Banu Tamim (Arabic tribe)

Abu Bakr moves in the fourth week of August 632 to Zhu Qissa with all available fighting forces.

Here he plans the strategy of the Campaign of the Apostasy to deal with the various enemies who occupy the entire land of Arabia except for the small area in the possession of the Muslims.

The battles which he had fought recently against the apostate concentrations at Zhu Qissa and Abraq had been in the nature of immediate preventive action to protect Medina and discourage further offensives by the enemy.

These actions have enabled Abu Bakr to secure a base from which he can fight the major campaign that lies ahead, thus gaining time for the preparation and launching of his main forces.

Abu Bakr has to fight not one but several enemies: Tulayha at Buzakha, Malik bin Nuwaira at Butah, Musaylima at Yamamah.

He has to deal with widespread apostasy on the eastern and southern coasts of Arabia: in Bahrain, in Oman, in Mahra, in Hadhramaut and in Yemen.

There is apostasy in the region south and east of Mecca and by the Khuza’ah in northern Arabia.

Abu Bakr forms the army into several corps.

The strongest corps, the main striking arm of the Muslims, is that of Khalid ibn Walid, used to fight the most powerful of the rebel forces.

Other corps are given areas of secondary importance in which to subdue the less dangerous apostate tribes.

The first corps to go into action is that of Khalid.

The timing of the dispatch of other corps hinges on the operations of Khalid, who is tasked with fighting the strongest enemy forces one after the other.

As soon as the organization of the corps is complete, Khalid marches off, to be followed a little later by Ikrimah and 'Amr ibn al-'As.

The other corps are held back by the caliph to be dispatched weeks and even months later.

Before the various corps leave Zhu Qissa, however, envoys will be sent by Abu Bakr to all apostate tribes in a final attempt to induce them to submit.

Apart from their specific objectives, the corps commanders are given the following instructions: Seek the tribes that are your objectives Call the Azaan.

If the tribe answers with the Azaan, do not attack.

After the Azaan, ask the tribe to confirm its submission, including the payment of zakat.

If confirmed, do not attack.

Those who submit will not be attacked.

Those who do not answer with the Azaan, or after the Azaan do not confirm full submission, will be dealt with by the sword.

All apostates who have killed Muslims will be killed.

With these instructions, Abu Bakr launches the forces of Islam against the apostates.

His plan is first to clear the area of west central Arabia (the area nearest to Medina), then tackle Malik bin Nuwaira, and finally concentrate against the most dangerous and powerful enemy: the self-proclaimed prophet Musaylima, who is mainly supported by the powerful tribe of Banu Hanifa, in the fertile region of Yamamah.

The economy on the Arab side of the Persian Gulf does not match past prosperity, but conditions on the coast remain better than those in central Arabia.

Limited agriculture exists, and the gulf waters contain rich oyster beds for harvesting pearls.

The area's easy access to India, a major market for pearls, makes the pearling industry particularly lucrative, and this attracts the attention of tribes in the interior, who increasingly begin to move and settle into the coastal centers of the Persian Gulf.

One such group, the Al Thani (a branch of the Arab tribe Tamim) lives in the eastern part of the Arabian peninsula, long settled around the well-known Jibrin oasis in what is now Saudi Arabia, south of the present Saudi capital of Riyadh.

The Al-Thani, who arrive in Qatar in the early- to mid-eighteenth century, initially settle in the northern part of the peninsula.

Originally Bedouin, the Al Thani, after settling in Qatar, engage in fishing, pearling, date palm cultivation, and trade.