ARABS: NATIVESof their settlement ranged from seasonal encampments and agricultural
villages to towns and cities adjoining the regions of pastoralist con-
centration. Representatives of most of the pastoralist groups could be
found among the settled population. Members of Rabi'a and Taghlib
had settled in the villages of Beth 'Arbhaye and at Nasibin.^32 lyad
lived at Takrit, and at an Arab suburb called Mabhrakhtha near
Mada'in.^33 Arabs were settled in villages and towns along the Eu-
phrates such as Haditha, Hit,34 Anbar, and Hira. Members of Namir
were settled at Anbar,35 and members of lyad and Kinda had settled
together with non-Arabs at the town of Sandawda near 'Ayn Tamr.36
There were also settlements of lyad and 'ljl along the Euphrates.J7
Hira was the political and cultural hub of this zone of Arab settle-
ment and, in spite of the presence of Persian soldiers and dahiiqzn, it
was considered to be an Arab city.38 The Arab population of Hira
was a mixture of many small groups of diverse tribal origins. Members
of Taniikh, Tayyi', Tamlm, Sulaym, 'Ijl, Shayban, Tha'laba, Asad,
Azd, Kalb, and others could be found at Hira.^39 The organization of
late Sas ani an Hira around several fortified enclosures (Ar. qu~ur) that
were identified with particular cians,40 the existence of tribal churches,41
and the political and social domination of the town by an elite of
notables (Ar. ashriif) belonging to the leading clans^42 make Hira a
good example of a late pre-Islamic Arab city as well as a prototype
for tribally organized early Islamic cities such as Kufa and Basra.
The assimilation of sedentary Arabs to the local culture of late
32 Ya'qiibi, Les pays, p. 229.
33 Chabot, Synodicon, pp. 43, 53, 285, 298; Guidi, Chronica Minora I, I, 23; n,21.
34 Bar Hebraeus, The Chronography of Gregory Abu'l Fara; the son of Aaron, the
Hebrew physician commonly known as Bar Hebraeus (London, 1932), p. 83.
3S Chabot, Synodicon, pp. 70, 321; Hoffmann, Persischer Martyrer, p. 83. The bishop
whom the Monophysite metropolitan Mariitha consecrated for Anbar in about 629
was also designated bishop "of the people of the Namiraye Arabs" (Nau, "AI:!oudem-
meh," p. 57).
36 Abii Yiisuf, Khara;, p. 226; Baladhuri, Futu~, p. 110.
37 Ibn al-Faqil)., Buldan, pp. 182-83; Trimingham, Christianity, pp. 117-18,284.
38 Chabot, "Chastete," p. 236; Guidi, Chronica Minora I, I, 29; 11, 25.
39 Baladhurl, Futu~, pp. 243-44; !:Iamza, Ta'rlkh, p. 86; Ibn al-Faqih, Buldiin, p.
179; Ibn Sallam, Kitiib al-Amwal (Cairo, 1969), p. 39; Mas'iidi, Muru;, 1,118; Tabari,
Ta'rlkh, I, 822, 2019; Trimingham, Christianity, pp. 171, 197-98,200,260,278-79;
Ya'qiibi, Les pays, pp. 140-41.
40 Baladhuri, Futu~, p. 244; Ibn al-Faqih, Buldan, p. 183; Mas'iidi, Mum;, I, 118;
Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2039; Trimingham, Christianity, pp. 197, 200.
41 Baladhuri, Futu~, p. 442; Trimingham, Christianity, p. 197.
42 Chabot, "Chastete," pp. 44, 261-62; Scher, "Histoire nestorienne," 11(2), 592;
Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2017; Trimingham, Christianity, pp. 171,279.