Under the early
Caliphate
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
s, a ''jund'' ( ar, جند; plural ''ajnad'', اجناد) was a military division, which became applied to Arab military colonies in the
conquered lands and, most notably, to the provinces into which
Greater Syria
Syria (Hieroglyphic Luwian: 𔒂𔒠 ''Sura/i''; gr, Συρία) or Sham ( ar, ٱلشَّام, ash-Shām) is the name of a historical region located east of the Mediterranean Sea in Western Asia, broadly synonymous with the Levant. Other s ...
(the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
) was divided. ''Jund'' later acquired various meanings throughout the Muslim world.
Origin
The term ''jund'' derives from Parthian or Iranian word of "Gund" which was later on adopted by Islamic armies after the
conquest of Iran. Today, "Gund" still refers to "town, village" as well as gathering (military) in
Kurdish
Kurdish may refer to:
*Kurds or Kurdish people
*Kurdish languages
*Kurdish alphabets
*Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes:
**Southern Kurdistan
**Eastern Kurdistan
**Northern Kurdistan
**Western Kurdistan
See also
* Kurd (dis ...
which was passed to Arabic with similar meaning of a group of supporters (also could refer to a group in general like in a city) ''
Lisan al-Arab
''Lisān al-ʿArab'' (لسان العرب, "Tongue of Arabs") is a dictionary of Arabic completed by Ibn Manzur in 1290. History
Ibn Manzur's objective in this project was to reïndex and reproduce the contents of previous works to facilita ...
'' , and appears in the ''
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
'' to designate an armed troop. Under the
Umayyad Caliphate
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by th ...
it came to be applied in a more technical sense to "military settlements and districts in which were quartered Arab soldiers who could be mobilized for seasonal campaigns or for more protracted expeditions" as well as the "corresponding army corps" (
Dominique Sourdel
Dominique Sourdel (31 Januar 1921, Pont-Sainte-Maxence – 4 March 2014, Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French historian who specialized in Medieval Islam.
He was professor of the Paris-Sorbonne University.
Books
*''L'Islam (1949)'', PUF, ''Que sais ...
). We can observe the same word for a castle (Qalat Al-Gundi or Qalat Al-Jundi) built by Kurdish troops of
Saladin
Yusuf ibn Ayyub ibn Shadi () ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known by the epithet Saladin,, ; ku, سهلاحهدین, ; was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from an ethnic Kurdish family, he was the first of both Egypt and ...
in Sinai Peninsula.
Gradually, however, and aside from its technical use for the provinces of
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
(see below), the term acquired a broader meaning of the entire armed forces of a state. Thus one of the caliphal fiscal departments, the ''diwan al-jund'', administered the pay and provisions of the army. In addition, the geographers of the 9th–10th centuries used the term ''ajnad'' as an equivalent of ''
amṣar Amṣar ( ar, أمصار), singular miṣr, are the 'garrison towns' or settlements that were established by Arab Muslim warriors in conquered lands, in the first centuries of Islam. The first were created under Caliph Omar during his reign from 63 ...
'' or large towns.
Syria
![Syria in the 9th century](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Syria_in_the_9th_century.svg)
The most notable use of the term was in
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, where already the
Rashidun
, image = تخطيط كلمة الخلفاء الراشدون.png
, caption = Calligraphic representation of Rashidun Caliphs
, birth_place = Mecca, Hejaz, Arabia present-day Saudi Arabia
, known_for = Companions of t ...
Caliph
Abu Bakr
Abu Bakr Abdallah ibn Uthman Abi Quhafa (; – 23 August 634) was the senior companion and was, through his daughter Aisha, a father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as the first caliph of Islam. He is known with the honor ...
is credited with dividing the region into four ''ajnad'':
Hims
ar, حمصي, Himsi
, population_urban =
, population_density_urban_km2 =
, population_density_urban_sq_mi =
, population_blank1_title = Ethnicities
, population_blank1 =
, population_blank2_ti ...
(
Jund Hims
''Jund Ḥimṣ'' ( ar, جند حمص, "military district of Homs") was one of the military districts of the caliphal province of Syria.
Geography
The capital of Jund Hims was Homs, from which the district received its name. Its principal urban ...
),
Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
(
Jund Dimashq
''Jund Dimashq'' ( ar, جند دمشق) was the largest of the sub-provinces (''ajnad'', sing. ''jund''), into which Syria was divided under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. It was named after its capital and largest city, Damascus ("Dimashq"), ...
),
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
(
Jund al-Urdunn
Jund al-Urdunn ( ar, جُـنْـد الْأُرْدُنّ, translation: "The military district of Jordan") was one of the five districts of Bilad al-Sham (Islamic Syria) during the early Islamic period. It was established under the Rashidun and ...
), and
Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
(
Jund Filastin
Jund Filasṭīn ( ar, جُنْد فِلَسْطِيْن, "the military district of Palestine") was one of the military districts of the Umayyad and Abbasid province of Bilad al-Sham (Levant), organized soon after the Muslim conquest of the Leva ...
). The
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...
Caliph
Yazid I
Yazid ibn Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan ( ar, يزيد بن معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya ibn ʾAbī Sufyān; 64611 November 683), commonly known as Yazid I, was the second caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate. He ruled from ...
then added the district of
Qinnasrin
Qinnasrin ( ar, قنسرين; syr, ܩܢܫܪܝܢ, ''Qinnašrīn'', lit=Nest of Eagles), also known by numerous other romanizations and originally known as ( la, Chalcis ad Belum; grc-gre, Χαλκὶς, ''Khalkìs''), was a historical town in ...
(
Jund Qinnasrin
''Jund Qinnasrīn'' ( ar, جُـنْـد قِـنَّـسْـرِيْـن, "military district of Qinnasrin") was one of five sub-provinces of Syria under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, organized soon after the Muslim conquest of Syria in t ...
). This practice remained unique to Syria and was not emulated in any other province of the
Caliphate
A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
s, which were usually headed by a single governor; hence they were often referred to collectively as ''al-Shamat'', "the Syrias".
The circumscriptions of the ''ajnad'' by and large followed the preexisting
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
provincial boundaries, but with modifications. As K. Y. Blankinship notes, their inception as elements of a system of military defense, aimed at safeguarding control over Syria and defending against any Byzantine assault, is evident by the placement of the new provinces' capitals at even distances from each other—to function as control and mobilization centers—and securely in the interior, far from any seaborne attack. The army corps of the ''ajnad'' of Syria comprised exclusively Arabs, who received a regular salary (''ʿatāʾ'') drawn from the income of the land tax (''
kharāj''), in addition to which they received land grants. On campaign, they were accompanied by retainers (''
shākiriyya'') and reinforced by volunteers (''mutaţawwiʿa'').
The division into ''ajnad'' continued in Syria under the
Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
and beyond, until well into
Mamluk times. Under the Abbasids, a governor-general of Syria often presided over all of the districts, while in 785
Harun al-Rashid
Abu Ja'far Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi ( ar
, أبو جعفر هارون ابن محمد المهدي) or Harun ibn al-Mahdi (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Harun al-Rashid ( ar, هَارُون الرَشِيد, translit=Hārūn ...
added the new district of
Jund al-'Awasim
''Al-ʿAwāṣim'' ( ar, العواصم, "the defences, fortifications"; sing. ''al-ʿāṣimah'', , "protectress") was the Arabic term used to refer to the Muslim side of the frontier zone between the Byzantine Empire and the Umayyad and Abbasid ...
in the north, encompassing the frontier zone with the Byzantines.
Egypt
In Egypt, soon after its
conquest
Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms.
Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...
, a military colony (''miṣr'') was established in
Fustat
Fusṭāṭ ( ar, الفُسطاط ''al-Fusṭāṭ''), also Al-Fusṭāṭ and Fosṭāṭ, was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, and the historical centre of modern Cairo. It was built adjacent to what is now known as Old Cairo by ...
. The Arab settlers who comprised it became known as the ''jund'' of Egypt. They too, like the Syrian ''ajnad'', were inscribed on the army rolls (''dīwān'') and received a regular salary. For long they provided the only Muslim military force in the province, and played a major role in the political life of the country, jealously safeguarding their privileged position for the first two centuries of the Islamic period, until their power was broken in the turmoils of the
Fourth Fitna
The Fourth Fitna or Great Abbasid Civil War resulted from the conflict between the brothers al-Amin and al-Ma'mun over the succession to the throne of the Abbasid Caliphate. Their father, Caliph Harun al-Rashid, had named al-Amin as the first suc ...
.
Al-Andalus
The ''jund'' system in some form seems to have been introduced in Muslim Spain (
al-Andalus
Al-Andalus DIN 31635, translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label=Berber languages, Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, ...
) as well: in 742, the troops involved in the
ongoing conquest of the peninsula were allotted lands in nine districts (''mujannada''). By the 10th century, the term ''jund'' came to encompass these men alongside the enlisted volunteers (''ḥushud'') as distinct from foreign mercenaries (''ḥasham'').
Maghrib
In the
Maghrib
The Maghrib Prayer ( ar, صلاة المغرب ', "sunset prayer") is one of the five mandatory salah (Islamic prayer). As an Islamic day starts at sunset, the Maghrib prayer is technically the first prayer of the day. If counted from midni ...
, beginning with the
Aghlabid
The Aghlabids ( ar, الأغالبة) were an Arab dynasty of emirs from the Najdi tribe of Banu Tamim, who ruled Ifriqiya and parts of Southern Italy, Sicily, and possibly Sardinia, nominally on behalf of the Abbasid Caliph, for about a cen ...
rulers of
Ifriqiya
Ifriqiya ( '), also known as al-Maghrib al-Adna ( ar, المغرب الأدنى), was a medieval historical region comprising today's Tunisia and eastern Algeria, and Tripolitania (today's western Libya). It included all of what had previously ...
, the term ''jund'' came to be applied to the personal guard of the ruler, and henceforth "kept a restricted sense which is often difficult to define, rarely applying to the whole army" (D. Sourdel). A similar usage is evident in
Mamluk Egypt
The Mamluk Sultanate ( ar, سلطنة المماليك, translit=Salṭanat al-Mamālīk), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz (western Arabia) from the mid-13th to early 16th ...
, where the term applied to a specific section of the
sultan
Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
's personal troops, though not his actual bodyguard.
See also
*
Jund al-Sham
Jund al-Sham ( ar, جند الشام, lit=The Sham Division) is or was the name of multiple Sunni Islamic jihadist militant groups.
Founded around 1991 in Jordan and trained in 1999 in Afghanistan with financial support from Osama bin Laden, ...
, extremist Islamic group
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
{{italic title
Arabic words and phrases
Medieval Syria