resistance and dissent: The Islamic World 865 dispersed across vast agricultural lands These population centers were distributed between the Byzantine and Persian empires, which had been at war for decades and were largely unaware of religious and political developments in Arabia They were, however, aware of seasonal raids by Bedouin tribes aimed at plundering livestock, household goods, stored foodstuffs, and other items Raiding was common among these tribes, largely because, as nomads, they had not developed the infrastructure needed to manufacture handicrafts and accumulate storehouses of foodstuffs The bounty possessed by the settled peoples they would conquer became a central ongoing point of contention within the umma (the Muslim community as a whole) Muhammad built up his armies by recruiting from those same tribes, and he enticed his recruits with the prospect of plunder Moreover, the Koran established Muhammad (and successor Muslim heads of state) as the leading authority to control and distribute the spoils of war This authority was nevertheless a continued source of friction between the emerging Muslim state and the nomadic tribesmen of Muhammad’s armies From the beginning, a clash of interests arose The nomads wanted immediate reward, with plundered goods divided right after a conquest—preferably on the battlefield itself—and conquered populations enslaved, following which they would burn villages and leave a barren land that would revert to grazing grounds for their flocks The Muslim state, however, preferred to transfer land ownership to its own commanders and turn peasants into tenant farmers who would continue to till the soil (the Arabs not being particularly inclined to or skilled at agriculture, owing to the desert geography of Arabia), thereby ensuring a continued source of tax revenue This divergence of interests resulted in repeated bloody eruptions in the seventh to ninth centuries throughout the Arab Muslim world The prize under contention, the life’s work of the conquered peoples, put defenseless non-Muslim villagers and peasants in an unenviable situation: suffer immediate destruction at the hands of the nomads or endure a more stable but ultimately equally destructive regime of social discrimination, personal humiliation, and economic exploitation meant to bleed them for the benefit of the growing umma Another kind of dissent within the umma arose following the death of Muhammad in 632 c.e Several Bedouin tribes that had agreed to send an alms tax to Medina as a sign of allegiance apparently no longer felt obligated to so The first caliph, or successor to Muhammad, his father-in-law Abu Bakr (r 632–34), moved swiftly to subdue these dissidents, branding them as apostates The ensuing wars constituted the first organized resistance to Islam It is noteworthy here that political dissent concerning a tax became a religious issue: The dissidents, deemed resistant to Allah, were put to the sword With growing numbers of conquered peoples to control, a strategy of using religion to reinforce political control was articulated The strategy devised and implemented by Arab Muslims during the first wave of conquest in the lands around the bottom half of the Mediterranean (from Syria and Iraq across North Africa and into Spain) proved so effective that it remained largely intact during the second wave of conquest, by Turkish Muslims beginning in the 11th century, north of the Mediterranean (in eastern Europe, Greece, and southern Italy) Muhammad granted political authority to his successors, whether caliphs or the religious and secular leaders known as imams (the matter of the caliphate versus the imamate is a complex one in Islamic theology) and legitimized their rule by making it sacred Thus, the head of the umma was at once a political, social, and spiritual leader Obedience to the religiopolitical authority of the imams was continually reinforced in both the Koran and the Hadith, the sayings of Muhammad By the 10th century conservative Muslim writers warned against even engaging in discussion with anyone who questioned the established order or the imams, even if they were unjust and tyrannical Thus, innovative thought became suspect and oppression was sanctioned For those who continued to resist Islamic rule, the consequences were dire Whereas believers became part of the new polity and recipients of plunder, resisters faced continual fear for their physical safety and lives filled with shame, humiliation, and social isolation The Koran pronounced proscriptions against them that, in practice, were neither abstract nor metaphorical nor exaggerated The model for dealing with conquered peoples was Muhammad’s handling of the Jewish tribes of Khaybar, whose leaders agreed to submit to Muslim authority and pay tribute—over half of their harvests This “protection money” provided much-needed revenue for the umma Muhammad, however, did not consider the treaty permanent and reserved the right to rescind it at any time, a tactic that would be repeated in later times The second caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab (r 634–44), created the Pact of Umar, under which conquered non-Muslims who elected to remain loyal to their faiths would endure sanctions meant to actualize Koranic mandates Many of the pact’s provisions remained common throughout the medieval era in dealing with unbelievers Among the numerous restrictive requirements the pact imposed on them in return for protection of their lives, the non-Muslims agreed not to build any new churches or monasteries or repair any old ones, not to manifest their religion publicly or convert anyone to