ABSTRACT
The victory of the ‘Abbāsids signified a pushing back, but not the elimination of the Arabs. Regional differences became more marked as time went on; in the transition to national states the importance of the Arabs as a racial and military unity declined visibly. The dissemination of Arabic as a cultural medium, the adoption of Arab nomenclature by the islamized non-Arabs and not least the Arab origin of the dynasty were all factors tending to conceal the gradual disappearance of Arab preponderance in the ‘Abbāsid central administration. Pensions were gradually retrenched, until in 831 the muqātila as an independent corps was dissolved. Pensions were no longer paid to all Arabs liable for military service, only to Häshimites and ‘Alids, the Islamic ‘aristocracy’ of the descendants of the Prophet. But although the political influence of the Arabs was reduced, their social or socio-religious prestige remained. The Persians and even more the Khorāsānīs, of whom a not inconsiderable number had been taken into the ‘Abbāsid family as ‘sons’, formed the military core of the empire at the beginning of ‘Abbāsid rule. The ‘Abbāsids had not taken power as protagonists of the Iranians, however, but as bearers of the law of religion and of the Islamic form of life and government.
