Regiment in the regular army of Abbasid Caliphate
The
Maghariba
(
Arabic
:
????????
,
romanized
:
al-Magh?ribah
,
lit.
'Westerners/
Maghrebis
') were a regiment in the
regular army
of the
Abbasid Caliphate
. The unit was formed in the early ninth century A.D. and consisted of soldiers who were of
North African
origin. During their history, the Maghariba participated in several military campaigns and played a significant role in the politics of the central government.
Characteristics
[
edit
]
The origin and composition of the Maghariba have been subject to debate. Historians have variously described the Maghariba as
Berbers
from North Africa, black slaves from
East Africa
, and Arab tribesmen from
Egypt
,
[1]
with the last being the most widely accepted theory.
[2]
According to the
Muslim historian
al-Mas'udi
, the regiment was created by Caliph
al-Mu'tasim
(r. 833?842), who recruited troops from the
Hawf
districts of Egypt;
[3]
this likely occurred before al-Mu'tasim's caliphate, when he and
al-Afshin
were serving in Egypt on behalf of the caliph
al-Ma'mun
(r. 813?833).
[4]
After the succession of al-Mu'tasim to the caliphate in 833, the Maghariba formed a contingent of his new army, along with other units such as the
Turks
, the
Faraghina
, the
Ushrusaniyya
, and the
shakiriyya
.
[5]
Together with the rest of the army, they were granted their own section in al-Mu'tasim's new capital city of
Samarra
; their allotments were along the Gulf Street (
sh?ri' al-khal?j
) adjacent to the bank of the
Tigris
, and the Azlakh quarter was known as a Maghribi neighborhood.
[6]
The Maghariba appear to have served as infantry,
[7]
and they were a mixture of free men and slaves.
[8]
They were likely fewer in number than the Turks, and they were certainly of inferior status. Their pay also appears to have been lower;
[9]
on the accession of
al-Mutawakkil
(r. 847?861), the new caliph ordered that the Maghariba be given lower allotments than the rest of the army,
[10]
and in 870
al-Muhtadi
(r. 869?870) arranged for the Maghariba to be paid one
dirham
a day, while the Turks and other units received two.
[11]
History
[
edit
]
The Maghariba participated in
al-Mu'tasim's campaign against Amorium
in 838, during which they were under the overall command of
Itakh
.
[12]
During the caliphates of
al-Wathiq
(r. 842?847) and
al-Mutawakkil
(r. 847?861) they took part in a number of
Bugha al-Kabir
's campaigns. In 845 they served under Bugha during his punitive expedition against the disorderly
Banu Sulaym
in the vicinity of
Medina
.
[13]
In 848?49 they were sent by Bugha to help quell a revolt in
Adharbayjan
,
[14]
and in 852 they fought in his campaign to defeat
Ishaq ibn Isma'il
, the rebel
governor of Tiflis
.
[15]
In 855?56 several Maghariba were selected to provide escort for a prisoner exchange with the
Byzantines
.
[16]
Following the assassination of al-Mutawakkil in December 861, the Maghariba played an important role during the events of the
Anarchy at Samarra
(861?870). On the day that
al-Muntasir
was given the oath of allegiance (
bay'ah
), the Maghariba were employed as riot troops against residents in the capital who opposed the new caliph.
[17]
After al-Muntasir's death in 862 they, together with the Turks and Ushrusaniyya, agreed to recognize
al-Musta'in
as caliph,
[18]
and they were again used to attack rioters who favored al-Musta'in's rival
al-Mu'tazz
.
[19]
In the following year, during a particularly severe riot in Samarra, the Maghariba looted the homes of several civilians;
[20]
a few months later, having become increasingly dissatisfied with the current regime, they organized in the capital to voice their agitation, but they ultimately decided to take no action and dispersed.
[21]
When
civil war
broke out between al-Musta'in and al-Mu'tazz in 865, the Maghariba fought in support of the latter. Two thousand Maghariba under the command of
Muhammad ibn Rashid al-Maghribi
were part of the initial force sent from Samarra to besiege al-Musta'in in
Baghdad
, and over the course of the war they participated in several battles. Their involvement continued until the end of the war, from which al-Mu'tazz emerged victorious and al-Musta'in was forced to abdicate.
[22]
After the war, the Maghariba continued returned to Samarra, which soon again suffered from disorder. In 866 a conflict broke out between the Maghariba and the Turkish soldiers, and during the ensuing violence two senior Maghariba commanders were killed by the Turks.
[23]
Two years later the Maghariba killed the Turkish general
Bugha al-Sharabi
and brought his head to the caliph.
[24]
In 869, however, the Maghariba united with the Turks and Faraghina to successfully depose al-Mu'tazz.
[25]
Under al-Mu'tazz's successor,
al-Muhtadi
, they participated in some of the initial campaigns against the
Zanj rebels
in southern
Iraq
.
[26]
In 870, during the revolt against al-Muhtadi, the Maghariba remained loyal to the caliph; they unsuccessfully defended him against the mutinous Turkish soldiers, and suffered high casualties as a result.
[27]
The accession of
al-Mu'tamid
(r. 870?892) seems to have resulted in the decline of the Maghariba. Al-Mu'tamid's brother
Abu Ahmad al-Muwaffaq
, who became the commander-in-chief of the army, enjoyed strong relations with the Turkish commanders, and under him the Turks came to dominate the military, to the exclusion of the Maghariba and other units. After this point, the Maghariba are seldom mentioned in the sources.
[28]
A government budget drawn up in 892?93 lists "Maghariba" as forming a contingent of the bodyguards of the caliph
al-Mu'tadid
(r. 892?902),
[29]
but it is not specified as to whether this was the same unit as the Samarran Maghariba.
[30]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Talbi, p. 1160; Saliba, p. 113 n. 317
- ^
Gordon, pp. 38?39; Kennedy, pp. 125-26; al-Bili, p. 47; Cooperson, p. 109
- ^
Al-Mas'udi, v. 7: p. 118. See also Ibn al-Athir, v. 6: p. 452
- ^
Gordon, p. 38
- ^
Kennedy, p. 118 ff.
- ^
Gordon, p. 185 n. 259; Northedge, p. 120; al-Ya'qubi, p. 263
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 36: p. 104; al-Ya'qubi, p. 263
- ^
Gordon, p. 39; Kennedy, p. 126; Northedge, p. 171; al-Tabari, v. 34: pp. 63?64
- ^
Kennedy, p. 126
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 34: p. 63
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 36: p. 97
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 33: p. 113; Ibn al-Athir, v. 6: p. 487;
Kitab al-'Uyun,
pp. 393?94
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 34: p. 19
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 34: p. 79
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 34: pp. 122?23; Ibn al-Athir, v. 7: p. 67
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 34: p. 139
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 34: p. 203; Ibn al-Athir, v. 7: p. 105
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 35: p. 1; Ibn al-Athir, v. 7: p. 117
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 35: p. 4; Ibn al-Athir, v. 7: p. 118
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 35: p. 11; Ibn al-Athir, v. 7: p. 123
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 35: p. 4
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 35: pp. 43 ff.; Ibn al-Athir, v. 7: pp. 145 ff.
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 35: pp. 140?41; Ibn al-Athir, v. 7: pp. 173?74
- ^
Al-Mas'udi, v. 7: p. 396; al-Tabari, v. 35: pp. 153?54. In the latter source the killing is accredited to a single man named Walid al-Maghribi, after which the Maghariba took the corpse and burned it.
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 35: p. 164; Ibn al-Athir, v. 7: p. 195. According to al-Mas'udi, v. 7: p. 397, al-Mu'tazz had attempted to favor the Maghariba and Faraghina at the expense of the Turks, which led to the latter overthrowing him.
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 36: p. 55; Ibn al-Athir, v. 7: p. 212
- ^
Al-Tabari, v. 36: pp. 93?95, 97?98, 104; al-Mas'udi, v. 8: pp. 8?9; Ibn al-Athir, v. 7: pp. 229 ff.
- ^
Kennedy, p. 150
- ^
Busse, p. 16
- ^
Kennedy, p. 166 n. 70
References
[
edit
]
- Al-Bili, 'Osman Sayyid Ahmad Isma'il.
Prelude to the Generals: A Study of Some Aspects of the Reign of the Eighth 'Abbasid Caliph, Al-Mu'tasim Bi-Allah (218-227 AH/833-842 AD).
Reading: Ithaca Press, 2001.
ISBN
0-86372-277-6
- Busse, Heribert. "Das Hofbudget des Chalifen al-Mu'tadid billah (279/892-289/902)."
Der Islam
43 (1967): 11?36.
- Cooperson, Michael.
Al-Ma'mun.
Oxford: Oneworld, 2005.
ISBN
1-85168-386-0
- Gordon, Matthew S.
The Breaking of a Thousand Swords: A History of the Turkish Military of Samarra (A.H. 200-275/815-889 C.E.).
Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2001.
ISBN
0-7914-4795-2
- Ibn al-Athir, 'Izz al-Din.
Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh.
6th ed. Beirut: Dar Sader, 1995.
- Kennedy, Hugh
(2001).
The Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State
. London and New York: Routledge.
ISBN
0-415-25093-5
.
- Kitab al-'Uyun wa'l-Hada'iq fi akhbar al-haqa'iq.
Eds. M.J. de Goeje and P. de Jong. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1869.
- Al-Mas'udi, Ali ibn al-Husain.
Les Prairies D'Or.
Ed. and Trans. Charles Barbier de Meynard and
Abel Pavet de Courteille
. 9 vols. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1861?1917.
- Northedge, Alastair.
The Historical Topography of Samarra.
London: The British School of Archeology in Iraq, 2005.
ISBN
0-903472-17-1
.
- Saliba, George
, ed. (1985).
The History of al-?abar?, Volume XXXV: The Crisis of the ?Abb?sid Caliphate: The Caliphates of al-Musta??n and al-Mu?tazz, A.D. 862?869/A.H. 248?255
. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press.
ISBN
978-0-87395-883-7
.
- Talbi, M. (1986).
"Maghariba"
. In
Bosworth, C. E.
;
van Donzel, E.
;
Lewis, B.
&
Pellat, Ch.
(eds.).
The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition
. Volume V: Khe?Mahi
. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
ISBN
978-90-04-07819-2
.
- Al-Ya'qubi, Ahmad ibn Abu Ya'qub.
Kitab al-Buldan.
Ed. M.J. de Goeje. 2nd ed. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1892.