A Concise History of the Middle East

The Beginnings of Islamic Government • 57

than 10,000. Likewise, the Jews, numerous in Palestine and Syria,

chose Muslim indifference over Byzantine persecution.

5. The sudden collapse of Sasanid Persia, after having been master of
   Egypt, Syria, and much of Arabia as recently as 625, caused a
   vacuum that the Arabs were quick to fill. Persia was falling back be¬
   cause of political chaos in Ctesiphon, its capital. Power struggles
   sapped the central administration, which was needed to supervise
   the irrigation system on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Farm pro¬
   duction fell and discontent rose. Besides, the Christian, Jewish, and
   Manichaean peasants of Iraq did not like either the Zoroastrian
   priests or the Sasanid absentee landlords who lived in the Persian
   highlands. As soon as Iraq fell, following the Battle of Qadisiya
   (637), the Sasanid state broke up. The Arabs picked up one Persian
   province after another, until the last Sasanid shah died, a fugitive,
   in 651.

To recapitulate, during Muhammad's lifetime the lands of the umma
were limited to western Arabia as far north as the Gulf of Aqaba, in addition
to parts of the rest of the peninsula in which the Arab tribes supposedly
embraced Islam. Under Abu-Bakr, the government at Medina overcame the
challenge of a tribal revolt. The conquest of the adjacent lands in Syria and
Iraq began under Abu-Bakr while he was suppressing the ridda. Upon Abu-
Bakr's death in 634, Umar became the new caliph. Granting a blanket par¬
don to the rebellious tribes, Umar turned what had been a few forays into a
systematic policy of territorial acquisition. During his caliphate and that of
his successor, Uthman, all of Syria, Iraq, Persia, Egypt, and Cyrenaica were
added to the lands of the umma. You can readily imagine the strain this put
on the primitive government in Medina, where Muhammad and Abu-Bakr
used to buy their own food in the market, mend their own clothes, cobble
their own shoes, and dispense justice and disburse money in the courtyards
of their own homes. A more sophisticated government was needed.

THE BEGINNINGS OF ISLAMIC GOVERNMENT

Umar, strong willed and hot tempered, an early Meccan convert who came
from a minor clan of the Quraysh tribe, was the man on the spot. He was
shrewd enough to see that the Arab tribes, easily led into battle by the lure
of booty far richer than they had ever known, might rebel when they were
not fighting. Military discipline sat lightly on the shoulders of these Arab