دراسات في تاريخ عمان

Chapter Seven

The Islamisation of the Arab Gulf

INTRODUCTION

This chapter is an attempt to study the conditions of the Arab Gulf region at the advent of Islam، and to see how it accepted the new religion. Al- though the Arab Gulf، regionally، includes many provinces، the present re- search is limited to the only two provinces known during the early Islamic period: al-Bahrayn and Uman.1

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Al-Bahrayn was a province which extended along the western coast of the Arab Gulf between Basra in al-Iraq and Jurfar in Uman 2. Muslim geogra- phers 3 considered it a part of the Arabian peninsula but the information they provide about its boundaries is scanty and general. This is probably to be attributed، among other reasons، to the fact of al-Bahrayn being geo- graphically apart from the Arab homeland on the one hand، and the inte- gration of its population، i.e. 'the Arabs' of al-Bahrayn with their Arab neighbours in Yamama، Uman and al-Iraq on the other. According to Ya- qut،* al-Bhrayn consisted of many regions: 'al-Khatt، al-Qatif، al-Ara، Ha- jar، Baynuna، al-Zara، Juwatha، al-Sabur، Darin، al-Ghaba، Hajar al-Safa and al-Mushamqar'. He adds that Hajar was the centre of al-Bahrayn، and

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