Chapter XXII

EXPULSION OF JEWS AND CHRISTIANS FROM ARABIA. THE CIVIL
LIST OF OMAR. SLAVES OF ARAB BLOOD MADE FREE.

A.H. XIV., XV. A.D. 635, 636.

[Sidenote: Domestic events. A.H. XIV., XV.]

I must now revert to one or two matters of domestic interest, which, not to break the story of external conquest, I have refrained from noticing before.

[Sidenote: Expulsion of Jews and Christians from Arabia.]

Arabia, as the nursery of the legions destined to wage the wars of Islam, must be purged of strange religions. And accordingly, so soon as victory was secured in Syria and Irâc, Omar proceeded to signalise his reign by an act of harshness, if not of questionable equity.

[Sidenote: Christians removed from Najrân,]

In the centre of Arabia lies the province of Najrân, inhabited from of old by a Christian people. Mahomet had concluded a treaty with their chiefs and bishops, by which the annual tribute of 2,000 suits of raiment secured them safety in the undisturbed profession of their ancestral faith. Throughout the rebellion they remained loyal to their engagements, and Abu Bekr renewed the treaty. Worthy descendants of a martyr race, they resisted the blandishments of Islam; and as a penalty they must now quit their native soil, consecrated, in the persecution of Dzu Nowâs, by the ashes of their forefathers.[345] They were ordered to depart and receive lands in exchange elsewhere. Some migrated to Syria; but the greater part settled in the vicinity of Kûfa, where the colony of Najrânia long maintained the memory of Mahometan intolerance. The rights, however, conferred upon them by the Prophet’s treaty, so far as their expatriation might admit, were respected by successive rulers; and their tribute, with decreasing numbers, lightened sensibly from time to time. [Sidenote: and Jews from Kheibar.]After their removal, no long time elapsed before the Jews of Kheibar, a rich vale two or three days’ journey north of Medîna, met a similar fate. Their claim was not so strong as the Christians’; for, conquered by Mahomet, they had been left on sufferance in possession of their fields at a rent of half the produce. In return for this partial right from which they now were ousted, they received a money payment, and then departed for Syria. Various pretexts are urged for the expatriation in either case. But behind them all we find the dogma--supposed dying behest of Mahomet--_In Arabia there shall be but one religion_. The recruiting field of Islam must be sacred ground.[346]

[Sidenote: The Arabs as a nation share the spoils of war.]

The Arabian nation was the champion of Islam; and to fight its battles every Arab was jealously reserved. He must be the soldier, and nothing else. He might not settle down in any conquered province as cultivator of the soil; and for merchandise or other labour, a busy warlike life offered but little leisure. Neither was there any need. The Arabs lived on the fat of the conquered lands, and captive nations served them. Of the booty taken in war, four parts were distributed to the army in the field; the fifth was reserved for the State; and even that, after discharging public obligations, was shared among the Arabian people. In the reign of Abu Bekr this was a simple matter. But in the Caliphate of Omar the spoil of Syria and of Persia began in ever-increasing volume to pour into the treasury of Medîna, where it was distributed almost as soon as received. What was easy in small beginnings, by equal sharing or discretionary preference, became now a heavy task. And there began, also, to arise new sources of revenue in the land assessment and the poll tax of subject countries, which, after defraying civil and military charges, had to be accounted for to the Central Government;--the surplus being, like the royal Fifth, the patrimony of the Arab nation.

[Sidenote: New rule of distribution by classes of merit.]

At length, in the second or third year of his Caliphate, Omar determined that the distribution should be regulated on a fixed and systematic scale. The income of the Commonwealth was to be divided, as heretofore, amongst the Faithful as their heritage, but upon a rule of precedence befitting the military and theocratic groundwork of Islam. For this end three points only were considered: priority of conversion, affinity to the Prophet, and military service. The widows of Mahomet, ‘Mothers of the Faithful,’ took the precedence with an annual allowance of 10,000 pieces each; and all his kinsmen were with a corresponding liberality provided for.[347] The famous Three Hundred of Bedr had 5,000 each; presence at Hodeibia and the _Pledge of the Tree_[348] gave a claim to 4,000; such as took part in quelling the Rebellion had 3,000; and those engaged in the great battles of Syria and Irâc, as well as sons of the men of Bedr, 2,000; those taking the field after the actions of Câdesîya and the Yermûk, 1,000. Warriors of distinction received an extra grant of 500. And so they graduated downwards to 200 pieces for the latest levies. Nor were the households forgotten. Women had, as a rule, one-tenth of a man’s share. Wives, widows, and children had each their proper stipend; and in the register, every infant, as soon as born, had the title to be entered with a minimum allowance of ten pieces, rising with advancing age to its proper place. Even Arab slaves (so long as any of that race remained) had, strange to say, their portion.

[Sidenote: All other nations a lower class.]

Thus every soul was rated at its worth. But the privilege was confined most strictly to those of Arab blood. A few exceptions, indeed, were made of distinguished Persian chiefs; but the mention of them only proves the stringency of the general rule.[349] The whole nation, every man, woman, and child of the militant Arab race, was subsidised. In theory, the rights of all believers were the same. ‘Ye are one brotherhood,’ said Mahomet at the Farewell pilgrimage; and as he spake he placed two fingers of one hand upon his other hand, to enforce the absolute equality.[350] But in point of fact, the equality was limited to the Arab nation. The right of any brother of alien race was a dole of food sufficient for subsistence, and no more.[351]

[Sidenote: Principle adopted by Omar disarms Arabian jealousies.]

A great nation dividing thus amongst them their whole revenues, spoil, and conquests, first on the principle of equal brotherhood, and next on that of martial merit and spiritual distinction, is a spectacle probably without parallel in the world. The rule itself was well conceived. In no other way would it have been possible to reconcile the jealous susceptibilities of tribal rivalry.[352] Safwân, Soheil, and other great chiefs of the Coreish, who fell into a lower class because they had not joined the Prophet till after the capture of Mecca, refused at first any allowance but the highest: ‘We know of none nobler than ourselves,’ they said; ‘and less than any other we will not take.’ ‘Not so,’ answered Omar; ‘I give it by priority of faith, and not for noble birth.’ ‘It is well,’ they replied; and no reason but this, unanswerable because already axiomatic among the Moslems, would have satisfied them. Apart from tribal jealousy, there were two other sources of danger: first, the rivalry between the Bedouin tribes, on the one hand, and the ‘Companions,’ or men of Mecca and Medîna, on the other; and, second, between the Beni Hâshim (the Prophet’s family), the Omeyyads, and the Coreish at large;--jealousies which by-and-by developed into large proportions, and threatened the very existence of the Caliphate; but which, held in check by the strong arm of Omar, were now for a time avoided by assuming a spiritual test as the main ground of precedence.

[Sidenote: Omar perpetuates military organisation of Arabs.]

The Arabian aristocracy thus created was recognised by the whole Moslem world. The rank and stipend now assigned descended in the direct line of birth. Even rewards given for special gallantry in the field were heritable.[353] By making thus the revenues of Islam the heritage of the nation militant, their martial genius was maintained, and their employment perpetuated as the standing army of the Caliphate. The ennobled nation, pampered by indulgence, factious and turbulent when idle, were indeed too often a serious element of sedition and intrigue. But they were nevertheless the backbone of Islam, the secret of its conquests, and the stay of the Caliphate. The crowded harems multiplied the race with marvellous rapidity; and the progeny were, by Omar’s organisation, kept sedulously distinct, so as never to mingle with the conquered races. Wherever they went they formed a class distinct and dominant--the nobles and rulers of the land. The subject peoples, even if they embraced Islam, were of a lower caste; and as clients of some Arab chief or tribe, courted their patronage and protection. Thus the fighting nation was set apart for the sacred task of subjugating nations and of propagating Islam; and even after the new-born zeal of the Faith had to some extent evaporated, the martial fire of the Arabs as a whole and undivided people was, owing mainly to Omar’s foresight, kept alive in full activity for two centuries and a half. The nation was, and continued, an army mobilised; the cantonment, not the city, their home; their business, war and the camp;--a people whose hereditary calling it was to be ready to march on warlike expeditions at a moment’s notice.

[Sidenote: Register of all Arabs entitled to a stipend.]

To carry out this vast design, a Register had to be drawn and kept up of every man, woman, and child, entitled to a stipend from the State--in other words, of the whole Arab race employed in the interests of Islam. This was easy enough for the higher grades, but a herculean task for the hundreds of thousands of ordinary fighting men and their families who kept streaming forth from the Peninsula; and who, by the extravagant indulgence of polygamy, were multiplying rapidly. But the task was simplified by the strictly tribal composition and disposition of the forces. Men of a tribe, or branch of a tribe, fought together; and the several corps and brigades being thus territorially arranged in clans, the Register assumed the same form. Every soul was entered under the stock and tribe and clan whose lineage it claimed. And to this exhaustive classification we owe in great measure the elaborate genealogies and tribal traditions of Arabia before Islam.

[Sidenote: The _Dewân_ of Omar.]

The Register itself, as well as the office for its maintenance and for pensionary account, was called the DEWÂN or Department of the Exchequer. The State had by this time, as we have seen, an income swollen by the tribute of conquered cities, the poll-tax of subjugated peoples, the land and other regular assessments, the spoil of war, and the tithes. The first charge was for the revenue and civil administration; the next for military requirements, which began soon to assume a sustained and permanent form; the surplus remained (as has been now set forth) for pensionary and eleemosynary distribution. The whole revenues of Islam were thus expended as soon, almost, as received; and Omar took a special pride in seeing the treasury, in accord with this principle, emptied to the last dirhem.[354] The accounts of the various provinces were at the first kept by natives of the country in the character to which they were accustomed--in Syria by Greeks, and in Irâc by Persians. At Kûfa the use of Pehlevi was maintained till the time of Hajjâj, when, an Arab assistant having learned the art from the chief treasurer, the Arabic system of record and notation was introduced.

[Sidenote: Vast extent of Arab exodus.]

We are not told the numerical result of the Dewân of Omar, but the population of Kûfa and Bussora may give us a standard to judge of the vast exodus in progress from Arabia, and the rapid strides by which the crowded harems multiplied the race. Arab ladies, as a rule, married only Arab husbands; but the other sex, besides unlimited indulgence in servile concubinage, were free to contract marriage with the women of conquered lands, whether converts or ‘people of the Book;’ for marriage is lawful between a Moslem and females of the Jewish and Christian faith. And although the wives of Arab blood took precedence in virtue of rank and birth, the children also of every Arab father, whether the mother were slave or free, Moslem, Jew, or Christian, were equal in legitimacy. And so the nation multiplied. Looking to these considerations and to the new drain upon Arabia to meet the conquests in Egypt and Persia (of which anon), we shall not greatly err if we assume that before Omar’s death the number of Arabs beyond the limits of Arabia proper, reached to Half a million, and eventually doubled, perhaps quadrupled.

[Sidenote: Provincial administration.]

Civil administration followed in the wake of conquest. In Chaldæa, the great network of canals was early taken in hand. The long-neglected embankments of the Euphrates were placed under charge of a special officer, and those of the Tigris under another. Syria and Irâc were measured field by field; and the assessment of the lands, both crown and provincial, established on a uniform system. In Irâc, the agency of the Dihcâns, or great landholders, was taken advantage of, as under the Sassanide dynasty, to aid in the police and revenue administration.

[Sidenote: Reserves of cavalry.]

In addition to the armies in the field, Omar arranged that a reserve of cavalry should be maintained at the head-quarters of the several provinces, in proportion to their resources, ready to be called out upon emergency. The corps at Kûfa numbered 4,000 lances, and there were eight such centres. Reserves for forage were also everywhere set apart; and the cost of these measures formed a first charge upon provincial revenue.

[Sidenote: Corân; how ‘collected.’]

The various Suras and fragments of the Corân had by this time been compiled into a single volume. The ‘collecting’ of these was begun in the reign of Abu Bekr, at the suggestion of Omar, who was alarmed at the loss of so many of those, who had the Revelation by heart, in the battle of Yemâma. ‘I fear,’ he said to Abu Bekr, ‘that slaughter may again wax hot amongst the Reciters of the Corân in other fields of battle, and that much may be lost of the divine text; now, therefore, give orders speedily for its collection.’ The commission was given to Zeid ibn Thâbit, who, as the Prophet’s amanuensis, had written down much of the revelation from the Prophet’s lips. At first he scrupled to do what Mahomet himself had left undone. At last he accepted the task; and seeking out the Suras and scattered fragments and verses from every quarter, ‘gathered them together from date leaves, shreds of leather and parchment, shoulder blades, tablets of white stone, and the breasts of men.’ By the labours of Zeid, these confused materials were reduced to the comparative order and sequence in which we now find them; but in its obscurity and incoherence, the collection still bears traces in almost every page of the haphazard way in which the pieces, thus rudely dovetailed, were compiled. The original copy was committed to the custody of Haphsa, Omar’s daughter, one of the Prophet’s widows; and during Omar’s Caliphate this exemplar continued to be the standard and authoritative text of the Corân.[355]