Page 152 - UAE Truncal States

The Islamic Basis of Society

interior from Nizwa, nor the Sassanian governor who resided with a
large occupation force on the Batinah coast had been converted to
Christianity.
After a crisis in the Christian church of Persia during the first half
of the 6th century, the Bishop of Darin,4 then the principal town of al
Bahrayn, situated on the bay of Qatlf, look the opportunity to declare
himself the Metropolile of the “Bait Qatrayah"; this included all the
churches on the Arabian side of the Gulf in the dioceses of Darin,
Mazun (Oman), Mashmahaq (Muharraq) on Bahrain Island, Hajar in
Yamamah (hinterland of al Bahrayn) and Hatta (al Hasa). In AD 676
this hierarchical structure was still intact when the bishops from
these dioceses met in Darin with the Catholicos Georges I.5

Accepting Islam
When the western part of the Arabian Peninsula was seized by the
religious, political, military and economic revolution of the early
spread of Islam, the tremors were soon felt as far as the extreme
corners of the then Arabic-speaking world. The direct impact of what
was happening in the Hijaz on Oman, al Bahrayn and the remainder
of eastern Arabia was not long in coming. According to the Arab
historian al Nawawi, someone by the name of Abu Bashir bin 'Asld
or 'Utbah, who had embraced the new faith, came as a refugee to
Oman, but the few followers he collected around himself did not
succeed in spreading Islam in Eastern Arabia.0 Omani tradition is
that the first native of Oman to go to Medina and swear allegiance to
the Prophet Muhammad was Mazin bin Ghaddubah.
The Prophet’s letter7 which was brought to the joint Rulers of
inner Oman, Jaifar and 'Abd, at Nizwa by 'Amru bin alf As in 630 ad,
the ninth year after the hijrah, only confirmed what was known
already even in Oman, namely that the new powerful Arab govern­
ment at Medina could not be opposed lightly and with impunity, but
also that it might be their best ally if the Omani tribes were to rise to
expel the Persians from their coasts.8 A council of the shaikhs of
Nizari and Yamani tribes in Nizwa considered the Prophet’s letter
and decided to adopt the new faith, and to pay zakah, which was
already customary for all Muslims. A group of tribal leaders was sent
on behalf of the people of Oman to Medina, and before they returned
they learnt a great deal about the inspiring personality of the
Prophet, about the coherence of the new State, and about the new
religion itself. Omanis such as they and their tribal followers

127