ARABS: ASSIMILATION AND SOCIAL CHANGEBy the 650s the main social development in the garrison cities was
the emergence of a new composite post-conquest elite. The stratifi-
cation of society in the garrison cities was the result of varying abilities
to take advantage of the opportunities for social mobility in the fluid
conditions of the conquest period. Some soldiers made fortunes from
booty or invested in it. 'Amr ibn l:!urayth, for example, pooled sti-
pends to buy two chests of gems from the treasure of Nakhirjan. He
kept one and sold the other in Hira for the price he had paid for
both.lo Others exploited the market for commerce and services as
merchants and entrepreneurs by investing as a source of income in
public baths or in the canals that terminated at wharves and markets.
A new group of Arab Muslim landlords was created by landgrants to
tribal leaders around Kufa under 'Uthman and through land recla-
mation and development by the proteges of 'Uthman and Mu'awiya
around Basra. The relatives and proteges of governors, including some
mawalz, made fortunes in administration. This is especially true of the
circle of Ziyad and Abii Bakra and their relatives at Basra. When
Ziyad appointed 'Ubaydullah ibn Abi Bakra to destroy the fire temples
in Fars and to confiscate their wealth, 'Ubaydullah amassed a fortune
of forty million dirhams in less than a year.H The recognition of the
tribal ashrafby the state, which gave them military and social authority
over their fellow tribesmen in addition to awarding some of them
landgrants, helped to establish the ashraf as part of the new elite and
to increase the social distance between them and other tribesmen. The
fiscal authority of the intermediate officials (Ar. 'urafa') assigned to
distribute stipends served to include them in the elite group as well.
Ibn al-Faqih lists the four leading households (Ar. buyutat) of early
Kufa as those of l:!ajib ibn Zurara among the Tamim, Zayd among
Qays, Dhii I-Juddayn among the Rabi'a, and Qays ibn Ma'dikarib
among Yaman. The leading households of Basra were those of al-
Muhallab, Muslim ibn 'Amr al-Bahill among the Qays, Misma' among
the Bakr ibn Wa'il, and al-Jariid among the 'Abd al-Qays.12 By 657
the elite of Kufa was composed of the leaders (Ar. ru'us) of the people
of Kufa, the leaders of the sevenths, and the leaders of the tribes.^13
10 Baiadhuri, Futu!J, p. 305; Dinawari, Akhbiir at-{iwiil, p. 146.
11 Baiadhuri, Ansiib, I, 494.
12 Ibn ai-Faqih, Buldiin, pp. 172, 190. When ai-l:Iusayn ibn 'Ali wrote to the leaders
(Ar. ru'us) of the "fifths" (Ar. akhmiis) and to the ashriif in Basra in 680, they were
Miilik ibn Misma' al-Bakri, al-AI:maf ibn Qays, al-Mundhir ibn ai-Jariid, Mas'iid ibn
'Amr, Qays ibn al-Haytham, and 'Umar ibn 'Ubaydul1ah ibn Ma'mar (Tabari, Ta'rtkh,
n,240).
13 Tabari, Ta'rzkh, I, 3371.