m. Abdalmalik
instituted a purely Islamitic coinage. If we may believe Theophanes, who
says that Justinian II. refused to receive these coins in payment of the
tribute and therefore declared the treaty at an end, we must put the
beginning of the coinage at least two years earlier. Hajjaj coined
silver dirhems at Kufa in 694. A still greater innovation was that
Arabic became the official language of the state. In the conquered
countries till then, not only had the Greek and Persian administration
been preserved, but Greek remained the official language in the western,
Persian in the eastern provinces. All officials were now compelled to
know Arabic and to conduct their administration in that language. To
this change was due in great measure the predominance of Arabic
throughout the empire. Lastly, a regular post service was instituted
from Damascus to the provincial capitals, especially destined for
governmental despatches. The postmasters were charged with the task of
informing the caliph of all important news in their respective
countries.

All the great rivals of Abdalmalik having now disappeared, he was no
longer like his predecessors _primus inter pares_, but _dominus_. Under
his rule the members of the Omayyad house enjoyed a greater amount of
administrative control than had formerly been the case, but high office
was given only to competent men. He succeeded in reconciling the sons of
'Amr Ashdaq, and also Khalid b. Yazid, to whom he gave his own daughter
in marriage. He himself had married 'Atika, a daughter of Yazid, a union
which was in all respects a happy one. He took great care in the
education of his sons, whom he destined as his successors. His brother
Abdalaziz, governor of Egypt, whom Merwan had marked out as his
successor, died in the year 703 or 704, and Abdalmalik chose as heirs to
the empire first his son Walid, and after him his second son Suleiman.
He himself died on the 14th Shawwal 86 (9th October 705) at the age of
about sixty. His reign was one of the most stormy in the annals of
Islam, but also one of the most glorious. Abdalmalik not only brought
triumph to the cause of the Omayyads, but also extended and strengthened
the Moslem power as a whole. He was well versed in old Arabic tradition
and in the doctrine of Islam, and was passionately fond of poetry. His
court was crowded with poets, whom he loaded with favours, even if they
were Christians like Akhtal. In his reign flourished also the tw