Bawarij

Bawarij gained their name from Barija, a type of Dhow.[1]

Bawarij (Sindhi: باوارج‎; sg. Sindhi: برجا‎) were pirates from India and Sindh,[2] who were named for their distinctive barja warships (which means "large vessels of war" in Arabic)[3] who were active between 251 and 865 AD.[4] They looted Arab shipping bound for the Indian subcontinent and China, but entirely converted to Islam during the rule of the Samma dynasty (1335–1520).[5] They are mentioned by Ma'sudi as frequenting the pirate den at Socotra and other scholars describes them as pirates and sailors of Sindh. Their frequent piracy and the incident in which they looted two treasure ships coming from Ceylon became the casus belli for the Umayyad conquest of Sindh.[6]

Ibn Batuta describes their ships as having fifty rowers, and fifty men-at-arms and wooden roofs to protect against arrows and stones. Tabari describes them in an attack upon Basra in 866 CE as having one pilot (istiyam), three fire-throwers (naffatun), a baker, a carpenter and thirty-nine rowers and fighters making up a complement of forty-five.[7] These ships were unsuited for warlike maneuvers and lacked the sleek prows or ramming capabilities of other contemporary naval units, but were intended to provide for hand-to-hand battles for crew upon boarding.[5]

History

In the ninth century, Maritime raids into the Arabian sea and the Arabian gulf was a problem.[2] On March 27, 865 CE, ten bawarij deepwater ships sailed from al-Basrah. Each of these ten vessels was crewed by a ship's captain, three sailors who hurled fire onto enemy ships, a carpenter, a baker, and thirty-nine rowers and warriors. As a result, each vessel had a total crew of forty-five individuals. That night, the bawarij pirates arrived at the island facing the palace of Ibn Tahir, and later they reached the Shammasiyyah area.[8]

The bawarij pirates on the ships opened fire on the Turks, forcing them to move their camp from the low-lying area of al-Shammasiyyah to Abū Ja'far's garden near the bridge. It then became clear to the Turks that they had to retreat even higher, to a location above their previous camp, in order to escape the fire being thrown at them.[8]

Imam Ghassan had received a letter from Munir, an Ibadhi missionary from Basra. In the letter, Munir laments the attacks in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Gulf carried out by the Bawarij pirates from India. In particular, Munir also strongly laments the killing of fifty people by the Bawarijs during their attack.[2] Imam Ghassan moved to Sohar for 5 years in response to the problem caused by Bawarij pirates. In his stay in Sohar, he formed the first naval force of Oman in order to protect the coastal communities and ships of Oman against attacks from Indian pirate raiders called al-bawārijs or Bawarijs.[2]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Hourani, George Fadlo; Carswell, John (1995), Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times, Princeton University Press.
  2. ^ a b c d Salimi, Abdulrahman Al; Staples, Eric (2017). Oman: A Maritime History. Olms, Georg. p. 88. ISBN 978-3-487-15390-2.
  3. ^ "Indian Pirates: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day", by Rajaram Narayan Saletore, page 18
  4. ^ Agius, Dionisius A. (2008). Classic Ships of Islam: From Mesopotamia to the Indian Ocean. BRILL. p. 385. ISBN 978-90-04-15863-4.
  5. ^ a b Laurier, pg. 132
  6. ^ Saletore, Rajaram Narayan (1978). Indian Pirates. Concept Publishing Company. p. 21.
  7. ^ Hourani pg. 114
  8. ^ a b al-Ṭabarī, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr (1985-01-01). The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 35: The Crisis of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate: The Caliphates of al-Mustaʿīn and al-Muʿtazz A.D. 862-869/A.H. 248-255. State University of New York Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-87395-883-7.

References


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