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Bilad al-Sham

Bilad al-Sham (Arabic: بِلَاد الشَّام, romanized: Bilād al-Shām), often referred to as Islamic Syria or simply Syria in English-language sources, was a province of the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid caliphates. It roughly corresponded with the Byzantine Diocese of the East, conquered by the Muslims in 634–647. Under the Umayyads (661–750), Bilad al-Sham was the metropolitan province of the Caliphate and different localities throughout the province served as the seats of the Umayyad caliphs and princes.

This article is about region of the early Caliphates. For the geographical region known as Greater Syria, see Syria (region). For other uses, see Shaam (disambiguation).

Bilad al-Sham
بِلَاد الشَّام

Damascus

Late antiquity, Middle Ages

636

656–661

878–905

940s

Bilad al-Sham was first organized into the four ajnad (military districts; singular jund) of Dimashq (Damascus), Hims (Homs), al-Urdunn (Jordan), and Filastin (Palestine), between 637 and 640 by Caliph Umar following the Muslim conquest. The jund of Qinnasrin was created out of the northern part of Hims by caliphs Mu'awiya I (r. 661–680) or Yazid I (r. 680–683). The Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) was made an independent province from the Mesopotamian part of Qinnasrin by Caliph Abd al-Malik in 692. In 786, the jund of al-Awasim and al-Thughur were established from the northern frontier region of Qinnasrin by Caliph Harun al-Rashid. As centralized Abbasid rule over Bilad al-Sham collapsed in the 10th century, control over the region was divided by several potentates and the ajnad only represented nominal divisions. The Abbasids and the Egypt-based Fatimid Caliphate continued to officially recognize the province and its ajnad until the Crusader invasions of the coastal regions in 1099.

Name

The name Bilad al-Sham in Arabic translates as "the left-hand region".[1][2] It was so named from the perspective of the people of the Hejaz (western Arabia), who considered themselves to be facing the rising sun, that the Syrian region was positioned to their left, while to their right was al-Yaman ("the right-hand-region").[1]

Geography

Bilad al-Sham comprised the area of Greater Syria, spanning the modern countries of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine, as well as the regions of Hatay, Gaziantep, and Diyarbakir in modern Turkey.[1] It was bound by the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the Syrian Desert in the east toward Iraq. The western, Mediterranean coastal range were characterized by rolling hills in Palestine in the south, rising to their highest points in Mount Lebanon in the center before becoming considerably lower in the Jabal Ansariya range in the north. Eastward from the coastal range, the ridges of inland Syria become gradually lower, with the exception of Mount Hermon north of the Golan, and include the ranges of the Anti-Lebanon, Jabal al-Ruwaq, and Jabal Bishri. With the termination of the inland ridges begins the mostly level Syrian steppe.[3]

(جُـنْـد دِمَـشْـق, "military district of Damascus"), with its capital at Damascus,[36] was the largest of the provinces and encompassed much of present-day Lebanon and territories east of the Jordan River known as the al-Balqa region.[37]

Jund Dimashq

(جُـنْـد فِـلَـسْـطِـيْـن, "military district of Palestine") stretched from Aqaba on the Red Sea and al-'Arish in the Sinai in the south to the lower Galilee in the north,[38] encompassing most of the territory of the Byzantine provinces of Palaestina Prima and Palaestina Tertia.[39] The Tulunids expanded the province eastwards and southwards, at the expense of Jund Dimasq, to include regions in modern-day southern Jordan and north-western Saudi Arabia.[40] Ramla was founded in 715 and became both the administrative capital and most important city in Palestine.[41]

Jund Filastin

(جُـنْـد الْأُرْدُنّ, "military district of the Jordan") corresponded with Palaestina Secunda and covered most of the Galilee and the western part of Peraea in Transjordan.[42] It also included the cities Acre and Tyre on the coast.[43] Tabariyyah (Tiberias) replaced Scythopolis as the new capital of the province.[44]

Jund al-Urdunn

(جُـنْـد حِـمْـص, "military district of Homs"), with its capital at Homs.[36]

Jund Hims

(جُـنْـد قِـنَّـسْـرِيْـن, "military district of Qinnasrin"), with its capital at Qinnasrin,[36] was carved out of the northern part of Jund Hims.

Jund Qinnasrin

(Outremer)

Crusader states

Middle East

Palaestina Prima

Syria Palaestina

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