The
Bahra'
(
Arabic
:
????????
,
romanized
:
Bahr??
) were an
Arab
tribe
that inhabited the middle
Euphrates
valley around the trade center and
Arab Christian
holy city of
Resafa
during the late
Byzantine
era, and later the
Homs
region of central
Syria
during the Islamic era. After converting to Christianity, and becoming part of the
Ghassanid
-led tribal federates of the Byzantines in the late 6th century, the Bahra' were tasked with guarding Resafa. They were part of Byzantine?Arab coalitions against the nascent Arab Muslims in 629, 633 and 634, before ultimately converting to Islam after the
Muslim conquest of Syria
. In the following centuries they mostly inhabited central Syria, lending their name to the area's
Jabal Bahra'
range.
History
[
edit
]
The general consensus is that the Bahra' belonged to the
Quda'a
, an
Arabian
tribal confederation with unclear roots, though a minority of sources place them as part of
Yemenite
tribal grouping, the
Banu Judham
.
[1]
According to Arab genealogical tradition, as chronicled by
Ibn Abd Rabbih
(d. 960), the tribe's progenitor was a certain Bahra' ibn Amr ibn al-Haf ibn Quda’a.
[2]
This tradition holds that Bahra' had five sons Ahwad, Qasit, Abada, Qasr and Adi, all of whose progeny became large clans of the tribe.
[2]
There are scant records of the Bahra' tribe in the
pre-Islamic era
, but it is apparent that they were part of the Ghassanid-led Arab
tribal federates
of the
Byzantine Empire
in the
Syrian Desert
.
[3]
The tribe is mentioned in a single verse of an
Arabic
poem from that era which has them based in
Resafa
(Sergiopolis), a trading post between Syrian
Palmyra
and
Mesopotamian
Sura
that also contained a shrine dedicated to
St. Sergius
; the latter was venerated by the
Arab Christian
federate tribes.
[4]
The verse, recorded in the
Al-Mufaddaliyyat
, read: "And as for Bahra', they are a group whose place we know. They have a path around Resafa that is clear."
[5]
It is not known when the Bahra' converted to Christianity but it was most likely when they entered Byzantium's service and allied with the Christian Ghassanid leaders of the federates in the late 6th century. Their prior paganism is noted in a pre-Islamic poem in which they mocked the "Christian swords" of the
Taghlib
tribe.
[3]
According to historian
Clifford Edmund Bosworth
, they converted in circa 580, after the
Tanukh
and Taghlib, the Bahra's tribal neighbors in the middle Euphrates. Historian
Irfan Shahid
stipulates that the Bahra' were in charge of protecting Resafa and the trade routes running through it from non-federate
Bedouin
tribes and the
Lakhmids
, guarding the pilgrimage shrine of St. Sergius, and possibly facilitating supplies to the town.
[6]
The Bahra' were among the Arab federate tribes in the Byzantine army at the
Battle of Mu'ta
in 629 in which the latter defeated the newly ascendant Muslim Arabs. In 633, the Bahra' and Byzantium's allied Arab tribes were mobilized to combat the Arab Muslim forces of
Khalid ibn al-Walid
at the
Battle of Dumat al-Jandal
but were defeated.
[1]
[3]
The Bahra' fought once more in the Byzantine?Arab Christian coalition against the Muslims in 634. However, following the conquest of
Syria
(634?638), they converted to Islam. They ultimately migrated west to the plains of the
Homs
region.
[1]
The 9th-century geographer
al-Ya'qubi
noted that the Bahra' and Tanukh tribes predominated in
Hama
.
[7]
By the time the Arab ruler
Sayf al-Dawla
formed his emirate in northern Syria in the 10th century, the abode of the Bahra' lay in the mountainous coastal region between
Latakia
and
Tripoli
.
[8]
From around that time, the
Syrian Coastal Mountain Range
became known as the "Jabal Bahra'" after the tribe.
[7]
[9]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Bosworth, p. 938.
- ^
a
b
Ibn Rabbihi, p. 276.
- ^
a
b
c
Shahid 2002, p.118.
- ^
Shahid 2002, pp. 118?119.
- ^
Shahid 2002, p. 116.
- ^
Shahid 2002, p. 119.
- ^
a
b
Shahid 1984, p. 407.
- ^
Bianquis 1997, p. 106.
- ^
Salibi 2005, p. 89.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Bianquis, Thierry
(1997).
"Sayf al-Dawla"
. In
Bosworth, C. E.
;
van Donzel, E.
;
Heinrichs, W. P.
&
Lecomte, G.
(eds.).
The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition
. Volume IX: San?Sze
. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 103?110.
doi
:
10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_1010
.
ISBN
978-90-04-10422-8
.
- Bosworth, C. E.
(1960). "Bahr?'
". In Gibb, H. A. R.; Kramers, J. H.; Levi-Provencal, E.; Schacht, J. (eds.).
The Encyclopedia of Islam
. Vol. I, A?B (new ed.). Leiden and New York: Brill.
ISBN
978-90-04-08114-7
.
- Ibn 'Abd Rabbih
(2011). Boullata, Emeritus Issa J. (ed.).
The Unique Necklace, Volume III
. Reading: Garnet Publishing Limited & Southern Court.
ISBN
9781859642405
.
- Salibi, Kamal
(2005).
A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered
. London: I. B. Tauris.
ISBN
978-1860649127
.
- Shahid, Irfan
(1984).
Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century
. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.
ISBN
978-0-88402-116-2
.
- Shahid, Irfan (2002).
Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Volume 2, Part 1
. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.
ISBN
978-0-88402-284-8
.
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These prefixes ignored in the alphabetical ordering: Al, Bani, Banu.
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