The Lost Islands of Beth Qaṭraye

“The islands,” (Syr. gazrāthā) as they are called in a number of Syriac sources, including the eighth-century Synodicon orientale and the seventh-century patriarchal letters of Ishoʿyahb III, are a reference to those inhabited islands in the Arabian or Persian Gulf that specifically form part of the province of Beth Qaṭraye (Syriac for “region of the Qataris” in northeastern Arabia). The exact identification and location of at least six of these listed islands remains an enigma, although it is possible to come to certain preliminary conclusions using the information available to us in the Syriac and Arabic sources including the History of Mar Yawnan and the Chronicle of Seert. For example, using evidence from these two sources as well as others, it is argued in this article that the island of Ramath in the Chronicle of Seert and the Black Island referred to in the History of Mar Yawnan are today’s Failaka and Kharg Islands, respectively. In addition, more tentative reflections regarding the remaining unidentified islands are presented, including the possible location of Daray, Rūḥā, and Tālūn based on a cartographic reading of the Synodicon orientale. Furthermore, later Islamic sources are mined to sketch the maritime trade networks along which many Gulf islands were clearly integrated from the seventh to the tenth centuries AD. The article makes reference throughout to the Beth Qaṭraye Gazetteer, a recently launched online digital resource for late antique Arabia and the Persian Gulf introduced here for the first time.