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Bilad al-Sham

Bilad al-Sham
بِلَاد الشَّام
Province of the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid caliphates
636–940s

Arab Syria (Bilad al-Sham) and its 6 military districts under the Abbasid Caliphate in the 9th century
CapitalDamascus
Historical eraLate antiquity, Middle Ages
636
656–661
• Tulunid control
878–905
• Partition between Hamdanids and Ikhshidids
940s
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Diocese of the East
Ikhshidid Dynasty
Hamdanid dynasty

Bilad al-Sham (Arabic: بِلَاد الشَّام, romanizedBilād 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.

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.


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