Islamic Economics: A Short History

the dynastic caliphates: the umayyads and the reforms 139

ments when faced with similar problems. The policy however was
abandoned when it was criticised as not being particularly Islamic.
This was another example of al-Œajjaj’s economic ideas, which were
often discussed in histories of the period as a mixture of ruthless-
ness and shrewdness. The irony was that in which he forbade peo-
ple from slaughtering cows for food when an economic hardship was
experienced (Al- ̨abarì). Although that sounded ironic, as expressed
by the poets of the time, “when we complained to him of land
destruction, he forbade us from beef ingestion” (Al- ̨abarì), it was
indeed a necessary step to stop people from eating up an important
means of production. Besides being a source of labour, cattle were
also needed as an important source of fertilizers.
In Egypt, a similar policy to that of al-Œajjaj in Iraq was followed
where families were brought from other provinces to develop areas
in Balbees in Lower Egypt. As a result, the number of families in
the area increased during the Umayyads time and by the end of
their reign this reached three thousands families (Al-Maqrizi, 1324H,
Hitti, 1963), which was a considerable number by the standard of
the day.
The importance of agriculture as a main economic activity and
source of finance continued during the Abbasìd reign. Special schools
were established to provide the necessary study, research and train-
ing as to the types of plants, suitability of soil, fertilisation and meth-
ods of irrigation. Irrigation, which was based on the general policy
of making water free for all, was well organised. It took the form
of a comprehensive network of irrigation canals in Egypt, Iraq,
Yemen, Persia and other areas. A special team of engineers was
responsible for the maintenance of canals and dams. Also, a special
bureau, the bureau of water ‘dìwàn al-maa’, was also established to
register the quantity of water supply in each area, observe the changes
in water levels and classify the cultivable land in accordance with
the availability of water and the system of irrigation for the purpose
of taxation. With ten thousand workers (Œassan 1959), the bureau
seemed to have been of a considerable size.

Trade and Commerce

With the expansion of the Islamic state from India in the east to
Spain in the west, political barriers were removed, which, with