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The ʿIbād or ʿEbād (Arabic: عِباد) were a Christian Arab group within the city of al-Ḥīra (Ḥirtā) during Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, when the city was part of the Sasanian Empire and later the Caliphate. Of diverse tribal backgrounds, the ʿIbād were united only by their adherence to Christianity and, after the sixth century, the Church of the East.
Written sources of ʿIbādī history are found in Arabic, Syriac and Greek.
The most extensive sources on the ʿIbād are in Arabic. These tend to focus on kings and poets, and are also concerned with tribal genealogies. From the Abbasid period, they also tend to idealize the pre-Islamic past, the jāhiliyya. An important authority on the ʿIbād in the Arabic tradition is Ḥishām ibn al-Kalbī (d. 819), who consulted ʿIbādī books and archives in al-Ḥīra. He thus passes on something of the ʿIbād's own perception of themselves, their history and their city. His monograph about the ʿIbād is titled The Churches and Monasteries of al-Ḥīra and the Genealogies of the ʿIbādīs. Both al-Ṭabarī and Abuʾl-Faraj use it as their main source on al-Ḥīra.
Oral tradition also informed Arabic historiography. In the twelfth century, Abuʾl-Baqāʾ of al-Ḥilla wrote that the history of the Lakhmid dynasty that had ruled the region before Islam was taught to schoolchildren.
Syriac sources are all ecclesiastical. Their concerns and tendencies are completely different from those of the Arab Islamic historiography. They are concerned only with saints, holy men and clerics and often exaggerate their sufferings.
The archaeology of the region of al-Ḥīra and the study of the architecture of the Church of the East are underexplored and underdeveloped. Although both Arabic and Syriac sources name many churches and monasteries associated with the ʿIbād, none has yet been identified with any existing ruins.
The Arabic term ʿibād means "servants" or "devotees". It is a plural form of ʿabd, which could mean a servant (i.e., of God) or slave. In the Qurʾān, it is equivalent to the plural form ʿabīd, although later usage would reserve it for servants of God and ʿabīd for slaves.
ʿIbād is probably a contraction of the phrase ʿibād al-Rabb ("slaves of the Lord"), ʿibād al-Masīḥ ("servants of the Messiah") or ʿibād Allāḥ ("servants of God"), an expression reflecting a sense of being the only genuine worshipers of God. It seems to have been the self-designation of the Christians of al-Ḥīra. Although in later Islamic literature the term usually referred to the Christians of al-Ḥīra exclusively, it may sometimes have been used as a synonym for Christians generally, as in the phrase al-ʿIbādiyyūn min Tamīm ("the Christians of Tamīm") found in the Kitāb al-Aghānī of Abuʾl-Faraj, or for Christians of the Church of the East, as when Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 1175) distinguishes between the erstwhile "Jacobite" churches and the "churches of the ʿIbād" in Damascus.
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Ibad
The ʿIbād or ʿEbād (Arabic: عِباد) were a Christian Arab group within the city of al-Ḥīra (Ḥirtā) during Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, when the city was part of the Sasanian Empire and later the Caliphate. Of diverse tribal backgrounds, the ʿIbād were united only by their adherence to Christianity and, after the sixth century, the Church of the East.
Written sources of ʿIbādī history are found in Arabic, Syriac and Greek.
The most extensive sources on the ʿIbād are in Arabic. These tend to focus on kings and poets, and are also concerned with tribal genealogies. From the Abbasid period, they also tend to idealize the pre-Islamic past, the jāhiliyya. An important authority on the ʿIbād in the Arabic tradition is Ḥishām ibn al-Kalbī (d. 819), who consulted ʿIbādī books and archives in al-Ḥīra. He thus passes on something of the ʿIbād's own perception of themselves, their history and their city. His monograph about the ʿIbād is titled The Churches and Monasteries of al-Ḥīra and the Genealogies of the ʿIbādīs. Both al-Ṭabarī and Abuʾl-Faraj use it as their main source on al-Ḥīra.
Oral tradition also informed Arabic historiography. In the twelfth century, Abuʾl-Baqāʾ of al-Ḥilla wrote that the history of the Lakhmid dynasty that had ruled the region before Islam was taught to schoolchildren.
Syriac sources are all ecclesiastical. Their concerns and tendencies are completely different from those of the Arab Islamic historiography. They are concerned only with saints, holy men and clerics and often exaggerate their sufferings.
The archaeology of the region of al-Ḥīra and the study of the architecture of the Church of the East are underexplored and underdeveloped. Although both Arabic and Syriac sources name many churches and monasteries associated with the ʿIbād, none has yet been identified with any existing ruins.
The Arabic term ʿibād means "servants" or "devotees". It is a plural form of ʿabd, which could mean a servant (i.e., of God) or slave. In the Qurʾān, it is equivalent to the plural form ʿabīd, although later usage would reserve it for servants of God and ʿabīd for slaves.
ʿIbād is probably a contraction of the phrase ʿibād al-Rabb ("slaves of the Lord"), ʿibād al-Masīḥ ("servants of the Messiah") or ʿibād Allāḥ ("servants of God"), an expression reflecting a sense of being the only genuine worshipers of God. It seems to have been the self-designation of the Christians of al-Ḥīra. Although in later Islamic literature the term usually referred to the Christians of al-Ḥīra exclusively, it may sometimes have been used as a synonym for Christians generally, as in the phrase al-ʿIbādiyyūn min Tamīm ("the Christians of Tamīm") found in the Kitāb al-Aghānī of Abuʾl-Faraj, or for Christians of the Church of the East, as when Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 1175) distinguishes between the erstwhile "Jacobite" churches and the "churches of the ʿIbād" in Damascus.