دراسات في تاريخ عمان

battles took place between the two parties، the most important of which was the battle of Qalhat، in which the Arabs defeated the Persians، who withdrew towards Suhar and made an armistice with Malik al-Azdi on condition that they departed from Oman for one year and paid tribute. Our sources rarely mention Qalhat during the early Islamic period، prob- ably because of Suhar's increasing importance and its political influence. There was also the fact that it was some distance from lines of navigation and maritime trade. Nevertheless، Yaqut mentions that it was again a flourishing centre during the sixth/twelfth century، populous and witness- ing considerable political and commercial activity.

19

(5) Nazwa 1 was one of the most important interior towns in Oman، on a significant military and commercial site. From the description of Yaqut، the city seems to have consisted of a group of villages، strung out in a se- ries. The traveller Ibn Batuta visited and described it as 'the qa'ida of the country surrounded by orchards and rivers. It also has a good and flour- ishing market'.

The last decade of the first century of the Hijra witnessed the beginning of the Ibadiyya movement at Basra in Iraq. The Ibadiyya then spread into Oman، where an Imamate was declared as early as 132/749 under the lead- crship of al-Julunda b. Mas'ud. The Imamate was to be an important phe- nomenon in the history of Oman، and Nazwa played a vital role in its po- litical and ideological development. Thus in 273/885 the Imam al-Salt b. Malik was forced to abdicate، which started a sharp disagreement among the movement's adherents with regard to the legality of such an abdication; Nazwa represented a neutral point of view، which endeavoured to compro- mise between the conflicting parties. Such an attitude characterized the

28