al-Ubulla

{{Short description|Ancient port city east of Basra in modern-day Iraq}}

{{wikidatacoord}}Al-Ubulla ({{langx|ar|الأبلة}}), called Apologou ({{langx|el|'Απολόγου 'Εμπόριον}}) by the Greeks in the pre-Islamic period, was a port city at the head of the Persian Gulf east of Basra in present-day Iraq. In the medieval period, it served as Iraq's principal commercial port for trade with India.

Location

File:Zanj Rebellion Small.svg, on a map of 9th-century Iraq (lower Mesopotamia)]]

Al-Ubulla was situated on the right bank of the Euphrates–Tigris estuary at the opening into the Persian Gulf.{{sfn|Bosworth|1999|p=357, note 850}}{{sfn|Kramers|2000|p=765}} It was located to the east of old Basra and lay on the northern side of the eponymous canal, the Nahr al-Ubulla, which connected Basra southeastwards to the Tigris river, Abadan (in modern Iran) and ultimately to the Persian Gulf.{{sfn|Kramers|2000|pp=765–766}}Fred McGraw Donner, The Early Islamic Conquests (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), 46, 160. The 'Ashar neighborhood of modern Basra currently occupies the site of al-Ubulla.{{sfn|Kramers|2000|p=766}}{{sfn|Gibb|1962|p=281, note 40}}

History

Al-Ubulla is identified with the ancient city of Apologou mentioned in the Greek manuscript Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.{{sfn|Kramers|2000|p=766}} The city dates at least to the Sasanian era (3rd–7th centuries CE), and possibly before.{{sfn|Bosworth|1999|p=357, note 850}} According to the 10th-century chronicler Eutychius of Alexandria, it was founded by the Sasanian emperor Ardashir I ({{reign|212|224}}).{{sfn|Kramers|2000|p=766}} Toward the end of the Sasanian period, it typically formed part of the territories of the Empire's al-Hira-based Lakhmid vassals.{{sfn|Bosworth|1999|p=357, note 850}}

During the early Muslim conquests in the 630s, al-Ubulla was conquered by the Arab forces of Utba ibn Ghazwan al-Mazini after the defeat of its 500-man Sasanian garrison. In fact the stubborn port city had to be conquered in two separate occasions by ʿUtba b. Ghazwān.Donner, 174-176, 179.Heba al-Zuraiqi & Irsan Ramini, “The Muslim Conquest of the City of al-Ubulla” in the Journal of Islamic Studies, Vol. 31, No. 2 (2020), 173-184. In a letter attributed to Utba, he describes the city as the "port of al-Bahrayn (eastern Arabia), Uman, al-Hind (India) and al-Sin (China)".{{sfn|Kramers|2000|p=766}} Following the foundation of the Arab garrison town of Basra further inland, al-Ubulla declined in strategic importance but remained a major trade port until the Mongol invasion.{{sfn|Kramers|2000|p=766}}

As indicated by the medieval Arabic geographers, al-Ubulla continued to be a large town, more populous than Basra, throughout the Abbasid era (750–1258).{{sfn|Kramers|2000|p=766}} Yaqut al-Hamawi praised the city and Ibn Hawqal describes the border lands of the Nahr al-Ubulla as a single extensive garden.{{sfn|Kramers|2000|p=766}} Al-Ubulla supplied Basra with fresh water and was noted for its linens and shipbuilding.{{sfn|Kramers|2000|p=766}} In 942, the governor of Uman captured the city on his way to Basra during his conflict with its strongman Abu'l-Husayn al-Baridi and his brother Abu Abdallah al-Baridi. According to the historian J. H. Kramers, the events of its occupation demonstrate its weakness as "a bulwark for that city [Basra]".{{sfn|Kramers|2000|p=766}}

The 13th-century Mongol invasions brought about a decline of several places in this part of Iraq, including al-Ubulla.{{sfn|Kramers|2000|p=766}} The 14th-century traveler Ibn Batuta described it as a mere village and around this time it disappeared from the historical record.{{sfn|Kramers|2000|p=766}}

References

Bibliography

{{The History of al-Tabari |volume=5 |url={{Gbook|p2UHIQ9WyJ4C|plainurl=y}}}}
{{cite book |last1=Donner |first1=Fred McGraw |title=The Early Islamic Conquests. |date=1981 |publisher=Princeton University Press.}}
{{cite book |last1=Gibb |first1=H. A. R. |title=The Travels of Ibn Battuta, A.D. 1325-1354, Volume 2 |date=1962 |publisher=The Hakluyt Society at Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781351539920 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dS4rDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA281 }}
{{cite book |last1=Huntingford |first1=G.W.B. |title=The Periplus of The Erythraean Sea, By an Unknown Author. |date=2010 |publisher=Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company.}}
{{EI2 |article=Ubulla |last=Kramers |first=J. H. |volume=10 |pages=765–766}}

al-Ubulla

Location

History

References

Bibliography

Further reading