Al-Ubulla

Al-Ubulla (Arabic: الأبلة), called Apologou (Greek: '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

 

The city, shown as "al-Ubullah" northeast of al-Basrah, 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.^[1][2] 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.^[3][4] The 'Ashar neighborhood of modern Basra currently occupies the site of al-Ubulla.^[5][6]

History

Al-Ubulla is identified with the ancient city of Apologou mentioned in the Greek manuscript Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.^[5] The city dates at least to the Sasanian era (3rd–7th centuries CE), and possibly before.^[1] According to the 10th-century chronicler Eutychius of Alexandria, it was founded by the Sasanian emperor Ardashir I (r. 212–224).^[5] Toward the end of the Sasanian period, it typically formed part of the territories of the Empire's al-Hira-based Lakhmid vassals.^[1]

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.^[7][8] 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)".^[5] 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.^[5]

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).^[5] Yaqut al-Hamawi praised the city and Ibn Hawqal describes the border lands of the Nahr al-Ubulla as a single extensive garden.^[5] Al-Ubulla supplied Basra with fresh water and was noted for its linens and shipbuilding.^[5] 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]".^[5]

The 13th-century Mongol invasions brought about a decline of several places in this part of Iraq, including al-Ubulla.^[5] The 14th-century traveler Ibn Batuta described it as a mere village and around this time it disappeared from the historical record.^[5]

References

1. Bosworth 1999, p. 357, note 850.
2. Kramers 2000, p. 765.
3. Kramers 2000, pp. 765–766.
4. Fred McGraw Donner, The Early Islamic Conquests (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), 46, 160.
5. Kramers 2000, p. 766.
6. Gibb 1962, p. 281, note 40.
7. Donner, 174-176, 179.
8. 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.

Bibliography

• Bosworth, C. E., ed. (1999). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume V: The Sāsānids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-4355-2.
• Donner, Fred McGraw (1981). The Early Islamic Conquests. Princeton University Press.
• Gibb, H. A. R. (1962). The Travels of Ibn Battuta, A.D. 1325-1354, Volume 2. The Hakluyt Society at Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781351539920.
• Huntingford, G.W.B. (2010). The Periplus of The Erythraean Sea, By an Unknown Author. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company.
• Kramers, J. H. (2000). "Ubulla". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume X: T–U. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 765–766. ISBN 978-90-04-11211-7.

Further reading

• Ramini, Irsan; Al-Zuraiqi, Heba (2020). "The Muslim Conquest of the City of al-Ubulla". Journal of Islamic Studies. 31 (2): 173–184. doi:10.1093/jis/etaa004.