Mu'awiya's reliance on the native Syrian Arab tribes was compounded by
the heavy toll inflicted on the Muslim troops in Syria by the plague of
Amwas,[32] which caused troop numbers to dwindle from 24,000 in 637 to 4,000 in 639.[33] Moreover, the focus of Arabian tribal migration was toward the Sasanian front in Iraq.[32]
Mu'awiya oversaw a liberal recruitment policy that resulted in
considerable numbers of Christian tribesmen and frontier peasants fill
the ranks of his regular and auxiliary forces.[34] Indeed, the Christian Tanukhids and the mixed Muslim–Christian Banu Tayy formed part of Mu'awiya's army in northern Syria.[35][36]
To help pay for his troops, Mu'awiya requested and was granted
ownership by Uthman of the abundant, income-producing, Byzantine crown
lands in Syria, which were previously designated by Umar as communal
property for the Muslim army.[37]
There were recurrences of the plague in Syria–Palestine about every decade between 688/89 and 744/45. [35] "The Umaiyad [sic] dynasty was literally plagued by this disease ", in the words of Dols. [36] The deaths of the Umayyad caliphs Mu'awiya II ( r . 683–684 ), Marwan I ( r . 684–685 ), Abd al-Malik ( r . 685–705 ), Sulayman ( r . 715–717 ) and the Umayyad governors in Iraq al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba ( r . 661–671 ) and Ziyad ibn Abihi ( r . 685–673 ) may all possibly have been caused by the plague epidemics in Syria and Iraq. [37] [21] The caliphs routinely withdrew from the cities to their desert palaces when the plague emerged during the summer months. [36] Notable among them was Caliph Hisham ( r . 724–743 ), who preferred his palace at Rusafa over Damascus because he viewed the latter to be unhealthy. [38]
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