Mawali or mawala (Arabic,موالي) is a term in Classical Arabic used to address non-Arab Muslims.

The term gained prominence in the centuries following the early Arab Muslim conquests in the 7th century, as many non-Arabs such as Persians, Egyptians, and Turks converted to Islam. These converts were treated as second class citizens by the ruling Arab elite - they continued to pay the tax required of nonbelievers and were excluded from government and the military until the end of the Umayyad dynasty.^[1] Therefore, many of them were drawn to the anti-Ummayyad activities of the Kaysanites Shia.

Under the Abbasid rulers of the 9th century, the Mawalis comprised an important part of the army. The fragmentation of the Abbasid Caliphate around 900, took place with the mawalis' rise to power, the Saffarids in the Greater Iran, the Ghaznavidss in Sind, and the Qarmatians in the Arabian Peninsula. Together, the rise to power of these ethnic groups restricted the power of the Abbasid Caliph into Baghdad.

The Word

• Mawali موالي / master, slaves or servers
• Al-Mawali الموالي / slaves or servers
• Al-Mawala المولى / god (one of Names of God in the Arabic language)

[edit] See also

• Anti-Persianism by Arabs
• Dhimmi
• Jizya
• Mawla
• Ajam
• Shu'ubiyya

[edit] References

Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab People . Chapter 1. Mas'udi The Meadows of Gold Trans. and Eds. Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone.

[edit] External links

• Mawali definition