A CENTRAL FEATURE of early Arab military operations in Fars is that they were carried out-first of all solely, and later mainly-by tribesmen from ‘Umān and al-Ba﹜:lrayn.Those tribesmen had crossed by sea to Fars and had no connection with Ba∼ra. Their commander until 29/650 was ‘Uthmān ibn AbTī ‘1-'.Āsim; al-Thaqafi, who held the post of governor of al-Ba﹜)rayn and operated independently of the governors of Ba∼ra. It was not until 29/650 that the Ba∼ran and Ba﹜)rayn- Fārs commands were fused. In that year, says KhalTfa ibn Khayyāt, “'Uthmān ibn ‘Affān dismissed Abu Musā from Ba∼ra and ‘Uthmān ibn AbT ‘1-'.Āsim; from Fars; he made the combined command over to ‘Abdallāh ibn ‘Amir ibn Kurayz” . The account given by al-Tabarī is similar: “'Abdallah ibn ‘Amir arrived [at Ba∼ra] and the armies of Abu Musā and of ‘Uthman ibn AbT ‘1-'Āsim; al-Thaqafi were combined under his command; ‘Uthmān ibn AbT ‘1-'Āsim; was among those who had crossed from ‘ Umān and al-Ba﹜)rayn” .

The role of the ‘UmānT and Ba﹜)raynī tribesmen with ‘Uthmān ibn Abī ‘1-'Āsim; in the Arab occupation of Fars was recognized (indeed overstated) by Wellhausen in 18gg: “Die Eroberung des eigentlichen Fārs ist in der Tat von dem gegeniiberliegenden Bahrain ausgegangen” ; and it was to some extent apparent too to Caetani. But it has not been adequately recognized in more recent work: the brief and confused account given by Spuler refers only once to ‘Uthmān ibn Abī ‘1-'Āsim;; and Shahan, who does not mention him at all, not only has the army of which he was in charge pull out of Fars, but also has it do so as early as the caliphate of ‘Umar, that is, by 23/644: “Failing to establish a safe base in Fars, the tribesmen withdrew to the safer area of Basra where they were joined mainly by their fellow tribesmen of eastern Arabia”.

Both scholars fail to attend to something which was clear to Wellhausen and Caetani, namely, that the material transmitted by Sayf ibn ‘Umar apud al-'fabarT-in respect of Fars no less than more generallyis very much at variance with what other sources have to say.