Mawali
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Mawali or mawala is a term in Classical Arabic used to address non-Arab Muslims. In the second half of the seventh century, the Mawali were considered the third class in Arabian society with the Sayyids at the top followed by the free tribesmen. The term gained prominence in the centuries following the Arab Muslims conquests in the 7th century AD, when many non-Arabs such as Persians, Egyptians, and Turks entered Islam. These new Muslim converts were treated as second class citizens by the ruling Arab elite, until the end of the Umayyad dynasty. Under the Abbasid rulers of the 9th century AD, the Mawali comprised an important part of the mercenary army. The fragmentation of the Abbasid Caliphate, took place with the mawali's rise to power, the Saffarids in the Greater Iran, the Ghazinids in Sind, and the Qatimids in the Arabian Peninsula Together, the rise of these ethnic groups to power, forced the retreat of the Abbasid Caliph back to Baghdad around 900 AD.
[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.
