Eastern Conquests and Factionalism

This chapter begins by studying the role of al-Azd and the Muhallabids in the Islamic conquests along the eastern frontier of the Islamic world, in Khurasan and Sind. It critiques the idea that the Azd were a driving force behind the conquest of Sind, noting their prior presence in that region. Examining Yazid b. al-Muhallab’s campaigns in Jurjan and Tabaristan south of the Caspian Sea, it argues that both the Caspian and Sind campaigns were the result of governors linked to the Umayyad caliphs conquering territories to which their factional rivals had ties. Finally, there is a study of the role of al-Azd identity in Khurasan on the eve of the Abbasid Revolution.

Introduction

This introduction lays out the argument that although al-Azd identity existed from pre-Islamic times into the Abbasid period, although the significance of that identity was different across time and place. After discussing the historiography of Arab tribes, it reviews aspects of Arab genealogy (nasab), and opts for a definition of tribe based on identity. It further proposes several techniques of detecting the significance of al-Azd identity in the primary sources, most notably through prosopography and using narrative to establish what identities were significant within them. The latter is related to the concepts of segmentary sharaf and social memory.

The Muhallabids: War, Politics and Memory

This chapter focuses on both the careers of the Muhallabids, the most prominent al-Azd family during the Umayyad period, and their role as sites of memory for later generations. It examines narratives by Abu Mikhnaf, al-Mada’ini, Wahb b. Jarir, al-Awtabi, and others for events including al-Muhallab’s war against the Azraqites, Yazid b. al-Muhallab’s governorships of Khurasan, and the Muhallabid revolt against the caliph Yazid II. In doing so, it teases out the different approaches to the family in Abbasid-era accounts, and so charts shifts in the significance of al-Azd identity in the late 700’s and 800’s. One key theme is that the Muhallabids’ significance depended in part on their ability to tap Oman as a source of military manpower. Finally, it examines the prominent Muhallabids of the early Abbasid era and their roles in the Abbasid revolution and others.

The Azd and the Early Islamic State

This chapter argues that the degree of centralization within the Islamic conquests differed between east and west, with the western conquests being more of an independent tribal movement which the early caliphs gradually came to co-opt. Similarly, early Islamic Basra was most likely an existing Arab settlement before it became a garrison town (misr). The chapter then discusses the al-Azd in Rashidun and Umayyad Syria, Basra, and Kufa, as well as garrison towns’ (amsar) division into tribal administrative units. The role of al-Azd in key events such as the Battle of the Camel and Second Fitna is discussed, as is the role of tribal leadership in Basra and Kufa. This chapter also contains a significant discussion of the events surrounding the death of Masud b. Amr in Basra.

Conclusion

During the middle of the ninth century, a son of the poet Diʿbil b. ʿAli al-Khuzaʿi produced a book called Wasaya al-Muluk wa Anbaʾ al-Muluk min Walad Qahtan b. Hud which became attributed to his father.1 The book consists of anecdotes about supposed ancient South Arabian rulers who also pass down in the form of poetry political advice to their offspring. It includes material closely related to the ‘Scattering of al-Azd’ traditions discussed in ...

The Azd of Mosul

This chapter begins with a survey of the geography of Mosul and the surrounding al-Jazira region, as well as al-Azd settlement in the region during the Abbasid period. It then examines the region’s tribal politics under the Abbasids, and particularly the rivalry between al-Azd and Hamdan. Emphasis is placed on the way urban leaders maintained ties with Bedouin in the countryside, as well as the role of landed estates as a major form of wealth and powers. The chapter also examines the way tribal ties appear in connections between Mosul notables and figures outside the caliphate’s control, as well as the use of accounts of pre-Islamic Arabia’s history to support those notables’ status claims.

The Azd in Pre- and Early Islamic Arabia

This chapter first reviews the evidence for al-Azd in Epigraphic South Arabian inscriptions, and argues that there was one al-Azd kingdom centered on Jurash in the Wadi Bisha and perhaps another elsewhere. It then discusses the “Scattering of al-Azd” accounts in the Arabic sources, arguing that the Malik b. Fahm accounts served as an origin story for al-Azd in Oman, and were grafted onto separate accounts of Amr Muzayqiya which served as the basis for the “southern” Arabs (Yemen) in Umayyad times. The evidence for al-Azd in both the pre-Islamic (Jahiliyya) Sarat Mountains and Oman is then reviewed, along with the impact of the rise of Islam in these areas. Finally, it notes the significance of Bedouin to later senses of Arabness as important in the primary sources on pre-Islamic Arabia.