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84-465: The office has its origins in pre-Islamic Arabia , where doorkeeping ( ḥijāba , "concealing") was one of the duties of domestic slaves or clients ( mawālī , singular mawlā ) of an Arab household. Modern scholars have traditionally regarded the office of hajib in a courtly setting as an innovation of the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), but in reality it is widely attested in the sources for

168-540: A "faraway, half-mythical place" . Dilmun is also described in the epic story of Enki and Ninhursag as the site at which the Creation occurred. The promise of Enki to Ninhursag, the Earth Mother: For Dilmun, the land of my lady's heart, I will create long waterways, rivers and canals, whereby water will flow to quench the thirst of all beings and bring abundance to all that lives. Ninlil ,

252-679: A Persian dominion under a Yemenite vassal and thus came within the sphere of influence of the Sassanid Empire. After the demise of the Lakhmids, another army was sent to Yemen, making it a province of the Sassanid Empire under a Persian satrap . Following the death of Khosrau II in 628, the Persian governor in Southern Arabia, Badhan , converted to Islam and Yemen followed the new religion. Lihyan , also called Dadān or Dedan,

336-569: A black cloak, a specific type of belt, and a two-pointed cap. However, unlike the Samanids, the Ghaznavid hajib-i buzurg did not exercise direct control over the palace administration, which was in the hands of the wakil-i khass , nor over the palace guard, which was entrusted to the salar-i ghulaman-i saray . In the Buyid emirates (934–1062), which lacked the sophisticated central government of

420-627: A new city there and named it Batan Ardashir after his father. At this time, Eastern Arabia incorporated the southern Sassanid province covering the Persian Gulf's southern shore plus the archipelago of Bahrain. The southern province of the Sassanids was subdivided into three districts of Haggar ( Hofuf , Saudi Arabia), Batan Ardashir ( al-Qatif province , Saudi Arabia), and Mishmahig ( Muharraq , Bahrain; also referred to as Samahij ) (In Middle-Persian /Pahlavi means "ewe-fish". ) which included

504-769: A part), and the Iranian religions . The ʿĀd nation were known to the Greeks and Egyptians . Claudius Ptolemy 's Geographos (2nd century CE) refers to the area as the "land of the Iobaritae" a region which legend later referred to as Ubar . The origin of the Midianites has not been established. Because of the Mycenaean motifs on what is referred to as Midianite pottery , some scholars including George Mendenhall, Peter Parr, and Beno Rothenberg have suggested that

588-416: A role in the selection of several viziers, but also was responsible for arresting them when they were dismissed. After 929, the commanders-in-chief supplanted the viziers in power and began dominating the government, becoming the main rivals of the hajib , who now also assumed a more military character. Thus the hajib Yaqut had his son Muhammad ibn Yaqut appointed sahib al-shurta in his rivalry with

672-515: A staff mostly drawn from ghilman . The amir hajib might still participate in campaigns and command parts of an army, but he was once again mostly a court official, commanding generals being designated as sipahsalar or isfahsalar . The office's role under the Seljuks is described in the writings of Nizam al-Mulk and Muhammad bin Ali Rawandi . Anachronistically ascribing its existence to

756-490: A trusted agent in eliminating certain of the caliph's subjects. With the rise of the Abbasids, the mawālī gained in prestige at court, despite their often very humble origin. With the introduction of the vizier as the head of government, a kind of separation of powers emerged, where the vizier—usually drawn from the secretarial class—headed the administration, while the hajib controlled courtly affairs. The holders of

840-423: A verdant land that was part of a wide trading network; he recorded: "That in the island of Tylos, situated in the Persian Gulf, are large plantations of cotton tree, from which are manufactured clothes called sindones , a very different degrees of value, some being costly, others less expensive. The use of these is not confined to India, but extends to Arabia." The Greek historian, Theophrastus , states that much of

924-479: Is locally named Ḥajar Asfal . Qataban was one of the ancient Yemeni kingdoms which thrived in the Beihan valley. Like the other Southern Arabian kingdoms, it gained great wealth from the trade of frankincense and myrrh incense, which were burned at altars. The capital of Qataban was named Timna and was located on the trade route which passed through the other kingdoms of Hadramaut, Saba and Ma'in. The chief deity of

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1008-480: Is now Yemen's modern capital, Sana'a . According to South Arabian tradition, the eldest son of Noah , Shem , founded the city of Ma'rib. During Sabaean rule, Yemen was called " Arabia Felix " by the Romans, who were impressed by its wealth and prosperity. The Roman emperor Augustus sent a military expedition to conquer the "Arabia Felix", under the command of Aelius Gallus . After an unsuccessful siege of Ma'rib,

1092-542: Is referred to in Islam in the context of jahiliyyah ( lit.   ' The period of ignorance ' ), highlighting the prevalence of paganism throughout the region at the time. Some of the settled communities developed into distinctive civilizations. Information about these communities is limited and has been pieced together from archaeological evidence, accounts written outside of Arabia, and Arab oral traditions that were later recorded by Muslim historians . Among

1176-889: Is taken to be a representation possibly of the Jewish king Malkīkarib Yuhaʾmin or more likely the Christian Esimiphaios (Samu Yafa'). The Aksumite intervention is connected with Dhu Nuwas , a Himyarite king who changed the state religion to Judaism and began to persecute the Christians in Yemen. Outraged, Kaleb , the Christian King of Aksum with the encouragement of the Byzantine Emperor Justin I invaded and annexed Yemen. The Aksumites controlled Himyar and attempted to invade Mecca in

1260-577: The ḥisbah , customs and tax duties, rubbish collection, acting as a bodyguard for governors, etc. In the Abbasid East, the chief of police also supervised the prison system. Shurṭa is one of the secret police agencies and officials of the Abbasid caliphs which was headquartered in Baghdad in the 8th and 9th centuries. From the 10th century, the importance of the shurṭa declined, along with

1344-520: The Garden of Eden story. Dilmun appears first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the end of fourth millennium BCE, found in the temple of goddess Inanna , in the city of Uruk . The adjective "Dilmun" is used to describe a type of axe and one specific official; in addition there are lists of rations of wool issued to people connected with Dilmun. Dilmun was an important trading center from

1428-758: The Kassite dynasty in Mesopotamia. Dilmun, sometimes described as "the place where the sun rises" and "the Land of the Living", is the scene of some versions of the Eridu Genesis , and the place where the deified Sumerian hero of the flood, Utnapishtim ( Ziusudra ), was taken by the gods to live forever. Thorkild Jacobsen 's translation of the Eridu Genesis calls it "Mount Dilmun" which he locates as

1512-476: The Marib Dam , was built ca. 700 BCE and provided irrigation for about 25,000 acres (101 km ) of land and stood for over a millennium, finally collapsing in 570 CE after centuries of neglect. The first known inscriptions of Hadramaut are known from the 8th century BCE. It was first referenced by an outside civilization in an Old Sabaic inscription of Karab'il Watar from the early 7th century BCE, in which

1596-695: The Qur'an , old Arabian poetry , Assyrian annals (Tamudi), in a Greek temple inscription from the northwest Hejaz of 169 CE, in a 5th-century Byzantine source and in Old North Arabian graffiti within Tayma . They are also mentioned in the victory annals of the Neo-Assyrian King, Sargon II (8th century BCE), who defeated these people in a campaign in northern Arabia. The Greeks also refer to these people as "Tamudaei", i.e. "Thamud", in

1680-648: The Sabaeans and the Minaeans , and Eastern Arabia was inhabited by Semitic-speaking peoples who presumably migrated from the southwest, such as the so-called Samad population . From 106 CE to 630 CE, Arabia's most northwestern areas were controlled by the Roman Empire , which governed it as Arabia Petraea . A few nodal points were controlled by the Iranian peoples , first under the Parthians and then under

1764-598: The Samanid dynasty (819–999), which also relied on a Turkic-dominated ghilman corps , the title was originally restricted to the ruler's household, but by the mid-10th century had come to acquire a military role: the "chief" or "great hajib " ( al-hajib al-kabir , hajib al-hudjjab , hajib-i buzurg ) was the second man in the state, combining in his person the functions of head of the palace and commander-in-chief. Ordinary hajib s served as generals and, occasionally, provincial governors. According to Nizam al-Mulk 's account on

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1848-568: The Sasanians . Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was diverse; although polytheism was prevalent, monotheism was still a notable practice among some of the region's inhabitants, such as the Jewish tribes . In addition to Arabian paganism, other religious practices in the region included those of the ancient Semitic religions , the Abrahamic religions (of which the emerging Islam would become

1932-519: The hajib s were chamberlains, with the chief chamberlain known as the "Lord of the Gate" ( sahib al-bab ) or, occasionally, as "Chief Chamberlain" ( hajib al-hujjab ). Furthermore, the writer Ibn al-Sayrfi mentions the existence of a hajib al-diwan , tasked with preventing unauthorized visitors and preserving state secrets. The military hajib was introduced to the Levant by the Seljuks, and this model

2016-424: The vizier . Nizam al-Mulk also mentions the existence of a hajib-i dargah , responsible for ceremonies and order at court; it is unclear whether that was a distinct office from that of amir hajib . From the names of amir hajib s provided by Rawandi, the office was not hereditary—with only one exception: Ali Bar, hajib of Muhammad I, was succeeded by his son Muhammad, under Mahmud II —and was often held by some of

2100-591: The 3rd century CE, the South Arabian kingdoms were in continuous conflict with one another. Gadarat (GDRT) of Aksum began to interfere in South Arabian affairs, signing an alliance with Saba, and a Himyarite text notes that Hadramaut and Qataban were also allied against the kingdom. As a result of this, the Aksumite Empire was able to capture the Himyarite capital of Thifar in the first quarter of

2184-462: The 3rd century. However, the alliances did not last, and Sha`ir Awtar of Saba unexpectedly turned on Hadramaut, allying again with Aksum and taking its capital in 225. Himyar then allied with Saba and invaded the newly taken Aksumite territories, retaking Thifar, which had been under the control of Gadarat's son Beygat, and pushing Aksum back into the Tihama . The standing relief image of a crowned man,

2268-668: The 5th century, Beth Qatraye was a major centre for Nestorian Christianity , which had come to dominate the southern shores of the Persian Gulf. As a sect, the Nestorians were often persecuted as heretics by the Byzantine Empire , but eastern Arabia was outside the Empire's control offering some safety. Several notable Nestorian writers originated from Beth Qatraye, including Isaac of Nineveh , Dadisho Qatraya , Gabriel of Qatar and Ahob of Qatar. Christianity's significance

2352-457: The 7th century CE, Eastern Arabia was controlled by two other Iranian dynasties of the Parthians and Sassanids . By about 250 BCE, the Seleucids lost their territories to Parthians , an Iranian tribe from Central Asia . The Parthian dynasty brought the Persian Gulf under their control and extended their influence as far as Oman. Because they needed to control the Persian Gulf trade route,

2436-716: The 8th and 7th century BCE, there was a close contact of cultures between the Kingdom of Dʿmt in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia and Saba. Though the civilization was indigenous and the royal inscriptions were written in a sort of proto- Ethiosemitic , there were also some Sabaean immigrants in the kingdom as evidenced by a few of the Dʿmt inscriptions. Agriculture in Yemen thrived during this time due to an advanced irrigation system which consisted of large water tunnels in mountains, and dams. The most impressive of these earthworks, known as

2520-589: The Abbasid type, hajib was exclusively a military title. The account of Miskawayh implies that here too there was a succession of ranks, from naqib to qa'id and then to hajib . In the Seljuk Empire (1037–1194), however, the mainly military role of the chief hajib receded somewhat, although, given the military character of the Seljuk court, its occupant was still a Turkish commander ( amir ), with

2604-647: The Bahrain archipelago that was earlier called Aval . The name, meaning 'ewe-fish' would appear to suggest that the name /Tulos/ is related to Hebrew /ṭāleh/ 'lamb' (Strong's 2924). The Christian name used for the region encompassing north-eastern Arabia was Beth Qatraye, or "the Isles". The name translates to 'region of the Qataris' in Syriac . It included Bahrain, Tarout Island , Al-Khatt, Al-Hasa , and Qatar. By

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2688-555: The Caliphate of Cordoba 978 until his death in 1002. Following the collapse of the caliphate and the political fragmentation of al-Andalus into the competing taifa kingdoms, some of the taifa rulers, who were not members of the Umayyad dynasty and could not claim the title of caliph, imitated Almanzor and used the title of hajib , rather than malik ("king"), thus maintaining the fiction that they were simply representatives of

2772-561: The Greek geographers, for instance, we read of two islands, named Tyrus or Tylos , and Arad, Bahrain , which boasted that they were the mother country of the Phoenicians, and exhibited relics of Phoenician temples." The people of Tyre in particular have long maintained Persian Gulf origins, and the similarity in the words "Tylos" and "Tyre" has been commented upon. However, there is little evidence of occupation at all in Bahrain during

2856-545: The King of Hadramaut, Yada`'il, is mentioned as being one of his allies. When the Minaeans took control of the caravan routes in the 4th century BCE, however, Hadramaut became one of its confederates, probably because of commercial interests. It later became independent and was invaded by the growing Yemeni kingdom of Himyar toward the end of the 1st century BCE, but it was able to repel the attack. Hadramaut annexed Qataban in

2940-515: The Kingdom of Maīin, as far away as al-'Ula in northwestern Saudi Arabia and even on the island of Delos and Egypt. It was the first of the Yemeni kingdoms to end, and the Minaean language died around 100 CE . During Sabaean rule, trade and agriculture flourished, generating much wealth and prosperity. The Sabaean kingdom was located in Yemen, and its capital, Ma'rib , is located near what

3024-780: The Lihyanites fell into the hands of the Nabataeans around 65 BCE upon their seizure of Hegra then marching to Tayma , and finally to their capital Dedan in 9 BCE. Werner Cascel consider the Nabataean annexation of Lihyan was around 24 BCE under the reign of the Nabataeans king Aretas IV . The Thamud ( Arabic : ثمود ) was an ancient civilization in Hejaz , which was a flourished kingdom from 3000 BCE to 200 BCE. Recent archaeological work has revealed numerous Thamudic rock writings and pictures. They are mentioned in sources such as

3108-456: The Midianites were originally Sea Peoples who migrated from the Aegean region and imposed themselves on a pre-existing Semitic stratum. The question of the origin of the Midianites still remains open. The sedentary people of pre-Islamic Eastern Arabia were mainly Aramaic , Arabic and to some degree Persian speakers while Syriac functioned as a liturgical language . In pre-Islamic times,

3192-730: The Parthians established garrisons in the southern coast of Persian Gulf. In the 3rd century CE, the Sassanids succeeded the Parthians and held the area until the rise of Islam four centuries later. Ardashir , the first ruler of the Iranian Sassanians dynasty marched down the Persian Gulf to Oman and Bahrain and defeated Sanatruq (or Satiran ), probably the Parthian governor of Eastern Arabia. He appointed his son Shapur I as governor of Eastern Arabia. Shapur constructed

3276-519: The Persian Gulf. Alexander had planned to settle the eastern shores of the Persian Gulf with Greek empires, and although it is not clear that this happened on the scale he envisaged, Tylos was very much part of the Hellenised world: the language of the upper classes was Greek (although Aramaic was in everyday use), while Zeus was worshipped in the form of the Arabian sun-god Shams. Tylos even became

3360-743: The Qatabanians was Amm , or "Uncle" and the people called themselves the "children of Amm". The Himyarites rebelled against Qataban and eventually united Southwestern Arabia (Hejaz and Yemen), controlling the Red Sea as well as the coasts of the Gulf of Aden . From their capital city, Ẓafār , the Himyarite kings launched successful military campaigns, and had stretched its domain at times as far east as eastern Yemen and as far north as Najran Together with their Kindite allies, it extended maximally as far north as Riyadh and as far east as Yabrin . During

3444-573: The Roman general retreated to Egypt, while his fleet destroyed the port of Aden in order to guarantee the Roman merchant route to India . The success of the kingdom was based on the cultivation and trade of spices and aromatics including frankincense and myrrh . These were exported to the Mediterranean , India, and Abyssinia , where they were greatly prized by many cultures, using camels on routes through Arabia, and to India by sea. During

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3528-696: The Sumerian goddess of air and south wind had her home in Dilmun. It is also featured in the Epic of Gilgamesh . However, in the early epic " Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta " , the main events, which center on Enmerkar 's construction of the ziggurats in Uruk and Eridu , are described as taking place in a world "before Dilmun had yet been settled". Gerrha ( Arabic : جرهاء ), was an ancient city of Eastern Arabia, on

3612-409: The Umayyad Emirate of Cordoba and in the succeeding Caliphate of Cordoba , the hajib was from the outset the most senior minister of the state, at the head of his own court ( majlis ), where he received petitioners and messengers. The hajib was the chief aide of the emir or caliph and the head of the administration, supervising the three main branches into which it was divided: the royal household,

3696-481: The United Arab Emirates comprised the ecclesiastical province known as Beth Mazunaye. The name was derived from 'Mazun', the Persian name for Oman and the United Arab Emirates. During Minaean rule, the capital was at Karna (now known as Sa'dah ). Their other important city was Yathill (now known as Baraqish ). The Minaean Kingdom was centered in northwestern Yemen, with most of its cities lying along Wādī Madhab . Minaean inscriptions have been found far afield of

3780-411: The ancient Greek name for Muharraq island. Herodotus 's account (written c. 440 BCE) refers to the Io and Europa myths. ( History, I:1). According to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel. These people, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the Erythraean Sea ( the eastern part of the Arabia peninsula ), having migrated to the Mediterranean and settled in

3864-417: The area belonged to the Dilmun civilization, which was conquered by the Assyrian Empire in 709 BCE. Gerrha was the center of an Arab kingdom from approximately 650 BCE to circa 300 CE. The kingdom was attacked by Antiochus III the Great in 205-204 BCE, though it seems to have survived. It is currently unknown exactly when Gerrha fell, but the area was under Sassanid Persian control after 300 CE. Gerrha

3948-438: The bureaucratic vizier". Under Caliph al-Mutawakkil , the Turkish hijab Itakh served as chief minister, since the Caliph did not nominate a vizier. In the late 9th century, the position of the vizier was strengthened, as the powers of the office became more formalized and he emerged as the head of the civilian administration, underpinned by a highly specialized secretarial class. Another contender for authority also emerged in

4032-511: The caliphate of Uthman (644–656). In the Umayyad and the Abbasid Caliphates , the shurṭa had considerable power, and its head, the ṣāḥib al-shurṭa ( Arabic : صاحب الشرطة ), was an important official, whether at the provincial level or in the central government. The duties of the shurṭa varied with time and place: it was primarily a police or the secret police and internal security force and also had judicial functions, but it could also be entrusted with suppressing brigandage, enforcing

4116-486: The chancery, and the financial department. Several of the holders of the office also commanded armies. Unlike the Islamic East, the title of vizier was given to lower-ranking counsellors tasked with various matters, and subordinate to the hajib ; the latter was almost always chosen from the viziers. A number of ordinary hajib s was tasked with the doorkeeping duties and directing court ceremonies. Notable hajib s were Abd al-Karim ibn Abd al-Wahid ibn Mughith , who served in

4200-425: The collapse of the Kassite dynasty, Mesopotamian documents make no mention of Dilmun with the exception of Assyrian inscriptions dated to 1250 BCE which proclaimed the Assyrian king to be king of Dilmun and Meluhha . Assyrian inscriptions recorded tribute from Dilmun. There are other Assyrian inscriptions during the first millennium BCE indicating Assyrian sovereignty over Dilmun. Dilmun was also later on controlled by

4284-403: The commander-in-chief Mu'nis al-Muzaffar , before they were both dismissed at the latter's insistence. Under al-Qahir ( r.  932–934 ) the hajib Ibn Yalbaq was a soldier who tried to impose his pro- Shi'a beliefs on the caliph. Under ar-Radi , Muhammad ibn Yaqut made a comeback, combining the positions of hajib and commander-in-chief, but despite their dominant position in Baghdad,

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4368-425: The commander-in-chief of the army. However, the hajib remained a powerful official, especially during palace coups, as he controlled a part of the caliphal bodyguard, notably the Maṣāffiyya . Under al-Muqtadir ( r.  908–932 ), the hajib Nasr al-Qushuri became a major power-broker, since he occupied his post continuously from 908–929, whereas the viziers changed rapidly during this period. He not only had

4452-411: The formalization of the hajib is part of the consolidation and stratification process of the Muslim society after the early Muslim conquests , when the ruler began to be separated from the ruled, and surrounded by an increasingly elaborate ceremonial, borrowed in large part from Sassanid Persian practic. In the Umayyad and early Abbasid periods, up to the early 9th century, most of the occupants of

4536-450: The head of the bay behind the islands of Bahrain. Bahrain was referred to by the Greeks as Tylos , the center of pearl trading, when Nearchus came to discover it serving under Alexander the Great . From the 6th to 3rd century BCE Bahrain was included in Persian Empire by Achaemenians , an Iranian dynasty . The Greek admiral Nearchus is believed to have been the first of Alexander's commanders to visit this islands, and he found

4620-405: The islands were covered in these cotton trees and that Tylos was famous for exporting walking canes engraved with emblems that were customarily carried in Babylon. Ares was also worshipped by the ancient Baharna and the Greek empires. It is not known whether Bahrain was part of the Seleucid Empire , although the archaeological site at Qalat Al Bahrain has been proposed as a Seleucid base in

4704-458: The lack of financial resources meant that the hajib could not compete with provincial governors who controlled the sources of revenue. Thus in 936 it was Ibn Ra'iq who was selected as amir al-umara , and became the de facto ruler of the caliphate. Having lost the struggle for power, the chamberlains were recompensed with an increase in titulature: from 941, the head chamberlain was known as hajib al-hujab ("chamberlain of chamberlains"). In

4788-648: The land with maritime trade between diverse regions as the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia in the early period and China and the Mediterranean in the later period (from the 3rd to the 16th century CE). Dilmun was mentioned in two letters dated to the reign of Burna-Buriash II (c. 1370 BCE) recovered from Nippur , during the Kassite dynasty of Babylon . These letters were from a provincial official, Ilī-ippašra , in Dilmun to his friend Enlil-kidinni in Mesopotamia. The names referred to are Akkadian . These letters and other documents, hint at an administrative relationship between Dilmun and Babylon at that time. Following

4872-428: The late fourth millennium to 1800 BCE. Dilmun was very prosperous during the first 300 years of the second millennium. Dilmun's commercial power began to decline between 2000 BCE and 1800 BCE because piracy flourished in the Persian Gulf. In 600 BCE, the Babylonians and later the Persians added Dilmun to their empires. The Dilmun civilization was the centre of commercial activities linking traditional agriculture of

4956-445: The long-vanished caliph. Many of the dynasties that emerged in the eastern Islamic world after the fragmentation of the Abbasid Caliphate in the mid 9th–10th centuries modelled their administrative and courtly practices on the Abbasids. Thus the title of hajib was still used for masters of ceremonies and intermediaries between the ruler to the bureaucracy, but also as a military rank given to generals and provincial governors. Thus in

5040-405: The most powerful amir of the day, while others are rather unknown. There were also a number of junior chamberlains with the simple title of hajib in the Seljuk court. In time, the most important generals and provincial governors, as well as other prominent men of the realm, also acquired hajib s in their retinues. These were not always military men. Under the Ilkhanids (1256–1357), the hajib

5124-404: The most prominent communities were the Thamud , who arose around 3000 BCE and lasted to around 300 CE; and the earliest Semitic-speaking civilization in the eastern part was Dilmun , which arose around the end of the 4th millennium BCE and lasted to around 600 CE. Additionally, from around the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE, Southern Arabia was the home to a number of kingdoms, such as

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5208-410: The office were still mawālī . During this time, the hajib still occupied a lower rung in the court hierarchy than the Arab aristocracy or the great ministers of state. His main duties were those of a master of ceremonies , organizing and supervising caliphal audiences, and bringing visitors to the caliph's presence. He was also head of the palace staff, and might sometimes be employed by the caliph as

5292-423: The parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt and Assyria... The Greek historian Strabo believed the Phoenicians originated from Eastern Arabia. Herodotus also believed that the homeland of the Phoenicians was Eastern Arabia. This theory was accepted by the 19th-century German classicist Arnold Heeren who said that: "In

5376-453: The population of Eastern Arabia consisted of Christianized Arabs (including Abd al-Qays ), Aramean Christians, Persian-speaking Zoroastrians and Jewish agriculturalists. According to Robert Bertram Serjeant , the Baharna may be the Arabized "descendants of converts from the original population of Christians (Aramaeans), Jews and ancient Persians (Majus) inhabiting the island and cultivated coastal provinces of Eastern Arabia at

5460-403: The post in the successive reigns of Hisham I ( r.  788–796 ), al-Hakam I ( r.  796–822 ), and Abd al-Rahman II ( r.  822–852 ); the famously incorruptible Isa ibn Shuhayd , who served under Abd al-Rahman II and into the reign of Muhammad I ( r.  852–886 ); and finally Almanzor , who as the hajib assumed quasi-regal authority and was the de facto ruler of

5544-418: The practices of the Sasanian court, the latter writes that the hajib was the official responsible for administering punishment. The amir hajib was the highest-ranking court official, and apart from ceremonies and protocol, he was also responsible for military discipline. Under Muhammad I Tapar , the amir hajib is recorded as acting as the intermediary between the Seljuk sultan and his officials, including

5628-436: The pre-Islamic Ghassanid and Lakhmid kings, Muhammad , Sajah , various early Muslim provincial governors and political figures, including all early caliphs and anti-caliphs such as Hasan ibn Ali and Ibn al-Zubayr . However, in Arabic historiography, their existence is often obscured or euphemistically paraphrased, since the office was ill regarded in early Muslim society, with its strong egalitarian tendencies. Indeed,

5712-418: The second half of the 2nd century CE, reaching its greatest size. The kingdom of Hadramaut was eventually conquered by the Himyarite king Shammar Yahri'sh around 300 CE, unifying all of the South Arabian kingdoms. The ancient Kingdom of Awsān in South Arabia (modern Yemen), with a capital at Ḥagar Yaḥirr in the wadi Markhah, to the south of the Wādī Bayḥān, is now marked by a tell or artificial mound, which

5796-419: The site of Greek athletic contests. The name Tylos is thought to be a Hellenisation of the Semitic, Tilmun (from Dilmun ). The term Tylos was commonly used for the islands until Ptolemy's Geographia when the inhabitants are referred to as 'Thilouanoi'. Some place names in Bahrain go back to the Tylos era, for instance, the residential suburb of Arad in Muharraq , is believed to originate from "Arados",

5880-403: The starting point for a trader's route, making the location within the archipelago of islands comprising the modern Kingdom of Bahrain , particularly the main island of Bahrain itself, another possibility. Various other identifications of the site have been attempted, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville choosing Qatif , Carsten Niebuhr preferring Kuwait and C Forster suggesting the ruins at

5964-449: The time of the Arab conquest". Other archaeological assemblages cannot be brought clearly into larger context, such as the Samad Late Iron Age . Zoroastrianism was also present in Eastern Arabia. The Zoroastrians of Eastern Arabia were known as " Majoos " in pre-Islamic times. The sedentary dialects of Eastern Arabia, including Bahrani Arabic , were influenced by Akkadian , Aramaic and Syriac languages. The Dilmun civilization

6048-410: The time when such migration had supposedly taken place. With the waning of Seleucid Greek power, Tylos was incorporated into Characene or Mesenian, the state founded in what today is Kuwait by Hyspaosines in 127 BCE. A building inscriptions found in Bahrain indicate that Hyspoasines occupied the islands, (and it also mention his wife, Thalassia). From the 3rd century BCE to arrival of Islam in

6132-522: The training of ghilman , a ghulam could rise through the ranks to withaq-bashi ("tent leader"), khayl-bashi ("detachment commander"), before attaining the rank of hijab , and then become amir of a province. The Samanid practice was emulated by the successor Ghaznavid dynasty (977–1186) as well, with the hajib-i buzurg as the commander-in-chief in the Sultan's stead, commanding several ordinary hajib s as generals; all of them were distinguished by

6216-507: The two offices often vied for control of the administration; thus the hajib s al-Rabi' ibn Yunus and his son al-Fadl ibn al-Rabi' both became viziers after the dismissal of their rivals who previously held the office. This division and the rivalry between the two offices was strengthened during the " Samarra period", when the office of hajib began to be occupied by Turkish slave soldiers ( ghilman , sing. ghulam ), whose "background, formation, and interests differed starkly from those of

6300-621: The west side of the Persian Gulf . More accurately, the ancient city of Gerrha has been determined to have existed near or under the present fort of Uqair . This fort is 50 miles northeast of al-Hasa in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia . This site was first proposed by Robert Ernest Cheesman in 1924. Gerrha and Uqair are archaeological sites on the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula . Prior to Gerrha,

6384-523: The writings of Aristotle , Ptolemy , and Pliny . Before the rise of Islam , approximately between 400 and 600 CE, the Thamud completely disappeared. Sahib al-shurta Shurṭa ( Arabic : شرطة ) is the common Arabic term for police . Its literal meaning is that of a "picked" or elite force. The shurṭa or police force were established in the early days of the Caliphate , perhaps as early as

6468-623: The year 570 CE. Eastern Yemen remained allied to the Sassanids via tribal alliances with the Lakhmids , which later brought the Sassanid army into Yemen, ending the Aksumite period. The Persian king Khosrau I sent troops under the command of Vahriz ( Persian : اسپهبد وهرز ), who helped the semi-legendary Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan to drive the Aksumites out of Yemen. Southern Arabia became

6552-412: Was 2 miles from the Persian Gulf near current day Hofuf . The researcher Abdulkhaliq Al Janbi argued in his book that Gerrha was most likely the ancient city of Hajar, located in modern-day Al Ahsa , Saudi Arabia . Al Janbi's theory is the most widely accepted one by modern scholars, although there are some difficulties with this argument given that Al Ahsa is 60 km inland and thus less likely to be

6636-422: Was a powerful and highly organized ancient Arab kingdom that played a vital cultural and economic role in the north-western region of the Arabian Peninsula and used Dadanitic language. The Lihyanite kingdom went through three different stages, the early phase of Lihyan Kingdom was around the 7th century BC, started as a Sheikdom of Dedan then developed into the Kingdom of Lihyan tribe. Some authors assert that

6720-578: Was again a chamberlain, although both in the royal court as well as in the lesser provincial courts these men were drawn from the military class. The hajib s remained court officials under the Timurids , while under the Safavids the chief chamberlain was known as ishik-aqasi bashi and held the duties of a master of ceremonies analogous to the hajib-i dargah . In the Fatimid Caliphate ,

6804-471: Was an important trading center which at the height of its power controlled the Persian Gulf trading routes. The Sumerians regarded Dilmun as holy land . Dilmun is regarded as one of the oldest ancient civilizations in the Middle East . The Sumerians described Dilmun as a paradise garden in the Epic of Gilgamesh . The Sumerian tale of the garden paradise of Dilmun may have been an inspiration for

6888-512: Was described by Strabo as inhabited by Chaldean exiles from Babylon , who built their houses of salt and repaired them by the application of salt water. Pliny the Elder (lust. Nat. vi. 32) says it was 5 miles in circumference with towers built of square blocks of salt. Gerrha was destroyed by the Qarmatians in the end of the 9th century where all inhabitants were massacred (300,000). It

6972-552: Was diminished by the arrival of Islam in Eastern Arabia by 628. In 676, the bishops of Beth Qatraye stopped attending synods; although the practice of Christianity persisted in the region until the late 9th century. The dioceses of Beth Qatraye did not form an ecclesiastical province , except for a short period during the mid-to-late seventh century. They were instead subject to the Metropolitan of Fars . Oman and

7056-576: Was followed by the Zengids and the Ayyubids after them. However, the use of the title hajib for chamberlains continued in Egypt until the 13th century. Pre-Islamic Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia ( Arabic : شبه الجزيرة العربية قبل الإسلام , romanized :  shibh al-jazirat al-'arabiyat qabl al-islām ), referring to the Arabian Peninsula before Muhammad's first revelation in 610 CE,

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