al-Jābiya
al-Jābiya ( Arabic الجابية, DMG al-Ǧābiya ) was a place between the Hauran Plain and the Golan Heights , which served as the residence of the tribal princes of the Arab Ghassanids and also had important political significance in the early Islamic period.
Al-Jābiya, which extended over several hills, is mentioned for the first time in 520 in a Syriac-Aramaic letter from Bishop Simeon of Beth-arshām under the name Gabīthā. Another letter written in 569 indicates that there was a Sergius monastery here. At the end of the sixth century, al-Jābiya served as a meeting place for two Monophysite groups who wanted to settle their religious disputes.
After the Arab conquest of Syria, the Muslims set up their most important military camp for Syria here. Al-Jābiya gained special significance after the battle of the Yarmūk , when the spoils of war were collected here and Umar ibn al-Khattab visited the place to regulate the distribution of the spoils of war, to organize the military administration of Syria and to determine the pay of the fighters. On this occasion he is said to have given a speech in front of a large gathering of military leaders and prophet companions in which he announced his decrees. This speech is known as Chutbat al-Jābiya , the day on which this happened is called Yaum al-Jābiya and is dated to the year 17 of the Hijra (= 638 AD). Also Mu'awiya , the Umar 639 ordered the governor of Syria, resided probably in al-Dschābiya.
At the center of political events was al-Jābiya again after Abdallah ibn az-Zubair had proclaimed himself caliph in Mecca in 683 and the Umayyad caliph Muʿāwiya II died in 684 without leaving a suitable son to heir to the throne. After several governors in Syria and Palestine switched to the side of ʿAbdallāh ibn az-Zubair, Hassān ibn Mālik Ibn Bahdal, a tribal leader of the calf who was related to the Umayyads, called the heads of the Syrian troops to a conference in al-Jābiya to secure Umayyad rule and choose a suitable successor. The result of this congress of Jabiya, which lasted for 40 days, was a compromise formula that should satisfy all Umayyads. Marwan I was proclaimed the new caliph, but Chālid, the son of Yazid I , and the Umayyad ʿAmr ibn al-Ashdaq were to follow him.
Al-Jabiya only lost its importance as the military center of Syria in the early 8th century when Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik relocated his troops to Dābiq north of Aleppo to fight the Byzantines. The place has completely disappeared, only a tell called Tall al-Jābiya still reminds of it today.
literature
- Fred McGraw Donner: The Early Islamic Conquests . Scholarly Publications, Ann Arbor, Mich. 2004, ISBN 1-59740-200-1 (EA Princeton, NJ 1981).
- Henri Lammen and Janine Sourdel-Thomine: al- Dj ābiya . In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition , Vol. 2, p. 360.
- Gernot Rotter : The Umayyads and the Second Civil War (680–692) (Treatises for the customer of the Orient; 45.3). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1982. pp. 133–152, ISBN 3-515-02913-3 (plus habilitation thesis, University of Tübingen 1977).
- Irfan Shahîd: Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century . Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Coll., Washington, DC 2002/2009
- Vol. 2,1: Toponymy, monuments, historical geography and frontier studies . 2002, pp. 96-105, ISBN 0-88402-284-6
- Vol. 2.2: Economic, social and cultural history . 2009, ISBN 978-0-88402-347-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Shahîd 103.
- ↑ See Shahîd 98.
- ↑ See Donner 151.
- ↑ See Lammen / Sourdel-Thomine 360a.
- ↑ Cf. L. Caetani: Annali dell'Islam Vol. III. Milan 1910. pp. 927-931. Available online here: http://archive.org/stream/annalidellislam03caetuoft#page/926/mode/2up
- ↑ See Shahîd 96.
- ↑ See on this Rotter 133–152.
- ↑ See Shahîd 102.