The Uyunids of al-Hasa, Qatif and Bahrain

Who rules

Name

Muhammad ibn Abi'l-Husayn Ahmad al-Uyuni (called in the sources Muhammad ibn Ahmad)

Title

emir (amir) of Qatif and Awal; senior Uyunid prince

Since

587 (1191) at Qatif; Awal soon after

Born

not pinned

Family

Uyunid house of the tribe of Abd al-Qays, descended from Abd Allah ibn Ali al-Uyuni (who overthrew the Qarmatians, 469/1076); the descent through Abu Sinan Muhammad ibn al-Fadl is given in the Arabic accounts but not checked here

Confidence

medium

Arabic Wikipedia's account (based on the commentary to the diwan of the Uyunid poet Ali ibn al-Muqarrab) gives Muhammad ibn Ahmad 587-605: he took Qatif in 587 and Awal soon after, and al-Hasa only in 599 (1202-1203) after killing his cousins Abd Allah and Shukr. English Wikipedia's 'from 587 to 605 Muhammad bin Abi al-Hussain united Qatif and al-Hasa' compresses this.

Overlord

the caliph al-Nasir, in whose name the Friday sermon is read; Muhammad ibn Ahmad receives an annual grant from Baghdad

What the realm holds

• Qatif: the port, its palm gardens and springs, and the island of Tarut (Muhammad ibn Ahmad)
• Awal (the island of Bahrain) with its pearl banks and the neighbouring islands (Muhammad ibn Ahmad)
• al-Hasa: the oasis of Hajar with its springs and palm groves, and the port of al-Uqayr (Shukr and Abd Allah, sons of Mansur)
• a loose claim over the coast of Qatar (thin)

How it was acquired

Abd Allah ibn Ali al-Uyuni took al-Hasa from the Qarmatians in 469 (1076) with Seljuk help and read the khutba for the Abbasid caliph. Later emirs moved the capital to Qatif (Muhammad ibn al-Fadl, 520-538) and back to al-Hasa (Shukr ibn Mansur, from 580/1184). Abd Allah ibn Mansur took Awal in 580 (1184) with hired troops from Kish; Muhammad ibn Ahmad seized Qatif in 587 (1191) and Awal soon after, driving Abd Allah to his brother at al-Hasa.

Allies and rivals

Muhammad ibn Ahmad is the close ally of the caliph al-Nasir, who pays him a yearly grant of money, goods and grain (later, in 598/1201-1202, the caliph uses him to punish robbers of the pilgrim road near Kufa with troops from al-Hasa, Iraq, the Khafaja, the Muntafiq and the Ubada). His enemies are his cousins Shukr and Abd Allah at al-Hasa. The rulers of Kish (Qays) raid Awal and have sold their help to Uyunid pretenders before.

The Banu Amir and Banu Uqayl Bedouin are courted and feared by every faction; their sheikhs later join the plot that kills Muhammad (605/1208-1209).

The realm that morning

Divided: Muhammad ibn Ahmad rules Qatif and Awal; Shukr ibn Mansur, with his brother Abd Allah, rules al-Hasa. No battle is dated to the winter of 1199-1200 in the sources read, but the cousins are at feud. Awal is in Uyunid hands on 1 January 1200: Kish's raids on it are recurring but no Kishi occupation is shown for this date. The khutba is read for the caliph al-Nasir in both halves.

Wealth

Dates and the springs of al-Hasa and Qatif; the pearl fisheries of Awal and the coast; the Gulf shipping between Basra, Kish, Hormuz and Oman; the caravans across Arabia to Iraq and to Yamama; the Uyunids struck their own coins (studied by al-Shar'an, 2002).

Military

The emirs' kinsmen and clients of Abd al-Qays, townsmen of Qatif and al-Hasa, ships of Awal and Qatif, and Bedouin horse hired from the Banu Amir and Banu Uqayl. Fortified places: the walled town of al-Hasa, the fort of Qatif, the island of Awal. No numbers in the sources read.

Threats

• the feud of the Uyunid cousins
• Kish (Qays), which raids Awal
• the rising power of the Banu Amir and Banu Uqayl
• Bedouin raids on the date gardens

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. not in 1200: 599 (1202-1203)Muhammad ibn Ahmad defeats and kills his cousins Abd Allah and Shukr and takes al-Hasa, reuniting the emirate. Nothing in the sources read places a decisive event in 1200 itself.Depends on: the feud running its course Stopped by: a settlement among the cousins; Kish or the Banu Amir backing al-Hasa

Places of note

• Uqayr, the port of al-Hasa: the old port of the al-Hasa oasis on the Gulf

Where the sources disagree

• The dossier gives no Uyunid name. English Wikipedia says 'from 587 to 605 Mohammed bin Abi Al-Hussain united Qatif and Al-Hasa', which back-projects his union of the emirate: on 1 January 1200 al-Hasa is still held by his cousins (Arabic accounts: he took al-Hasa in 599/1202-1203).
• Kish and Bahrain: the Kishi rulers raided Awal repeatedly in the twelfth century and Abd Allah ibn Mansur used Kishi troops in 580/1184, but Awal is Uyunid (Muhammad ibn Ahmad's) in 1200; Awal was lost to the Salghurids of Fars only in 636 (1238).

Evidence: The Uyunid story rests almost wholly on the diwan of Ali ibn al-Muqarrab (born 572/1176) and its commentary, as used by modern Arabic historians; dates are approximate and the chronology of the cousins' wars is not firm.

On the map: The emirate is a string of oases, ports and islands in the desert; the desert between them belongs to the Bedouin.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Dictionary of Countries, Yaqut al-Hamawi (1224 to 1228, at Aleppo). An alphabetical gazetteer of every place Yaqut had read of or seen: he travelled as a bookseller's agent through Syria, Iraq, Persia, Khurasan and Khwarazm (about 1213 to 1220) and settled in Aleppo. Read online