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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Al-Zarah (Arabic: الزارة) was an ancient and medieval settlement of Eastern Arabia. Although no longer extant, it is believed to have been situated near the modern city of al-Qatif.
Al-Zarah was a port town located in the area of the al-Qatif oasis, near the coast of the Persian Gulf.[1] In the early Islamic period it was considered to be part of the region of al-Bahrayn, which then encompassed much of the eastern Arabian shoreline and adjacent territories,[2] and mentions of it were included in accounts of the area by geographers such as Ibn al-Faqih (fl. 902) and Ibn Khurradadhbih (d. 912).[3] The anonymous author of the Kitab al-manasik wa-amakin turuq al-hajj wa-ma'alim al-jazirah, writing in the ninth or tenth centuries, described it as laying between al-Uqayr and Qulay'a, and added that its inhabitants fed primarily on dates and fish.[4]
Modern scholars have proposed various possibilities for the former location of the town. The Saudi historian Hamad al-Jassir identified al-Zarah with the modern al-Awamiyyah, five kilometers west of al-Qatif, while D. T. Potts suggested that it may have been located at the more southerly Dhahran.[5] According to Farouk Omar, the site of the settlement is now marked by the modern name of al-Ramada.[6]
In the pre-Islamic era al-Zarah was an important commercial center along the Arabian coast.[6] By the early seventh century al-Bahrayn had come to be dominated by the Arab tribes of Abd al-Qays, Bakr ibn Wa'il, and Tamim,[7] but the town itself was also likely host to a considerable population of non-Arab residents.[8] As with the rest of region, al-Zarah was subject to Persian control during this period, and it was the seat of a Sassanid marzban or margrave.[9]
Following the death of Muhammad in 632, al-Zarah briefly emerged as a local center of anti-Muslim resistance. During the ridda wars in the caliphate of Abu Bakr, the Persian governor Azad Peroz and a number of Magians refused to pay the jizya and fortified themselves in the town, which was then subjected to a siege by al-Ala ibn al-Hadrami. The garrison held out until the Muslims managed to cut off the water supply, at which point it came to terms and agreed to hand over to al-Ala one-third of the town, one-third of its gold and silver, and half of its outlying parts in c. 634.[10]
At the end of the ninth century al-Zarah was governed by one al-Hasan ibn al-Awwam, a member of the Azd, but a short time later it was burnt down during the Qarmatian conquest of al-Bahrayn.[11] The town subsequently lapsed into obscurity, and by the turn of the thirteenth century the historian Majd al-Din ibn al-Athir considered it to no longer be a place name.[12]
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