Qatar THE GULF IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Ar Rustaq fort, Oman, restored by Omani Ministry of
National Heritage and Culture
Courtesy Embassy of the Sultanate of Oman, Washington
Building a dhow in Sur, Oman's ancient port; ship
construction is a major enterprise of Persian Gulf states.
Courtesy Embassy of the Sultanate of Oman, Washington
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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