PEOPLEseventh century, the Aramaeans served Muslim forces in the same
capacity. In 663 a Kufan force pursuing rebels in the Sawad relied on
a man from Sabat to guide it to Daylamiyya.^38 In 685 the 'ami! of
al-Mukhtar at Mada'in sent al-Mukhtar a native Aramaean spy who
informed him of what had happened in Mawsil between Yazid ibn
'Anas and 'Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad.^39 Ai).mar ibn Salit was guided by
a Nabati in his attack for al-Mukhtar on a fortified place near Madhar.40
Not only were the Aramaeans employed as guides and spies, but
Nabati was spoken on the battlefield at Siffin, and in 687 a reference
is made to an Aramaean soldier in the army sent by al-l:larith ibn
'Abdullah against 'Ubaydulliih at Anbar.^41 The family of Saliiba sur-
vived in the Sawad at least until the end of the seventh century, pro-
viding a rather explicit channel for the communication of the traditions
of government in the rural districts. When al-l:lajjiij appointed 'Ubay-
dulliih ibn al-Mukhiirib to collect taxes in the two Fallujas, it was
JamIl ibn Bu~buhrii who advised him on how to rule.^42
The continued identification of the Aramaic speaking population of
Iraq with the rural, agricultural population meant that, at least
throughout the seventh century and well into the eighth century, those
Arabs who settled down among them outside of the cities became
"Nabataeanized." This in itself was merely a continuation of the sit-
uation throughout the Fertile Crescent in antiquity in places such as
Edessa, Petra, and Palmyra, where sedentary Arabs tended to become
Aramaicized.^43 The Arabic tradition itself recognized that this had
happened in pre-Islamic Iraq. One of the best expressions of the way
in which Arabs and Aramaeans had intermingled in Hira is to be
found in part of the (surely apocryphal) conversation between Khiilid
and the legendary 'Abd al-Masii). when that city fell to the Muslims.
When Khiilid asked 'Abd al-Masii). whether the people of Hira were
Arabs or Nabat, he received the reply that, "we regarded the Arab as
a Nabat and the Nabat as an Arab."44 In general following the con-
quest, those Arabs who settled among the peasants in the countryside
38 Tabari, Ta'rikh, II, 58.
39 Ibid., II, 649.
40 Dinawari, Akhbiir at-tiwiil, p. 311.
41 Baladhuri, Ansiib, I, 173; Tabari, Ta'rikh, II, 777.
42 Ja~i~, Rasii'il, II, 32; Jahshiyari, Wuzarii', p. 36.
43 See M. Rostovtzeff, Caravan Cities (Oxford, 1932).
44 Mas<udi, Muru;, I, 118. This might also be taken to mean that bedouin became
sedentary and vice versa.