دراسات في تاريخ عمان

its most important city.

As for the province of "Uman، it lies in the south-eastern part of the Arabi- an peninsula overlooking both the Arabian Gulf and the Arabian sea. Its geographical location، therefore، had great commercial and military impor- tance during the early Islamic period. Uman's ports then became the greatest centres for maritime trade as well as military bases to ensure the security and stability of the Gulf.

6

5

Although the geographical location of "Uman is strategically far more im- portant than that of al-Bahrayn، no clear or full description of its boundar- ies are found in Islamic sources. However، it can be deduced from many traditions that "Uman extended between Jurfar in the north and al-Ashfa، which is part of Shihr on the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula. These Omani boundaries were subject to variation according to political and administrative conditions.

These two provinces، as sources indicate، seem to have been thickly popu- lated at the advent of Islam. The majority of the tribes of Abd al-Qays and part of the tribes of Tamim، Bakr b. Wa'il and Azd dwelt in al- Bahrayn. As for 'Uman، we observe that Azd was its biggest and most

7

powerful tribe، which led early historians to describe Uman as 'the home- land of the Azd'. Other tribes which inhabited Uman were Sama b. 8 Lul'ayy، Abd al-Qays، Tamim and Bakr b. Wai'l. Minority elements of alien races such as Persians، Zutt and Sayabija were also to be found in these regions. The metropolitan character of "Uman and al-Bahrayn ac- counts for the existence of heathenism and a variety of religions' such as Judaism and Christianity. Christianity found more ground in the Gulf re- gions than Judaism partly because of the secluded nature of Judaism. Many Christian missionaries sent by the Roman empire played a part in

6