Product Code Database
The Bajīla () was an Arab tribe that inhabited the mountains south of Mecca in the pre-Islamic era and later dispersed to different parts of Arabia and then Iraq under the Muslims. The tribe, under one of its chieftains Jarir ibn Abd Allah, played a major role in the Muslim army that conquered Iraq in the mid-7th century.
In Muhammad's last years, a Qasri chieftain, Jarir ibn Abd Allah al-Bajali, led a delegation of 150 of his tribesmen and converted to Islam in the prophet's presence. They were subsequently dispatched to demolish the Dhul Khalasa sanctuary, which the polytheistic Bajila and Khath'am tribes had worshiped until then. Many Bajila clans, namely those inhabiting southern Arabia, reverted to polytheism following Muhammad's death in 632, but returned to Muslim authority after the punitive campaigns of their kinsmen Jarir, who remained loyal to the Muslims.Donner 1981, p. 201. Jarir became an effective Muslim commander under caliphs Abu Bakr (632–634) and Umar (r. 634–644). During the latter's rule, the Bajila under Jarir were a powerful component of the Muslim army that conquered Iraq (Lower Mesopotamia), accounting for 700 to over 1,500 warriors, and were accorded a fourth of the lands of its agriculturally rich Sawad region. Many of the Bajali clans that had become attached to other tribes were directed by Umar to come under Jarir's chieftainship. According to historian Julius Wellhausen, the ascent of Islam rejuvenated the Bajila to a certain degree following a period of severe decline.Wellhausen 1927, p. 328.
|
|
