Yemen in Early Islam an Examination of Non-Tribal Traditions

YEMEN IN EARLY ISLAM AN EXAMINATION OF NON-TRIBAL TRADITIONS

SULIMAN BASHEAR t is unanimously agreed upon by scholars that the concepts I «Yemen» and «Yemenism» (yamaniyya) 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 conceptsl. At the same time, no serious attempt was made at examining the clear religious con- notations of yamiiniyya or even the question of delimiting yaman 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 lexical sources 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» is presented in Arabic lexicography as being derived from the root YM1V? which, like in other semitic languages, 1 E.g.: Goldziher's views on the South-North tribal division and his comments on the studies of T. Nöldeke 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 Umayyad period see: J. Wellhausen, The ArabKingdom 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, Slaveson Horses, Cambridge, 1980, 34, 46-8; and G. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam, London, 1986, 36, 54-5, 69-70. The problematic 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 on Gaskel's Gamharat an-Nasab», Oriens 1977; M. J. Kister, «Kud��a»,E.I. 2, Suppl.; id. «Mecca and the Tribes of Arabia», unpublished typescript; and I. Hason, Mu��wiya'sRule.... unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The Hebrew Univer- sity of Jerusalem, 1983, 61-5, (in Hebrew). 2 Azhari (d. 370 H.) Tahdh�al-Lugha,b Beirut, 1967, 15/526-7; Ibn Manz�r, 328 denotes «right»3. The antonym of it, often brought by these sources, is the root Sh'M which denotes «left»4. From these two roots are derived the verbal couplets yamana - Sha-)ama, caymana - )ash )ama, tayamana - tashii)ama. Other verbal stems, though less often men- tioned, are jamana and jammana. The direct and close associatioh of the term «yaman» with 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- zur: is a gender and non a noun (< jinsi ghayr calaml)) 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 yaman and jumn 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 as 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 Saudi Arabia, as well as the latter's hinterland. E.g. to such locations are: Tayman (and Tayman dhu Zilal), Tayman, Tamanni, Yamn (or 'Amn), Yumn and even Yaman itself as sometimes vocalised in this specific form5.

Lis�nal- �Arab,Cairo, n.d. 17/354; Zubayd�,T �jal- �Ar�Cairo,s, 1306 H. 9/371; E. Lane, Arabic-EnglishLexicon, Beirut, repr. 1980, 8/3064; Jawhar�,Si ��Cairo,, n.d., 2/119; R�z�Mukht, �al-Sir ��Cairo,, 1926, 742; Zanj�n�Tahdh, �al-Sib ��, Cairo, 1952, 2/891; Zamakhshar�Al-Jib �l,Najaf, 1968; 154; Saraqus��K., al- Af��Cairo,l, 1980, 298; al-S�gh�nal-Takmila,�, Beirut, 1979, 6/330; Fayr�zab�d�, al-Q�m�Cairo,s, 1978, 4/297. 3 Compare with the Hebrew yem�andn 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 Ibn Manz�r 15/209; Zubayd�8/354; Lane 4/1490. 5 Ibn Manz�r 16/222-3; Y�q�Mut, �jamal-Buld �n,Beirut, 1957, 1/68, 5/447-9; id. al-MushatarakWad �an,Göttingen, 1846, 86; Bakr�Mu, �jam,Cairo, 1945, 1/331,