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Working with Families
An Integrative Model
by Level of Need
FIFTH EDITION

Allie C. Kilpatrick
Emeritus, University of Georgia

Thomas P. Holland
University of Georgia

Boston New York San Francisco


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Copyright © 2009, 2006, 2003, 1999, 1995 Pearson Education, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
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or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright
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editions.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Working with families : an integrative model by level of need / [edited by] Allie C. Kilpatrick,
Thomas P. Holland.—5th ed.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN-13: 978-0-205-67392-6
ISBN-10: 0-205-67392-9
1. Family psychotherapy. 2. Family social work. I. Kilpatrick, Allie C. II. Holland, Thomas P.
[DNLM: 1. Family Therapy—methods. 2. Family Relations. 3. Needs Assessment.
4. Social Work. 5. Socioeconomic Factors. WM 430.5.F2 W9255 2009]

RC488.5.K55 2009
616.89'156—dc22
2008036655

Printed in the United States of America


10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 HAM 12 11 10 09 08
The fifth edition of this book
is lovingly dedicated to all the
students and practitioners who
are working diligently toward the
development of healthy, resilient,
ethical, and spiritually connected
families internationally.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents

Foreword xiii

Preface xv

About the Authors xxi

About the Contributors xxiii

Outline of Approaches xxvi

PART I Theory Base and Contextual Practice: Metatheories


for Working with Families at Four Levels of Need 1

1 Levels of Family Need 3


Allie C. Kilpatrick

Level I 5
Level II 7
Level III 8
Level IV 9
Intervention Criteria 10
Summary 12
Discussion Questions 13
Internet Resources 13
Suggested Readings 14
References 14

v
vi Contents

2 An Ecological Systems–Social Constructionism


Approach to Family Practice 15
Thomas P. Holland and Allie C. Kilpatrick

Ecological Systems Perspective 15


Applications to Family Practice 18
Caveats in Using the Ecosystems Metatheory 21
Social Constructionist Perspective 22
Applications to Family Practice 23
Caveats in Using the Social Constructionist Metatheory 24
Comparing and Integrating the Metatheories 25
Summary 28
Discussion Questions 28
Internet Resources 29
Suggested Readings 29
References 30

3 Contexts of Helping: Commonalities and Human Diversities 32


Allie C. Kilpatrick, June Hopps, and Kareema J. Gray

The Helping Relationship/Therapeutic Alliance 32


Client Diversity 35
Ethnic-Sensitive Practice, Multiculturalism, and Cultural Democracy 36
Gender Justice 39
Power and Powerlessness 41
Poverty, Children, and Persistent Poverty 43
Family Structure 43
Summary 45
Discussion Questions 45
Internet Resources 46
Suggested Readings 46
References 47
Contents vii

4 Ethically Informed and Spiritually Sensitive Practice 50


Allie C. Kilpatrick, Thomas P. Holland,
and Dorothy S. Becvar

Ethically Informed Practice 50


Spiritually Sensitive Practice 59
Ethical Challenges 66
Summary 67
Discussion Questions 68
Internet Resources 68
Suggested Readings 68
References 69

PART II ● First Level of Family Need: Basic Survival 73

5 Interventions with Level I Neglectful Families 75


James M. Gaudin

Case Study 75
Needs of Level I Neglectful Families 76
Assessment 78
Strategies for Effective Engagement 84
Goals and Basic Tenets 86
Interventions with Level I Families 87
Application to Families on Levels II, III, and IV 91
Evaluation of Effectiveness 92
Ethical Challenges 92
Summary 92
Discussion Questions 93
Internet Resources 93
Suggested Readings 93
References 94
viii Contents

6 A Family Case Management Approach for Level I Needs 96


Roberta R. Greene and Nancy P. Kropf

Family Needs 96
Family Case Assessment 97
Treatment Goals 99
Treatment Approach: A Generalist Model of Case Management 100
Evaluation 108
Application to Families at Other Levels of Need 109
Ethical Challenges 109
Summary 110
Discussion Questions 110
Internet Resources 111
Suggested Readings 111
References 111

PART III ● Second Level of Family Need: Structure, Limits, and Safety 115

7 Structural Family Interventions 117


Harry J. Aponte

Levels of Family Need 117


Assessment 118
Goals 120
Intervention Approach 120
Evaluation 123
Application to Families at Other Levels of Need 124
Ethical Challenges 124
Summary 125
Discussion Questions 125
Suggested Videotapes 126
Suggested Readings 126
References 127
Contents ix

8 Social Learning Family Interventions 129


Arthur M. Horne and Thomas V. Sayger

Family Needs 129


Assessment and Treatment Goals 132
Social Learning Family Interventions 134
Evaluation of Effectiveness 140
Application to Families on Levels I, III, and IV 141
Ethical Challenges 141
Summary 141
Discussion Questions 142
Internet Resources 142
Suggested Readings 143
References 143

PART IV Third Level of Family Need:


Boundaries and Control 145

9 Solution-Focused Family Interventions 147


Jeffrey J. Koob

Assumptions 147
Typical Needs of Level III Families 149
Assessment 149
Theory Base and Basic Tenets 150
Treatment Goals 152
Application 154
Application to Spirituality 157
Interventions 158
Evaluation 163
Application to Families on Levels I, II, and IV 165
Ethical Challenges 166
Summary 166
x Contents

Discussion Questions 167


Internet Resources 167
Suggested Readings 167
References 167

10 Family Systems Theory 170


Joseph Walsh

Needs Presented by Level III Families 171


Assessment 171
Goals of the Intervention 177
Intervention Approaches 177
Applications 179
Evaluation of Effectiveness 188
Application to Families at Other Levels of Need 190
Ethical Challenges 190
Summary 191
Discussion Questions 192
Internet Resources 193
Suggested Readings 193
References 194

PART V Fourth Level of Family Need:


Family and Personal Growth 197

11 Narrative Family Interventions 199


Nancy R. Williams

Needs 200
Goals 200
Theoretical Foundations and Basic Tenets 201
Contents xi

Assessment 204
Intervention Approaches 205
Evaluation 214
Application to Families at Other
Levels of Need 215
Ethical Challenges 216
Summary 216
Discussion Questions 217
Internet Resources 217
Suggested Readings 218
References 219

12 Object Relations Family Interventions 224


Allie C. Kilpatrick and Elizabeth O. Trawick

Family Needs 225


Family Case Assessment 227
Treatment Goals 232
Intervention Approach: Theory Base
and Tenets 232
Application to Families on Level IV 236
Interventions and Techniques 237
Evaluation of Effectiveness 239
Application to Families Functioning
at Other Levels 240
Ethical Challenges 241
Summary 241
Discussion Questions 242
Internet Resources 242
Suggested Readings 242
References 243
xii Contents

PART VI ● The Family in the Community: Ecosystem Implications 247

13 The Family in the Community 249


Elizabeth Vonk and Sun Young Yoo

The Relationship of Community and Families’ Needs 250


A Case Study 251
Meeting Families’ Needs through Practice in the Community 252
Summary 257
Discussion Questions 258
Internet Resources 259
Suggested Readings 259
References 259

APPENDIX Ethics Cases and Commentaries 260

Glossary 266
Name Index 272
Subject Index 278
Foreword

As both a family practitioner and an educator for over 40 years, I have been aware of the
need to formulate a theoretical base for family practice that explains family dynamics and
provides clear guidelines for effective interventions. In this book, the goal of bringing
together family levels of need and practice models is accomplished in a manner that is both
comprehensive and easy to grasp.
For me, the most valuable material in this book relates to the use of the practitioner’s
self in the helping process, which has been expanded in this fifth edition. Clearly, as in all
helping endeavors, the person of the practitioner and the quality of the helping relationship
are vital factors for facilitating change. Murray Bowen, in my opinion, accurately
addresses the essence of family practice in his insistence that practitioners can progress
with a family only as far as they have progressed in their own family relationships. Linking
the maturity level of the practitioner to the overall conditions of the problem context cap-
tures a powerful dynamic in the helping process.
In this fifth edition of Working with Families, Kilpatrick and Holland outline ways to
approach the diversity of family dynamics, family need levels and lifestyles, and the many
commonalities shared by all human aggregates throughout the life cycle. Major additions to
the fourth edition were an Instructor’s Manual, which included PowerPoint presentations,
relevant Internet resources, and an Ethical Challenges section in each practice chapter. This
fifth edition builds on these foundations and amplifies them. In this text, the emphasis on
diversity and difference has not obscured the common human needs, capacities, and coping
styles of people. Chapters dealing with various strategies to meet different levels of need are
written by national and international experts in the field. Two entirely new chapters have
been written for this edition by outstanding expert contributors.
Some of the most cogent and thought-provoking parts of Working with Families are
to be found in the constant emphasis on family strengths and coping capacities. While the
authors assert that no single theory is adequate to deal with all family needs or styles, the
theories presented here all contain a basic strategy that focuses on levels of need rather than
on levels of pathology.
The expanded attention to the domains of family spirituality and professional ethics
is especially relevant for the present period of rapid cultural change. The importance of the
spiritual dimension cuts across all levels of family need. For many families, the spiritual
dimension is crucial for their moral and behavioral guidelines. How can family practition-
ers understand family needs if they are unaware of the specific moral underpinnings for a
particular family?
Family spiritual considerations and professional ethics form a critical part of the ecol-
ogy of the treatment process for each family with whom we work, and all chapters have been

xiii
xiv Foreword

revised and edited to reflect current thinking and practice in these areas. The attention Work-
ing with Families gives to spiritual and ethical considerations deserves careful reading.
Finally, this book directs attention to the specific needs of each specific family and to
the specific interventions needed to address the uniqueness of the family. The content of
this book provides the basis for reflective consideration of the meaning of the spiritual and
ethical dimensions for family work.

D. Ray Bardill
Professor Emeritus, School of Social Work
Florida State University
Past President, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
Preface

Working with Families: An Integrative Model by Level of Need was written especially for
use as a text for students in social work, marriage and family therapy, counseling, psychol-
ogy, and human service courses. Faculties in over 100 colleges and universities nationally
and internationally are using this text in both undergraduate and graduate courses. There
was even a Korean translation in 2008. This book is especially geared toward applications
with families that are usually seen in social service and family agencies, ones that students
would typically be working with in their internships and practicum experiences. However,
it also addresses family needs at higher levels. Practitioners in the various disciplines have
also found it to be useful in their practices.
The purpose of Working with Families is to fill the need in social work and family
therapy literature for an appropriately relevant textbook on family interventions, address-
ing the needs of families that students and practitioners typically see. Previous texts have
focused on overviews of different models of family therapy, emphasizing primarily one
model, one special population, or one problem group. Some have been geared toward
middle-class, private-practice clients. Most have presented the therapist as the expert
within a family systems context.
What is needed is an integrative model for practice, one based on an assessment of
the level of need in the family and the particular problems clients are facing within a wider
ecological context. Once this assessment has been done, then different interventions can be
selected that are appropriate for that family’s particular level of need at that time, around
their specific problem area. Our goal was to meet the need for such a selective approach.
When students are given a broad overview of all the different models of working with
families, they often come away from the course not knowing which specific approach to
use in which particular situation. On the other hand, when only one model is taught, stu-
dents are tempted to use that model with every family, even when it may not be suitable.
When the focus is on a special population or problem group, students have difficulty gener-
alizing appropriately to other populations or problem groups. Many family therapy texts
are geared toward middle-class, walking-wounded, private-practice clients. These are not
the families that students or practitioners typically see in agency settings.
This book presents an integrative model to help students and practitioners make the
fit between therapeutic style and family need. An overall ecosystems–social construction-
ism metatheory serves as the philosophical and theoretical base for working with families
on four levels of family need. Examples of specific approaches to intervention that would
be relevant to use on each level of family need are given.

xv
xvi Preface

Revisions to the Fifth Edition


This fifth edition of Working with Families has been revised and updated to reflect current
content and methods. The revisions include the following:

● An Instructor’s Manual. This was a major addition to the fourth edition. The
Instructor’s Manual is an aid to instructors and to the learning experiences of stu-
dents. This manual includes PowerPoint presentations for each chapter. They have
been revised for this fifth edition.
● Relevant Internet Resources. These sections have been updated for each chapter and
provide more resources for study.
● An Ethical Challenges section. This section, new to the fourth edition, was included
for each method-of-practice chapter so that instructors and students would give spe-
cial thought to this important area of practice. New material has been added in this
edition.
● New chapters and new authors. Two entirely new chapters with new authors are
included in this edition. Chapter 5, on meeting basic needs in Level 1 neglectful fam-
ilies, has been rewritten by an internationally known expert in this field whose major
life research has been in the area of neglectful families. He gives effective practice
guidelines for working with these families. The concluding Chapter 13, on the family
in the community with ecosystem implications, has also been completely rewritten to
reflect present-day circumstances. These two new chapters are excellent additions to
this edition.
● Current thinking and practice. Each chapter has been revised and edited to reflect
current thinking and practice.
An increased student and client interest in spirituality has led us to emphasize this
area of sensitive practice in a specific chapter, as well as in the various chapters devoted to
practice. This added emphasis reflects the current state of knowledge, interest, and atten-
tion surrounding this subject area. A framework for spiritual assessment is given, and many
practice guidelines have been added.
More material on the ethical implications of varying and diverse spiritual beliefs and
practices is also included in this edition. The concepts of resilience and family strengths are
emphasized as the base on which to build. Ethically informed practice is a current issue.
For this reason, we have again included Internet resources that contain the NASW,
AAMFT, and Counselors’ codes of ethics. The seven ethics cases with commentaries from
experts in the field, along with references to specific standards of the code of ethics relevant
to that particular case, remain in the appendix to the text. The glossary has been expanded
to include terms used in the new chapters.

Organization of the Text


Part One of Working with Families covers the theory base and contextual and practice concerns
that are useful with families at any level of need. Chapter 1, by Kilpatrick, presents a frame-
work of the four levels of needs of families. This framework serves as a priority-setting
Preface xvii

guide that enables students and practitioners to determine which methods approach one
would use with a specific family. As such, the chapter is a beginning assessment tool
grounded in the therapeutic assumption that interventions must start addressing the level of
the most basic need before moving on to higher levels of needs and interventions. In
Chapter 2, the theory that undergirds this integrative approach is discussed by Holland and
Kilpatrick. The metatheories of ecosystems and social constructionism form the philosoph-
ical and theoretical foundations for the needs of families and for the methods used to meet
these needs as presented in this book.
In Chapter 3, Kilpatrick, Hopps, and Gray discuss the importance of the helping
relationship/therapeutic alliance and the contexts of client diversities that must be addressed
on any level of need. The focus on ethnic-sensitive practice, multiculturalism, and cultural
competence gives a global perspective to students and practitioners and requires the practi-
tioner to think in terms of a multisystem, interactive, international approach. Whether prac-
ticed in the United States or elsewhere, this perspective on diversity is crucial as the world
becomes one community. A cultural assessment grid is presented, and client diversity in
terms of gender, power, poverty, and family structures is discussed. Updated census data and
statistics on poverty thresholds, implications for the poor, and differing family structures are
included. Although the focus is on diversity issues, the emphasis is on commonalities that
unite people, rather than on differences that divide them.
In Chapter 4, Kilpatrick, Holland, and Becvar provide suggestions for creating a
practice that is well informed relative to ethical decision making and sensitive to the role of
spirituality in the lives of both practitioners and clients. Guides for ethical decision making
are presented, relevant codes of ethics are discussed, and Internet resources are given. The
discussion on spirituality has been greatly enlarged and emphasized in this fifth edition.
The introduction has been completely rewritten, and a new definition for spirituality has
been provided. A Framework for Spiritual Assessment is also included, which students and
practitioners should find very helpful. Specific examples of spiritually oriented helping
activities that students and practitioners can use with their clients are also presented. New
material on ethical challenges, especially under spirituality, is given.
Parts Two through Five focus on interventions that are appropriate for families on
each of the four levels of family need. Each chapter includes examples of interventions that
would be relevant, but they are not the only ones that could be used on that level. With a
shift in emphasis, some of the approaches could be used at more than one level of family
need. Each chapter discusses how a specific approach could be applied to families that have
needs on levels other than the one focused on in that chapter.
Each chapter in Parts Two through Five follows a similar format, addressing and con-
taining the following subjects and features:

● Needs presented by the family


● Assessment, especially determining the level of need of the family
● Goals of the intervention
● Intervention approach used, including the basic tenets of the approach, application to
a family, and specific interventions
● Evaluation or how the interventions are evaluated for effectiveness
● Application to families on other levels of need
xviii Preface

● Ethical challenges
● Summary
● Discussion questions
● Internet Resources
● Suggested Readings
● References

Page numbers indicating where each of these subjects can be found in each chapter are
given in the Outline of Approaches on page xxvi.
In Part Two, the first level of family need, which deals with basic survival issues, is
addressed. The chapters in this part present two approaches to family practice that are
appropriate for families on the first level of need. Chapter 5, by Gaudin, presents an inter-
vention approach with neglectful families, which is designed to address basic needs in
high-risk families with children. In Chapter 6, Greene and Kropf present the case manage-
ment approach, which is a process for assisting families who have multiple service needs.
The second level of family need is presented in Part Three. This level is concerned
with structure, limits, and safety. In Chapter 7, Aponte, internationally known as one of the
founders and developers of structural family therapy, presents this systems-based model,
which places a special focus on the internal organization of relationships within families. In
Chapter 8, Horne and Sayger present the social learning family interventions approach to
families. This approach deals with both internal and external, or environmental, factors that
affect family needs and focuses on learning more effective social skills.
Part Four deals with the third level of family need, concerned with boundaries and
control. Both chapters in this part present approaches to intervention. In Chapter 9, Koob
discusses solution-focused interventions, one of the brief intervention approaches that are
appropriate for families at this level of need. The emphasis on health and strengths makes it
an especially useful model for families at this level of need. In Chapter 10, Walsh presents
family systems theory, a widely utilized approach to family assessment and intervention. It
provides a comprehensive conceptual framework for understanding how emotional ties
within families of origin influence the lives of individuals and also examines multigenera-
tional family processes and interventions.
Part Five addresses interventions at the fourth level of family need: family and per-
sonal growth. This higher level of need is represented by a focus on inner richness and
quality of life. In Chapter 11, Williams discusses narrative family interventions. This
approach emphasizes the meaning that families make of their experiences instead of the
cause of the problem. It makes use of a collaborative, co-learning therapeutic relationship.
The second approach, presented in Chapter 12 by Kilpatrick and Trawick, is object rela-
tions family interventions (ORFI). ORFI is a bridge between working with individuals and
working with families and is essentially interactional in its intervention processes. It gives
primacy to the need for a human relationship, even at birth.
In Part Six, the final chapter looks at the larger issues of the family in the community
context. Chapter 13, by Vonk and Yoo, discusses the ecosystem implications of working
with families at the macrosystem level, thus integrating the previous intervention
approaches with the theoretical and philosophical foundations presented earlier.
Preface xix

Acknowledgments
Our great appreciation goes to all the contributors to this fifth edition. They are experts in
their fields, and we are grateful for the time and energy they have given.
The reviewers of the previous editions made some very valuable suggestions that
made the book more relevant, readable, and user friendly. These suggestions and ideas
were helpful and have been incorporated into later editions.
Dr. Ray Bardill kindly agreed to write the foreword for this fifth edition. Many
thanks go to him for taking time out of his busy schedule and also for his many contribu-
tions and insights, as well as the inspiration he has provided the senior author of this book,
Allie Kilpatrick, in working with families. He has been a role model in having the courage
to write and speak about spirituality when it was not popular to do so.
Thanks are due to the reviewers of this fifth edition: Joseph Anderson, California
State University at Sacramento; Carolyn A. Bradley, Monmouth University; and Deborah
J. Holt, Jackson State University. We are also grateful to Patricia Quinlin and the editorial
staff of Allyn & Bacon. They have been most supportive and cooperative even while gently
pushing to get this new edition into production. Their contributions have been helpful,
timely, and professional. Thank you!
Allie would like to pay special tribute to her extended familiy. The four living gener-
ations of my sisters, brother, and countless cousins inspire my study and appreciation of
families. My parents and grandparents, and those ancestors who came before left our gen-
eration with a vital spiritual heritage that has sustained, nurtured, and challenged us. For
this, I will be eternally grateful and will endeavor to pass this spiritual heritage on to our
beloved children, grandchildren, and future generations that they may also be sustained,
nurtured, and challenged.
Tom would like to pay special tribute to his extended family also. My parents and
parents-in-law have been important models, and my daughter and grandsons are sources of
hope for the future.
Our families have been very patient and loving during this process, and they have
contributed in unique ways to our ideas about families. To Charles and Myra, we send
heartfelt notes of love and appreciation.
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saddle. It was close to this that Omar laid the foundation of the
Mosque which, to this day, bears his name.[329]
Mahometan tradition gives no further
detail respecting this memorable visit. But Christian tradition regarding
we are told by Christian writers that Omar Omar’s visit to Jerusalem.
accompanied Sophronius over the city, visited the Jerusalem,
various places of pilgrimage, and graciously inquired into their
history. As the appointed hour came round, the Patriarch bade the
Caliph to perform his orisons on the spot where they chanced to be,
namely, the Church of the Resurrection. But he declined to pray
either there or in the Church of Constantine, where a carpet had
been spread for him—alleging, as the reason, that if he were to pray
there, his followers would deem it their duty to oust the Christians
and take possession of the church for ever afterwards, as a place
where Moslem prayer had once been offered up. He also visited
Bethlehem. There, having prayed in the Church of the Nativity, he
gave nevertheless a rescript to the Patriarch who accompanied him
on the pious errand, securing the Christians in possession of the
building, with the condition that not more than one Mussulman
should ever enter at a time; but the stipulation, we are told, was
disregarded, and a Mosque was eventually erected there, as well as
on the site of the porch of the Church of Constantine.[330]
Whatever truth there may be in these
traditions, Omar did not prolong his visit to Omar returns to Medîna.
Jerusalem or its environs. Having settled
the matter for which he came, he proceeded to divide Palestine into
two provinces; one of which he assigned to the government of
Jerusalem, and the other to that of Ramleh. He then returned by the
way that he came to Medîna.[331]
Thus was Syria, from the farthest north
to the border of Egypt, within the space of Causes which facilitated the
three years, lost to Christendom. One conquest of Syria.
reflects with wonder at the feeble resistance offered by the Byzantine
power, both military and naval, and by its many strongholds of
antiquity and renown, to this sudden inroad. The affinities of the
Syrian Bedouins to the Arabian nation facilitated no doubt the
conquest. There was also an element of weakness in the settled
population; for luxurious living had demoralised the effeminate race
and rendered it unable to resist the onset of the wild and fanatic
invaders. Still worse, they had no heart to fight. What patriotic vigour
might have still survived, was lost in religious strife. Sects rejoiced
each in the humiliation of the other; and, as is usual in such
controversies, the finer the distinction, the more inveterate the hatred
thereby engendered. Loyalty was thus smothered by bitter
jealousies, and there are not wanting instances even of active
assistance rendered to the enemy.[332] There may have been among
some, even a sense of relief in the equal though contemptuous
licence given, by the toleration or haughty indifference of the
conquerors, to all alike. But there was a still deeper cause, and that
was the growing decrepitude of the Roman empire. No vigour
remained to drive back the shock of barbarian invaders. And while
northern hordes could by degrees amalgamate with the nations
which they overran, the exclusive faith and the intolerant teaching of
Islam kept the Arabs a race distinct and dominant.
The conquerors did not spread
themselves abroad in Syria, as in The Arabs did not settle in
Syria to the same extent as
Chaldæa. They founded no such Arabian in Chaldæa.
towns and military settlements as
Bussorah and Kûfa. The country and climate were less congenial,
and the beautiful scenery, of the land of brooks of water and depths
springing out of valleys and hills, the land of vines and fig-trees and
pomegranates, the land of oil-olive and honey, offered fewer
attractions to the Arabian races than the heated sandy plains of the
Tigris and Euphrates, with their desert garb of tamarisk and groves
of the familiar date. They came to Syria as conquerors; and, as
conquerors, they settled largely, particularly the southern tribes, in
Damascus, Hims, and other centres of administration. But the body
of the native Syrians remained after the conquest substantially the
same as before; and through long centuries of degradation they
clung, as to some extent they still cling, to their ancestral faith.
We read in later days of the Ordinance
of Omar, to regulate the conditions of Humiliation of Jews and
Christian communities throughout Islam. Christians.
But it would be a libel on that tolerant Ruler to credit him with the
greater part of these observances. It is true that the stamp of
inferiority—according to the Divine injunction, Fight against the
people of the Book, Jews and Christians, until they pay tribute with
their hands and are humbled[333]—was branded upon them from the
first; but the worst disabilities of that intolerant Ordinance were not
imposed till a later period. Introduced by degrees, these gradually
became, through practice and precedent, the law of the land. At the
first the exactions of the conquerors, besides the universal tribute,
were limited to the demand of a yearly supply of oil-olive and other
food, and the obligation to entertain Moslem travellers on their
journey for three days at a time. But when the Caliphate was
established at Damascus, its pomp and pride could no longer brook
the semblance even of social equality, and hence the badge of an
inferior race must be shown at every step. The dress of both sexes
and of their slaves must be distinguished by broad stripes of yellow.
They were forbidden to appear on horseback; and if they rode on
mule or ass, their stirrups must be of wood, and the saddle known by
knobs of the same material. Their graves must be level with the
ground, and the mark of the devil placed on the lintel of their doors.
Their children must be taught by Moslem masters; and the race,
however able or well qualified, was proscribed from aspiring to any
office of high emolument or trust. Besides the existing churches
spared at the conquest, no new building must be erected for the
purposes of worship; free entry into all their holy places must be
allowed at the pleasure of the Moslem; no cross must remain in view
outside, nor any church bells rung. They must refrain from
processions in the street at Easter and other solemn seasons; and in
short from anything, whether by outward symbol, word, or deed, in
rivalry or derogation of the royal faith. Such was the so-called Code
of Omar.[334] Enforced with less or greater stringency in different
lands and under different dynasties, it was, and still remains, the law
of Islam. One must admire the rare tenacity of the subject faith,
which, with but scanty light and hope, held its ground through weary
ages of insult and depression, and still survives to see, as we now
may hope, the dawning of a brighter day.
I have spoken of the loss of Syria as
the dismemberment of a limb from the The East cut off from the
Byzantine empire. In one respect it was West.
something more. For their own safety, the Romans dismantled a
broad belt of country on the borders of the now barbarian Syria. The
towns and fortresses were razed, and the inhabitants withdrawn.
And so the neutral zone became a barrier against travel to and fro.
For all ordinary communication, whether social, religious, or
commercial, the road was closed. The East was severed from the
West.
‘The abomination of desolation’ wept
over by Sophronius stood in the Holy Silence of Byzantine
Place. The cradle of Christianity, Zion the historians.
joy of the whole earth, was trodden under foot, and utterly cut off
from the sight of its votaries. And all is told by the Byzantine writers
in a few short lines. The pen of the Christian annalist might well
refuse to write the story of cowardice and shame.
CHAPTER XXI.
RISING IN NORTHERN SYRIA.

A.H. XVII. A.D. 638.

In the sixth year of Omar’s Caliphate, a


desperate effort was made by the Rising in Northern Syria.
Byzantine power, and at one moment not
without some prospect of success, to shake off the Moslem yoke and
recover possession of Northern Syria.
The movement is attributed by tradition
to an appeal from the Christian tribes of Romans by sea support
Mesopotamia, which when the Roman attack of Mesopotamian
Bedouins. a.h. XVII. a.d.
army retired into Asia Minor, besought the 638.
Emperor to save them from falling under
his adversary’s sway. Although the Moslem frontier on the side of
Cilicia was tolerably secure, yet the seaboard to the west, and the
desert border on the east of Syria, were both vulnerable. Most of the
strongholds of Mesopotamia, it is true, had already fallen into the
hands of Sád;[335] but the wandering Bedouins were not controlled
by these, and with few exceptions the numerous Christian tribes still
looked for support to the Persian or the Roman empires. The
maritime power of the Romans was yet untouched. Cæsarea with its
naval supports remained proof against landward attack; and the
whole sea coast was kept unsettled by the hope, or by the fear, that
the Roman fleet might at any time appear. The Emperor now
promised the dwellers in Mesopotamia that he would second their
efforts by way of the sea. An expedition was accordingly directed
from the port of Alexandria upon Antioch; while the Bedouins
gathered in great hordes around Hims. Thus seriously threatened,
Abu Obeida called in Khâlid from Kinnisrîn, and every garrison that
could be spared from the south. But the enemy was still too strong to
be dispersed by the force at his disposal, and so he sent an urgent
summons for assistance to Medîna. Thereupon Omar ordered Sád
to despatch a strong column from Kûfa under Cacâa for the relief of
Hims without a day’s delay; and likewise to effect a diversion by
sending other columns against Rickka, Roha, Nisibîn, and such like
strongholds in Upper Mesopotamia. Meanwhile the Romans landed
from their ships. Antioch threw open her gates to them; and
Kinnisrîn, Aleppo, and all the chief towns in the north, were in full
revolt. Abu Obeida called a council of war; Khâlid was for giving
battle, but he was alone in that view. Abu Obeida, feeling too weak to
cope with the now combined forces of the Bedouins and Romans,
retired within the walls of Hims, and, hemmed in by enemies,
awaited the succour now advancing from Kûfa. So grave did Omar
himself regard the crisis that, quitting Medîna for the second time, he
journeyed to Jâbia, intending to march in person with the
reinforcements northwards. But while on the journey, a change had
already come over the scene. The vigorous movements in
Mesopotamia so alarmed the Bedouins for the safety of their homes
in the desert, that they began to forsake the Roman cause. Seeing
now his opportunity, Abu Obeida issued
from the fortress, and after a severe Abu Obeida puts the Romans
engagement routed the enemy, who fled in and Bedouins to flight.
such confusion that, even before the arrival of Cacâa, they were
totally dispersed. Omar returned from Jâbia to Medîna. He was
delighted at the result; and he specially commended the alacrity of
the Kûfa column:—‘The Lord reward them,’ he wrote to Sád, ‘for their
ready gathering and their speedy march to the succour of their
beleaguered brethren.’[336]
It was the last effort of Constantinople
to expel the invader from Syria, and the Campaign in Mesopotamia
yoke plainly now was not to be shaken off. and Asia Minor. a.h. XVII.
a.d. 638.
The expeditions undertaken for diverting
the nomad insurgents had also the effect of reducing Mesopotamia
to its uttermost limits. But not content with this, the infant faith,
becoming conscious of its giant strength, began to stretch itself
towards the north. The successes in Mesopotamia were followed up
by a campaign in Asia Minor, under distinguished leaders; and the
name of Iyâdh, the general-in-chief, under whom even Khâlid did not
disdain to serve, begins to figure in the brief Byzantine record.[337]
Nisibîn,[338] Amida, Harrân, Roha, and all the strong places lying
along the northern frontier were taken or recaptured, and even
Armenia was overrun.[339]
Most of the Bedouin tribes in
Mesopotamia embraced Islam. There were Christian tribes in
exceptions, and the story of the Beni Iyâdh Mesopotamia.
Iyâdh.
The Beni

is singular. They migrated to the north and


found an asylum in Roman territory. But Omar, nettled at their
disappearance, and fearing lest they should remain a thorn in his
side, demanded their extradition from the Byzantine Court, on pain of
the expulsion of all the Christian tribes living under his protection.
And the Emperor, unwilling to expose these to ill-treatment, complied
with the demand.[340] Equally remarkable is the tale of the Beni
Taghlib. They tendered their submission to
Welîd ibn Ocba, who, solicitous for the Beni Taghlib allowed to pay
adhesion to Islam of this great and famous tithe.
race, pressed them with some rigour to abjure their ancient faith.
Omar was much displeased at this,—‘Leave them,’ he wrote, ‘in the
profession of the Gospel. It is only within the bounds of the
Peninsula, where are the Holy Places, that no polytheist tribe is
permitted to remain.’ Welîd was removed from his command; and it
was enjoined on his successor to stipulate only that the usual tribute
should be paid, that no member of the tribe should be hindered from
embracing Islam, and that the children should not be educated in the
Christian faith. The tribe, deeming in its pride the payment of ‘tribute’
(jazia) an indignity, sent a deputation to the Caliph:—They were
willing, they said, to pay the tax if only it were levied under the same
name as that taken from the Moslems. Omar evinced his liberality by
allowing the concession; and so the Beni Taghlib enjoyed the
singular privilege of being assessed as Christians at a ‘double Tithe,’
instead of paying Jazia, the obnoxious badge of subjugation.[341]
The last place to hold out in Syria was
Cæsarea. It fell a last in the fifth year of Fall of Cæsarea. a.h. XVII.
a.d. 638.
Omar’s Caliphate. Amru had sat long
before it. But, being open to the sea, and the battlements landward
strong and well manned, it resisted all his efforts; and although Yezîd
sent his brother Muâvia with reinforcements from Damascus, the
siege was prolonged for several years. Sallies persistently made by
the garrison, were driven back with equal constancy. In the end, as
we are told, by the treachery of a Jew, a weak point was discovered
in the defences. The city was carried by storm, with prodigious
carnage of the wretched inhabitants. Four thousand prisoners, of
either sex, were despatched as part of the prey to Medîna, and there
distributed in slavery.[342]
Khâlid had again the misfortune to incur
the displeasure of Omar. He came back Khâlid brought to trial. a.h.
from the campaign of Iyâdh greatly XVII. a.d. 638–9.
enriched with the spoils of war. In expectation of his bounty, many of
his old friends from Irâc flocked to him on his return to his
government at Kinnisrîn; and amongst these was Asháth, chief of the
Beni Kinda, to whom he gave the princely largess of one thousand
pieces of gold. Again, at Amida in the east, Khâlid had indulged in
the luxury of a bath mingled with wine, the odour whereof as he
came forth still clung about him. On both charges he was now
arraigned. About the second, there could be no question; the use of
wine, even externally, was a forbidden thing, and Khâlid forswore the
indulgence in it even thus. The other offence was graver in the
Caliph’s eyes. Either the gift was booty of the army; or, if Khâlid’s
own to give away, he was guilty, even on that supposition, of
culpable extravagance. Whichever was the case, he deserved to be
deposed from his command. In such terms a rescript was addressed
to Abu Obeida, and sent by the hands of a courier charged to see
that the command was fully carried out. Khâlid was to be accused
publicly; his helmet[343] taken off; his hands bound with his head-
kerchief; and so arraigned he was to declare the truth.
With Abu Obeida this was an
ungracious task; for to the now degraded Khâlid arraigned at Hims for
warrior he was beholden for all his victories malversation;
in Syria. But the Caliph’s word was law. And so he summoned Khâlid
from his seat of government, proclaimed an assembly in the great
Mosque of Hims, and, standing in the pulpit, placed Khâlid in the
midst. Then the courier put his master’s question—From whence the
money given to Asháth came? Khâlid, confounded at the unexpected
charge, made no reply. Pressed by his friends, still he remained
silent. Abu Obeida stood himself embarrassed, and a painful pause
ensued. At last Bilâl, privileged as the Muedzzin of the Prophet,
stepped forth, and with stentorian voice cried, ‘Thus and thus hath
the Commander of the Faithful said, and it is incumbent on us to
obey;’ so saying, he unwound the kerchief from the head of Khâlid,
bound his hands therewith, and took off his helmet. The great
warrior, to whom Islam owed its conquests, stood as a felon before
the congregation. Bilâl repeated the question, and Khâlid at length
replied, ‘The money was my own.’ At once Bilâl unbound his hands,
and, replacing the helmet on his head, wound the kerchief around it
as before, and said, ‘We honour thee still, even as we did honour
thee before, one of our chiefest captains.’ But Abu Obeida was
silent; and Khâlid, stunned by the disgrace, stood speechless and
bewildered. Abu Obeida had not the heart to tell him of his
deposition; but, without sending him back to his seat of government,
spoke kindly to him as to one who still had his confidence. Omar
understood the delicacy of Abu Obeida’s position, and himself
summoned Khâlid to Medîna. Prompt to
obey, though sore at heart, Khâlid first summoned to Medîna,
returned to Kinnisrîn; and both there and at
Hims, bidding adieu to his friends and to the people, he complained
openly and bitterly of the ingratitude of a prince who scrupled not to
use him in his times of difficulty, but cast him aside when, through his
aid, he had reached the summit of his power. Arrived at Medîna, he
reproached the Caliph: ‘I swear that thou hast treated despitefully a
faithful servant to whom thou owest much; and I appeal from thee to
the whole body of the Faithful.’ ‘Whence came that money?’ was
Omar’s only answer. The question was repeated day by day; till at
last, galled by the charge of unfaithfulness, Khâlid made answer
thus: ‘I have nought but the spoil which the Lord hath given me in the
days of Abu Bekr, as well as in thine own. Whatever thou findest
over 60,000 pieces, hath been gained in thy Caliphate; take it if thou
wilt.’ So his effects were valued, and the estimate reaching 80,000,
Omar confiscated the difference. But he
still affected to hold the great general in and there mulcted and
honour and regard. Accordingly, he sent a deposed.
rescript to the various provinces, announcing that he had deposed
Khâlid, not because of any tyranny or fraud, but because he deemed
it needful to remove a stumbling-block out of the way of the people,
who were tempted to put their trust in an arm of flesh, instead of
looking alone to the Giver of all victory.
So closed the career of Khâlid. The first
beginning of Omar’s alienation was the Khâlid dies in neglect. a.h.
affair of Mâlik ibn Noweira, followed by acts XXI.
of tyranny in Irâc, which grated on his sense of clemency and justice.
But these acts had long since been condoned; and therefore his
conduct now was ungenerous and unjust. He used the ‘Sword of
God’ so long as he had need of it, and when by it victory was
secured, he cast it ungratefully away. Khâlid retired to Hims, and did
not long survive. His manner of life when in the full tide of prosperity
may be gathered from the brief notice that in the Plague (of which
mention will soon be made) forty of his sons were carried off. The
remainder of the family took refuge, like many others, in the desert.
Soon after, in the eighth year of Omar’s Caliphate, the great general
died. In his last illness he kept showing the scars which thickly
covered his body all over—marks of his bravery and unflinching
prowess. ‘And now,’ he said, ‘I die even as a coward dieth, or as the
camel breatheth its last breath.’ His end illustrates forcibly the
instability of this world’s fame and glory. The hero who had borne
Islam aloft to the crest of victory and conquest, ended his days in
penury and neglect.[344]
CHAPTER XXII.
EXPULSION OF JEWS AND CHRISTIANS FROM ARABIA. THE
CIVIL LIST OF OMAR. SLAVES OF ARAB BLOOD MADE FREE.

A.H. XIV., XV. A.D. 635, 636.

I must now revert to one or two matters


of domestic interest, which, not to break Domestic events. a.h. XIV.,
XV.
the story of external conquest, I have
refrained from noticing before.
Arabia, as the nursery of the legions
destined to wage the wars of Islam, must Expulsion of Jews and
be purged of strange religions. And Christians from Arabia.
accordingly, so soon as victory was secured in Syria and Irâc, Omar
proceeded to signalise his reign by an act of harshness, if not of
questionable equity.
In the centre of Arabia lies the province
of Najrân, inhabited from of old by a Christians removed from
Najrân,
Christian people. Mahomet had concluded
a treaty with their chiefs and bishops, by which the annual tribute of
2,000 suits of raiment secured them safety in the undisturbed
profession of their ancestral faith. Throughout the rebellion they
remained loyal to their engagements, and Abu Bekr renewed the
treaty. Worthy descendants of a martyr race, they resisted the
blandishments of Islam; and as a penalty they must now quit their
native soil, consecrated, in the persecution of Dzu Nowâs, by the
ashes of their forefathers.[345] They were ordered to depart and
receive lands in exchange elsewhere. Some migrated to Syria; but
the greater part settled in the vicinity of Kûfa, where the colony of
Najrânia long maintained the memory of Mahometan intolerance.
The rights, however, conferred upon them by the Prophet’s treaty, so
far as their expatriation might admit, were respected by successive
rulers; and their tribute, with decreasing numbers, lightened sensibly
from time to time. After their removal, no
long time elapsed before the Jews of and Jews from Kheibar.
Kheibar, a rich vale two or three days’
journey north of Medîna, met a similar fate. Their claim was not so
strong as the Christians’; for, conquered by Mahomet, they had been
left on sufferance in possession of their fields at a rent of half the
produce. In return for this partial right from which they now were
ousted, they received a money payment, and then departed for
Syria. Various pretexts are urged for the expatriation in either case.
But behind them all we find the dogma—supposed dying behest of
Mahomet—In Arabia there shall be but one religion. The recruiting
field of Islam must be sacred ground.[346]
The Arabian nation was the champion
of Islam; and to fight its battles every Arab The Arabs as a nation share
was jealously reserved. He must be the the spoils of war.
soldier, and nothing else. He might not settle down in any conquered
province as cultivator of the soil; and for merchandise or other
labour, a busy warlike life offered but little leisure. Neither was there
any need. The Arabs lived on the fat of the conquered lands, and
captive nations served them. Of the booty taken in war, four parts
were distributed to the army in the field; the fifth was reserved for the
State; and even that, after discharging public obligations, was shared
among the Arabian people. In the reign of Abu Bekr this was a
simple matter. But in the Caliphate of Omar the spoil of Syria and of
Persia began in ever-increasing volume to pour into the treasury of
Medîna, where it was distributed almost as soon as received. What
was easy in small beginnings, by equal sharing or discretionary
preference, became now a heavy task. And there began, also, to
arise new sources of revenue in the land assessment and the poll
tax of subject countries, which, after defraying civil and military
charges, had to be accounted for to the Central Government;—the
surplus being, like the royal Fifth, the patrimony of the Arab nation.
At length, in the second or third year of
his Caliphate, Omar determined that the New rule of distribution by
classes of merit.
distribution should be regulated on a fixed
and systematic scale. The income of the Commonwealth was to be
divided, as heretofore, amongst the Faithful as their heritage, but
upon a rule of precedence befitting the military and theocratic
groundwork of Islam. For this end three points only were considered:
priority of conversion, affinity to the Prophet, and military service.
The widows of Mahomet, ‘Mothers of the Faithful,’ took the
precedence with an annual allowance of 10,000 pieces each; and all
his kinsmen were with a corresponding liberality provided for.[347]
The famous Three Hundred of Bedr had 5,000 each; presence at
Hodeibia and the Pledge of the Tree[348] gave a claim to 4,000; such
as took part in quelling the Rebellion had 3,000; and those engaged
in the great battles of Syria and Irâc, as well as sons of the men of
Bedr, 2,000; those taking the field after the actions of Câdesîya and
the Yermûk, 1,000. Warriors of distinction received an extra grant of
500. And so they graduated downwards to 200 pieces for the latest
levies. Nor were the households forgotten. Women had, as a rule,
one-tenth of a man’s share. Wives, widows, and children had each
their proper stipend; and in the register, every infant, as soon as
born, had the title to be entered with a minimum allowance of ten
pieces, rising with advancing age to its proper place. Even Arab
slaves (so long as any of that race remained) had, strange to say,
their portion.
Thus every soul was rated at its worth.
But the privilege was confined most strictly All other nations a lower
to those of Arab blood. A few exceptions, class.
indeed, were made of distinguished Persian chiefs; but the mention
of them only proves the stringency of the general rule.[349] The
whole nation, every man, woman, and child of the militant Arab race,
was subsidised. In theory, the rights of all believers were the same.
‘Ye are one brotherhood,’ said Mahomet at the Farewell pilgrimage;
and as he spake he placed two fingers of one hand upon his other
hand, to enforce the absolute equality.[350] But in point of fact, the
equality was limited to the Arab nation. The right of any brother of
alien race was a dole of food sufficient for subsistence, and no more.
[351]
A great nation dividing thus amongst
them their whole revenues, spoil, and Principle adopted by Omar
conquests, first on the principle of equal disarms Arabian jealousies.
brotherhood, and next on that of martial merit and spiritual
distinction, is a spectacle probably without parallel in the world. The
rule itself was well conceived. In no other way would it have been
possible to reconcile the jealous susceptibilities of tribal rivalry.[352]
Safwân, Soheil, and other great chiefs of the Coreish, who fell into a
lower class because they had not joined the Prophet till after the
capture of Mecca, refused at first any allowance but the highest: ‘We
know of none nobler than ourselves,’ they said; ‘and less than any
other we will not take.’ ‘Not so,’ answered Omar; ‘I give it by priority
of faith, and not for noble birth.’ ‘It is well,’ they replied; and no
reason but this, unanswerable because already axiomatic among the
Moslems, would have satisfied them. Apart from tribal jealousy, there
were two other sources of danger: first, the rivalry between the
Bedouin tribes, on the one hand, and the ‘Companions,’ or men of
Mecca and Medîna, on the other; and, second, between the Beni
Hâshim (the Prophet’s family), the Omeyyads, and the Coreish at
large;—jealousies which by-and-by developed into large proportions,
and threatened the very existence of the Caliphate; but which, held
in check by the strong arm of Omar, were now for a time avoided by
assuming a spiritual test as the main ground of precedence.
The Arabian aristocracy thus created
was recognised by the whole Moslem Omar perpetuates military
world. The rank and stipend now assigned organisation of Arabs.
descended in the direct line of birth. Even rewards given for special
gallantry in the field were heritable.[353] By making thus the revenues
of Islam the heritage of the nation militant, their martial genius was
maintained, and their employment perpetuated as the standing army
of the Caliphate. The ennobled nation, pampered by indulgence,
factious and turbulent when idle, were indeed too often a serious
element of sedition and intrigue. But they were nevertheless the
backbone of Islam, the secret of its conquests, and the stay of the
Caliphate. The crowded harems multiplied the race with marvellous
rapidity; and the progeny were, by Omar’s organisation, kept
sedulously distinct, so as never to mingle with the conquered races.
Wherever they went they formed a class distinct and dominant—the
nobles and rulers of the land. The subject peoples, even if they
embraced Islam, were of a lower caste; and as clients of some Arab
chief or tribe, courted their patronage and protection. Thus the
fighting nation was set apart for the sacred task of subjugating
nations and of propagating Islam; and even after the new-born zeal
of the Faith had to some extent evaporated, the martial fire of the
Arabs as a whole and undivided people was, owing mainly to Omar’s
foresight, kept alive in full activity for two centuries and a half. The
nation was, and continued, an army mobilised; the cantonment, not
the city, their home; their business, war and the camp;—a people
whose hereditary calling it was to be ready to march on warlike
expeditions at a moment’s notice.
To carry out this vast design, a Register
had to be drawn and kept up of every man, Register of all Arabs entitled
woman, and child, entitled to a stipend to a stipend.
from the State—in other words, of the whole Arab race employed in
the interests of Islam. This was easy enough for the higher grades,
but a herculean task for the hundreds of thousands of ordinary
fighting men and their families who kept streaming forth from the
Peninsula; and who, by the extravagant indulgence of polygamy,
were multiplying rapidly. But the task was simplified by the strictly
tribal composition and disposition of the forces. Men of a tribe, or
branch of a tribe, fought together; and the several corps and
brigades being thus territorially arranged in clans, the Register
assumed the same form. Every soul was entered under the stock
and tribe and clan whose lineage it claimed. And to this exhaustive
classification we owe in great measure the elaborate genealogies
and tribal traditions of Arabia before Islam.
The Register itself, as well as the office
for its maintenance and for pensionary The Dewân of Omar.
account, was called the Dewân or
Department of the Exchequer. The State had by this time, as we
have seen, an income swollen by the tribute of conquered cities, the
poll-tax of subjugated peoples, the land and other regular
assessments, the spoil of war, and the tithes. The first charge was
for the revenue and civil administration; the next for military
requirements, which began soon to assume a sustained and
permanent form; the surplus remained (as has been now set forth)
for pensionary and eleemosynary distribution. The whole revenues
of Islam were thus expended as soon, almost, as received; and
Omar took a special pride in seeing the treasury, in accord with this
principle, emptied to the last dirhem.[354] The accounts of the various
provinces were at the first kept by natives of the country in the
character to which they were accustomed—in Syria by Greeks, and
in Irâc by Persians. At Kûfa the use of Pehlevi was maintained till the
time of Hajjâj, when, an Arab assistant having learned the art from
the chief treasurer, the Arabic system of record and notation was
introduced.
We are not told the numerical result of
the Dewân of Omar, but the population of Vast extent of Arab exodus.
Kûfa and Bussora may give us a standard
to judge of the vast exodus in progress from Arabia, and the rapid
strides by which the crowded harems multiplied the race. Arab
ladies, as a rule, married only Arab husbands; but the other sex,
besides unlimited indulgence in servile concubinage, were free to
contract marriage with the women of conquered lands, whether
converts or ‘people of the Book;’ for marriage is lawful between a
Moslem and females of the Jewish and Christian faith. And although
the wives of Arab blood took precedence in virtue of rank and birth,
the children also of every Arab father, whether the mother were slave
or free, Moslem, Jew, or Christian, were equal in legitimacy. And so
the nation multiplied. Looking to these considerations and to the new
drain upon Arabia to meet the conquests in Egypt and Persia (of
which anon), we shall not greatly err if we assume that before
Omar’s death the number of Arabs beyond the limits of Arabia
proper, reached to Half a million, and eventually doubled, perhaps
quadrupled.
Civil administration followed in the
wake of conquest. In Chaldæa, the great Provincial administration.
network of canals was early taken in hand.
The long-neglected embankments of the Euphrates were placed
under charge of a special officer, and those of the Tigris under
another. Syria and Irâc were measured field by field; and the
assessment of the lands, both crown and provincial, established on a
uniform system. In Irâc, the agency of the Dihcâns, or great
landholders, was taken advantage of, as under the Sassanide
dynasty, to aid in the police and revenue administration.
In addition to the armies in the field,
Omar arranged that a reserve of cavalry Reserves of cavalry.
should be maintained at the head-quarters
of the several provinces, in proportion to their resources, ready to be
called out upon emergency. The corps at Kûfa numbered 4,000
lances, and there were eight such centres. Reserves for forage were
also everywhere set apart; and the cost of these measures formed a
first charge upon provincial revenue.
The various Suras and fragments of the
Corân had by this time been compiled into Corân; how ‘collected.’
a single volume. The ‘collecting’ of these
was begun in the reign of Abu Bekr, at the suggestion of Omar, who
was alarmed at the loss of so many of those, who had the Revelation
by heart, in the battle of Yemâma. ‘I fear,’ he said to Abu Bekr, ‘that
slaughter may again wax hot amongst the Reciters of the Corân in
other fields of battle, and that much may be lost of the divine text;
now, therefore, give orders speedily for its collection.’ The
commission was given to Zeid ibn Thâbit, who, as the Prophet’s
amanuensis, had written down much of the revelation from the
Prophet’s lips. At first he scrupled to do what Mahomet himself had
left undone. At last he accepted the task; and seeking out the Suras
and scattered fragments and verses from every quarter, ‘gathered
them together from date leaves, shreds of leather and parchment,
shoulder blades, tablets of white stone, and the breasts of men.’ By
the labours of Zeid, these confused materials were reduced to the
comparative order and sequence in which we now find them; but in
its obscurity and incoherence, the collection still bears traces in
almost every page of the haphazard way in which the pieces, thus
rudely dovetailed, were compiled. The original copy was committed
to the custody of Haphsa, Omar’s daughter, one of the Prophet’s
widows; and during Omar’s Caliphate this exemplar continued to be
the standard and authoritative text of the Corân.[355]

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