into its regional constituents.
Al-Andalus under the emirs was hardly Muslim and even less Arab. As the
caliphs came to rely on Turks, so the emirs relied on a professional standing army of
non-Arabs, the al-khurs, the “silent ones”—men who could not speak Arabic. They
lived among a largely Christian—and partly Jewish—population; even by 900, only
about 25 per cent of the people in al-Andalus were Muslim. This had its benefits for
the regime, which taxed Christians and Jews heavily. Although, like Western
European rulers, they did not have the land tax that the Byzantine emperors and
caliphs could impose, the emirs did draw some of their revenue from Muslims,
especially around their capital at Córdoba. (See Map 3.3.)
