About the Reconquista

 

The home provinces were the provinces that have been conquered and settled for a long time and had their kharaj, or revinue, sent directly to Damascus, these were Iraq, the Ajnads of the levant, Egypt and Arabia's provinces and late North Africa. The outlying provinces were conquered provinces that because of their instibility (Al-Andalus) or their distance (khorasan), were adminstrated by governors directly responsible to the higher rank governor nearest them despite having the same powers that he did in their provinces. The frontier provinces, Awasim or Thughur, were military run provincesthat kept the frontier and held castles against the enemy in strategic locations, these were like Septimania and Derbend. The latter rovinces were allowed to raid but NOT hold lands and occupy them unless it was a part of a conquest effort which was the case with Autun. Autun was held to be ruled, and it was. It was assigned to a kurah, or a subdivision of a province and wasn't given to a vassal like southern Aquitine. Caesaria, present day Kayseri, was taken several times by the neighbouring Misis (Musaysah or Mopsuestia) military province. But despite achieving victory in most of the times it was taken, the city was never conquered till 1071, it was soon abandoned because it was taken as a art of a raid not a conquest effort. Sources, though of dubious quality, say that places as far as Paris itself were reached by the raiders coming from Autun. Despite the objection of the Caliphate, the provencial governors took those laces for conquest not a part of a raid. The defeat of Tours changed everything. Berber revolt, Qahtani-Qaysi civil war and declaration of independence by the Berber governors in North of Spain and Septimania all lead to abandoning of positions held in Southern France till the final defeat in 760.

 

As I am speaking of the Ummayyad provincial system, it is very interesting to find that each province had an elected council to the governor, if that council did not like the governor it had the power to take him down by sending a delegation of 10 to 40 men, also elected, to te Caliph or the next high governor, that is why during 40 years of Ummayyad rule, more than 20 governors ruled Al-Andalus. 

 

Al-Jassas

 

 

Firts of all, I wasn't hesitant t mention his name, I just didn't understand which sources did you want me to mention.

 

Second, I checked other sources, primary sources that is, and these confirmed what he has mentioned. the Ummayyads did indeed want to withdraw from Iberia altogether and I think I posted a link to an article in one of the previous posts so lease check.

 

Third, he was Druze, he wasn't a muslim. Druze claim to be muslims but they are not recognised by either Sunnis or Shia. He was however and Ottomanist which explains why he wasn't killed by Jamal Pasha in 1916. After the fall he wasn't againstEuropean imperialism, he was against colonisation.

 

Fourth, the conquests and raides did happen, I mentioned sources other than his own so please go and check them. If you want more I will give you more.

 

Fifth, read Hugh Kennedy, his specialty is the muslim rule of Spain and he does confirm much of what I and Arslan said.

 

Sixth, please list all your objections so that I can properly respond to them. I will look into more sources and I am already looking into others.

 

Finally, hope you get an A+ in your course or what ever is the best grade you can get in the far north!

 

Al-Jassas

 

 

I never said such thing! Autun was taken 726 and abandoned 732-33. I was talking about Caesaria of resent day Kayseri in Turkey. This city was taken numerous times by Arab caliphate troops and subsequent emirates but only to support military raids tat usually infiltrated beyond that city. Autun was taken to be ruled and to be a frontier outpost and it wasn't part of a raid then the Arab were going to retreat. If this was the case they would have abandoned it long before 732 but they didn't happen.

 

A second note about the administrative system is that I just touched on the tip of the iceberg in my note above. Each province had a number of government offices or deartments which in turn had a main office in the capitals of the kurah or subdivision of a province. The allocation and administration is done by the governor and his council but the day-to-day job was done by those emloyees of the state. The three main government departments were Kharaj diwan or revinue which had two subdivisions in it one for surveying and the other for collection, the army which was resonsible for policing the province, registering the militia and providing munitions. It had stores in every major city in the province and the third main department was the judiciary. Any part of the empire that didn't have a provincial government that delivers those functions was considered in a state of vassalge and the only relation between the government and that vassal was financial and in some cases military, certain vassals had to provide soldiers and all had to accept the presence of garrisons on their lands.

 

In Al-Andalus during the conquest phase, the vassals recorded were Navarre, Cantabria, North Portugal, parts of Extremadura,Portugal and Andalusia and all Basque country. All these however were defeated in the begging of the conquest, accepted vassal status and accepted the presence of Arab troops over their lands and Arabs had several castles, and built several also, in Asturias, Cantabria, Galicia and northen Portugal. the rest of Iberia was directly ruled by muslims and Cordoba was the capital of the province.

 

As for Septimania, I am afraid you need to recheck your info. First, Arab conquest started at 717 according to most Arab sources. Second, Septimania fell not in 737 but in the 750s, the first city to fall was Maguelone in 737 by Martel, he however failed to take any other city and the last battle was in Nimes where he was defeated. His son Pepin took the rest in the 750s.

 

AL-Jassas 

 

I again reiterate my earlier disclaimer that I never said Arabs ruled Autun from 726 to 1071. I said they only ruled it from 726-732. Arabs ceased to have any existance on French soil after 975 (when Fraxinetum) and this came only after another eriod (from 760-889) when they also had no outposts on French soil.

 

As for the 40 years of Arab existance ( or 80 years in the second invasion), yes it is nothing in the age of nations but it is still one entire generation. Also, there is no proof that muslims were expelled from Septimania after they lost political control, on the contrary, proof exist that they lived there for a long time after that but assimilated with the local population. There is still an Arab linguistic heritage that exist in the culture of those regions esecially in the Occitan language where several arab and especially berber words (I didn't say this I just say what Mr Arslan said).

 

If you want more Hugh Kennedy has several good books all are written from 1981 till now.

 

AL-Jassas