Mawālī

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mawālī ( Arabic موالي, from singular مولى / maulā ), is a central term of the Arab tribal society of the pre-Islamic and early-Islamic times. It refers to those people who were in a protective relationship ( walāʾ ) with one of the Arab tribes or clans. The term is usually translated as "clients".

The entry of a client into a protective relationship with a patron, who was also called maulā , established a relationship with his relatives, which was particularly relevant under criminal law. In the event that the client incurred a blood debt , the patron and his agnates were obliged to pay the blood money . Conversely, if the client was killed, they were entitled to blood money from the perpetrator's community of responsibility (ʿāqila) . As a rule, the client was not obliged to pay blood money, but he was at a disadvantage compared to his patron in inheritance law. While the patron inherited his property in the event of his death, he was not entitled to inheritance in the event of the death of his patron. The walāʾ relationship was also reflected at the level of names, because the Mawālī usually took over the Nisba of the tribe or clan to which they were connected through this relationship.

In the pre-Islamic period, most of the mawālī were freed . The protective relationship in which they found themselves with their former masters was called walāʾ al-ʿitāqa ("protective relationship of release").

During the time of the Arab-Muslim conquests , new walāʾ relationships arose. Many non-Arabs, on the part of the 651 vanished Sassanian had fought or Persian Empire were forced to Islam convert. The rule of such conversions was that whoever they accepted Islam with was their patron. Such a relationship was called walāʾ al-islām . In other cases, the convert converted to Islam independently and only then joined a patron. This relationship was called walāʾ at-tibāʿa ("protection relationship of the succession"). In principle, it was possible for a client to break away from their patron and enter into a new protection relationship with another tribe, but society was rather reluctant to make such changes.

Mawālī soon took part in campaigns of conquest together with Arab tribes. As a rule, however, they received considerably lower wages than the Arab fighters. In the Umayyad period , they were recorded separately from the tribes to which they belonged in a separate register ( dīwān ). In general, the Mawālī were treated as second-class citizens by the Arabs - they continued to pay the jizya that infidels actually had to pay, and were often kept away from government and military posts until the end of the Umayyad dynasty.

Mawālī also played a not unimportant role in various insurrection movements. As support, for example, Mukhtar al-Thaqafi in his pro Alid revolt in Kufa 685-687 primarily on mawali, which he paid own expense. In the early 8th century, the Mawālī in Khorasan and Transoxania began to fight for their rights in the Murjiʾa movement. In North Africa, the Berber political opposition to Arab supremacy was organized in the Ibadite and Sufritic Kharijite movements . They undertook uprisings against the Umayyads from 739 and were able to conquer large areas of North Africa by the end of the 8th century. Mawālī also played an important role in the Chorasan uprising movement of Abu Muslim , which brought the Abbasids to power.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Crone 876a.
  2. ↑ See Tilman Nagel: The Islamic Law. An introduction . Westhofen 2001. pp. 171f.
  3. ↑ Cf. Judah 75.
  4. ↑ Cf. Judah 75.
  5. ↑ See Crone 876a.
  6. Jump up ↑ Jude 73.
  7. ↑ Cf. Judah 155f.
  8. ↑ Cf. Judah 125–129.
  9. ↑ Cf. Crone 880a, Juda 129f.
  10. ↑ See Ulrich Rebstock: The Ibāḍites in Maġrib (2nd / 8th 4th / 10th centuries). The story of a Berber movement in the guise of Islam. Berlin 1983.
  11. ↑ See Crone 880a.