Mawali or mawālá (Arabic: موالي) is a term in Classical Arabic used to address non-Arab Muslims. The term gained prominence during the Umayyad Caliphate (c. 661-750 CE/41–132 AH), as many non-Arabs such as Persians, Africans, Turks and Kurds converted to Islam. The influx of non-Arab converts to Islam created a new difficulty in incorporating them into tribal Arab society. The solution appeared to be the contract of wala', through which the non-Arab Muslims acquired an Arab patron. They continued to pay a similar tax that was required from the people of the book and were generally excluded from government and the military until the end of the Umayyad Caliphate. In Khorasan and Persia, the Arabs held most of the higher positions in the armed forces and in the upper echelons of government. Therefore, many of mawali were drawn to the anti-Umayyad activities of the Kaysanites Shia.
The Abbasid Revolution in 750 CE put an end to the political and social privileges held by the Arabs. The key figure in this revolution was Abu Muslim Khorasani. He was a Persian, born in Isfahan and therefore had impeccable credentials of birth with the exploited Persian majority. The legacy of Umayyad excesses had created extreme bitterness among the local population. Unfair taxation had fostered dislike of the Arabs among the Persians. Under the Abbasid rulers of the 9th century, the non-Arab converts comprised an important part of the army. The institution of wala' as a requirement to enter Muslim society ceased to exist, but acquired political significance with the formation of troops entirely composed of mainly Turkic freedmen in the service of the caliph, a practice which persisted through the Ottoman period. Together, the rise to power of these ethnic groups restricted the power of the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad.
Abu Hanifa was the founder of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence within Sunni Islam and lived through the Abbasid Revolution. He famously stated in one of his dictums: “The belief of a newly converted Turk is the same as that of an Arab from Hejaz”. However, the Umayyads resented such reforms and Abu Hanifa was jailed for his activism. Ultimately, being antithetical to Quranic principles, Umayyad attitudes held no religious value and became a major source of the collapse of Umayyad rule.
The meaning of Mawālī (موالي)
Originally the term mawla (singular of mawali) referred to a party with whom one had an egalitarian relationship, such as a relative, ally, or friend, but the term eventually came to designate a party with whom one had an unequal relationship, such as master, manumitter, and patron, and slave, freedman, and client.
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