Umayyad Settlement Policy and Its Consequences: The Case of Khorāsān

Abstract

Settlement is the activity of voluntary or compulsory mass relocation from one place to another, the material of which is human beings. In the history of humanity, factors such as religious, political, military, and economic factors have been effective in the voluntary or forced settlement of human communities from one place to another. Our paper focuses on the reasons, nature, and consequences of the settlement policy of the Umayyad State, which constituted a breaking point in Islamic history in many respects, reached the widest borders of the Muslims during its period, and at the same time, positively or negatively affected the Islamization process of the Turks in particular. There is no study that specifically deals with the settlement policy of the period in question. Our aim with this study is to reveal the primary purpose, structure, and functioning of the settlement policy, which was an essential part of the conquests in the Umayyad period, as well as its consequences in Central Asia. A correct understanding of the settlement policy in question will serve the important purpose of understanding the purpose and results of the conquest policy in the Umayyad period and taking lessons from it. The methodology of the study is based on the sources of siyar, mughazi, general Islamic history, and futuh written in the first period of Islamic history, as well as modern studies in this field. In the context of the subject, the following main observations are made: The increase in conquest movements during the Umayyad period enabled the intensification of settlement activities. This process coincides with the period of powerful caliphs such as Mu'awiya b. Abū Sufyan, 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan and al-Walīd b. 'Abd al-Malik. In the caliphates of the other caliphs, conquests and, thus settlement policies were not on the agenda due to reasons such as political turmoil, throne fights, and economic crises. The settlement policies put into practice differed in terms of their objectives. Foremost among these objectives was to ensure the permanence of the cities created as a result of the conquests by settling troops in them, to ensure the security of the country, to prepare the ground for the spread of Islam, and to maintain order in the country. The settlement policy of the Umayyads was mostly military in character. The primary purpose of the settlement policy in this period was to prepare the ground for the conquests that would develop later and to acquire land. The results of the aforementioned policy had different outcomes according to regions or geographies. In the caliphate of Mu'awiya, Zīyad b. Abīh, the governor of Basra, settled more than 50,000 people from the people of Kufa and Basra-who were likely to be from the tribes of Kinde and Yazd-as well as soldiers and their families in Khorasan. During the reign of 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan, during the governorship of Qutayba b. Muslim in Khorasan, expeditions were organized to Bukhara. Arab immigrants were settled in this peacefully conquered city. The city of Samarkand was also conquered by war and opened for settlement to Muslims. In Khorasan, under Umayyad rule, rebellion movements were observed when there was a change of caliph, a weakness of authority - Abdullah b. Zubayr's struggle for power. In this framework, it is possible to say that the Umayyads implemented a settlement policy with military characteristics in this region. Within the framework of this policy, the fact that Khorasan was a military base for the conquests of the Māwarā al-Nahr region, where the Turks lived, prevented the settlement activity from producing permanent and positive results. In particular, territorial dominance, the desire to obtain booty, and the negative policy towards the mawālīs prevented the Turks here from converting to Islam in masses. The settlement policy in Africa and Andalusia, on the other hand, was effective in the conquest of nearby geographies.