Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/154

 637] after its foundation, the inhabitants of Al-Baṣra sent representatives to urge that their endowments should be increased, and their income made more adequate to their responsibilities. "Al-Kūfa," said their spokesman, "is a well-watered garden which yieldeth in season its harvest of dates, while ours is brackish land. Part bordereth on the desert, and part upon the sea, which laveth it with a briny flood. Compared with Al-Kūfa, our poor are many, and our rich are few. Grant us, therefore, of thy bounty." Recognising the justice of the plea, ʿOmar made substantial addition to their endowments from the Crown lands of the Chosroes. But, although Al-Kūfa was richer, it had heavier obligations to discharge than the sister City. Its government had a wider range; and the charge of garrisons at various points, as Ḥolwān, Mosul, and Ḳirḳīsiyā, had to be provided from the resources at the command of Saʿd.

Al-Kūfa and Al-Baṣra, unique in their own origin, had a singular influence on the destinies of the Caliphate and of Islām at large. The vast majority of the population were of pure Arabian blood. The tribes which, scenting from afar the prey of Chaldæa and Persia, kept streaming into Chaldæa from every corner of Arabia, settled chiefly there. At Al-Kūfa the races coming from the south of Arabia predominated; at Al-Baṣra, those coming from the north. Rapidly they grew into two great and luxurious Capitals, with an Arab population each of from 150,000 to 200,000 souls. On the literature, theology, and politics of Islām, the two cities had a greater influence than the whole Muslim world besides. There was abundance of time and opportunity. Service in the field being desultory and intermittent, the intervals were often long and frequent, but too readily spent in listless idleness. Excepting when enlivened by the fruits of some new victory, secluded harīms afforded their lords little variety of recreation or amusement. Otherwise the time was whiled away in the converse of social knots; and in these, while they discussed the problems of the day, they loved still more to live in the past, to recall the marvellous story of their Faith, and fight their battles over again. Hence Tradition, and the two great Schools of Al-Baṣra and Al-Kūfa. But the debates and gossip of these clubs too often degenerated into tribal rivalry and domestic