THE ARAB CONQUEST 149liable to enslavement; this was the only legitimate source of slaves by
Qu'ranic Jaw. If liberated by their masters, acceptance of Islam and
perpetual ties of dependence would be expected of them. Thus, freed
slaves and their descendants remained in the clientage relationship
with their patrons and their family. The Umayyad house, which had
large numbers of such clients (mawiili), often employed them for
military and administrative commands, relying on the links of subor-
dination and loyalty that were an integral part of the relationship of
patron and mawlii. Thus, for example, MUsa ibn Nu~ayr, the governor
of Ifriqiya (705-13) under whom the conquest of Spain was con-
ducted was said by the Arab sources to be the grandson of a Syrian
Arab enslaved in the period of conquest. His father, a freedman and
client (mawlii) of the Umayyad house, rose high in their military
service, as chief of the bodyguard of the caliph Mu'awiya (661-80),
and Musa himself was to be entrusted with one of the handful of
great provincial military and administrative commands. By clientage
and the incorporation of freedmen into the membership of the tribe
of their former masters, the ranks of the conquerors could continue
to grow, despite the rapidly widening geographical extent of the ter-
ritories being conquered and then requiring governing.
The scale and rapidity of the processes described above should
not, however, be exaggerated. While Muslims, apparently from the
earliest period, allowed for the toleration of the other 'religions of
the book', which is to say Judaism and Christianity, incorporation
into the society of the conquerors involved acceptance of Islam. Nor
should it be assumed that Arab tribal society would have counte-
nanced or been able to cope with very large scale assimilation of non-
tribal elements. Thus, for example, a son born to an Arab by a female
slave retained his mother's slave status unless and until his father
formally recognised him.ll Thus mechanisms existed even at the heart
of this society for maintaining the elite status of the 'pure' Arabs, and
preserving a hierarchical structure in their society, despite the egali-
tarian nature of much of the message of the Qu'ran. Ultimately,
tensions caused by the conflict between the expectations that there
should exist an absolute equality between all Muslims, whatever their
origin, and the ethnic exclusivity favoured by many of the Arabs
contributed directly to the great revolt that led to the overthrow of
the Umayyad dynasty in 750.^12
Therefore, although procedures existed and, as the case of Musa
shows, functioned to incorporate elements of the conquered