Page:Baladhuri-Hitti1916.djvu/265

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al-Jarâjimah
249

After fighting valiantly and standing gallantly, he fell a martyr. This so much grieved ʿAbd-al-Malik that he sent a large army against the Greeks to avenge his death.

{ul|Al-Walîd makes terms with them}}. In the year 89, al-Jarâjimah gathered themselves into their city and were joined by a host of Greeks from Alexandretta [Iskandarûnah] and Rûsis.[1] Consequently, al-Walîd ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik sent against them Maslamah ibn-ʿAbd-al-Malik, who fell upon them with a host of Moslems and reduced their city on the following terms: Al-Jarâjimah may settle wherever they wished in Syria, each one of them receiving eight dînârs, and each family receiving the fixed provisions of wheat and oil, i. e., two modii of wheat and two ḳiṣts of oil; neither they nor any of their children or women should be compelled to leave Christianity; they may put on Moslem dress; and no poll-tax may be assessed on them, their children or women. On the other hand, they should take part in the Moslem campaigns and be allowed to keep for themselves the booty from those whom they kill in a duel; and the same amount taken from the possession of the Moslems should be taken [as tax] from their articles of trade and from the possessions of the wealthy among them. Then Maslamah destroyed their city and settled them in Mt. al-Ḥûwâr, Sunḥ al-Lûlûn [?] and ʿAmḳ Tîzîn. Some of them left for Ḥimṣ. The patrician of al-Jurjûmah accompanied by a body of men, after taking up his abode in Antioch fled to the Byzantine Empire.

Al-Wâthiḳ cancels the poll-tax. When a certain f ʿâmil held al-Jarâjimah of Antioch responsible for poll-tax, they brought their case before al-Wâthiḳ-Billâh at the time of his caliphate, and he ordered it cancelled.

Al-Mutawakkil levies tax. I was informed by a writer

  1. Yâḳût, vol. ii, p. 840.