Azd (tribe)

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Azd ( Arabic أزد, DMG Azd ) is the name of a number of Arabic tribes believed to be of Yemeni origin. The name should refer to the common ancestor Dir ', who was nicknamed al-Azd . In the Arabic genealogy it is traced back to Qahtan via the line of descent Dir ' ibn al-Ghauth ibn Nabt ibn Mālik ibn Zaid ibn Kahlān ibn Saba' .

The migrations of the Azd

According to the Arabic tradition, Dir '/ al-Azd had five sons: Hinw, Nasr, ʿAbdallāh ʿAmr and Māzin. ʿAmr Muzaiqiyāʾ, a descendant of Māzin, who was in charge of the Azd at the time, emigrated with his relatives from Yemen shortly before the collapse of the Ma'rib dam and settled in the area of ​​Mecca. After a severe fever broke out in the area, most of ʿAmr's relatives moved to other areas of the Arabian Peninsula. While one group moved to Oman and another to the Sarāt, the western coastal mountains of the Arabian Peninsula, others settled in al-Anbar and al-Hīra . The Banū Ghassān moved to Syria, the Aus and Chazradsch to Yathrib , only the Chuzāʿa remained in Mecca.

The Banū Ghassān, the Aus, Chazradsch and Chuzāʿa are descendants of Azd, but in the narrower sense the name is only used for the Azd ʿUmān and the Azd Sarāt, which in turn are composed of different tribal groups.

The Azd Sarāt

The Azd Sarāt lived settled in the highlands of ʿAsīr and were known for their weaving skills. They included the Daus and Banū Māsicha in the north, the Zahrān and Chathʿam in the east, and the al-Hajr ibn al-Hinw in the south. Their most important sanctuary was that of Dhū l-Chalasa in the place Tabāla between Mecca and Yemen . In 631 the Azd Sarāt accepted Islam . Minor uprisings during the Ridda Wars were put down in 632 by ʿUthmān ibn al-ʿĀs, the governor of Taif . In 634 some men from the Azd Sarāt joined the expedition that Umar ibn al-Khattab sent to Iraq. In 658 the Azd Sarāt, who had settled in Basra , supported Ziyād ibn Abī Sufyān against the Arab tribe of the Tamīm.

The Azd ʿUmān

The Azd ʿUmān who were in Oman , according to Arab tradition, immigrated to Oman under the leadership of a certain Mālik ibn Fahm, the country was at that time under the rule of a certain Dāra ibn Dāra ibn Bahmān. According to Arabic sources, it was only the Azd who gave the country its name ʿUmān , in memory of one of the wadis of Marib , in which they had previously lived, while the Persian name of the area was Mazūn .

Like the Azd Sarāt, the Azd ʿUmān are composed of several tribes (Yahmad, Huddān, Maʿāwil, al-ʿAtīk, etc.). At the beginning of the 7th century they were under the rule of the Julandā family, which belonged to the Maʿāwil. However, their position was challenged towards the end of the 620s by a certain Laqīt ibn Mālik al-ʿĀtiqī from the tribe of the ʿAtīq. In order to prevail against him, two brothers from the Julandā family, Jaifar and ʿAbd, made an alliance with Mohammed , who sent ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs to them as his deputy . With his help the two brothers managed to regain control of the Azd ʿUmān. After Mohammed died and the Ridda movement began, Laqīt briefly regained the upper hand. He managed to subdue the two brothers and put ʿAmr to flight, but he was defeated by the Muslim general ʿIkrima ibn Abī Jahl in 632. The two brothers from the Julandā family were restored to their rights, and their descendants were able to maintain rule over Oman until the end of the 7th century. In the period between 679 and 680, however, the majority of the Azd ʿUmān emigrated to Basra.

After the union

In Basra, the Azd Sarāt and the Azd ʿUmān united their ranks in the 680s, allied with the Rabīʿa and fought against the Tamīm. The struggle between the two associations also spread to Khorasan , where the Azd were the leading tribal group between 697 and 704 under the Azdite Yazīd ibn al-Muhallab . After his dismissal by al-Hajjaj ibn Yūsuf , they went into the opposition in order to reverse the dismissal of his successor Qutaiba ibn Muslim in 715 . The Azd held the leading position in Khorasan until the beginning of the reign of Yazid II , after which they were pushed into the background by governors from rival tribes. The Azd's opposition to the governors in Khorasan contributed significantly to the collapse of the Umayyad state. When the Abbasid partisan Abū Muslim advanced with his troops, the Azd remained in opposition to the Umayyads and did not support their governor Nasr ibn Saiyār . The Azd also worked with the Abbasids in Basra.

At the same time, the Ibadi doctrine spread among the Azd in Basra and Oman . In 749 al-Dschulandā ibn Masʿūd, a descendant of the former Azdite ruling family, was raised to be the first Ibadit imam of Oman. However, this fell in 751 in the fight against the Abbasid general Chāzim in Chuzaima. In 793 the Ibadites again established an imamate by electing a man from the Yahmad tribe to be their imam. This Azdite imamate was opposed by the Nizār tribal group from the middle of the 9th century. In 893, the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tadid bi-'llah intervened in the clashes between the two tribes by sending his own military leader into the region. He killed the Imam in battle and thus put an end to the independent Azdite Imamate.

literature

  • Herbert Mason: The Role of the Azdite Muhallabid Family in Marw's Anti-Umayyad Power Struggle: An historical reevaluation in Arabica 14 (1967) 191-207.
  • G. Strenziok: Art. Azd in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. I, pp. 811b-813a.
  • Brian Ulrich: The Azd migrations reconsidered: narratives of ʿAmr Muzayqiya and Mālik b. Fahm in historiographic context in Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 38 (2008): 311-318.
  • John C. Wilkinson: Ibāḍism: Origins and Early Development in Oman . Oxford: Oxford University Press 2010. pp. 1-35.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ See the overview in Wilkinson Ibāḍism . 2010, p. XXI.
  2. ↑ Cf. Al-Balādhurī : Kitāb Futūḥ al-Buldān. Edited by Michael Jan de Goeje . Brill, Leiden 1866, pp. 16f; German translation by Oskar Rescher : El-Beladori's "kitab futuh el buldan" (Book of Conquest of the Lands) . Leipzig 1917, p. 14. Digitized .
  3. ↑ See Ferdinand Wüstenfeld : History of the City of Mecca, edited from the Arabic chronicles. Leipzig 1861. p. 14f.
  4. ↑ See Wilkinson 25.