Whence Diyār Bakr?: an Inquiry into Early Jazīran Administrative Geography

This article discusses the emergence of Diyār Bakr as the northern subdivision of the Jazīra in the early Islamic period. It shows that this sub-province is a product of the 10th century CE and not, as has hitherto been assumed, of the conquest or Umayyad period. As a first step, the paper traces th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hagemann, Hannah-Lena (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: De Gruyter [2019]
In: Der Islam
Year: 2019, Volume: 96, Issue: 2, Pages: 324-344
IxTheo Classification:AF Geography of religion
BJ Islam
KBL Near East and North Africa
Further subjects:B Banū Shaybān
B early Islamic geography
B early Islamic Empire
B Jazīra
B Northern Mesopotamia
B Diyār Bakr
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Summary:This article discusses the emergence of Diyār Bakr as the northern subdivision of the Jazīra in the early Islamic period. It shows that this sub-province is a product of the 10th century CE and not, as has hitherto been assumed, of the conquest or Umayyad period. As a first step, the paper traces the appearance of the name Diyār Bakr in the Arabic sources to the mid-10th century. It then turns to the ʿAbbāsid geographical tradition and gives an overview of the various portrayals of the region of the Jazīran north up to al-Muqaddasī (d. after 990), who is the first to provide a rudimentary depiction of the Jazīran north as ‘Diyār Bakr'. The article then turns to the history of the Banū Shaybān of Bakr/Rabīʿa in the Jazīran north to offer a tentative explanation for the origin of the term and administrative district of Diyār Bakr. It concludes with a brief discussion of the need to re-evaluate the political and administrative history of the Jazīra before the 10th century.
ISSN:1613-0928
Contains:Enthalten in: Der Islam
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1515/islam-2019-0026