yemen in early islam

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Yemen in Early Islam an Examination of Non-Tribal Traditions

Author(s): Suliman BashearSource: Arabica, T. 36, Fasc. 3 (Nov., 1989), pp. 327-361Published by: BRILL

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YEMEN IN EARLY ISLAMAN EXAMINATION OF NON-TRIBAL TRADITIONS

BY

SULIMAN BASHEAR

It is unanimously agreed upon by scholars that the concepts

<(Yemen))and <Yemenism>> yamdniyya)have figured centrally in

the history of early Islam down to the Abbasid Period. But, so far,attention has been overwhelmingly limited to studying the elements

of genealogical-tribal affiliations and political loyalties revealed by

Muslim traditional sources on these concepts'. At the same time,

no serious attempt was made at examining the clear religious con-

notations of yamaniyya or even the question of delimitingyaman in

early Islam.

The present paper strives primarily to contribute to the study of

this latter issue. In order to do so, not only geographic and lexicalsources will be consulted but commentaries on some traditional and

Quranic occurrences with relevant bearings will also be scrutinized;

a task which hopefully will help to illuminate some religious aspects

of these concepts as well.

Going Right, Going South

The term <<yaman>>s presented in Arabic lexicography as beingderived from the root YMN2which, like in other semitic languages,

I E.g.: Goldziher's views on the South-North tribaldivision and his commentson.the studies of T. Noldeke and others, in his: Muslim Studies, vol. 1, Eng. ed.,N.Y. 1966, 90-5. On the role played by this tribal rivalry all along the Umayyadperiod see:J. Wellhausen, TheArab Kingdom and its Fall, Calcutta, 1927, 107, 101,175, 180-2, 209-10, 251, 258-61, 313-4, 319-22, 328-30, 359, 386-7, 489-91, 508,542. Of later works see: P. Crone, Slaves on Horses, Cambridge, 1980, 34, 46-8;

and G. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, London, 1986, 36, 54-5, 69-70. Theproblematic of tribal affiliation to yaman as a whole and of some tribes in par-ticular, has been thoroughly studied by M. J. Kister and M. Plessner: (Notes onGaskel's Gamharat an-Nasabo, Oriens 1977; M. J. Kister, (IKudcaCa(, E.I. 2,Suppl.; id. <(Meccaand the Tribes of Arabia>, unpublished typescript; and I.Hason, Mucdwiya's Rule.... unpublishedPh.D. dissertation,The Hebrew Univer-sity of Jerusalem, 1983, 61-5, (in Hebrew).

2 Azhari (d. 370 H.) Tahdhib al-Lugha, Beirut, 1967, 15/526-7; Ibn Manzuir,

Arabica, Tome xxxvi, 1989







328 S. BASHEAR

denotes <right>>.The antonym of it, often brought by these sources,

is the root S/'M which denotes ((left>>4.From these two roots are

derived the verbal coupletsyadmana- Shd'ama, caymana 'ash'ama,tayamana- tashai'ama.Other verbal stems, though less often men-

tioned, are yamana and yammana.

The direct and close associatioh of the term <<yaman>>ith this root

explains how such verbs can mean both going to the right direction

and towards Yemen as a certain location. In the words of Ibn Man-

zuir: <<yaman>>s a gender and non a noun (<jinsg/ghayralam-))).As a

further proof to that he mentions the existence of two other nouns,

yumna and maymana,which also denote Yemen as a location. From

Azhari we also learn that yamin and yumn are names of Yemen too.

As to why was Yemen called as such, lexical and geographic

sources give different reasons corresponding to a variety of conflict-

ing traditions. What is common to all of these traditions is the

attempt to fix a point of reference from which a certain given posi-

tion will put Yemen on the direction of one's right hand. A scrutiny

of them, however, will quickly reveal the existence of clear geo-political and religious dimensions to the different points of

reference inherent in them.

To begin with, the term <yaman>>s a gender is, in itself, a fluid

and relative one. Hence, Arabic lexical and geographic sources

present us with names derived from YMN for several locations

which clearly stand outside the extreme south-western corner of the

Arabian peninsula and which spot the coastal area east of the Red

Sea up to Tayma' on the border between modern Jordan and SaudiArabia, as well as the latter's hinterland. E.g. to such locations are:

Tayman (and Tayman dhuf Zilal), Tayman, Tamanni, Yamn (or

'Amn), Yumn and even Yaman itself as sometimes vocalised in this

specific form5.

Lisan al-'Arab, Cairo, n.d. 17/354; Zubayd1, Taj al-cArus, Cairo, 1306 H. 9/371;E. Lane, Arabic-EnglishLexicon, Beirut, repr. 1980, 8/3064; Jawhari, Sih4h,Cairo,

n.d., 2/119; Rizi, Mukhtar l-.Sihih,Cairo, 1926, 742; Zanjani, Tahdhfb l-.Sihdh,Cairo, 1952, 2/891; ZamakhshariAl-Jibal, Najaf, 1968; 154; Saraquspi,K. al-A/'al, Cairo, 1980, 298; al-$dghdni,al-Takmila,Beirut, 1979, 6/330; Fayrfizabadi,al-Qamuis,Cairo, 1978, 4/297.

3 Compare with the Hebrew yemin and the Sabaic derivations from ymn in A.F. L. Beeston et al., Sabaic Dictionary, Louvain and Beirut, 1982, 168.

4 Another antonym, from the root YSR is also given, but not so often. See IbnManzuir 15/209; Zubaydi 8/354; Lane 4/1490.

5 Ibn Manzuir 16/222-3; Yaquit, Mu'jam al-Buldan, Beirut, 1957, 1/68, 5/447-9;id. al-MushatarakWadcan,Gottingen, 1846, 86; Bakri, Mu'jam, Cairo, 1945, 1/331,







YEMEN IN EARLY ISLAM 329

Note especially that this latter name (yaman)is given to ((aplace

near Mecca)) mentioned in a verse of 'Umar b. Abil Rabi'ca:

nazarat laynf ilayhdnazratan

mahbitta - batha4'imin ardiyaman6

However, in order to contain the fluidity inherent in the

relativity of the initial meaning of ((right)),our sources reveal few

alternative traditional currents in the process of fixing the necessary

point of reference. One of these was to take the Ka'ba as such point

and to say thatyaman is related to whatever exists on its right. This

view figures heavily in these sources in a way that reflects its emerg-

ing prominence resulting eventually in the final delimitation of

Yemen as a territory located to the right and south of Mecca; a

notion which corresponds to the fact that <south)) is also one of the

meanings given to adjectives from Sabaic YMN as well as in some

traditional Arabic usages7.

It is difficult to date the emergence of this notion with certainty

as geographic traditions are usually brought without isnddaauthorities, or sometimes are brought in the anonymous form

((wa-yuqal>>8.

In most late sources we meet this notion (coupled with the one

that al-sham was called as such because it is to the left and north of

the Ka'ba) as a view of the author himself without any traditional

reference9. To the problematic of this notion as revealed by some

of its traditional connotations, we shall come back soon. However,

from the meagre information provided by some geographic

sources, it seems that, towards the end of the second century, it led

to a growing trend to identify <<Yamanoith modern Yemen, i.e.

south-west Arabia. Evidence to this can be gauged from the fact

4/1400-1; AbfuLughda -Ifahani, Bilddal-CArab,iyad, 1968, 186-7; Ijimyarl, al-Rawd al-Mi'tdr, Beirut, 1975, 619; Baghdadi, Mardsid al-IttildC, Beirut, 1955,3/1483; Mas'udi, Tanbth,Leiden, 1893, 262.

6 Cf. Bakri 4/1401; Ijimyari 619.7 Compare Sabaicymn (right hand), ymnt and ymnyt-n south, southern) and

yhymnn be southward)in A. F. L. Beeston, op. cit., 168. See also 'I. Shahid, (<Pre-IslamicArabia>,Cambridge istory fIslam, vol. 1A, Cambridge, 1977, 6. On suchArabic usage more will be said below.

8 See Ibn al-Faqih (wrote ca. 293 H.), MukhtasarK. al-Bulddn, Leiden, 1885,33; and compare with Azhari 15/527.

9 Bakri;4/1401; Uimyari 619; Ibn Manzar 17/356. See also Ibn Hajar, TafsfrGharlb l-Hadtth,Beirut, n.d., 264; Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Suyiiti, FadePilal-shdm, Ms. Princeton, Yehuda 1(264), 97(a).







330 s. BASHEAR

that to Abiu 'Ubayda (d. 207 H.) was attributed the view that the

southern corner (al-ruknal-yamdni) of the Kacba is the direction of

prayer (qibla) for the people ofyaman'0. Another early third centurysource, al-Asmaci (d. ca. 216 H.), is quoted by Ibn al-Faqih as

identifyingyaman in terms of its excellence in spices and perfume

products, characteristic to that part of the peninsula. We also meet

the same form of identification brought by another geographer of

that period, Ibn Khurdadhbah (d. ca. 300 H.)". Yaqfit, though a

relatively late source, brings what seems to have become the final

concept in delimitingyaman (as laying between cUInan, Najran and

cAden) and attributes it, again, to Asmacil2.

Evidence to the growing identification of yaman with modern

Yemen after the 3rd century can be gauged from other directions.

Ibn al-Faqih states that the distance between it and Mecca is twenty

days of travelling"3. Hamdani explicitly says that Mecca stands as

the last (northern) limit ofyaman'4. But, all in all, what seems to be

the driving factor behind such delimitation is the emergence of

Mecca as the final cultic center in Islam. For, with that, not onlythe directions of qiblawere fixed, but also relative genders like south

and north became names of specific locations as related to it, in this

caseyaman and sham, respectively. In this context the definition of

the limits of cultic ihldl during the Hajj certainly helped to define

the location of yaman too in relation to Mecca. Such effect can be

estimated by comparing those limits as specified, on the one hand,

by a hadithcompilation and, on the other, by a geographic source,

both from the third century: the place stated by the former isyalamlam to the south of Mecca, while the latter alternatively men-

tions another two places, one of them curiously being <(thecurve

(thanya), from which the people of Medina [sic.?] enter too>0'.

As much as delimiting yaman in south-western Arabia was

enhanced by relating it to Mecca, such a trend was not the only one

and certainly did not pass without resistance. Several aspects of this

'? Ibn al-Faqlh, 35-6. Compare also with Ibn Khurdadhbah, al-Masdlik wa-l-Mamdlik, Leiden, 1889, 5. The latter, however, does not mention Abu 'Ubayda.

Ibid., 71.12 Yaqfut, 5/447. Baghdadi, 3/1483, makes similar delimitation but does not

name any source for it.13 Op. cit., 31.14 Hamdani, $ifatJaz&ratal-cArab, Leiden, 1884, 27.15 Muslim, Sah4fh, eirut, n.d., 4/6-7 and Abu Lughda l-Isfaha-ii7, op. cit., 375.

See also the modern editor's comment in f.n. (1) of the latter source.








resistance are revealed by the very existence of other traditional and

even lexical sources for the term <yaman)).

One of these alternative trends drew upon the above noted factthat from the root YMN could be derived forms denoting not only

<<right>>ut ((south>) oo. But in order to have the south on one's

right too, one must face the east. And this exclusive combination

between right and south is retained in certain archaic forms of the

Arabic names given to the winds in a way that also corresponds to

the directions from which they blew. In a chapter on ((the descrip-

tion of the winds of countries and angles>>,HamdanI mentions al-

qabuil the frontward) and al-dabtir(the backward), for the eastern

and western ones respectively; a denotion that implies a position

facing the east too. It is striking to see how from such position the

southern wind which, in his words ((blows from al-yaman)>s literally

called al-taymanad6.

In quite the same way one can understand how the adjectives

yamdni andyamdniyya were given to the stars suhayl and shicra, simply

because they were seen overyaman, i.e. the south17. We shall alsosee how one of Mecca's names itself is al-yamaniyya,the southern.

In all these cases, however, such names will hold immaterial of the

latitude position that one takes in the ((north)), since yaman itself

means only (<south)>.

Now, even after the Kacba was accepted as a point of reference,

there still were some difficulties. For, while saying that ((whatever

is on its right isyaman>>'8 could be rationalized on the ground that

the area of Mecca bordered Yemen, it was impossible to apply the

same to al-Sham. Indeed, it seems not to have been enough for

Muqaddasi to say that ((al-sham s everything that faces al-yaman>)

without immediately adding: ((with Hijaz laying (separating)

between them>>19.

Other problems seem to have faced some geographers over the

issue of taking the Kacba as a point of reference. This is made clear

from the way they comment upon a tradition attributed to IbncAbbas and brought also on the authority of al-Sharqi. It says that

16 Hamadni, Sifat, op. cit, 154. Compare also with Wahb b. Munabbih, K. al-Tzjdn, Haydarabad, 1347 H. 32.

17 Zubaydi: 9/373.

18 As stated by Aba Bakr Ibn cArabI (d. 534 H.), S4arhSahfhal-Tirmuidhi, in themargin of that Sahhz, Cairo, 1934, 13/286.

19 Ahsan al-Taqa-si-m,Leiden, 1906, 152. See also Himyari, 619.







332 s. BASHEAR

the Arabs (var.: people), after multiplied and Mecca could not con-

tain them, they dispersed andyaman was named as such after those

who went right/south to it (taydman1i)20.t is interesting to see howYaquit rejects this tradition on the ground that ((the Ka'ba is square

shaped (murabbaca)and has no right or left so that if yaman stands

on the right of some it will also be to the left of others, except in

the case of those who face its yamdnz corner, w-hich is the most

exalted, then it would be true (to say that yaman stands on its

right))).

On this background the view, brought by Bakri and others,

which definesyaman as whatever stands to the right of the sun ratherthan the Kacba, gains more weight and sounds older. Such tradi-

tion does not only imply that the location of yaman is beyond

whatever to the right of the Kacba, but also says explicitly that the

emergence of such a name antidates the recognition of the latter21.

Investigating the conflicting traditions on the dispersal of people

in general and the corresponding genealogy of the Arab tribes in

particular lies, as such, beyond the scope of this study. Mentionmust be made, however, of a tradition of Wahb which states that

such dispersal started from Babylon and that Yacrub b. Qahtan b.

Hud, the ancestor of the Arabs, led some of his grandfather's folk

from there. Since he was also named Yaman, the country he settled

in was called as such too. Note also that according to this tradition,

the location of that country, i.e. Yaman, was in the vicinity of the

sanctuary of Mecca22.

A certain element of this notion exists also in a tradition of al-Kalb! brought by some geographic sources. It says that the country

of Yaman was called as such after Tayman b. Yuqtan (var.:

Tayman/Yacrub b. Qaitdn)23.

Another similar notion of turning right/south towards Yaman

occurs in a prophetical tradition related through Farwa b. Musayk

al-Muradi. Here, however, those who made the act of tayamunwere

four tribal ancestors fromamong

the tensons of Saba), while theremaining six took the opposite direction (tasha'am1i)24.

20 Yaqu-t, 5/447; Zubaydi, 9/371.21 Bakri, 4/1401; Ibn 'Arabi, 13/287.22 K. al-T-jdn, op. cit., 32, 36.23 Compare: Ibn al-Faqlh, 33; Bakri, 4/1401; Ijimyarl, 619.24 Ibn 'Arabi, 13/286.








Again, these traditions belong primarily to the literary genres of

bad' and ansaband, as such, do not concern us here. Note will only

be made of the fact that they represent conflicting currents in thesefields as to the genealogy and original place of the initial dispersal

of the Arabs as well as to the abodes of their different divisions.

More relevant to our investigation are the terms used by Arab

geographers to define and delimit these abodes, such as <<diyarl-

carab>>nd (Jaziratal-carab)),and the place occupied byyaman-tayman

in them.

To start with, the term (<Jazirat l-carab)> s used by Hamadani

includes not only what is known today as the Arabian peninsula but

also Iraq west of the Euphrates and greater Syria up to the present

day border with Turkey. He also states that this Jazfra has a south

(yaman) and a north (shaim) and specifies modern Yemen with the

title (.the green>)(al-Khadrda).Note also that he justifies the use of

the term ((Jazzra))which means: an island) on the ground that the

whole area is surrounded by a chain of seas and rivers including the

east Mediterranean and the Euphrates river25.The name used for the same area by Ibn Hawqal is diydral-carab.

He says that Yaman occupies two thirds of this area, its northern

border being a line from cAbadan in the east to 'Ayla (cAqaba) in

the west. To the north of this line is al-sham;but he excludes upper

Mesopotamia (al-jazira al-furdtiyya) rom diyaral-carab, although, as

he notes, it was inhabited by the Mudar and Rabica tribal divi-

sions. Such exclusion is justified by him on the ground that this was

a Byzantine and Persian sphere of influence and the Arabs there

were only subjects to them and some even adopted Christianity26.

Even more interesting is the place which Tayman occupies in the

administrative geographic scheme of two 3rd century sources. Both

YaCqfibi (d. 284 H.) and Ibn Khurdadhbah (d. ca. 300 H.), divide

the Caliphate into four quarters (arbac)with the capital, Baghdad,

as the center and point of reference. The name applied for the

southern quarter (al-rubc al-qibli) is Tayman which includes theArab lands to the south and south-west of the capital. In Ibn Khur-

dadhbah's words: <<wa-l-taymanilad al-junTbh ubcal-mamlaka>27.

25 Hamdani, Sifat, 47-51.26 Ibn Hawqal, Suiratl-'Ard,Beirut, n.d., 29-30.27 Ibn Wadih al-YaCqfibl,K. al-Bulddn,Leiden, 1891, 308-20; Ibn Khur-

dadhbah, 125, 149-50.







334 s. BASHEAR

Teman, Felix and TuirTaymana

Without going into specific details concerning the borders, our

investigation has generally led us towards considering the

possibility thatyaman and taymanwere initially applied to denote the

lands of the Arabs outside and to the south of the great powers'

spheres of influence in the area. Recall in this context that both

terms were stated as variant names of the legendary ancestors of the

Arabs: Ya'rub, Qahtan and Yuqtan. Added to that is an isolated

reference brought by Ibn Manzuir where tfman(gen. timani)and not

just tayman,was said to have been ((father of theyaman>>.The samesource also quotes in this context the view held byJawhar1 thatyaman

is actually synonymous to <<biladl- carab>>28nd another support to

such view can be gauged from the reported answer given by Ibn al-

Qiriyya when asked by al-Hajiaj, in which the former states that

((al-yamans the land of the Arabs>>29.

It is striking to see how these early lexical, geographic and tradi-

tional Muslim references toyaman and taymancorrespond clearly to

some Biblical and Classical references to Teman and Felix

respectively.

There are several occurrences of the term "<Teman>>n the Old

Testament. Originally stated as the name of the son of Eliphaz, son

of Esau (the twin brother of Jacob), who dwelt in Edom, it reap-

pears also as a synonymous name of this area in the south of

modern Jordan30. In spite of the vague nature of some of the other

occurrences, it is possible to establish beyond doubt that BiblicalTeman referred to that southern area of modern Jordan31.

The close correspondence in Muslim sources between <yaman>>

and ((tayman>>,s genealogical, geographic and linguistic indicatives

reviewed above, clearly points to a late process of transfer and

fusion between the two. Such fusion can also find an indirect sup-

28 Ibn Manzuir, 17/357 and the comment in its margin. Compare with

Jawhari's Siha-, 2/119, Razi's Mukhtdr, 742 and Zajani's TahdhTbwere "yaman>,sdefined as ((biladun i-l-'arab>.

29 Ibn al-Faqlh, 92.30 Compare: Genesis, 36/10-35 and 1 Chronicles, 1/35-53.31 In Obadya9, Teman is referred to as part of the mount of Esau; Amos, 1/12

mentions it in connection with ((the Edomite palaces of Bozrah>>;and Ezikiel, 25/3speaks of it in contrast with its southern boundary with Dedan. See also: TheJewishEncyclopedia, N.Y., 1906, s.v. <<Teman>>, 2/79; but compare with EncyclopediaMikra'it, Jerusalem, 1982, 8/524-2 where the possibility is considered that Temanof Job is located in Mesopotamia too.








port in the legendary, non-historical and confused nature of the

reports concerning Jewish settlement in Yemen proper before the

Christian era, while such settlement in Trans-Jordan is attested byJosephus for at least his own time".

A comparative examination of some Muslim geographic sources

and the Old Testament reveals the nature of at least one clear

instance where such transfer occurred on the level of pseudo-

historical reports. In I Chronicles, cited above, it is related how

Hosham, from the land of the temanitewas one of the Kings who

ruled Edom. Almost the same story reappears in Ibn al-Faqlh in the

form of a tradition of Sayf b. cUmar. Beside the substitution of

((kings of al-ruzm>or ((kings of Edom>>, he main amendment intro-

duced is that Hosham is said to have ((went down to tayman>>lit.:

wa-nazala al-tayman)33. f this was not a mere figure of speech, then

it is a clear indication to the process of pushing the location of

Tayman southwards latent in the very meaning of the term, as well

as to the successive attempts made by the Antiochian successors of

Hellenism and the Romans to conduct an agressive policy forsafeguarding the southern borders of their Arabian province34.

A clear evidence to this is provided by the <<Onomasticon))of

Eusebius (4th century A.D.) who mentions a region of Thaiman in

the district of Petra and also notes an East Teman with a Roman

garrison fifteen miles from there35. It is worth noting, on the other

hand, that his EcclesiasticalHistory does not mention Yemen at all36.

Another such evidence can be gauged from the way Hamdani

renders the terms used by the mid 3rd century Ptolemy intoArabic. Here, ((Arabia Felix)> was presented as ((biladal-acrdb al-

KhasTba>>hich includes the areas not only of present day Arabian

Peninsula but also of Edom in modern Jordan and south of Judaea

in Israel37.

32 TheJewish Encyclopedia,op. cit., s. v. ((Yemen)), 12/592-3 and Josephus, Jewish

Antiquities,London, 1969, 8/491. Compare also with L. Ginsberg, Thelegends ftheJews, Philadelphia, 1959, 6/431-2; J. A. Montgomery, Arabiaand theBible,Philadelphia, 1934, 36 and f.n. 17; and C. C. Torrey, TheJewish FoundationfIslam, N.Y. 1967, 26-7.

33 Ibn al-Faqih, 139.34 Further details on these attemptsin G. W. Bowersock,RomanArabia,Camb.

Mass. and London, 1983, 53-99, and the sources cited therein.35 Cf. TheJewish Encyclopedia, op. cit., 12/79.36 Camb. Mass. and London, 1932, 1975, 1/515, 2/63-5, 87, 91, 287.37 Hamdani, $ifat, 34.







336 S. BASHEAR

Actually, long before Eusebius and Ptolemy, the geographer

Strabo, a contemporary and friend of the commander of the first

full fledged Roman expedition to the south (Aelius Gallus, 26B.C.), gave us a unique description and a map of the area. From

several references in his Geographywe learn that Arabia Felixinclude all the lands to the south of a line stretching from approx-

imately ElVArish on the Mediterranian and north-eastwards to the

Dead Sea, Moab in Jordan, the east of Syria until the Euphrate

river and down along it to the Persian Gulf. The coastal area from

ElCArish to Antiocheia he calls <<Phoenicia>>hich, for him, is part

of Syria, while the land of upper Mesopotamia east of the Euphrate

he calls ((Assyria>>38.

To all intents, ((Arabia Felix>) seems clearly to be the Graeco-

Roman rendering of a vocalised semitic YMN or one of its deriva-

tions, and a geographic application for Biblical ((Teman)) though

this latter name was expanded to include not only Edom but the

lands of the Arabs as such. Of course, it is difficult to point with

certainty to the first appearance of this rendering or to the historicalcircumstances in which Biblical ((Teman>> nd Arabicyaman started

to denote wisdom, belief, blessing and good omen. The wisdom of

Teman and the Temanites is a strong theme in various Old Testa-

ment occurrences especially in Prophets39.n Habbakuk3/3, Teman

is explicitly said to be the place where God will come from. In Isaia

63/1-6, mention is made of the savior as coming from Bozrah of

Edom.

Any definite statement on these issues belong to the unsettledfields of the history of composition of the Old Testament and the

appearance of the Septuagint and, as such, lies beyond the scopeof this study40. However, Josephus who basically adopted the

genealogical geography of the Old Testament uses ((Arabia Felix>>in two occasions to denote the area to the east of Egypt and the RedSe 4ia .

38 TheGeographyf Strabo,Camb. Mass. and London, 1966, 7/239, 265, 299,301, 309-11, 351 and the attached map opposite 374.

39Jeremia, 49/7; Baruch, 3/22; Job, 2/11.40 See J. A. Montgomery, 114; Sprenger, Die Alte Geographie rabiens,8;

Hogarth, Penetrationof Arabia, 41.41 Josephus, TheJewish Wars, 2/385; id., Antiquities, 1/239.








Note must also be made of the interesting transformation which

the title ((Queen of Sheba)) went in almost a full circle from its

Hebrew origin in the Old Testament42, via the Greek origin of twooccurrences of it in the New Testament43, where it was presented

as ((Queen of the South>>and, finally, into the modern Arabic

translation of the latter as <<malikatl-taymam>>.

It is striking how in the Qur'an no mention of Yemen by name

is made. Vague references to some ancient incidents in the history

of south-west Arabia were believed by some exegets to have been

made in verse 34/17. To other indirect references to the Yemenites

in Qur'an 5/54 and 47/38 we shall come back later.

As for Mecca, note has been made above of some traditional

instances where it was considered or even named as al-yamaniyya.In

Qur'an 95/3 it was referred to as <<al-baladl-'amnf>> here exegets

believed that God was swearing by it along with three other holy

things. (lit.: wa-l-ttni wa-l-zaytuiniwa-tir sni-na wa-hddhdal-baladial-

'amfnt). Some of these exegets interpreted the terms occurring here

as referring to holy mountains near Damascus, Jerusalem, Sinaiand Mecca respectively. However, a highly unique, though

extremely isolated, Syrian tradition gives the name of Mecca as

Tuir Taymand in this Quranic context rather than al-balad al-

Damfn44.t is heavily associated with the name of the Damascene

((successor)> tdbicYazid b. Maysara al-Kindi45, though it was some-

times attributed to Ibn cUmar without isndd46. So far I could not

find any trace of this tradition in all the tafsir works I consulted

except one which curiously bears the name and exact title of

Thaclabl's Tafsfr47.

42 In 1 Chronicles, 10/1; 2 Chronicles,9/1.43 In Matthews, 12/42; Luke, 11/31.44 It literally says: <<arbacatajbul muqaddasabaynayadayi-lldhi tacdld: tar zayta, izur

sina, .ir tind wa-tur taymdnd.))

45 See on him: Bukharl, Tarikh, n.d., 8/35 and Ibn Abi Hatim, Jarh,Haydarabad, 1953, 2(4)/288.

46 Al-Musharraf,Fada' il, Ms. Tubingen, 27, 84(a); al-RabaCi,Fada' il al-Sham,Damascus, 1950, 61; Ibn cAsakir, Tdrfkh, Damascus, 1954, 2/5; Anon. Fada' il,Ms. Princeton, Yehuda, (4560), 25(b); al-Badri, Nuzhat al-Andam,Ms. Princeton,Yehuda, 1(264), 12(a); Muhammad b. Habibullah, Risala ft Fadl al-Shdm, Ms.Princeton, Yehuda (1862), 3(a-b).

47 Thaclabi', al-Kashf wa-l-Baydn, Ms. Princeton, Yehuda, 1(2217), 35(a-b).However, this work is completely differentfromThaclabl's Tafsfrn content. Notealso that it gives the death year of its author as 427 H.







338 s. BASHEAR

Messianic Deliverance s Southern

Note of the Biblical references to Teman as the land of wisdom

(Jeremia), deliverance (Isaia) and even where God will come from

(Habbakuk),has already been made. In a pseudo-Christian gnostic

tractate it is explicitly stated that ((the regions of the south will

receive the Word of the Light)), while ((the demon)) and ((errorof the

world)) are associated with ((the east">48.

On the basis of the present study it will be interesting to conduct

a further and thorough investigation into the thematic connection

between such apocalyptic elements in Judeo-Christianity con-cerning Teman-the South, and some Quranic and hadfthpraises

of yaman in early Islam. Here few such examples from the Muslim

side will be brought, the commentaries upon which provide some

geographic definition of the terms yaman and tayman.

Mention has already been made of the unique exegetical

reference to Mecca as Tfir Taymana in the context of Qur'an 95/3.

Other exegetical traditions believed that Qur'an 5/54 and 47/38

included indirect references to the people of yaman. Worth noting

is one by Mujahid on 5/54 as brought by the geographer Ibn al-

Faqlh too. According to it the people referred to in this verse as

those whom God will bring forth, who love God and are loved by

him, are <<Sabyl-yaman>>49.

A cross examination of traditional exegesis confirms the existence

of this tradition, though in an early 4adfthsource those referred to

were said to be ((people from saba' 50. Here, as well as in several taf-sir sources, such tradition was brought in the context of other tradi-

tions which specify that those referred to were either the

'Ash'ariyyu-n, people of Abui Muisa al-Ashcari or from al-Saku-n

tribe of Kinda51.

This view, however, is not unanimous upon other exegets of

early second century. One tradition, associated with the name of

48 <<TheParaphrase of Shemr>, in J. M. Robinson, ed., The Nag HammadiLibrary, Leiden, 1978, 326-7.

49 Ibn al-Faqih, 33, ((lit.: ... manyartadd minkumcan dfnihifa-sawfa ya'tt lldhu bi-qawminyuhibbuhumwa-yuhibbzunahu.

50 Abu Sacid al-Ashaij, jladith, Ms. Zahiriyya, maj'muc, 18/222. Note thevariant reading saby-saba'.

51 Ibid. These traditions are attributed to cIyad al-Ashcarl and Ibn cAbbas,respectively. Compare with: Tabarl, TafsFr,Cairo, 1326, 6/183-4; Razi, Mafidth,Cairo, 1308, 3/427; Zamakhshari, Kashshdf, 1354, 1/345; 7aJs&rl-Jalalayn, Cairon.d., 96.








Suddi, says that the ones referred to in this verse were the ansdr52.

But main-stream exegesis, associated with the names of Hasan al-

Basri, Qatada, Dahhak, Ibn Jurayj, or even curiously with that ofcAli, presents the verse as referring to <<AbuBakr and his compan-

ions>>n the context of his struggle against the ridda. Few sources

bring an unidentified tradition which says that they were the Per-

sians, people of Salman al-Farisi53. In other sources such reference

to the Persians was sought in Qur'an 47/38 too54. However the only

view brought by Ibn al-Faqlh is that 47/38 refers to <the people of

yaman>>.It is worth noting that Ibn al-Faqlh brings in this context

a tradition according to which the Prophet pointed to al-yamanand

said: <if the request of any of you becomes difficult, turn to this

direction?>55.

From the fields of prophetical sira and tradition one can bring few

more examples whereyaman and its people were obscurely referred

to. One of these occurs in the sira of Ibn Ishaq in the context of the

apostasy of cAdi b. Hatim and his repentance. From it we learn that

when the sister of cAdi advised him to repent and follow Muham-mad she said: (<If he man is a prophet, [then] whoever precedes to

[follow] him gains priority, and being who you are, [even] if he is

a king, you will not be humbled in the glory of yaman>>lit: .... wa

- inyakun malikan a - lan tadhillaft cizzi 1-yamaniwa - anta anta)56.

This tradition was reiterated by few later szra works. However,

its explicit description of Muhammad's movement as ((the glory of

yaman>>was not commented upon and, standing as such, remains

unexplicable57.

Another obscure connection between Muhammad and yaman is

made by a unique tradition of Waqidi on the debate which

Muhammad b. Maslama had with the Jewish Banu-al-Na hdrbefore

they were expelled from Medina. According to this tradition Ibn

52 Tabarl, 6/184; Razi, 3/427. Compare also with Zamakhsharl, 1/345.53 Such was the only one brought by Nasaft, Tafsir, Beirut, n.d., 1/419.54 Razi, 7/532; Zamakhshari, 3/460-1 as well as Nasafi, 3/374.55 Ibn al-Faqih, 33: "'idhdtacadhdhara ala ahadikumal-multamasfa-'alayhi bi-hadhd

1-wajh, wa- 'ashdra 'ild 1-yaman.56 Ibn Hisham, stra, Beirut, 1975, 4/168.57 Tabari, Tdrikh,Cairo, 1962, 3/114; Suhayll, Rawd, Cairo, 1970, 7/404, 450;

Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, 'Uyujn,Beirut, 1974, 2/238. Halabi in his turn drops the phrase<<'izz1-yaman>,,nsan,Cairo, 1320 H. 3/255. In Waqidl's MaghdzfOxford, 1966,3/989) and Ibn Sacd's Tabaqat Beirut, 1960, 1/322), the story of CAdl'sapostasyis brought without mentioning his sister's advise altogether.







340 s. BASHEAR

Maslama proved the Jews wrong and untrue in rejecting Muham-

mad by reminding them of the description of the ((man of hantfya>

which they themselves had given in apocalyptic form sometimebefore he was sent. Among other things they had expected the com-

ing prophet as <<.... coming from the direction of yaman, riding a

camel ... (lit. .... ya ti min qibal al-yaman, yarkab al-bacfr.... )58.

Needless to say that the reasoning behind the whole argument

attributed to Ibn Maslama is that such description exactly fitted the

prophet of Islam. On the other hand substantial differences could

be spotted between this apocalyptic vision attributed to the Jews

concerning the coming of the prophet of hanffiyyafrom yaman, the

pseudo-Christian <<Paraphrase of Seth)) where the south was

expected to receive <the Light of the Word of God)>, and the

apocolypse of Habbakukwhere God himself was said to be coming

from teman. However, considering the ((south)>Yaman- Teman) as

a source of divine deliverance is a common theme too strong to be

overlooked. One must note in this connection that the apocalypse

of Habbakukwas one of the major Biblical ((proofs)) dald'ii) broughtby the early Ibn Rabban (wrote ca. 232-247 H.) for Muhammad's

divine mission. This he does through bridging between the two

themes and explaining that (<rabb>>clearly an Arabic usage of a

Syriac translation of the Bible) means both human as well as divine

lordship, and that his coming is to be understood as the revelation

of his divine word59. As for Biblical Teman, he says: <the land of

yaman and the Hijaz is for the sages [that] of al-tayman)) lit.: wa-ard

al-yamanwa-l-h4ydzcindaal-hukamd)min al-tayman).Such presentation ofJudeo-Christian elements into Muslim form

can be found in another obscure tradition which is very limited in

circulation. According to it the Prophet was reported as saying: <I

find God's breath from the direction of yaman))(lit.: inni la- ajidu

nafasarabbikumvar. al-rahmdn)min qibalial-yaman(var. min hd-huna,

wa-'ashara ild l-yaman)60. The meaning of this tradition depends on

the vocalisation and interpretation of nafslnafas. While the formervariant could mean <the very entity)) of God which clearly reminds

58 Wdqidi, 1/367.59 'All Ibn Rabban, K. al-Din wa-l-Dawla, Tunis, 1973, 79-129.60 Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, CIqd,Cairo, 1321 H. 2/45 where it is brought without

isnddor source; and al-Muttaqi 1-Hindi, Kanz al-cUmmdl,Beirut, 1979, 12/50,quoting Tabarani's al-Mu5iaml-Kabfr nd noting that the traditionwas broughtthere via Saldma b. Nufayl.








of Habbakuk3/3, nafas could mean not only ((breath-soul)>but also,

metaphorically taken, <support>, too. And this last meaning was

the only one chosen by one of the sources which bring the tradition(the CIqdof Ibn cAbd Rabbihi) presenting the whole tradition as

referring to the support given by God to the Muslims through the

ansar.

In the course of this study we will come accross other attempts

to interpretyaman andyamdniyyain the context of the support of the

ansdr to Muhammad. Suffice to say at this stage that such attempt

do not figure much in the commentaries on similar traditions and

was often rejected by them. Yaman, it seems, continued strongly

and for a long time to retain its initial meaning of a general indica-

tion to the lands of the Arabs to the south of the centre of the

Roman-Sassanid sphere of influence, and to constitute, as such, a

source of defensive inspiration concerning an awaited and mes-

sianic deliverance. And, in itself such turn to the <<south>)igures

centrally in numerous Muslim apocalyptic traditions which remain

curious occurrences unless considered on the back-ground of a sup-pressed Judeo-Christian apocalyptic heritage in the area.

One such curious occurrence is the reported exegetical tradition

of Kacb al-Ahbar in connection with Qurldn 28/4661. According to

this tradition ((God stood on Mount Sinai and called, O' yaman

come to me for I sought them before they sought me and I gave

them before they asked me...>62.

It is precisely on this background that one should present the

sporadic identification in Islamic sources of the awaited Mahdi as

a yamdnf or, figuratively, a Qahtani too. Such notion seems to be

so strong in early Islam that it took the form of a prophetical tradi-

tion which found its way into the classical collections of Hadfth.

Bukhari, for example, records a tradition according to which the

Prophet said: ((the hour will not come until a man from Qahtan

rises and drives people with his stick))63.

But the identification of the forthcoming Mahdi as suchrepresents only one of other conflicting currents in early Islam.

From several apocalyptic traditions brought by Nucaym b. Ham-

61 ((Nor were you on the side of the mountain (al-tir) when we called, but it isof the mercy of your Lord [so] that you warn a people to whom no warner hadcome before you so that they should reflect.))

62 Fasawl (d. 277), al-MaCrifa wa-l-Tarikh, Baghdad, 1975, 2/316-7.63 Bukhari Sahih, Beirut, 1981, 4/159, 8/100.







342 s BASHEAR

mad we learn about the expected conflict between the Yamani,

Qaltani, Qurashi, Hashimi, Sufyani, $akhri, etc64. Likewise, one

may find an indirect support to the above mentioned tradition ofIbn Ishlq, which connects the rise of Islam with the glory ofyaman.

A tradition of Zuhri describes how Mucawiya strongly rejected the

notion propagated by cAbdullah b. cAmr b. al-cAs on the eventual,

though apocalyptic, appearance of the kingdom of Qaltan65. How-

ever, the same cAbdullah b. cAmr, is also reported as expressing the

view that ((the Mansuir> whom the Yemenites expected was not a

yamani but rather a Qurashi66.

Note at this stage must be taken of the fact that messianic titles

as they, like Mansur, appear in several apocalyptic traditions, are

also well known proper names of caliphs or even rebels in the first

two centuries of Islam67. Among the latter, Ibn al-Ashcath is worth

mentioning for claiming that he was the Qahtani which the yamanis

awaited and to whom he was expected to restore kingship68.

Finally such awaited restoration before the end of the world was

again connected with the eventual end of the reign of Quraysh inthe form of an apocalyptic poem attributed to Tubbac, one of the

legendary kings ofyaman. However, in spite of the fact that such a

poem was brought within the compilation Akhbar cAbfd b. Sharya

with Mucawiya, it is certainly a fabrication reflecting the

atmosphere in its editor's time in the 3rd century. For, it includes

a clear indication to the ((unjust reign>> f the Umayyads except for

the priestly Umar LI, the early <"rightguided>> bbasids and the

strife inside Quraysh and its weakness which is considered as one

of the signs of the approaching messianic events69.

On the whole, the traditions brought by Nucaym present an

ambivalent picture of the relations between the yamani Mahdi and

64 Nucaym b. Hammad, K. al-Fitan, Ms. British Museum, Or. 9449, 1/10, 25,2/27.

65 Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, Cairo, 1313 H. 4/94; Samarqandi, Fawadid, Ms.

Zahiriyya, Majmu'c, 120/123.66 Cf. M. J. Kister, 4Haddithfi...,> Israeli OrientalSociety, Tel-Aviv, 1972, f.n.

51.67 Nucaym, op. cit., 5/95-105 were such titles and names are given as Siddliq,

Farufq, cUmar b. cAbd al-'Azlz, Saffah, Mansuir, Mahdi, etc. More details con-cerning the messianic titles assumed by the Umayyads other than Umar II in P.Crone and M. Hinds, God's Caliph, Cambridge, 1986, 4-43.

68 Mascufd1, Tanbfh, Beirut, 1965, 314.69 Akhbar cAbfd, in the margin of K. al-TFYdn y Wahb b. Munabbih, op. cit.,

477-8.








Quraysh; a fact which clearly represents different currents in

apocalyptic traditions. One of these states that the caliph who will

defeat the Byzantines at the maldhimof the plains (maldhimal-acmaq)is a <(yamant Qurashz>>70.rom another, however, we hear about

<<theamanf who will kill Quraysh>71.

In the absence of any independent source, it is difficult to assess

the religio-political and military circumstances behind the spread of

apocalyptic traditions in early Islam72. However, the general pic-

ture drawn from this material, especially from the tradition of

Kacb, is clear: yaman and yamaniyya stand as a reserve force upon

which the Muslims could fall in their final maldhim against the

Byzantine attacks on Syria73. A tradition by cAbdullah b. cAmr b.

al-cAs., in its turn, warns that in those wars the Byzantines will

initially defeat the Muslims and drive them until Hisma, the land

of Judham-i. e. south Jordan74. And, while the yamanis will stand

for Islam, the main support for the Byzantines according to another

tradition by Kacb, will be thirty thousand Christians from upper

Mesopotamia (al-Jazfra= the Euphrate peninsula)75. Finally, in aprophetical tradition brought in this context it is related how after

the defeat of the Byzantines the Muslims would receive news from

the east that the False Messiah (al-masih al-dajd[) had appeared

there and would, consequently, retreat76.

Faith and Wisdomare Southern

Note has already been made of the existence of a pseudo-Christian gnostic notion that demon and error rest in the east and

will rise from there. We have also noted the existence of few

apocalyptic references in the O.T. where Teman was stated as the

70 Nu'aym, op. cit., 5/127.71 Ibid, 5/141.72 See the interesting attemps in this field by A. Vassiliev, ((Medieval Ideas)),

Byzantion 16 (1942-3); P. Alexander, ((Medieval Apocalypses>>, The AmericanHistorical Review, 73(1967-8); S. P. Brock, <<SyriacViews)), in G. Juynboll,Studies..., Carbondale, 1982.

73 Nu'aym, op. cit., 5/117-8, 6/129-30, 137.74 Ibid., 6/129.75 Ibid., 6/133. Note that thisJazira was inhabited by the Christian Banui Iyad

and Banui Taghlib. According to some Futiuhtraditions the Iyadis indeed joinedthe Byzantines while Taghlib persisted in Christianity. Tabari, Tdrikh, op. cit.,4/54-6.

76 Nu'aym, op. cit., 5/118.







344 S. BASHEAR

land of wisdom and deliverance. In what follows we shall consider

few Muslim traditions which convey a similar notion, especially the

widely reported prophetical statement that ((faith and wisdom areyamanites)) (al- 'imanuyaman wal-hikmatu amaniyya...). Some variant

forms of this tradition bring it in the context of condemning ((the

east)) or some ((northern>>ribes dwelling there, from where it was

also said that the devil or the head of unbelief will rise. Finally, an

attempt will also be made at assembling few other traditions and

traditional commentaries on the question of delimitingyaman in this

context.

In its rough form, ((al- manu yaman>>ccurs in a wide variety of

Muslim, early as well as late, sources. Although it is absent from

Ibn Ishaq and most late sira sources, it was brought by Wdqidi77;

and one sfra work which drew upon hadithsources78. Of these, men-

tion must be made of the early musnadsof al-Rabic, Tayalisi and Ibn

Hanbal79, the Sahihs of Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi80 and later

commentaries upon them81, and other, less known as well as late

sources82. Of the lexicographic and geographic works cited above,Ibn Manzir and Ibn al-Faqlh bring it83.

There is a wide range of authorities on the insdd of this tradition

and it is related within a variety of textual and occasional contexts.

To start with, there are three major variants of it, corresponding

in form to three different persons with whom their isndd ends: cAmr

b. cAbasa al-Sulami; Abuf Mascufd al-Ansari and Abui Hurayra.

From the first one we learn of a debate between the Prophet and

77 Maghztf, 3/1017.78 Dahldn, Sfra, in the margin of Insdn, op. cit., 3/47.79 Musnad l-Imdm l-Rabi, b. Habfb,Cairo, 1349 H., 1/17; Ibn Hanbal, op. cit.,

4/387.80 Bukhari,Sah4h,Beirut, 4/154; Muslim, Sahfh,Beirut, n.d., 1/51-2, Tirmidhi,

$aFht,Cairo, 1934, 9/97-8, 13/286-7.81 Qastalani, Irshdd l-Sdri, Cairo, 1304, 6/5-6; Ibn Hajar, Fathal-Bart, Cairo,

1959, 3/161-3; Al-'Ayni, CUmdatal-Qdrz,Beirut, n.d., 18/32; Nawawl, Sharh Ald

Sah4hMuslim,in the margin of Qastalani, op. cit., 1/348-9; Ibn 'Arab!, Sharh AlaSahth al-Tirmidhi, in the margin of Tirmidhi 13/290-1.

82 Al-Sarraj, Fawa'id, Ms. Zahiriyya, majmu'c,8/37, 162; al-)Abhari, Fawd'id,Ms. Zahiriyya, majmac,59/145; al-Dhakwani, 'Amdlf, Ms. Zahiriyya, majmiic,63/2; al-Fasawl, al-Macrifawa-l-Tdrfkh,Baghdad, 1974, 1/327-8 (I am indebted toM. J. Kister for this citation); Suyiiti, al-jamiC al-.Saghtr, eirut, n.d., 1/6, idem,al-Jimic al-KabFr, ithog. ed., Cairo, n.d., 1/8, al-Manawi, Kuntizal-HaqdPiq n themarginof SuyfitilsJ.S., 1/97; al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Kanzal-CUmmdl,eirut, 1979,12/48-54.

83 Lisain,17/357 and Mukhtasar, 3, respectively.








'Uyayna b. Hisn, leader of Fazara, over the question of tribal

merits. 'Uyayna says: ((the best men are in Najd)), but the Prophet

befaults him and asserts: (<thebest men are the people of yaman>>.To this he also adds: ((faith isyaman>> nd goes on to praise certain

tribes and to condemn others. Finally he even makes a statement

of self identification in the form of <<and am ayamdn>> wa-'ana

yaman)84.

It is beyond the immediate concern of this inquiry to make a

thorough follow-up of the aspect of tribal mufdaala nherent in this

tradition. It suffices to say that the merits of some of those specified

by it, like Lakhm and Judham were expressed in other separate

traditions transmitted via people other than 'Amr b. 'Abasa. On

the other hand, the two tribes anonymously condemned by it as (<al-

4ayyayn>>re specified in other separate traditions as Mudar and

Rabica85. As for the tradition on (<Lakhmand Judham>>note that

one of its variants which is reported as a mursal reads: ((al-'Tmadnu

yamdn hattaJibdaJudham>>.e. notifying the territory of that tribe

which is usually believed by other sources to be in the south ofmodern Jordan86.

The tradition of Abuf Mas'ufd is a clear reference to a place

though, on the other hand, it also mentions Rabi'a and Mudar by

name. According to it, the Prophet is described as standing in

Tabuik and pointing with his hand towardsyaman and saying: <<faith

is here>) (lit.: al-'Fmannu a-hund). But, in contrast, he warns that

((fitnaand heart-thickness are among the cattle breeders where the

two horns of the devil, Rabica and Mudar, will rise>). (lit.: haythuyatlacu qarnaal-shaytan rabifa wa-mudar)87.

Again the condemnation of Mudar as such does not concern us

here. Kister has thoroughly studied this issue in the context of the

Prophet's economic and political relations vis-a-vis Quraysh, other

Mudari tribes and the practice of qnuntin early Islam in general,

84 Ibn Hanbal, 4/387 and Fasawl, 1/327-8.85 Several examples are extensively brought by al-Muttaql al-Hindi, 12/50-5

who quotes Tabarani, Shirazi, Baghdadi and Ibn CAsakir. Such traditions wererelated from the Prophet by Anas, Rawh b. Zinba', Abiu Kabasha, cAbdullah b.cAwf, Muc'dh b. Jabal, al-Barra', Ibn Mascuid, Ibn cAbbas, Ibn cAmr, etc.

86 See al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, 12/51 and Hason, Mucdwfya's Rule..., op. cit., 89,cf. Yaquit, 2/287.

87 Musnadal-Rabic, 1/17; Ibn Hanbal, 4/118; Bukhari, 5/122; Muslim, 1/51; al-Sarraj, 98/37, 162; al-Abharl, 59/145. Compare also with: al-Khatib al-Baghddi-,Ibn cAsakir and Tabarani cf. al-Muttaqi, 12/50-2.







346 S. BASHEAR

and has scrutinized the various textual and circumstantial connota-

tions within which this invocation was brought88. What does con-

cern us here, however, are the numerous instances in which ((theeast)) as the dwelling place of Mudar and Rabica was considered as

a devilish place of unbelief (ra's al-Kufr) as opposed to ((the south))

(yaman)which is the land of faith and wisdom. We notice that in no

way such contrastive statement was connected with the Prophet's

supplication in favour of the oppressed believers (al-mustadcafiin)n

Mecca or was brought in the context of any military engagement

of the Prophet except that of Tabuk. On this background one may

consider the possibility that the two elements, initially separate,were moulded by third century traditionists; an example to which

is Bukharl's explanatory addition to the saying ((tighten thy grip...))

in the form of: ((the people of the east from among Mudar were then

conflicting with him>>89.

We also notice that over half a century before Bukhar1, condem-

nation of ((the east)) as a devilish place was circulated by Abui al-

Jahm al-BThill (from Layth b. Sacd) in a form that includes notribal elements or any indication to where exactly was the Prophet

when he made such invocation9".

Coming back to the Tabuik element in Abuf Mascuid's tradition,

we find that a similar one in both form and content was brought

by Waqid1. From this latter we learn that ((the Prophet sat in the

location of his mosque in Tabufk, looked to the right (nahw al-

yamin), raised his hands pointing to the people of yaman and said:

((faith isyamdn>>.Then, he looked to the east, pointed his hand andcondemned the cattle breeders there from where the devil would

raise his two horns.91.

Of the hadfthsources the relatively early Tayalisi brings probably

the simplest form of Abuf Hurayra's tradition where the Prophet

only states: ((faith is yaman and Kufr is from the east))92. For, this

notion is retained in some variants of that tradition which are

brought by Muslim. To it, however, is added the praise of the cat-tle, as opposed to the camel, breeders93. In another variant brought

88 M. J. Kister, "O'God, Tighten they Grip on Mudar>,JESHO, 24/3, 242-73.89 Sah4h, 1/195.90 Abui al-Jahm al-Bahili, Hadtth, Ms. Zahiriyya, Majmuzc,83/7.91 Waqidi, 3/1017, 1021.92 Tayalisi, Musnad, 327.93 Muslim, 1/52.








by Muslim, a further, introductory, sentence is added: ((thepeople

ofyaman came to you, they are kind-hearted, faith isyaman, wisdom

is yamanzyyaand the head of Kufr is in the east>).A third variantcombines all the elements of the introductory announcement on the

arrival of the people of yaman, the assertion that faith and wisdom

areyamani, praise of the peace and dignity of the cattle-breeders and

condemnation of the vicious pride of the camel-breeders ((from

where the sun rises)). Finally, several other variants brought by

Muslim mention all of this but drop altogether the notion of con-

demning the kufr of the east. Some of these are even limited to

praising the cattle, and condemning the camel, breeders, while

dropping the statement on yamran faith, wisdom and even the

introductory announcement on the arrival of the people ofyaman94.

Probably more important, from the point of view of the develop-

ment of this tradition, is the fact that the Prophet's standing in

Tabuilkand pointing to yaman on the one hand and to the east on

the other, which is clearly present in al-Bahilli, Waqidi, TayMlis1,

Ibn Hanbal and some variants in Muslim, completely disappearsin most others brought by Muslim himself, where it is replaced by

the announcement ((thepeople ofyaman have arrived.)) In Bukhari

the process of selection is pushed a step further as no trace of poin-

ting by the hand, Tabuik or the east, is found, and the above men-

tioned introductory announcement predominates in almost all

variants. And, while Muslim could still consider this tradition part

of his ((Book of Faith)>,Bukhari makes a further step of bringing it

in his <<Bookf Maghdzz>>nder a sub-division on the arrival of the

tribal delegation of Ash'ariyyiin after the conquest of Mecca,

though such view is far from being unanimous upon

historiographers95. In another place, ((the Book of Merits>> mana-

qib), Bukhari brings almost the same variant with the only dif-

ference of dropping the introductory announcement96.

In Tirmidhi we meet both trends represented by the two main

variants. One, like in Bukhari's and most of Muslim's, couples the

94 Ibid., 1/52-3.95 Bukhari, 5/112, 122. Waqidi, 2/586, relates a similar tradition through Abu-

Sacid al-Khudri which does not mention the )Ash'ariyyu-n or any other tribe andis brought in the context of Hudaybiyya. Compare also with Diyarbakri where thearrival of 'Ash'ariyyun was put in the year 7 H. While that of Himyar, anotheryamant tribe, in the year 9 H. Tdrfkhal-Khamis, Cairo, 1283 H, 2/194.

96 Bukhari, 4/154.







348 S. BASHEAR

notion ofyamanf faith and wisdom with the introductory announce-

ment of the arrival of the people of yaman97. Elsewhere, we come

across a variant similar to the one brought by Tayalisi and Waqidi.It reads: ((faith isyaman and kufris from the east)). Then comes the

element of praising the cattle, and condemning the camel breeders.

We also learn that the masi.h,clearly the anti-Christ, will arrive but

the angels will expel him from behind mount Uhud, and he will

eventually perish in Syria98. Finally, Tirmidhi brings other tradi-

tions attributed to the prophet via Abui Hurayra. One of them

states that fiqh too is yaman99.

With the way geographic and lexicographic compilers tried to

tackle the problem of whereyaman was, we have already dealt. Such

attempts, it must be remembered, referred basically to traditions

and traditional variants of the kind investigated here. On the whole

they constitute part of the efforts made by traditional commentaries

on this issue. Thus we find Azhari and Ibn Manzur, in order to

explain whereyaman was, refer to the notion that the Prophet spoke

about theyamani faith and wisdom from Tabufk. In this context theyalso rely on Abui 'Ubayd (al-Qasim b. Sallam) whom they quote as

saying that what was meant is Mecca where faith started; an idea

corroborated by another view which explicitly puts Mecca in the

yaman. Hence, the two lexicographers note that Mecca is also called

al-yamanijyyand that the saying ((faith is yamdn>> pplies to itl00.

This kind of information is reiterated by Zubaydi too'01. But,

long before that, the geographer Istakhri brought a similar notion

accepted ((onsome scholars)), i.e. that Mecca belongs to the Tihamaof yaman'02. On the other hand an extremely isolated tradition of

Ibn Jurayj (d. 150 H.) clearly tries to shift the focal point from the

Prophet's saying ((faith isyamdn>> y presenting it, alternatively, as

((faithis in the people of the Hijaz)). Apart from this shift, this tradi-

tion literally reiterates the main element of condemning the thick-

97 Tirmidhi, 13/286.98 Ibid., 9/97.99 Ibid., 13/287. Compare also with Suyu-ti, al-Jdmic al-.aghfr, 1/6 and

Dhakwani, 63/2. Ibn al-Faqih, 33, brings a tradition which states, instead, that<Islam is yaman>>.

? Azhari, 15/527; Ibn Manzufr, 17/356.101Zubaydi, 9/373.102 Istakhri, al-Masalik wa-l-Mamdlik, Leiden, 1927, 15.








heartedness of the east which predominates most of the variants

examined here'03.

Azhari and, following him, Ibn Manzuir add that, on the basisof this statement being made in Tabuik, Medina could also be

included since, like Mecca, it is located in the direction (ndhiya)of

yaman too. Finally the form and content of the Tabfik tradition

brought by Ibn cAsakir is worth noting. It drops the statement on

faith and wisdom and simply states that the Prophet stood there

((pointed his hand to al-sham and said: what is here is al-shdm, and

pointed his hand to Medina and said: what is here isyamano> 4.

The difficulty to delimityaman, as revealed by lexicographers and

geographers is basically a problem of traditionalism. Bukhari

himself comments on one of Abui Hurayra' s variants by stating that

yaman was called as such because it is on the right of the Ka'ba while

al-sham is on its left'05. By this he actually reiterates the view of Abui

cUbayda which is brought by the lexical and geographic sources

cited above.

Later commentators on Bukhar1, however, aware as they were toother traditional pronouncements and views, could not limit them-

selves to his. What they actually do is to bring Bukhari's view along

other conflicting ones on much the same line followed by Azhari

and Ibn Manzufr. Qastalani for instance says that one view is ((to

relate faith to Mecca because it started there and Mecca is con-

sidered southern in relation to Medina (wa-makkayamaniyya bi-l-

nisbali-1-madfna).The other view brought by him is that both Mecca

and Medina are meant because they are to the south of al-sha-m

given that the Prophets' statement was made in Tabiik'06.

The way Ibn Hajar and cAyni tackel the problem is even more

interesting. They refer to the tradition of Abui Masci'd with the ele-

ment of the Prophet's pointing towards yaman and conclude that

what was meant by his statement is the country and not the tribal

genealogy of yaman'07. As for the opening phrase ((atakumahl al-

yaman>>, they understand it as addressing the companions inMedina, including those from among the ansa-r.This, they say, is

103 Brought by Muslim, 1/53. The isnddof this isolated tradition ends withJabirb. 'Abdullah.

104 Ibn 'Asakir, Tdrfkh, Damascus, 1951, 1/187.105 Bukhri-, 4/154.106 Qastalani, 6/5-6.107 Ibn Hajar, 9/161; CAyni, 18/31.







350 s. BASHEAR

a proof that what was meant by ahl al-yamanwere not the ansa-r nd

the tradition as a whole should not be understood as referring to the

<(yamantenealogy)> of the latter. Ibn Hajar in particular refers toan earlier work by Abui 'Amr b. al-Saldh who, he says, relates the

same opinion to Abui 'Ubaydi08.

From the commentary of Nawawi on Muslim we also learn that

such opinion occurs in another source, that of Qaddl Iyad who was

earlier than Ibn al-Salaih'09. But basically he brings the variant

interpretation of yaman in relation to Mecca and Medina brought

by Qastalani and Ibn Hajar, and confirms that )Abu- CUbayd was

the first to circulate it. From him, however, we also learn that Abui

'Ubayd preferred the view which says that the tradition actually

referred to the ansdr. And this view, he says, was rejected by Ibn

al-Saldh.

The fourth century lexicographer, Azhari, explicitly says that he

prefers the view that the tradition spoke about the ansar. As for

Nawawi, he tries hard to harmonize between these different views.

And, before him, the same was done by Ibn 'Arabi's commentaryon Tirmidhi. But the basic difficulty common to all hadfthcommen-

tators lies in the transformation which the termyaman seems clearly

to have undergone: from an early geonational concept with clear

messianic connotations, into a mere tribal-genealogical one con-

nected in a legendary obscure form with the territory of south-west

Arabia.

With Ibn cArab- we already meet such harmonisation in the form

of his attempt to forward the view thatyaman in this tradition means

both <<aocation, i.e. Mecca and Medina, and people, i.e. the

Prophet and muhdjiruinn the first place and the ansar in the

second))1I10.

Such resistance to capitulate completely to the idea that the ansdr

were the ones meant by yaman seems to have relied on, or at least

expressed by, the existence of traditions other than the ones with

the element of pointing from Tabuik. One of these is a traditionwhich was not brought by Bukhari but occurs already in Tayalisi

and was quoted from others by the late sources of Ibn Hajar,

108 Ibn Hajar, 9/162.109 Nawawl, in the margin of Qa$talnl, 1/348.

0 Ibn cArabi, 13/291.








Suyuit1, al-Muttaqi al-Hindi and the sfra of Dahldn'll. This tradi-

tion is usually attributed to the Prophet through Jubayr b. Mut'im,

though a similar one was reported from Ibn 'Abbas too"12.According to the tradition of Jubayr, the Prophet, while between

Mecca and Medina, said: ((the people of yaman have come like

clouds and they are the best upon earth. A man from the ansarsaid:

except us, O' messenger of God; but he [Muhammad] remained

silent.... [After the ansdrz epeated his question three times].... then

he said a weak word (kalima dalffa): except you>>1"3.

As for the tradition of Ibn 'Abbas brought by Bazzar, it includes

the assertion that faith, wisdom and fiqh too are yaman, and the

praise of the yamanis for their pure hearts and good obedience.

However, all this is brought in the context of the Prophet's

announcement, while in Medina, of the coming of the people of

yemen who are also described as pure-hearted and obedient and

whose very coming is equated with the arrival of the victory of God

and conquest (nasru-lldh wa-l-fath).

Al-Sham and Yaman

Contrasting the lexical and traditional information reviewed

above one faces a bizarre and problematic phenomenon. On the

one hand, there is almost no traditional instance in which al-shdm

was presented as the source of ominous evil in the context of and

as apposed to praisingyaman as the blessed source of faith, wisdom,

etc. It is <<the ast>> hat predominantly occupies such a place all

along the way. On the other hand, sha'm stands as the linguistic

contrast to yaman not only in terms of left and right but also in the

sense of bad vs. good.

This is not the right place to conduct a thorough investigation

into the philology of the term sha m or its etymology. However, one

may recall the fact that the sense which predominates in all the lex-

ical and some of the geographic sources cited above is that of ((left)).

111 Tayalisi, 127; Anonymous, Hadfth,Ms. Zahiriyya, majmuzi, 24/29; Ibn Han-bal, Ibn Mani", Abui Yalla, Bazzar, Ibn Abi Shayba and Tabarani's Kabfr, cf. Ibn

Hajar, 9/161, Suyuttl's Kabir, 1/8, Dah1an, 3/46-7 and al-Muttaqi al-Hindi,12/49-50.

112 In Ibn Hajar and Dahlan, al-Bazzar is explicitly quoted for the tradition ofCIbn Abbas.

113 Compare Tayalisi and Suyupi, with Hajar and Ibn Dahlan.







352 s. BASHEAR

The question as to when and in what circumstances of early Islam

did sha'm acquire also the sense of ((bad omen>>from shu'm) too, is

more difficult to follow because of the complete absence of suchsense in the traditional references cited above. However, the

meagre information provided by our lexical sources point to the

early third century Basran, Qutrub, as an authority on this view as

opposed to the blessedness ofyaman"4. About this Qutrub we know

that he studied under Sibawayh, was accused of Muctazill views

and compiled several lexical and tafsirworks. But all this does not

explain the anti-Syrian attitude implicit in circulating the above

mentioned view on al-shalmattributed to him; a view which is com-

pletely ignored by the two main classical geographers Bakri an

Yaqi ttt5.

Considering the possibility of some jewish roots for the sense of

blessedness in terms derived from YMN, our inquiry points to the

existence of a clear apocalyptic concept in Biblical and Talmudic

Teman which may also reflect a vague trace of an archaic belief in

the source of monotheism from the south. In Habakkuk,Jeremiaandan isolated pseudo-Christian gnostic source, Teman and the South

are presented as a source of messianic deliverance, reception of the

Light of the Word of God and even a place where God himself will

come from.

In the Babylonian Talmud there occurs the saying ((wake up o'

north and come south>06. While the word used here to denote

((south>>s Teman, the one used for north is ((zafon>>hich is believed

to have substituted the more archaic term <<shmal>>-theHebrewcognate of Arabic shmll l7. Now, in the Pentateuch, this latter term

appears mainly as a geographic one without any religious or

mythological connotations'18. But in Prophets Jeremia 1/14) as well

as in the Talmud(GittFn6/1) we read: <and Jehova our Lord said:

from the north calamity will open on all the people of the land>>'9.

It is plausible to suggest, that north and south has acquired the

senses of evil and good in the circumstances of the threat of invasion

114 Ibn Manzuir, 9/371. Qutrub's full name is Muhammad b. al-Mustanir. Seeon him: Yaqu-t, Mu'jam al-Udaba-', Cairo, 1938, 19/52.

115 See their 3/773 and 3/312, respectively.116 Zevahbm,106/1.117 EncyclopediaMikra'ft, Jerusalem, 1971, 6/747 (in Hebrew).118 Ibid., 6/749.119 See also B. Kasowsky, Ozar Lashon ha-Talmud, Jerusalem, 1974, 32/153.








which Jewish Palestine was continuously subjected to during the

Hellenistic-Roman period. But, whileyaman retained such positive

meaning in traditional instances of early Islam, it is striking to seehow its antonym, sha'm looses the sense of ominous evil which re-

appears in the late second-early third century propagated only by

one philological authority, Qutrub; and even then does not gain

much circulation in lexical and geographic sources, and is not cor-

roborated by almost any traditional instance. It is safe to say that

anywhere the geographic dimensions of shdmand yaman were con-

trastively presented in tradition, the former was positively or, at

least, neutrally, referred to.

It is beyond the scope of this study to bring all the traditions

which promote the merits of al-sham. We shall limit ourselves to

illustrating a few examples where shdm and yaman are presented in

a contrastive way. One of them is a unique tradition brought by

Musharraf according to which the Prophet said: ((the pillars of my

umma are the bands of yaman and forty abddlin al-shdm>>'20.

Another unique example is a qudsztradition according to whichthe Prophet said: ((God positioned me with my face to al-shamand

my back to al-yaman and said: O' Muhammad, I made what is in

front of you a booty and what is in your back an equipment and

reinforcement for you'>121. A second qudsi tradition, similar to the

previous one, was brought by an earlier source on the authority of

Kacb. God, according to it, revealed to the Prophet: ((I have sent

you as an ummi and made yours what is under your feet and sup-

ported your back with those who are behind you from yaman andmade a booty for you what is in front of you: Iraq, Syria and the

Maghrib. .,122

There is also the tradition according to which the Prophet com-

bined al-sha/mand yaman in an invocation for blessedness. This

tradition is almost exclusively associated with the name of Ibn

cUmar either via his son Salim or via Nafi'. It is brought by

Bukhari and Tirmidhi and re-appears in several works on the

120 Al-Musharraf b. al-Murajji, Fa.d'il, Ms. Tuibingen, no. 27, 109 (b)-110(a). The isnad of this tradition is.... (Abd al-Malik b. Micqal -Yazid al-Riqashi-Anas.

121 Ibid., 112 (b). Its isnad is... Ismacil b. cAyyash - IbnJurayj - cAta) - Ibn'Abbas.

122 Wahb b. Munabbih, K. al-djan, 110-1. No isndd is given for this tradition.







354 s. BASHEAR

merits of al-shalm23.It is clearly a Medinese tradition and note must

be taken especially of the invocation to bless Medina and its cubic

and dry measures (sa` and mudd). For, such invocation occursseparately in traditions brought by other sources where it is related

through other companions and traditional authorities'24. In these

latter instances it is usually related how the Prophet also ((looked

towards yaman and said: O' God, draw their hearts ... )>, while the

notion of double blessing for shdm and yaman is totally absent.

The tradition by Nafic-Ibn cUmar usually opens with the

Prophet's invocation: <<O'God, bless our sham and our yaman>>

(alldhummabdrik anaft shalminawa-yamanina).At this stage it splits

between several variants. One proceeds with a man asking to bless

the east (wa-fr sharqina ya rasuil allah?), to which the Prophet

responds: ((from there the horn of the devil will rise)). A second

variant makes the man ask about Najd to which the same response

is given plus the warning that ((earthquakes andfitan are there.>>

And the third variant makes the Prophet say all this about Iraq.

It is clear that no reference is made in all these variants to Hijazexcept the few infiltrations on Medina from other currents noted

above. This, it seems, was noted at some stage (possibly around

mid 2nd century) by traditionists who felt obliged to comment

especially about the absence of any mention of Mecca. From two

sources we hear that cAbdullah b. Shawdhab, the mid second cen-

tury authority on this tradition (d. 144-157 H.) said: (<he did not

mention Mecca and said [that] Mecca is yamanijyya.To this Ibn

Sacid added: i.e. it was included within the yaman>>)".

Another tradition of this sort enjoyed a better circulation. It is

usually attributed to cAbdullah b. Hawala although other compan-

ions are accredited with relating it from the Prophet.

Roughly speaking, this tradition, including all its variants,

speaks about the Prophet's choosing for people to move to al-sham

being <<God'schoice for the best of his people.)) What concerns us

here is the sentence which often follows such urging, and in whichthe Prophet says: <<...whoever refuses (to go to al-shadm)hall attach

to his/itsyaman and drink from its ponds, for God has guaranteed

123 Cf. Ahmad al-Suyfiti, 101 (a); Tirmidhi, 13/299; Fasawl, 2/747-8, Mushar-raf, 108 (a); Ibn CAsakir, 1/120; Ibn CAbd al-Razza-q, 22 (b).

124 E.g. the one by Zayd b. Thabit on the authority of cImran al-Qattan. Seefor it: Ibn Hanbal, 5/185 and Tirmidhi, 13/285.

125 Ibn CAsakir, 1/120. See also Fasawi, 2/747.







356 S. BASHEAR

Darda', Wathila b. al-Asqa', Mu'adh b. Jabal and Hudhayfa b. al-

Yaman, though no chain of isnddwas provided'34.

Such variety of isndd ines and chains of authorities is a clear war-ning against a possible moulding of material from different textual

origins. Indeed there are at least two different introductory

sentences which alternatively precede the key phrase <<fa-manbdifa-

in abaytum>>.One of them is the above noted statement by the

Prophet on the future recruitment (sa-tujannadtina jnddan)which is

always followed by Ibn Hawala's request for his choice, etc... In the

second variant the Prophet opens right from the beginning with his

advise to move to al-sham <the choice of God from among his lands,

where he will settle the best of his servants)>.

We notice that while the first variant is heavily associated with

Ibn Hawala, one of his transmittors or a companion who was pres-

ent on that occasion, the second is associated with the names of Abui

Dharr, Wathila, Mu'adh and Hudhayfa. And it is exactly here that

the moulding of texts from different origins appears. For, the

introductory part of the second variant stands in other sources onits own, i.e. without the issue of choice between sham and yaman.

Likewise, this part appears as an independent tradition attributed

to the Prophet by new names such as Jubayr b. Nufayr and Hakim

b. Mu'awiya al-Qushayri-35.

But the main difficulty with the tradition lies in the content of the

part that concerns us which, to all intents, conveys a vague mean-

ing in clumsy syntactical structure. The key to this difficulty lies in

deciding the exact identity of the second member of the constructphrase i.e. to whom the genetive ((h>) n yamani(h) and ghuduri(h)

refers?; to al-shalmor to the subject indirectly referred to as ((man

aba)>?

To be true, commentaries on this issue are almost non-existent

in a way that corresponds to the absence of the tradition from

classical compilations in the first place. Actually, only two late

sources bring some isolated commentaries by an unspecified workof Manawi136. The first of them says that the <<h>>n ghuduri(h)refers

134 See Manini, 53; Suyxitl, J.K. 1/287; idem, J.S., 2/64 cf. Tabarani butbranded as <<weak>>.n Musharraf, 109 (b), it is said <<Makhulsaid: we came toWathila and he told us: I heard Mu'adh or Hudhayfa asking the Prophet whereto dwell and he said: go to al-Shdm....> etc.

135 See Ibn al-Faqlh, 92; Fasawl, 2/288; Anon. Hadith., Ms. Zahiriyya, majmuic,24/8.

136 Manini, 53 and Ibn cAbd al-Razzaq, 17 (a-b).








to al-shdm (i.e. drink from the ponds of al-sham), while the one in

yamani(h) refers to whoever refused to go to al-sham. This, he says,

makes <fa-manabdfa-l-yalhaq bi-yamanihi>>n interfering sentence.However, the commentary attributed to the same Manawi by the

second source contradict this one in a way that reopens what seems

to be an old problem of the very wording of this tradition. For,

implicit in this commentary is that the addressing of the compan-

ions is made in the plural form where the genetive <<h>)ecomes

((kum))yamani(kum) and ghuduri(kum)).

Checking again the exact wording of the whole tradition, one

realizes that the opening phrase comes indeed in the plural

(calay(kum)bi-l-sham)in several sources that bring it. In few earlier

ones the genetive ((kum))s retained all along the way even when Ibn

Hawala is addressed in the singular (calayka bi-l-shdm)'37.In such

case the syntactical problem finds its solution and the tradition as

a whole speaks in the second personal plural all along the way: fa-in

abaytuma-calaykum bi-yamanikumwa-squimin ghudurikum.

But this does not solve all the semantical problems of the tradi-tion. For, what sense is there in including ((go to youryaman and

drink from your ponds)) in a tradition which primarily comes to

urge people to go to al-shalm?And what to make of some of the early

sources which bring the singular: <<fa-manabd fal-yalhaq bi-

yamanihii>138?

It is difficult to make any certain judgment on these issues. And

any attempt in this direction must not exclude the scribal variant

forms retained in some of our manuscriptural sources. Examples to

such variants are abundant:

1) Musharraf gives ((manabda> s <<manta>>.

2) ((wal-yastaqilwal-yusqa>>s closer to <wa-l-yathiq>>n Badri and

Ahmad al-Suyu-ti, appears as <(wa-yathiq)>n the early Abud

Mushir, and even <<wal-yattaqi>hould not be excluded.

3) Obi-yamanihi/ ppears in the lithographic edition of Suyiiti'sJ. K.

as well as in Yaquit as <<bi-yaminihi));nd in both sources<<ghudurih>>ppears as ((bi-cudhrzh)>.ven ((yacdhurah))hould not be

excluded by the moder reader.

137 E.g. Ibn Hanbal, 4/110: <<fa-)inabaytumfa-calaykumbi-yamanikumwa-squiminghudurikum>,.See also Abui Dawuid, 3/4, 8 and Musharraf, 180/(a-b).

138 E.g.: Abui Mushir, 59/58; al-Hakim, 4/510 as well as in certain variants inIbn Hanbal, 5/33-4; Musharraf, 109 (a-b) and Rabaci, 4-5, 12-3.








However, even if the possibilities suggested above are accepted

as plausible solutions to its syntactical and semantical problems, the

full historical sense the tradition conveys cannot be finally realisedas long as it depends on the cardinal question: where precisely was

it that the Prophet made his statement from? Needless to say that

a direct answer to this question is not expected to be given on a

silver plate by any of our sources. In such case one may turn back

to the numerous instances reviewed in the course of this study,

where yaman-Biblical Teman and Greaco-Roman Felix-point

to south and right, specifically to the area of southern Jordan.

As for al-sha-m,which originally indicated north and left, Muslim

sources usually give only a broad definition of its limits; e.g.: from

the Euphrate in the north to El-'Arsh in the south, and from the

two mountains of Tayy in the east to the Mediterranian in the

west'40.

However, from a definitely earlier geo-political tradition we

learn that Syria and al-shalmwere not one and the same and that it

is possible that the latter originally indicated the area of Anatolia-i.e. to the north of Syria with the Taurus pass (al-darb)as the geo-

political border between them. This tradition is clearly an old

Syrian one as it has the chains: Salama - Ibn Ishaq - Khalid b.

Yasar - a man from the old people of al-sham (rajul minqudamad'hl

al-shdm).It is brought by some historiographers in the context of the

Prophet's sending of Dihya al-Kalbi in a mission to Hiraql. It was

noted by us on a previous occasion; but, because of its highly uni-

que nature we choose to bring it in full here'41. It explicitly says that

<the land of Syria was the land[s] of Palestine, Jordan, Damascus,

Hims and whatever to the south of al-darb from the land of Syria;

and whateverwas beyondal-darb, wasfor themal-shdm>>my italics)142.

It is also interesting to see how Yaquit, in his turn, identifies)> al-

darb>>s the mountain pass ((between Tarsus and the land of al-rum>>.

In this context he also brings a verse from Imru' al-Qays which

140 Yaquft, 3/312. Bakri, 3/773, in his turn, only says that: ,it is the well-knowncountry>>-i.e. in his own time in the fifth century, without giving any infor-mation.

141 S. Bashear, <<TheMission of Dihya al-Kalbi and the Situation in Syria)),unpublished paper. Presented at the ThirdInternationalColloquium:FromJahiliyya toIslam, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1985.

142 Tabarl, Tdrikh, 2/651. Compare also with Ibn Kathir, Biddya, 3/268; IbnKhalduin, cIbar, 2/223 and Ibn al-Athir, Kdmil, 2/212.







360 s. BASHEAR

explicitly says that al-darb marks the beginning of the territory of

Qaysar:

My companion cried when he saw al-darb in front of him,and realised that we are joining qaysar.(baka sdlhibf ammd ra'd al-darbadunahu.wa-ayqanaanna ldhiqdni bi-qayyard'43.

Conclusions

The present inquiry was an indirect contribution to the study of

early Islam through examining some non-tribal, basically geo-graphic and religio-messianic aspects in the etimology ofyaman and

yamaniyya as two basic concepts in that religion. It has shown how

yaman originally pointed to the south, specifically to Biblical Teman

which, during the Graeco-Roman era, was rendered to Felix,

denoting the lands of Arabia outside the direct influence of those

civilisations. Being as such, this area was connected in some

oppressed currents in Judaism and early pseudo-Christian

gnosticism with the apocalyptic idea of messianic deliverance fromthe south; an idea which clearly found its way into early Islam,

became one of the basic concepts of that religion and with which

some national tunes to such deliverance were attached to the south,

being an area of the lands of the Arabs.

From this point of view, Mecca, the future cultic center of Islam,

was called al-yamaniyya-the southern-though its final emergence

as such a center affected a clear shift in the point of reference where

yaman-south-became eventually limited to the extreme south of

Arabia.

We do not know exactly under what historical circumstances did

such shift occur. However, in the numerous traditional instances

where yaman and yamaniyya are referred to, there is also a strongsense of defensive reliance. On the basis of the present inquiry one

may even suggest that militarily and politically such a look to the

south as a source of relief and support was nourished in difficult cir-cumstances which the early Muslims had in the area bordering with

the Byzantines. It is only logical to say that in order for that area

to be considered (<south)),one must necessarily stand to the north

of it.

143 Yaquit,op. cit., 2/447.








No further speculations will be made except for pointing out to

that early geo-political notion which puts the area of central and

northern Israel and Jordan together with modern Syria as the cen-tral area to which shim in the sense of north is related. However,

it is also plausible to suggest that shifting the central point of

reference to Mecca in the south necessarily affected a deformation

in the meaning of ((theeast)) too, which pre-dominates in the tradi-

tional references as a source of evil and error in early Islam with

a clear parallel from pseudo-Christian gnosticism. In several tradi-

tions such ominous references specified also Iraq and the lands of

Rabica and Mudar possibly in upper Mesopotamia which were

known for their prolonged resistance to Islam.

Also important are the strong religious, specifically messianic,

connotations of the term "yamanzyya))hich, to all intents, appears

as a central concept all along the Umayyad and early Abbasid

periods. Muslim historiographic sources heavily connect the

emergence of this term with the upsurge of tribalism at the battle

of Marj Rahit in 64 H. and repeatedly refer to it thenceforth butonly in the contexts of tribal strife and political conflicts. Such a

presentation has undoubtedly affected the damping of the messianic

and other religious elements originally inherent in this concept. In

my view such damping has, to a great extent, determined the way

in which modern scholarship has treated yamanniyya asically as a

tribal-genealogical concept; an approach which the present study

has shown to be, at least partially, unjustified.

The Hebrew University

of Jerusalem

yemen in early islam

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