OTHER ETHNIC GROUPStowards the end of the second {itna and rose in rebellion in 695 during
the revolt of 'Abdullah ibn al-Jarud against al-I:Iajjaj.33ETHNIC DIVERSITY AND CONTINUITY·
It ought to be evident that the population of Iraq was just as diverse
in the early Islamic period as it was in the late Sasanian period. It
should be equally clear that ethnic differences were no barrier to
cultural integration or to significant innovation and may, in fact, have
encouraged both. However, assimilation was most complete for in-
dividuals who were removed from their former social contexts and
integrated as individuals into a new society. The best examples of this
are the children who were taken captive during the conquest and raised
as Muslims. There was very little difference between them and Arabs
except that they were often better Muslims. Group identities and cul-
tural differences were preserved most effectively when groups stayed
together-especially as military units-such as the Asiiwira, Ijamrii',
Bukharans, Zun and Arab tribes and clans. In this regard, the per-
petuation by the early Islamic society of the Sasanian pattern of eth-
nically specialized, professional military units is of importance. The
intermingling of ethnic groups-an ethnic map of Iraq in this period
would resemble a jigsaw puzzle-demonstrates that the preservation
of an ethnic identity or group solidarity was not dependent on regional
predominance.
Some change did occur in the groups that made up this ethnic
mixture. There were fewer Greeks and Syrians after the conquest.
There were about as many Aramaeans, Kurds, and Persians, although
Persians were redistributed geographically towards the cities of lower
Iraq. There were many more Arabs, and Indians and east Africans
were new in Iraq as resident minorities. More important than these
differences is the way the new ethnic makeup signaled changes in the
importing of lab or and in the uses to which it was put. A large labor
force of captive origin existed in Iraq in both periods. But in the late
Sasanian period, Syrian and Greek captives seem to have been em-
ployed in manufacturing, using Syrian techniques, and as agricultural
labor on the estates of the dahiiqtn. The labor employed on newly
developed or reclaimed land by the state appears to have been brought
from Iran. In the early Islamic period, captive Persian women and
33 Baliidhurl, Ansiib, XI, 303-8; Ibn al-Athlr, al-Kiimil (i-t-ta'Ttkh (Leiden, 1866-71),
IV, 388.