ETHIOPIA : The Axumite Kingdom.) Hira, Ghassan and Kinda.—The kingdom of Hira (Hira) was established in the fertile boundary land between the Euphrates and the Arabian desert. The chief town was Hira,, a few miles south of the site of the later town of Kufa. The inhabitants of this land are said in Tabari's history to have been of three classes: —( I ) The Tanukh (Tnuhs), who lived in tents and were Arabs from the Tehama and Nejd, who had united in Bahrein to form a new tribe, and migrated from there to Hira about the beginning or middle of the 3rd century A.D. The Arabian historians relate their conflict with Zenobia. (2) The 'Ibad or 'Ibadites, who dwelt in the town of Hira in houses and so led a settled life. These were Christians, whose ecclesiastical language was Syriac, and language of intercourse Arabic. A Christian bishop of Hira is known to have attended a synod in 410. In the 5th century they became Nestor ians. (3) Refugees of various tribes, who came into the land but did not belong to the Tanukh or the `Ibad. There is no trustworthy information as to the earlier chiefs of this people. The dynasty of the Lakhmids, famed in Arabian history and literature, arose towards the end of the 3rd century and lasted until about 6o2. Although so many of their subjects were Christian, the Lakhmids remained heathen until Nu`man, the last of the dynasty. The kingdom of Hira always stood in a relation of dependence on Persia. At the height of its power it was able to render valuable aid to its suzerain. Much of its time was spent in wars with Rome and Ghassan. Its revenues were derived from the neighbouring Bedouins as well as its own subjects. About 602 the Lakhmid dynasty fell, and the Persian Chosroes II. appointed as governor an Arab of the tribe of Tai.
In the beginning of the 6th century A.D. a dynasty known as the Jafnids enter into the history alike of the Roman and Per sian empires. They ruled over the tribe of Ghassan in the extreme north-west of Arabia, east of the Jordan, from near Petra in the south to the neighbourhood of Rosafa in the north-east. Of their origin little is known except that they came from the south. A part of the same tribe inhabited Yathrib (Medina) at the time of Mohammed. The first certain prince of the Jafnid house was Harith ibn Jabala; who, according to the chronicle of John Mala las, conquered Mondhir of Hira in 528. In the following year, according to Procopius, Justinian perceived the value of the Ghassanids as an outpost of the Roman empire, and as opponents of the Persian dependants of Hira, and recognized Harith as king of the Arabs and patrician of the Roman empire. He was thus constantly engaged in battles against Hira. In 541 he fought under Belisarius in Mesopotamia. After his death friendly rela tions with the West continued until about 583. The Ghassanid kingdom split into sections each with its own prince. Some passed under the sway of Persia, others preserved their freedom at the expense of their neighbours. At this point their history ceases to be mentioned in the Western chronicles.
In the last decade of the 5th century a new power arose in central Arabia, the tribe of Kinda under the sway of the family of Aqil ul Murar, who came from the south. They seem to have stood in much the same relation to the rulers of Yemen, as the people of Hira to the Persians and the Ghassanids to Rome. Abraha in his invasion of the Hejaz was accompanied by chiefs of Kinda. Details of their hi ,tory are not known, but they seem to have gained power at one time even over the Lakhmids of Hira; and to have ruled over Bahrein as well as Yemama until the battle of Shi'b ul Jabala, when they lost this province to Hira. The poet Amru'ul Qais was a member of the princely family of Kinda.
During these early years the Arabs had not only made con quests by land, but had found an outlet for their energy at sea. In 640 Omar sent a fleet of boats across the Red Sea to protect the Muslims on the Abyssinian coast. The boats were wrecked. But Othman allowed a fleet from Africa to help in the conquests of the Levant and Asia Minor, and in 649 he sanctioned the estab lishment of a maritime service, on condition that it should be voluntary. Abu Qais, appointed admiral, showed its usefulness by the capture of Cyprus. In 652 Abu Sarh with a fleet from Egypt defeated the Byzantine fleet near Alexandria.
The first task of Abu Bekr had been to reduce the rebels who threatened to destroy the unity of Arabia even before it was fully established. At the end of the first year of his caliphate he saw Arabia united under Islam. The new national feeling demanded that all Arabs should be free men, so the caliph ordained that all Arab slaves should be freed on easy terms. The solidarity of Arabia survived the first foreign conquests. It was not intended that Arabs should settle in the conquered lands except as armies of occupation. Thus it was at first forbidden that Arabs should buy or possess land in these countries. Kufa was to be only a mili tary camp, as was Fostat in Egypt. The taxes with the booty from conquests were to be sent to Arabia for distribution among the Muslims. Many of those who went forth acquired property and rank in the new lands. Kufa attracted chiefly men of south Arabia, Basra those of the north. Both became great cities, each with a population of 150,000 to 200,000 Arabians. Yet so long as the caliphs lived in Medina, the capital of Arabia was the capital of the expanding Arabian empire. To it was brought a large share of the booty. The caliphs were chosen there, and there the rules for the administration were framed. Thence went out the governors to their provinces. Omar was the great organizer of Arabian affairs. He compiled the Koran, instituted the civil list, regulated the military organization. He, too, desired that Mohammed's wish should be carried out and that Arabia should be purely Muslim. To this end he expelled the Christians from Nejran and the Jews from Khaibar. The secondary position that Arabia was beginning to assume in the Arabian empire is clearly marked during the caliphate of Othman. In his appointments to governorships and other offices, as well as in his distribution of spoil, Othman showed a marked preference for members of his own tribe the Koreish (Quraish) and his own family the Bani Omayya (Umayya). The other Arab tribes became increasingly jealous of the Koreish, while among the Koreish themselves the Hashimite family came to hate the Omayyad, which now had much power, although it had been among the last to accept Islam and never was very strict in its religious duties. But the quarrels which led to the murder of Othman were fomented not so much in Arabia as in Kufa and Basra and Fostat. In Kufa a number of the Koreish had settled, and their arrogance became insupportable. The result was the murder of the caliph. Syria alone remained loyal to the house of Omayya. Arabia itself counted for little, though it was involved in the struggle which followed the election of `Ali. Ayesha, Talha and Zobair, who were strong in Mecca, suc ceeded in obtaining possession of Basra, but were defeated in 656 at the battle of the Camel (see ALT). In the south of Arabia `Ali succeeded in establishing his own governor in Yemen, though the government treasure was carried off to Mecca. But the centre of strife was not to be Arabia. When `Ali left Medina to secure Basra, he abandoned it as the capital of the Arabian empire. With the success of Moawiya Damascus became the capital of the caliphate (658) and Arabia a mere province, though always of importance because of its possession of the two sacred cities, Mecca and Medina. The final blow to any political pretensions of Medina was dealt by the caliph when he had his son Yazid declared his successor, thus taking away any claim on the part of the citi zens of Medina to elect to the caliphate.
The accession of Abul `Abbas and the transference of the capital of the caliphate from Damascus to Kufa, then Anbar and soon after (in 76o) to Baghdad meant still further degradation to Ara bia and Arabs. From the beginning the `Abbasids depended for help on Persians and Turks, and the chief offices of State were fre quently filled with foreigners. In one thing only the Arabs con quered to the end ; that was in their language. The study of Arabic was taken up by lexicographers, grammarians and poets with a zeal rarely shown elsewhere. The old Arabian war spirit was dy ing. Although the Arabians, as a rule, were in favour of the Omay yad family, they could not affect the succession of the `Abbasids. They returned more and more to their old inter-tribal disputes.
The Carmathians.—Towards the close of the 9th century Arabia was disturbed by the rise of a new movement which during the next hundred years dominated the peninsula. In 88o Yemen was listening to the propaganda of the new sect of the Carmathians (q.v.) or followers of Hamdan Qarmat. Four years later these had become a public force. In goo `Abu Said al-Jannabi, who had been sent to Bahrein by Hamdan, had secured a large part of this province and had won the city of Katif (Ketif) which contained many Jews and Persians. The Arabs who lived more inland were mostly Bedouin who found the obligations of Islam irksome, and do not seem to have made a very vigorous opposition to the Car mathians who took Hajar the capital of Bahrein in 9o3. From this they made successful attacks on Yemama (Yamama), and attempts on Oman. In 906 the court at Baghdad learned that these sectaries had gained almost all Yemen and were threatening Mecca and Medina. Abu Said was assassinated (913) in his palace at Lahsa, which in 926 was fortified and became the Carmathian capital of Bahrein. His son Said was deposed and succeeded by his brother Abu Tahir. His success was constant and the caliphate was brought very low by him. In Arabia he subjugated Oman, and swooping down on the west in 929 he horrified the Muslim world by capturing Mecca and carrying off the sacred black stone to Bahrein. In 939, however, the stone was restored and pilgrim ages to the holy cities were allowed to pass unmolested on pay ment of a tax. So long as Abu Tahir lived the Carmathians con trolled Arabia. After his death, however, they quarrelled with the Fatimite rulers of Egypt (969) and began to lose their influence. In 985 they were completely defeated in `Iraq, and soon after lost control of the pilgrimages. Oman recovered its independence. Three years later Katif, at that time their chief city, was besieged and taken by a Bedouin sheikh, and subsequently their political power in Arabia came to an end. It was significant that their power fell into the hands of Bedouins. Arabia was now completely disorganized. Mohammed's attempt to unify it had failed. The country was once more split up into small governments, more or less independent, and groups of wandering tribes carrying on their petty feuds. Of their history during the next few centuries little is known, except in the case of the Hejaz. Here the presence of the sacred cities led writers to record their annals. The two cities were governed by Arabian nobles (slierifs), often at feud with one another, recognizing formally the overlordship of the caliph at Baghdad or the caliph of Egypt. Thus in 966 'Alyite took posses sion of the Government of Mecca and recognized the Egyptian caliph as his master. About a century later (1075-94) the `Abba sid caliph was again recognized as spiritual head owing to the success in arms of his protector the Seljuk Malik-Shah. With the fall of the Baghdad caliphate all attempts at control from that quarter came to an end. After the visit of the Sultan Bibars (1269) Mecca was governed by an amir dependent on Egypt. Outside the two cities anarchy prevailed and the pilgrimage was frequently unsafe owing to marauding Bedouins. In 1517 the Osmanli Turkish sultan Selim conquered Egypt, and, having been accorded the right of succession to the caliphate, was solemnly presented by the sherif of Mecca with the keys of the city and recognized as the spiritual head of Islam and ruler of the Hejaz. At the same time Yemen, which since the 9th century had been in the power of a number of small dynasties ruling in Zubed, San`a, Sa`da and Aden, passed into the hands of the Turk. Little more than a century later (1630), a Yemen noble, Khasim, succeeded in expelling the Turk and establishing a native imamate, which lasted until 1871.
For the history of Yemen during this period see H. C. Kay, Omarah's History of Yaman (1892), and S. Lane-Poole, The Mahommedan Dynasties, pp. Since the separation from the caliphate (before A.D. Oman had remained independent. For more than a century it was governed by five elected imams, who were chosen from the tribe of al-Azd and generally lived at Nizwa. After them the Bani Nebhan gained the upper hand and established a succession of kings (maliks) who governed from 1154 to 1406. During this time the country was twice invaded by Persians. The "kings of Hormuz" claimed authority over the coast land until the begin ning of the 16th century. In 1435 the people rose against the tyranny of the Bani Nebhan and restored the imamate of the tribe al-Azd. In 1508 the Portuguese under Albuquerque seized most of the east coast of Oman. In 1624 a new dynasty arose in the interior, when Nasir ibn Murshid of the Yariba (Yaaruba) tribe (originally from Yemen) was elected imam and established his capital at Rustak. He was able to subdue the petty princes of the country, and the Portuguese were compelled to give up several towns and pay tribute for their residence at Muscat. About 1651 the Portuguese were finally expelled from this city, and about 1698 from the Omanite settlements on the east coast of Africa.