The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate ad 661-750

Changes in Government and Administration
The early Marwanid period saw a gradual move away from the
indirect system of rule of the Sufyanids to a more centralised and
direct form of government. The middlemen, the 
ashraf
 and the
various non-Arab notables, who had stood between the government
and the subjects, were replaced by officials more directly
responsible to the caliph and his governors. The stimulus for this, no
doubt, was provided by the second civil war when loyalty to the
Umayyads had proved so fragile, and the weaknesses thus revealed

---

62
‘Abd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj
were underlined by subsequent events, especially the revolt of Ibn
al-Ash‘ath (see below) in the early eighth century, when the hostility
of the 
ashraf
 was against manifested. Furthermore, numbers of non-
Arabs now began to accept Islam and become 
mawali
 while many
Arabs ceased to have a primarily military role and turned to
occupations like trade. The gradual breakdown of the barriers
between the Arabs and the subject peoples which ensued meant that
the old system, which depended upon isolation of the conquerors
from the conquered peoples, became less feasible.
5
One of the important changes which came about in response to
these political and social developments was the formation of
something like a standing army at the service of the government, in
place of the reliance on the mass of Arab tribesmen which had been
characteristic of the Sufyanids. In the Marwanid period we hear, for
the first time, of Syrian troops being sent to the provinces to keep
order and to participate in campaigns, while it is clear that in the
provinces only some of the Arabs joined the army, others adopting a
more civilian way of life. At the same time the governors appointed
tended to be military men, having risen in the army, unlike those of
the Sufyanids who depended on their tribal standing or relationship
to the caliph. Symptomatic of the change is that we now no longer
hear of the meetings between the 
ashraf
 and the governor in the
latter’s 
majlis
 or of the delegations 
(wufud)
 of local notables to the
caliph’s court in Syria, both characteristic of the time of Mu‘awiya
and Yazid.
To some extent this development is obscured by the fact that the
sources continue to use Arab tribal terminology when referring to
the army: such terms as 
qa’id
 for a commander or 
qawm
 and 
qabila
for the men were originally tribal terms, and the rival factions which
emerged in the provinces during the Marwanid period bear the
names of the tribal confederations, Mudar and Yemen. Yet this is
rather misleading. What we have are not tribes in arms as in the old
days, but factions in an army, made up of men of tribal origin
certainly (and factional alignment usually, but not invariably,
coincides with tribal origin), but not tribes in the real sense. Arabs
not enrolled in the army were not involved in the factions, but non-
Arabs in the army were. The development of these factions does not
become evident until after the death of al-Hajjaj, but such things as
the use of the Syrians as a sort of imperial army and the tendency to
rely on military men as governors do begin in his time. Indeed al-
Hajjaj himself, although a Thaqafi, is an example of an individual

---

‘Abd al-Malik and al-Hajjaj 
63
who rose to power from comparatively humble origins through
service in the army.
6
Certain innovations in the system of administration and
bureaucracy which are associated with ‘Abd al-Malik also
strengthen the impression of a trend to a greater centralisation of
government. In the classical Muslim state as it developed in the
‘Abbasid period, a government department or ministry is called a