ith the booty from conquests
were to be sent to Arabia for distribution among the Moslems. Omar tried
to prevent the advance of conquests lest Arabia should suffer. "I would
rather the safety of my people than thousands of spoil and further
conquest." But men could not be prevented from pouring out from their
homes in search of new conquests and more booty. Many of those who went
forth did not return. They acquired property and rank in the new lands.
Kufa attracted chiefly men of south Arabia, Basra those of the north.
Both became great cities, each with a population of 150,000 to 200,000
Arabians. Yet so long as the caliphs lived in Medina, the capital of
Arabia was the capital of the expanding Arabian empire. To it was
brought a large share of the booty. The caliphs were chosen there, and
there the rules for the administration were framed. Thence went out the
governors to their provinces. Omar was the great organizer of Arabian
affairs. He compiled the Koran, instituted the civil list, regulated the
military organization. He, too, desired that Mahomet's wish should be
carried out and that Arabia should be purely Moslem. To this end he
expelled the Christians from Nejran and gave them lands in Syria and
Irak, where they were allowed to live in peace on payment of tribute.
The Jews, too, were shortly after expelled from Khaibar. The secondary
position that Arabia was beginning to assume in the Arabian empire is
clearly marked in the progress of events during the caliphate of Othman.
In his appointments to governorships and other offices, as well as in
his distribution of spoil, Othman showed a marked preference for the
members of his own tribe the Koreish (Quraish) and the members of his
own family the Bani Omayya (Umayya). The other Arab tribes became
increasingly jealous of the Koreish, while among the Koreish themselves
the Hashimite family came to hate the Omayyad, which now had much power,
although it had been among the last to accept Islam and never was very
strict in its religious duties. But the quarrels which led to the murder
of Othman were fomented not so much in Arabia as in Kufa and Basra and
Fostat. In these cities the rival parties were composed of the most
energetic fighting men, who were brought into the most intimate contact
with one another, and who kept up their quarrels from the home land. In
Kufa a number of the Koreish had settled, and their arrogance became
insupportable. The governors of all these