This has been a book about social power on the periphery of the nascent Islamic state, but whereas much has been said about the periphery, relatively little has been said about the state. It might therefore be useful to conclude by making some general comments about the evolution of the caliphate, particularly those features upon which the history of the north sheds some light.

The point is not simply to redress any perceived imbalance in the literature. For one thing, imperial views have long had their way in the field, leaving local history with a great deal of catching up to do; at best, this is just one instalment in what one might hope to be a larger programme of research. For another (and more important) thing, it is hard to make anything other than a simplistic distinction between local and metropolitan views, for by the time that the provincials began to speak for themselves, they were finding (or had already found) a place in a commonwealth of dynasties: it is not accidental that al-Azdī appears alongside the Ḥamdānids, or that Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam appears alongside the Ṭūlūnids.