyān bi-sīrat ahl ʿUmān, vol. I, Cairo, 1380/1961.
, al-Ḥaqīqa wa-l-majāz fī taʾrīkh al-Ibāḍiyya bi-l-Yaman wa-l-Ḥijāz, Muscat, 1400/1980.
, Isʿāf al-aʿyān fī ansāb ahl ʿUmān, Beirut, 1384.
, Taʾrīkh al-Yaman al-fikrī fī al-ʿaṣr al-ʿAbbāsī, 4 vols., Beirut, 1407/1987.
, Manāʾiḥ al-karam fī akhbār Makka wa-l-bayt wa-wulāt al-ḥaram, ed. , 6 vols., Mecca, 1419/1998.
, Taʾrīkh, 2 vols., Beirut, 1379/1960.
, Taʾrīkh ahl ʿUmān, ed. , Oman, 1986.
, Mirʾāt jazīrat al-ʿArab, trans. and , Cairo, 1419/1999.
, ‘Maritime trade and imamate government: Two principal themes in the history of Oman to 1728’, in (ed.), The Arabian Peninsula: Society and politics, London, 1972 –106.Google Scholar
(ed.), Oman in history, London, 1995.
, Tribes, government and history in Yemen, Oxford, 1989.
, ‘The rebellion of Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh b. al-Ḥasan (known as al-Nasf al-Zakiyya) in 145/762’, in (ed.), ʿAbbasid studies: Occasional papers of the School of ʿAbbasid Studies, 6–10 July 2002, Leuven, Paris and Dudley, MA, 2004 –98.Google Scholar
, ‘An early Islamic family from Oman: al-ʿAwtabī’s account of the Muhallabids’, Journal of Semitic Studies, Monograph 17, Manchester, 1991.Google Scholar
, The earliest biographies of the Prophet and their authors, ed. , Princeton, 2002.
, Arab seafaring in the Indian Ocean in ancient and medieval times, Princeton, 1951.
, al-Istīʿāb fī maʿrifat al-aṣḥāb, ed. , 4 vols., Beirut, 1992/1412.
, al-Iṣāba fī tamyīz al-ṣaḥāba, ed. , 8 vols., Beirut, 1992/1412.
, Jamharat ansāb al-ʿArab, ed. , Cairo, 1382/1962.
, , al-Kāmil fī al-taʾrīkh, 10 vols., Beirut, 1415/1995.
, Ghāyat al-murām bi-akhbār salṭanat al-balad al-ḥarām, vol. I, ed. , Mecca, 1406/1986.
, Taʾrīkh, ed. , 2 vols., Beirut and Damascus, 1397/1976.
, ‘The battle of the Ḥarra: Some socio-economic aspects’, in (ed.), Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet, Jerusalem, 1977 –49.Google Scholar
, ‘The struggle against Musaylima’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 27 (2002) –56.Google Scholar
, ‘Zaydī imams as restorers of religion: Iḥyāʾ and tajdīd in Zaydī literature’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 49 (1990) –63.Google Scholar
, ‘The Fāṭimids and the Qarmaṭīs of Baḥrayn’, in (ed.), Medieval Ismāʿīlī history and thought, Cambridge, 1996 –74.Google Scholar
, ‘The origin of the Yemenite hijra’, in (ed.), Arabicus Felix: Luminosus Britanicus, essays in honour of A. F. L. Beeston on his eightieth birthday, Oxford, 1991 –44.Google Scholar
, Min Sawād al-Kūfa ilā al-Baḥrayn, Beirut, 1999.
, The origins of Islamic jurisprudence: Meccan fiqh before the classical schools, Leiden, 2002.
, al-Taʾrīkh al-ʿarabī wa-l-muʾarrikhūn, vol. I, Beirut, 1979.
, Book of travels (Safarnāma), trans. ., Bibliotheca Persica, Albany, 1986.
, Die Umayyaden und der zweite Bürgerkrieg (680–692), Wiesbaden, 1982.
, and , The Fāṭimids and their successors in Yaman: The history of an Islamic community, Arabic edn and English summary of Idrīs ʿImād al-Dīn’s ʿUyūn al-akhbār, vol. VII, London and New York, 2002.
, Taʾrīkh al-madhāhib al-dīniyya fī bilād al-Yaman, Cairo, 1988/1408.
, Maṣādir taʾrīkh al-Yaman fī al-ʿas¯r al-Islāmī, Cairo, 1974.
, ‘Die Christliche Minderheit von Najrān’, Studien zum Minderheitenproblem im Islam, 1 (1973) –281.Google Scholar
, ‘Historians and historiography of Ḥaḍramawt’, in , Studies in Arabian history and civilization, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot and Brookfield, VT, 1981, X.Google Scholar
, ‘The interplay between tribal affinities and religious (Zaydi) authority in the Yemen’, al-Abḥāth, 30 (1982) –47.Google Scholar
, ‘Materials for South Arabian history’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 13 (1950) –307, 581–601.Google Scholar
, ‘The sayyids of Ḥaḍramawt’, in , Studies in Arabian history and civilization, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot and Brookfield, VT, 1981, VIII.Google Scholar
, ‘South Arabia’, in , Studies in Arabian history and civilization, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot and Brookfield, VT, 1981, IX.Google Scholar
, Mawsūʿat al-taʾrīkh al-Islāmī wa-l-ḥaḍāra al-Islāmiyya, vol. VII, Cairo, 1982.
, al-Riddah and the Muslim conquest of Arabia, Toronto and Beirut, 1975.
, ‘The political history of the Islamic Yemen down to the first Turkish invasion (1–945/622–1538)’, in , Studies in the medieval history of the Yemen and Arabia Felix, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot and Brookfield, VT, 1997, I.Google Scholar
, ‘Yemenite history: Problems and misconceptions’, in , Studies in the medieval history of the Yemen and Arabia Felix, Variorum Collected Studies, Aldershot and Brookfield, VT, 1997, II.Google Scholar
, Yemen: The politics of the Yemen Arab Republic, Boulder, 1978.
, Les débuts de l’imamat zaidite du Yemen, trans. , Leiden, 1960.
, ‘L’Imāmato Ibāḍita dell’ Oman’, Annali (Istituto Universitario Orientale, Napoli), n.s. 3 (1949) –82.Google Scholar
, The oasis of al-Ḥasā, Dhahran, 1955.
, Die Beduinen, vol. II, ed. and , Leipzig, 1943.
, Die Beduinen, vol. III, ed. , Wiesbaden, 1952.
, Muʿjam al-ansāb wa-l-usarāt al-ḥākima fī al-taʾrīkh al-Islāmī, Beirut, 1980.
, ‘Bibliographical background to the crisis period in the Ibāḍī imamate (end of the ninth to end of the fourteenth century)’, Arabian Studies, 3 (1976) –64.Google Scholar
, The imamate tradition of Oman, Cambridge, 1987.
, Akhbār Makka al-musharrafa, 3 vols., Göttingen, 1274/1857.
, Ghāyat al-amānī fī akhbār al-quṭr al-yamānī, ed. and , Cairo, 1388/1968.
, al-Inbāʾ ʿan dawlat Bilqīs wa-Sabaʾ, Ṣanʿāʾ, 1404/1984.
, Itḥāf al-muhtadīn bi-dhikr al-aʾimma al-mujaddidīn, Ṣanʿāʾ, 1343/1925.
, al-Jāmiʿ fī akhbār al-Qarāmiṭa fī al-Aḥsāʾ, al-Shām, al-ʿIrāq, al-Yaman, Damascus, 1407/1987.