The region of Baḥrayn in eastern Arabia during the post-Qarmāṭian era has received little attention from scholars because of the scarcity of local written sources and the daunting task of gathering scattered small pieces of information from other sources in more than one language. This thesis focuses on the politics, geopolitics, economy, literature and religion of Baḥrayn from c. 1050 to c. 1400 CE. It consists of eight chapters in addition to an introduction and a conclusion. The introduction presents the research framework of the thesis. World-systems Analysis in a pre-capitalist setting is used to analyse Baḥrayn’s hierarchical position in the Near East according to its economic, political and cultural characteristics. It also sets out the historical background and context of the region, presents the thesis’ questions and structure, reviews modern studies and summarises the extant literary and archaeological evidence. Chapter One describes the historical geography and economy of Baḥrayn and analyses the impact of the region’s geography and the wider economic context on its history. Chapter Two studies the two rebellions against the Qarāmiṭa on the island of Uwāl and in the city of al-Qaṭīf, which led to the establishment of the emirate of Āl al-Zajjāj and the emirate of Āl ʿAbbās. Chapters Three and Four deal with the rise and decline of the ʿUyūnid emirate (1077-1230s CE) and study the ʿUyūnids’ institutions, including their administration and army formation. Chapter Five concentrates on the powers that ruled the region of Baḥrayn after the fall of the ʿUyūnid emirate in 1230s CE: the ʿUqaylid emirate in al-Aḥsāʾ and the deserts of Baḥrayn and Najd, and the Iranian-based polities that ruled Uwāl and al-Qaṭīf. Chapter Six focuses on literature produced in Baḥrayn, presenting biographies of its poets and analyses of the commentary of the poetry collection of the poet ʿAlī ibn al-Muqarrab al-ʿUyūnī and Abū al-Buhlūl’s letter. It also examines the relationship between the poets and the emirs of the ʿUyūnid emirate. Finally, Chapters Seven and Eight shed light on religion in Baḥrayn. They examine the region’s communities of Shīʿites and Sunnis which appear to have adhered to popular forms of Ismāʿīlism, Twelverism, Ḥanafism and Shāfiʿism. The question of scholars and scholarship in Baḥrayn from the twelfth to the fourteenth century is revisited. It is argued that the current consensus that attributes a number of 12th-14th century Twelver scholars who held the nisba of al-Baḥrānī to Baḥrayn lacks early evidence, appeared in a Safavid context and indeed contrasts with the evidence for the region’s peripherality and other evidence that suggests a lack of scholars in the region.

Les campagnes de fouilles menées sur plusieurs sites antiques et islamiques en Arabie orientale ont livré des macrorestes botaniques et entomologiques. Les sites inclus dans le corpus sont Qal’at al-Bahreïn (Royaume de Bahreïn), Kush et Mleiha (E.A.U.) et Fulayj et Qalhât (Sultanat d’Oman). Ce travail se base sur des analyses carpologiques, anthracologiques, xylologiques et archéoentomologiques. Il s’attache à déterminer les stratégies d’approvisionnement et de gestion des ressources végétales mises en place par les sociétés des périodes historiques, de l’Antiquité à l’arrivée des Portugais dans l’océan Indien, au sein d’un environnement aride contraignant et d’un contexte de dynamiques commerciales. L’agriculture est reconnue sous la forme de palmeraies, un agrosystème oasien, polycultural et irrigué, au sein desquelles étaient cultivés des céréales, des légumineuses, des fruitiers et des condiments. Des informations concernant les modalités de stockage et des mesures de conservation et de protection des denrées alimentaires ont été mises en évidence dans le contexte incendié de Mleiha. Les ravageurs des produits stockés auxquels les sociétés devaient faire face ont été déterminés. L’acquisition du combustible se basait sur une optimisation des ressources disponibles issues des différentes formations végétales de la région, du système agricole et d’activités de rejets. Un grand nombre de taxons allochtones a été trouvé, correspondant à des plantes cultivées et du bois de plantes sauvages ligneuses, ainsi que des insectes. Les plantes cultivées correspondent surtout à des taxons d’origine tropicale et sub-tropicale pour lesquels il est généralement difficile de déterminer s’ils ont été importés ou s’ils ont pu être acclimatés localement. Le contexte de dynamiques commerciales au sein du golfe Persique et de l’océan Indien aux périodes antique et islamique semble avoir favorisé l’importation et l’acclimatation de plantes allochtones, voire d’insectes, en Arabie orientale. / Excavations conducted on several classical and Islamic period sites in eastern Arabia have provided botanical and insect macroremains. The sites included in our study are Qal’al al-Bahrain (Kingdom of Bahrain), Kush and Mleiha (U.A.E.) and Fulayj and Qalhât (Sultanate of Oman). This work is based on the analysis of seeds/fruits, charcoal (anthracology), wood (xylology) and insect remains (entomology). It aims at understanding the supplying strategies and the management of plant resources by the societies of historical periods, from Antiquity to the arrival of the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean, in an environment marked by aridity and a context of trade dynamics. Agriculture is recognised in the form of date palm gardens, an oasis agrosystem with multi-cropping and irrigation in which cereals, pulses, fruit trees and condiments were cultivated. Information concerning the storage as well as measures of conservation and protection of foodstuffs has been obtained from a burnt context at Mleiha. Parasites attacking storage of food that the past populations had to face have been determined. The procurement of fuel was based on the optimal use of resources present in the different local plant communities, in agricultural systems and the use of waste. A large number of allochtonous plant taxa have been identified, corresponding to cultivated plants and wood from wild-growing trees, as well as insects. The cultivated plants correspond mainly to taxa of tropical and subtropical origin for which it is generally difficult to determine if they were brought to the sites as importations or if they could have been acclimatised locally. The context of trade dynamics across the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean during the classical and Islamic periods seem to have favoured the importation and acclimatisation of allochtonous plants, or even insects, in eastern Arabia.