Lesson Two: The Peninsula and the Fertile Crescent

Question 1

Jahiliyya

Answer 1

The period of time and state of affairs in Arabia before the advent of Islam in 610 AD. It is often translated as the “Age of Ignorance”. The term jahiliyyah is derived from the verbal root jahala “to be ignorant or stupid, to act stupidly”.

Question 2

Byzantine Empire

Answer 2

The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople (modern Istanbul, formerly Byzantium). It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Contained booth Diophysites in the west and urban areas, and Monophysites in the rural east.

Question 3

Sasanian Empire

Answer 3

officially known as the Empire of Iranians , also called the Neo-Persian Empire by historians, was the last kingdom of the Persian Empire before the rise of Islam. Named after the House of Sasan, it ruled from 224 to 651 AD. The Sasanian Empire succeeded the Parthian Empire and was recognised as one of the leading world powers alongside its neighbouring arch-rival, the Roman-Byzantine Empire for a period of more than 400 years. Official religion was Zoroastrianism. Capital was Ctesiphon in Iraq, and Persepolis in Persia.

Question 4

Iraq

Answer 4

Known in antiquity as Mesopotamia. The Sassanid dynasty ruled Mesopotamia until the 7th century Islamic invasion.The term Iraq is widely used in the medieval Arabic sources for the area in the center and south of the modern republic as a geographic rather than a political term, implying no greater precision of boundaries than the term “Mesopotamia”. There was a substantial influx of Arabs in the Sassanid period. Upper Mesopotamia came to be known as Al-Jazirah in Arabic (meaning “The Island” in reference to the “island” between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers), and Lower Mesopotamia came to be known as ʿIrāq-i ʿArab, meaning “the escarpment of the Arabs”. Until 602, the desert frontier of the Persian Empire had been guarded by the Arab Lakhmid kings of Al-Hirah. In that year, the Sasanian king abolished the Lakhmid kingdom and laid the frontier open to nomad incursions. Farther north, the western quarter was bounded by the Byzantine Empire. The frontier more or less followed the modern Syria-Iraq border

Question 5

Iran

Answer 5

Heartland of the Persian Empires. Greater Iran refers to the regions of the Caucasus, West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia where Iranian culture has had significant influence. Historically, these were regions long ruled by dynasties of the Iranian Empire, that incorporated considerable aspects of Persian culture through extensive contact with them,or where sufficient Iranian peoples settled to still maintain communities who patronize their respective cultures. It roughly corresponds to the territory on the Iranian plateau and its bordering plains.The Encyclopædia Iranica uses the term Iranian Cultural Continent for this region.

Question 6

Dehqân

Answer 6

The Dehqan were a class of land-owning magnates during the Sasanian and early Islamic period, found throughout Iranian-speaking lands. In the pre-Islamic Sasanian Empire, the dehqans were considered minor land-owners. The term dehqan emerged as a hereditary social class in the later Sassanid era, who managed local affairs and whom peasants were obliged to obey. In early Islamic texts, the dehqans function almost as local rulers under the Arab domain and the term was sometimes juxtaposed with marzabān (“marcher-lord, governor”).

Question 7

Egypt

Answer 7

Pre Islam, Christianity was brought to Egypt by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the 1st century. Diocletian’s reign (284–305 CE) marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in CE 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established. The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Sasanian Persian invasion early in the 7th century amidst the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 during which they established a new short-lived province for ten years known as Sasanian Egypt, until 639–42

Question 8

al-Rum

Answer 8

is a generic term used that refers to the Byzantine Empire, which was then simply known as the “Roman Empire”. Later becomes the name for asia minor.

Question 9

Monophysitism

Answer 9

a cristological view that maintains that Christ maintained two natures, one divine and one human, after the incarnation. Historically, the term “Monophysites” (capitalized in this sense) referred to those Christians in the Eastern Roman Empire who rejected the fourth ecumenical council, the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Was to be found in eastern parts of the Byzantine Empire and more rural areas. Popular with lower class citizens

Question 10

Diophysitism

Answer 10

is the Christological position that two natures, divine and human, exist in the person of Jesus Christ. It contrasts with monophysitism and miaphysitism. Dyophysitism gained its official ecclesiastical form at the Fourth Ecumenical Council, held in Chalcedon in 451, and was the official creed of the empire. The view was held by the clergy and aristocracy, based in urban areas. Diophysties were known to persecute monophysites and were responsible for many monophysite tribes and peoples to migrate east to the Sasanian empire and Arabia.

Question 11

Nestorianism

Answer 11

emphasizes that the two natures (human and divine) of Jesus Christ were joined by will rather than personhood. Nestorianism was named after Christian theologian Nestorius Patriarch of Constantinople. estorius and his teachings were eventually condemned as heretical at the Council of Ephesus in 431, and again at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, which led to the Nestorian Schism; churches supporting Nestorian teachings broke with the rest of the Christian Church. Following that, many of Nestorius’s supporters relocated to the Sasanian Empire, where they affiliated with the local Christian community, known as the Church of the East. Over the next decades the Church of the East became increasingly Nestorian in doctrine, leading to it becoming known alternatively as the Nestorian Church.

Question 12

Zoroastrianism

Answer 12

is one of the world’s oldest continuously practiced religions. It is centered in a dualistic cosmology of good and evil and an eschatology predicting the ultimate conquest of evil with theological elements of henotheism, monotheism/monism, and polytheism. Ascribed to the teachings of the Iranian-speaking spiritual leader Zoroaster it exalts an uncreated and benevolent deity of wisdom, Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord), as its supreme being. Major features of Zoroastrianism, such as messianism, judgment after death, heaven and hell, and free will may have influenced other religious and philosophical systems. Official religion of the Sassanian Empire who built multiple temples in captured lands.

Question 13

Lakhmids (Banu Lakhm)

Answer 13

were an Arab kingdom of southern Iraq with al-Hirah as their capital, from about 300 to 602 AD. They were the allies and clients of the Sassanian Empire. Nestorians, and arch enemies of the Ghassanids. Charged with protecting the western flank of the Sassanian Empire.

Question 14

Ghassanids (Banu Ghassan)

Answer 14

Arab tribe which founded an Arab kingdom in the early 3rd in modern day Trans-Jordan and greater Syria. converted to Monophysite Christianity in the first few centuries AD. After settling in the Levant, the Ghassanids became a client state to the Byzantine Empire and fought alongside them against the Persian Sassanids and their Arab vassals, the Lakhmids. The lands of the Ghassanids also acted as a buffer zone protecting lands that had been annexed by the Romans against raids by Bedouin tribes.

Question 15

Hijaz

Answer 15

is a region in the west of Saudi Arabia. The name of the region is derived from the Arabic root Ḥ-J-Z, meaning “to separate”, and it is so called as it separates the land of the Najd in the east from the land of Tihamah in the west. It is also known as the “Western Province”. It is bordered on the west by the Red Sea, on the north by Jordan, on the east by the Najd, and on the south by the ‘Asir Region. Hejaz is significant for being the location of the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Question 16

al-Bahrain

Answer 16

Eastern Arabia was historically known as Al-Bahrain until the 18th century. This region stretched from the south of Basra along the Persian Gulf coast. The entire coastal strip of Eastern Arabia was known as “Bahrain” for ten centuries.

Question 17

al-Jazira

Answer 17

arabic word for “island” came to mean the region between the euphrates and the Tigris. Very fertile land and prosperous.

Question 18

Himaryite Kingdom

Answer 18

was a kingdom in ancient Yemen. Established in 110 BCE, it took as its capital the ancient city of Zafa. Himyar then endured until it finally fell to invaders from the Kingdom of Aksum in 525 CE. The Ḥimyarite Kingdom maintained nominal control in Arabia until 525. Its economy was based on agriculture, and foreign trade centered on the export of frankincense and myrrh. For many years, the kingdom was also the major intermediary linking East Africa and the Mediterranean world. This trade largely consisted of exporting ivory from Africa to be sold in the Roman Empire. The Himyarite kings appear to have abandoned polytheism and converted to Judaism around the year 380.

Question 19

Sheba

Answer 19

kingdom in South Arabia, predecessors to the Hymarites.

Question 20

Sheik

Answer 20

is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates the ruler of a tribe. Can be elected and can be inherited.

Question 21

Ayyam al-Arab

Answer 21

(literally, days of the Arabs), one of the early Arabian epic genres, describing the wars among and within the tribes and the adventures of the heroes. The Ayyam al-Arab were composed by the bedouin of Arabia during the fifth through seventh centuries. The genre of the Ayyam al-Arab influenced the development of Arab historical literature.

Question 22

Asabiyya

Answer 22

is a concept of social solidarity with an emphasis on unity, group consciousness and sense of shared purpose, and social cohesion, originally in a context of “tribalism” and “clanism”. It was familiar in the pre-Islamic era, but became popularized in Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah where it is described as the fundamental bond of human society and the basic motive force of history, pure only in its nomadic form.

Question 23

Marooh

Answer 23

The values of manhood in Jahiliyya’ian Arabia. Idealism of Bedouin, including bravery, hospitality, honor etc.

Question 24

Qays & Yaman

Answer 24

was a division traditionally based on an Arab tribe’s northern or southern Arabian roots, real or perceived; the Qays were from northern Arabia, while the Yaman were from southern Arabia. Genealogically, the northern tribes were traditionally said to descend from Ishmael while the southern tribes were said to descend from Qahtan. Historical Arab sources sometimes referred to the southern Arabs as Qahtāniyya (Qahtanites), but more often called them ahl al-Yaman (people of Yemen) or al-Yamāniyya (Yemenites). The Qays–Yaman rivalry refers to the historical rivalry and blood feud between the factions of the Qays (who were Adnanites or northern Arabians) and Yaman (who were Qahtanites or southern Arabians) in the Arab world. The conflict first emerged among the Arab tribes that constituted the Umayyad army and administration in the 7th and 8th centuries. Membership in either faction was rooted in the genealogical origins, real or perceived, of the Arab tribes, which divided them into south Arabian descendants of Qahtan (Yaman) or north Arabian descendants of Adnan (Qays). Yamani tribes, including the Kalb, Ghassan, Tanukh, Judham and Lakhm, were well-established in central and southern Syria in pre-Islamic times, while Qaysi (Nejdi-Hejazi) tribes, such as the Sulaym, Kilab and Uqayl, largely migrated to northern Syria and Upper Mesopotamia with the Muslim armies in the mid-7th century.