ADMINISTRATIONtraditions of justice, court procedure, control, and enforcement. The
extent of this administrative legacy is further indicated by the way
institutions and practices were accompanied by the theories that pro-
vided their rationale and by the problems involved in their use. This
is especially evident in the survival of the conflict between security
and accessibility, the use of internal administrative checks, and the
importance of reliability all of which reemerged in an Islamic context
from the time of Mu'iiwiya.
However, it would be misleading to give the impression that early
Islamic administration in Iraq was a mirror image of late Sasanian
practices. Apart from the use of Arabic in the military diwiin and for
correspondence (which had Sasanian roots), the organization of the
military diwiin by tribe was an original modification of that institution
to suit Muslim Arab society. The social dimensions and consequences
of employing the kind of administrative system they found in Iraq also
contributed to important changes among the Muslims themselves.
Increasing differences of status emerged as the result of using the
military diwiin as an instrument of social control, of the discrepancies
in stipends, and of status differentials set up by patronage and by
centralizing bureaucratic and court institutions. From the time of
Mu'awiya, the majority of average Arab tribesmen in the garrison
cities was increasingly subjected to its own tribal leaders and govern-
ment officials. The tribal leaders themselves were increasingly sub-
ordinated to a new elite of relatives, favorites, and trusted mawiili
who surrounded the governor and controlled and staffed an admin-
strative system the expansion of which served their own interests.
Thus, although early Islamic administration in Iraq was different
from Sasanian practice in many details, it was closer in the abstract
principles and assumptions on which practice was based. In the fluid
conditions following the conquest, the creative adaptability of the
Islamic regime in employing Sasanian traditions allowed a continuing
development that was based on the possibilities contained in those
traditions. The real depth of administrative continuity is indicated by
the way institutions and practices were accompanied by similar offi-
cials, theories, and problems. This can be demonstrated more specif-
ically by taking a closer look at taxation.