Barid (Umayyad and Abbasid relay post)
Barid (correo de postas omeya y abasí)
- Date
- c. 690 · confidence medium
- Place
- Damascus, Syria
- Credited to
- Umayyad Caliphate (Abd al-Malik)
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A network of relay stations with horses and mules, officials and registers that carried the caliph's orders and news to the provinces and kept watch on governors. It was organised under Muawiya and Abd al-Malik on Byzantine and Persian models and peaked under the Abbasids.
Arabic sources attribute the creation to Muawiya (661-680) or to Abd al-Malik (685-705); the institution was largely a continuation of the Persian and Byzantine posts. The c. 690 date summarises Abd al-Malik's reorganisation.
What it led to
- administrative and fiscal control of a caliphate from Central Asia to Iberia
- itineraries and descriptive geography of the lands of Islam
- a model for the Mamluk and other Islamic state posts