ADMINISTRATIONthat when the flock (Ar. ra'iyya) went astray he was not oppressive.
Although l:Iaritha's use of ra'iyya to mean Muslim subjects and to
express the paternalistic responsibility of the ruler coincides closely
with Ziyad's general reputation, this is one of the first times that this
term appears in an Islamic political context.^34 Likewise, the advice
which Ziyad gave to his tax collectors to treat the peasants well because
"as long as they are prosperous, you will be prosperous" was essen-
tially Sasanian.^35 We thus find a combination of Sasanian, Arab, and
genuinely Islamic ideas contributing to the absolutist ideology of the
Sufyani period, at least as it was gathered around the person of Ziyad.
One result of the resemblance between Sasanian and Islamic con-
cepts of government was that early Islamic administration in Iraq
tended to preserve late Sas ani an distinctions between military juris-
dictions and civilian financial districts. In the first temporary settlement
that was made by Khalid ibn al-Walid along the middle Euphrates
during the conquest, the agents whom he appointed to be in charge
of the various agricultural subdistricts were called tax collectors while
those who were left as Kh:ilid's lieutenants at such places as Hira,
'Ayn Tamr, and Anbar were essentially military officers who were in
charge of the frontier garrisons (Ar. masiilih) where the Persians had
had garrisons before the conquest.^36 Under 'Umar I both the Euphrates
subdistricts and the ex-Sasanian crown province of Kaskar remained
as civilian financial jurisdictions under the authority of the governor
at Kufa.^37
The division of military, financial, and religious responsibilities at
the highest levels of Islamic provincial administration neither occurred
suddenly nor was entirely complete during the seventh century. The
degree of semi autonomy or central control was determined by whether
subordinate or collegiate appointments were made by the Commander
of the Faithful or by the local governor. The emergence of financial
in Ancient Iran," lranica Antiqua 4 (1964): 41, 47-48. This imagery is also used in
the Arabic description of how Biirandokht behaved well towards her ra'iyya (TabarI,
Ta'r"ikh, I, 1064). This term is used in an Islamic context in the qi~~a (Ar. "narration")
of the Khariji Salil) ibn Musarril) in the 690s, where God is said to have put 'Umar I
in charge of the Muslim flock (ra'iyya) (TabarI, Ta'rzkh, n, 883).
34 See also Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi, 'Jqd, I, 8. Ra'jyya had already been used for Mu'awiya's
Muslim subjects by Abii Bakra (Tabari, Ta'rlkh, n, 14); and sultan and ra'iyya are
contrasted in a letter Ziyad supposedly wrote to al-I;Iasan ibn Farima (Ibn Abi 1-I;Iadid,
Nahj, XVI, 194).
35 Ibn Qutayba, 'Uyun, I, 10.
36 Tabari, Ta'rtkh, I, 2050-52.
37 Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqat, VI, 11; Tabari, Ta'rzkh, I, 2455-56, 2596, 2637, 3058.