The vacillation of Omar, and his readiness, at the complaint of the citizens of Kûfa, once and again to shift their ruler, led that turbulent populace to know their power, and gave head to the factious temper already disquieting the city. It was a weak though kindly spirit which led the Caliph to nominate Ammâr to a post for which he had no aptitude whatever. Upon his recall, Omar asked whether his removal had caused him pain. ‘It did not much rejoice me,’ replied Ammâr, ‘when thou gavest me the command; but I confess that I was troubled when thou didst depose me.’ To which Omar responded amiably: ‘I knew when I appointed thee that thou wast not a man fitted to govern; but verily I was minded (and here he quoted from the Corân) _to be gracious unto the weak and humble ones in the land; and to make them patterns of religion, and heirs of the good things in this present life_.’[405] At the same time, he appointed another early convert of singular religious merit, Abdallah ibn Masûd, who had also been a slave at Mecca, to a post at Kûfa, for which, however, he was better fitted--the chancellorship of the treasury. He had been the body-servant of the Prophet, who was used to call him ‘light in the body, but weighty in the Faith.’ He was learned in the Corân, and had a ‘reading’ of his own, to which, as the best text, he held persistently against all recensions.[406] [Sidenote: Additional endowment to Bussorah.] There was still a considerable jealousy between Bussorah and its more richly endowed sister city. The armies of both had contributed towards the conquest of Khuzistan, and had shared accordingly. But Bussorah, with its teeming thousands, was comparatively poor; and Omar, to equalise the benefits of all who had served in the earlier campaigns, assigned to them increased allowances, to be met from the surplus revenues of the Sawâd administered by Kûfa.[407] [Sidenote: Officers of State: judicial, military, fiscal, and spiritual.]