PEOPLEtended to be offset by assertions of precedence (Ar. siihiqa) by those
who converted the earliest, which the Qur'an also sanctioned.^4 Such
precedence was institutionalized by the assignment of graduated sti-
pends in 'Umar's diwiin, which were based on categories of priority
in conversion to Islam and participation in the early military cam-
paigns. Muhiijirun and An,>iir, who had converted in the time of Mu-
}:tammad, were assigned between three thousand and five thousand
dirhams apiece per year, depending on how early they had converted.
Those who had participated only in the early conquests through the
battles of Qadisiyya and Yarmuk (from 632 to 637) were assigned
two thousand to three thousand dirhams per year. Those who joined
later and settled in the garrison cities as rawiidif (Ar.) were divided
into categories and assigned stipends of between one thousand and
fifteen hundred, five hundred, three hundred, two hundred and fifty,
or two hundred dirhams, according to the time of their arrival until
641.^5 The lowest pay rates for the last two categories were equivalent
to the rates paid to infantry.
This elaborate system of stipend differences was only temporary in
Iraq because, after the Battle of Nihawand in 642, 'Umar equalized
the stipends of the latecomers with those of the veterans of the early
campaigns and raised them to two thousand dirhams.^6 This was only
possible because of the huge amount of booty taken at Nihawand and
seems to have been resented by the older veterans. In the late 640s
and during the 650s, a new elite of tribal leaders began to replace the
former elite of Islamic precedence, especially at Kufa.^7
A third source of early status differences was the unequal division
of booty between cavalry and infantry. Horsemen usually received
between two and three times as much booty as infantrymen.s The
early campaigns generated a tremendous amount of booty. At Jalula'
alone each horseman's share of the booty was nine thousand dirhams
plus nine riding animals.^9 The concentration of most of the booty in
the hands of cavalrymen increased greatly the advantage of those who
could provide themselves with horses over those who could not. On
the whole, the difference in the division of booty was probably more
important in producing status differences than the stipend system was.
4 Qur'an, 57:10.
5 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2413-14, 2496.
6 Ibid., I, 2633.
7 Jafri, Shi'a Islam, pp. 118-19.
8 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2677; Ya'qiibi, Ta'rlkh, Il, 165.
9 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, I, 2464.2S6