Mazun (historical region)

Mazun
Province of the Sasanian Empire
240–628
Map of eastern and central Arabia in the 6th-century. By this period, the Sasanians had extended their authority over al-Yamama through their Lakhmid vassals.
Historical era	Antiquity
• Conquest of Eastern Arabia by Ardashir I	240
• Mazun is incorporated into the political system of Islamic Medina	628
Succeeded by First Islamic State

Mazun (also spelled Mazon) was a late antique name for Oman and southeastern Arabia. Middle Persian and Syriac sources use the name for a region extending approximately from the northeastern part of the modern United Arab Emirates to the southeastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It was distinguished from Beth Qatraye, the northern Gulf region encompassing northeastern Arabia and its islands.

Mazun was in the political sphere of Sasanian Arabia. The territory appears among the list of territories claimed by the Sasanian Empire, beginning with the inscription of Shapur I at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht. It is consequently often described as a Sasanian province, although the extent and character of Sasanian administration remain uncertain. Recent research suggests that Mazun was generally a regional name rather than a precisely bounded administrative province and that Sasanian authority was probably concentrated along the coastal plain and exercised partly through local rulers.

In Syriac Christian sources the region was also called Beth Mazunaye. It constituted an ecclesiastical territory of the Church of the East under the metropolitan of Fars. Bishops of Mazun are recorded between the fifth and seventh centuries, and Christian communities continued in the region during the transition from Sasanian to Islamic rule.

Name and geography

The name Mazun has been spelled in different ways, depending on the source. Middle Persian and Syriac sources use the forms Mazun or Mazon. Syriac ecclesiastical literature also uses Beth Mazūnayē, conventionally understood as the region of the Mazunites. Arabic sources usually call the region ʿUmān. While past scholarship sometimes considered Mazun a province of the Sasanian Empire, more recent work suggests that the name in ancient sources may designate imperial territory that was not necessarily placed into a formal or a single administrative unit.

Mazon comprised the narrower coastal region extending from northeastern UAE through Oman. A report preserved by the thirteenth-century geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi placed the boundary near Julfar, in the vicinity of modern Ras Al Khaimah. This later evidence indicates the possibility that northern Oman and the northeastern Emirates formed the most important part of Mazon in late antiquity.

History

Eastern Arabia was in c. 240 conquered by Ardashir I (r. 224–242), who made it into the province of Mazun. According to the 8th-century Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr, Ardashir appointed a certain Oshag of Hagar as marzban (general of a frontier province, "margrave") over the "Do-sar and Borg-gil by the wall of the Arabs." He also deported the prominent Azd tribe from Oman to Shihr on the Hadhramaut coast. During the childhood of shah Shapur II (r. 309–379), Arab nomads made several incursions into the Sasanian homeland of Pars, where they raided Gor and its surroundings. Furthermore, they also made incursions into Meshan and Mazun. At the age of 16, Shapur II led an expedition against the Arabs; primarily campaigning against the Iyad tribe in Asoristan and thereafter he crossed the Persian Gulf, reaching eastern Arabia. He proceeded to attack the Banu Tamim in the Al Hajar Mountains. Shapur II reportedly killed a large number of the Arab population and destroyed their water supplies by stopping their wells with sand.

After having dealt with the Arabs of eastern Arabia, he continued his expedition into western Arabia and Syria, where he attacked several cities—he even went as far as Medina. Because of his cruel way of dealing with the Arabs, he was called Dhū l-Aktāf "he who pierces shoulders" by them. Not only did Shapur II pacify the Arabs of the Persian Gulf, but he also pushed many Arab tribes further deep into the Arabian Peninsula. Furthermore, he also deported some Arab tribes by force; the Taghlib to Bahrain and Hatta; the Banu Abdul Qays and Banu Tamim to Hagar; the Banu Bakr to Kirman, and the Banu Hanzalah to a place near Hormizd-Ardashir. Sasanian garrisons were established in Oman's strategic coast in Al Batinah Region, including the tip of the Musandam Peninsula, Sohar, and Rustaq. Shapur II, in order to prevent the Arabs from making more raids into his country, ordered the construction of a wall near al-Hirah, which became known as war-i tāzigān ("wall of the Arabs").

With Eastern Arabia more firmly under Sasanian control, and with the establishment of Sasanian garrison troops, the way for Zoroastrianism was opened. Pre-Islamic Arabian poets often makes mention of Zoroastrianism practices, which they must have either made contact with in Asoristan or Eastern Arabia. In c. 531/2, shah Khosrow I (r. 531–579) appointed the Lakhmid king al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man as the ruler of Mazun.

A late Sasanian fort is recently excavated in Fulayj, Oman.

Christianity

See also: Christianity in pre-Islamic Arabia

Christianity was introduced to Mazun by the fifth century AD. It became a formal ecclesiastical region known as Beth Mazunaye, and along with Beth Qatraye, was one of the two principal ecclesiastical territories of eastern Arabia, subject to the theological, liturgical, and administrative authority of the Church of the East metropolitan of Rev Ardashir in Fars.

The Synodicon Orientale, a compilation of the synods of the Church of the East, suggests that for over two centuries, there was a continued existence of an organized episcopal community in Mazun. A bishop of Mazun named John is said to have attended the synod of Dadisho in 424. David of Mazun appears in connection with the synod held under Aba I in 544, while Samuel of Mazun attended the synod of Ezekiel in 576. A bishop of Mazon is recorded again in the 676 synod, which is the last synod in the records of the Synodicon.

The location of the episcopal seat of Beth Mazunaye is unknown. Hoyland and Power tentatively suggest Tu'am, described by later Arabic geographers as the principal town of Oman and a center of pearl fishing, as one possibility. They propose that Tu'am may be connected with the settlement excavated on Siniyah Island, although neither identification has been confirmed.

Nestorianism was one of the Christian sects practiced in Beth Mazunaye.

Letters of Ishoʿyahb III

The most detailed documentation for the Christians of Mazun soon after the early Muslim conquests is the letters of Ishoyahb III, patriarch of the Church of the East from 649 to 659 AD. Ishoyahb accused the Christians of Mazun of abandoning Christianity after the Muslim conquest to avoid paying a tax that would require them to renounce a portion of their property. According to his letters, many chose conversion over this. He contrasted the conduct of the people who chose this path over those that accepted persecution or martyrdom elsewhere and claimed that only a small remnant of clergy remained. The correspondence nevertheless helps demonstrate that Mazun had a large Christian population at the beginning of Islamic rule.

Archaeology

Further information: Archaeology of Oman

Archaeological excavations at Mazun have been concentrated in the northern region. A substantial Christian settlement and monastery have been excavated on Siniyah Island (in the modern-day UAE). Radiocarbon dating indicates that the occupation of these sites took place during the late Sasanian and early Islamic periods, with construction likely beginning before or shortly after the end of Sasanian rule.

Siniyah has also produced evidence for large residential buildings and pearl fishing, making it a candidate for an important settlement within northern Mazon.

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