ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY AND PRACTICEofficials at the provincial level was also connected to the separate
administration of crown lands. An early administrative profile is pro-
vided by the appointments that 'Umar I is said to have made for the
government of Kufa in 642, when 'Ammar ibn Yasir was made amir
and put in charge of worship and the army; 'Abdullah ibn Mas'iid
was appointed to give the call to worship (Ar. mu'adhdhin) as teacher
(Ar. mu'allim) or judge (Ar. qacji) and put in charge of the treasury
(Ar. bayt ai-mal) as administrative assistant (Ar. wazir); and 'Uthman
ibn l;Iunayf was put in charge of the measurement of the land for
establishing the tax.^38 In 661 under Mu'awiya, responsibilities were
divided at Kufa between al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba (second term, 661-
69), who was governor general, and 'Abdullah ibn Darraj, a client
(Ar. mawla) of Mu'awiya, whom he appointed to be in charge of the
taxes (Ar. kharaj) and crown property (Ar. pI. $awafi) of Kufa.^39
Financial and other responsibilities were combined under Ziyad; but
in 683 the rival Commander of the Faithful, 'Abdullah ibn az-Zubayr
at Madina, appointed 'Abdullah ibn Yazid al-Ansari as amir over the
worship, war, and border posts of Kufa and Ibrahim ibn Talha ibn
~Ubaydullah al-A'raj as amzr over the tax (Ar. kharaj) of Kufa.^40 With
the establishment of Marwani authority in Iraq under 'Abd al-Malik
(685-705), however, financial and military authority were again com-
bined in the person of al-l;Iajjaj (695-714).41
There was thus a continuing dichotomy between the late Sasanian
separation of powers on the provincial level as a function of absolutist
centralization and the distinctively Islamic concept of the amirate as
a combination of military, financial, and religious responsibilities.
Henceforth, the Sasanian tradition would be associated with the im-
perial centralization of the early 'Abbasis and with the imperial tra-
dition in subsequent Islamic government, while the combination of
powers would be associated with greater provincial autonomy and
eventually with administrative decentralization and political fragmen-
38 Abii Yiisuf, Livre de l-impot fancier (Kitab al-Kharadj) (Paris, 1921), p. 56; Bal-
adhuri, Ansab al-ashTaf (Cairo, 1959), I, 163-64; idem, Futur, p. 269; Ibn al-Faqih,
Mukhta§ar kitab al-buldan (Leiden, 1885), pp. 165, 171: Ibn Qutayba, Kitab al-ma'arit
(Cairo, 1969), p. 249; Ibn Sa'd, Tabaqat, VI, 3; TabarI, Ta'rlkh, I, 2637, 2645, 2647.
39 BaladhurI, Futur, pp. 290, 295; TabarI, Ta'rlkh, n, 10-11; Ya'qiibI, Ta'rikh, n,
258.
4{) TabarI, Ta'rzkh, n, 467, 509.
41 Responsibilities continued to be divided among the subordinates of al-l:Iajjaj and,
although worship (Ar. §alat) and war (Ar. raTb) were normally combined in early Islamic
government, he assigned them to two separate officials at Kufa in 705 (TabarI, Ta'rzkh,
Il, 1182).