Diyar Rabi'a (Arabic:دِيَارُ رَبِيعَةَ,romanized: Diyār Rabīʿa,lit. 'abode ofRabi'a') is the medievalArabic name of the easternmost and largest of the three provinces of theJazira (UpperMesopotamia), the other two beingDiyar Bakr andDiyar Mudar. According to the medieval geographeral-Baladhuri, all three provinces were named after the main Arab tribes that were settled there byMu'awiya in the course of theMuslim conquests of the 7th century. The Diyar Rabi'a was settled by theRabi'a tribe.
Diyar Rabi'a encompasses the upper reaches of the riverKhabur and its tributaries, i.e. the regions ofTur Abdin andBeth Arabaye, as well as both shores of the riverTigris from the vicinity ofJazirat ibn Umar in the north to the boundary withIraq in the area ofTikrit in the south, including the lower reaches of theUpper Zab andLower Zab. The main city of the province wasMosul (Arabic al-Mawsil), with other important urban centres atBalad,Jazirat ibn Umar,al-Sinn,Barqa'id,Sinjar,Nisibis,Mardin andRa's al-'Ayn. According to Michael Morony, Nisibis had been the administrative center of the region from the Sassanian times to the Abbasid period, though this is supported only from the evidence from the Abbasid period. It seems likely, that during the Ummayad period the Diyar Rabi'a was not yet a administrative subdivision of the Jazira province and was only created in Abbasid times.[1]
In the 690s, the region became part of the Jazira province whose oversight was given toMuhammad ibn Marwan, who ruled from Harran.[1] The region was plagued by the raids of theQarmatians in theAbbasid period. In the mid-10th century, it came under the control of the nativeHamdanid dynasty, centred at Mosul. The Hamdanid emirate was terminated by theBuyids in 980, and the province passed under the control of theUqaylids, who held it until theSeljuq conquest in the late 11th century.