Home Region:  Arabia (Southwest Asia)

Yemen Ziyad Dynasty

D G SC WF HS EQ 2020  ye_ziyad_dyn / YeZiyad

Preceding:
750 CE 946 CE Abbasid Caliphate I (iq_abbasid_cal_1)    [None]
Add one more here.

Succeeding:
1038 CE 1174 CE Yemen - Era of Warlords (ye_warlords)    [continuity]
Add one more here.

The Ziyadid dynasty occupied and ruled southern Tihama coastal plains between 822 CE and 1037 CE from the city of Zabid in the Red Sea coastal desert. In 893 CE, Al-Hadi ila al-Haqq (al-Hadi) founds the Zaydi imamate based on the Zaydi Shii teachings, which popularized throughout at least part of North Yemen until the 1962 Revolution. [1] In 1007 CE, Yu’frid prince ‘Abdullah ibn Qahtan ruled Sanaa and “made a successful foray against the stronghold of Sunnism.” [2]
No population estimates could be found in the consulted literature; however, the polity territory is estimated to be around 100,000 square kilometers. [3]
Moreover, the Ziyadid dynasty had a loose political organization under the control of a sultan at Aden, who held less authority over the highlands. The settlement hierarchy is three-tiered, while administrative levels are four-tiered. The Abbasid court sent governors to Sanaa with lower hierarchy levels governed by rulers of petty states and tribal chiefs. [4]

[1]: (Burrows 2010, xxiv) Robert D Burrows. 2010. Historical Dictionary of Yemen. Second Edition. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham.

[2]: (Stookey 1978, 57) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.

[3]: (Stookey 1978, 54) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.

[4]: (Stookey 1978, 50-54) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.

General Variables
Identity and Location
Utm Zone:
38 P  
Original Name:
Banu Ziyad  
Capital:
Zabid  
Alternative Name:
Ziyadid Dynasty  
Temporal Bounds
Peak Years:
1,000 CE  
Duration:
[822 CE ➜ 1,037 CE]  
Political and Cultural Relations
Suprapolity Relations:
nominal allegiance to [---]  
Succeeding Entity:
YeWarLd  
Preceding Entity:
Succeeding: Yemen - Era of Warlords (ye_warlords)    [continuity]  
Preceding:   Abbasid Caliphate I (iq_abbasid_cal_1)    [None]  
Degree of Centralization:
loose  
Language
Linguistic Family:
Afro-Asiatic  
Language:
Arabic  
Religion
Religion Family:
Sunni  
Religion:
Islam  
Alternate Religion:
NO_VALUE_ON_WIKI  
Social Complexity Variables
Social Scale
Population of the Largest Settlement:
-  
Polity Territory:
[100,000 to 555,000] km2  
Hierarchical Complexity
Settlement Hierarchy:
3  
Administrative Level:
[3 to 4]  
Professions
Professional Soldier:
inferred present  
Professional Priesthood:
present  
Bureaucracy Characteristics
Specialized Government Building:
present  
Full Time Bureaucrat:
present  
Law
Professional Lawyer:
inferred present  
Judge:
inferred present  
Formal Legal Code:
inferred present  
Specialized Buildings: polity owned
Market:
present  
Food Storage Site:
inferred present  
Transport Infrastructure
Road:
present  
Port:
present  
Special-purpose Sites
Mines or Quarry:
present  
Information / Writing System
Written Record:
present  
Script:
present  
Phonetic Alphabetic Writing:
present  
Non Phonetic Writing:
absent  
Information / Kinds of Written Documents
Sacred Text:
inferred present  
Religious Literature:
inferred present  
History:
present  
Calendar:
inferred present  
Information / Money
Paper Currency:
absent  
Indigenous Coin:
present  
Information / Postal System
Postal Station:
inferred present  
General Postal Service:
inferred present  
Courier:
inferred present  
Information / Measurement System
Warfare Variables (Military Technologies)
Fortifications
  Wooden Palisade:
inferred present  
  Stone Walls Non Mortared:
unknown  
  Stone Walls Mortared:
inferred present  
  Settlements in a Defensive Position:
inferred present  
  Modern Fortification:
absent  
  Moat:
inferred present  
  Fortified Camp:
unknown  
  Earth Rampart:
inferred present  
  Ditch:
inferred present  
  Complex Fortification:
unknown  
  Long Wall:
absent  
Military use of Metals
  Steel:
inferred present  
  Iron:
inferred present  
Projectiles
  Tension Siege Engine:
inferred present  
  Sling Siege Engine:
inferred absent  
  Sling:
unknown  
  Self Bow:
unknown  
  Javelin:
inferred present  
  Handheld Firearm:
absent  
  Gunpowder Siege Artillery:
absent  
  Crossbow:
inferred present  
  Composite Bow:
inferred present  
  Atlatl:
absent  
Handheld weapons
  War Club:
inferred present  
  Sword:
inferred present  
  Spear:
unknown  
  Polearm:
inferred present  
  Dagger:
inferred present  
  Battle Axe:
unknown  
Animals used in warfare
  Horse:
inferred present  
  Elephant:
unknown  
  Donkey:
inferred present  
  Camel:
inferred present  
Armor
  Wood Bark Etc:
inferred present  
  Shield:
inferred present  
  Scaled Armor:
inferred present  
  Plate Armor:
inferred absent  
  Limb Protection:
inferred present  
  Leather Cloth:
inferred present  
  Laminar Armor:
inferred present  
  Helmet:
inferred present  
  Chainmail:
inferred present  
  Breastplate:
inferred present  
Naval technology
  Specialized Military Vessel:
unknown  
  Small Vessels Canoes Etc:
inferred present  
  Merchant Ships Pressed Into Service:
inferred present  
Religion Tolerance Nothing coded yet.
Human Sacrifice Nothing coded yet.
Crisis Consequences Nothing coded yet.
Power Transitions Nothing coded yet.

NGA Settlements:

Year Range Yemen Ziyad Dynasty (ye_ziyad_dyn) was in:
 (869 CE 1037 CE)   Yemeni Coastal Plain
Home NGA: Yemeni Coastal Plain

General Variables
Identity and Location
Utm Zone:
38 P

Original Name:
Banu Ziyad

"Effective Abbasid rule in Yemen ended when Muhammad bin ’Ubaidallah bin Ziyad, appointed in 822 by Ma’mum to govern the Tihama, threw off all pretense of obedience of Baghdad beyond causing the Friday prayers to be said in the caliph’s name, and founded the Banu Ziyad state, laying out and building the city of Zabid as its capital." [1]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 45) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


Capital:
Zabid

"Effective Abbasid rule in Yemen ended when Muhammad bin ’Ubaidallah bin Ziyad,appointed in 822 by Ma’mum to govern the Tihama, threw off all pretense of obedience of Baghdad beyond causing the Friday prayers to be said in the caliph’s name, and founded the Banu Ziyad state, laying out and building the city of Zabid as its capital." [1]
Language

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 45) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


Alternative Name:
Ziyadid Dynasty

Temporal Bounds
Peak Years:
1,000 CE

"In 1007 a Yu’firid prince of the Ismaili persuasion, ’Abdullah ibn Qahtan, suceeded to the rule of Sanaa, and even made a successful foray against that stronghold of Sunnism, the Ziyad state in the Tihama, now in its decline." [1]
A Zaidi chronicler reported that "From [1014-1056] ruin prevailed in Sanaa and elsewhere in the country of Yemen by reason of the prevalence of disputes, rivalries, and disunity within this single nation. Darkness fell over Yemen, its desolation became universal, and public order disappeared. Sanaa and its suburbs became as if they had burned down. Every year, even every month, some new sultan seized power; the inhabitants became so extenuated that they dispersed in all directions. The city fell into ruin. Construction declined to the point where there were only a thousand houses, whereas in the time of al-Rashid there had been one hundred thousand. However, Sanaa recovered somewhat in the time of the Sulayhids, who gathered the lords of Yemen around themselves." [1]
"The mid-to-late-800s is a period of struggle between the Banu Ziyad of the Tihama and the Yufirids of the highlands, as well as intense Ismaili (Fatimid) missionary efforts in Yemen." [2]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 57) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.

[2]: (Burrows 2010, xxiv) Robert D Burrows. 2010. Historical Dictionary of Yemen. Second Edition. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham.


Duration:
[822 CE ➜ 1,037 CE]

"Effective Abbasid rule in Yemen ended when Muhammad bin ’Ubaidallah bin Ziyad, appointed in 822 by Ma’mum to govern the Tihama, threw off all pretense of obedience of Baghdad beyond causing the Friday prayers to be said in the caliph’s name, and founded the Banu Ziyad state, laying out and building the city of Zabid as its capital." [1]
"In A.D. 822, in Yemen, Muhammad ibn Ziyad founds the Banu Ziyad dynasty in the new city of Zabid in the Red Sea coastal desert". [2]
"In 1037, Ali al-Sulayhid, acting for the Ismaili Fatimid caliphate in Cairo, founds the Sulayhid dynasty, which based itself in Sanaa and then Jibla, lasts for a century, and concludes with the long rule of fabled Queen Arwa." [2]
"Following the end of the Ziyadid dynasty in the early 11th century, two former slaves of the kingdom founded the Najahid dynasty. Control of the Tihama swayed back and forth between the Najahid rulers and the Sulayhid power of the highlands." [3]
Ziyadid dynasty ruled southern Tihama 819-1012 CE, then by the Najahids. [4]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 45) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.

[2]: (Burrows 2010, xxiv) Robert D Burrows. 2010. Historical Dictionary of Yemen. Second Edition. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham.

[3]: (McLaughlin 2007, 159) Daniel McLaughlin. 2007. Yemen. Bradt Travel Guides Ltd. Chalfont St Peter

[4]: (Starkey 2008, 655) Janet Starkey. Tihama. Ian Richard Netton ed. 2008. Encyclopedia of Islam. Routledge. Abingdon.


Political and Cultural Relations
Suprapolity Relations:
nominal allegiance to [---]

"The Abbasid court continued to send governors to Sanaa. By 845 the Abbasid’s authority was effectively disputed by Yu’fir bin ’Abd al-Rahman al-Huwali, a descendant of the pre-Islamic Himyarite kings. He expelled the Abbasid governor, Himyar ibn al-Harith, in 861, and ruled an area from Sanaa south to Janad, while acknowledging Abbasid symbolic sovereighty and paying tribute to the Ziyadi state. Yu’fir’s son Mhuammad, whose influence extended over Hadramaut, was formally invested with the rule of Sanaa by the Abbasid caliph al Mu’tamid about 872." [1]
"In 1007 a Yu’firid prince of the Ismaili persuasion, ’Abdullah ibn Qahtan, suceeded to the rule of Sanaa, and even made a successful foray against that stronghold of Sunnism, the Ziyad state in the Tihama, now in its decline." [2]
"For a century and a half no central power of consequence existed in the Yemen inland from the Tihama. Most of the local rulers invoked the Abbasid caliph in the Friday prayers; they repressed overt manifestations of Ismaili sentiment, but offered no persuaive ideological alternative." [2]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 54) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.

[2]: (Stookey 1978, 57) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


Succeeding Entity:
YeWarLd

Preceding Entity:
YeZiyad [ye_ziyad_dyn] ---> Yemen - Era of Warlords [ye_warlords]
Preceding Entity:
IqAbbs1 [iq_abbasid_cal_1] ---> Yemen Ziyad Dynasty [ye_ziyad_dyn]

Degree of Centralization:
loose

"The Ziyadi state was firmly entrenched in the Tinhama, and enjoyed loose suzerainty over a sultan at Aden, whose authority extended eastward along the coast. The Banu Ziyad, on the other hand, had no influence in the highlands." [1]
Tihama = coastal plain.
"For a century and a half no central power of consequence existed in the Yemen inland from the Tihama. Most of the local rulers invoked the Abbasid caliph in the Friday prayers; they repressed overt manifestations of Ismaili sentiment, but offered no persuaive ideological alternative." [2]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 54) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.

[2]: (Stookey 1978, 57) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


Language
Linguistic Family:
Afro-Asiatic

Language:
Arabic

Religion
Religion Family:
Sunni

Religion:
Islam

Alternate Religion:
NO_VALUE_ON_WIKI


Social Complexity Variables
Social Scale
Population of the Largest Settlement:
-

Likely unknown. "It remains to be seen whether the city can be judged to have been a relatively open settlement in its hey-day, connecting with a heavily settled countryside, or whether it was compact and confined within walls, in contrast to the open desert beyond, in the way in which most guide books prefer to see it." [1]

[1]: (Keall 1989: 62) Keall, E. 1989. A Few Facts About Zabid. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies , 1989, Vol. 19, Proceedings of the Twenty Second SEMINAR FOR ARABIAN STUDIES held at Oxford on 26th - 28th July 1988 (1989), pp. 61-69. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NHAHN75U/library


Polity Territory:
[100,000 to 555,000] km2

in squared kilometers.

"Umara attributes to Muhammad Ibn Ziyad the extension of Ziyadid territory to the major part of Yemen, i.e. to all the coastal territories from the south, between Hadramawt and Aden, and to the north, along the Red Sea coast as far as Hali, now in Saudi Arabia (Umara 1985: 53-54)." [1]

However: "At the end of Ishaq’s rule [c. 970s], several rulers declared their independence at the expense of the Ziyadids: the Yu’firids at San’s, (11), the Zaydi al-Hadi in northern Yemen, (12) and Sulayman b. Tard at ’Aththar, along the Red sea coast (13) (’Umata 1985: 55-64; Chelhod 1978: 56). The territory of Abu al-Jaysh was then reduced from Adan to sharja and from Ghulafiqa to the surroundings of San’a (’Umara 1985: 64 ll. 6-7)." [1]

Moreover, based on the following quotes, it seems that this polity was roughly equivalent to the coastal region of modern Yemen. "The Ziyadi state was firmly entrenched in the Tinhama, and enjoyed loose suzerainty over a sultan at Aden, whose authority extended eastward along the coast. The Banu Ziyad, on the other hand, had no influence in the highlands." [2] "Ephemerally, the Banu Ziyad reunited nearly in its entirety the South Arabian state of the Himyarites. They were unable to hold the hinterland, however, against the many separatist movements which arose." [3] The Zaydi Imamate formed one of the borders of this polity: "In 893, Al-Hadi ila al-Haqq (al-Hadi), invited to the North Yemeni town of Saada to mediate local disputes, proceeds to found there the Zaydi imamate that, based on Zaydi Shii teachings, was to hold sway over at least part of North Yemen nearly continuously until the 1962 Revolution." [4]

[1]: (Peli 2008: 252) Peli, A. 2008. A history of the Ziyadids through their coinage (203—442/818—1050). Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies , 2008, Vol. 38, Papers from the forty-first meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in London, 19-21 July 2007 (2008), pp. 251-263. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ADM7C94B/library

[2]: (Stookey 1978, 54) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.

[3]: (Stookey 1978, 45) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.

[4]: (Burrows 2010, xxiv) Robert D Burrows. 2010. Historical Dictionary of Yemen. Second Edition. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham.


Hierarchical Complexity
Settlement Hierarchy:
3

levels.
1. Capital
2.3. Village"Northerners are grouped into broad confederations - Hashid, Bakil, Madhij, Himyar, Quda’a - all united ultimately by a remote common ancestor, Qahtan." [1] "Among the people of the southern Yemen highlands, social solidarity beyond the extended family rests mainly on common residence in a town or village ... no firm social basis exists for the formation of powerful coalitions to challenge or sustain a ruler." [1]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 50) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


Administrative Level:
[3 to 4]

levels.
1.
"The Abbasid court continued to send governors to Sanaa." [1]
2. Court-based administrator?In the ninth century "the livelihood of the people was not particularly dependent upon efficient, centralized government, the attachment was strong to small social units which central control was likely to threaten." [2]
3.
2. Ruler of a petty state.In the ninth century attempts were made to unify Yemenis under Islamic rule but there was no agreement on any one person having an "exclusive right to rule" and "central authority tended to be fragile and weak. The region was in fact fragmented into several petty states, each enfeebled by domestic disaffection and the hostility of its neighbours." [3]
"The Ziyadi state was firmly entrenched in the Tinhama, and enjoyed loose suzerainty over a sultan at Aden, whose authority extended eastward along the coast. The Banu Ziyad, on the other hand, had no influence in the highlands. The Abbasid court continued to send governors to Sanaa." [1]
3. Tribal chiefsTribal chiefs: "The ruler’s authority inevitably impinged upon the freedom of action of the tribal chiefs, whose loyalty was intermittent and often a matter of expediency." [4]
"In the tenth century as in the twentieth, detailed knowledge of tribal interrelationships, and accommodation to their sensibilities, were necessary elements of effective government in northern Yemen." [2]
"The Himyarites asserted their autonomy in the central highlands, at times acknowledging a vague Ziyadi suzerainty, and invoking the Abbasid caliph in public prayers. The tribes in the north, between Nejran and Sa’da, refused any outside control or interference in their mutual quarrels until they themselves called in the first Zaidi imam as umpire. In the southern and west-central mountains, the continuing development of Shi’a sentiment provided opportunity for founding the first Fatimid regimes in Yemen. At the beginning of the tenth century, thus, Yemen was divided among four essentially independent entities." [5]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 54) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.

[2]: (Stookey 1978, 50) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.

[3]: (Stookey 1978, 50-51) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.

[4]: (Stookey 1978, 46) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.

[5]: (Stookey 1978, 45) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


Professions
Professional Soldier:
present

This time was part of an "era of the ’war lords’" which existed "until Rasulid times." [1]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 45) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


Professional Priesthood:
present

The Ziyad state in the Tihama was a "stronghold of Sunnism". [1]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 57) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


Bureaucracy Characteristics
Specialized Government Building:
present

"During the excavations conducted by the Royal Ontario Museum in Zabïd, traces of a workshop from the fourth-sixth/tenth-twelfth centuries were found and Edward Keall suggests that it may have produced copper coin blanks (1989: 66). This is the only archaeological evidence of a mint in Zabïd. For the moment, no copper coins minted in Zabïd have been recorded, except a debased dirham struck in the name of the Najahid Jayyash b. al-Mu-ayyad (Tübingen 93.18.114). Keall also suggests that this area was the ’government quarter of the town since at least the time of the Ayyubid conquest of the Yemen’ (1989: 66)." [1]


Andrey Korotayev confirmed with us that specialized government buildings, separate from the ruler’s residence, were present in the Ziyad state. [2]

[1]: (Peli 2008: 258) Peli, A. 2008. A history of the Ziyadids through their coinage (203—442/818—1050). Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies , 2008, Vol. 38, Papers from the forty-first meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in London, 19-21 July 2007 (2008), pp. 251-263. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ADM7C94B/library

[2]: Andrey Korotayev, pers. comm., February 2018.


Full Time Bureaucrat:
present

Andrey Korotayev told us that full-time specialist bureaucrats were present in the Ziyad state. [1]
In the ninth century "the livelihood of the people was not particularly dependent upon efficient, centralized government, the attachment was strong to small social units which central control was likely to threaten." [2]

[1]: Andrey Korotayev, pers. comm., February 2018.

[2]: (Stookey 1978, 50) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


Law
Professional Lawyer:
present

The following quotes that, in the Islamic world, professional lawyers began to appear at the end of the ninth century.

“In order to deal with the essential conditions that Claude Cahen and Gabriel Baer laid down so well in their articles, I would like to take as an example of an Islamic guild the Islamic legal professions, called madhhabs, and their institutional organization of legal education, as of the second half of the ninth century. The first steps toward the pro- fessionalization of legal studies were taken after the Inquisition, Mihna, which ended at the midpoint ofthe ninth century. The Inquisition was the culmination of an on-going struggle between two movements: one, of phil- osophical theology, the other, of juridical theology. It was fought over a theological question: whether the Koran was the created or uncreated word of God? We need retain here only that the philosophically-oriented movement entered the Inquisition supported by the central power; which power fifteen years later, made an about-face and came out in support of the juridically-oriented movement. To put it in simple terms: law won out over philosophical speculation. In the century following the Inquisition, the available sources make possible the recognition of the first colleges where law was taught. In the eleventh century, legal professions reached the height of their development with yet a new set of colleges, and a clear-cut structure of scholastic personnel, with various grades and functions.” [1]

[1]: (Makdisi 1985) Makdisi, G. 1985. The Guilds of Law in Medieval Legal History: An Inquiry into the Origins of the Inns of Court. 34 Clev. St. L. Rev. 3: 3-16. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/U4CNJ8Q5/library


Judge:
present

Qadis. The Ziyad state in the Tihama was a "stronghold of Sunnism". [1]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 57) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


Formal Legal Code:
present

Islamic law. The Ziyad state in the Tihama was a "stronghold of Sunnism". [1]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 57) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


Specialized Buildings: polity owned
Market:
present

The following quote mentions the "central suq" and its position in relation to a mosque dating to the tenth century.

"In general, it can be stated that Zabid has a relatively shallow accumulation of occupational debris on the west side near the Grand Mosque, by comparison with that recorded in the northeastern quadrant at the same latitude. One may surmise, therefore, that this monumental structure was originally built in a relatively open area, not in one that called for the demolition of buildings to make room for the new mosque. This may help explain why the mosque is further away from the central suq than is the case with the older al-Asha’ir mosque" [1]

[1]: (Keall 1989: 67) Keall, E. 1989. A Few Facts About Zabid. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies , 1989, Vol. 19, Proceedings of the Twenty Second SEMINAR FOR ARABIAN STUDIES held at Oxford on 26th - 28th July 1988 (1989), pp. 61-69. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NHAHN75U/library


Food Storage Site:
present

The following quote points to the retrieval of grain types in the capital city of Zabid that suggest significant food storage practices. "Other possible crops include several poorly preserved grains of wheat (Triticum sp.), a crop unlikely to thrive in the hot Tihama where high temperatures and high humidity preclude a winter vegetative phase. Wheat may therefore have been imported into the city, and one likely explanation for its ingestion by camels may be linked to wheat storage and processing. Several types of wheat store better when the grain is left still encased in tough glumes, preventing insect and fungal decay. If such semi-cleaned grain (e.g. emmer wheat) was carted or shipped, recipients may have had to finish processing the cereal to clean it of glumes and small seed contaminants. This was a widespread practice throughout the Mediterranean world. In ninth century Zabid, such waste from cleaning wheat may have been included in animal diets after prime wheat had been removed from stunted grain (perhaps the source of the archaeological specimens) and chaff." [1]

[1]: (McCorriston and Johnson 1998, 179) McCorriston, J. and Z. Johnson, 1998. Agriculture and animal husbandry at Ziyadid Zabid, Yemen. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, Vol. 28, Papers from the thirty-first meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in Oxford, 17-19 July 1997 (1998), pp. 175-188 (14 pages). Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TQUXJVPK/library


Transport Infrastructure
Road:
present

"When Rushd died his Ethiopian mawla, named Husayn b. Salãma, took care of the two Ziyadids (1985: 65 1. 7). While the sovereignty of the Ziyadid was crumbling, he was able to reinforce and to rule over the initial Ziyadid territory for thirty years (1985: 65-66). (20) We owe him several foundations, such as the city of al-Kadrä, a considerable number of constructions on the two roads from Hadramawt to Mecca (1985: 67-73), the foundation of the Great Mosque of Zabïd, and that of the Ashãcir (Ibn al-Daybac 20066: 39 1. 4; Chelhod 1978: 59)." [1]

[1]: (Peli 2008: 257) Peli, A. 2008. A history of the Ziyadids through their coinage (203—442/818—1050). Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies , 2008, Vol. 38, Papers from the forty-first meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in London, 19-21 July 2007 (2008), pp. 251-263. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ADM7C94B/library


Port:
present

"’Umara [...] mentions that the Ziyadids collected taxes levied on the ships that came from India" [1]

[1]: (Peli 2008: 259) Peli, A. 2008. A history of the Ziyadids through their coinage (203—442/818—1050). Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies , 2008, Vol. 38, Papers from the forty-first meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in London, 19-21 July 2007 (2008), pp. 251-263. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ADM7C94B/library


Special-purpose Sites
Mines or Quarry:
present

"Whereas several mines of gold and silver are known to have been exploited in Yemen during the course of the third/ninth and fourth/tenth centuries, sources of Ziyadid gold remain mostly unknown." [1]

[1]: (Peli 2008: 258) Peli, A. 2008. A history of the Ziyadids through their coinage (203—442/818—1050). Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies , 2008, Vol. 38, Papers from the forty-first meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in London, 19-21 July 2007 (2008), pp. 251-263. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ADM7C94B/library


Information / Writing System
Written Record:
present

The Ziyad state, ruled by a Sunni dynasty, was a breakaway state from the Abbasid Empire and so retained the tradition of Arabic literacy. [1]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 45, 57) Stookey, Robert W. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Boulder: Westview Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/GIDWD7R3.


Script:
present

Arabic.


Phonetic Alphabetic Writing:
present

Arabic.


Non Phonetic Writing:
absent

Arabic.


Information / Kinds of Written Documents
Sacred Text:
present

Koran. The Ziyad state in the Tihama was a "stronghold of Sunnism". [1]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 57) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


Religious Literature:
present

Islamic writings. The Ziyad state in the Tihama was a "stronghold of Sunnism". [1]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 57) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


History:
present

"The history of the first independent Islamic dynasties of the Yemen has been known, for a long time, from the local chronicles and above all from ’Umata’s al-Mufid fi akhbar sa’a wa zabid. This work remains our only textual source for the history of the Ziyadids, who settled in Tihama at the beginning of the third/ninth century. It was used by later Yemeni historians and gives the detailed genealogy of the Ziyadids (Bosworth 1996: 98, no. 41; Smith 1988: 138; 2004). It is inspired by the now lost work of Abu al-Tami Jayyas b. Najah, one of the sons of Najah. This last was an Ethiopian wazir in the service of the last Ziyadid who founded the Najahid dynasty. He came to power during the second quarter of the fifth/eleventh century in Zabid (’Umara 1985: 46 1. 10-47 1.1; Daghfous 1992-1993: 33)." [1]

[1]: (Peli 2008: 251) Peli, A. 2008. A history of the Ziyadids through their coinage (203—442/818—1050). Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies , 2008, Vol. 38, Papers from the forty-first meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in London, 19-21 July 2007 (2008), pp. 251-263. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ADM7C94B/library


Calendar:
present

Islamic calendar. The Ziyad state in the Tihama was a "stronghold of Sunnism". [1]

[1]: (Stookey 1978, 57) Robert W Stookey. 1978. Yemen: The Politics of the Yemen Arab Republic. Westview Press. Boulder.


Information / Money
Paper Currency:
absent

Indigenous Coin:
present

"Another question remains about the use of the coins minted by the Ziyadids. They were most probably struck for economic and trading purposes, but for the moment, such coins have not been recorded in the regions in contact with Yemen during these periods, mostly Ethiopia and India. However, we probably have to put this fact down to the lack of excavations in these regions, and to the difficulty of identifying these coins." [1]

[1]: (Peli 2008: 261) Peli, A. 2008. A history of the Ziyadids through their coinage (203—442/818—1050). Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies , 2008, Vol. 38, Papers from the forty-first meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in London, 19-21 July 2007 (2008), pp. 251-263. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ADM7C94B/library


Information / Postal System
Postal Station:
present

Inferred from the fact that the Abbasids (that is, the Ziyadids’ predecessors) likely established a postal system across their empire:


"Second, and perhaps more importantly, is al-’Umarì’s statement that from the fall of the Umayyads until the reign of Hàrùn al- Rashìd there was no regular Barìd service at the disposal of the Abbasid caliphs. There are no fewer than eight documents that disprove his assumption. Before discussing them, it is worth mentioning that there are literary references to the Barìd being used under the early Abbasid caliphs, and the thought that—despite the rich heritage of imperial communications systems in the Near East—the Abbasids spent the first four decades of their reign without a Barìd is plainly counter-intuitive. But, in essence, what we have here is a tension between a number of literary sources, and it is only from the existing documentary evidence that these tensions can be alleviated. Of the eight Barìd-related fragments, six are from Egypt and two are from Central Asia." [1]

[1]: (Silverstein, 157) Silverstein, A. Documentary Evidence for the Early History of the Barìd. In SIJPESTEIJN, P. M. and L. Sundelin (eds) PAPYROLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF EARLY ISLAMIC EGYPT pp. 153-162. Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8BIFF7D2/library


General Postal Service:
present

Inferred from the fact that the Abbasids (that is, the Ziyadids’ predecessors) likely established a postal system across their empire:


"Second, and perhaps more importantly, is al-’Umarì’s statement that from the fall of the Umayyads until the reign of Hàrùn al- Rashìd there was no regular Barìd service at the disposal of the Abbasid caliphs. There are no fewer than eight documents that disprove his assumption. Before discussing them, it is worth mentioning that there are literary references to the Barìd being used under the early Abbasid caliphs, and the thought that—despite the rich heritage of imperial communications systems in the Near East—the Abbasids spent the first four decades of their reign without a Barìd is plainly counter-intuitive. But, in essence, what we have here is a tension between a number of literary sources, and it is only from the existing documentary evidence that these tensions can be alleviated. Of the eight Barìd-related fragments, six are from Egypt and two are from Central Asia." [1]

[1]: (Silverstein, 157) Silverstein, A. Documentary Evidence for the Early History of the Barìd. In SIJPESTEIJN, P. M. and L. Sundelin (eds) PAPYROLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF EARLY ISLAMIC EGYPT pp. 153-162. Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8BIFF7D2/library


Courier:
present

Inferred from the fact that the Abbasids (that is, the Ziyadids’ predecessors) likely established a postal system across their empire:


"Second, and perhaps more importantly, is al-’Umarì’s statement that from the fall of the Umayyads until the reign of Hàrùn al- Rashìd there was no regular Barìd service at the disposal of the Abbasid caliphs. There are no fewer than eight documents that disprove his assumption. Before discussing them, it is worth mentioning that there are literary references to the Barìd being used under the early Abbasid caliphs, and the thought that—despite the rich heritage of imperial communications systems in the Near East—the Abbasids spent the first four decades of their reign without a Barìd is plainly counter-intuitive. But, in essence, what we have here is a tension between a number of literary sources, and it is only from the existing documentary evidence that these tensions can be alleviated. Of the eight Barìd-related fragments, six are from Egypt and two are from Central Asia." [1]

[1]: (Silverstein, 157) Silverstein, A. Documentary Evidence for the Early History of the Barìd. In SIJPESTEIJN, P. M. and L. Sundelin (eds) PAPYROLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF EARLY ISLAMIC EGYPT pp. 153-162. Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/8BIFF7D2/library


Information / Measurement System

Warfare Variables (Military Technologies)
Fortifications
Wooden Palisade:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Stone Walls Non Mortared:
unknown

Stone Walls Mortared:
present

“Muhammad b. Ziyad is said to have given the city its first wall (Yahya b. al-Husayn 1968, i: 151 1. 3; Chelhod 1978: 54), but according to Ibn al-Dayba, it may have been constructed by another ruler, Husayn b. Salama, an Ethiopian slave who was wazir of the young Ziyadid placed on the throne (Ibn al-Dayba 2006a: 282 II. 3-4; 2006B: 39 II. 2-3; chelhod 1978: 59). Whatever the case, al-Muqaddasi, who died around 380/990 (Miquel 1001: 492), tells us that Zabid was fortified (hisn min al-tin), so we can assume that Zabid had its first wall during the Ziyadid dynasty and not during the Najahid period as suggested by Ibn al-Mujawir’s map (1951-1954, i: 77, pl. 3; al-Muqaddasi 1906: 84 l. 14. Chelhod 1978: 54, 58; Keall 1984: 52).” [1]

Use of mortar inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [2] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: (Peli 2008: 251-252) Peli, A. 2008. A history of the Ziyadids through their coinage (203—442/818—1050). Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies , 2008, Vol. 38, Papers from the forty-first meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in London, 19-21 July 2007 (2008), pp. 251-263. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ADM7C94B/library

[2]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Settlements in a Defensive Position:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Modern Fortification:
absent

Moat:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Fortified Camp:
unknown

Earth Rampart:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Ditch:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Complex Fortification:
unknown

Long Wall:
absent

Military use of Metals
Steel:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Iron:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Projectiles
Tension Siege Engine:
present

Torsion engines in use in Arabic warfare in this period. [1] [2]

[1]: (Kennedy 2001, 184

[2]: Kelly DeVries, ’siege engines’ in The Oxford Companion to Military History, Eds. Holmes, Singleton, and Jones Oxford University Press: 2001)


Sling Siege Engine:
absent

First known use of the counter-weight trebuchet 1165 CE at Byzantine siege of Zevgminon. [1] Abbasids had the manjaniq, a swing beam engine similar to the Western Trebuchet. [2] but the Manjaniq was man-powered not gravity powered. [3]

[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing.

[2]: (Kennedy 2001, 184) Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy

[3]: (Nicolle 2003, 14) Nicolle, David. 2003. Medieval Siege Weapons (2): Byzantium, the Islamic World and India AD 476-1526. Osprey Publishing.


Sling:
unknown

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Self Bow:
unknown

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.


Javelin:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: (Nicolle 1982, 20) Nicolle, D. 1982. The Armies of Islam, 7th-11th Centuries. Osprey Publishing.


Handheld Firearm:
absent

Not in use until the 15th century. [1]

[1]: (Wood 2001) Stephen Wood. Matchlock. Richard Holmes. Hew Strachan. Chris Bellamy. Hugh Bicheno. eds. 2001. The Oxford Companion to Military History. Oxford University Press.


Gunpowder Siege Artillery:
absent

Not in use until the 14th century. [1]

[1]: (Baily 2001) Jonathan B A Bailey. Canon. Richard Holmes. Hew Strachan. Chris Bellamy. Hugh Bicheno. eds. 2001. The Oxford Companion to Military History. Oxford University Press.


Crossbow:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Composite Bow:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Atlatl:
absent

New World weapon.


Handheld weapons
War Club:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Sword:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: (Nicolle 1982, 20) Nicolle, D. 1982. The Armies of Islam, 7th-11th Centuries. Osprey Publishing.


Spear:
unknown

Polearm:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: (Nicolle 1982, 20) Nicolle, D. 1982. The Armies of Islam, 7th-11th Centuries. Osprey Publishing.


Dagger:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: (Nicolle 1982, 20) Nicolle, D. 1982. The Armies of Islam, 7th-11th Centuries. Osprey Publishing.


Battle Axe:
unknown

Animals used in warfare
Horse:
present

Inferred from use among predecessors the Abbasids, in the time period under consideration, and among successors the Rasulids. "In any event, textual evidence corroborates the pictorial material studied by Nicolle: contrary to a still widely common view, the horse armour was not unknown in the early Middle Eastern armies. It is likely that its use gradually increased from the generalization of the heavy cavalry after the Abbasid took power in Baghdad and reformed the army under the influence of Iranian and central Asiatic traditions. After this reform, the Middle Eastern Islamic armies largely relied on horsemen, whether they were born free or military slaves. The warrior dynasties that ruled the Middle East from the fragmentation of the Abbasid Empire in the tenth–eleventh century onward were also strongly associated with the horse. It is worth noting with Mahoney, in this issue, that when he deals with the arrival of the Rasūlid in Yemen in the early thirteenth century, the chronicler al‑Kharazjī also emphasizes the major role played by the horse in the creation and preservation of the new dynasty." [1]

[1]: Jérémie Schiettecatte et Abbès Zouache, « The Horse in Arabia and the Arabian Horse: Origins, Myths and Realities », Arabian Humanities [En ligne], 8 | 2017, mis en ligne le 30 juin 2017, consulté le 11 juillet 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/arabianhumanities/3280 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/cy.3280 Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5S5UUTBQ/library


Elephant:
unknown

Donkey:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Camel:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Armor
Wood Bark Etc:
present

Used for shields. Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Shield:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Scaled Armor:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Plate Armor:
absent

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Limb Protection:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Leather Cloth:
present

Used for shields. Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Laminar Armor:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Helmet:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Chainmail:
present

"The early Islamic sources treat the coast of mail as a standard piece of military equipment." Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Breastplate:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: Hugh N Kennedy. 2001. The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SGPPFNAZ/q/kennedy


Naval technology
Specialized Military Vessel:
unknown

Small Vessels Canoes Etc:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE.

[1]: (Gabrieli 1964, 57-65) Francesco Gabrieli. 1964. Greeks and Arabs in the Central Mediterranean Area. Papers 18. Dumbarton Oaks.


Merchant Ships Pressed Into Service:
present

Code inferred from Abbasid Caliphate [1] which occupied Yemen between 751-868 CE. Greek fire was being used: "by the year 850 even crew members of Arab trading vessels in the Indian Ocean would use it to protect their ships against pirates". [2]

[1]: (Gabrieli 1964, 57-65) Francesco Gabrieli. 1964. Greeks and Arabs in the Central Mediterranean Area. Papers 18. Dumbarton Oaks.

[2]: Z Bilkadi. 1984. Bitumen: A History. Saudi Aramco World. November/December. pp 2-9. https://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/198406/bitumen.-.a.history.htm



Human Sacrifice Data
Human Sacrifice is the deliberate and ritualized killing of a person to please or placate supernatural entities (including gods, spirits, and ancestors) or gain other supernatural benefits.
- Nothing coded yet.
- Nothing coded yet.
Power Transitions
- Nothing coded yet.