Islam
elite engaged in conquest, some devout Muslims began to question the piety of indulgence in
a worldly life, emphasizing rather poverty, humility and avoidance of sin based on
renunciation of bodily desires. Devout Muslim ascetic exemplars such as Hasan alBasri
would inspire a movement that would evolve into Sufism.
For the Umayyad aristocracy, Islam was viewed as a religion for Arabs only; the economy of
the Umayyad empire was based on the assumption that a majority of nonMuslims (Dhimmis)
would pay taxes to the minority of Muslim Arabs. A nonArab who wanted to convert to Islam
was supposed to first become a client of an Arab tribe. Even after conversion, these new
10 | P a g e
Muslims (mawali) did not achieve social and economic equality with the Arabs. The
descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas ibn Abd alMuttalib rallied discontented mawali,
annaabi.ee 
