RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESThe pagans at 'Ayn Namir were converted by Mar 'Abda ibn Hanlf
in the seventh century, beginning with the chief priest, Marziiq, who
helped to break the idols, destroy the temples, and build churches.^58
On the Monophysite side, the convent dedicated to the Theotokos
which Mariitha built at Beth Ebhre was said to be on a site that
previously had been occupied by a temple of idols, where demons were
worshiped, and which had been a place of "lewd, debauched, and
base deeds."59 The sanctity of such places was preserved by the Chris-
tians who captured it for themselves.
In Arabia, pagan Arabs abandoned idolatry en masse to become
Muslims in the third and fourth decades of the seventh century. Chris-
tians were destroying some of the last pagan shrines in Iraq when
MUQammad cleared the Ka'ba of its images and made it an Islamic
shrine in 630. Muslims also destroyed the shrines of the Daughters of
Allah outside of Makka and at Ta'if, and the Qur'an (Sura 5 :60) puts
people who serve idols among the worst of unbelievers. The few re-
maining pagan Arabs in or near Iraq were attracted to the Islamic
movement even before the conquest. Ukaydir, the lord of the oasis of
Dumat Jandal southwest of Iraq, is said to have accepted Islam and
to have forsaken idols and objects of worship in the time of MUQam-
mad.^60 Labid ibn Jadr and 'Abd al-'Uzza are said to have gone from
Hira to Madina, where they became Muslims in the time of Abii Bakr
(632-34), who gave them letters confirming that they were Muslims.
But during Khalid's raid <;>n Iraq, they were found at the stronghold
of Musayyakh, and since no one could read the letters, the men were
killed.^61
PAGANS IN ISLAMIC IRAQ
Otherwise the Islamic conquest had little immediate effect on the
condition of paganism in Iraq. Most of the Arabs there were already
Christians, and Islamic iconoclasm would seem to have been fore-
stalled by the fact that there were few idols left to break. Pagans
survived the conquest of Iraq without being distinguished from the
rest of the tributary population, although an exception was made for
sorcerers. Muslims continued the Magian penalty of death for sorcery,
58 Ibid., II(2), 587-88.
59 Nau, "Ahoudernrneh," pp. 89-90.
60 Baliidhurr, Futu~, p. 61.
61 Tabari, Ta'rfkh, I, 2070-71.