This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
118
THE ORIGINS OF THE ISLAMIC STATE

the people, and make public use of musical instruments.[1] The people of ʿUmân, who were mostly Shurât,[2] having learned that, fought against him and held him back from entering the city. Finally, they succeeded in killing and crucifying him. Then they broke with the caliph[3] and refused to do him homage, making one of their own their ruler.

Some assert that the Prophet sent abu-Zaid carrying his letter to ʿAbd and Jaifar, the two sons of al-Julanda of al-Azd, in the year 6, and sent ʿAmr in the year 8, a short time after his conversion to Islâm, which took place, together with the conversion of Khâlid ibn-al-Walîd and ʿUthmân ibn-Ṭalḥah-l-ʿAbdi in Ṣafar, year 8. ʿAmr had come from Abyssinia to the Prophet.[4] The Prophet said to abu-Zaid, "From the Moslems, take ṣadaḳah; but from the Magians, take poll-tax."

The letter of ʿUmar ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz to ʿAdi. Abu-l-Ḥasan al-Madâʾini from al-Mubârak ibn-Fuḍâlah:—The following is what ʿUmar ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz wrote to ʿAdi ibn-Arṭât al-Fazâri, his ʿâmil in al-Baṣrah:

"Greetings! I have previously written to ʿAmr ibn-ʿAbdallâh asking him to distribute whatever he received in ʿUmân as date or grain tithes among the poor of its inhabitants, the nomadic people who may descend on it and those whom need, poverty, or obstruction of the way may compel to stay in it. Regarding this, he wrote to me that having asked thy representative who came before him to ʿUmân about those articles of food and dates, he was told

  1. Cf. Salil ibn-Râziḳ, History of Imâms and Seyyids of Oman, tr. Badger, p. 11.
  2. Schismatics commonly known as Khawârij. They say that they owe their name to Koran, 2: 203.
  3. The word used is sulṭân.
  4. Hishâm, pp. 716–717.