HowMilitarySlaveryFirstOccurred 169
isolatetheArabiansin
garrisons
(m#rs)failedbecausecities
grew
uparoundthemilitaryencampments;theprohibitionontheir
owning
land
collapsed
inthefaceoftheir
eagerness
to
acquire
property.
42
AstheArabianstook
up
commercialor
agricultural
pursuits,theydeveloped
newconcerns;
eventuallythey
fellfrom
therulingelite
intothe
subjectpopulation.
43
Indicativeofthis
change
wastheirlossofinterestin
genealogy,
the
pride
ofAra-
biannomads.
44
Asaresult,the
soldiery
diminishedinsize;this
wasaseriousmatterinan
army
thatfromthefirsthadbeennu-
mericallysmall.
Arabians in
Syria
and
Jazira
for the most
part
remained
armed, but
many
ofthem became
unruly; they
feuded in-
c’essantly
withthecentral
Umayyadgovernment
as
theypursued
theirown
political
interests.
45
By64/684,
only
the
army
of
(the
Arabians
in) Syria
remained even
moderately
faithfultothe
Umayyads. Consequently,
that
army
"was
gradually
trans-
formed froma
regional
militia,concerned
only
withits
region’s
frontiers,intoan
imperial
forcetocontrolthewhole
empire.
’’46
Arabiansoldiersfromother
regions
supportedthe
Umayyad
government,
but
not
in
large
numbers
orreliably;
47
moreoften,
they
either
ignored
thecentral
government
oractedindefiance
ofit.
AsArabianssettledandbecamedisunited,allthefactions,the
Umayyadsandthedefianttribesmen,felttheneedformore
manpower.
4s
Wherecoulditcomefrom?EitherfromArabia,
the
conquered
territories, or from outside the
empire
al-
together.
Arabia
itselfwasperhapsthemostlikelysourceofnew
soldiers,
butitsresourceshadbeen
depleted.
The
conquerors
stayed
inthelands
they
hadwonand
rarely
returnedto
Arabia;
later,
large
numbersofArabians
emigrated
fromthe
peninsula.
42.Ashtor,p.
37.
43.
Hodgson,1:245.
44.
eIqd,
3:312;
Muq,
1:266.
45.Onthoseinterests,seeCrone,
chap.
andShaban,Islamic
History,
vol.
1,
chap.
6.
46.Shaban,IslamicHistory,1:114.
47.
Ibid.,p.
115.
48.
Ayalon,"Preliminary
Remarks,"
p.
44.