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Umayyad

Episode 19: Umayyad glory

Zayd April 11, 2021

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The same skills which propelled Mu’awiya along his relentless rise to the top of the caliphate helped him rule the Arabs unlike any man had managed to until then. Our sources contrast his reign to what came before it sharply, and it is worth reflecting on how they began to recognize elements of their own imperial times even at the dawn of the Umayyad age. 

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Al Ya’qubi reports these figures for tax revenue during his discussion of Mu’awiya. There weren’t any strong bureaucratic distinctions but all these lands were around Iraq, where Kufa and Basra were the only real provinces with their own governors and everything. These areas all had their own local administration though, and obviously settled populations to be taxed.
These are the figures al Ya’qubi quotes for the rest of the caliphate. The taxes are way lower because they’re in gold; the exchange rate started around 10:1 and got higher as time went on. I’m not entirely sure why Yemen is paying in gold, there’s really no other Arab land that reports any taxation. Even in the Syrian provinces the tax revenue is low because of the many exemptions granted by the Umayyads.
Abu Aswad al Du’ali’s changes to the script made it possible to use two colors to fully express how letters ought to be pronounced. In Arabic, this can help distinguish between the subject and object or relay other information about where the word fits into its sentence. These red dots are not the same as the dots currently in the script, they’re the antecedents of today’s vowel markers (the harakat in Arabic). Here’s another good source for its history: http://historyview.blogspot.com/2013/01/brief-guide-to-development-of-arabic.html
The solar eclipse that spooked the superstitious Mu’awiya into abandoning plans to move some of the prophet’s stuff to Damascus. https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEsearchmap.php?Ecl=06711207

Glossary

  • Al Mughyira bin Shu’ba: this dahiya ruled Kufa for Mu’awiya until his death in a bout of plague in 671, after which it was incorporated into Ziyad’s domain. His biggest contribution to the cause however was bringing Ziyad into the fold, who had been a sort of personal attendant and protege for al Mughyira since he impressed him in the service of a Hashemite governor of Omar’s in Iraq once upon a time. Despite Ziyad’s bastard status until his adoption into the Umayyad clan, he and al Mughyira were from the same town, an important bond the two shared.
  • Ziyad bin abi Sufyan: it’s pretty incredible how influential Ziyad ends up being, a real rags to riches story. You can wonder at his efficient administration, or his insightful and daring settling of an Arab city all the way in Central Asia. He arranged the canton towns into proper cities, spending greatly on irrigation projects to increase local production. He also kept their people busy with constant campaigns in the East, which led to massive amounts of wealth, and the creation of some highly effective military talent. However his reputation is pretty violent, something I mention but perhaps don’t emphasize enough in the episode. It’s not wanton brutality like Busr’s, more a callous severity in the name of the law.
  • ‘Uqba bin Nafi’: like Khalid ibn il Walid, this great general deserves a lot more attention, this just isn’t the show to get into it. His advanced all the way to the Atlantic were legendary and make him a celebrated figure in North Africa. 
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