Bahra'

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Bahra (tribe)
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Bahrāʾ
بَهْرَاء
Monophysite Christianity (ca. 580–630s CE)
Islam
(post 630s)

The Bahra' (

Muslim conquest of Syria. In the following centuries they mostly inhabited central Syria, lending their name to the area's Jabal Bahra'
range.

History

Ruins of the basilica of St. Sergius in Resafa, which the Bahra' tribe were in charge of protecting as tribal federates of the Byzantine Empire

The general consensus is that the Bahra' belonged to the Quda'a, an Arabian tribal confederation with unclear roots, though a minority of sources place them as part of Yemenite tribal grouping, the Banu Judham.[1] According to Arab genealogical tradition, as chronicled by Ibn Abd Rabbih (d. 960), the tribe's progenitor was a certain Bahra' ibn Amr ibn al-Haf ibn Quda’a.[2] This tradition holds that Bahra' had five sons Ahwad, Qasit, Abada, Qasr and Adi, all of whose progeny became large clans of the tribe.[2]

There are scant records of the Bahra' tribe in the

Arab Christian federate tribes.[4] The verse, recorded in the Al-Mufaddaliyyat, read: "And as for Bahra', they are a group whose place we know. They have a path around Resafa that is clear."[5]

It is not known when the Bahra' converted to Christianity but it was most likely when they entered Byzantium's service and allied with the Christian Ghassanid leaders of the federates in the late 6th century. Their prior paganism is noted in a pre-Islamic poem in which they mocked the "Christian swords" of the

Lakhmids, guarding the pilgrimage shrine of St. Sergius, and possibly facilitating supplies to the town.[6]

The Bahra' were among the Arab federate tribes in the Byzantine army at the

Battle of Mu'ta in 629 in which the latter defeated the newly ascendant Muslim Arabs. In 633, the Bahra' and Byzantium's allied Arab tribes were mobilized to combat the Arab Muslim forces of Khalid ibn al-Walid at the Battle of Dumat al-Jandal but were defeated.[1][3] The Bahra' fought once more in the Byzantine–Arab Christian coalition against the Muslims in 634. However, following the conquest of Syria (634–638), they converted to Islam. They ultimately migrated west to the plains of the Homs region.[1] The 9th-century geographer al-Ya'qubi noted that the Bahra' and Tanukh tribes predominated in Hama.[7] By the time the Arab ruler Sayf al-Dawla formed his emirate in northern Syria in the 10th century, the abode of the Bahra' lay in the mountainous coastal region between Latakia and Tripoli.[8] From around that time, the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range became known as the "Jabal Bahra'" after the tribe.[7][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c Bosworth, p. 938.
  2. ^ a b Ibn Rabbihi, p. 276.
  3. ^ a b c Shahid 2002, p.118.
  4. ^ Shahid 2002, pp. 118–119.
  5. ^ Shahid 2002, p. 116.
  6. ^ Shahid 2002, p. 119.
  7. ^ a b Shahid 1984, p. 407.
  8. ^ Bianquis 1997, p. 106.
  9. ^ Salibi 2005, p. 89.

Bibliography

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  • Shahid, Irfan (2002). Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century, Volume 2, Part 1. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. .