Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/180

 635–6] We are not told the number enrolled on the Dīwān of ʿOmar, but the population of Al-Kūfa and Al-Baṣra may give us some idea of the vast exodus in progress from Arabia, and the rapid strides by which the crowded ḥarīms multiplied the race. Arab ladies, as a rule, married only Arab husbands; but the other sex, besides unlimited concubinage with slave-girls, were free to contract marriage with the women of conquered lands, whether converts or "People of the Book." And although wives of Arab blood took precedence in virtue of rank and birth, the children of every Arab father, whether the mother were slave or free, Muslim, Jew, or Christian, were equal in legitimacy. And so the nation multiplied. Looking also to the further drain upon Arabia to meet continuing war, we shall not greatly err if we assume that before ʿOmar's death the Arabs beyond the limits of Arabia proper numbered half a million, and before long were doubled, and perhaps quadrupled.

Civil administration followed close on conquest. In Chaldæa, the great network of canals was early taken in hand. The long-neglected embankments of the Tigris and Euphrates were placed under special officers; Syria and Al-ʿIrāḳ were measured field by field; and the assessment established on a uniform basis. In Al-ʿIrāḳ, the agency of the great landholders was taken advantage of, as under the previous dynasty, for the maintenance of order and collection of the revenue. In addition to the armies in the field, a reserve of cavalry was maintained at the headquarters of the several provinces, ready for emergency. The corps at Al-Kūfa numbered 4000 lances, and there were eight such centres. Reserves for forage were also set apart. The cost of these measures formed a first charge upon provincial revenue.

The "Collection" of the Ḳorʾān—that is, gathering into one the various "Revelations" of Moḥammad—belongs to the early years of this reign. The task was already begun by Abu Bekr, at the instance of ʿOmar himself, who, seeing that many of the "Readers" (those who had the Ḳorʾān by heart) had perished at the "Garden of Death," feared lest otherwise "much of the sacred text might be lost." The duty was assigned to Zeid ibn Thābit, who, as well as others, had from time to time taken down passages direct from