Who may use the land?

Look in each case for the competing claims: who wanted the land used one way, who wanted another, and what was decided. Then compare how each group responded.

In al-Baladhuri's account, when the Sawad was conquered the people asked Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas to divide it, and Sa'd wrote to Umar. Umar ordered him to divide the goods and the horses after the fifth, and to leave the land and the rivers to their workers ². He said that if he divided it among those who were present, nothing would remain for those who came after them ². In the report of Ibrahim al-Taymi, the troops told him they had taken it by force with their swords; he refused and said: "What then is for those of the Muslims who come after you?" ³ He ordered a count, and the share of a man came to three peasants; Ali said: "Leave them as a supply for the Muslims." ³ Later, al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik wanted to make the people of the Sawad spoils, but the account of what Umar had done was mentioned to him ³.

Moving the markets to Karkh is easy to hear as inventing markets or planning a city by decree. Duri says four other market places already stood outside Baghdad's walls, so the transfer did not create its first outside markets ⁴. His account gives security as the stated reason ⁴. These reports document a reallocation of commercial space, not the invention of markets, a measured security outcome, or proof that every seller moved together ^4 5. They do not measure access, safety or the distribution of benefits among residents ^4 6.

Umar's reason, as al-Baladhuri gives it, looks forward to those who come after, while the troops' claim looks back to who took the land. Which reason is the stronger basis for deciding who may use land, and what would you need to know about the people who already worked it before you decided?

• Umar's endowment of the Sawad upon its people: the letter, the count of peasants and the status of the landowners.
• Moving the markets of Baghdad to Karkh: what two historians say and what they leave out.
• Umar ibn al-Khattab: the caliph whose decision the account reports.
• Baghdad: the city whose markets were moved.