military stations, Cûfa Bussora, Fostât, etc., where they waited for the next campaign. When thus cantoned, distinct quarters were assigned to each tribe, or corps of allied tribes; the military, rolls were kept accordingly, every tribe going up as a separate body for its pay. The officers were paid at from six to nine thousand dirhems. Every boy born in these military quarters received from his birth 100 dirhems yearly, and two measures of wheat a day,—the allowance rising with age to 600 dirhems. Such was the constitution of that force which like wild-fire overran so many fair and powerful provinces. There were individual soldiers who received their pay separately,—belonging, as it would seem, to none of the Arab tribes; but these formed the exception. Such of the tribes as did not go into the field received no pay; but largesses were often made by the Caliphs to various tribes throughout the Peninsula. The system was long maintained; and we find it adduced as a reproach to the Caliph Walîd, near the end of the first century, that he had withheld their allowances from some Junds or tribal corps settled in the military stations. 

Before the rise of Islam, tribal distinction was the sole nobility of Arabia. Each tribe vied with its neighbour; and the rivalry was not only for victory in the field, but for the laurel of the poet and orator, pre-eminence in hospitality and munificence,—for whatever, in fact, conferred, in the eyes of an Arab, glory and honour. It is true that a new and higher nobility, that of relationship to Mahomet and service to Islam, now sprang up, before which the pride of clan waned, and finally (excepting in the Peninsula itself wholly disappeared. But for a time the military organisation above explained fostered the tribal spirit; and thus afforded the antiquarians of the day exact and ample materials to describe the races and clans of Arabia, and trace their ancient history. 

Genealogies divide themselves into three classes, the person, the family, and the tribe. The love of genealogies amounts in the Mahometan to a passion. There are more genealogical trees among them than in the whole world beside. The taste survives to the present day; and even in India we find clans and families