56 DESTINY DISRUPTED
scholars to work combing out redundancies among the copies that existed,
resolving discrepancies, and evaluating passages whose authenticity was
subject to doubt. The final product was compiled into a book in which
the verses were arranged more or less in order of length (rather than the-
matically or chronologically). All other compilations, competing versions,
and rejected verses were destroyed. From then on, every Qur'an would be
the same, word for word, and that's the Qur'an all Muslims have today.
You can see why this had to be done if the priority was to keep the com-
munity unified, but you can also see why this project might have disgrun-
tled some Muslims, especially if they already had suspicions about
Othman's intentions-as some did.
Next came the job of setting the community's finances in order. In the
Prophet's time, there were basically no state expenditures. All money that
flowed into Medina was distributed more or less immediately. Abu Bakr
and Omar had operated in much the same way, although Abu Bakr did set
up a treasury, and Omar did build up a surplus out of which he paid
stipends to soldiers, the beginnings of a standing army for Islam. Under
Othman, however, the treasury swelled into a regular organ of govern-
ment, which financed an ever-proliferating array of state expenses.
This third khalifa dramatically increased the flow of tax revenues from
his far-flung provinces. When Amr ibn al-A' as, the governor of Egypt,
failed to send in enough money, Othman dismissed him and appointed his
own foster brother Abdullah to the post. Abdullah succeeded in getting a
great deal more money out of the province-in fact, doubling the revenue
from Egypt-proving that Othman had made a wise business decision,
but Amr ibn al-A'as grumbled that his successor was getting more milk out
of the she-camel only by starving the camel's young. Islamic rule was ac-
quiring hints of possible oppression and corruption.
Othman upheld Omar's prohibitions against confiscating land in con-
quered territories, but he lifted Omar's restrictions on Muslims buying land
there, for Othman believed in economic freedom. In fact, he let eminent
Muslims borrow money out of the public treasury to finance such pur-
chases. Soon, Muslim elites, including most of the Prophet Mohammed's
companions, were amassing fortunes and acquiring immense estates
throughout the new Islamic empire. Othman's "economic reforms" tended
to profit his own clan, the Umayyads, above all because they were best sit-