Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/618

Rh 590 MOHAMMEDANISM [INSTITUTIONS. Military institu tions. Ceremo nial. Heredi tary suc cession. Pro vinces. Prefects. have contributed to their conversion. On accepting Islam they acquired a right to the pension, besides ceasing to pay the land-tax and the poll-tax. Even in the earliest days of Islam the Arabs were not entirely devoid of military skill. Many of their tribes had been brought into relations with the Greeks and Persians, and had acquired from them some ideas of the art of war. Thus, in the time of Mohammed, the division of an army into a centre, right and left wings, vanguard and rearguard, was understood, and the art of defend^ ing a camp or a city by entrenchments was also known. The Arabs fought on foot, on horseback, and mounted on camels. The arms of the infantry consisted of a spear, a sword, and a shield, and sometimes also of a bow and arrows. The horsemen fought chiefly with the lance. For defensive arms, besides the shield, the Arabs were acquainted with the helmet, the coat of mail, and the cuirass of leather covered with plates of iron. It was not till the period of the Omayyads that they began to employ military engines, such as the balista. The army was divided by tribes ; and each tribe had its flag, which consisted of a piece of cloth fastened to a lance. As regards the recruitment of their armies, every man able to carry arms was originally bound to render military service. Omar I., to whom Islam owes so many of its institutions, was the first to divide his armies into distinct corps, and to assign to each corps a fixed station. These stations were the province of Cufa, that of Basra, and afterwards the provinces of Emesa, of the Jordan, and of Palestine. These provinces afterwards became military colonies, all the inhabitants of which were bound to render military service, as distinguished from the other provinces, where service was optional, or at all events regulated by the necessities of the moment. With the accession of Mo Awiya I. to the supreme power, the mechanism of the State was modified and became more complicated. Mo dwiya endeavoured to copy the cere monial of foreign courts. He built himself a palace at Damascus, and set up a throne in the audience-chamber, the door of which was kept by a chamberlain (Ifajib). When he attended the service at the mosque, he occupied a close pew with a grating in front (Maksura). When he left his palace, he was surrounded by a bodyguard (Shorta), commanded by a provost (Sahib al-tihorta). Lastly, in his own lifetime, he caused his son Yazid to be acknow ledged as his heir-presumptive, and thus established the principle of hereditary succession, which was opposed to the spirit of Islam, and was the source of every kind of calamity. As regards the administration of the State, Mo awiya acted at his own will and pleasure. Thus, in order to secure the services of Amr b. al- As, the conqueror of Egypt, he gave up to him the revenues of that province, a part of which ought to have gone to the State. He also took an important step with regard to the annual pensions of the Faithful, which he reduced by about two and a half per cent. The administration of the public funds in the different provinces was left to their Prefects, who were expected to pay into the public treasury only the surplus of their respective revenues. The empire had been at first divided into ten provinces 1. Syria (subdivided into four Jond, or military districts) ; 2. Cufa, with Arabian IrAk and Persian IrAk; 3. Basra, with Persia, Sijistan, KhorAsAn, Bahrain, and Oman ; 4. Armenia ; 5. Mecca ; 6. Medina ; 7. The Indian Marches ; 8. Africa ; 9. Egypt ; 10. Yemen. Mo Awiya, however, subsequently thought proper to make KhorAsAn a separate province. Under his successors, and according to the necessities of the moment, it was some times reunited to the government of Irak. In Irak itself, Mo awiya joined Basra and its dependencies to Cufa. Under Mo awiya the Prefects had the most extensive civil and military powers. They had even the right of the direct appointment of their Sub-Prefects. Mo Awiya, not withstanding, thought it advisable to disconnect from their powers the offices of Judge (Kddi) and of Religious Official (Imdni), which were entrusted to special function aries named directly by the Caliph. The Caliph was, however, always at liberty to modify these arrangements at his own pleasure. Under the successors of Mo awiya, we find certain Prefects invested at the same time with the dignities of Cadi and Imam. It was also to Mo awiya that the State owed the creation Chan- of a Chancery (Diwan al-akhtam, or Seals-office), in which ceiy. all decrees proceeding from the Caliph were registered ; so that, when once issued, these decrees could not be falsified. Mo Awiya also exerted himself to ensure rapidity of com- Posts, munication throughout the empire, by instituting the courier-post (Barid in imitation of the post of tlio Persians and Byzantines. After Mo Awiya we must come down to the time cf Abd al-Melik to meet with any important innovations in Moslem institutions. Before the reign of that Caliph the books of the public offices were kept by Christians and Persians, and drawn up in Greek and Persian. Abd al-Melik ordered the exclusive employment of the Arabic language, and substituted Moslems for all the Christian and Persian clerks in the government offices. It was this same Caliph who founded the monetary system of Islam, Money. and who was the first to strike dinArs (pieces of gold worth about ten francs), and dirhems (pieces of silver worth about a franc), with legends in Arabic. The postal system was also very much improved and developed under this prince. Abd al-Melik was powerfully seconded by the famous Hajjaj, who was able to re-establish in IrAk the disputed principle of obligatory military service, and who also succeeded, by skilful management, in raising the condition of agriculture in that province. Walid, the successor of Abd al-Melik, especially distinguished himself by the foundation of religious institutions. In his reign Religious the mosque of Damascus, half of which had hitherto foumla- remained in the hands of the Christians, was appropriated tio118 - exclusively to the Moslems, and considerably embellished. Hospitals were also established for lepers, the poor, the blind, and the sick. The pious Omar II. devoted all his efforts to the embellishment of the mosque of Damascus. An edict of Omar I. had forbidden Moslems to acquire landed property, agriculture being considered an occupa tion unworthy of a free man. This law had fallen into disuse ; but Omar II. put it in force again, and declared null and void every purchase of land made by a Moslem subsequently to A.II. 100. The effects of this law might have been fatal to the empire ; but it again became obsolete under the Caliphate of HishAm. At the accession of the AbbAsids the centre of the In^titu- empire was displaced. Damascus fell from the rank of tions its capital to that of a provincial town ; while BaghdAd, ^[j/ v a small and unknown village, became the mistress of the g^ world. Under the first AbbAsid the empire not includ ing the province of BaghdAd was divided as follows : 1. The province of Cufa ; 2. The province of Basra, with the district of the Tigris, Bahrain and OrnAn ; 3. HijAz and YamAma; 4. Yemen; 5. AhwAz; 6. FArsistAn; 7. KhorAsAn; 8. The province of Mosul ; 9. Mesopotamia, with Armenia and AzerbaijAn; 10. Syria; 11. Egypt and the province of Africa (Spain being a dependency of Africa) ; 12. Sind. Al-SaffAh afterwards made Palestine a distinct province, and separated Armenia and AzerbaijAn from Mesopotamia. Still later, HArun al-Rashid created a new province to the north of Syria, which received the name of AwAsim. Each newly-conquered province was always united to that one of the older provinces to which it was nearest.