ADMINISTRATIONjund Allah), and the treasury was no longer called the property of the
Muslims (Ar. mal al-Muslimtn) but the property of God (Ar. mal
Allah). It was I:Iaritha who, in praising Ziyad, called Mu'awiya the
Deputy of God (Ar. khaltfat Allah) and Ziyad his wonderful assistant
(Ar. waztr).22 The clearest statement is in Ziyad's khutba, where he
told the Basrans, "We govern you with the authority (A. sultan) of
God which He bestowed on us and we protect you with the fay' of
God which He granted US."23
The use of divine legitimation to justify Sufyani absolutism meant
that, ultimately, the most effective sanctions on a ruler's behavior were
reward or punishment by God. This is reflected in a part of Ziyad's
inscription stating, in effect, that good and evil will be rewarded in
kind; this seems to paraphrase Qur'an 10:26-27.^24 Both in the khutba
and in his inscription, Ziyad is given the appearance of favoring a
balance in the ruler's behavior between leniency or flexibility without
weakness and forcefulness without compulsion (Ar. jabariyya) or
harshness.^25 We are also told that he expected both honesty and firm-
ness from his administrative appointees.^26
, The relationship between ruler and subject was put in terms of the
reciprocal exchange of justice and protection for obedience. In 665
Ziyad told the Basrans: "You owe us obedience and we owe you
justice."27 He was famous for his impartial and inflexible justice, which
was essentially the same kind of equity applied by the Sasanians to
protect the weak from the strong and violent by insisting on a mo-
22 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, 11, 78. There is also a reference to mal Allah in a letter from
Mu'awiya to Ziyad in 661 (Tabari, Ta'rlkh, 11, 12) and in an administrative decision
(Ar. tawqta) ascribed to Ziyad; see Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, Kitab al-'iqd al-farld (Cairo,
1363/1944), IV, 217.
23 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, 11, 75. Since the rest of the khutba is in the first person singular,
Ziyad's lapse into the plural in this passage may be significant; but it is uncertain
whether it should be taken as the royal plural, as a reference to the regime in general,
or as a reference to himself and Mu'awiya, although in the latter case one might have
expected the dual. However, pronoun agreement is not at all consistent in early Arabic.
24 Ibn Abi l-I:Iadid, Shar~ nahj al-balagha (Cairo, 1378/1959), XVI, 198; Ibn Qu-
tayba, 'Uyun al-akhbar (Cairo, 1964),11,211. Likewise, when Abii Bakra recognized
Mu'awiya's position as deputy of God over His creation (Ar. khilafatu-lIah fi khalqihi),
the only sanction he could employ to encourage Mu'awiya to behave virtuously and
to watch over himself and his flock was the fear of God's future judgment (Tabari,
Ta'rlkh, 11, 14).
2S Ibn Qutayba, 'Uyun, 11, 211; Tabari, Ta'rlkh, 11, 211. A similar ideal is also ascribed
to the Commander of the Faithful 'Umar I; see Ibn Sa'd, Kitab at-tabaqat al-kablr
(Leiden, 1909), III (1), 250.
26 Ibn Qutayba, 'Uyun, I, 55.
27 Tabari, Ta'rlkh, 11, 75.