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The Religious Structure of Najrān in Late Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic

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The Religious Structure of Najrān in Late Pre-Islamic and Early Islamic THE RELIGIOUS STRUCTURE OF NAJRĀN IN LATE PRE-ISLAMIC AND EARLY ISLAMIC HISTORY: FROM THE END OF THE ḤIMYARITE KINGDOM UNTIL THE END OF THE RASHIDUN CALIPHATE (525-661 CE) By OWED ABDULLAH S’ AL-NAHEE A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham October 2017 - 0 - University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This thesis questions what was the religious structure of the region of Najrān was during the period between 525 and 661 CE by examining the factors of forming the religious structure, how each religious community practised its religious life and the influence of Islam on this religious structure. It therefore consists of six chapters, Chapter one contains a discussion on primary and secondary sources relevant to the research questions. In Chapter two, the background on Najrān is given, in terms of its geography, demography, economy and political history prior to the period under research. The following three chapters after that investigate the religious aspects of polytheism, Judaism and Christianity in terms of origins, types of worship, rituals of worship and theological beliefs. The discussions also shed light on their religious leaders, places of worship and doctrinal sects. In Chapter six, the study debates how Islam influenced the religious structure of Najrān, by tracing its arrival and the policy of Muslim authorities to spread Islam among the Najrānite people. The thesis discusses the main features of the policy of the Muslim authority towards non-Muslims in terms of religion, security, economy and citizenship. It finally evaluates the impact of this policy on the lives of non-Muslim Najrānites. The thesis concludes that Najrān seems to represent a multi-religious society during the period under research. It points out that geographical, economic and political factors contributed towards making it. The thesis also deduces that each religious community established its identity which developed over the course of time to include places of worship, clergy, types of deity, doctrines, theological beliefs and rituals of worship, and that the domination of Islam clearly made the most important change in this multi-religious society by making Muslims the majority in the region. - 1 - Dedication To the memory of the two best people who share the name ʿAbdullah bin Saʿd: my dear FATHER, ʿAbdullah bin Saʿd bin Nāḥī, my first and best teacher in this life, who taught me the values of manhood, honesty and struggle. To my dear COUSIN, my brother who was not given birth by my mother; ʿAbdullah bin Saʿd bin Ḥaidān, who has recently passed away and whose departure broke my heart. To both of you I owe and sincerely attribute this achievement. – may Allah have mercy on them- - 2 - Acknowledgments First of all, I would like to praise Allah for his guidance in the completion of this work. I wish to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Haifa Jawad, the director of the Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, for her support, valuable advice and professional supervision throughout the stages of the research. I would also like to thank Professor David Thomas for his valuable comments and constant guidance. I wish to express many thanks to the proofreader for the professional proofreading of the thesis chapters. I would like to express my deep thanks to my mother, in Saudi Arabia, who always supported my study and prays for me in every way she can. Most importantly, I would like to express special thanks and gratitude to my wonderful wife, Salha bint Nassr, for her patience, support and advice during the course of my studies, and to my sons ʿAbdullah and Yazan. The list of those who deserve acknowledgments is too long to give here, but I have to give great thanks to my brothers and sisters for their calls and moral support from the first day I came to the UK. - 3 - Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................... - 16 - 0.1 Rationale and Research Questions ....................................................................................... - 16 - 0.2 Study Hypothesis ................................................................................................................ - 17 - 0.3 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... - 17 - 0.4 Scope of the Study .............................................................................................................. - 17 - 0.5 Structure of the Thesis ......................................................................................................... - 20 - Chapter 1: Literature Review ........................................................................................... - 24 - 1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... - 24 - 1.2 Primary sources ................................................................................................................... - 24 - 1.2.2 Religious texts .......................................................................................................... - 24 - 1.2.3 Eastern Christian sources .......................................................................................... - 26 - 1.2.4 Primary Muslim sources ........................................................................................... - 30 - 1.2.4.1 Historical Muslim literature ................................................................................ - 31 - 1.2.4.2 The religious sciences of Islam (ʿUlūm ad-Dīn) .................................................. - 34 - 1.2.4.3 Arabic literature (al-Adab al-ʿArabī) ................................................................... - 36 - 1.2.4.4 Arabic geographical literature ............................................................................. - 37 - 1.2.4.5 Summary of Muslim sources ............................................................................... - 38 - 1.2.5 Inscriptions and archaeological remains .................................................................... - 39 - 1.3 Secondary sources ............................................................................................................... - 40 - 1.4 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... - 49 - Chapter 2: The Background of Najrān .............................................................................. - 52 - 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... - 52 - 2.2 Geographical background of Najrān .................................................................................... - 52 - - 3 - 2.2.1 Topography .............................................................................................................. - 53 - 2.2.2 The etymology .......................................................................................................... - 54 - 2.2.3 Location ................................................................................................................... - 55 - 2.3 Demography........................................................................................................................ - 57 - 2.4 Economy ............................................................................................................................. - 60 - 2.5 Political history ................................................................................................................... - 64 - 2.5.1 Ancient period .......................................................................................................... - 64 - 2.5.2 The Ḥimyarite and Abyssinian periods ..................................................................... - 65 - 2.5.3 Late pre-Islamic history ............................................................................................ - 71 - 2.6 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... - 73 - Chapter 3: Polytheism: Origins, Types, Gods, Beliefs and Rituals .................................... - 75 - 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... - 75 - 3.2 The origins of polytheism .................................................................................................... - 76 - 3.3 Idols: gods and goddesses.................................................................................................... - 80 - 3.3.1 Female idols (goddesses) .........................................................................................
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