Diyar Rabi'a in the context of Mu'awiya

Al-Jazira (Arabic: الجزيرة), also known as Jazirat Aqur or Iqlim Aqur, was a province of the Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, spanning at minimum most of Upper Mesopotamia (al-Jazira proper), divided between the districts of Diyar Bakr, Diyar Rabi'a and Diyar Mudar, and at times including Mosul, Arminiya and Adharbayjan as sub-provinces.

Following its conquest by the Muslim Arabs in 639/40, it became an administrative unit attached to the larger district of Jund Hims. It was separated from Hims during the reigns of caliphs Mu'awiya I or Yazid I and came under the jurisdiction of Jund Qinnasrin. It was made its own province in 692 by Caliph Abd al-Malik. After 702, it frequently came to span the key districts of Arminiya and Adharbayjan along the Caliphate's northern frontier, making it a super-province. The predominance of Arabs from the Qays/Mudar and Rabi'a groups made it a major recruitment pool of tribesmen for the Umayyad armies and the troops of the Jazira played a key military role under the Umayyad caliphs in the 8th century, peaking under the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II (r. 744–750), until the toppling of the Umayyads by the Abbasids in 750.

Diyar Bakr (Arabic: دِيَارُ بَكرٍ, romanized: Diyār Bakr, lit. 'abode of Bakr') is the medieval Arabic name of the northernmost of the three provinces of the Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), the other two being Diyar Mudar and Diyar Rabi'a. According to the medieval geographer al-Baladhuri, all three provinces were named after the main Arab tribes that were settled there by Mu'awiya in the course of the Muslim conquests of the 7th century. The Diyar Bakr was settled by the Rabi'a subgroup of the Banu Bakr, and hence the two provinces are sometimes referred to collectively as "Diyar Rabi'a". In later Turkish usage, "Diyar Bakr" referred to the western portion of the former province, around Amid (which hence became known as Diyarbakır in Turkish).

Diyar Bakr encompasses the region on both banks of the upper course of the river Tigris, from its sources to approximately where its course changes from a west-east to a southeasterly direction. Its main city was Amida (Amid in Arabic), and other major settlements included Mayyafariqin, Hisn Kaifa, and Arzan. Geographically and politically, in early Islamic times the Diyar Bakr was usually part of the Jazira, but it was sometimes joined to the Armenian province to the north. In the late 9th century, it was controlled by an autonomous dynasty founded by Isa ibn al-Shaykh al-Shaybani. In the mid-10th century, the region passed into the hands of the Hamdanids, but their rule was contested by the Buyids (978–983) and after that the Marwanids.

Diyar Mudar (Arabic: دِيَارُ مُضَرَ, romanized: Diyār Muḍar, lit. 'abode of Mudar') is the medieval Arabic name of the westernmost of the three provinces of al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia), the other two being Diyar Bakr and Diyar Rabi'a. According to the medieval geographer al-Baladhuri, all three provinces were named after the main Arab tribes that settled there during the course of the early Muslim conquests of the 7th century. The Diyar Mudar was settled by the Mudar tribe.

Diyar Mudar encompasses the region on both banks of the middle course of the river Euphrates, from the area of Samosata to the town of Anah, and includes the area of the Balikh River and the lower reaches of the river Khabur. Its main cities were Raqqa in the south and Edessa (al-Ruha in Arabic) in the north, and other major cities included Harran, and Saruj (now Suruç).