Page:Bury J B The Cambridge Medieval History Vol 2 1913.djvu/390

362 quered foreign countries, and then suddenly stand face to face with insuperable difficulties. In accordance with their fundamental political point of view they left all such matters as they found them, contenting themselves with the punctual payment by the local authorities of the stipulated tribute. How this was collected was a matter of small moment to them. Only the supreme heads of the more important administrative departments were Arabs. All the middle and lower administrative positions were filled by natives as late as the eighth century, and even later. This complicated system was not interfered with until the reign of 'Abd-al-Malik and his successor Walīd, and then not in the sense of immediately making it Arabian, though it was placed on a bilingual basis by the introduction of Arabic. Arab-Greek documents of this period, from Egypt, have been preserved to us in profusion. But in other matters also the result of the more settled conditions was seen in the changes made by 'Abd-al-Malik. He is regarded as the founder of the Arabian coinage; true, he accepted here the already existing systems, that is, for the Byzantine districts he renewed the old gold coinage, and for the Persian territories the old silver coinage was adopted. The principal point however seems to be that under this ruler it was first recognised that Omar's fiscal system was untenable, and that both in principle and in form it must cease. Hitherto the Muslims had remained exempt from taxation and the subjected peoples had provided the necessary revenue. At the outset they had forgotten that through the extension of Islām as a religion the number of taxpayers would of necessity become smaller and smaller, so that thereby religion would sap the foundations of the Arabian State. With the foundation of the military camps, which soon grew into large towns, the natives had on the spot a much better source of income than in the country, where the peasants had to pay their quota of tribute. Thus an exodus from the country began, and at the same time the number of converts to Islām increased. As the new believers ceased to be subject to taxes, the result of this process on the state treasury may easily be imagined. At the same time it became thus evident that the form of Omar's regulations was unsuitable, for this exodus from the country simply necessitated an individual treatment of the districts liable to pay duty, and these conditions compelled the Arabs to concern themselves with details. But in doing so the Arabian upper class was of necessity deeply concerned with the construction of the whole system of government. This process commences under 'Abd-al-Malik. His representative Ḥajjāj sought to avoid the evil consequences for the treasury by including the newly converted believers as liable to taxation, thus deviating from Omar's system.

The increasing settlement of Arabs in the fertile country, which had been liable to tribute whilst in the possession of non-Muslims, had the same result as the change of religion in the subjected peoples. Omar II