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Kuwait
THE GULF IN THE MIDDLE AGES
In the Islamic period, the prosperity of the gulf continued to
be linked to markets in Mesopotamia. Accordingly, after 750 the
gulf prospered because Baghdad became the seat of the caliph and
the main center of Islamic civilization. Islam brought great prosperity
to Iraq during this period, thus increasing the demand for foreign
goods. As a result, gulf merchants roamed farther and farther
afield. By the year 1000, they were traveling regularly to China
and beyond, and their trading efforts were instrumental in spreading
Islam, first to India and then to Indonesia and Malaysia.
The Islam they spread, however, was often sectarian. Eastern
Arabia was a center for both Kharijites and Shia; in the Middle
Ages, the Ismaili Shia faith constituted a particularly powerful
force in the gulf. Ismailis originated in Iraq, but many moved
to the gulf in the ninth century to escape the Sunni authorities.
Whereas the imam was central to the Ismaili tradition, the group
also recognized what they referred to as "missionaries" (dua;
sing., dai), figures who spoke for the imam and played
major political roles. One of these missionaries was Hamdan Qarmat,
who sent a group from Iraq to Bahrain in the ninth century to
establish an Ismaili community. From their base in Bahrain, Qarmat's
followers, who became known as Qarmatians, sent emissaries throughout
the Muslim world.
The Qarmatians are known for their attacks on their opponents,
including raids on Baghdad and the sack of Mecca and Medina in
930. For much of the tenth century, the Ismailis of Bahrain were
the most powerful force in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East.
They controlled the coast of Oman and collected tribute from the
caliph in Baghdad as well as from a rival Ismaili imam in Cairo,
whom they did not recognize.
By the eleventh century, Ismaili power had waned. The Qarmatians
succumbed to the same forces that had earlier threatened centers
on the gulf coast--the ambitions of strong leaders in Mesopotamia
or Persia and the incursion of tribes from the interior. In 985
armies of the Buyids, a Persian dynasty, drove the Ismailis out
of Iraq, and in 988 Arab tribes drove the Ismailis out of Al Ahsa,
an oasis they controlled in eastern Arabia. Thereafter, Ismaili
presence in the gulf faded, and in the twentieth century the sect
virtually disappeared.
Ibadis figured less prominently than the Shia in the spread of
Islam. A stable community, the Ibadi sect's large following in
Oman has helped to distinguish Oman from its gulf neighbors. Ibadis
originated in Iraq, but in the early eighth century, when the
caliph's representative began to suppress the Ibadis, many left
the area. Their leader at the time, Jabir ibn Zayd, had come to
Iraq from Oman, so he returned there. Jabir ibn Zayd's presence
in Oman strengthened the existing Ibadi communities; in less than
a century, the sect took over the country from the Sunni garrison
that ruled it in the caliph's name. Their leader, Al Julanda ibn
Masud, became the Ibadi imam of Oman.
In the Ibadi tradition, imams are elected by a council of religious
scholars, who select the leader that can best defend the community
militarily and rule it according to religious principles. Whereas
Sunnis and Shia traditionally have focused on a single leader,
referred to as caliph or imam, Ibadis permit regions to have their
own imams. For instance, there have been concurrent Ibadi imams
in Iraq, Oman, and North Africa.
Because of the strong sense of community among Ibadis, which
resembles tribal feelings of community, they have predominated
in the interior of Oman and to a lesser degree along the coast.
In 752, for example, a new line of Sunni caliphs in Baghdad conquered
Oman and killed the Ibadi imam, Al Julanda. Other Ibadi imams
arose and reestablished the tradition in the interior, but extending
their rule to the coastal trading cities met opposition. The inland
empires of Persia and Iraq depended on customs duties from East-West
trade, much of which passed by Oman. Accordingly, the caliph and
his successors could not allow the regional coastal cities out
of their control.
As a result, Oman acquired a dual nature. Ibadi leaders usually
controlled the mountainous interior while, for the most part,
foreign powers controlled the coast. People in the coastal cities
have often been foreigners or have had considerable contact with
foreigners because of trade. Coastal Omanis have profited from
their involvement with outsiders, whereas Omanis in the interior
have tended to reject the foreign presence as an intrusion into
the small, tightly knit Ibadi community. Ibadi Islam has thus
preserved some of the hostility toward outsiders that was a hallmark
of the early Kharijites.
While the imam concerned himself with the interior, the Omani
coast remained under the control of Persian rulers. The Buyids
in the late tenth century eventually extended their influence
down the gulf as far as Oman. In the 1220s and 1230s, another
group, the Zangids--based in Mosul, Iraq--sent troops to the Omani
coast; around 1500 the Safavids, an Iranian dynasty, pushed into
the gulf as well. The Safavids followed the Twelver Shia tradition
and imposed Shia beliefs on those under their rule. Thus, Twelver
communities were established in Bahrain and to a lesser extent
in Kuwait.
Oman's geographic location gave it access not only to the Red
Sea trade but also to ships skirting the coast of Africa. By the
end of the fifteenth century, however, a Persian ruler, the shaykh
of Hormuz, profited most from this trade. The shaykh controlled
the Persian port that lay directly across the gulf from Oman,
and he collected customs duties in the busy Omani ports of Qalhat
and Muscat. Ibadi imams continued to rule in the interior, but
until Europeans entered the region in the sixteenth century, Ibadi
rulers were unable to reclaim the coastal cities from the Iranians.
Data as of January 1993
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