Mawla
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Mawlā (Arabic: مولى), plural mawālī (Arabic: موالي) is a polysemous Arabic word, whose meaning varied in different periods and contexts.[1] In the Quran and hadith it is used in two senses: Lord; and guardian, trustee, helper.[1] In the pre-Islamic era the term originally applied to any form of tribal association.[2] During the early Islamic era, this institution was adapted to incorporate new converts to Islam into the Arab-Muslim society and the word mawali gained currency as an appellation for non-Arab Muslims.
Etymology
The word mawla is derived from the root w-l-y, meaning "to be close to", "to be friends with", or "to have power over". Mawla can have reciprocal meanings, depending on whether it is used in the active or passive voice: "master" or "slave/freedman", "patron" or "client", "uncle" or "nephew", or simply friend. Originally, mawāli were clients of an Arab tribe, but with the advent of Islam, the term came to refer to non-Arab Muslims and other client allies of the Muslim community.[3]
History of mawali
The term gained prominence during the Umayyad Caliphate (c. 661-750 AD/41–132 AH), as many non-Arabs such as Persians, Africans, Azeris, Turks and Kurds converted to Islam. The influx of non-Arab converts to Islam created a new difficulty in incorporating them into tribal Arab society. The solution appeared to be the contract of wala', through which the non-Arab Muslims acquired an Arab patron (mawla). They continued to pay a similar tax that was required from the people of the book and were generally excluded from government and the military until the end of the Umayyad Caliphate. In Khorasan and Persia, the Arabs held most of the higher positions in the armed forces and in the upper echelons of government.
The Abbasid Revolution in 750 AD put an end to the political and social privileges held by the Arabs. The key figure in this revolution was Abu Muslim Khorasani. He was a Persian, born in Isfahan and therefore had impeccable credentials of birth with the exploited Persian majority. The legacy of Umayyad excesses had created extreme bitterness among the local population. Unfair taxation had fostered dislike of the Arabs among the Persians. Under the Abbasid rulers of the 9th century, the non-Arab converts comprised an important part of the army. The institution of wala' as a requirement to enter Muslim society ceased to exist, but acquired political significance with the formation of troops entirely composed of mainly Turkic freedmen in the service of the caliph, a practice which persisted through the Ottoman period. Together, the rise to power of these ethnic groups restricted the power of the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad.
Abu Hanifa was the founder of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence within Sunni Islam and lived through the Abbasid Revolution. He famously stated in one of his dictums: “The belief of a newly converted Turk is the same as that of an Arab from Hejaz”. However, the Umayyads resented such reforms and Abu Hanifa was jailed for his activism. Ultimately, being antithetical to Quranic principles, Umayyad attitudes held no religious value and became a major source of the collapse of Umayyad rule.
See also
Notes
References
- Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab People . Chapter 1.
- Mas'udi. The Meadows of Gold Trans. and Eds. Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone.
Bibliography
- Conversion and Poll-Tax in Early Islam, D.C. Dennett, Cambridge 1950
- The Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition
- Slaves on Horses, P. Crone, Cambridge 1980
