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were common. Small Persian and Indian communities
also lived along the coast.
Due to its geographical position and its links with
Persia and Iraq, Bahrain was prosperous. Nestorian
Christianity was strong in the area, while Bahraini
poets such as al-Mutalammis and al-Muthaqqab
used to attend the court of the Mundhir dynasty
in Iraq.
After the emergence of Islam in the seventh century
CE, Bahraini tribes played an important role in the
Arab conquests and also in political events in Iraq
during the Umayyad era (660–749). The spread of
war damaged commerce, and many Bahraini tribes
migrated to the newly founded Iraqi cities of Basra
and Kufa. As a result, Bahrain declined in importance
and was ruled by the governor of Basra, creating
an important vacuum that led the area to become
one of the centers of opposition to the Umayyad
caliphate, in which the Kharijis played a prominent
part.
During the ‘Abbasid period (749–1258), the rise of
Basra as a commercial center, along with Siraf, Qays,
and Hormuz, led to the further decline of Bahrain.
Groups opposed to the ‘Abbasids, such as the Zanj
(c. 868–883) and the Qarmathians (c. 900–1076),
gained strength. These movements eventually subsid-
ed, while Shi‘ism spread in Hasa and Awal.
New migrants from Central Arabia arrived, and an
independent state was founded by Abd Allah bin Ali.
The dynasty that followed, the ‘Uyunids, lasted from
c. 1076 to 1228. Supported by the Seljuk rulers of
Iraq, this dynasty relied on the power of the Banu
‘Amir tribes who had migrated from Najd.
The Banu ‘Amir were initially allies of the Qar-
mathians and then of the ‘Uyunids, but they eventu-
ally overthrew the latter and established a dynasty of
their own. Founded by ‘Usfur ibn Rashid and known
as the ‘Usfurids, the dynasty dominated Bahrain from
c. 1228 to 1383, but finally came to an end with
the rise of the Kingdom of Hormuz in fourteenth
century.
Another branch of the Banu ‘Amir, led by Zamil
ibn Jabir, then managed to gain control of Bahrain,
founding the dynasty of the Jubur (c. 1446–1519).
This dynasty adopted the Maliki school of Islamic
jurisprudence, but little is known of the cultural and
social life of its people. Although their influence
spread throughout the Gulf, the Jubur were swiftly
overwhelmed by the technologically superior Portu-
guese, who arrived in the Gulf at the beginning of the
sixteenth century.
Throughout the medieval period, the coastal econ-
omy of the extensive area known as Bahrain was
based on commerce, pearling, and date cultivation.
HASAN M. AL-NABOODAH
See also Arabia; Trade, African; Trade, Indian Ocean;
Tribes and Tribal Customs
Further Reading
Al-Khalifa, Shaikh Abdullah, K., and Michael Rice, Edi-
tors. Bahrain through the Ages: The History. London and
New York: Kegan Paul International, 1993.
Hasan, N. The Role of the Arab Tribes in the East during the
Period of the Umayyad (40–132/660–749). Baghdad:
Baghdad University, 1976.
Miles, S. B. The Countries and Tribes of the Persian Gulf.
London: Frank Cass, 1966.
Morony, Michael. ‘‘The Arabisation of the Gulf.’’ In The
Arab Gulf and the Arab World. Edited by B.R. Pridham.
London, New York, and Sydney: Croom Helm, 1988.
Naboodah, H. Eastern Arabia in the Sixth and Seventh
Centuries A.D., Ph.D. dissertation, University of Exeter,
UK, 1989.
———. ‘‘The Commercial Activity of Bahrain and Oman in
the Early Middle Ages.’’ Proceedings of the Seminar for
Arabian Studies 22 (1992): 81–96.
Potts, D.T. The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity. 2 vols. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1990 (reprinted 1992).
BAKRI, AL-, GEOGRAPHER
Abu ‘Ubayd ‘Abd Allah, b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Bakri
(d. 487/1094), was the greatest geographer of Muslim
Spain. Little is known about his life. He was a native
of Cordova, where he died. His father was the only
one, or else the second, ruler of the small principality
of Huelva and Saltes, founded in 402/1012, at the time
of the fall of the Umayyad caliphate in Cordova. In
443/1051, when his father, ‘Izz al-Dawla, was obliged
to give up his power, Abu ‘Ubayd, who was at that
time approximately thirty years old, accompanied
him to Cordova. He was the the pupil of the historian
Abu Marwan Ibn Hayyan (d. 469/1076) and of other
masters, and moved in various court circles, especially
Almeria. He quickly became a distinguished writer.
Several books are attributed to him, in the religious
sphere, in philology, on the correct names of the
Arabic tribes, and one in botany, none of which has
come to us.
In geography, the work on which Abu ‘Ubayd’s
renown is mainly based is his Book of the Itineraries
and Kingdoms (al-Masalik wa l-mamalik). He appears
never to have traveled in the east, or even in North
Africa. He composed this book in 461/1068 assisted
by literary and oral information. For North Africa
and some parts of Northern Black Africa (such as
Sudan), his main source is Book of the Itineraries
and Kingdoms of Muhammad b. Yusuf al-Warraq
(d. 363/973 in Cordova), which has not come to us.
Not all of the book has been published or translated.
The following sections are edited and/or translated se-
parately: Northern Africa, fragments on the Russians
BAKRI, AL-, GEOGRAPHER
95
and Slavs, parts related to Muslim Spain, the Arabian
Peninsula, Egypt, and Europe.
Following the usual practice of the geographers of
his time and before him, Abu ‘Ubayd gave to this
work the form of a roadbook, including distances
between towns and staging posts. Most of his descrip-
tions of towns are remarkably precise. His toponymic
material for Muslim Spain, the Maghrib, Northern
Africa, and so on is no less worthy of interest. Many
of his historical notices and remarks are also invalu-
able. He was also interested in social and religious
matters, for instance, about the Berber Moroccan
tribe of the Banu Lamas, who were Shi‘i; or his state-
ment on Yunus of the Barghawati Berber tribe of
Morocco, who made a journey in the first half of the
third/ninth century to the East of the Islamic empire,
together with other North Africans and Andalusis, of
whom three claimed to be prophets upon their return,
including Yunus himself. Abu ‘Ubayd also gives so-
cial and economic information, such as on the pres-
ence of Andalusi traders in al-Mahdiyya (Tunisia),
providing detailed and varied itineraries for their
maritime crossings of the channel between North
Africa and al-Andalus.
Abu ‘Ubayd’s Dictionary on the toponyms, mostly
referring to the Arabic Peninsula, which occur in pre-
Islamic poetry and in the literature of the Islamic
traditional reports, the spelling of which has given
rise to discussions among the philologists and tradi-
tionists, has been edited. It includes a long and inter-
esting introduction on the geographical setting of
ancient Arabia and the habitats of the most important
tribes.
CLAUDE GILLIOT
See also Geography
Primary Sources
Works of al-Bakri:
Das Geographische Buch des Abu ‘Obeid ‘Abdallah ben
‘Abd el-‘Aziz el-Bekri. 2 vols. Ed. Ferdinand Wu
¨sten-
feld. Paris: Go
¨ttingen, 18761877; reprint Osnabru
¨ck:
Biblio-Verlag, 1976; reprint Frankfurt: Publications of
the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Sciences,
1994 Islamic Geography, vols. 206–207).
Description de l’Afrique septentrionale, par Abou-Obeı
¨d-el-
Bekri, I, Texte arabe, ed. Mac Guckin de Slane, Alger
and Paris, 1910.
II, Description de l’Arique septentrionale [. . . ], translated by
Mac Guckin de Slane, Alger and Paris, 1913; reprint
together, Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1965; reprint
Frankfurt: Publications of the Institute for the History
of Arabic-Islamic Sciences, 1993 (Islamic Geography,
vols. 134–135).
Geografia de Espan
˜a, Introduction. Translation and notes
by Eliseo Vidal Beltra
´n. Zaragosa: Anubar, 1982.
Kitab al-Masalik wa l-mamalik, 2 vols. Ed. Andre
´Ferre
´and
Adrian van Leeuwen. Carthage: Beit al-Hikma, 1992;
reprint Beirut, Dar al-Gharb al-islami, between 1992
and 1995.
Mu‘jam ma sta‘jam min asma’ al-bilad wa l-mawadi‘, 4 vol.
in 2. Ed. Mustafa al-Saqqa. Cairo, 1945; reprint Beirut:
‘Alam al-kutub, 1983 (is only a copy of the ed. of Wu
¨s-
tenfeld).
The Arab geographer Abu ‘Ubayd al-Bakri,2
nd
part: The
Arabic Peninsula (in Arabic). Ed. ‘Abd Allah Yusuf al-
Ghunaym. Kuwayt: Dhat al-Salasil, 1977.
The Geography of al-Andalus and Europe (in Arabic). Ed.
‘Abd al-Rahman ‘Ali al-Hajj. Beirut: Dar al-Irshad,
1968.
The Geography of Egypt (in Arabic). Ed. ‘Abd Allah Yusuf
al-Ghunaym. Kuwayt: Dar al-‘Uruba, 1980.
Further Reading
Gilliot, Claude. ‘‘Al-Warrak, Muhammad b. Yusuf,’’ EI,
XI, 151.
Le
´vi-Provenc¸al, E. ‘‘Abu ‘Ubayd al-Bakri,’’ EI, I, 155–157:
Miquel, Andre
´.La ge
´ographie humaine du monde musul-
man jusqu’au milieu du 11
e
sie
`cle. 4 vols. Paris: La Haye:
Mouton, 1967 (1973
2
), 1975, 1980, 1988.
BALKANS
Although interactions between the Balkan Slavs and
Greeks with Arab Muslims can be traced back to the
medieval Arab-Byzantine relations, Islam spread
through the Balkans with the Ottoman invasion that
commenced in the mid-fourteenth century. No medi-
eval Balkan state was strong enough to halt the ad-
vancing Ottoman army, especially given that the
Ottomans had acted several times as mercenary allies
in the internecine wars, which had led to political
divisions, deteriorating living conditions, and general
economic instability. After capturing Adrianople
(Edirne) in 1365, the Ottomans pushed farther into
the Balkans in several waves: Serbia fell by 1389 (the
Battle of Kosovo); Bulgaria and Wallachia by 1402;
Bosnia by 1463; Greece, including a number of Aege-
an islands, and Albania by 1481. The apex of Otto-
man expansion was reached by the mid-sixteenth
century with the acquisition of Transylvania, large
parts of Hungary, and Slavonia.
Organized into the millet system of religious
grouping, the Balkan people remained predominantly
Orthodox Christian. However, the presence of Islam
intensified through two main processes: (1) the con-
trolled movement of Muslim populations from other
parts of the Empire, and (2) conversions to Islam that
took place among local populations in uneven waves
and over several centuries. In such diverse religious
space, some pockets of the Balkans continued being
BAKRI, AL-, GEOGRAPHER
96