CALIPHATE.
[1]
The history of the Mahommedan rulers in the
East who bore the title of
caliph
(
q.v.
) falls naturally into three
main divisions:?(
a
) The first four caliphs, the immediate
successors of Mahomet; (
b
) The Omayyad caliphs; (
c
) The
Abbasid caliphs. To these three groups the present article is confined;
for the Western caliphs, see
Spain
:
History
(and minor
articles such as
Almohades
,
Almoravides
); for the Egyptian
caliphs see
Egypt
:
History
(§ Mahommedan)
and
Fatimites
.
The history of Arabia proper will be found under
Arabia
:
History
.
A.?The First Four Caliphs
After the death of Mahomet the question arose who was to be
his “representative.” The choice lay with the community of
Medina; so much was understood; but whom were they to
choose? The natives of Medina believed themselves to be now
once more masters in their own house, and wished to promote
one of themselves. But the Emigrants (see
Mahomet
) asserted
their opposing claims, and with success, having brought into
the town a considerable number of outside Moslems, so as to
terrorize the men of Medina, who besides were still divided into
two parties. The Emigrants’ leading spirit was Omar; he did
not, however, cause homage to be paid to himself, but to Abu
Bekr, the friend and father-in-law of the Prophet.
The affair would not have gone on so smoothly, had not the
opportune defection of the Arabians put a stop to the inward
schism which threatened. Islam suddenly found itself once
more limited to the community of Medina; only Mecca and
T?if (T?yef) remained true. The Bedouins were willing enough
to pray, indeed, but less willing to pay taxes; their defection,
as might have been expected, was a political movement.
[2]
None
the less was it a revolt from Islam, for here the political society
and the religious are identical. A peculiar compliment to
Mahomet was involved in the fact that the leaders of the rebellion
in the various districts did not pose as princes and kings, but as
prophets; in this appeared to lie the secret of Islam’s success.
1.
Reign of Abu Bekr
.?Abu Bekr proved himself quite equal
to the perilous situation. In the first place, he allowed the
expedition against the Greeks, already arranged by Mahomet,
quietly to set out, limiting himself for the time to the defence
of Medina. On the return of the army he proceeded to attack
the rebels. The holy spirit of Islam kept the men of Medina
together, and inspired in them an all-absorbing zeal for the
faith; the Arabs as a whole had no other bond of union and no
better source of inspiration than individual interest. As was
to be expected, they were worsted; eleven small flying columns
of the Moslems, sent out in various directions, sufficed to quell
the revolt. Those who submitted were forthwith received back
into favour; those who persevered in rebellion were punished
with death. The majority accordingly converted, the obstinate
were extirpated. In Yamama (Yemama) only was there a
severe struggle; the Ban? ?an?fa under their prophet Mosailima
fought bravely, but here also Islam triumphed.
The internal consolidation of Islam in Arabia was, strange to
say, brought about by its diffusion abroad. The holy war
against the border countries which Mahomet had already
inaugurated, was the best means for making the new religion
popular among the Arabs, for opportunity was at the same
time afforded for gaining rich booty. The movement was
organized by Islam, but the masses were induced to join it by
quite other than religious motives. Nor was this by any means
the first occasion on which the Arabian cauldron had overflowed;
once and again in former times emigrant swarms of Bedouins
had settled on the borders of the wilderness. This had last
happened in consequence of the events which destroyed the
prosperity of the old Sabaean kingdom. At that time the small
Arabian kingdoms of Ghass?n and Hira had arisen in the western
and eastern borderlands of cultivation; these now presented
to Moslem conquest its nearest and natural goal. But inasmuch
as Hira was subject to the Persians, and Eastern Palestine to
the Greeks, the annexation of the Arabians involved the extension
of the war beyond the limits of Arabia to a struggle with
the two great powers (see further
Arabia
:
History
).
After the subjugation of middle and north-eastern Arabia,
Kh?lid b. al-Wal?d proceeded by order of the caliph, to the
conquest of the districts on the lower Euphrates. Thence he
was summoned to Syria, where hostilities had also broken out.
Damascus fell late in the summer of 635, and on the 20th of
August 636 was fought the great decisive battle on the Hieromax
(Yarmuk), which caused the emperor
Heraclius
(
q.v.
) finally to
abandon Syria.
[3]
Left to themselves, the Christians henceforward
defended themselves only in isolated cases in the fortified
cities; for the most part they witnessed the disappearance of
the Byzantine power without regret. Meanwhile the war was
also carried on against the Persians in Irak, unsuccessfully at
first, until the tide turned at the battle of Kadisiya (Kadessia,
Q?dis?ya) (end of 637). In consequence of the defeat which
they here sustained, the Persians were forced to abandon the
western portion of their empire and limit themselves to Iran
proper. The Moslems made themselves masters of Ctesiphon
(Mad?in), the residence of the Sassanids on the Tigris, and
conquered in the immediately following years the country of
the two rivers. In 639 the armies of Syria and Irak were face
to face in Mesopotamia. In a short time they had taken from
the Aryans all the principal old Semitic lands?Palestine, Syria,
Mesopotamia, Assyria and Babylonia. To these was soon added
Egypt, which was overrun with little difficulty by
?Amr ibn-el-Ass
(
q.v.
) in 640. (See
Egypt
:
History
(§ Mahommedan
.)
This completed the circle of the lands bordering on the wilderness
of Arabia; within these limits annexation was practicable and
natural, a repetition indeed of what had often previously occurred.
The kingdoms of Ghassan and Hira, advanced posts
hitherto, now became the headquarters of the Arabs; the new
empire had its centres on the one hand at Damascus, on the
other hand at Kufa and Ba?ra, the two newly-founded cities in
the region of old Babylonia. The capital of Islam continued
indeed for a while to be Medina, but soon the Hejaz (Hijaz) and
the whole of Arabia proper lay quite on the outskirt of affairs.
The ease with which the native populations of the conquered
districts, exclusively or prevailingly Christian, adapted
themselves to the new rule is very striking. Their nationality had
been broken long ago, but intrinsically it was more closely allied
to the Arabian than to the Greek or Persian. Their religious
sympathy with the West was seriously impaired by dogmatic
controversies; from Islam they might at any rate hope for
toleration, even though their views were not in accordance
with the theology of the emperor of the day. The lapse of the
masses from Christianity to Islam, however, which took place
during the first century after the conquest, is to be accounted
for only by the fact that in reality they had no inward relation
to the gospel at all. They changed their creed merely to acquire
the rights and privileges of Moslem citizens. In no case were
they compelled to do so; indeed the Omayyad caliphs saw
with displeasure the diminishing proceeds of the poll-tax derived
from their Christian subjects (see
Mahommedan Institutions
).
It would have been a great advantage for the solidity of the
Arabian empire if it had confined itself within the limits of those
old Semitic lands, with perhaps the addition of Egypt. But the
Persians were not so ready as the Greeks to give up the contest;
they did not rest until the Moslems had subjugated the whole
of the Sassanid empire. The most important event in the
protracted war which led to the conquest of Iran, was the battle
of Neh?wend in 641;
[4]
the most obstinate resistance was offered
by Persis proper, and especially by the capital, Istakhr
(Persepolis).
In the end, all the numerous and partly autonomous
provinces of the Sassanid empire fell, one after the other, into
the hands of the Moslems, and the young king,
Yazdegerd III.
(
q.v.
), was compelled to retire to the farthest corner of his realm,
where he came to a miserable end.
[5]
But it was long before the
Iranians learned to accept the situation. Unlike the Christians
of western Asia, they had a vigorous feeling of national pride,
based upon glorious memories and especially upon a church
having a connexion of the closest kind with the state. Internal
disturbances of a religious and political character and external
disasters had long ago shattered the empire of the Sassanids
indeed, but the Iranians had not yet lost their patriotism. They
were fighting, in fact, against the despised and hated Arabs,
in defence of their holiest possessions, their nationality and
their faith. Their subjection was only external, nor did Islam
ever succeed in assimilating them as the Syrian Christians were
assimilated. Even when in process of time they did accept the
religion of the prophet, they leavened it thoroughly with their
own peculiar leaven, and, especially, deprived it of the practical
political and national character which it had assumed after the
flight to Medina. To the Arabian state they were always a
thorn in the flesh; it was they who helped most to break up its
internal order, and it was from them also that it at last received
its outward death-blow. The fall of the Omayyads was their
work, and with the Omayyads fell the Arabian empire.
2.
Reign of Omar
.?Abu Bekr died after a short reign on the
22nd of August 634, and as a matter of course was succeeded by
Omar. To Omar’s ten years’ Caliphate belong for the most part
the great conquests. He himself did not take the field, but
remained in Medina with the exception of his visit to Syria in
638; he never, however, suffered the reins to slip from his
grasp, so powerful was the influence of his personality and the
Moslem community of feeling. His political insight is shown
by the fact that he endeavoured to limit the indefinite extension
of Moslem conquest, to maintain and strengthen the national
Arabian character of the commonwealth of Islam,
[6]
and especially
to promote law and order in its internal affairs. The saying
with which he began his reign will never grow antiquated:
“by Allah, he that is weakest among you shall be in my sight
the strongest, until I have vindicated for him his rights; but
him that is strongest will I treat as the weakest, until he complies
with the laws.” After the administration of justice he directed
his organizing activity, as the circumstances demanded, chiefly
towards financial questions?the incidence of taxation in the
conquered territories,
[7]
and the application of the vast resources
which poured into the treasury at Medina. It must not be
brought against him as a personal reproach, that in dealing with
these he acted on the principle that the Moslems were the chartered plunderers of all the rest of the world. But he had to atone by his death for the fault of his system. In the mosque at Medina he was stabbed by a Kufan workman and died in November 644.
3.
Reign of Othman
.?Before his death Omar had nominated
six of the leading Mohajir (Emigrants) who should choose the
caliph from among themselves?Othman, Ali, Zobair, ?al?a,
Sa?d b. Abi Waqq??, and Abdarra?m?n b. Auf. The last-named
declined to be a candidate, and decided the election in favour
of Othman. Under this weak sovereign the government of
Islam fell entirely into the hands of the Koreish nobility. We
have already seen that Mahomet himself prepared the way for
this transference; Abu Bekr and Omar likewise helped it; the
Emigrants were unanimous among themselves in thinking that
the precedence and leadership belonged to them as of right.
Thanks to the energy of Omar, they were successful in appropriating
to themselves the succession to the Prophet. They
indeed rested their claims on the undeniable priority of their
services to the faith, but they also appealed to their blood
relationship with the Prophet as a corroboration of their right
to the inheritance; and the ties of blood connected them with
the Koreish in general. In point of fact they felt a closer connexion
with these than, for example, with the natives of Medina;
nature had not been expelled by faith.
[8]
The supremacy of the
Emigrants naturally furnished the means of transition to the
supremacy of the Meccan aristocracy. Othman did all in his
power to press forward this development of affairs. He belonged
to the foremost family of Mecca, the Omayyads, and that he
should favour his relations and the Koreish as a whole, in every
possible way, seemed to him a matter of course. Every position
of influence and emolument was assigned to them; they themselves
boastingly called the important province of Irak the garden
of Koreish. In truth, the entire empire had become that garden.
Nor was it unreasonable that from the secularization of Islam
the chief advantage should be reaped by those who best knew
the world. Such were beyond all doubt the patricians of Mecca,
and after them those of T?if, people like Kh?lid b. al-Wal?d,
Amr-ibn-el-Ass, ?Abdall?h b. ab? Sar?, Mogh?ra b. Sho?ba, and,
above all, old Abu Sofi?n with his son Moawiya.
Against the rising tide of worldliness an opposition, however,
now began to appear. It was led by what may be called the
spiritual noblesse of Islam, which, as distinguished from the
hereditary nobility of Mecca, might also be designated as the
nobility of merit, consisting of the “Defenders” (
Ansar
), and
especially of the Emigrants who had lent themselves to the
elevation of the Koreish, but by no means with the intention
of allowing themselves thereby to be effaced. The opposition
was headed by Ali, Zobair, ?al?a, both as leading men among
the Emigrants and as disappointed candidates for the Caliphate.
Their motives were purely selfish; not God’s cause but their
own, not religion but power and preferment, were what they
sought.
[9]
Their party was a mixed one. To it belonged the men
of real piety, who saw with displeasure the promotion to the
first places in the commonwealth of the great lords who had
actually done nothing for Islam, and had joined themselves to
it only at the last moment. But the majority were merely a band
of men without views, whose aim was a change not of system, but of persons in their own interest. Everywhere in the provinces
there was agitation against the caliph and his governors,
except in Syria, where Othman’s cousin, Moawiya, son of Abu
Sofi?n (see below), carried on a wise and strong administration.
The movement was most energetic in Irak and in Egypt. Its
ultimate aim was the deposition of Othman in favour of Ali,
whose own services as well as his close relationship to the Prophet
seemed to give him the best claim to the Caliphate. Even then
there were enthusiasts who held him to be a sort of Messiah.
The malcontents sought to gain their end by force. In bands
they came from the provinces to Medina to wring concessions
from Othman, who, though his armies were spreading terror
from the Indus and Oxus to the Atlantic, had no troops at hand
in Medina. He propitiated the mutineers by concessions, but as
soon as they had gone, he let matters resume their old course.
Thus things went on from bad to worse. In the following year
(656) the leaders of the rebels came once more from Egypt and
Irak to Medina with a more numerous following; and the caliph
again tried the plan of making promises which he did not intend
to keep. But the rebels caught him in a flagrant breach of his
word,
[10]
and now demanded his abdication, besieging him in his own
house, where he was defended by a few faithful subjects. As he
would not yield, they at last took the building by storm and put
him to death, an old man of eighty. His death in the act of
maintaining his rights was of the greatest service to his house and
of corresponding disadvantage to the enemy.
4.
Reign of Ali.
?Controversy as to the inheritance at once
arose among the leaders of the opposition. The mass of the
mutineers summoned Ali to the Caliphate, and compelled even
?al?a and Zobair to do him homage. But soon these two,
along with Ayesha, the mother of the faithful, who had an old
grudge against Ali, succeeded in making their escape to Irak,
where at Ba?ra they raised the standard of rebellion. Ali in
point of fact had no real right to the succession, and moreover
was apparently actuated not by piety but by ambition and the
desire of power, so that men of penetration, even although they
condemned Othman’s method of government, yet refused to
recognize his successor. The new caliph, however, found means
of disposing of their opposition, and at the battle of the Camel,
fought at Ba?ra in November 656, ?al?a and Zobair were slain,
and Ayesha was taken prisoner.
But even so Ali had not secured peace. With the murder of
Othman the dynastic principle gained the twofold advantage of a
legitimate cry?that of vengeance for the blood of the grey-haired
caliph and a distinguished champion, the governor Moawiya,
whose position in Syria was impregnable. The kernel of his
subjects consisted of genuine Arabs, not only recent immigrants
along with Islam, but also old settlers who, through contact
with the Roman empire and the Christian church, had become to
some extent civilized. Through the Ghassanids these latter
had become habituated to monarchical government and loyal
obedience, and for a long time much better order had prevailed
amongst them than elsewhere in Arabia. Syria was the proper
soil for the rise of an Arabian kingdom, and Moawiya was just
the man to make use of the situation. He exhibited Othman’s
blood-stained garment in the mosque at Damascus, and incited
his Syrians to vengeance.
Ali’s position in Kufa was much less advantageous. The
population of Irak was already mixed up with Persian elements; it
fluctuated greatly, and was largely composed of fresh immigrants.
Islam had its headquarters here; Kufa and Ba?ra were the home
of the pious and of the adventurer, the centres of religious and
political movement. This movement it was that had raised Ali
to the Caliphate, but yet it did not really take any personal
interest in him. Religion proved for him a less trustworthy and
more dangerous support than did the conservative and secular
feeling of Syria for the Omayyads. Moawiya could either
act or refrain from acting as he chose, secure in either case
of the obedience of his subjects. Ali, on the other hand, was
unable to convert enthusiasm for the principle inscribed on his
banner into enthusiasm for his person. It was necessary that
he should accommodate himself to the wishes of his supporters,
which, however, were inconsistent. They compelled him
suddenly to break off the battle of Siffin, which he was apparently
on the point of gaining over Moawiya, because the Syrians
fastened copies of the Koran to their lances to denote that not
the sword, but the word of God should decide the contest (see
further below, B. 1; also
Ali
). But in yielding to the will of the
majority he excited the displeasure of the minority, the genuine
zealots, who in Moawiya were opposing the enemy of Islam,
and regarded Ali’s entering into negotiations with him as a
denial of the faith. When the negotiations failed and war was
resumed, the Kharijites refused to follow Ali’s army, and he had
to turn his armies in the first instance against them. He
succeeded in disposing of them without difficulty at the battle of
Nahraw?n, but in his success he lost the soul of his following.
For they were the true champions of the theocratic principle;
through their elimination it became clear that the struggle had in
no sense anything to do with the cause of God. Ali’s defeat was
a foregone conclusion, once religious enthusiasm had failed him;
the secular resources at the disposal of his adversaries were far
superior. Fortunately for him he was murdered (end of January
661), thereby posthumously attaining an importance in the eyes
of a large part of the Mahommedan world (Sh??a) which he had
never possessed during his life.
Summary of Preceding Movements
.?The conquest of Mecca had
been of the greatest importance to the Prophet, not only because
Islam thus obtained possession of this important city with its
famous sanctuary, but above all because his late adversaries
were at last compelled to acknowledge him as the Envoy of God.
Among these there were many men of great ability and influence,
and he was so eager to conciliate them or, as the Arabic expression
has it, “to mellow their hearts” by concessions and
gifts, that his loyal helpers (
Ansar
) at Medina became dissatisfied
and could only with difficulty be brought to acquiesce in it.
Mahomet was a practical man; he realized that the growing
state needed skilful administrators, and that such were found in
much greater number among the antagonists of yesterday than
among the honest citizens of Medina. The most important
positions, such as the governorships of Mecca and Yemen, were
entrusted to men of the Omayyad house, or that of the Makhz?m
and other Koreishite families. Abu Bekr followed the Prophet’s
example. In the great revolt of the Arabic tribes after the
death of Mahomet, and in the invasion of Irak and Syria by the
Moslems, the principal generals belonged to them. Omar did
not deviate from that line of conduct. It was he who appointed
Yaz?d, the son of Abu Sofi?n, and after his death, his brother
Moawiya as governor of Syria, and assigned the province of Egypt
to Amr-ibn-el-Ass (?Amr b. ??). It is even surprising to find
among the leading men so few of the house of H?shim, the nearest
family of the Prophet. The puzzled Moslem doctors explain
this fact on the ground that the Hashimites were regarded as too
noble to hold ordinary administrative offices, and that they
could not be spared at Medina, where their counsel was required
in all important affairs. There is, however, a tradition in which
Ali himself calls the Omayyads born rulers. As long as Omar
lived opposition was silent. But Othman had not the strong
personality of his predecessor, and, although he practically
adhered to the policy of Omar, he was accused of favouring the
members of his own family?the caliph belonged himself to the
house of Omayya?at the expense of the Hashimites and the Ansar.
The jealousy of the latter two was prompted by the fact that the
governorship and military commands had become not only much
more important, but also much more lucrative, while power and
money again procured many adherents. The truly devout
Moslems on the other hand were scandalized by the growing
luxury which relaxed the austere morals of the first Moslems,
and this also was imputed to Othman.
We thus see how the power of the house of Omayya developed
itself, and how there arose against it an opposition, which led in
the first place to the murder of Othman and the Caliphate of Ali,
and furthermore, during the whole period of the Omayyad
caliphs, repeatedly to dangerous outbreaks, culminating in the
great catastrophe which placed the Abbasids on the throne.
The elements of this opposition were of very various kinds:?(1)
The old-fashioned Moslems, sons of the
Ansar
and
Moh?jir
,
who had been Mahomet’s first companions and supporters, and
could not bear the thought that the sons of the old enemies of the
Prophet in Mecca, whom they nicknamed
?olaq?
(freedmen),
should be in control of the imamate, which carried with it the
management of affairs both civil and religious. This party was
in the foreground, chiefly in the first period. (2) The partisans
of Ali, the Shi?a (Shi?ites), who in proportion as their influence
with the Arabs declined, contrived to strengthen it by obtaining
the support of the non-Arabic Moslems, aided thereto, especially
in the latter period, by the Abbasids, who at the decisive
moment succeeded in seizing the supreme power for themselves.
(3) The Kharijites, who, in spite of the heavy losses they
sustained at the hands of Ali, maintained their power by gaining
new adherents from among those austere Moslems, who held both
Omayyads and Alids as usurpers, and have often been called, not
unjustly, the Puritans of Islam. (4) The non-Arabic Moslems,
who on their conversion to Islam, had put themselves under the
patronage of Arabic families, and were therefore called maula’s
(clients). These were not only the most numerous, but also, in
virtue of the persistency of their hostility, the most dangerous.
The largest and strongest group of these were the Persians, who,
before the conquest of Irak by the Moslems, were the ruling class
of that country, so that Persian was the dominant language.
With, them all malcontents, in particular the Shi?ites, found
support; by them the dynasty of the Omayyads and the
supremacy of the Arabs was finally overthrown. To these
elements of discord we must add:?(1) That the Arabs, notwithstanding
the bond of Islam that united them, maintained their
old tribal institutions, and therewith their old feuds and factions;
(2) that the old antagonism between Ma?adites
[11]
(original
northern tribes) and Yemenites (original southern tribes),
accentuated by the jealousy between the Meccans, who belonged
to the former, and the Medinians, who belonged to the latter
division, gave rise to perpetual conflicts; (3) that more than one
dangerous pretender?some of them of the reigning family
itself?contended with the caliph for the sovereignty, and must
be crushed
coute que coute
. It is only by the detailed enumeration
of these opposing forces that we can form an idea of the
heavy task that lay before the Prince of the Believers, and of the
amount of tact and ability which his position demanded.
The description of the reign of the Omayyads is extremely
difficult. Never perhaps has the system of undermining
authority by continual slandering been applied on such a scale as
by the Alids and the Abbasids. The Omayyads were accused by
their numerous missionaries of every imaginable vice; in their
hands Islam was not safe; it would be a godly work to extirpate
them from the earth. When the Abbasids had occupied the
throne, they pursued this policy to its logical conclusion. But
not content with having exterminated the hated rulers themselves,
they carried their hostility to a further point. The official
history of the Omayyads, as it has been handed down to us, is
coloured by Abbasid feeling to such an extent that we can
scarcely distinguish the true from the false. An example of this
occurs at the outset in the assertion that Moawiya deliberately
refrained from marching to the help of Othman, and indeed that
it was with secret joy that he heard of the fatal result of the plot.
The facts seem to contradict this view. When, ten weeks before
the murder, some hundreds of men came to Medina from Egypt
and Irak, pretending that they were on their pilgrimage to Mecca,
but wanted to bring before the caliph their complaints against
his vicegerents, nobody could have the slightest suspicion that
the life of the caliph was in danger; indeed it was only during
the few days that Othman was besieged in his house that the
danger became obvious. If the caliph then, as the chroniclers
tell, sent a message to Moawiya for help, his messenger could not
have accomplished half the journey to Damascus when the
catastrophe took place. There is no real reason to doubt that
the painful news fell on Moawiya unexpectedly, and that he, as
mightiest representative of the Omayyad house, regarded as his
own the duty of avenging the crime. He could not but view Ali
in the light of an accomplice, because if, as he protested, he did
not abet the murderers, yet he took them under his protection. An
acknowledgment of Ali as caliph by Moawiya before he had
cleared himself from suspicion was therefore quite impossible.
1.
The Reign of Moawiya
.?Moawiya, son of the well-known
Meccan chief Abu Sofi?n, embraced Islam together with his father
and his brother Yazid, when the Prophet conquered Mecca, and
was, like them, treated with the greatest distinction. He was even
chosen to be one of the secretaries of Mahomet. When Abu Bekr
sent his troops for the conquest of Syria, Yazid, the eldest son of
Abu Sofi?n, held one of the chief commands, with Moawiya as
his lieutenant. In the year 639 Omar named him governor of
Damascus and Palestine; Othman added to this province the
north of Syria and Mesopotamia. To him was committed the
conduct of the war against the Byzantine emperor, which he
continued with energy, at first only on land, but later, when the
caliph had at last given in to his urgent representations, at sea
also. In the year 34 (
A.D.
655) was fought off the coast of Lycia
the great naval battle, which because of the great number of
masts has been called “the mast fight,” in which the Greek
[12]
fleet, commanded by the emperor Constans II. in person, was
utterly defeated. Moawiya himself was not present, as he was
conducting an attack (the result of which we do not know) on
Caesarea in Cappadocia. The Arabic historians are so entirely
preoccupied with the internal events that they have no eye for
the war at the frontier. The contention which Moawiya had
with Ali checked his progress in the north.
Moawiya was a born ruler, and Syria was, as we have seen, the
best administered province of the whole empire. He was so
loved and honoured by his Syrians that, when he invited them
to avenge the blood of Othman, they replied unanimously, “It is
your part to command, ours to obey.” Ali was a valiant man,
but had no great talent as a ruler. His army numbered a great
many enthusiastic partisans, but among them not a few wiseacres;
there were also others of doubtful loyalty. The battle at
Siffin (657), near the Euphrates, which lasted two months and
consisted principally in, sometimes bloody, skirmishes, with
alternate success, ended by the well-known appeal to the decision
of the Koran on the part of Moawiya. This appeal has been called
by a European scholar “one of the unworthiest comedies of the
whole world’s history,” accepting the report of very partial
Arabic writers that it happened when the Syrians were on the
point of losing the battle. He forgot that Ali himself, before the
Battle of the Camel, appealed likewise to the decision of the
Koran, and began the fight only when this had been rejected.
There is in reality no room for suspecting Moawiya of not having
been in earnest when making this appeal; he might well regret
that internecine strife should drain the forces which were so
much wanted for the spread of Islam. That the Book of God
could give a solution, even of this arduous case, was doubtless the
firm belief of both parties. But even if the appeal to the Koran
had been a stratagem, as Ali himself thought, it would have been
perfectly legitimate, according to the general views of that time,
which had been also those of the Prophet. It is not unlikely
that the chief leader of the Yemenites in Ali’s army, Ash?ath b.
Qais, knew beforehand that this appeal would be made. Certainty
is not to be obtained in the whole matter.
On each side an umpire was appointed, Abu M?s? al-Ash?ar?,
the candidate of Ash?ath, on that of Ali,
Amr-ibn-el-Ass
(
q.v.
) on
that of Moawiya. The arbitrators met in the year 37 (
A.D.
658)
at Adhro?, in the south-east of Syria, where are the ruins of
the Roman Castra described by Brunnow and Domaszewsky
(
Die Provincia Arabia
, i. 433-463). Instead of this place, the
historians generally put D?mat-al-Jandal, the biblical Duma,
now called Jauf, but this rests on feeble authority. The various
accounts about what happened in this interview are without
exception untrustworthy. J. Wellhausen, in his excellent book
Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz
, has made it very probable that
the decision of the umpires was that the choice of Ali as caliph
should be cancelled, and that the task of nominating a successor
to Othman should be referred to the council of notable men
(
sh?r?
), as representing the whole community. Ali refusing to
submit to this decision, Moawiya became the champion of the
law, and thereby gained at once considerable support for the
conquest of Egypt, to which above all he directed his efforts. As
soon as Amr returned from Adhro?, Moawiya sent him with an
army of four or five thousand men against Egypt. About the
same time the constitutional party rose against Ali’s vicegerent
Mahommed, son of Abu Bekr, who had been the leader of the
murderous attack on Othman. Mahommed was beaten, taken
in his flight, and, according to some reports, sewn in the skin of an
ass and burned.
Moawiya, realizing that Ali would take all possible means to
crush him, took his measures accordingly. He concluded with
the Greeks a treaty, by which he pledged himself to pay a large
sum of money annually on condition that the emperor should give
him hostages as a pledge for the maintenance of peace. Ali,
however, had first to deal with the insurrection of the Kharijites,
who condemned the arbitration which followed the battle of Siffin
as a deed of infidelity, and demanded that Ali should break the
compact (see above, A.4). Freed from this difficulty, Ali prepared
to direct his march against Moawiya, but his soldiers declined to
move. One of his men, Khirr?t b. R?shid, renounced him
altogether, because he had not submitted to the decision of the
umpires, and persuaded many others to refuse the payment of the
poor-rate. Ali was obliged to subdue him, a task which he
effected not without difficulty. Not a few of his former partisans
went over to Moawiya, as already had happened before the days
of Siffin, amongst others Ali’s own brother ?Aq?l. Lastly, there
were in Kufa, and still more in Basra, many Othmaniya or
legitimists, on whose co-operation he could not rely. Moawiya
from his side made incessant raids into Ali’s dominion, and by his
agents caused a very serious revolt in Basra. The statement that
a treaty was concluded between Moawiya and Ali to maintain the
status quo
, in the beginning of the year 40 (
A.D.
660), is not very
probable, for it is pretty certain that just then Ali had raised an
army of 40,000 men against the Syrians, and also that in the second
or third month of that year Moawiya was proclaimed caliph at
Jerusalem. At the same time Bosr b. Abi Art?t made his
expedition against Medina and Mecca, whose inhabitants were
compelled to acknowledge the caliphate of Moawiya. On the
murder of Ali in 661, his son Hasan was chosen caliph, but he
recoiled before the prospect of a war with Moawiya, having
neither the ambition nor the energy of Ali. Moawiya stood then
with a large army in Maskin, a rich district lying to the north of
the later West Bagdad, watered by the Dojail, or Little Tigris, a
channel from the Euphrates to the Tigris. The army of Trak was
near Mad?in, the ancient Ctesiphon. The reports about what
occurred are confused and contradictory; but it seems probable
that Abdallah b. Abbas, the vicegerent of Ali at Basra and
ancestor of the future Abbasid dynasty, was in command. No
battle was fought. Hasan and Ibn Abbas opened, each for
himself, negotiations with Moawiya. The latter made it a
condition of surrender that he should have the free disposal of the
funds in the treasury of Basra. Some say that he had already
before the death of Ali rendered himself master of it. Notwithstanding
the protest of the Basrians, he transported this booty
safely to Mecca. When his descendants had ascended the throne
and he had become a demi-saint, the historians did their best to
excuse his conduct. Hasan demanded, in exchange for the power
which he resigned, the contents of the treasury at Kufa, which
amounted to five millions of dirhems, together with the revenues
of the Persian province of Dar?bjird (Darab). When these negotiations
became known, a mutiny broke out in Hasan’s camp.
Hasan himself was wounded and retired to Medina, where he
died eight or nine years afterwards. The legend that he was
poisoned by order of Moawiya is without the least foundation.
It seems that he never received the revenues of Dar?bjird, the
Basrians to whom they belonged refusing to cede them.
Moawiya now made his entry into Kufa in the summer of
A.H.
41 (
A.D.
661) and received the oath of allegiance as Prince of the
Believers. This year is called the year of union (
jam?
?
a
).
Mogh?ra b. Sho?ba was appointed governor of Kufa. Homr?n b.
Ab?n had previously assumed the government of Basra. This
is represented commonly as a revolt, but as Homran was a client
of Othman, and remained in favour with the Omayyads, it is
almost certain that he took the management of affairs only to
maintain order.
One strong antagonist to Moawiya remained, in the person of
Ziy?d. This remarkable man was said to be a bastard of Abu
Sofi?n, the father of Moawiya, and was, by his mother, the
brother of Abu Bakra, a man of great wealth and position at
Basra. He thus belonged to the tribe of Thaq?f at ??if, which
produced many very prominent men. At the age of fourteen
years Ziy?d was charged with the financial administration of the
Basrian army. He had won the affection of Omar, by his knowledge
of the Koran and the Sunna of the Prophet, and by the fact
that he had employed the first money he earned to purchase the
freedom of his mother Somayya. He was a faithful servant of Ali
and put down for him the revolt excited by Moawiya’s partisans
in Basra. Thence he marched into F?rs and Kirman, where he
maintained peace and kept the inhabitants in their allegiance to
Ali. After Ali’s death he fortified himself in his castle near
Istakhr and refused to submit. Moawiya, therefore, sent Bosr
b. Abi Art?t to Basra, with orders to capture Ziy?d’s three sons,
and to force Ziy?d into submission by threatening to kill them.
Ziy?d was obdurate; and it was due to his brother Abu Bakra,
who persuaded Moawiya to cancel the order, that the threat was
not executed. On his return to Damascus, Moawiya charged
Mogh?ra b. Sho?ba to bring his countryman to reason. Abdallah
b. ’?mir was made governor of Basra.
As soon as Moawiya had his hands free, he directed all his
forces against the Greeks. Immediately after the submission of
Irak, he had denounced the existing treaty, and as early as 662
had sent his troops against the Alans and the Greeks. Since then,
no year passed without a campaign. Twice he made a serious
effort to conquer Constantinople, in 669 when he besieged it for
three months, and in 674. On the second occasion his fleet
occupied Cyzicus, which it held till shortly after his death in 680,
when a treaty was signed. In Africa also the extension of
Mahommedan power was pursued energetically. In 670 took
place the famous march of ?Okba (?Oqba) b. N?fi? and the foundation
of Kairawan, where the great mosque still bears his name.
Our information about these events, though very full, is untrustworthy,
while of the events in Asia Minor the accounts are scarce
and short. The Arabic historians are still absorbed by the events
in Irak and Khorasan.
The talented prefect of Kufa, Mogh?ra b. Sho?ba, eventually
broke down the resistance of Ziy?d, who came to Damascus to
render an account of his administration, which the caliph
ratified. Moawiya seems also to have acknowledged him as the
son of Abu Sofi?n, and thus as his brother; in 664 this recognition
was openly declared.
[13]
In the next year Ziy?d was appointed
governor of Basra and the eastern provinces belonging to it. As
the austere champion of the precepts of Islam, he soon restored
order in the whole district. Outwardly, this was the case in
Kufa also. A rising of Kharijites in the year 663 had ended in
the death of their chief. But the Shi?ites were dissatisfied and
even dared to give public utterance to their hostility. Mogh?ra
contented himself with a warning. He was already aged and had
no mind to enter on a conflict. He died about the year 670, and
his province also was entrusted to Ziy?d, who appointed ?Amr b.
Horaith as his vicegerent. At a Friday service in the great mosque
?Amr was insulted and pelted with pebbles. Ziy?d then came
himself, arrested the leader of the Shi?ites, and sent fourteen rebels
to Damascus, among them several men of consideration. Seven of
them who refused to pledge themselves to obedience were put to
death; the Shi?ites considered them as martyrs and accused
Moawiya of committing a great crime. But in Kufa peace was
restored, and this not by military force, but by the headmen of
the tribes. We must not forget that Kufa and Basra were
military colonies, and that each tribe had its own quarter of the
city. A wholesome diversion was provided by the serious resumption
of the policy of eastern expansion, which had been
interrupted by the civil war. For this purpose Irak had to
furnish the largest contingent. The first army sent by Ziy?d
into Khorasan recaptured Merv, Herat and Balkh, conquered
Tokh?rist?n and advanced as far as the Oxus. In 673 ?Obaidallah,
the son of Ziy?d, crossed the river, occupied Bokhara, and
returned laden with booty taken from the wandering Turkish
tribes of Transoxiana. He brought 2000 Turkish archers with
him to Basra, the first Turkish slaves to enter the Moslem empire.
Sa??d, son of the caliph Othman, whom Moawiya made governor
of Khorasan, in 674 marched against Samarkand. Other
generals penetrated as far as the Indus and conquered Kabul,
Sijistan, Makr?n and Kandahar.
Ziy?d governed Irak with the greatest vigour, but as long as
discontent did not issue in action, he let men alone. At his death
(672?673), order was so generally restored that “nobody had any
more to fear for life or estate, and even the unprotected woman
was safe in her house without having her door bolted.”
Moawiya was a typical Arab
sayyid
(gentleman). He governed,
not by force, but by his superior intelligence, his self-control,
his mildness and magnanimity. The following anecdote may
illustrate this. One of Moawiya’s estates bordered on that of
Abdallah b. Zobair, who complained in a somewhat truculent
letter that Moawiya’s slaves had been guilty of trespassing.
Moawiya, disregarding his son Yazid’s advice that he should
exact condign punishment for Zobair’s disrespect, replied in
flattering terms, regretting the trespass and resigning both slaves
and estate to Zobair. In reply Zobair protested his loyalty to
Moawiya, who thereupon pointed a moral for the instruction of
Yazid.
Moawiya has been accused of having poisoned more than one of
his adversaries, among them Malik Ashtar, Abdarrahm?n the
son of the great captain Kh?lid b. Wal?d, and Hasan b. Ali. As
for the latter, European scholars have long been agreed that the
imputation is groundless. As to Abdarrahm?n the story is in the
highest degree improbable. Mad?in? says that Moawiya was
prompted to it, because when he consulted the Syrians about the
choice of his son Yazid as his successor, they had proposed
Abdarrahm?n. The absurdity of this is obvious, for Abdarrahm?n
died in the year 666.
[14]
Others say
[15]
that Moawiya was afraid
lest Abdarrahm?n should become too popular. Now, Abdarrahm?n
had not only been a faithful ally of Moawiya in the wars with
Ali, but after the peace devoted all his energy to the Greek war.
It is almost incredible that Moawiya out of petty jealousy would
have deprived himself of one of his best men. The probability is
that Abdarrahm?n was ill when returning from the frontier, that
Moawiya sent him his own medical man, the Christian doctor Ibn
Oth?l, and that the rumour arose that the doctor had poisoned
him. It is remarkable withal that this rumour circulated, not in
Homs (Emesa), where Abdarrahm?n died, but in Medina. There
a young relation of Abdarrahm?n was so roused by the taunt
that the death of his kinsman was unavenged, that he killed Ibn
Othal near the mosque of Damascus. Moawiya imprisoned him
and let him pay a high ransom, the law not permitting the talio
against a Moslem for having killed a Christian. The story that
this relative was Kh?lid, the son of Abdarrahm?n, is absurd
inasmuch as Moawiya made this Kh?lid commander against the
Greeks in succession to his father. In the third case?that of
Malik Ashtar?the evidence is equally inadequate. In fact, since
Moawiya did not turn the weapon of assassination against such
men as Abdallah b. Zobair and Hosain b. Ali, it is unlikely that
he used it against less dangerous persons. These two men were
the chief obstacles to Moawiya’s plan for securing the Caliphate
for his son Yazid. The leadership with the Arabic tribes was as a
rule hereditary, the son succeeding his father, but only if he was
personally fit for the position, and was acknowledged as such by
the principal men of the tribe. The hereditary principle had not
been recognized by Islam in the cases of Abu Bekr, Omar and
Othman; it had had some influence upon the choice of Ali, the
husband of Fatima and the cousin of the Prophet. But it had
been adopted entirely for the election of Hasan. The example of
Abu Bekr proved that the caliph had the right to appoint his
successor. But this appointment must be sanctioned by the
principal men, as representing the community. Moawiya seems
to have done his best to gain that approbation, but the details
given by the historians are altogether unconvincing. This only
seems to be certain, that the succession of Yazid was generally
acknowledged before the death of his father, except in Medina.
(See
Mahommedan Institutions
.)
Moawiya died in the month of Rajab 60 (
A.D.
680). His last
words are said to have been: “Fear ye God, the Elevated and
Mighty, for God, Praise be to Him, protects the man that fears
Him; he who does not fear God, has no protection.” Moawiya
was, in fact, a religious man and a strict disciple of the precepts
of Islam. We can scarcely, therefore, credit the charges made by
the adversaries of his chosen successor Yazid, that he was a
drinker of wine, fond of pleasure, careless about religion. All the
evidence shows that, during the reign of the Omayyads, life in
Damascus and the rest of Syria was austere and in striking
contrast to the dissolute manners which prevailed in Medina.
2.
Rule of Yazid
.?When Moawiya died, the opposition had
already been organized. On his accession Yazid sent a circular
to all his prefects, officially announcing his father’s death, and
ordering them to administer the oath of allegiance to their
subjects. In that sent to Wal?d b. ?Otba, the governor of
Medina, he enclosed a private note charging him in particular to
administer the oath to Hosain, Abdallah b. Omar and Abdallah
b. Zobair, if necessary, by force. Walid sent a messenger
inviting them to a conference, thus giving them time to assemble
their followers and to escape to Mecca, where the prefect Omar
b. Sa??d could do nothing against them. In the month Ramadan
this Omar was made governor of Medina and sent an army against
Ibn Zobair. This army was defeated, and from that time Ibn
Zobair was supreme at Mecca.
On the news of Yazid’s accession, the numerous partisans of
the family of Ali in Kufa sent addresses to Hosain, inviting him
to take refuge with them, and promising to have him proclaimed
caliph in Irak. Hosain, having learned that the majority of the
inhabitants were apparently ready to support him strenuously,
prepared to take action. Meanwhile Yazid, having been informed
of the riotous behaviour of the Shi?ites in Kufa, sent
Obaidallah, son of the famous Ziy?d and governor of Basra, to
restore order. Using the same tactics as his father had used
before, Obaidallah summoned the chiefs of the tribes and made
them responsible for the conduct of their men. On the 8th of
Dhu’l-Hijja Hosain set out from Mecca with all his family,
expecting to be received with enthusiasm by the citizens of Kufa,
but on his arrival at Kerbela west of the Euphrates, he was
confronted by an army sent by Obaidallah under the command of
Omar, son of the famous Sa?d b. Abi Waqq?s, the founder of
Kufa. Hosain gave battle, vainly relying on the promised aid
from Kufa, and fell with almost all his followers on the 10th of
Muharram 61 (10th of October 680).
No other issue of this rash expedition could have been expected.
But, as it involved the grandson of the Prophet, the son of Ali,
and so many members of his family, Hosain’s devout partisans
at Kufa, who by their overtures had been the principal cause of
the disaster, regarded it as a tragedy, and the facts gradually
acquired a wholly romantic colouring. Omar b. Sa?d and his
officers, Obaidallah and even Yazid came to be regarded as
murderers, and their names have ever since been held accursed
by all Shi?ites. They observe the 10th of Muharram, the day of
?Ash?ra, as a day of public mourning. Among the Persians, stages
are erected on that day in public places, and plays are acted,
representing the misfortunes of the family of Ali.
[16]
“Revenge
for Hosain” became the watchword of all Shi?ites, and the
Meshed Hosain (Tomb of the martyr Hosain) at Kerbela is to
them the holiest place in the world (see
Kerbela
). Obaidallah
sent the head of Hosain to Damascus, together with the women
and children and Ali b. Hosain, who, being ill, had not taken part
in the fight. Yazid was very sorry for the issue, and sent the
prisoners under safe-conduct to Medina. Ali remained faithful
to the caliph, taking no share in the revolt of the Medinians, and
openly condemning the risings of the Shi?ites.
Ibn Zobair profited greatly by the distress caused by Hosain’s
death. Though he named himself publicly a refugee of the House
of God, he had himself secretly addressed as caliph, and many of
the citizens of Medina acknowledged him as such. Yazid, when
informed of this, swore in his anger to have him imprisoned. But
remembering the wisdom of his father, he sent messengers with a
chain made of silver coins, and bearing honourable proposals.
At the same time he received a number of the chief men of
Medina, sent by the prefect, with great honour and loaded them
with gifts and presents. But Ibn Zobair refused, and the
Medinians, of whom the majority probably had never before
seen a prince’s court, however simple, were only confirmed in
their rancour against Yazid, and told many horrible tales about
his profligacy, that he hunted and held wild orgies with Bedouin
sheikhs, and had no religion. A characteristically Arabic ceremony
took place in the mosque of Medina. “I cast off the oath
of allegiance to Yazid, as I cast off my turban,” exclaimed the
first, and all others followed, casting off one of their garments,
till a heap of turbans and sandals lay on the floor. Ibn ?an?ala
was made commander. The Omayyads, though they with their
clients counted more than 1000 men, were not able to maintain
themselves, and were allowed to depart only on condition of strict
neutrality.
At last the patience of Yazid was exhausted. An army?the
accounts about the number vary from 4000 to 20,000?was
equipped in all haste and put under the command of Moslim b.
?Oqba, with orders first to exact submission from the Medinians,
if necessary by force, and then to march against Ibn Zobair.
Moslim, having met the expelled Omayyads at W?di ’l-Qor?,
encamped near the city (August 683) and gave the inhabitants
three days in which to return to obedience, wishing to spare the
city of the Prophet and to prevent the shedding of blood. When,
however, after the lapse of three days, a final earnest appeal had
been answered insultingly, he began the battle. The Medinians
fought valiantly, but could not hold out against the well-disciplined
Syrians. Moreover, they were betrayed by the Medinian
family of the Ban? ??ritha, who introduced Syrian soldiers into
the town. Medina lies between two volcanic hills, called
harra
.
After one of these the battle has been named “The Day of
Harra.” For three days the city was given up to plunder. It is
said that a thousand bastards (the “children of the Harra”)
were born in consequence of these days. The remaining citizens
were compelled to take the oath of allegiance to Yazid in a
humiliating form; the few who refused were killed. Ali b.
Hosain, who had refused to have anything to do with the revolt,
was treated with all honour. Mahommed b. al-Hanafiya, the
son of Ali, and Abdallah b. Omar had likewise abstained, but
they had left Medina for Mecca.
Moslim then proceeded towards Mecca. He was already ill, and
died about midway between the two cities, after having given the
command, according to the orders of the caliph, to Hosain b.
Nomair. It is quite natural that the man who delivered up the
city of the Prophet to plunder, and at whose hands so many
prominent Moslems fell, should have been an object of detestation
to the devout. Even some European scholars have drawn a
false picture of his personality, as has been clearly shown by
Wellhausen. About Medina also false statements have been
made. The city recovered very soon from the disaster, and
remained the seat not only of holy tradition and jurisdiction,
but also of the Arabic aristocracy. In no city of the empire,
during the reign of the Omayyads, lived more singers and
musicians than in Medina.
Hosain b. Nomair arrived before Mecca in September 683 and
found Ibn Zobair ready to defend it. A number of the citizens
of Medina had come to the aid of the Holy City, as well as many
Kharijites from Yam?ma under Najda b. ?Amir. The siege had
lasted 65?others say 40?days, when the news came of the
death of Yazid, which took place presumably on the 14th of
Rabia I, 64 (12th November 683). Eleven days before a fire,
caused by imprudence, had consumed all the woodwork of the
Ka?ba and burst the black stone in three places. The evidence
is quite conclusive; yet the fire has been imputed to the Syrians,
and a tale was invented about ballistas which hurled against the
House of God enormous stones and vessels full of bitumen. In
fact, the siege had been confined to enclosure and skirmishes. It
is said that on the news of the death of Yazid a conference took
place between Hosain and Ibn Zobair, and that the former offered
to proclaim the latter as caliph provided he would accompany
him to Syria and proclaim a general amnesty. Ibn Zobair
refused haughtily, and Hosain, with a contemptuous criticism of
his folly, ordered his army to break up for Syria.
Hitherto Ibn Zobair had confined himself to an appeal to the
Moslems to renounce Yazid and to have a caliph elected by the
council (
sh?r?
) of the principal leading men. He now openly
assumed the title of caliph and invited men to take the oath of
allegiance. He was soon acknowledged throughout Arabia, in
Egypt and in Irak. The Omayyads, who had returned to Medina,
were again expelled.
Yazid is described in the
Continuatio Isidori Byz.
§27, as “iucundissimus
et cunctis nationibus regni eius subditis vir gratissime
habitus, qui nullam unquam, ut omnibus moris est, sibi regalis
fastigii causa gloriam appetivit, sed communis
[17]
cum omnibus
civiliter vixit.” This is confirmed by the fact that Moawiya II.
is said to have been a mild ruler, like his father, and goes far to
outweigh the prejudiced account given by his opponents and
coloured still further by tradition. Against the accusation of
being a drinker of wine he himself protested in verses which he
recited when he sent the army against Ibn Zobair. Decisive is
also the testimony of Ibn al-Hanafiya, who declared that all the
accusations brought by the Medinians were false. It may be
true that he was fond of hunting, but he was a peace-loving,
generous prince. It is uncertain at what age he died. Accounts
vary between 33 and 39. The latter finds confirmation in the
statement that he was born in
A.H.
25, though another account
places his birth in 22. As his son Moawiya who succeeded him
was certainly adult (the accounts vary between 17 and 23), the
latter date seems to be preferable.
3. Moawiya II. had reigned a very short time?how long is
again wholly uncertain?when he fell sick and died. Then
commenced a period of the greatest confusion. The mother of
Yazid, Mais?n, belonged to the most powerful tribe in Syria, the
Kalb, and it seems that this and the cognate tribes of Qod??a
(Yemenites) had enjoyed certain prerogatives, which had aroused
the jealousy of the Qais and the cognate tribes of Modar. Immediately
after the death of Yazid, Zofar b. ??rith, who had
already fought with Ibn Zobair against Yazid, had induced
northern Syria and Mesopotamia to declare for Ibn Zobair. In
Homs (Emesa) the governor No?m?n b. Bash?r had pledged
himself to the same cause. The prefect of Damascus, ?a???k b.
Qais, seemed to be wavering in his loyalty. Kh?lid, the brother
of Moawiya II., was still a youth and appears to have had no
strength of character. There was, however, a much more
dangerous candidate, viz. Merw?n b. ?akam, of another branch
of the Omayyads, who had been Othman’s right-hand man. He
had pledged himself after some hesitation to Yazid, but now his
turn had come. The amir of the Kalb, Ibn Ba?dal, persuaded
probably by Obaidallah b. Ziy?d, conceived that only a man of
distinction could win the contest, and proclaimed Merwan
caliph, on condition that his successor should be Kh?lid b.
Yazid, and after him ?Amr b. Sa??d al-Ashdaq, who belonged to
the third branch of the Omayyads. Meanwhile ?a???k had
declared himself openly for Ibn Zobair. A furious battle (
A.D.
684) ensued at Merj R?hi?, near Damascus, in which ?a???k
and Zofar, though they had the majority of troops, were utterly
defeated. This battle became the subject of a great many
poems and had pernicious consequences, especially as regards
the antagonism between the Qais-Mo?ar and Kalb-Yemenite
tribes.
4.
Reign of Merwan I
.?Merwan strengthened his position
according to the old oriental fashion by marrying the widow of
Yazid, and soon felt himself strong enough to substitute his own
son Abdalmalik for Kh?lid b. Yazid as successor-designate.
Kh?lid contented himself with protesting; he was neither a
politician nor a soldier, but a student of alchemy and astronomy;
translations of Greek books have been ascribed to him (J??iz,
Bay?n
, i. p. 126). In the year
A.H.
435 there was still in Egypt
a brazen globe attributed to Ptolemy which had belonged to
Kh?lid (Ibn Qift?, p. 440, 1.15). He was also consulted about
future events. There were, however, not a few who deplored
the fact that the throne had passed from the descendants of
Abu Sofi?n. This feeling gave rise to the prophecy that there
should appear later a Sofian? on the throne, who would reign
with might and wisdom. ?Amr Ashdaq made no opposition till
the death of Merwan. After the victory at Merj R?hi?, Merwan
conquered Egypt, and installed as governor his second son
Abdalaz?z. An army sent to the rescue by Ibn Zobair under the
command of his brother Mu??ab was beaten in Palestine by
?Amr Ashdaq. But a division sent by Merwan to the Hejaz was
cut to pieces. Obaidallah b. Ziy?d set out with the purpose of
subduing Mesopotamia and marching thence against Irak. But
he was detained a whole year in the former country, by a rising
of the Shi?ites in Kufa, who were still in mourning for Hosain
and had formed an army which called itself “the army of the
penitent.” They were routed at Ras ?Ain, but Obaidallah had
still to fight Zofar.
Meanwhile Mokht?r (son of that Abu ?Obaid the Thaqifite who
had commanded the Arabs against the Persians in the unfortunate
battle of the Bridge), a man of great talents and still
greater ambition, after having supported Ibn Zobair in the siege
of Mecca, had gone to Kufa, where he joined the Shi?ites, mostly
Persians, and acquired great power. He claimed that he was
commissioned by Ali’s son, Mahommed ibn al-Hanafiya, who
after the death of Hosain was recognized by the Shi?ites as their
Mahdi. A vague message from Mahommed, that it was the duty
of every good Moslem to take part with the family of the Prophet,
was interpreted in favour of Mokht?r, and thenceforward all the
Shi?ites, among them the powerful Ibr?h?m, son of Ali’s right
hand Malik Ashtar, followed him blindly as their chief. Afterwards
Ibn al-Hanafiya seems to have acknowledged him distinctly
as his vicegerent. Ibn Zobair’s representative in Kufa
was compelled to flee, and all those who had participated in the
battle of Kerbela were put to death. An army despatched
against Obaidallah under Ibr?h?m routed the Syrians near
Mosul (battle of Kh?zir); Obaidallah and Hosain b. Nomair
were slain. Mokht?r was now at the zenith of power, but Ibn
Zobair, determined to get rid at all costs of so dangerous an
enemy, named his brother Mu??ab governor of Basra and ordered
him to march against Kufa. Basra was at that time full of
fugitives from Kufa, Arabian chiefs who resented the arrogance of
Mokht?r’s adherents, and desired eagerly to regain their former
position in Kufa. The troops of Basra had been, since the death
of Yazid, at war with the Kharijites, who had supported Ibn
Zobair during the siege of Mecca, but had deserted him later.
Their caliph, N?fi? b. Azraq, after whom they were called also
Azraqites, threatened even the city itself, when Mohallab b. Abi
?ofra, a very able general, compelled them to retire. Mohallab
then marched with Mu??ab against Kufa. Mokht?r fell, and with
him the ephemeral dominion of the Persian Shi?ites. This had
been their first attempt to dispute the authority of their Arabian
conquerors, but it was not to be the last. Ibr?h?m b. Ashtar,
Mokhtar’s governor of Mesopotamia, submitted and acknowledged
the Caliphate of Ibn Zobair.
5. Reign of Abdalmalik.?Merwan died on the 27th of Ramadan
65 (7th May 685); according to tradition, he was suffocated by
his wife, because he had insulted her son Kh?lid and herself.
The accession of Abdalmalik was attended with no difficulty,
but the first years of his reign were occupied by troubles in
northern Syria, where, instigated by the Greeks, the Mardaites
of the Amanus, called Jar?jima by the Arabs, penetrated into
the Lebanon. He was obliged to conclude an unfavourable
treaty first with them, later with the emperor of Constantinople.
Moreover, in the year 68 (
A.D.
687?688) Syria was afflicted by a
serious famine. Ibn Zobair, however, was occupied at Mecca
with the rebuilding of the Ka?ba, and Mu??ab was harassed not
only by the Kharijites, but also by a noble freebooter, Obaidallah
b. ?orr, who had created for himself a principality in the vicinity
of Mad?in (Ctesiphon).
The period of the pilgrimage caused a momentary truce to all
these struggles, and in Dhu ’l-hijja,
A.H.
68 (January 688), was
seen the curious spectacle of four different standards planted
near Mecca, belonging respectively to four chiefs, each of whom
was a pretender to the empire; the standard of Abdallah b.
Zobair, caliph of Mecca; that of the caliph of Damascus,
Abdalmalik; that of Ali’s son Mahommed b. al-Hanafiya, Mahdi
of the Shi?ites; and that of the Kharijites, who were at that time
under the command of Najda b. ??mir. Such, however, was the
respect inspired by the holy places, that no disorders resulted.
When, in the year (69
A.H.
) 689 Abdalmalik had at last encamped
at Bo??n ?ab?b in the vicinity of Kinnesrin (Qinnasr?n),
[18]
with the purpose of marching against Mu??ab, his cousin ?Amr
Ashdaq, to whom by the treaty of J?bia, before the battle of
Merj R?hit, the succession to Merwan had been promised, took
advantage of his absence to lay claim to the supreme power, and
to have himself proclaimed caliph by his partisans. Abdalmalik
was obliged to retrace his steps and to lay siege to his own capital.
The garrison of Damascus took fright, and deserted their posts,
so that ?Amr Ashdaq was compelled to surrender. The caliph
Abdalmalik summoned him to his palace and slew him with his
own hand. Abdalmalik has every claim to our esteem as one of
the ablest monarchs that ever reigned, but this murder remains
a lasting blot on his career.
Abdalmalik could now give his whole attention to the projected
expedition against Irak. Mu??ab was encamped at
B?jomair? in the neighbourhood of Takr?t. But Abdalmalik’s
first task was to subdue Zofar and his Qaisites at Kerkesia
(Qarq?sia), and the rest of the partisans of Mokht?r at Nisibis.
Meanwhile, Mu??ab had to curb a violent revolt in Basra, brought
about by agents of Abdalmalik, and called after a place in the
city the revolt of the Jofrites. About the middle of
A.D.
691
Abdalmalik at last encamped at Dair al-Jathal?q (the monastery
of the Catholicus) between Maskin, not far from the site of
Bagdad, and B?jomair?. Mu??ab’s best troops were fighting
under Mohallab against the Kharijites; many Basrians were
secretly favourable to the Omayyads, nor were the Kufian
soldiers to be trusted. The people of Irak had never been
accustomed to discipline, and no improvement had taken place
during the troubles of the last years. Abdalmalik, therefore,
wrote secretly to the chiefs of Mu??ab’s army, and persuaded them
to desert to him, with the exception of Ibr?h?m b. Ashtar, the
brave son of a brave father, who, after the fall of Mokht?r, had
become a faithful supporter of Ibn Zobair. His death, in the
beginning of the battle, decided the fate of Mu??ab, who was
slain sword in hand by a Shi?ite of Kufa.
This victory opened the gates of Kufa to Abdalmalik, and all
Irak received him with acclamation. Thence, a few days later,
he sent Hajj?j b. Yusuf at the head of 2000 Syrians against Ibn
Zobair in Mecca, and despatched a messenger to T?riq b.?Amr, who
was encamped at W?di ’l-Qor? with 5000 men, to make himself
master of Medina and thence to rejoin Hajj?j. Before the
arrival of this reinforcement, Hajj?j confined himself to skirmishes,
in which his soldiers always had the advantage. Then,
in Dhu ?l Qa?da 72 (March 25th, 692) Mecca was invested. The
blockade lasted more than six months, during which the city was
a prey to all the horrors of siege and famine. Hajj?j had set up a
balista on the hill of Abu Qobais, whence he poured on the city a
hail of stones, which was suspended only in the days of the
pilgrimage. Ibn Zobair employed against him Abyssinians
armed with Greek-fire-tubes, who, however, quitted him soon
under the pressure of famine. This at length triumphed over his
last adherents. Ten thousand fighting men, and even two of the
sons of the pretender (it is said, on his own advice), left the city
and surrendered. Mecca being thus left without defenders, Ibn
Zobair saw that ruin was inevitable. Hajj?j having promised
him amnesty if he would surrender, he went to his mother Asm?,
the daughter of Abu Bekr, who had reached the age of a hundred
years, and asked her counsel. She answered that, if he was
confident in the justice of his cause, he must die sword in hand.
In embracing him for the last time, she felt the cuirass he wore
and exclaimed that such a precaution was unworthy of a man
resolved to die. He, therefore, took off the cuirass, and, when
the Omayyad troops made their way into the city, attacked them
furiously, notwithstanding his advanced age, and was slain. His
head was cut off, and sent by Hajj?j to Damascus.
With Ibn Zobair perished the influence which the early
companions of Mahomet had exercised over Islam. Medina and
Mecca, though they continued to be the holy cities, had no longer
their old political importance, which had already been shaken to
its foundations by the murder of Othman and the subsequent
troubles. Henceforward we shall find temporal interests,
represented by Damascus, predominating over those of religion,
and the centre of Islam, now permanently removed beyond the
limits of Arabia, more susceptible to foreign influence, and
assimilating more readily their civilizing elements. Damascus,
Kufa and Basra will attract the flower of all the Moslem provinces,
and thus that great intellectual, literary and scientific
movement, which reached its apogee under the first Abbasid
Caliphs at Bagdad, steadily becomes more marked.
After the burning of the Ka?ba during the siege of Mecca by
Hosain b. Nomair, Ibn Zobair had rebuilt and enlarged the house
of God. It is said that he thus carried out a design of the
Prophet, which he had not ventured to undertake for fear of
offending the newly converted Koreishites. Hajj?j pulled down
the enlargements and restored the Ka?ba to its old state. Meanwhile,
the caliph committed to him the government of the Hejaz.
The Medinians, whose loyalty was suspected, were treated by
him with severity; not a few
maulas
(clients) were obliged to
wear a leaden badge on their neck (Tabar?, ii. p. 854 seq.).
Thus the protracted war against Ibn Zobair was brought to an
end; hence this year (71) also is called the “year of union”
(
jam?
?
a
). But the storms in Irak and Mesopotamia had not yet
altogether subsided. The Qais could not leave unavenged the
blood shed at Merj R?hit. For about ten years the Syrian and
Mesopotamian deserts were the scene of a series of raids, often
marked by great cruelty, and which have been the subject of a
great many poems. Abdalmalik had need of all his tact and
energy to pacify ultimately the zealous sectaries, but the
antagonism between Yemenites (Kalb and Azd) and Mo?arites
(Qais and Tam?m) had been increased by these struggles, and
even in the far east and the far west had fatal consequences.
When Abdalmalik, after a stay of forty days, returned from Irak
to Syria, he left two Omayyad princes as his vicegerents in Kufa
and Basra. Mohallab, who at the time of the battle of B?jomair?
was in the field against the Azraq?tes (Kharijites), and had put
himself at the disposal of the caliph, had orders to carry on the
war. But the two princes proved unequal to their task and did
not support Mohallab sufficiently, so that the Kharijites gained
more than one victory. Abdalmalik in alarm made Hajj?j
governor of Irak with the most extensive powers. The troops of
Kufa, who accompanied Mohallab in an expedition against the
Kharijites, had abandoned their general and dispersed to their
homes, and nothing could induce them to return to their duty.
Then, in the year 75 (
A.D.
694), at the moment when the people
were assembled in the mosque for morning prayers, an unknown
young man of insignificant appearance, with a veil over his face,
ascended the pulpit. It seemed at first that he could not find his
words. One of the audience, with a contemptuous remark, took
a handful of pebbles to pelt him with. But he let them fall when
Hajj?j lifted his veil and began to speak.
“Men of Kufa,” he said, “I see before me heads ripe for the
sickle, and the reaper?I am he. It seems to me, as if I saw
already the blood between your turbans and your shoulders. I
am not one of those who can be frightened by inflated bags of skin,
nor need any one think to squeeze me like a fig. The Prince of
the Believers has spread before him the arrows of his quiver, and
has tried every one of them by biting its wood. It is my wood
that he has found the hardest and strongest, and I am the arrow
which he shoots against you.”
At the end of this address he ordered his clerk to read the
letter of the caliph. He began: “From the servant of God,
Abdalmalik, Prince of the Believers, to the Moslems that are in
Kufa, peace be with you.” As nobody uttered a word in reply,
Hajj?j said: “Stop, boy,” and exclaimed: “The Prince of the
Believers salutes you, and you do not answer his greeting! You
have been but poorly taught. I will teach you afresh, unless
you behave better. Read again the letter of the Prince of the
Believers.” Then, as soon as he had read: “peace upon ye,”
there remained not a single man in the mosque who did not
respond, “and upon the Prince of the Believers be peace.”
Thereupon Hajj?j ordered that every man capable of bearing
arms should immediately join Mohallab in Kh?zist?n (Susiana),
and swore that all who should be found in the town after the third
day should be beheaded. This threat had its effect, and Hajj?j
proceeded to Ba?ra, where his presence was followed by the same
results. Mohallab, reinforced by the army of Irak, at last
succeeded, after a struggle of eighteen months, in subjugating
the Kharijites and their caliph Qatara b. Foj??a, and was able at
the beginning of the year 78 (
A.D.
697) to return to Hajj?j at
Ba?ra. The latter loaded him with honours and made him
governor of Khorasan, whence he directed several expeditions
into Transoxiana. In the meantime Hajj?j himself had, in 695
and 696, with great difficulty suppressed Shab?b b. Yaz?d at the
head of the powerful tribe of Shaib?n, who, himself a Kharijite,
had assumed the title of Prince of the Believers, and had even
succeeded in occupying Kufa. In the east the realm of Islam
had been very much extended under the reign of Moawiya,
when Ziy?d was governor of Irak and Khorasan. Balkh and
Tokh?rist?n, Bokhara, Samarkand and Khwarizm (modern
Khiva), even Kabul and Kandahar had been subdued; but in
the time of the civil war a great deal had been lost again. Now
at last the task of recovering the lost districts could be resumed.
When, in 697, Hajj?j gave the government of Khorasan to
Mohallab, he committed that of Sijist?n (Seistan) to Obaidallah
b. Abi Bakra, a cousin of Ziy?d. This prefect allowed himself to
be enticed by Zanb?l, prince of Zabulistan, to penetrate into the
country far from his base, and escaped narrowly, not without
severe losses. The command over Sijist?n was now given to
Abdarrahman b. Ash?ath, a descendant of the old royal family of
Kinda, and a numerous army was entrusted to him, so magnificently
equipped that it was called “the peacock army.” Not
long after his arrival in Sijist?n, Ibn Ash?ath, exasperated by the
masterful tone of Hajj?j, the plebeian, towards himself, the
high-born, decided to revolt. The soldiers of Irak, who did not
love the governor, and disliked the prospect of a long and
difficult war far from home, eagerly accepted the proposition of
returning to Irak, and even proclaimed the dethronement of
Abdalmalik, in favour of Ibn Ash?ath. The new pretender
entered F?rs and Ahw?z (Susiana), and it was in this last province
near Tostar (Shuster) that Hajj?j came up with him, after
receiving from Syria the reinforcements which he had demanded
in all haste from the caliph. Ibn Ash?ath drove him back to
Ba?ra, entered the city, and then turned his arms against Kufa,
of which he took possession with aid from within. Hajj?j,
afraid lest his communications with Syria should be cut off,
pitched his camp at Dair Qorra, eighteen miles west from Kufa
towards the desert, where Mahommed, the brother of the caliph,
and Abdallah, his son, brought him fresh troops. Ibn Ash?ath
encamped not far from him at Dair al-Jam?jim with a far more
numerous army. In great alarm Abdalmalik endeavoured to
stifle the revolt by offering to dismiss Hajj?j from his post.
The insurgents rejected this offer, and hostilities recommenced.
At the end of three months and a half, in July 702, a decisive
action took place. Victory declared for Hajj?j. Ibn Ash?ath
fled to Ba?ra, where he managed to collect fresh troops; but
having been again beaten in a furious battle that took place at
Maskin near the Dojail, he took refuge at Ahw?z, from which he
was soon driven by the troops of Hajj?j under ?Om?ra b. Tam?m.
The rebel then retired to Sijist?n, and afterwards sought an
asylum with the king of Kabul. His partisans fled before
?Om?ra’s army and penetrated into Khorasan, where they were
disarmed by the governor Yaz?d, son of the celebrated Mohallab,
who had died in the year 701. The pretender was betrayed by
the king of Kabul and killed himself. His head was sent to
Hajj?j and then to Damascus. This happened in the year 703
or 704. Yazid b. Mohallab was soon after deprived of the
government of Khorasan,
Hajj?j
accusing him of partiality
towards the rebels of Yemenite extraction. He appointed in his
stead first his brother Mofa??al b. Mohallab, and nine months
after Qotaiba b. Moslim, who was destined in a later period to
extend the sway of Islam in the east as far as China.
The struggle of Ibn Ash?ath was primarily a contest for
hegemony between Irak and Syria. The proud Arabic lords
could not acquiesce in paying to a plebeian like Hajj?j, invested
with absolute power by the caliph, the strict obedience he required.
They considered it further as an injustice that the
Syrian soldiers received higher pay than those of Irak. This is
apparent from the fact that one of the conditions of peace
proposed by Abdalmalik before the battle of Dair al-Jam?jim
had been that henceforth the Irakian troops should be paid
equally with the Syrian. Moreover, Hajj?j, in order to
maintain
the regular revenue from taxation, had been obliged to introduce
stringent regulations, and had compelled a great many villagers
who had migrated to the cities to return to their villages.
Several of these were
faq?hs
, students of Koranic science and law,
and all these seconded Ibn Ash?ath with all their might. But, as
Wellhausen has shown, it is not correct to consider the contest as
a reaction of the
maula’s
(Persian Moslems) against the Arabic
supremacy.
Immediately after the victories of Dair al-Jam?jim and
Maskin, in 702, Hajj?j, built a new residence on the Tigris,
between Ba?ra and Kufa, which he called W?sit (“Middle”).
There his Syrian soldiers were not in contact with the turbulent
citizens of the two capitals, and were at any moment ready to
suppress any fresh outburst.
At the beginning of his reign Abdalmalik had replaced the
humble mosque built by Omar on the site of the temple at
Jerusalem by a magnificent dome, which was completed in the
year 691. Eutychius and others pretend that he desired to
substitute Jerusalem for Mecca, because Ibn Zobair had occupied
the latter place, and thus the pilgrimage to the Ka?ba had become
difficult for the Syrians. This is quite improbable. Abdalmalik
was born and educated in Islam, and distinguished himself in his
youth by piety and continence. He regarded himself as the
champion of Islam and of the communion of the believers, and
had among his intimates men of acknowledged devoutness such
as Raj? b. ?aywa. The idea of interfering with the pilgrimage
to the House of God at Mecca, which would have alienated from
him all religious men, and thus from a political point of view
would have been suicidal, cannot have entered his mind for a
moment. But the glorification of Jerusalem, holy alike for
Moslems, Christians and Jews, could not but exalt the glory of
Islam and its rulers within and without.
As soon as the expedition to Irak against Mu??ab had terminated,
the holy war against the Greeks was renewed. The
operations in Asia Minor and Armenia were entrusted to
Mahommed b. Merwan, the caliph’s brother, who was appointed
governor of Mesopotamia and Armenia, and in 692 beat the
army of Justinian II. near Sebaste in Cilicia. From this time
forth the Moslems made yearly raids, the chief advantage of
which was that they kept the Syrian and Mesopotamian Arabs
in continual military exercise. After the victorious march of
Okba (Oqba) b. N?fi? through north Africa and the foundation of
Kairawan, his successor Qais b. Zohair had been obliged to
retreat to Barca (Cyrenaica). In the year 696 Abdalmalik sent
Hass?n b. No?m?n into Africa at the head of a numerous army.
He retook Kairawan, swept the coast as far as Carthage, which he
sacked, expelling the Greek garrisons from all the fortified places;
he then turned his arms against the Berbers, who, commanded by
the K?hina (Diviner), as the Arabs called their queen, beat him
so completely that he was compelled to retreat to Barca. Five
years later he renewed the war, defeated and killed the K?hina,
and subdued the Berbers, who henceforward remained faithful to
the Arabs. Hass?n continued to be governor of Kairawan till
after the death of Abdalmalik.
In the meantime Abdalmalik reconstituted the administration
of the empire on Arabic principles. Up to the year 693 the
Moslems had no special coinage of their own, and chiefly used
Byzantine and Persian money, either imported or struck by
themselves. Moawiya, indeed, had struck dinars and dirhems
with a Moslem inscription, but his subjects would not accept
them as there was no cross upon them. Abdalmalik instituted
a purely Islamitic coinage. If we may believe Theophanes, who
says that Justinian II. refused to receive these coins in payment
of the tribute and therefore declared the treaty at an end, we
must put the beginning of the coinage at least two years earlier.
Hajj?j coined silver dirhems at Kufa in 694. A still greater
innovation was that Arabic became the official language of the
state. In the conquered countries till then, not only had the
Greek and Persian administration been preserved, but Greek
remained the official language in the western, Persian in the
eastern provinces. All officials were now compelled to know
Arabic and to conduct their administration in that language.
To this change was due in great measure the predominance of
Arabic throughout the empire. Lastly, a regular post service
was instituted from Damascus to the provincial capitals, especially
destined for governmental despatches. The postmasters
were charged with the task of informing the caliph of all important
news in their respective countries.
All the great rivals of Abdalmalik having now disappeared,
he was no longer like his predecessors
primus inter pares
, but
dominus
. Under his rule the members of the Omayyad house
enjoyed a greater amount of administrative control than had
formerly been the case, but high office was given only to competent
men. He succeeded in reconciling the sons of ?Amr
Ashdaq, and also Kh?lid b. Yazid, to whom he gave his own
daughter in marriage. He himself had married ??tika, a daughter
of Yazid, a union which was in all respects a happy one. He
took great care in the education of his sons, whom he destined
as his successors. His brother Abdalaz?z, governor of Egypt,
whom Merwan had marked out as his successor, died in the year
703 or 704, and Abdalmalik chose as heirs to the empire first
his son Wal?d, and after him his second son Suleim?n. He
himself died on the 14th Shaww?l 86 (9th October 705) at the age
of about sixty. His reign was one of the most stormy in the
annals of Islam, but also one of the most glorious. Abdalmalik
not only brought triumph to the cause of the Omayyads, but
also extended and strengthened the Moslem power as a whole.
He was well versed in old Arabic tradition and in the doctrine
of Islam, and was passionately fond of poetry. His court was
crowded with poets, whom he loaded with favours, even if they
were Christians like Akhtal. In his reign flourished also the two
celebrated rivals of Akhtal, Jar?r and Farazdaq.
6.
Reign of Walid I
.?This is the most glorious epoch in the
history of Islam. In Asia Minor and Armenia, Maslama, brother
of the caliph, and his generals obtained numerous successes
against the Greeks. Tyana was conquered after a long siege,
and a great expedition against Constantinople was in preparation.
In Armenia Maslama advanced even as far as the Caucasus. In
Africa, M?s? b. No?air, who succeeded Hass?n b. No?m?n as
governor, in a short time carried his conquests as far as Fez,
Tangier and Ceuta, and one of his captains even made a descent
on Sicily and plundered Syracuse. When he returned from the
west to Kairawan, he made his client ??riq (or Tarik) governor
of Tangier and of the whole western part of Africa. Under him
the chiefs who had submitted to the Moslem arms retained
their authority. One of them was the Greek exarch of Tangier,
Julian, who, supported by the powerful Berber tribe of Ghom?ra,
had long resisted and even asked for aid from Spain, but had
been compelled to surrender and was left governor of Ceuta.
Meanwhile in Spain, after the death of the Gothic king Witiza
in the year 90 (708?709), anarchy arose, which was terminated
by the council of noblemen at Toledo electing Roderic, the powerful
duke of Baetica, to be his successor in the fifth year of Walid.
The eldest son of Witiza then applied to Julian, and asked the aid
of the Arabs for the recovery of his father’s throne. ??riq
forwarded the embassy to Kairawan, and M?s? asked the
caliph’s permission to send an expedition into Spain. Authorized
by M?s?, ??riq now sent, in Ramadan 91 (July 710), 500 Berbers
under the command of ??rif to reconnoitre the country. This
expedition, seconded by partisans of Witiza, was successful. In
the beginning of
A.D.
711 Roderic had been summoned to the
north on account of an invasion of Navarra by the Franks,
caused, it is said, by the conspirators. ??riq, thus certain of
meeting no serious opposition to his landing, passed into Spain
himself with an army composed mainly of Berbers of the Ghom?ra
tribe under the guidance of Julian. The spot where he landed
thence acquired the name of Jebel ??riq, “Mountain of ??riq,”
afterwards corrupted into Gibraltar. Having made himself
master of Algeciras and thereby secured his communication with
Africa, ??riq set out at once in the direction of Cordova. At the
news of the invasion Roderic hastened back and led a numerous
army against the combined forces of ??riq and the partisans of
Witiza. A fierce battle took place in the plain of Barbata on the
little river of Guadaleta (north of Medina Sidonia), in which
Roderic was completely routed. The spoils of the victors were
immense, especially in horses, but the king himself had disappeared.
Fearing lest he should have escaped to Toledo and
should there fit out another army, the partisans of Witiza
insisted that ??riq should march immediately against the capital.
??riq complied with their wishes, notwithstanding the express
command of M?s? b. Nosair that he should not venture too far
into the country, and the protests of Julian. Having made
himself master of Ecija and having despatched a detachment
under Mogh?th against Cordova, ??riq took Mentesa (Villanueva
de la Fuente) and marched upon Toledo, which he soon conquered.
At the same time Mogh?th took Cordova. But,
notwithstanding these successes, ??riq knew that his situation
was most critical. King Roderic, who had escaped to Lusitania,
and the noble Goths, who had fled from Toledo, would certainly
not be slow in making efforts to regain what they had lost. He
therefore sent a message in all haste to M?s?, entreating him to
come speedily. M?s?, though angered by the disobedience of
??riq, hastened to the rescue and embarked in April 712 with
18,000 men, among them many noble Arabs, and began, advised
by Julian, a methodical campaign, with the purpose of establishing
and securing a line of communication between the sea
and Toledo. After having taken Seville, Carmona and Merida,
he marched from the latter place by the Via Romana to Salamanca,
after having ordered ??riq to rejoin him in order to
encounter king Roderic. Not far from Tamames the king was
defeated and killed. King Alphonso the Great found his tombstone
at Viseo with the inscription, “Hic requiescit Rodericus rex
Gothorum.” After this battle M?s? reconquered Toledo, which,
after the departure of ??riq, had recovered its independence,
and entered the capital in triumph. Already, before the expedition
to Salamanca, he had perceived that the sons of Witiza had
neither military nor political ability. He therefore proclaimed
the caliph of Damascus as sole ruler of the whole peninsula.
The Gothic princes must content themselves with honours and
apanages, in which they readily acquiesced. In the same year
93 (
A.D.
712) M?s? struck Moslem coins with Latin inscriptions.
M?s? then continued the subjugation of Spain, till Walid recalled
him to Damascus. He obeyed after having appointed his son
Abdalaz?z governor of Andalos (Andalusia), as the Arabs named
the peninsula, and assigned Seville as his residence. Abdalaz?z
consolidated his power by marrying the widow of the late king
Roderic. M?s? left Spain about August 714, and reached
Damascus shortly before the death of Walid. Notwithstanding
the immense booty he brought, he did not receive his due reward.
Accused of peculation, he was threatened with imprisonment
unless he paid a fine of 100,000 pieces of gold. The old man?he
was born in the year 640?was released by Yazid b. Mohallab,
the then mighty favourite of the caliph Suleiman, but died in
the same year 716 on his way to Mecca. His son Abdalaz?z was
an excellent ruler, who did much for the consolidation of the
new conquests, but he reigned only one year and eleven months,
when he was murdered. His death has been falsely imputed by
some historians to the caliph Suleiman.
[19]
In the East the Moslem armies gained the most astonishing
successes. In the course of a few years Qotaiba b. Moslim
conquered Paikend, Bokhara, Samarkand, Khwarizm (mod.
Khiva), Ferghana and Sh?sh (Tashkent), and even Kashgar on
the frontiers of China. Meanwhile Mahommed b. Q?sim invaded
Makran, took Daibol, passed the Indus, and marched, after
having beaten the Indian king Daher, through Sind upon Mult?n,
which he conquered and whence he carried off an immense booty.
Walid was the first caliph, born and trained as prince, who
felt the majesty of the imamate and wished it to be felt by his
subjects. He desired to augment the splendours of Islam and
its sovereign, as Abdalmalik had already done by building the
dome of Jerusalem. In the time of the conquest of Damascus,
one half of the great church had been made a mosque, while the
remaining half had been left to the Christians. Walid annexed
this part, indemnifying the Christians elsewhere, and restored
the whole building sumptuously and magnificently. In his time
many fine palaces and beautiful villas were built in Syria, and
Becker’s conjecture seems not altogether improbable, that from
this period dates the palace of Mashetta, the facade of which is
now in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum at Berlin, as perhaps also
the country houses discovered by
Musil
in the land of Moab.
Walid also caused the mosque of Medina to be enlarged. For
this purpose, the apartments of the Prophet and his wives were
demolished, which at first caused much discontent in Medina,
some crying out that thereby a verse of the Book of God (S. 49,
v. 4) was cancelled. With this exception, the citizens of Medina
had nothing to complain of. The vicegerent of Abdalmalik
had treated them harshly. Walid immediately on his accession
appointed as governor of Hejaz his cousin Omar b. Abdalaz?z,
who was received there with joy, his devoutness and gentle
character being well known. But the reputation of Omar
attracted to the two holy cities a great number of the inhabitants
of Irak, who had been deeply involved in the rebellion of Ibn
Ash?ath. Hajj?j, however, was not the man to allow the formation
of a fresh nucleus of sedition, and persuaded the caliph to
dismiss Omar in the year 712, and appoint Othman b. ?ayy?n
at Medina and Kh?lid al-Qasr? at Mecca. These two prefects
compelled the refugees to return to Irak, where many of them
were severely treated and even put to death by Hajj?j.
Few people have been so slandered as this great viceroy of the
Orient. In reality he was a man of extraordinary ability, and
accomplished the task committed to him with vigour and energy.
To his unflagging constancy was due the suppression of the
dangerous rebellion of Ibn Ash?ath. After the restoration of
peace his capacity for organization was displayed in all directions.
The draining and tilling of submerged or uncultivated land on a
large scale, the promotion of agriculture in every way, in particular
by the digging of channels, and the regulation of the
system of taxation, were carried out on his initiative. He
showed the utmost wisdom in the selection of his lieutenants.
The fear of his name was so great that even in the desert there
was security for life and property, and his brilliant military
successes were unquestionably due in a great measure to the
care which he bestowed on equipment and commissariat. The
heavy expenses entailed thereby were largely met by the booty
which he won. Hajj?j was a sincere Moslem; this, however,
did not prevent him from attacking Ibn Zobair in the Holy
City, nor again from punishing rebels, though they bore the
name of holy men. He enjoyed the entire confidence of Abdalmal?k
with Walid, but Suleiman, the appointed successor,
regarded him with disfavour. Yazid b. Mohallab, whom he had
recalled from Khorasan, and imprisoned, had escaped and put
himself under the protection of Suleiman, who made himself
surety for the fine to which Yazid had been condemned. Hajj?j
foreboded evil, and prayed eagerly that he might die before
Walid. His death took place about the end of Ramadan 95
(June or July 714).
7.
Reign of Suleiman
(
Solaiman
).?Suleiman had early missed
the throne. Walid wished to have his son Abdalaz?z chosen as
his successor, and had offered Suleiman a large sum of money to
induce him to surrender his rights. Walid went still further
and sent letters to the governors of all the provinces, calling on
them to take the oath of allegiance to his son. None, except
Hajj?j and his two generals Qotaiba b. Moslim and Mahommed b.
Qasim, consented thus to set at naught the order of succession
established by Abdalmalik; and Suleiman succeeded without
difficulty on the death of his brother Jom?da II. 96 (February
715). We can easily conceive the hatred felt by Suleiman for
Hajj?j and for all that belonged to him. Hajj?j himself was
dead; but Suleiman poured out his wrath on his family and his
officers. The governors of Medina and Mecca were dismissed;
Mahommed b. Qasim, the conqueror of India, cousin of Hajj?j,
was dismissed from his post and outlawed. Qotaiba b. Moslim,
the powerful governor of Khorasan, tried to anticipate the caliph
by a revolt, but a conspiracy was formed against him, which
ended in his murder. Some historians say that he was falsely
accused of rebellion.
Yazid b. Mohallab, the enemy of
Hajj?j
, was made governor
of Irak. His arrival was hailed with joy, especially by the
Azd, to whom his family belonged, and the other Yemenite
tribes. Yazid discovered soon that the system of taxation as
regulated by Hajj?j could not be altered without serious danger
to the finances of the empire, and that he could not afford the
expenses which his prodigal manner of life involved. He therefore
asked the caliph to give him the governorship of Khorasan
also, and took his residence in Merv, where he was free from
control. On his return to Khorasan he set on foot a series of
new expeditions against Jorj?n and Tabarist?n, with only partial
success. He sent, however, to the caliph an exaggerated account
of his victories and the booty he had made. He had cause to
repent this later.
Walid had, in the last years of his reign, made preparations
for a great expedition against Constantinople. Suleiman carried
them on with energy, and as early as the autumn of
A.D.
715
Maslama invaded Asia Minor at the head of a numerous army,
whilst a well-equipped fleet under Omar b. Hobaira sailed out
to second him. It is said that Suleiman was firmly persuaded
that Constantinople would be conquered during his reign, in
accordance with a Sibylline prophecy which said that the city
would be subdued by a caliph bearing the name of a prophet,
he himself being the first to fulfil this condition.
[20]
Moreover, the
Byzantine empire was in these years disturbed by internal
troubles. The first year of the expedition was not unsuccessful.
The siege of Amorium in Phrygia was broken up, but Pergamum
and Sardis were taken. On the 25th of August 716 the blockade
of Constantinople began from the land side, and two weeks later
from the sea side. A few months before, Leo the Isaurian had
ascended the throne and prepared the city for the siege. This
lasted about a year. The besieged were hard pressed, but the
besiegers suffered by the severe winter, and were at last obliged
to raise the siege. Maslama brought back the rest of his army
in a pitiful state, while the fleet, on its return, was partly destroyed
by a violent tempest. The Moslems regard this failure
as one of the great evils that have befallen the human race, and
one which retarded the progress of the world for ages,
[21]
the other
calamity being the defeat in the battle of Tours by Charles Martel.
Maslama was still on his way back when Suleiman died at
D?biq in northern Syria, which was the base of the expeditions
into Asia Minor. He seems not to have had the firmness of
character nor the frugality of Walid; but he was very severe
against the looseness of manners that reigned at Medina, and was
highly religious. Raj? b. Haywa, renowned for his piety, whose
influence began under Abdalmalik and increased under Walid,
was his constant adviser and even determined him to designate
as his successor his devout cousin Omar b. Abdalaz?z. Suleiman
was kind towards the Alids and was visited by several of them,
amongst others by Abu H?shim, the son of Mahommed b. al
?anaf?ya, who after his father’s death had become the secret
Imam (head) of the Shi?ites. On his way back to Hejaz this man
visited the family of Abdallah b. ?Abb?s, which resided at
?omaima, a place situated in the vicinity of ?Amm?n, and died
there, after having imparted to Mahommed b. Ali b. Abdallah b.
Abbas the names of the chiefs of the Shi?a in Irak and Khorasan,
and disclosed his way of corresponding with them. From that
time the Abbasids began their machinations against the
Omayyads in the name of the family of the Prophet, avoiding all
that could cause suspicion to the Shi?ites, but holding the strings
firmly in their own hands.
8.
Reign of Omar II
.?Omar b. Abdalaz?z did his best to
imitate his grandfather Omar in all things, and especially in
maintaining the simple manner of life of the early Moslems. He
was, however, born in the midst of wealth; thus frugality
became asceticism, and in so far as he demanded the same rigour
from his relatives, he grew unjust and caused uneasiness and
discontent. By paying the highest regard to integrity in the
choice of his officers, and not to ability, he did not advance the
interests of his subjects, as he earnestly wished to do. In the
matter of taxes, though actuated by the most noble designs, he
did harm to the public revenues. The principle of Islam was,
that no Moslem, whatever might be his nationality, should pay
any tax other than the
zak?t
or poor-rate (see
Mahommedan Institutions
).
In practice, this privilege was confined to the
Arabic Moslems. Omar wished to maintain the principle. The
original inhabitants had been left on the conquered lands as
agriculturists, on condition of paying a fixed sum yearly for
each district. If one of these adopted Islam, Omar permitted
him to leave his place, which had been strictly forbidden by
Hajj?j in Irak and the eastern provinces, because by it many
hands were withdrawn from the tilling of the ground, and those
who remained were unable to pay the allotted amount. Omar’s
system not only diminished the actual revenue, but largely
increased in the cities the numbers of the
maula’s
(clients),
mainly Persians, who were weary of their dependency on their
Arabic lords, and demanded equal rights for themselves. Their
short dominion in Kufa under Mokht?r had been suppressed, but
the discontent continued. In North Africa particularly, and in
Khorasan the effect of Omar’s proclamation was that a great
multitude embraced Islam. When it became necessary to impose
a tribute upon the new converts, great discontent arose, which
largely increased the number of those who followed the Shi?ite
preachers of revolt. Conversion to Islam was promoted by the
severe regulations which Omar introduced for the non-believers,
such as Christians and Jews. It was he who issued those humiliating
rescripts, which are commonly but unjustly attributed to
Omar I. But he forbade extortion and suppressed more than
one illegal impost. He endeavoured above all to procure justice
for all his subjects. Complaints against oppression found in him
a ready listener, and many unlawfully acquired possessions were
restored to the legal owners, for instance, to the descendants of
Ali and Tal?a. Even to the Kharijites he contrived to give
satisfaction, as far as possible. In all these matters he followed
the guidance of divines and devotees, in whose congenial company
he delighted. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that these
men saw in Omar the ideal of a prince, and that in Moslem
history he has acquired the reputation of a saint.
After the failure of the siege of Constantinople, the advanced
posts in Asia Minor were withdrawn, but the raids were continued
regularly. It has been said that it was Omar’s intention to give
up his Spanish conquests, but the facts argue the contrary. The
governor, named by Omar, Sam? b. Abdallah, even crossed the
Pyrenees and took possession of Narbonne; but he was beaten
and killed at Toulouse in July 720. But Omar did all he could to
prevent the degradation of the Holy War, which, instead of being
the ultimate expedient for the propagation of Islam, if all other
means had failed, had often degenerated into mere pillaging
expeditions against peaceful nations.
9.
Reign of Yazid II
.?Omar’s reign was as short as that of
his predecessor. He died on the 24th of Rajab 101 (
A.D.
9th
February 720). Yazid II., son of Abdalmalik and, by his mother
??tika, grandson of Yazid I., ascended the throne without opposition.
He had at once, however, to put down a dangerous
rebellion. Yazid b. Mohallab had returned to Irak, after the
conquest of Jorj?n, when Suleiman was still alive. Shortly after,
Ad? b. Art?t, whom Omar II. had appointed governor, arrived,
arrested Yazid, and sent him to Omar, who called him to account
for the money he had mentioned in his letter to Suleiman, and
imprisoned him when he pretended not to be able to pay the
amount. Yazid II. had personal grounds for ill-will to Yazid b.
Mohallab. One of the wives of the new caliph, the same who
gave birth to that son of Yazid II. who afterwards reigned as
Walid II., was niece to the celebrated ?ajj?j, whose family had
been ill-treated by the son of Mohallab, when he was governor of
Irak under Suleiman. Aware that Yazid b. Abdalmalik, on
ascending the throne, would spare neither him nor his family,
Yazid b. Mohallab had succeeded in escaping to Basra, the home
of his family, where his own tribe the Azd was predominant.
Meanwhile ?Ad? b. Art?t had all the brothers of Yazid and other
members of the family of Mohallab arrested, and tried to prevent
Yazid from entering the city. But ?Adi was too scrupulous to
employ the public money for raising the pay of his soldiers,
whilst Yazid promised mountains of gold. Yazid stormed the
castle and took ?Ad? prisoner, the public treasury fell into his
hands, and he employed the money to pay his troops largely and
to raise fresh ones. A pardon obtained for him from the caliph
came too late; he had already gone too far. He now proclaimed
a Holy War against the Syrians, whom he declared to be worse
enemies of Islam than even the Turks and the Dailam. Notwithstanding
the warnings of the aged Hasan al-Basr?, the friend of
Omar II., the religious people, took the part of Yazid, and were
followed by the
maulas
. Though the number of his adherents
thus increased enormously, their military value was small.
Ahw?z (Kh?zist?n), F?rs and Kirman were easily subdued, but
in Khorasan the Azd could not prevail over the Tam?m, who were
loyal to the caliph. As the rebellion threatened to spread far and
wide, Yazid II. was obliged to appeal to his brother, the celebrated
Maslama. With the approach of the Syrians, Yazid b. Mohallab
tried to forestall them at Kufa. He took his way over W?sit,
which he mastered?the Syrian garrison seems to have been
withdrawn in the days of Omar II.?but, before he could get hold
of Kufa, the Syrian troops arrived. The meeting took place at
?Aqr in the vicinity of Babel, and Yazid was completely defeated
and fell in the battle. His brothers and sons fled to Basra;
thence they went by sea to Kirman and then to Kandab?l in
India; but they were pursued relentlessly and slain with only
two exceptions by the officers of Maslama. The possessions of
the Mohallabites were confiscated.
Maslama was rewarded with the governorship of Irak and
Khorasan, but was soon replaced by Omar b. Hobaira, who under
Omar II. had been governor of Mesopotamia. He belonged to
the tribe of Qais, and was very severe against the Azd and other
Yemenite tribes, who had more or less favoured the part of Yazid
b. Mohallab. In these years the antagonism between Qais
(Mo?ar) and Yemenites became more and more acute, especially
in Khorasan. The real cause of the dismissal of Maslama was,
that he did not send the revenue-quota to Damascus. Omar b.
Hobaira, to supply the deficiency, ordered the prefect of
Khorasan, Sa??d?al-?arash?, to take tribute from the Sogdians in
Transoxiana, who had embraced Islam on the promise of Omar II.
The Sogdians raised a revolt in Ferghana, but were subdued by
Sa??d and obliged to pay. A still more questionable measure of
Ibn Hobaira was his ordering the successor of Sa??d Harash? to
extort large sums of money from several of the most respectable
Khorasanians. The discontent roused thereby became one of the
principal causes of the fall of the Omayyads.
In Africa serious troubles arose from the same cause. Yazid b.
Abi Moslim, who had been at the head of the financial department
in Irak under ?ajj?j, and had been made governor of Africa by
Yazid II., issued orders that the villagers who, having adopted
Islam, were freed from tribute according to the promise of Omar
II., and had left their villages for the towns, should return to
their domiciles and pay the same tribute as before their conversion.
The Berbers rose in revolt, slaughtered the unfortunate
governor, and put in his place the former governor Mahommed b.
Yazid. The caliph at first ratified this choice, but soon after
dismissed Mahommed from his post, and replaced him by Bishr b.
?afw?n, who under Hisham made an expedition against Sicily.
Yazid II. was by natural disposition the opposite of his predecessor.
He did not feel that anxiety for the spiritual welfare of
his subjects which had animated Omar II. Poetry and music,
not beloved by Suleiman and condemned by Omar, were held
by him in great honour. Two court-singers, Sall?ma and ?ab?ba,
exercised great influence, tempered only by the austerity of
manners that prevailed in Syria. He was so deeply affected by
the death of ?ab?ba, that Maslama entreated him not to exhibit
his sorrow to the eyes of the public. He died a few days later, on
the 26th of January 724, according to the chroniclers from grief
for her loss. As his successor he had appointed in the first place
his brother Hisham, and after him his own son Walid.
10.
Reign of Hisham
.?Hisham was a wise and able prince
and an enemy of luxury, not an idealist like Omar II., nor a
worldling like Yazid II., but more like his father Abdalmalik,
devoting all his energy to the pacification of the interior, and to
extending and consolidating the empire of Islam. But the discontent,
which had been sown under his predecessors, had now
developed to such an extent that he could not suppress it in
detail. His first care was to put an end to the tyrannical rule
of the Qaisites (Mo?arites) in Irak and Khorasan by dismissing
Omar b. Hobaira and appointing in his place Kh?lid al-Qasr?.
This very able man, who under Hajj?j had been prefect of
Mecca, belonged properly neither to the Qaisites nor to the
Yemenites, but as he took the place of Ibn Hobaira and dismissed
his partisans from their posts, the former considered him
as their adversary, the latter as their benefactor. After his
death, in particular, the Yemenites celebrated him as their chief,
and assigned as the reason for their revolt the injuries which he
suffered. Kh?lid himself assuredly did not intend it. He was a
loyal servant of the dynasty, and remained such even after
receiving very harsh treatment from them. For fifteen years
Kh?lid governed the eastern half of the empire, and continued
to maintain peace with only few exceptions throughout. He
did much for the reclaiming and improving of lands in Irak, in
which the caliph himself and several princes took an active part.
The great revenues obtained thereby naturally caused much
jealousy. Kh?lid lived on a very rich scale and was extraordinarily
liberal, and he was charged with having carried out all
his improvements for his own interests, and upbraided for
selling the corn of his estates only when the prices were high.
To these charges were added the accusation that he was too
tolerant to Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians. As his mother
professed the Christian religion, he was accused of infidelity.
At last a conspiracy, into which the principal engineer of Kh?lid,
Hass?n the Nabataean, had been drawn, succeeded in inciting
Hisham against Kh?lid. They told him that Kh?lid had used
disrespectful terms in speaking of the caliph, and that he had
appropriated revenues belonging to the state. The latter
imputation especially influenced Hisham, who was very parsimonious.
When the dismissal of Kh?lid had been resolved upon,
Y?suf b. Omar, his appointed successor, was sent secretly to
Kufa, where he seized on Kh?lid unawares. For eighteen months
Kh?lid remained in prison. But when he declined even under
torture to confess that he had been guilty of extensive peculation,
he was finally released. He settled at Damascus and made a
noble return for his injuries by taking an active part in the war
against the Greeks. In the summer of
A.D.
740, while he was in
Asia Minor, a great fire broke out in Damascus, the guilt of which
was attributed to Kh?lid. Though it soon appeared that the
imputation was false, Kh?lid, on his return, was furious, and
uttered very offensive words against the caliph. Hisham, however,
would not again punish his old servant; on the contrary,
he seems to have regarded his indignation as a proof of innocence.
The successor of Kh?lid in Irak had not long been in office
when Zaid b. Ali, grandson of Hosain b. Ali, who had come to
Kufa for a lawsuit, was persuaded by the chiefs of the Shi?a to
organize a revolt. He succeeded in so far that 15,000 Kufians
swore to fight with him for the maintenance of the commandments
of the Book of God and the
Sunna
(orthodox tradition) of
his Prophet, the discomfiture of the tyrants, the redress of
injury, and last, not least, the vindication of the family of the
Prophet as the rightful caliphs. The revolt broke out on the
6th of January 740. Unfortunately for Zaid he had to do with
the same Kufians whose fickleness had already been fatal to his
family. He was deserted by his troops and slain. His body was
crucified in Kufa, his head sent to Damascus and thence to
Medina. His son Yahy?, still a youth, fled to Balkh in Khorasan,
but was discovered at last and hunted down, till he fell sword in
hand under Walid II. Abu Moslim, the founder of the Abbasid
dynasty, proclaimed himself his avenger, and on that occasion
adopted the black garments, which remained the distinctive
colour of the dynasty.
In Khorasan also there were very serious disturbances. The
Sogdians, though subdued by Sa??d al ?arash?, were not
appeased, but implored the assistance of the Turks, who had
long been contending earnestly against the Arabs for the
dominion of Transoxiana. They found besides a most valuable
ally in ??rith b. Soraij, a distinguished captain of the Arabic
tribe of Tam?m, who, with many pious Moslems, was scandalized
by the government’s perfidy in regard to the new converts.
??rith put himself at the head of all the malcontents, and raised
the black flag, in compliance with a Sibylline prophecy, holding
that the man with the black flag (the Prophet’s flag) would put
an end to the tyranny, and be the precursor of the Mahdi.
[22]
The
government troops suffered more than one defeat, but in the
last month of the year 118 (
A.D.
736) the governor Asad al-Qasr?,
the brother of Kh?lid, after having defeated ??rith,
gained a brilliant victory over the Turks, which finally caused
them to retreat. Asad died almost simultaneously with the
dismissal of Kh?lid. Hisham then separated Khorasan from
Irak and chose as governor of the former Na?r b. Sayy?r, a
valiant soldier who had grown grey in war, and who, besides all
his other capacities, was an excellent poet. Na?r instituted a
system of taxation, which, if it had been introduced earlier,
would perhaps have saved the Arabic domination. It was that
which later on was generally adopted, viz. that all possessors
of conquered lands (
i.e.
nearly the whole empire except Arabia),
whether Moslems or not, should pay a fixed tax, the latter in
addition to pay a poll-tax, from which they were relieved on
conversion to Islam. During the reign of Hisham, Na?r made
a successful expedition against ??rith and the Turks. The
propaganda of the Shi?a by the Abbasids was continued in these
years with great zeal.
In India several provinces which had been converted to Islam
under the Caliphate of Omar II. declared themselves independent,
because the promise of equal rights for all Moslems was not kept
under the reign of his successors. This led to the evacuation of
the eastern part of India (called Hind by the Arabs, Sind being the
name of the western part), and to the founding of the strong cities
of Ma?f??a and Man??ra for the purpose of controlling the land.
In the north and north-west of the empire there were no
internal disorders, but the Moslems had hard work to maintain
themselves against the Alans and the Khazars. In the year 112
(
A.D.
730) they suffered a severe defeat, in which the general
Jarr?h perished. But the illustrious Maslama b. Abdalmalik,
and Merwan b. Mahommed (afterwards caliph), governor of
Armenia and Azerbaijan (Adherbaijan), succeeded in repelling
the Khazars, imposing peace on the petty princes of the eastern
Caucasus, and consolidating the Arab power in that quarter.
The war against the Byzantines was continued with energy
during the whole of Hisham’s reign. Moawiya, the son of
Hisham, whose descendants reigned later in Spain, was in command
till 118 (
A.D.
736), when he met his death accidentally in
Asia Minor by a fall from his horse. After his death, Suleiman,
another son of the caliph, had the supreme command. Both
were eager and valiant warriors. But the hero of all the battles
was Abdallah b. Hosain, surnamed al-Batt?l (the brave). He
has been the subject of many romantic tales. Tabar? tells how
he took the emperor Constantine prisoner in the year 114 (
A.D.
732; but Constantine V. Copronymus only began to reign in
740 or 741
A.D.
); another Arabic author places this event in
the year 122, adding that al-Batt?l, having defeated the Greeks,
was attacked and slain in returning with his captives. The
Greek historians say nothing about Constantine having been
made prisoner. It is probable that the Arabs took another
Greek soldier for the prince.
[23]
The victories of the Moslems had
no lasting results. During the troubles that began in the reign
of Walid II., the Greeks reconquered Marash (Germanicia),
Malatia (Malatiyeh) and Erzerum (Theodosiopolis).
In Spain the attention of the Moslems was principally turned
to avenge the defeat of Sam? beyond the Pyrenees. As early as
the second year of the reign of Hisham, ?Anbasa, the governor of
Spain, crossed the Pyrenees, and pushed on military operations
vigorously. Carcassonne and Nimes were taken, Autun sacked.
The death of ?Anbasa in
A.D.
725 and internal troubles put a stop
to further hostilities. The Berbers were the chief contingent of
the Moslem troops, but were treated by their Arab masters as
inferior people. They began to resent this, and one of their
chiefs, Munisa (Munuza), made himself independent in the north
and allied himself with Odo, king of Aquitaine, who gave him his
daughter in marriage. In the year 113 Abdarrahman b. Abdallah
subdued Munisa, crossed the mountains and penetrated into
Gascony by the valley of Roncesvalles. The Moslems beat Odo,
gained possession of Bordeaux, and overran the whole of southern
Gaul nearly as far as the Loire. But in October 732 their march
was checked between Tours and Poitiers by Charles Martel and
after some days of skirmishing a fierce but indecisive battle was
fought. Abdarrahman was among the slain and the Moslems
retreated hastily in the night, leaving their camp to the Franks.
They were, however, not yet discouraged. In 739 the new governor
of Spain, Oqba (Aucupa) b. Hajj?j, a man of high qualities,
re-entered Gaul and pushed forward his raids as far as Lyons,
but the Franks again drove back the Arabs as far as Narbonne.
Thenceforth the continual revolts of the Berbers in Africa, and
the internal troubles which disturbed Spain until the reign of
Abdarrahman I., effectually checked the ambition of the Moslems.
In Africa the hand of government pressed heavily. The
Berbers, though they had pledged themselves to Islam and had
furnished the latest contingents for the Holy War, were treated
as tributary serfs, notwithstanding the promises given by
Omar II. The Kharijites, of whom a great many had emigrated
to Africa, found them eager listeners. Still, they could not
believe that it was according to the will of the caliph that they
were
thus treated, until a certain number of their chiefs went as a
deputation to Hisham, but failed to obtain an audience. Thereupon
a fierce insurrection broke out, against which the governor
of Africa was powerless. Hisham at once sent an army of more
than 30,000 men, under the command of Kolthum al-Qoshair?,
and Balj b. Bishr. Not far from the river Sabu in Algeria,
[24]
the
meeting with the army of the insurgents took place (
A.D.
740).
Kolth?m was beaten and killed; Balj b. Bishr led the rest of the
Syrian army to Ceuta, and thence, near the end of 741, to Spain,
where they aided in the suppression of the dangerous revolt of the
peninsular Berbers. Balj died in 742. A year later the governor,
Abu?l-Kha???r, assigned to his troops for settlement divers
countries belonging to the public domain.
[25]
An effort of the
African Berbers to make themselves masters of Kairawan failed,
their army being utterly defeated by the governor ?an?ala.
Hisham died in February 743, after a reign of twenty years.
He had not been wanting in energy and ability, and kept the reins
of the government in his own hands. He was a correct Moslem
and tolerant towards Christians and Jews. His financial administration
was sound and he guarded against any misuse of the
revenues of the state. But he was not popular. His residence
was at Ro??fa on the border of the desert, and he rarely admitted
visitors into his presence; as a rule they were received by his
chamberlain Abrash. Hisham tried to keep himself free from
and above the rival parties, but as his vicegerents were inexorable
in the exaction of tribute, the Qaisites against the Yemenites,
the Yemenites against the Qaisites, both parties alternately had
reason to complain, whilst the non-Arabic Moslems suffered
under the pressure and were dissatisfied. He caused a large
extent of land to be brought into cultivation, and many public
works to be executed, and he was accused of overburdening his
subjects for these purposes. Therefore, Yazid III. (as also the
Abbasids) on taking office undertook to abstain from spending
money on building and digging. The principle that a well-filled
treasury is the basis of a prosperous government was pushed by
him too far. Notwithstanding his activity and his devotion to
the management of affairs, the Moslem power declined rather
than advanced, and signs of the decay of the Omayyad dynasty
began to show themselves. The history of his four successors,
Walid II., Yazid III., Ibrahim and Merwan II., is but the history
of the fall of the Omayyads.
11.
Reign of Walid II
.?Walid II. was a handsome man,
possessed of extraordinary physical strength, and a distinguished
poet. But Hisham, to whom he was successor-designate,
foolishly kept him in the background, and even made earnest
efforts to get his own son Maslama acknowledged as his successor.
Walid therefore retired to the country, and passed his time there
in hunting, cultivating poetry, music and the like, waiting with
impatience for the death of Hisham and planning vengeance on
all those whom he suspected of having opposed him. His first
public action was to increase the pay of all soldiers by 10
dirhems, that of the Syrians by 20. The Omayyads who came to
pay their respects to him received large donations. Many
philanthropic institutions were founded. As to the family of his
predecessor, he contented himself with confiscating their possessions,
with the single exception of Suleiman b. Hisham, whom he
had whipped and put in prison. But the Makhz?mites, who were
related to Hisham by his mother, he deprived of all their power
and had them tortured to death. The vicegerents of Hisham
were replaced by Qaisites; Yusuf b. Omar, the governor of Irak,
being a Qaisite, was not only confirmed in his office, but received
with it the supreme command of Khorasan. He made use of it
immediately by ordering Na?r b. Sayy?r to collect a rich present
of horses, falcons, musical instruments, golden and silver vessels
and to offer it to the caliph in person, but before the present was
ready the news came that Walid had been murdered.
It is not certain that Walid also suspected Kh?lid al-Qasr? of
having intrigued against him. But Yusuf b. Omar did not rest
until he had his old enemy in his power. It is said that he
guaranteed Walid a large sum of money, which he hoped to
extort from Kh?lid. This unfortunate man died under torture,
which he bore with fortitude, in Muharram 126 (November
743).
Walid designated his two sons as heirs to the Caliphate.
These were still under age and were not the children of a freeborn,
noble mother. Both circumstances, according to the then
prevailing notions, made them unfit for the imamate. Moreover,
it was an affront, in particular, for the sons of Walid I., who
already had considered the nomination of Yazid II. as a slight to
themselves. A conspiracy arose, headed by Yazid b. Walid I.,
and joined by the majority of the Merwanid princes and many
Kalbites and other Yemenites who regarded the ill-treatment of
Kh?lid al-Qasr? as an insult to themselves. Various stories were
circulated about the looseness of Walid’s manner of life; Yazid
accused him of irreligion, and, by representing himself as a
devout and God-fearing man, won over the pious Moslems. The
conspirators met with slight opposition. A great many troops
had been detached by Hisham to Africa and other provinces, the
caliph himself was in one of his country places; the prefect of
Damascus also was absent. Without difficulty, Yazid made
himself master of Damascus, and immediately sent his cousin
Abdalaz?z with 2000 men against Walid, who had not more than
200 fighting men about him. A few men hastened to the rescue,
among others ?Abb?s b. Walid with his sons and followers.
Abdalaz?z interrupted his march, took him prisoner and compelled
him to take the oath of allegiance to his brother Yazid. Walid’s
small body of soldiers was soon overpowered. After a valiant
combat, the caliph retired to one of his apartments and sat
with the Koran on his knee, in order to die just as Othman
had died. He was killed on the 17th of April 744. His head
was taken to Damascus and carried about the city at the end of
a spear.
On the news of the murder of the caliph, the citizens of ?oms
(Emesa) put at their head Abu Mahommed as-Sofi?n?, a grandson
of Yazid I., and marched against Damascus. They were beaten
by Suleim?n b. Hish?m at a place called Solaim?n?a, 12 m. from
the capital. Abu Mahommed was taken prisoner and shut up
with several of his brethren and cousins in the Khadr?, the old
palace of Moawiya, together with the two sons of Walid II. One
or two risings in Palestine were easily suppressed. But the
reigning family had committed suicide. Their unity was broken.
The holiness of their Caliphate, their legitimate authority, had
been trifled with; the hatred of the days of Merj R?hi? had been
revived. The orthodox faith also, whose strong representative
and defender had hitherto been the caliph, was shaken by the
fact that Yazid III. belonged to the sect of the Qadaris who
rejected the doctrine of predestination. The disorganization of
the empire was at hand.
12.
Reign of Yazid III
.?Yazid III., on his accession, made a
fine speech, in which he promised to do all that could be expected
from a good and wise ruler, even offering to make place immediately
for the man whom his subjects should find better
qualified for the Caliphate than himself. He cancelled, however,
the increase of the pay granted by Walid and thus earned the
nickname of the
N?qi?
(diminisher). As he owed his position to
the aid of the Kalbites, he chose his officers from among them.
The governorship of Irak was confided to a Kalbite, Man??r b.
Jomh?r, a hot-headed and unscrupulous man. Y?suf b. Omar
was unable to offer resistance, and was ultimately taken and
confined in the Khadr?. Man??r had hardly been three months
in office when Yazid replaced him by Abdallah, son of Omar II.
The distant provinces, with the exception of Sind and Sijistan,
renounced the authority of the new caliph. In Africa Abdarrahman
b. Hab?b, a descendant of the famous ?Oqba b. N?f??, was
almost independent. In Spain every amir tried to free himself
from a suzerainty which appeared to him only nominal. Na?r b.
Sayy?r, the governor of Khorasan, had not yet decided whether
he ought to take the oath of allegiance when Yazid died, after a
reign of only five months and a half, on the 12th of Dhu’l-?ijja
A.H.
126 (25th September
A.D.
744).
13. Yazid III. left his brother Ibr?h?m as his successor. He
was acknowledged as caliph only in a part of Syria, and reigned
no longer than two months, when he was obliged to abdicate and
to submit to the authority of Merwan II.
14. Merwan II., the son of Mahommed b. Merwan and cousin
of Maslama, was a man of energy, and might have revived the
strength of the Omayyad dynasty, but for the general disorder
which pervaded the whole empire. In 732 Hisham had entrusted
to him the government of Armenia and Azerbaijan, which he
held with great success till the death of Walid II. He had great
military capacity and introduced important reforms. On the
murder of Walid he prepared to dispute the supreme power with
the new caliph, and invaded Mesopotamia. Yazid III., in
alarm, offered him as the price of peace the government of this
province together with Armenia and Azerbaijan. Merwan
resolved to accept those conditions, and sent a deputation to
Damascus, which, however, had just reached Manbij (Hierapolis)
when Yazid died. Leaving his son Abdalmalik with 40,000
men in Rakka, Merwan entered Syria with 80,000 men. Suleim?n
b. Hish?m, at the head of 120,000 men, was defeated at ?Ain
al-Jarr, between Baalbek and Damascus. Merwan made many
prisoners, whom he treated with the greatest mildness, granting
them freedom on condition that they should take the oath of
allegiance to the sons of Walid II. He then marched upon
Damascus. But Suleim?n b. Hish?m, Yazid, the son of Kh?lid
al-Qasri, and other chiefs, hastened to the Khadr? and killed the
two princes, together with Y?suf b. Omar. Suleiman then made
himself master of the treasury and fled with the caliph Ibr?h?m
to Tadmor (Palmyra). Only Abu Mahommed as-Sofi?n? escaped
the murderers. When Merwan entered Damascus this man
testified that the sons of Walid II., who had just become adult,
had named Merwan successor to the Caliphate, and was the first
to greet him as Prince of the Believers. All the generals and
officers followed his example and took the oath of allegiance
(7th December
A.D.
744). Merwan did all he could to pacify
Syria, permitting the Arabs of the four provinces to choose
their own prefects, and even acquiescing in the selection as
prefect of Palestine of Th?bit b. No?aim, who had behaved very
treacherously towards him before, but whom he had forgiven.
He did not, however, wish to reside in Damascus, but transplanted
the seat of government to his own town, Harran in
Mesopotamia. Suleiman b. Hisham and Ibrahim tendered
their submission and were pardoned.
But the pacification was only on the surface. Many Omayyad
princes considered Merwan as an upstart, his mother being a
slave-girl; the Damascenes were angry because he had chosen
Harran for his residence; the Kalbites felt themselves slighted,
as the Qaisites predominated. Th?bit b. No?aim revolted in
Palestine, Emesa (Homs) and Tadmor were turbulent, Damascus
was besieged by Yazid b. Kh?lid al Qasr?. Merwan, who wanted
to march against Irak, was obliged to return to Syria, where he
put an end to the troubles. This time Th?bit b. No?aim had to
pay for his perfidy with his life. After this new pacification,
Merwan caused the Syrians to acknowledge his two sons as heirs
to the Caliphate, and married them to two daughters of Hish?m.
All the Omayyad princes were invited to the wedding, Merwan
hoping still to conciliate them. He then equipped 10,000
Syrians, and ordered them to rejoin the army of 20,000 men
from Kinnesrin (Qinnasr?n) and Mesopotamia, who, under Yazid
b. Omar b. Hobaira, were already on the march towards Irak.
When these Syrians came to Ro??fa (Rusafa), Suleim?n b.
Hish?m persuaded them to proclaim himself caliph, and made
himself master of Kinnesrin. From all sides Syrians flocked to
his aid till he had 70,000 men under his orders. Merwan immediately
ordered Ibn Hobaira to stop his march and to wait for
him at D?r?n, and marched with the main force against Suleim?n,
whom he utterly defeated at Khos?f in the district of Kinnesrin.
Suleiman fled to Homs and thence to Tadmor and on to Kufa,
leaving his brother Sa?id in Homs. The siege of this place by
Merwan lasted nearly five months. After the victory the walls
were demolished, and likewise those of Baalbek, Damascus,
Jerusalem and other towns. Syria was utterly crushed, and
therewith the bulwark of the dynasty was destroyed. Not until
the summer of 128 (
A.D.
746) could Merwan resume his campaign
against Irak.
The governor of this province, Abdallah, the son of Omar II.,
was a man of small energy, whose principal care was his personal
ease and comfort. An ambitious man, Abdallah b. Moawiya, a
great-grandson of Ali’s brother Ja?far, put himself at the head of
a band of Shi?ites and
maulas
, made himself master of Kufa and
marched upon Hira, where, since Y?suf b. Omar, the governor
and the Syrian troops had resided. The rebels were defeated,
and Kufa surrendered (October 744) under condition of amnesty
for the insurgents and freedom for Abdallah b. Moawiya. This
adventurer now went into Media (Jabal), where a great number
of
maulas
and Shi?ites, even members of the reigning dynasty
and of the Abbasid family, such as the future caliph Mansur,
rejoined him. With their help he became master of a vast
empire, which, however, lasted scarcely three years.
Ibn Omar did not acknowledge Merwan as caliph. For the
moment Merwan could do no more than send a new governor,
Ibn Sa??d al ?arash?. This officer was supported only by the
Qaisite troops, the Kalbites, who were numerically superior,
maintaining Ibn Omar in his residence at Hira. There were
many skirmishes between them, but a common danger soon
forced them to suspend their hostilities. The general disorder
after the death of Hisham had given to the Khawarij an opportunity
of asserting their claims such as they had never had
before. They belonged for the greater part to the Rab??a, who
always stood more or less aloof from the other Arabs, and had a
particular grudge against the Mo?ar. Their leading tribe, the
Shaib?n, possessed the lands on the Tigris in the province of
Mosul, and here, after the murder of Walid II., their chief
proclaimed himself caliph. Reinforced by many Kharijites out
of the northern provinces, he marched against Kufa. Ibn Omar
and Ibn Sa?iđ al ?arash? tried to defend their province, but
were completely defeated. ?arash? fled to Merwan, Ibn Omar
to Hira, which, after a siege of two months, he was obliged to
surrender in Shaww?l 127 (August
A.D.
745). Man??r b. Jomh?r
was the first to pass over to the Khawarij; then Ibn Omar
himself took the oath of allegiance. That a noble Koreishite,
a prince of the reigning house, should pledge himself to follow
?a???k the Shaib?nite as his Imam, was an event of which
the Khawarij were very proud. Ibn Omar was rewarded with
the government of eastern Irak, Kh?zist?n and F?rs.
Whilst Merwan besieged Homs, ?a???k returned to Mesopotamia
and took Mosul, whence he threatened Nisibis, where
Abdallah, the son of Merwan, maintained himself with difficulty.
Suleim?n b. Hish?m also had gone over to the Khawarij, who
now numbered 120,000 men. Mesopotamia itself was in danger,
when Merwan at last was able to march against the enemy. In a
furious battle at Kafart?tha (September
A.D.
746) the Khawarij
were defeated; ?a???k and his successor Khaibar? perished;
the survivors were obliged to retire to Mosul, where they crossed
the Tigris. Merwan followed them and encamped on the
western bank. Immediately after the battle of Kafart?tha,
Yazid b. Omar b. Hobaira directed his troops towards Irak. He
beat the Kharijites repeatedly and entered Kufa in May or June
747. Ibn Omar was taken prisoner; Man??r b. Jomh?r fled to
Ibn Moawiya. Ibn Hobaira was at last free to send Ibn ?ob?ra
with an army to Mesopotamia. At his approach the Kharijites
left their camp and fled to Abdallah b. Moawiya, who was now at
the height of his power. But it was not destined to last. The
two generals of Ibn Hobaira, Ibn ?ob?ra and Nob?ta b. ?an?ala
defeated his army; Ibn Moawiya fled to Khorasan, where he met
his death; the chief of the Kharijites, Shaib?n Yashkori went to
eastern Arabia; Suleim?n b. Hish?m and Man??r b. Johm?r
escaped to India. Thus, at last, the western and south-eastern
parts of the empire lay at the feet of Merwan. But in the north-east,
in Khorasan, meanwhile a storm had arisen, against which
his resources and his wisdom were alike of no avail.
When the news of the murder of Walid II. reached Khorasan,
Na?r b. Sayy?r did not at once acknowledge the Caliphate of
Yazid III., but induced the Arab chiefs to accept himself as amir
of Khorasan, until a caliph should be universally acknowledged.
Not many months later (Shaww?l 126) he was confirmed in his
post by Yusuf b. Omar, the governor of Irak. But Na?r had a
personal enemy, the chief of the Azd (Yemenites) Jodai? al-Kirm?n?,
a very ambitious man. A quarrel arose, and in a short
time the Azd under Kirm?n?, supported by the Rab??a, who
always were ready to join the opposition, were in insurrection,
which Na?r tried in vain to put down by concessions.
So stood matters when ??rith b. Soraij, seconded by Yazid III.,
reappeared on the scene, crossed the Oxus and came to Merv.
Na?r received him with the greatest honour, hoping to get his aid
against Kirm?n?, but ??rith, to whom 3000 men of his tribe, the
Tam?m, had gone over, demanded Na?r’s abdication and tried to
make himself master of Merv. Having failed in this, he allied
himself with Kirm?n?. Na?r could hold Merv no longer, and
retired to Nishapur. But the Tam?m of ??rith could not endure
the supremacy of the Azd. In a moment the allies were divided
into two camps; a battle ensued, in which ??rith was defeated
and killed. Originally, ??rith seems to have had the highest
aims, but in reality he did more than any one else to weaken the
Arabic dominion. He brought the Turks into the field against
them; he incited the native population of Transoxiana against
their Arab lords, and stirred up discord between the Arabs
themselves. Being a Tam?mite, he belonged to the Mo?ar, on
whom the government in Khorasan depended; but he aided the
Yemenites to gain the upper hand of them. Thus he paved the
way for Abu Moslim.
Since the days of Ali there had been two tendencies among the
Shi?ites. The moderate party distinguished itself from the other
Moslems only by their doctrine that the imamate belonged
legally to a man of the house of the Prophet. The other party,
that of the ultra-Shi?ites, named H?shim?ya after Abu H?shim
the son of Mahommed b. al-?anaf?ya, preached the equality of all
Moslems, Arabs or non-Arabs, and taught that the same divine
spirit that had animated the Prophet, incorporated itself again
in his heirs (see
Shi'ites
). After the death of Hosain, they chose
for their Imam Mahommed b. al-?anaf?ya, and at his decease his
son Abu H?shim, from whom Mahommed b. Ali, the grandson of
Abdallah b. Abbas, who resided at ?omaima in the south-east of
Syria, obtained the secrets of the party and took the lead (
A.H.
98, see above). This Mahommed, the father of the two first
Abbasid caliphs, was a man of unusual ability and great ambition.
He directed his energies primarily to Khorasan. The missionaries
were charged with the task of undermining the authority of the
Omayyads, by drawing attention to all the injustices that took
place under their reign, and to all the luxury and wantonness of
the court, as contrasted with the misery of many of their subjects.
God would not suffer it any longer. As soon as the time was ripe
that time could not be far off?He would send a saviour?and
out of the house of the Prophet, the Mahdi, who would restore
Islam to its original purity. All who desired to co-operate in
this holy purpose must pledge themselves to unlimited obedience
to the Imam, and place their lives and property at his disposal. As
a proof of their sincerity they were required at once to pay a fixed
sum for the Imam. The missionaries had great success, especially
among the non-Arabic inhabitants of Khorasan and Transoxiana.
Mahommed b. Ali died
A.H.
126 (
A.D.
743?744), and his son
Ibrah?m, the Imam, took his place. Ibrah?m had a confidant
about whose antecedents one fact alone seems certain, that he
was a
maula
(client) of Persian origin. This man, Abu Moslim by
name, was a man of real ability and devoted to his master’s
cause. To him, in 745?746, the management of affairs in Khorasan
was entrusted, with instructions to consult in all weighty matters
the head of the mission, the Arab Suleim?n b. Kath?r. At first
the chiefs of the mission were by no means prepared to recognize
Abu Moslim as the plenipotentiary of the heir of the Prophet.
In the year 129 he judged that the time for open manifestation
had arrived. His partisans were ordered to assemble from all sides
on a fixed day at S?qadenj in the province of Merv. Then, on the
1st Shaww?l (15th June 747), the first solemn meeting took
place and the black flags were unfolded. On that occasion
Suleim?n b. Kath?r was still leader, but by the end of the year
Abu Moslim, whom the majority believed to belong himself to
the family of the Prophet, was the acknowledged head of a strong
army. Meantime, Na?r had moved from Nishapur to Merv, and
here the two Arabic armies confronted each other. Then, at last,
the true significance of Abu Moslim’s work was recognized. Na?r
warned the Arabs against their common enemy, “who preaches
a religion that does not come from the Envoy of God, and whose
chief aim is the extirpation of the Arabs.” In vain he had
entreated Merwan and Ibn Hobaira to send him troops before it
should be too late. When at last it was possible to them to fulfil
his wish, it was in fact too late. For a moment it seemed as
though the rival Arab factions, realizing their common peril,
would turn their combined forces against the Shi?ites. But Abu
Moslim contrived to re-awaken their mutual distrust and jealousy,
and, taking advantage of the opportunity, made himself master
of Merv, in Rabia II.
A.H.
130 (December 747). Na?r escaped only
by a headlong flight to Nishapur. This was the end of the Arabic
dominion in the East. Many Arab chiefs were killed, partly by
order of Abu Moslim, partly by their clients. The latter, however,
was strictly forbidden by Abu Moslim. So severe indeed was the
discipline he exercised, that one of the chief missionaries, who by
a secret warning had rendered possible the escape of Na?r from
Merv, paid for it with his life.
As soon as Abu Moslim had consolidated his authority, he sent his
chief general Qa??aba against Nishapur. Na?r’s son Tam?m
was vanquished and killed, and Na?r retreated to Kumis (Q?mis)
on the boundary of Jorj?n, whither also advanced from the other
side Nob?ta at the head of an army sent by Merwan. Qa??aba
detached his son ?asan against Na?r and went himself to meet
Nob?ta, whom he beat on the 1st of Dhu?l-?ijja 130 (6th August
748). Na?r could not further resist. He reached S?w? in the
vicinity of Hamadan, where he died quite exhausted, at the age of
eighty-five years. Rei and Hamadan were taken without serious
difficulty. Near Nehawend, Ibn ?ob?ra, at the head of a large
army, encountered Qa??aba, but was defeated and killed. In
the month of Dhu?l-qa?da 131 (June 749) Nehawend (Nehavend)
surrendered, and thereby the way to Irak lay open to Qa??aba.
Ibn Hobaira was overtaken and compelled to retire to W?sit.
Qa??aba himself perished in the combat, but his son ?asan
entered Kufa without any resistance on the 2nd of September 740.
Merwan had at last discovered who was the real chief of the
movement in Khorasan, and had seized upon Ibrah?m the Imam
and imprisoned him at Harran. There he died, probably from
the plague, though Merwan was accused of having killed him.
When the other Abbasids left ?omaima is not certain. But they
arrived at Kufa in the latter half of September 749, where in the
meantime the head of the propaganda, Abu Salama, called the
wazir of the family of Mahomet, had previously undertaken the
government. This Abu Salama seems to have had scruples
against recognizing Abu?l-Abbas as the successor of his brother
Ibrah?m, and to have expected that the Mahdi, whom he looked
for from Medina, would not be slow in making his appearance,
little thinking that an Abbasid would present himself as such.
But Abu Jahm, on the instructions of Abu Moslim, declared to
the chief officers of the Khorasanian army that the Mahdi was in
their midst, and brought them to Abu?l-Abbas, to whom they
swore allegiance. Abu Salama also was constrained to take the
oath. On Friday, the 12th Rabia II.
A.H.
132 (28th November
749) Abu?l-Abbas was solemnly proclaimed caliph in the principal
mosque of Kufa. The trick had been carried out admirably. On
the point of gathering the ripe fruit, the Alids were suddenly
pushed aside, and the fruit was snatched away by the Abbasids.
The latter gained the throne and they took good care never to be
deprived of it.
After the conquest of Nehawend, Qa??aba had detached one
of his captains, Abu ?Aun, to Shahraz?r, where he defeated the
Syrian army which was stationed there. Thereupon Abu ?Aun
occupied the land of Mosul, where he obtained reinforcements
from Kufa, headed by Abdallah b. Ali, an uncle of Abu?l-Abbas,
who was to have the supreme command. Merwan advanced
to meet him, and was completely defeated near the Greater Zab,
an affluent of the Tigris, in a battle which lasted eleven days.
Merwan retreated to Harran, thence to Damascus, and finally to
Egypt, where he fell in a last struggle towards the end of 132
(August 750). His head was cut off and sent to Kufa.
[26]
Abu
Aun, who had been the real leader of the campaign against
Merwan, remained in Egypt as its governor. Ibn Hobaira,
who had been besieged in Wasit for eleven months, then consented
to a capitulation, which was sanctioned by Abu?l-Abbas.
Immediately after the surrender, Ibn Hobaira and his principal
officers were treacherously murdered. In Syria, the Omayyads
were persecuted with the utmost rigour. Even their graves were
violated, and the bodies crucified and destroyed. In order that
no members of the family should escape, Abdallah b. Ali
pretended to grant an amnesty to all Omayyads who should come
in to him at Abu Fotros (Antipatris) and acknowledge the new
caliph, and even promised them the restitution of all their property.
Ninety men allowed themselves to be entrapped, and Abdallah
invited them to a banquet. When they were all collected, a
body of executioners rushed into the hall and slew them with
clubs. He then ordered leathern covers to be thrown upon the
dying men, and had the banquet served upon them. In Medina
and Mecca Da?ud b. Ali, another uncle of Abu?l-Abbas, conducted
the persecution; in Ba?ra, Suleiman b. Ali. Abu?l-Abbas
himself killed those he could lay his hands on in Hira and Kufa,
amongst them Suleim?n b. Hish?m, who had been the bitterest
enemy of Merwan. Only a few Omayyads escaped the massacre,
several of whom were murdered later. A grandson of Hisham,
Abdarrahm?n, son of his most beloved son Moawiya, reached
Africa and founded in Spain the Omayyad dynasty of Cordova.
With the dynasty of the Omayyads the hegemony passes
finally from Syria to Irak. At the same time the supremacy of
the Arabs came to an end. Thenceforth it is not the contingents
of the Arabic tribes which compose the army, and on whom the
government depends; the new dynasty relies on a standing
army, consisting for the greater part of non-Arabic soldiers.
The barrier that separated the Arabs from the conquered nations
begins to crumble away. Only the Arabic religion, the Arabic
language and the Arabic civilization maintain themselves, and
spread more and more over the whole empire.
We now enter upon the history of the new dynasty, under
which the power of Islam reached its highest point.
1. Abu?l-Abbas inaugurated his Caliphate by a harangue
in which he announced the era of concord and happiness which
was to begin now that the House of the Prophet had been
restored to its right. He asserted that the Abbasids were the
real heirs of the Prophet, as the descendants of his oldest uncle
Abbas. Addressing the Kufians, he said, “Inhabitants of Kufa,
ye are those whose affection towards us has ever been constant
and true; ye have never changed your mind, nor swerved from
it, notwithstanding all the pressure of the unjust upon you. At
last our time has come, and God has brought you the new era.
Ye are the happiest of men through us, and the dearest to us.
I increase your pensions with 100 dirhems; make now your
preparations, for I am the lavish shedder of blood
[27]
and the
avenger of blood.”
Notwithstanding these fine words, Abu?l-Abbas did not trust
the Kufians. He resided outside the town with the Khorasanian
troops, and with them went first to Hira, then to H?shim?ya,
which he caused to be built in the neighbourhood of Anbar.
For their real sympathies, he knew, were with the house of Ali,
and Abu Salama their leader, who had reluctantly taken the oath
of allegiance, did not conceal his disappointment. Abu Jahm,
the
vizier
(
q.v.
; also
Mahommedan Institutions
), or “helper,”
of Abu Moslim, advised that Abu Ja?far, the caliph’s brother,
should be sent to Khorasan to consult Abu Moslim. The result
was that Abu Salama was assassinated, and at the same time
Suleim?n b. Kath?r, who had been the head of the propaganda
in Khorasan, and had also expected that the Mahdi would belong
to the house of Ali. It is said that Abu Ja?far, whilst in Khorasan,
was so impressed by the unlimited power of Abu Moslim, and
saw so clearly that, though he called his brother and himself
his masters, he considered them as his creatures, that he vowed
his death at the first opportunity.
The ruin of the Omayyad empire and the rise of the new
dynasty did not take place without mighty convulsions. In
Bathan?ya and the ?aur?n, in the north of Syria, in Mesopotamia
and Irak Khorasan insurrections had to be put down
with fire and sword. The new caliph then distributed the
provinces among the principal members of his family and his
generals. To his brother Abu Ja?far he gave Mesopotamia,
Azerbaijan and Armenia; to his uncle Abdallah b. Ali, Syria;
to his uncle Da?ud, Hejaz, Yemen and Yam?ma (Yemama);
to his cousin ??s? b. M?s?, the province of Kufa. Another uncle,
Suleim?n b. Ali, received the government of Ba?ra with Bahrein
and Oman; Ism? ??l b. Ali that of Ahw?z; Abu Moslim, Khorasan
and Transoxiana; Mahommed b. Ash?ath, F?rs; Abu ?Aun,
Egypt. In Sind the Omayyad governor, Man??r b. Jomh?r,
had succeeded in maintaining himself, but was defeated by an
army sent against him under M?s? b. Ka?b, and the black
standard of the Abbasids was raised over the city of Man??ra.
Africa and Spain are omitted from this catalogue, because the
Abbasids never gained any real footing in Spain, while Africa
remained, at least in the first years, in only nominal subjection
to the new dynasty. In 754 Abu Moslim came to Irak to visit
Abu’l-Abbas and to ask his permission to make the pilgrimage
to Mecca. He was received with great honour, but the caliph
said that he was sorry not to be able to give him the leadership
of the pilgrimage, which he had already purposely entrusted to
his brother, Abu Ja?far.
Abu’l-Abbas died on the 13th of Dhu?l-?ijja 136 (5th June
754). He seems to have been a man of limited capacity, and
had very little share in the achievements accomplished in his
name. He initiated practically nothing without the consent of
Abu Jahm, who was thus the real ruler. In the few cases where
he had to decide, he acted under the influence of his brother
Abu Ja?far.
2.
Reign of Mansur
.?Abu?l-Abbas had designated as his
successors first Abu Ja?far, surnamed al-Man??r (the victorious),
and after him his cousin ??s? b. M?s?. Abu Ja?far was, according
to the historians, older than Abu?l-Abbas, but while the mother
of the latter belonged to the powerful Yemenite tribe of al-??rith
b. Ka?b, the mother of Abu Ja?far was a Berber slave-girl.
But he was a son of Mahommed b. Ali, and was therefore preferred
by Abu Moslim to his uncles and cousins. Abu?l-Abbas,
however, had promised the succession to his uncle Abdallah b.
Ali, when he marched against Merwan. When the news of the
death of Abu?l-Abbas reached Abdallah, who at the head of a
numerous army was on the point of renewing the Byzantine war,
he came to Harran, furious at his exclusion, and proclaimed
himself caliph. Abu Moslim marched against him, and the two
armies met at Nisibis, where, after a number of skirmishes, a
decisive engagement took place (28th November 754). Abdallah
was defeated and escaped to Ba?ra, where he found a refuge with
his brother Suleim?n. A year later he asked for pardon, and
took the oath of allegiance to Mansur. The caliph spared his
life for a time, but he did not forget. In 764 Abdallah met his
death by the collapse of his house, which had been deliberately
undermined.
The first care of Mansur was now to get rid of the powerful Abu
Moslim, who had thus by another brilliant service strengthened
his great reputation. On pretence of conferring with him on
important business of state, Mansur induced him, in spite of
the warnings of his best general, Abu Na?r, to come to Mad?in
(Ctesiphon), and in the most perfidious manner caused him to be
murdered by his guards. Thus miserably perished the real
founder of the Abbasid dynasty, the
???ib addaula
, as he is
commonly called, the
Am?n
(trustee) of the House of the Prophet.
A witty man, being asked his opinion about Abu Ja?far (Mansur)
and Abu Moslim, said, alluding to the Koran 21, verse 22, “if
there were two Gods, the universe would be ruined.” The
Khorasanian chiefs were bribed into submission, and order was at
last re-established by Mansur’s general Kh?zim b. Khozaima in
Mesopotamia, and by Abu Da?ud, the governor of Khorasan in
the east.
About the same time Africa
[28]
and Spain escaped from the
dominion of the eastern Caliphate; the former for a season,
the latter permanently. The cause of the revolt of Africa was
as follows. Mansur had written to Abdarrahm?n, announcing
the death of Abu?l-Abbas, and requiring him to take the oath of
allegiance. Abdarrahm?n sent in his adhesion, together with a
few presents of little value. The caliph replied by a threatening
letter which angered Abdarrahm?n. He called the people together
at the hour of prayer, publicly cursed Mansur from the
pulpit and declared him deposed. He next caused a circular
letter, commanding all Maghribins to refuse obedience to the
caliph, to be read from the pulpit throughout the whole extent
of the Maghrib (western North Africa). A brother of Abdarrahm?n,
Ily?s, saw in this revolt an opportunity of obtaining the
government of Africa for himself. Seconded by many of the
inhabitants of Kairawan, who had remained faithful to the cause
of the Abbasids, he attacked his brother, slew him, and proclaimed
himself governor in his stead. This revolution in favour
of the Abbasids was, however, not of long duration. ?ab?b,
the eldest son of Abdarrahm?n, who had fled in the night of his
father’s murder, was captured, but the vessel which was to convey
him to Spain having been detained by stress of weather, his
partisans took arms and rescued him. Ily?s was marching
against them, when the idea occurred to ?ab?b of challenging
him to single combat. Ily?s hesitated, but his own soldiers
compelled him to accept the challenge. He measured arms
with ?ab?b, and was slain. The party of independence thus
triumphed, but in the year 144 (761) Mahommed b. Ash?ath,
the Abbasid general, entered Kairawan and regained possession
of Africa in the name of the eastern caliph. From the year 800, it must
be added, Africa only nominally belonged to the Abbasids; for, under the
reign of Harun al-Rashid, Ibrah?m b. al-Aghlab, who was invested with
the government of Africa, founded in that province a distinct dynasty,
that of the Aghlabites.
At the same time as the revolt in Africa, the independent Caliphate of
the western Omayyads was founded in Spain. The long dissensions which
had preceded the fall of that dynasty in the East had already prepared
the way for the independence of a province so distant from the centre of
the empire. Every petty amir then tried to seize sovereign power for
himself, and the people groaned under the consequent anarchy. Weary of
these commotions, the Arabs of Spain at last came to an understanding
among themselves for the election of a caliph, and their choice fell
upon one of the last survivors of the Omayyads, Abdarrahm?n b. Moawiya,
grandson of the caliph Hish?m. This prince was wandering in the deserts
of Africa, pursued by his implacable enemies, but everywhere protected
and concealed by the desert tribes, who pitied his misfortunes and
respected his illustrious origin. A deputation from Spain sought him out
in Africa and offered him the Caliphate, which he accepted with joy. On
the 1st Rabia I. 138 (14th August 755) Abdarrahm?n landed in the Iberian
peninsula, where he was universally welcomed, and
speedily founded at Cordova the Western Omayyad Caliphate
(see
Spain
:
History
).
While Mansur was thus losing Africa and Spain, he was trying
to redeem the losses the empire had sustained on the northern
frontier by the Byzantines. In 750?751 the emperor Constantine
V. (Copronymus) had unsuccessfully blockaded Malatia; but
five years later he took it by force and razed its wall to the ground.
Mansur now sent in 757 an army of 70,000 men under the command
of his cousin Abdalwahh?b, the son of Ibr?h?m the Imam,
whom he had made governor of Mesopotamia, the real chief
being Hasan b. Qa??aba. They rebuilt all that the emperor
had destroyed, and made this key of Asia Minor stronger than
ever before. The Moslems then made a raid by the pass of
?adath (Adata) and invaded the land of the Byzantines. Two
aunts of the caliph took part in this expedition, having made a
vow that if the dominion of the Omayyads were ended they
would wage war in the path of God. Constantine advanced
with a numerous army, but was afraid of attacking the invaders.
The Moslems also rebuilt Mopsuestia. But from 758 till 763
Mansur was so occupied with his own affairs that he could not
think of further raids.
In 758 (others say in 753 or 754) a body of 600 sectaries, called
R?wend?s
(
q.v.
), went to H?shim?ya, the residence of the caliph,
not far from Kufa. They believed that the caliph was their
lord, to whom they owed their daily bread, and came to pay him
divine honours. They began by marching in solemn procession
round the palace, as if it had been the Ka?ba. Mansur being told
of it said: “I would rather they went to hell in obedience to
us, than to heaven in disobedience.” But as they grew tumultuous,
and he saw that this impious homage gave offence to his
men, he caused the principal leaders to be seized and thrown
into prison. The R?wend?s immediately rose in revolt, broke
the prison doors, rescued their chiefs, and returned to the palace.
The unfortunate fanatics were hunted down and massacred to
the last man, and thereby the ties that bound the Abbasids to
the ultra-Shi?ites were severed. From that time forward the
Abbasid caliphs became the maintainers of orthodox Islam,
just as the Omayyads had been. The name of H?shim?ya, which
the reigning family still retained, was henceforward derived
not from Abu H?shim, but from H?shim, the grandfather of
Abbas, the great-grandfather of the Prophet.
A much greater danger now threatened Mansur. In the last
days of the Omayyads, the Shi?ites had chosen as caliph,
Mahommed b. Abdallah b. Hasan, whom they called the Mahdi
and the “pure soul,” and Mansur had been among those who
pledged themselves to him by oath. Not unnaturally, the Alids
in Medina were indignant at being supplanted by the Abbasids,
and Mansur’s chief concern was to get Mahommed into his
power. Immediately after his occupying the throne, he named
Ziy?d b. Obaidallah governor of Medina, with orders to lay
hands on Mahommed and his brother Ibr?h?m, who, warned
betimes, took refuge in flight. In 758 Mansur, informed that a
revolt was in preparation, came himself to Medina and ordered
Abdallah to tell him where his sons were. As he could not or
would not tell, he together with all his brothers and some other
relatives were seized and transported to Irak, where Abdallah
and his brother Ali were beheaded and the others imprisoned.
Notwithstanding all these precautions, a vast conspiracy was
formed. On the same day Mahommed was to raise the standard
of revolt in Medina, Ibr?h?m in Ba?ra. But the Alids, though
not devoid of personal courage, never excelled in politics or in
tactics. In
A.D.
762 Mahommed took Medina and had himself
proclaimed caliph. The governor of Kufa, ?Is? b. M?s?, received
orders to march against him, entered Arabia, and captured
Medina, which, fortified by Mahommed by the same means as the
Prophet had employed against the besieging Meccans, could not
hold out against the well-trained Khorasanians. Mahommed
was defeated and slain. His head was cut off and sent to Mansur.
When on the point of death, Mahommed gave the famous sword
of the Prophet called Dhu?l-Fiq?r to a merchant to whom he
owed 400 dinars. It came later into the possession of Harun
al-Rashid. In the meanwhile Ibr?h?m had not only gained
possession of Ba?ra, Ahw?z and F?rs, but had even occupied
W?sit. The empire of the Abbasids was in great jeopardy. For
fifty days Mansur stayed in his room, neither changing his
clothes nor allowing himself a moment’s repose. The greater
part of his troops were in Rei with his son al-Mahdi, who had
conquered Tabaristan, in Africa, with Mahommed b. Ash?ath,
and in Arabia with ??s? b. M?s?. Had Ibr?h?m marched at once
against Kufa he might have crushed Mansur, but he let slip the
opportunity. A terrible conflict took place at B?-Khamra,
48 m. from Kufa. ?omaid b. Qa??aba, the commander
of Mansur’s army, was defeated, only a small division under
??s? b. M?s? holding its ground. At that moment Salm,
the son of the famous Qotaiba b. Moslim, came to the rescue by
attacking the rear of Ibr?h?m. ?omaid rallied his troops, and
Ibr?h?m was overpowered. At last he fell, pierced by an arrow,
and, in spite of the desperate efforts of his followers, his body
remained in the hands of the enemy. His head was cut off and
brought to Mansur.
Mansur could now give his mind to the founding of the new
capital. When the tumult of the R?wend?s took place he saw
clearly that his personal safety was not assured in H?shim?ya,
[29]
where a riot of the populace could be very dangerous, and his
troops were continually exposed to the perverting influence of the
fickle and disloyal citizens of Kufa. He had just made choice of
the admirable site of the old market-town of Bagdad when the
tidings came of the rising of Mahommed in Medina. In those
days he saw that he had been very imprudent to denude himself
of troops, and decided to keep henceforth always with him a body
of 30,000 soldiers. So Bagdad, or properly “the round city” of
Mansur, on the western bank of the Tigris, was built as the
capital. Strictly it was a huge citadel, in the centre of which
was the palace of the caliph and the great mosque. But around
this nucleus there soon grew up the great metropolis which was
to be the centre of the civilized world as long as the Caliphate
lasted.
[30]
The building lasted three years and was completed in
the year 149 (
A.D.
766). That year is really the beginning of the
new era. “The Omayyads,” says the Spanish writer Ibn ?azm,
“were an Arabic dynasty; they had no fortified residence, nor
citadel; each of them dwelt in his villa, where he lived before
becoming caliph; they did not desire that the Moslems should
speak to them as slaves to their master, nor kiss the ground
before them or their feet; they only gave their care to the
appointment of able governors in the provinces of the empire.
The Abbasids, on the contrary, were a Persian dynasty, under
which the Arab tribal system, as regulated by Omar, fell to
pieces; the Persians of Khorasan were the real rulers, and the
government became despotic as in the days of Chrosroes.” The
reign of Abu?l-Abbas and the first part of that of Mansur had been
almost a continuation of the former period. But now his equals
in birth and rank, the Omayyads and the Alids, had been crushed;
the principal actors in the great struggle, the leaders of the
propaganda and Abu Moslim were out of the way; the caliph
stood far above all his subjects; and his only possible antagonists
were the members of his own family.
??s? b. M?s? had been designated, as we have seen, by Abu?l-Abbas
as successor to Mansur. The latter having vainly tried
to compel ??s? to renounce his right of succession, in favour of
Mansur’s son Mahommed al-Mahdi, produced false witnesses who
swore that he had done so. However unwillingly, ??s? was
obliged at last to yield, but it was understood that, in case of
Mahommed’s death, the succession should return to ??s?. One of
the false witnesses was, it is asserted, Kh?lid b. Barmak, the
head of that celebrated family the
Barmecides
(
q.v.
), which
played so important a part in the reign of Harun al-Rashid.
This Kh?lid, who was descended from an old sacerdotal family
in Balkh, and had been one of the trusty supporters of Abu
Moslim, Mansur appointed as minister of finance.
A son of Mahommed the Alid had escaped to India, where,
with the connivance of the governor Omar b. Hafs Hazarmerd,
he had found refuge with an Indian king. Mansur discovered
his abode, and caused him to be killed. His infant son was sent
to Medina and delivered to his family. Omar Hazarmerd lost
his government and received a command in Africa, where he
died in 770.
In
A.H.
158 (
A.D.
775) Mansur undertook a pilgrimage to
Mecca, but succumbed to dysentery at the last station on the
route. He was about sixty-five years of age, and had reigned
for twenty-two years. He was buried at Mecca. He was a man
of rare energy and strength of mind. His ambition was boundless
and no means, however perfidious, were despised by him. But
he was a great statesman and knew how to choose able officers
for all places. He was thrifty and anxious to leave to his son a
full treasury. He seems to have cherished the ideal that this son,
called Mahommed b. Abdallah, after the Prophet, should fulfil
the promises of peace and happiness that had been tendered to
the believers, and therefore to have called him al-Mahdi. For
that purpose it was necessary that he should have the means not
only to meet all state expenses, but also to be bounteous. But
from the report of the historian Haitham b. ?Ad?
[31]
about the last
discourse which father and son had together, we gather that the
former had misgivings in regard to the fulfilment of his wishes.
Khalid b. Barmak took the greatest care of the revenues, but
contrived at the same time to consult his own interests. Mansur
discovered this in the same year in which he died, and threatened
him with death unless he should pay to the treasury three millions
of dirhems within three days. Khalid already had so many
friends that the sum was brought together with the exception of
30,000 dirhems. At that moment tidings came about a rising in
the province of Mosul, and a friend of Khalid said to the caliph
that Khalid was the only man capable of putting it down.
Thereupon Mansur overlooked the deficiency and gave Khalid
the government of Mosul. “And,” said a citizen of that town,
“we had such an awe and reverence for Khalid, that he appeased
the disorders, almost without punishing anybody.”
3.
Reign of Mahdi
.?As soon as Mansur was dead, Rabi’, his
client and chamberlain, induced all the princes and generals who
accompanied the caliph, to take the oath of allegiance to his son
Mahommed al-Mahdi, who was then at Bagdad. Isa b. Musa
hesitated, but was compelled to give in. In 776 Mahdi constrained
him for a large bribe to renounce his right of succession in favour
of his sons, Musa and Harun. Mansur wrote in his testament to
his son that he had brought together so much money that, even
if no revenue should come in for ten years, it would suffice for all
the wants of the state. Mahdi, therefore, could afford to be
munificent, and in order to make his accession doubly welcome to
his subjects, he began by granting a general amnesty to political
prisoners. Among these was a certain Ya’qub b. Da’ud, who,
having insinuated himself into the confidence of the caliph,
especially by discovering the hiding places of certain Alids, was
afterwards (in 778) made prime minister. The provincial
governors in whom his father had placed confidence, Mahdi
superseded by creatures of his own.
In Khorasan many people were discontented. The promises
made to them during the war against the Omayyads had not been
fulfilled, and the new Mahdi did not answer at all to their ideal.
A revolt in 160 under the leadership of a certain Yusuf b. Ibrahim,
surnamed al-Barm, was suppressed by Yazid b. Mazyad, who,
after a desperate struggle, defeated Yusuf, took him prisoner and
brought him in triumph to Bagdad, where he with several of his
officers was killed and crucified. In the following year, Mahdi was
menaced by a far more dangerous revolt, led by a sectary, known
generally as
Mokanna
(
q.v.
), or “the veiled one,” because he
always appeared in public wearing a mask. He took up his abode
in the Transoxianian province of Kish and Nakhshab, where he
gathered around him a great number of adherents. After some
successes, the pretender was ultimately cornered at the castle of
Sanam near Kish, and took poison together with all the members
of his family. His head was cut off and sent to Mahdi in the year
163.
Mahdi had been scarcely a year on the throne when he resolved
to accomplish the pilgrimage to Mecca. The chroniclers relate
that on this occasion for the first time camels loaded with ice for
the use of the caliph came to Mecca. Immediately on his arrival
in the Holy City he applied himself, at the request of the inhabitants,
to the renewal of the curtains which covered the exterior
walls of the Ka?ba. For a very long time no care had been taken
to remove the old covering when a new one was put on; and the
accumulated weight caused uneasiness respecting the stability of
the walls. Mahdi caused the house to be entirely stripped and
anointed with perfumes, and covered the walls again with a single
cloth of great richness. The temple itself was enlarged and
restored. On this occasion he distributed considerable largesses
among the Meccans. From Mecca Mahdi went to Medina, where
he caused the mosque to be enlarged, and where a similar distribution
of gifts took place. During his stay in that city he formed for
himself a guard of honour, composed of 500 descendants of the
Ans?r,
[32]
to whom he assigned a quarter in Bagdad, named after
them the Qat??a (Fief) of the Ans?r. Struck by the difficulties
of every kind which had to be encountered by poor pilgrims to
Mecca from Bagdad and its neighbourhood, he ordered Yaqt?n,
his freedman, to renew the milestones, to repair the old reservoirs,
and to dig wells and construct cisterns at every station of the
road where they were missing. He also had new inns built and
decayed ones repaired. Yaqt?n remained inspector of the road
till 767.
During the reign of Mansur the annual raids against the
Byzantines had taken place almost without intermission, but
the only feat of importance had been the conquest of Laodicea,
called “the burnt” (
? κατακεκαυμ?νη
), by Ma?y?f b. Yahy? in
the year 770. At first the armies of Mahdi were not successful.
The Greeks even conquered Marash (Germanicia) and annihilated
the Moslem army sent from D?biq. In 778, however, Hasan b.
Qa??aba made a victorious raid as far as Adhr?liya (Dorylaeum);
it was on his proposition that Mahdi resolved on building the
frontier town called ?adath (Adata), which became an outpost.
In 779 the caliph decided on leading his army in person. He
assembled his army in the plains of Barad?n north of Bagdad
and began his march in the early spring of 780, taking with him
his second son H?r?n, and leaving his elder son M?s? as his
lieutenant in Bagdad. Traversing Mesopotamia and Syria, he
entered Cilicia, and established himself on the banks of the Jihan
(Pyramus). Thence he despatched an expeditionary force, nominally
under the command of H?r?n, but in reality under that
of his tutor, the Barmecide Yahy? b. Kh?lid. H?r?n captured
the fortress Sam?lu after a siege of thirty-eight days, the inhabitants
surrendering on condition that they should not be killed or
separated from one another. The caliph kept faith with them,
and settled them in Bagdad, where they built a monastery called
after their native place. In consequence of this feat, Mahdi made
H?r?n governor of the whole western part of the empire, including
Azerbaijan and Armenia. Two years later war broke out afresh
between the Moslems and the Greeks. Leo IV., the East
Roman emperor, had recently died, leaving the crown to Constantine
VI. This prince being only ten years old, his mother Irene
acted as regent and assumed the title Augusta. By her orders
an army of 90,000 men, under the command of Michael Lachanodrakon,
entered Asia Minor. The Moslems, on their side, invaded
Cilicia under the orders of Abdalkab?r who, being afraid of
encountering the enemy, retired with his troops. Irritated by
this failure, the caliph in 781 sent H?r?n, accompanied by his
chamberlain Rab?’, with an army of nearly 100,000 men, with
orders to carry the war to the very gates of Constantinople. The
patrician Nicetas, count of Opsikion, who sought to oppose his
march, was defeated by H?r?n’s general, Yazid b. Mazyad, and
put to flight. H?r?n then marched against Nicomedia, where he
vanquished the domesticus, the chief commander of the Greek
forces, and pitched his camp on the shores of the Bosporus.
Irene took alarm, sued for peace, and obtained a truce for three
years, but only on the humiliating terms of paying an annual
tribute of 90,000 denarii, and supplying the Moslems with guides
and markets on their way home. This brilliant success so
increased Mahdi’s affection for H?r?n that he appointed him
successor-designate after M?s? and named him
al-Rash?d
(“the
follower of the right cause”). Three years later, he resolved
even to give to him the precedence in the succession instead of
M?s?, yielding to the importunity of Khaizor?n, the mother of
the two princes, and to his own predilection. It was necessary
first to obtain from M?s? a renunciation of his rights; and for
that purpose he was recalled from Jorj?n, where he was engaged
on an expedition against the rebels of Tabarist?n. M?s?,
informed of his father’s intentions, refused to obey this order,
and Mahdi determined to march in person against him. But,
after his arrival at M?sabadh?n, a place in Jabal (Media, the later
Persian Irak), he died suddenly, at the age of only forty-three.
Some attribute his death to an accident met with in hunting;
others believe him to have been poisoned. Some European
scholars have suspected M?s? of having been concerned in it, but
of this we have no proof whatever.
The reign of Mahdi was a time of great prosperity. Much was
done for the organization of the huge empire; agriculture and
commerce flourished; the revenues were increasing, whilst the
people fared well. The power of the state was acknowledged even
in the far east: the emperor of China, the king of Tibet, and
many Indian princes concluded treaties with the caliph. He was
an ardent champion of the orthodox faith, repudiating all the
extravagant doctrine preached by the Abbasid missionaries and
formerly professed by his father. In particular he persecuted
mercilessly the Manichaeans and all kinds of freethinkers.
4.
Reign of H?d?
.?On the death of Mahdi, H?r?n, following
the advice of Yahy?. b. Kh?lid, sent the insignia of the Caliphate,
with letters of condolence and congratulation, to M?s? in Jorj?n,
and brought the army which had accompanied Mahdi peacefully
back from Media to Bagdad. M?s? returned in all haste to the
capital, and assumed the title of
al-H?d?
(“he who directs”).
The accession of a new caliph doubtless appeared to the partisans
of the house of Ali a favourable opportunity for a rising. Hosain
b. Ali b. Hasan III. raised an insurrection at Medina with the
support of numerous adherents, and proclaimed himself caliph.
Thence he went to Mecca, where on the promise of freedom many
slaves flocked to him, and many pilgrims also acknowledged him.
Suleim?n b. Mansur, the caliph’s representative in the pilgrimage
of that year, was entrusted with the command against him.
Hosain was attacked at Fakh, 3 m. from Mecca, and perished in
the combat with many other Alids. His maternal uncle, Idr?s b.
Abdallah, a brother of Mahommed and Ibr?h?m, the rivals of
Mansur, succeeded in escaping, and fled to Egypt, whence by the
help of the postmaster, himself a secret partisan of the Shi?ites,
he passed into West Africa, where at a later period his son founded
the Idrisite dynasty in Fez (see
Morocco
).
H?d?, who had never been able to forget that he had narrowly
escaped being supplanted by his brother, formed a plan for
excluding him from the Caliphate and transmitting the succession
to his own son Ja?far. To this he obtained the assent
of his ministers and the principal chiefs of his army, with the
exception of Yahy? b. Kh?lid, H?r?n’s former tutor, who showed
such firmness and boldness that H?d? cast him into prison and
resolved on his death. Some historians say that he had already
given orders for his execution, when he himself was killed
(September 14th, 786) by his mother Khaizor?n, who had
systematically and successfully intrigued against him with the
object of gaining the real power for herself. H?d?, indignant at
the fact that she was generally regarded as the real source of
authority, had attempted to poison her, and Khaizor?n, hoping
to find a more submissive instrument of her will in her second
and favourite son, caused H?d? to be smothered with cushions by
two young slaves whom she had presented to him. She herself
died three years later.
5.
Reign of H?r?n al-Rash?d
.?We have now reached the most
celebrated name among the Arabian caliphs, celebrated not only
in the East, but in the West as well, where the stories of the
Thousand and One Nights
have made us familiar with that world
which the narrators represent in such brilliant colours. H?r?n
ascended the throne without opposition. His first act was to
choose as prime minister his former tutor, the faithful Yahy? b.
Kh?lid, and to confide important posts to the two sons of Yahy?,
Fa?l and Ja?far, of whom the former was his own foster-brother,
the latter his intimate friend. The Barmecide family were
endowed in the highest degree with those qualities of generosity
and liberality which the Arabs prized so highly, and the chronicles
never weary in their praises. Loaded with all the burdens of
government, Yahy? brought the most distinguished abilities to
the exercise of his office. He put the frontiers in a good state of
defence; he filled the public treasury, and carried the splendour
of the throne to the highest point. His sons, especially Fa?l,
were worthy of their father.
Although the administration of Har?n’s states was committed
to skilful hands, yet the first years of his long reign were not free
from troubles. Towards the year 176 (
A.D.
792?793) a man of the
house of Ali, named Yahy? b. Abdallah, another brother of
Mahommed and Ibr?h?m, who had taken refuge in the land of
Dailam on the south-western shores of the Caspian Sea, succeeded
in forming a powerful party, and publicly claimed the Caliphate.
Har?n immediately sent against him an army of 50,000 men,
under the command of Fa?l, whom he made governor of all the
Caspian provinces. Reluctant, however, to fight against a
descendant of the Prophet, Fa?l first attempted to induce him
to submit by promising him safety and a brilliant position at the
court of Bagdad. Yahy?accepted the proposal, but required
that the caliph should send him letters of pardon countersigned
by the highest legal authorities and the principal personages of
the empire. H?r?n consented and Yahy? went to Bagdad,
where he met with a splendid reception. At the end of some
months, however, he was calumniously accused of conspiracy,
and the caliph, seizing the opportunity of ridding himself of a
possible rival, threw him into prison, where he died, according to
the majority of the historians, of starvation. Others say that
Ja?far b. Yahy? b. Kh?lid, to whose care he had been entrusted,
suffered him to escape, and that this was the real cause of H?r?n’s
anger against the
Barmecides
(
q.v.
). Dreading fresh insurrections
of the Alids, H?r?n secured the person of another descendant of
Ali, M?s? b. Ja?far, surnamed al-K?zim, who enjoyed great
consideration at Medina, and had already been arrested and
released again by Mahdi. The unfortunate man was brought by
the caliph himself to Bagdad, and there died, apparently by
poison.
Meanwhile H?r?n did not forget the hereditary enemy of
Islam. In the first year of his reign all the strong places of
Kinnesrin and Mesopotamia were formed into a special province,
which received the name of al-?Aw??im (“the defending fortresses”),
with Manbij (Hierapolis) as its capital. The building
of the fortress of Hadath having been completed, H?r?n committed
to Faraj the Turk the task of rebuilding and fortifying the
city of Tarsus. Thanks to these and similar measures, the Moslem
armies were able to advance boldly into Asia Minor. Almost
every year successful raids were made, in the year 797 under the
command of the caliph himself, so that Irene was compelled to
sue for peace. An attack by the Khazars called the caliph’s
attention from his successes in Asia Minor. This people had
made an irruption into Armenia, and their attack had been so
sudden that the Moslems and Christians were unable to defend
themselves, and 100,000 had been reduced to captivity. Two
valiant generals, Khozaima b. Kh?z?m and Yaz?d b. Mazyad,
marched against the Khazars and drove them out of Armenia.
In the midst of the cares of war, H?r?n was assiduous in his
religious duties, and few years passed without his making the
pilgrimage. Having determined to fix the order of succession in
so formal a manner as to take away all pretext for future contentions,
he executed a deed by which he appointed his eldest son
Mahommed his immediate heir, and after him the second,
Abdallah, and after Abdallah the third, Q?sim. Mahommed
received the surname of
al-Am?n
(“the Sure”), Abdallah that
of
al-Ma?m?n
(“he in whom men trust”), and Q?sim that of
al-Mo?tamin bill?h
(“he who trusts in God”). H?r?n further
stipulated that Mamun should have as his share during the lifetime
of his brother the government of the eastern part of the
empire. Each of the parties concerned swore to observe faithfully
every part of this deed, which the caliph caused to be hung up in
the Ka?ba, imagining that it would be thus guaranteed against all
violation on the part of men, a precaution which was to be rendered
vain by the perfidy of Am?m.
It was in the beginning of the following year, at the very
moment when the Barmecides thought their position most secure,
that H?r?n brought sudden ruin upon them. The causes of
their disgrace have been differently stated by the annalists (see
Barmecides
). The principal cause appears to have been that
they abused the sovereign power which they exercised. Not a
few were jealous of their greatness and sought for opportunities
of instilling distrust against them into the mind of H?r?n, and of
making him feel that he was caliph only in name. The secret
dissatisfaction thus aroused was increased, according to some
apparently well-informed authorities, by the releasing of the
Alid Yahy? b. Abdallah, already mentioned. Finally H?r?n
resolved on their destruction, and Ja?far b. Yahy?, who had just
taken leave of him after a day’s hunting, was arrested, taken to
the castle of H?r?n, and beheaded. The following day, his father
Yahy?, his brother Fadl, and all the other Barmecides were
arrested and imprisoned; all their property was confiscated.
The only Barmecide who remained unmolested with his family
was Mahommed the brother of Yahy?, who had been the chamberlain
of the caliph till 795, when Fadl b. Rabi? got his place.
This latter had henceforward the greatest influence at court.
In the same year a revolution at Constantinople overthrew the
empress Irene. The new emperor Nicephorus, thinking himself
strong enough to refuse the payment of tribute, wrote an insulting
letter to H?r?n, who contented himself with replying: “Thou
shall not hear, but see, my answer.” He entered Asia Minor and
took Heraclea, plundering and burning along his whole line of
march, till Nicephorus, in alarm, sued for peace. Scarcely had
the caliph returned into winter quarters when Nicephorus broke
the treaty. When the news came to Rakka, where H?r?n was
residing, not one of the ministers ventured to tell him, until at
last a poet introduced it in a poem which pleased the monarch.
Notwithstanding the rigour of the season, H?r?n retraced his
steps, and Nicephorus was compelled to observe his engagements.
In 805 the first great ransoming of Moslem prisoners took place
on the banks of the little river Lamus in Cilicia. But Nicephorus,
profiting by serious disturbances in Khorasan, broke the treaty
again, and overran the country as far as Anazarba and Kan?sat
as-saud? (“the black church”) on the frontier, where he took
many prisoners, who were, however, recovered by the garrison of
Mopsuestia. Thus H?r?n was obliged to take the field again.
He entered Asia Minor with an army of 135,000 regulars, beside
volunteers and camp followers. Heraclea was taken, together
with many other places, and Tyana was made a military station.
At the same time his admiral, Homaid b. Ma?y?f, conquered
Cyprus, which had broken the treaty, and took 16,000 of its
people captive. Nicephorus was now so completely beaten that
he was compelled to submit to very harsh conditions. In the
year 808 the second ransoming between the Moslems and the
Greeks took place near the river Lamus.
The disturbances in Khorasan were caused by the malversations
of the governor of that province, Ali b. ??s? b. M?h?n.
The caliph went in person to Merv, in order to judge of the
reality of the complaints which had reached him. Ali b. ??s?
hastened to meet the caliph on his arrival at Rai (Rhagae),
near the modern Teheran, with a great quantity of costly
presents, which he distributed with such profusion among the
princes and courtiers that no one was anxious to accuse him.
H?r?n confirmed him in his post, and, after having received the
chiefs of Tabarist?n who came to tender their submission,
returned through Bagdad to Rakka on the Euphrates, which
city was his habitual residence. In the following year R?fi’ b.
Laith, a grandson of Nasr b. Sayy?r, raised the standard of revolt
in Samarkand, and, at the head of a numerous army, defeated
the son of Ali b. ??s?. Thereupon Ali fled from Balkh, leaving
the treasury, which was plundered by the populace after his
departure. The caliph on learning that the revolt was due to
Ali’s tyranny, sent Harthama b. A?yan with stringent orders
to seize Ali and confiscate his possessions. This order was carried
out, and it is recorded that 1500 camels were required to transport
the confiscated treasures. The caliph’s hope that R?fi’ would
submit on condition of receiving a free pardon was not fulfilled,
and he resolved to set out himself to Khorasan, taking with him
his second son Mamun. On the journey he was attacked by an
internal malady, which carried him off, ten months after his
departure from Bagdad,
A.H.
193 (March 809), just on his arrival
at the city of T?s. H?r?n was only forty-five years of age. He
was far from having the high qualifications of his grandfather
Mansur; indeed he did not even possess the qualities of his
father and his brother. When the latter asked him to renounce
his right of succession, he was willing to consent, saying that
a quiet life with his beloved wife, the princess Zobaida, was
his highest wish, but he obeyed his mother and Yahy? b. Kh?lid.
As long as the Barmecides were in office, he acted only on
their direction. After their disgrace he was led into many
impolitic actions by his violent and often cruel propensities.
But the empire was, especially in the earlier part of his reign,
in a very prosperous state, and was respected widely by foreign
powers. Embassies passed between Charlemagne and H?r?n
in the years 180 (
A.D.
797) and 184 (
A.D.
801), by which the
former obtained facilities for the pilgrims to the Holy Land, the
latter probably concessions for the trade on the Mediterranean
ports. The ambassadors brought presents with them; on one
of these occasions the first elephant reached the land of the
Franks.
Under the reign of H?r?n, Ibr?h?m b. al-Aghlab, the governor
of Africa, succeeded in making himself independent of the central
government, on condition of paying a fixed annual tribute to his
suzerain the caliph. This was, if we do not take Spain into the
account, the first instance of dismemberment, later to be followed
by many others.
In the days of this caliph the first paper factories were founded
in Bagdad.
6.
Reign of Am?n
.?On the death of H?r?n his minister,
Fadl b. Rab??, with the view of gaining the new caliph’s confidence,
hastened to call together all the troops of the late caliph
and to lead them back to Bagdad, in order to place them in the
hands of the new sovereign, Am?n. He even, in direct violation
of H?r?n’s will, led back the corps which was intended to occupy
Khorasan under the authority of Mamun. Aware, however,
that in thus acting he was making Mamun his irreconcilable
enemy, he persuaded Am?n to exclude Mamun from the succession.
Mamun, on receiving his brother’s invitation to go to
Bagdad, was greatly perplexed; but his tutor and later vizier,
Fadl b. Sahl, a Zoroastrian of great influence, who in 806 had
adopted Islam, reanimated his courage, and pointed out to him
that certain death awaited him at Bagdad. Mamun resolved
to hold out, and found pretexts for remaining in Khorasan.
Am?n, in anger, caused the will of his father, which, as we have
seen, was preserved in the Ka?ba, to be destroyed, declared on
his own authority that Mamun’s rights of succession were
forfeited, and caused the army to swear allegiance to his own son
M?s?, a child of five, on whom he bestowed the title of
an-N?tiq
bil-Haqq
(“he who speaks according to truth”),
A.H.
194 (
A.D.
809?810). On hearing the news, Mamun, strong in the rightfulness
of his claim, retaliated by suppressing the caliph’s name in
all public acts. Am?n immediately despatched to Khorasan an
army of 40,000 under the command of Ali b. ??s?, who had regained
his former influence, and told the caliph that, at his
coming to Khorasan, all the leading men would come over to his
side. Zobaida, the mother of the caliph, entreated Ali to treat
Mamun kindly when he should have made him captive. It is
said that Fadl b. Sahl had, through a secret agent, induced
Fadl b. Rab?? to select Ali, knowing that the dislike felt towards
him by the Khorasanians would double their strength in fighting
against him. Mamun, on his side, sent in all haste an army of
less than 4000 men of his faithful Khorasanians, and entrusted
their command to ??hir b. Hosain, who displayed remarkable
abilities in the war that ensued. The two armies met under the
walls of Rai (Shaaban 195, May 811). By a bold attack, in the
manner of the Kharijites of yore, ??hir penetrated into the centre
of the hostile army and killed Ali. The frightened army fled,
leaving the camp with all its treasures to ??hir, who from that
day was named “the man with the two right hands.” A
courier was despatched immediately to Merv, who performed the
journey, a distance of about 750 miles, in three days. On
the very day of his arrival, Harthama b. A?yan had left Merv
with reinforcements. Mamun now no longer hesitated to take
the title of caliph.
When the news of Ali’s defeat came to Bagdad, Am?n sent
Abdarrahm?n b. Jabala to Hamad?n with 20,000 men. ??hir
defeated him, forced Hamad?n to surrender, and occupied all
the strong places in Jabal (Media). The year after, Am?n placed
in the field two new armies commanded respectively by Ahmad
b. Mazyad and Abdallah b. ?omaid b. Qa??aba. The skilful
??hir succeeded in creating divisions among the troops of his
adversaries, and obtained possession, without striking a blow,
of the city of Holw?n, an advantage which opened the way to
the very gates of Bagdad. He was here reinforced by troops
sent from Khorasan under the command of Harthama b. A?yan,
who was appointed leader of the war against Am?n, with orders
to send ??hir to Ahw?z. ??hir continued his victorious march,
conquered Ahw?z, took W?sit and Mad?in, and pitched his camp
near one of the gates of the capital, where he was rejoined by
Harthama. One after the other the provinces fell away from
Am?n, and he soon found himself in possession of Bagdad alone.
The city, though blockaded on every side, made a desperate
defence for nearly two years. Ultimately the eastern part of
the city fell into the hands of ??hir, and Am?n, deserted by his
followers, was compelled to surrender. He resolved to treat with
Harthama, as he was averse to ??hir; but this step caused his
ruin. ??hir succeeded in intercepting him on his way to Harthama,
and immediately ordered him to be put to death. His
head was sent to Mamun (September 813). It was presented to
him by his vizier, Fa?l b. Sahl, surnamed Dhu?l-Riy?satain, or
“the man with two governments,” because his master had
committed to him both the ministry of war and the general
administration. Mamun hid his joy beneath a feigned display of
sorrow.
Am?n was only twenty-eight years old. As a ruler he was
wholly incompetent. He hardly comprehended the importance
of the affairs with which he was called upon to deal. He acted
invariably on the advice of those who for the time had his
confidence, and occupied himself mainly with the affairs of his
harem, with polo, fishing, wine and music. The five years of his
reign were disastrous to the empire, and in particular to Bagdad
which never entirely recovered its old splendour.
7.
Reign of Mamun
.?On the day following the death of
Am?n ??hir caused Mamun to be proclaimed at Bagdad, and
promised in his name a general amnesty. The accession of this
prince appeared likely to restore to the empire the order necessary
for its prosperity. It was not so, however. The reign of Mamun?that
reign in which art, science and letters, under the patronage
of the caliph, threw so brilliant a lustre?had a very stormy
beginning. Mamun was in no haste to remove to Bagdad, but
continued to reside at Merv. In his gratitude to Fa?l b. Sahl,
to whose service he owed his success, he not only chose him as
prime minister of the empire, but also named his brother, Hasan
b. Sahl, governor of Media, F?rs, Ahw?z, Arabia and Irak. The
two generals to whom he owed still more were not treated as
they deserved. Harthama was ordered to return to Khorasan;
??hir was made governor of Mesopotamia and Syria, with the
task of subduing Na?r b. Shabath, who with numerous adherents
refused submission to the caliph. The Alids seized on the elevation
of Mamun as a pretext for fresh revolts. At Kufa a certain
Ibn ?ab??ab? placed an army in the field under Abu?l-Sar?y?,
who had been a captain in the army of Harthama. An army
sent by Hasan b. Sahl was defeated, and Abu?l-Sar?y?, no longer
content to play a second part, poisoned his chief, Ibn ?ab??ab?,
and put in his place another of the family of Ali, Mahommed
b. Mahommed, whom, on account of his extreme youth, he
hoped to govern at his will. Abu?l-Sar?y?’s success continued,
and several cities of Irak?Basra, W?sit and Mad?in?fell into
his hands. Mecca, Medina and Yemen also were mastered by
the Alids, who committed all kinds of atrocities and sacrilege.
Abu?l-Sar?y?, who even struck money in Kufa, began to menace
the capital, when Hasan b. Sahl hastily sent a messenger to
Harthama b. A?yan, who was already at Holw?n on his way back
to Merv, entreating him to come to his aid. Harthama, who
was deeply offended by his dismissal, refused at first, but at last
consented, and at once checked the tide of disaster. The troops
of the Alids were everywhere driven back, and the whole of Irak
fell again into the hands of the Abbasids. Kufa opened its
gates; Basra was taken by assault. Abu?l-Sar?y? and
Mahommed b. Mahommed fled to Mesopotamia, but were made
prisoners. The former was decapitated, the latter was sent to
Khorasan, the revolt in Arabia was quickly suppressed, and
peace seemed within reach. This, however, was by no means
the case. The disorder of civil war had caused a multitude of
robbers and vagabonds to emerge from the purlieus of Bagdad.
These ruffians proceeded to treat the capital as a conquered city,
and it became necessary for all good citizens to organize themselves
into a regular militia. Harthama, having vanquished
Abu?l-Sar?y?, did not go to Hasan b. Sahl, but proceeded
towards Merv with the purpose of telling Mamun that the state
of affairs was not as Fadl b. Sahl represented it to him, and
urging him to come to Bagdad, where his presence was necessary.
Fadl, informed of his intentions, filled the caliph’s mind with
distrust against the old general, so that when Harthama arrived
Mamun had him cast into prison, where he died shortly afterwards.
When the tidings of his disgrace came to Bagdad, the
people expelled the lieutenant of Hasan b. Sahl, called by them
the M?j?z? (“the Zoroastrian”), who had chosen Mad?in for his
residence, and put at their head Mans?r, a son of Mahdi, who
refused to assume the title of caliph, but consented to be Mamun’s
vicegerent instead of Hasan b. Sahl.
Meanwhile, at Merv, Mamun was adopting a decision which
fell like a thunderbolt on the Abbasids. In
A.H.
201 (
A.D.
817),
under pretence of putting an end to the continual revolts of the
partisans of Ali, and acting on the advice of his prime minister
Fa?l, he publicly designated as his successor in the Caliphate Ali
ar-Rid?, a son of that M?s? al-K?zim who perished in the prison
of Mahdi, a direct descendant of Hosain, the son of Ali, and
proscribed black, the colour of the Abbasids, in favour of that of
the house of Ali, green. This step was well calculated to delight
the followers of Ali, but it could not fail to exasperate the
Abbasids and their partisans. The people of Bagdad refused to
take the oath to Ali b. M?s?, declared Mamun deposed, and
elected his uncle, Ibr?h?m, son of Mahdi, to the Caliphate.
[33]
It
was only indirectly that the news reached the caliph, who then
saw that Fa?l had been treating him as a puppet. His anger
was great, but he kept it carefully to himself. Fa?l was one day
found murdered, and Ali b. M?s? died suddenly. The historians
bring no open accusation against Mamun, but it seems clear
that the opportune removal of these men was not due to chance.
Mamun affected the profoundest grief, and, in order to disarm
suspicion, appointed as his prime minister the brother of Fa?l,
Hasan b. Sahl, whose daughter B?r?n he afterwards married.
Soon after the news came to him that Hasan b. Sahl had become
insane. Mamun appointed an officer to act as his lieutenant,
and wrote that he was coming to Bagdad in a short time. From
that moment the pseudo-caliph Ibr?h?m found himself deserted,
and was obliged to seek safety in concealment. His precarious
reign had, however, lasted nearly two years. Mamun had found
out also that the general uneasiness was largely due to his treatment
of Harthama and ??hir, the latter having been put in a
rebellious country without the men and the money to maintain
his authority. The caliph therefore wrote to ??hir to meet him
at Nahraw?n, where he was received with the greatest honour.
Having taken all precautions, Mamun now made his solemn
entry into Bagdad, but, to show that he came as a master, he
still displayed for several days the green colours, though at last,
at the request of T?hir, he consented to resume the black. From
this time,
A.H.
204 (August 819), the real reign of Mamun began,
freed as he now was from the tutelage of Fa?l.
When welcoming T?hir, Mamun bade him ask for any reward
he might desire. T?hir, fearing lest the caliph, not being able to
endure the sight of the murderer of his brother, should change
his mind towards him, contrived to get himself appointed
governor of Khorasan. Like most of the great Moslem generals,
T?hir, it is said, had conceived the project of creating an independent
kingdom for himself. His death,
A.H.
207 (
A.D.
822),
prevented its realization; but as his descendants succeeded him
one after the other in the post of governor, he may be said in
reality to have founded a dynasty in Khorasan. His son Abdallah
b. T?hir was a special favourite of Mamun, He brought Na?r b.
Shabath to subjection in Mesopotamia, and overcame by great
ability a very dangerous rebellion in Egypt. When he returned
thence, the caliph gave him the choice between the government
of Khorasan and that of the northern provinces, where he would
have to combat Babak the Khorramite. Abdallah chose the
former (see below, § 8).
The pseudo-caliph, Ibr?him, who, since Mamun’s entry into
Bagdad, had led a wandering life, was eventually arrested. But
Mamun generously pardoned him, as well as Fa?l b. Rabi?, the
chief promoter of the terrible civil war which had so lately
shaken the empire. After that time, Ibrahim lived peacefully
at the court, cultivating the arts of singing and music.
Tranquillity being now everywhere re-established, Mamun
gave himself up to science and literature. He caused works on
mathematics, astronomy, medicine and philosophy to be translated
from the Greek, and founded in Bagdad a kind of academy,
called the “House of Science,” with a library and an observatory.
It was also by his orders that two learned mathematicians
undertook the measurement of a degree of the earth’s circumference.
Mamun interested himself too in questions of religious
dogma. He had embraced the Motazilite doctrine about free will
and predestination, and was in particular shocked at the opinion
which had spread among the Moslem doctors that the Koran
was the uncreated word of God. In the year 212 (
A.D.
827) he
published an edict by which the Motazilite (Mu?tazilite) doctrine
was declared to be the religion of the state, the orthodox faith
condemned as heretical. At the same time he ordered all his
subjects to honour Ali as the best creature of God after the
Prophet, and forbade the praise of Moawiya. In
A.H.
218 (
A.D.
833) a new edict appeared by which all judges and doctors
were summoned to renounce the error of the uncreated word of
God. Several distinguished doctors, and, among others, the
celebrated
Ahmad b. ?anbal
(
q.v.
), founder of one of the four
orthodox Moslem schools, were obliged to appear before an
inquisitorial tribunal; and as they persisted in their belief
respecting the Koran, they were thrown into prison. Mamun,
being at Tarsus, received from the governor of Bagdad the report
of the tribunal, and ordered that the culprits should be sent off
to him. Happily for these unfortunate doctors, they had
scarcely reached Adana, when news of the caliph’s death
arrived and they were brought back to Bagdad. The two
successors of Mamun maintained the edicts?Ahmad b. ?anbal,
who obstinately refused to yield, was flogged in the year 834?but
it seems that Motasim did not himself take much interest in
the question, which perhaps he hardly understood, and that the
prosecution of the inquisition by him was due in great part to
the charge which was left him in Mamun’s will. In the reign of
Motawakkil the orthodox faith was restored, never to be assailed
again.
[34]
In spite of these manifold activities Mamun did not forget the
hereditary enemy of Islam. In the years 830, 831 and 832 he
made expeditions into Asia Minor with such success that Theophilus,
the Greek emperor, sued for peace, which Mamun
haughtily refused to grant. Accordingly, he decided on marching
in the following year against Amorium, and thence to Constantinople
itself. Having sent before him his son Abbas to make
Tyana a strong fortress, he set out for Asia Minor to put himself
at the head of the army, but died of a fever brought on by
bathing in the chill river, Pedendon, 40 m. from Tarsus, in Rajab
218 (
A.D.
August 833), at the age of forty-eight.
Mamun was a man of rare qualities, and one of the best rulers
of the whole dynasty after Mansur. By him the ascendancy of
the Persian element over the Arabian was completed. Moreover,
he began to attract young Turkish noblemen to his court, an
example which was followed on a much larger scale by his
successor and led to the supremacy of the Turks at a later period.
8.
Reign of Motasim
.?Abu Is??k al-Mo?ta?im had for a
long time been preparing himself for the succession. Every year he
had bought Turkish slaves, and had with him in the last expedition
of Mamun a bodyguard of 3000. Backed by this force he
seems to have persuaded the ailing caliph to designate him as his
successor. The chroniclers content themselves with recording
that he himself wrote in the name of the caliph to the chief
authorities in Bagdad and elsewhere that he was to be the
successor. His accession, however, met at first with active
opposition in the army, where a powerful party demanded
that Abbas should take the place of his father. Abbas, however,
publicly renounced all pretension to the Caliphate, and the whole
army accepted Motasim, who immediately had the fortifications
of Tyana demolished and hastened back to Bagdad, where he
made his public entry on the 20th of September 833.
Motasim wanted officers for his bodyguard. Immediately
after his coming to Bagdad, he bought all the Turkish slaves
living there who had distinguished themselves. Among them
were Ashn?s, It?kh, Was?f, S?m?, all of whom later became
men of great influence. The guard was composed of an undisciplined
body of soldiers, who, moreover, held in open contempt the
religious precepts of Islam. Tired of the excesses committed
by these Turks, the people of Bagdad beat or killed as many of
them as they could lay hands on, and Motasim, not daring to
act with severity against either his guard or the citizens, took the
course of quitting the city. Having bought in 834 territories at
S?marr?, a small place situated a few leagues above Bagdad,
he caused a new residence to be built there, whose name, which
could be interpreted “Unhappy is he who sees it,” was changed
by him into Sorra-man-ra??, “Rejoiced is he who sees it.”
Leaving the government of the capital in the hands of his son
H?r?n al-W?thiq, he established himself at S?marr? in 836.
This resolution of Motasim was destined to prove fatal to his
dynasty; for it placed the caliphs at the mercy of their praetorians.
In fact, from the time of W?thiq, the Caliphate became
the plaything of the Turkish guard, and its decline was continuous.
In the time of the civil war the marshlands in Irak between
Basra and W?sit had been occupied by a large population of
Indians, called
yat
, or, according to the Arabic pronunciation,
Zo??
, who infested the roads and levied a heavy tribute from the
ships ascending and descending the Tigris. From the year 821
onwards Mamun had tried in vain to bring them to submission.
When Motasim came back to Bagdad, after the death of his
brother, he found the people in great distress, their supply of
dates from Basra having been cut off by the Zo??, and resolved
to put them down with all means. After seven months of
vigorous resistance, they at last yielded on condition of safety
of life and property. In January 835 the Zo?? in their national
costume and with their own music were conducted on a great
number of boats through Bagdad. Thence they were transported
to Ainzarba (Anazarba) on the frontier of the Greek empire.
Twenty years later they entered Asia Minor, whence in a later
period they came into Europe, under the name of Athinganoi
(Ziganes) and Egyptians (gipsies).
[35]
A far more difficult task lay before Motasim, the subjection of
B?bak al-Khorram? in Azerbaijan. Though the name Khorram?
is often employed by the Moslem writers to designate such
extravagant Moslem sectaries as the H?shim?ya, the real Khorram?
were not Moslems, but Persian Mazdaqites, or communists.
The name Khorram?, or Khorramd?n?, “adherent of the pleasant
religion,” seems to be a nickname. As they bore red colours,
they were also called Mohammira, or Redmakers. Their object
was to abolish Islam and to restore “the white religion.” We
find the first mention of them in the year 808, when Harun
al-Rashid sent an army against them. During the civil war
their power was steadily increasing, and spread not only over
Azerbaijan, but also over Media (Jabal) and Khorasan. The
numerous efforts of Mamun to put them down had been all in
vain, and they were now in alliance with the Byzantine emperor.
Therefore, in the year 835, Motasim made Afsh?n, a Turkish
prince who had distinguished himself already in the days of
Mamun, governor of Media, with orders to take the lead of the
war against B?bak. After three years’ fighting, B?bak was
taken prisoner. He was carried to S?marr?, led through the city
on the back of an elephant, and then delivered to the executioners,
who cut off his arms and legs. His head was sent to
Khorasan, his body was crucified. For long afterwards the place
where this happened bore the name of “B?bak’s Cross.”
In the hope of creating a diversion in B?bak’s favour, Theophilus
in 837 fell upon and laid waste the frontier town of
Zibatra. There and in several other places he took a great
number of prisoners, whom he mutilated. The news arrived just
after that of the capture of B?bak, and Motasim swore to take
exemplary vengeance. He assembled a formidable army,
penetrated into Asia Minor, and took the city of Amorium,
where he gained rich plunder. During his return the caliph
was informed of a conspiracy in the army in favour of ?Abb?s
the son of Mamun, of which ?Ojaif b. ?Anbasa was the ringleader.
The unfortunate prince was arrested and died soon after in prison.
The conspirators were killed, many of them with great cruelty.
(For the campaign see Bury in
J.H.S.
, 1909, xxix. pt. i.)
Motasim had just returned to S?marr? when a serious revolt
broke out in Tabaristan, M?ziy?r, one of the hereditary chiefs
of that country, refusing to acknowledge the authority of Abdallah
Ibn ??hir, the governor of Khorasan, of which Tabaristan was
a province. The revolt was suppressed with great difficulty,
and it came out that it was due to the secret instigation of
Afsh?n, who hoped thereby to cause the fall of the ??hirids,
and to take their place, with the ulterior object of founding an
independent kingdom in the East. Afsh?n, who stood at that
moment in the highest favour of the caliph, was condemned
and died in prison. Motasim died a year later, January 842.
9.
Reign of W?thiq
.?His son W?thiq, who succeeded, though
not in the least to be compared with Mamun, had yet in common
with him a thirst for knowledge?perhaps curiosity would be a
more appropriate term?which prompted him, as soon as he
became caliph, to send the famous astronomer Mahommed b.
M?s? into Asia Minor to find out all about the Seven Sleepers
which he discovered in the neighbourhood of Arabissus,
[36]
and
Sall?m the Interpreter to explore the situation of the famous
wall of Gog and Magog, which he reached at the north-west
frontier of China.
[37]
For these and other personal pursuits he
raised money by forcing a number of high functionaries to
disgorge their gains. In so vast an empire the governors and
administrators had necessarily enjoyed an almost unrestricted
power, and this had enabled them to accumulate wealth. Omar
had already compelled them to furnish an account of their riches,
and, when he found that they had abused their trust, to relinquish
half to the state. As time went on, nomination to an office
was more and more generally considered a step to wealth.
During the reign of the Omayyads a few large fortunes were
made thus. But with the increasing luxury after Mansur, the
thirst for money became universal, and the number of honest
officials lessened fast. Confiscation of property had been
employed with success by H?r?n al-Rash?d after the disgrace of
the Barmecides, and occasionally by his successors, but W?thiq
was the first to imprison high officials and fine them heavily on
the specific charge of peculation.
The caliph also shared Mamun’s intolerance on the doctrinal
question of the uncreated Koran. He carried his zeal to such a
point that, on the occasion of an exchange of Greek against
Moslem prisoners in 845, he refused to receive those Moslem
captives who would not declare their belief that the Koran was
created. The orthodox in Bagdad prepared to revolt, but were
discovered in time by the governor of the city. The ringleader
Ahmad b. Na?r al-Khoz??? was seized and brought to S?marr?,
where W?thiq beheaded him in person. The only other event
of importance in the reign of W?thiq was a rising of the Arabian
tribes in the environs of Medina, which the Turkish general
Bogh? with difficulty repressed. When he reached S?marr? with
his prisoners, W?thiq had just died (August 846). That the
predominance of the praetorians was already established is clear
from the fact that W?thiq gave to two Turkish generals, Ashn?s
and It?kh respectively, the titular but lucrative supreme government
of all the western and all the eastern provinces. In his days
the soldiery at S?marr? was increased by a large division of
Africans (Maghrib?s).
10.
Reign of Motawakkil
.?As W?thiq had appointed no
successor the vizier Mahommed Zayy?t had cast his eye on
his son Mahommed, who was still a child, but the generals Was?f
and It?kh, seconded by the upper cadi Ibn ab? Da?ud, refused
their consent, and offered the supreme power to W?thiq’s
brother Ja?far, who at his installation adopted the name of
al-Motawakkil ?al? ?ll?h
(“he who trusts in God”). The new
caliph hated the vizier Zayy?t, who had opposed his election, and
had him seized and killed with the same atrocious cruelty which
the vizier himself had inflicted on others. His possessions, and
those of others who had opposed the caliph’s election, were
confiscated. But the arrogance of It?kh, to whom he owed his
Caliphate, became insufferable. So, with the perfidy of his race,
the caliph took him off his guard, and had him imprisoned and
killed at Bagdad. He was succeeded by Was?f.
About this time an impostor named Mahm?d b. Faraj had set
himself up as a prophet, claiming to be Dhu?l-Qarnain (Alexander
the Great) risen from the dead. Asserting that Gabriel brought
him revelations, he had contrived to attract twenty-seven
followers. The caliph had him flogged, and compelled each of
the twenty-seven to give him ten blows on the head with his
fist. The “prophet” expired under the blows (850).
One of the first acts of Motawakkil was the release of all those
who had been imprisoned for refusing to admit the dogma of the
created Koran, and the strict order to abstain from any litigation
about the Book of God. The upper cadi Ibn ab? Da?ud, the
leader of the movement against orthodoxy, who had stood in
great esteem with Mamun and had fulfilled his high office under
the reigns of Motasim and W?thiq, had a stroke of paralysis in
the year 848. His son Mahommed was put in his place till 851,
when all the members of the family were arrested. They released
themselves by paying the enormous sum of 240,000 din?rs and
16,000,000 dirhems, which constituted nearly their whole
fortune, and were then sent to Bagdad, where father and son
died three years later. An orthodox upper cadi was named
instead, and the dogma of the created Koran was declared
heresy; therewith began a persecution of all the adherents of
that doctrine and other Motazilite tenets. Orthodoxy triumphed,
never again to lose its place as the state religion. Hand in hand
with these reactionary measures came two others, one against
Jews and Christians, one against the Shi?ites. The first caliph
who imposed humiliating conditions on the Dhimmis, or Covenanters,
who, on condition of paying a certain not over-heavy
tribute, enjoyed the protection of the state and the free exercise
of their cult, was Omar II., but this policy was not continued.
A proposition by the cadi Ab? Y?suf to H?r?n al-Rashid to
renew it had not been adopted. Motawakkil, in 850, formulated
an edict by which these sectaries were compelled to wear a
distinctive dress and to distinguish their houses by a figure of
the devil nailed to the door, excluding them at the same time
from all public employments, and forbidding them to send their
children to Moslem schools. Nevertheless, he kept his Christian
medical men, some of whom were high in favour. He showed
his hatred for the Shi?ites by causing the mausoleum erected over
the tomb of Hosain at Kerbela, together with all the buildings
surrounding it, to be levelled to the ground and the site to be
ploughed up, and by forbidding any one to visit the spot. A year
before, a descendant of Hosain, Yahy? b. Omar, had been arrested
and flogged on his orders. He escaped afterwards, rose in
rebellion at Kufa in 864, and was killed in battle. It is reported
that the caliph even permitted one of his buffoons to turn the
person of Ali into mockery.
In the year 848?849 Ibn Ba??th, who had rendered good service
in the war against B?bak, but had for some cause been arrested,
fled from S?marr? to Marand in Azerbaijan and revolted. Not
without great difficulty Bogh?, the Turkish general, succeeded
in taking the town and making Ibn Ba??th prisoner. He was
brought before Motawakkil and died in prison. In the year 237
(
A.D.
851?852) a revolt broke out in Armenia. Notwithstanding
a vigorous resistance, Bogh? subdued and pacified the province
in the following year. In that same year, 852?853, the Byzantines
made a descent on Egypt with 300 vessels. ?Anbasa the
governor had ordered the garrison of Damietta to parade at the
capital Fost?t. The denuded town was taken, plundered and
burned. The Greeks then destroyed all the fortifications at the
mouth of the Nile near Tinnis, and returned with prisoners and
booty. The annual raids of Moslems and Greeks in the border
districts of Asia Minor were attended with alternate successes,
though on the whole the Greeks had the upper hand. In 856
they penetrated as far as Amid (Di?rbekr), and returned with
10,000 prisoners. But in the year 859 the Greeks suffered a
heavy defeat with losses of men and cattle, the emperor Michael
himself was in danger, whilst the fleet of the Moslems captured
and sacked Antalia. This was followed by a truce and an
exchange of prisoners in the following year.
In 855 a revolt broke out in Homs (Emesa), where the harsh
conditions imposed by the caliph on the Christians and Jews
had caused great discontent. It was repressed after a vigorous
resistance. A great many leading men were flogged to death,
all churches and synagogues were destroyed and all the Christians
banished.
In the year 851 the Boja (or Beja), a wild people living between
the Red Sea and the Nile of Upper Egypt, the Blemmyes of the
ancients, refused to pay the annual tribute, and invaded the
land of the gold and emerald mines, so that the working of the
mines was stopped. The caliph sent against them Mahommed
al-Qomm?, who subdued them in 856 and brought their king
Ali B?b? to S?marr? before Motawakkil, on condition that he
should be restored to his kingdom.
About this time Sijistan liberated itself from the supremacy
of the ??hirids. Ya?q?b b. Laith al-Saff?r proclaimed himself
am?r of that province in the year 860, and was soon after confirmed
in this dignity by the caliph.
In 858 Motawakkil, hoping to escape from the arrogant
patronage of Wa??f, who had taken the place of It?kh as head
of the Turkish guard, transferred his residence to Damascus.
But the place did not agree with him, and he returned to S?marr?,
where he caused a magnificent quarter to be built 3 m. from the
city, which he called after his own name Ja?far?ya, and on which
he spent more than two millions of dinars (about £900,000).
He found the means by following the example of his predecessor
in depriving many officials of their ill-gotten gains. He contrived
to enrol in his service nearly 12,000 men, for the greater part
Arabs, in order to crush the Turks. In the year of his elevation
to the Caliphate, he had regulated the succession to the empire
in his own family by designating as future caliphs his three sons,
al-Monta?ir bill?h
(“he who seeks help in God”),
al-Mo’tazz
bill?h
(“he whose strength is of God”), and
al-Mowayyad bill?h
(“he who is assisted by God”). By and by he conceived an
aversion to his eldest son, and wished to supplant him by Motazz,
the son of his favourite wife Qab?ha. The day had been fixed on
which Montasir, Wa??f and several other Turkish generals were
to be assassinated. But Wa??f and Montasir had been informed,
and resolved to anticipate him. In the night before, Shaww?l
A.H.
247 (December 861), Motawakkil, after one of his wonted
orgies, was murdered, together with his confidant, Fat? b. Kh?q?n.
The official report, promulgated by his successor, was that Fat?
b. Kh?q?n had murdered his master and had been punished for
it by death. For the administrative system in this reign see
Mahommedan Institutions
.
11.
Reign of Montasir
.?On the very night of his father’s
assassination Montasir had himself proclaimed caliph. He was
a man of very feeble character, and a mere puppet in the hands
of his vizier Ahmad b. Kha??b and the Turkish generals. He
was compelled to send Wasif, the personal enemy of Ibn Kha??b,
to the frontier for a term of four years, and then to deprive his
two brothers Motazz and Mowayyad, who were not agreeable to
them, of their right of succession. He died six months after, by
poison, it is said.
12.
Reign of Mosta??n
.?The Turkish soldiery, now the chief
power in the state, chose, by the advice of Ibn Kha??b, in succession
to Montasir, his cousin Ahmad, who took the title of
al-Mosta??n bill?h
(“he who looks for help to God”). In the
reign of this feeble prince the Greeks inflicted serious losses on
the Moslems in Asia Minor. A great many volunteers from all
parts, who offered their services, were hunted down as rioters
by the Turkish generals, who were wholly absorbed by their
own interests. The party which had placed Mosta??n on the
throne, led by Ibn Kha??b and Ot?mish, were soon overpowered
by Wa??f and Bogh?. Ibn Kha??b was banished to Crete,
Ot?mish murdered. The superior party, however, maintained
Mosta??n on the throne, because they feared lest Motazz should
take vengeance upon them for the murder of his father Motawakkil.
But in the year 865 Wa??f and Bogh? fled with Mosta??n
to Bagdad, and Motazz was proclaimed caliph at S?marr?. A
terrible war ensued; Mosta??n was obliged to abdicate, and was
killed in the following year.
In 864 a descendant of Ali, named Hasan b. Zaid, gained
possession of Tabaristan and occupied the great city of Rai
(Rey) near Teheran. A year later the province was reconquered
by the ??hirid governor of Khorasan, so that Hasan was obliged
to retreat for refuge to the land of the Dailam. But he returned
soon, and after many reverses ruled over Tabaristan and Jorj?n
for many years.
13.
Reign of Motazz
.?Motazz, proclaimed caliph at Bagdad
in the first month of 252 (January 866), devoted himself to the
object of freeing himself from the omnipotent Turkish generals,
especially Wa??f and Bogh?, who had opposed his election. But
such a task demanded an ability and energy which he did not
possess. He was obliged to grant them amnesty and to recall
them to S?marr?. He mistrusted also his brothers Mowayyad
and Mowaffaq, who had interceded for them. He put the former
to death and drove the latter into exile to Bagdad. Some time
after he had the satisfaction of seeing Wa??f killed by his own
troops, and succeeded, a year later, in having Bogh? assassinated.
But a more difficult problem was the payment of the Turkish,
Persian and African guards, which was said to have amounted
in
A.H.
252 to 200,000,000 dirhems
[38]
(about £6,500,000), or
apparently twice the revenue derived from the land tax. As the
provincial revenues annually decreased, it became impossible
to pay this sum, and ??li? the son of Wa??f, in spite of the
remonstrances of the caliph, confiscated the property of state
officials. Upon a further demand, Motazz, having failed to
procure money from his mother Qab?ha, who was enormously
rich, was seized upon and tortured, and died of starvation in
prison (Shaaban 255, July 868).
The dismemberment of the empire continued fast in these
years, and the caliph was compelled to recognize the virtual
independence of the governors Ya?q?b the Saff?rid (see
Saff?rids
and
Persia
,
History
, § B) in Seistan, and Ahmad
b. T?l?n in Egypt.
14.
Reign of Mohtad?
.?Immediately after the seizure of
Motazz, the Turks, led by ??li? b. Wa??f, proclaimed as caliph
one of the sons of W?thiq with the title of al-Mohtad? bill?h
(“the guided by God”), who, however, refused to occupy the
throne until his predecessor had solemnly abdicated. Mohtad?,
who was a man of noble and generous spirit and had no lack of
energy, began by applying the precarious measure of power
which was left him to the reform of the court. He banished the
musicians and singers, and forbade all kinds of games; he
devoted himself to the administration of justice, and gave
public audiences to the people for the redress of their grievances.
At the same time he contrived to elevate the power of the Abn?,
the descendants of those Persian soldiers who had established
the dynasty of the Abbasids, in order to break the supremacy
of the Turks and other mercenaries. But Mohtad? came too
late, and the Turks did not leave him time to finish his work.
On the news of the conspiracy against Motazz, M?s?, the son
of the famous general Bogh?,
[39]
then governor of Media (Jabal),
ordered his deputy-general Mofli? to return at once from a proposed
invasion of Dailam, and moved with his army towards
S?marr?, notwithstanding the peremptory orders of the caliph.
At his approach ??li?, who was afraid of M?s?, hid himself,
but was soon discovered and killed. At that moment a Kharijite,
named Mos?wir, who in 867 had risen in Mesopotamia and
beaten more than one general of the government, took Balad
and menaced Mos?l. M?s? could not refuse to comply with the
formal command of the caliph to march against him. During
the absence of these troops, Mohtad? seems to have tried to get
rid of the principal Turkish leaders. A brother of Musa and one
of his best generals, B?yikbeg (Baiekb?k), were killed, but the
soldiery he had gained over for himself were not strong enough.
Mohtad? was overwhelmed and killed, Rajab 256 (June 870).
15.
Reign of Motamid
.?Whether from weariness or from
repentance, the Turkish soldiery discontinued for a time their
hateful excesses, and their new leader, M?s? b. Bogh?, was
without the greed and ambition of his predecessors. A son of
Motawakkil was brought out of prison to succeed his cousin, and
reigned for twenty-three years under the name of
al-Mo
?
tamid
?
al?
’
ll?h
(“he whose support is God”). He was a feeble, pleasure-loving
monarch, but Mohtad? had regained for the Caliphate
some authority, which was exercised by Obaidallah b. Kh?q?n,
the able vizier of Mohtad?, and by Motamid’s talented brother
Ab? Ahmad al-Mowaffaq; M?s? b. Bogh? himself remained till
his death a staunch servant of the government. During the
reign of Motamid great events took place. The great power long
wielded by the ??hirids, not only in the eastern provinces, but
also at Bagdad itself, had been gradually diminishing, and came
to an end in the year 873, when Ya?q?b the Saff?rid occupied
N?sh?pur and imprisoned Mahommed b. ??hir with his whole
family. The power of Ya?q?b then increased to such an extent
that he was not content with the caliph’s offer to recognize him
as supreme in the provinces he had conquered, and military
governor of Bagdad, but marched against Irak. The caliph
himself, wearing the mantle and the staff of the Prophet, then
went out against him, and after a vigorous resistance he was
beaten by Mowaffaq, who had the command of the troops, and
fled to Jondis?p?r in Kh?zist?n, where he died three years later,
leaving his empire to his brother ?Amr. This prince maintained
himself in power till the year 900, when he was beaten and taken
prisoner by Ism???l b. Ahmed the S?m?nid. The S?m?nids had
been governors of Transoxiana from the time of Mamun, and
after the fall of the ??hirids, had been confirmed in this office
by the caliph. After 287 (900) they were independent princes,
and under their dominion these districts attained to high
prosperity.
Motamid had also to deal with a rising of the negro slaves in
the province of Basra, led by one Ali b. Mahommed, who called
himself a descendant of Ali. It lasted from 869 to 883, and tasked
the government to its utmost.
[40]
In the west, Ahmad b. T?l?n became a mighty prince, whose
sway extended over Syria and a part of Mesopotamia. Motamid,
who wished to free himself from the guardianship of his brother
Mowaffaq, concerted with him a plan to emigrate to Egypt,
Ahmad being himself angered against Mowaffaq on personal
grounds. Motamid’s flight was stopped by his vizier Ibn
Makhlad, and the caliph himself was reconducted to S?marr?
as a prisoner in the year 882. From that time there was war
between the Abbasids and the ??l?nids. Ahmad died in 270
(884). His son Khom?r?ya succeeded him, and maintained
himself in power till his death in 896, in which year his daughter
was married to the caliph Motadid. Ten years later Egypt was
conquered by a general of the caliph Moktaf?.
During the reign of Motamid the emperor Basil I. conducted
the war against the Moslems with great success, till in the year
270 (
A.D.
884) his army suffered a terrible defeat near Tarsus,
in which the greater part of the army, the commander Andreas,
and many other patricians perished.
Motamid had appointed his son al-Mofawwid as successor to
the Caliphate, and after him his brother Mowaffaq. When the
latter died in the year 891, his son A?? ?l-?Abb?s,
al-Mo
?
ta?id
(“he who seeks his support in God”), was put in his place.
Next year Mofawwid was compelled to abdicate in favour of his
cousin. Shortly after Motamid died, Rajab 279 (October 892).
Not long before these events, the seat of the Caliphate had been
restored to Bagdad.
16.
Reign of Motadid
.?Motadid may be called, after Mans?r,
the most able and energetic of all the Abbasid rulers. He took
good care of the finances, reformed the administration, was an
excellent commander in war, and maintained order as far as
possible. The Kharijites in Mesopotamia, who for many years
had molested the government, were finally crushed with the aid
of their former ally ?amd?n, who became the founder of the
well-known dynasty of the ?amd?nites. The mighty house
of Ab? Dolaf in the south-west of Media, which had never
ceased to encroach on the Caliphate, was put down. The
governor of Azerbaijan and Armenia, belonging to the powerful
Turkish house of the S?jids or S?jites, whose loyalty was always
doubtful, planned an invasion of Syria and Egypt. Motadid
frustrated it by a quick movement. The citizens of Tarsus who
were involved in the plot were severely punished. The chief
punishment, however, the burning of the fleet, was a very
impolitic measure, as it strengthened the hands of the Byzantines.
Almost simultaneously with the rising of the negro slaves
in Basra there arose in the province of K?fa the celebrated
sect of the
Carmathians
(
q.v.
), F?timites
[41]
or Isma?ilites. This
powerful sect, which save for a difference of opinion would have
joined the negro rising, remained outwardly quiet during
Motamid’s reign, but under Motadid the government began to
have misgivings about them. Ab? Sa??d al-Jann?b?, who had
founded a Carmathian state in Bahrein, the north-eastern
province of Arabia (actually called La?s?), which could become
dangerous for the pilgrim road as well as for the commerce of
Basra, in the year 900 routed an army sent against him by
Motadid, and warned the caliph that it would be safer to let the
Carmathians alone. In the same year the real chief of the sect,
whose abode had been discovered by the caliph, fled from
Salamia in Syria, where he lived, to Africa, and hid himself at
Sijilm?sa (in Tafilalt) in the far west, whence he reappeared
ten years later at Kairawan as the Mahdi, the first caliph of the
Fatimites.
[42]
Motadid died in Rabia II.
A.H.
289 (March 902), leaving the
Caliphate to his son
al-Mokt?f? bill?h
(“he who sufficeth himself
in God”).
17.
Reign of Moktafi
.?Moktafi inherited his father’s intrepidity,
and seems to have had high personal qualities, but his
reign of six years was a constant struggle against the Carmathians
in Syria, who defeated the Syrian and Egyptian troops, and
conquered Damascus and other cities. Moktafi led his troops
in person, and his general, Mahommed b. Suleim?n, gained a
signal victory. Three of their chiefs were taken and put to death.
But, to avenge their defeat, they lay in wait for the great pilgrim
caravan on its return from Mecca in the first days of 294 (906),
and massacred 20,000 pilgrims, making an immense booty.
This horrible crime raised the whole Moslem world against
them. Zikr?ya their chief was defeated at last and perished.
After the defeat of the Syrian Carmathians, Mahommed b.
Suleim?n was sent by the caliph to Egypt, where he overthrew
the dominion of the T?l?nids. ??s? b. Mahommed al-Naushari
was made governor in their stead (905).
The war with the Byzantines was conducted with great energy
during the reign of Moktafi. In the year 905 the Greek general
Andronicus took Marash, and penetrated as far as Haleb
(Aleppo), but the Moslems were successful at sea, and in 907
captured Iconium, whilst Andronicus went over to the caliph’s
side, so that the Byzantine emperor sent an embassy to Bagdad
to ask for a truce and an exchange of prisoners.
18.
Reign of Moqtadir
.?The sudden death of Moktafi, Dhu?l-qa?da
295 (August 908), was a fatal blow to the prestige of the
Caliphate, which had revived under the successive governments of
Mowaffaq, Motadid and himself. The new caliph,
al-Moqtadir
bill?h
(“the powerful through God”), a brother of Moktafi, was
only thirteen years of age when he ascended the throne. Owing
to his extreme youth many of the leading men at Bagdad rebelled
and swore allegiance to Abdallah, son of the former caliph
Motazz, a man of excellent character and of great poetical gifts;
but the party of the house of Motadid prevailed, and the rival
caliph was put to death. Moqtadir, though not devoid of noble
qualities, allowed himself to be governed by his mother and her
ladies and eunuchs. He began by squandering the 15,000,000
dinars which were in the treasury when his brother died in
largesses to his courtiers, who, however, merely increased their
demands. His very able vizier, the noble and disinterested
Ali b. ??s?, tried to check this foolish expenditure, but his efforts
were more than counterbalanced by the vizier Ibn abi’l-For?t
and the court. The most shameless bribery and the robbery
of the well-to-do went together with the most extravagant
luxury. The twenty-four years of Moqtadir’s reign are a period
of rapid decay. The most important event in the reign was the
foundation of the F?timite dynasty, which reigned first in the
Maghrib and then in Egypt for nearly three centuries (see
Fatimites
and
Egypt
:
History
(§ “Mahommedan”
).
Far more dangerous, however, for the Caliphate of Bagdad
at the time were the Carmathians of Bahrein, then guided by
Abu ??hir, the son of Abu Sa??d Jann?bi. In 311 (
A.D.
923)
they took and ransacked Basra; in the first month of the
following year the great pilgrim caravan on its return from
Mecca was overpowered; 2500 men perished, while an even larger
number were made prisoners and brought to Lahs?, the residence
of the Carmathian princes, together with an immense booty.
The caravan which left Bagdad towards the end of this year
returned in all haste before it had covered a third of the way.
Then Kufa underwent the fate that had befallen Basra. In 313
(
A.D.
926) the caravan was allowed to pass on payment of a large
sum of money. The government of Bagdad resolved to crush
the Carmathians, but a large army was utterly defeated by Abu
??hir in 315 (927), and Bagdad was seriously threatened. Next
year Mecca was taken and plundered; even the sacred Black
Stone was transported to Lahs?, where it remained till 339 (950),
when by the express order of the Im?m, the F?timite caliph, it
was restored to the Ka?ba.
In 317 (929) a conspiracy was formed to dethrone Moqtadir,
to which M?nis, the chief commander of the army, at first
assented, irritated by false reports. Very soon he withdrew,
and though he could not prevent the plundering of the palace,
and the proclamation as caliph of another son of Motadid with
the title
al-Q?hir bill?h
(“the victorious through God”), he
rescued Moqtadir and his mother, and at the same time his
imprisoned friend Ali b. ??s?, and brought them to his own house.
A few days later, a counter-revolution took place; the leaders
of the revolt were killed, and Moqtadir, against his wish, was
replaced on the throne. In 320 (
A.D.
932) M?nis, discovering
a court intrigue against him, set out for Mosul, expecting that
the Hamd?nids, who owed to him their power, would join him.
Instead of doing this, they opposed him with a numerous army,
but were defeated. M?nis took Mosul, and having received
reinforcements from all parts, marched against Bagdad. The
caliph, who wished nothing more than to be reconciled to his old
faithful servant, was forced to take arms against him, and fell in
battle Shaww?l 320 (October 932), at the age of 38 years. His
reign, which lasted almost twenty-five years, was in all respects
injurious to the empire.
19.
Reign of Q?hir
.?After the victory M?nis acted with
great moderation and proclaimed a general amnesty. His own
wish was to call Abu Ahmad, a son of Moktafi, or a son of Moqtadir,
to the Caliphate, but the majority of generals preferring
Q?hir because he was an adult man and had no mother at his
side, he acquiesced, although he had a personal dislike for him,
knowing his selfish and cruel character. Q?hir was a drunkard,
and derived the money for his excesses from promiscuous confiscation.
He ill-treated the sons of Moqtadir and Abu Ahmad,
and ultimately assassinated his patrons M?nis and Yalbak,
whose guardianship he resented. In Jomada I. 322 (April
934) he was dethroned and blinded, and died in poverty seven
years later.
During the last years of Moqtadir and the reign of Q?hir a
new dynasty rose. B?ya, the chief of a clan of the Dailam, a
warlike people who inhabit the mountainous country south-west
of the Caspian Sea, had served under the S?m?nids, and found a
footing in the south of Media (Jabal), whence his three sons?well
known under the titles they assumed at a later period:
?Im?d addaula (“prop of the dynasty”), Rokn addaula (“pillar
of the dynasty”), and Mo?izz addaula (“strengthener of the
dynasty”)?succeeded in subduing the province of F?rs, at the
time of Q?hir’s dethronement (see
Persia
:
History
).
20.
Reign of Radi
.?Moqtadir’s son, who was then proclaimed
caliph under the name of
ar-R?d? bill?h
(“the content through
God”), was pious and well-meaning, but inherited only the
shadow of power. The vizier Ibn Moqla tried to maintain his
authority at least in Irak and Mesopotamia, but without success.
The treasury was exhausted, the troops asked for pay, the people
in Bagdad were riotous. In this extremity the caliph bade
Ibn R?iq, who had made himself master of Basra and W?sit,
and had command of money and men, to come to his help. He
created for him the office of Am?r al-Omar?, “Amir of the
Amirs,” which nearly corresponds to that of Mayor of the Palace
among the Franks.
[43]
Thenceforth the worldly power of the
Caliphate was a mere shadow. The empire was by this time
practically reduced to the province of Bagdad; Khorasan and
Transoxiana were in the hands of the S?m?nids, F?rs in those
of the B?yids; Kirman and Media were under independent
sovereigns; the H?md?nids possessed Mesopotamia; the S?jids
Armenia and Azerbaijan; the Iksh?dites Egypt; as we have
seen, the F?timites Africa, the Carmathians Arabia. The Amir
al-Omar? was obliged to purchase from the latter the freedom
of the pilgrimage to Mecca, at the price of a disgraceful treaty.
During the troubles of the Caliphate the Byzantines had made
great advances; they had even taken Malatia and Samosata
(Samsat). But the great valour of the Hamdanid prince Saif-addaula
checked their march. The Greek army suffered two
severe defeats and sued for peace.
21.
Reign of Mottaqi
.?Radi died in Rabia I.
A.H.
329 (December
940). Another son of Moqtadir was then proclaimed caliph
under the name of
al-Mottaq? bill?h
(“he who guards himself by
God”). At the time of his accession the Am?r al-Omar? was the
Turkish general Bajkam, in whose favour Ibn R?iq had been
obliged to retire. Unfortunately Bajkam died soon after, and
his death was followed by general anarchy. A certain Bar?d?,
who had carved out for himself a principality in the province of
Basra, marched against Bagdad and made himself master of
the capital, but was soon driven out by the Dailamite general
K?rtak?n. Ibn R?iq came back and reinstated himself as Am?r
al-Omar?. But Bar?d? again laid siege to Bagdad, and Mottaqi
fled to N?sir addaula the Hamd?nid prince of Mosul, who then
marched against Bagdad, and succeeded in repelling Bar?d?.
In return he obtained the office of Am?r al-Omar?. But the
Dailamite and Turkish soldiery did not suffer him to keep this
office longer than several months. T?z?n, a former captain of
Bajkam, compelled him to return to Mosul and took his place.
Mottaqi fled again to Mosul and thence to Rakka. The Iksh?d,
sovereign of Egypt and Syria, offered him a refuge, but T?z?n,
fearing to see the caliph obtain such powerful support, found
means to entice him to his tent, and had his eyes put out, Saphar
333 (October 944).
22.
Reign of Mostakfi
.?As successor T?z?n chose
al-Mostakf?
bill?h
(“he who finds full sufficiency with God”), a son of
Moktafi. This prince, still more than his predecessors, was
a mere puppet in the hands of T?z?n, who died a few months
later, and his successor Ibn Sh?rz?d. Such was the weakness
of the caliph that a notorious robber, named Hamd?, obtained
immunity for his depredations by a monthly payment of 25,000
dinars. One of the B?yid princes, whose power had been
steadily increasing, marched about this time against Bagdad,
which he entered in Jomada I.
A.H.
334 (December 945), and was
acknowledged by the caliph as legal sovereign, under the title
of Sultan. He assumed at this time the name of Mo?izz addaula.
Mostakfi was soon weary of this new master, and plotted against
him. At least Mo?izz addaula suspected him and deprived him
of his eyesight, Jomada II.
A.H.
334 (January 946). There were
thus in Bagdad three caliphs who had been dethroned and
blinded, Q?hir, Mottaqi and Mostakfi.
23.
Reign of Moti
.?Mo?izz addaula soon abandoned his
original idea of restoring the title of caliph to one of the descendants
of Ali, fearing a strong opposition of the people, and also
dreading lest this should lead to the recovery by the caliphs of
their former supremacy. His choice fell on a son of Moqtadir,
who took the title of
al-Moti
?
bill?h
(“he who obeys God”).
The sultan, reserving to himself all the powers and revenues of
the Caliphate, allowed the caliph merely a secretary and a pension
of 5000 dirhems a day. Though in public prayers and on the
coins the name of the caliph remained as that of the supreme
authority, he had in reality no authority out of the palace, so
that the saying became proverbial, “he contents himself with
sermon and coin.”
The Hamd?nid prince of Mosul, who began to think his
possessions threatened by Mo?izz addaula, tried without success
to wrest Bagdad from him, and was obliged to submit to the
payment of tribute. He died in 358 (
A.D.
969), and ten years
later the power of this branch of the Hamdanids came to an end.
The representative of the other branch, Saif addaula, the prince
of Haleb (Aleppo), conducted the war against the Byzantines
with great valour till his death in 356 (
A.D.
967), but could not
stop the progress of the enemy. His descendants maintained
themselves, but with very limited power, till
A.H.
413 (
A.D.
1022).
Mo?izz addaula died in the same year as Saif addaula, leaving
his power to his son Bakhtiy?r ?Izz addaula, who lacked his
father’s energy and loved pleasure more than business.
While the Abb?sid dynasty was thus dying out in shame and
degradation, the F?timites, in the person of Mo?izz li-d?n?allah
(or Mo?izz Abu Tamin Ma?add) (“he who makes God’s religion
victorious”), were reaching the highest degree of power and
glory in spite of the opposition of the Carmathians, who left
their old allegiance and entered into negotiations with the court
of Bagdad, offering to drive back the F?timites, on condition of
being assisted with money and troops, and of being rewarded
with the government of Syria and Egypt. The former condition
was granted, but the caliph emphatically refused the latter
demand, saying: “Both parties are Carmathians, they profess
the same religion and are enemies of Islam.” The Carmathians
drove the F?timites out of Syria, and threatened Egypt, but,
notwithstanding their intrepidity, they were not able to cope
with their powerful rival, who, however, in his turn could not
bring them to submission. In 978?979 peace was made on
condition that the Carmathians should evacuate Syria for an
annual payment of 70,000 dinars. But the losses sustained by
the Carmathians during that struggle had been enormous.
Their power henceforward declined, and came to an end in
A.H.
474 (
A.D.
1081).
Mo?izz addaula, as we have seen, professed a great veneration
for the house of Ali. He not only caused the mourning for the
death of Hosain and other Shi?ite festivals to be celebrated at
Bagdad, but also allowed imprecations against Moawiya and
even against Mahomet’s wife Ayesha and the caliphs Abu
Bekr, Omar and Othman, to be posted up at the doors of the
mosques. These steps annoyed the people and the Turkish
soldiery, who were Sunnites, and led at last to an insurrection.
Moti was compelled to abdicate, and Bakhtiy?r was driven out
of Bagdad Dhu?l-qa?da 363 (August 974).
24.
Reign of Tai
.?Moti left the empty title of caliph to his son
al-T?
?
i li-amri’ll?h
(“the obedient to the command of God”).
The Turks who had placed him on the throne could not maintain
themselves, but so insignificant was the person of the caliph
that ?Adod addaula, who succeeded his cousin Bakhtiy?r in
Bagdad, did not think of replacing him by another. Under this
prince, or king, as he was called, the power of the B?yids reached
its zenith. His empire stretched from the Caspian to the Persian
Sea, and in the west to the eastern frontier of Syria. He did
his best to remedy the misery caused by the intestine Wars,
repaired the ruined mosques and other public edifices, founded
hospitals and libraries?his library in Shir?z was one of the
wonders of the world?and improved irrigation. It was also he
who built the mausoleum of Hosain at Kerbela, and that of Ali
at Kufa. But after his death in the year 372 (
A.D.
983), his
sons, instead of following the example of their predecessors,
the three sons of B?ya, fought one against the other. In 380
(
A.D.
990) the youngest of them, Bah? addaula, had the upper
hand. This prince, who was as avaricious as he was ambitious,
wishing to deprive the caliph Ta?i of his possessions, compelled
him to abdicate
A.H.
381 (
A.D.
991).
25.
Reign of Q?dir
.?A grandson of Moqtadir was then made
caliph under the name of
al-Q?dir bill?h
(“the powerful through
God”). The only deed of power, however, that is recorded of
him, is that he opposed himself to the substitution of a Shi?ite
head cadi for the Sunnite, so that Bah? addaula had to content
himself with giving to the Shi?ites a special judge, to whom he
gave the title of
naq?b
(superintendent). During this caliphate
the B?yid princes were in continual war with one another.
Meanwhile events were preparing the fall of their dynasty. In
350 (
A.D.
961) a Turkish general of the S?m?nids had founded for
himself a principality in Ghazni, arid at his death in 366 (
A.D.
976) his successor Sabuktagin had conquered Bost in Sijist?n
and Qosd?r in Baluchistan, beaten the Indian prince Diaya
Pala, and been acknowledged as master of the lands west of the
Indus. At his death in 387 his son Mahmud conquered the
whole of Khorasan and Sijist?n, with a great part of India. He
then attacked the B?yids, and would have destroyed their
dynasty but for his death in the year 421 (
A.D.
1030).
In 389 (
A.D.
999) Ilek-kh?n, the prince of Turkistan, took
Bokh?r? and made an end to the glorious state of the S?m?nids,
the last prince of which was murdered in 395 (
A.D.
1005). The
S?m?nids had long been a rampart of the Caliphate against the
Turks, whom they held under firm control. From their fall
dates the invasion of the empire by that people. The greatest
gainer for the moment was Mahm?d of Ghazni. In Mesopotamia
and Irak several petty states arose on the ruins of the dominions
of the Hamd?nids and of the Abbasids.
Q?dir died in the last month of
A.H.
422 (November 1031).
He is the author of some theological treatises.
26.
Reign of Q?im
.?He was succeeded by his son, who at his
accession took the title of
al-Q?im bi-amri’ll?h
(“he who maintains
the cause of God”). During the first half of his long reign
took place the development of the power of the Gh?zz, a great
Turkish tribe, who took the name Seljuk from Seljuk their chief in
Transoxiana. Already during the reign of Mahm?d large bodies
had passed the Oxus and spread over Khorasan and the adjacent
countries. In the time of his successor the bulk of the tribe
followed, and in the year 429 (
A.D.
1038) Toghrul Beg, their
chief, beat the army of the Ghaznevids and made his entry into
Nishapur. Thenceforth this progress was rapid (see
Seljuks
).
The situation in Bagdad had become so desperate that the caliph
called Toghrul to his aid. This prince entered Bagdad in the
month of Ramadan
A.H.
447 (December 1055), and overthrew
finally the dynasty of the B?yids.
[44]
In 449 (
A.D.
1058) the caliph
gave him the title of “King of the East and West.” But in the
following year, 450, during his absence, the Shi?ites made themselves
masters of the metropolis, and proclaimed the Caliphate
of the F?timite prince Mostansir. They were soon overthrown
by Toghrul, who was now supreme, and compelled the caliph
to give him his daughter in marriage. Before the marriage,
however, he died, and was succeeded by his nephew Alp Arsl?n,
who died in 465 (25th December) (
A.D.
1072). Q?im died two
years later, Shaaban
A.H.
467 (April 1075).
In the year 440 Mo?izz b. B?d?s, the Zeirid ruler of the Maghrib,
made himself independent, and substituted in prayer the name
of the Abbasid caliph for that of Mostansir. In order to punish
him, the latter gave permission to the Arab tribes in Egypt to
cross the Nile, and granted them possession of all the lands they
should conquer. This happened in 442 (
A.D.
1050) and was of
the greatest significance for the subsequent fate of Africa.
27.
Reign of Moqtadi
.?In the first year of the Caliphate of
al-Moqtad? bi-amri’ll?h
(“he who follows the orders of God”), a
grandson of Q?im, the power of the Seljuk empire reached its
zenith. All the eastern provinces, a great part of Asia Minor,
Syria with the exception of a few towns on the shore, the main
part of West Africa acknowledged the caliph of Bagdad as the
Im?m. Yemen had been subjected, and at Mecca and Medina
his name was substituted in the public prayers for that of the
F?timite caliph. But after the death of Malik-Shah a contest
for the sultanate took place. The caliph, who had in 1087
married the daughter of Malik-Shah, had been compelled two
years after to send her back to her father, as she complained of
being neglected by her husband. Just before his death, the
Sultan had ordered him to transfer his residence from Bagdad to
Basra. After his death he stayed and supported the princess
Turk?n Kh?t?n. This lost him his life. The day after Barki-y?roq’s
triumphant entry into Bagdad, Muharram 487 (February
1094), he died suddenly, apparently by poison.
28.
Reign of Mostazhir
.?
Al-Mostazhir bill?h
(“he who seeks
to triumph through God”), son of Moqtadi, was only sixteen
years old when he was proclaimed caliph. His reign is memorable
chiefly for the growing power of the
Assassins
(
q.v.
) and for the
first Crusade (see
Crusades
). The Seljuk princes were too much
absorbed by internal strife to concentrate against the new
assailants. After the death of Barkiy?roq in November 1104,
his brother Mahommed reigned till April 1118. His death was
followed about four months later by that of Mostazhir.
29.
Reign of Mostarshid
.?
Al-Mostarshid bill?h
(“he who asks
guidance from God”), who succeeded his father in Rabia II. 512
(August 1118), distinguished himself by a vain attempt to re-establish
the power of the caliph. Towards the end of the year
529 (October 1134) he was compelled to promise that he would
confine himself to his palace and never again take the field. Not
long after he was assassinated. About the same time Dobais
was killed, a prince of the family of the Banu Mazyad, who had
founded the Arabian state of Hillah in the vicinity of the ruins
of Babel in 1102.
30.
Reign of R?shid
.?
Al-R?shid bill?h
(“the just through
God”) tried to follow the steps of his father, with the aid of
Zeng?, the prince of Mosul. But the sultan Mas??d beat the army
of the allies, took Bagdad and had R?shid deposed (August 1136).
R?shid escaped, but was murdered two years later.
31.
Reign of Moqtafi
.?His successor
Al-Moqtafi li-amri’ll?h
(“he who follows the orders of God”), son of Mostazhir, had
better success. He was real ruler not only of the district of
Bagdad, but also of the rest of Irak, which he subdued by force.
He died in the month of Rabia II. 555 (March 1160). Under his
reign the central power of the Seljuks was rapidly sinking. In
the west of Atabeg (prince’s guardian) Zeng?, the prince of
Mosul, had extended his dominion over Mesopotamia and the
north of Syria, where he had been the greatest defender of Islam
against the Franks. At his death in the year 541 (
A.D.
1146),
his noble son, the well-known N?redd?n, who was called “the
just king,” continued his father’s glorious career. Transoxiana
was conquered by the heathen hordes of Khat?, who towards the
end of 535 (
A.D.
1141) under the king Ghurkh?n defeated the
great army of the Seljuk prince and compelled the Turkish
tribes of the Ghuzz to cross the Oxus and to occupy Khorasan.
32.
Reign of Mostanjid
.?
Al-Mostanjid bill?h
(“he who
invokes help from God”), the son of Moqtafi, enlarged the
dominion of the Caliphate by making an end to the state of the
Mazyadites in Hillah. His allies were the Arabic tribe of the
Montafiq, who thenceforth were powerful in southern Irak. The
greatest event towards the end of his Caliphate was the conquest
of Egypt by the army of N?redd?n, the overthrow of the F?timite
dynasty, and the rise of Saladin. He was killed by his majordomo
in Rabia II. 566 (December 1170).
33.
Reign of Mostadi
.?His son and successor
al-Mostad?’ bi-amri’ll?h
(“he who seeks enlightenment by the orders of God “),
though in Egypt his name was now substituted in public prayers
for that of the F?timite caliph, was unable to obtain any real
authority. By the death of N?redd?n in 569 (
A.D.
1174) Saladin’s
power became firmly rooted. The dynasty founded by him is
called that of the Ayy?bites, after the name of his father Ayy?b.
Mostadi died in the month of Dhu?l-qa?da 575 (March 1180).
34.
Reign of N?sir
.?Quite a different man from his father was his
successor
al-N?sir li-d?ni’ll?h
(“he who helps the religion of God”).
During his reign Jerusalem was reconquered by Saladin, 27 Rajab
583 (October 2nd, 1187). Not long before that event the well-known
Spanish traveller Ibn Jubair visited the empire of Saladin,
and came to Bagdad in 580, where he saw the caliph himself.
N?sir was very ambitious; he had added Kh?zist?n to his
dominions, and desired to become also master of Media (Jabal, or
Persian Irak, as it was called in the time of the Seljuks). Here,
however, he came into conflict with the then mighty prince of
Khw?rizm (Kh?va), who, already exasperated because the
caliph refused to grant him the honours he asked for, resolved
to overthrow the Caliphate of the Abbasids, and to place a
descendant of Ali on the throne of Bagdad. In his anxiety,
N?sir took a step which brought the greatest misery upon
western Asia, or at least accelerated its arrival.
In the depths of Asia a great conglomeration of east Turkish
tribes (Tatars or Mongols), formed by a terrible warrior, known
under his honorific title Jenghiz Kh?n, had conquered the
northern provinces of China, and extended its power to the
frontiers of the Transoxianian regions. To this heathen chief the
Im?m of the Moslems sent a messenger, inducing him to attack
the prince of Khw?rizm, who already had provoked the Mongolian
by a disrespectful treatment of his envoys. Neither he nor
the caliph had the slightest notion of the imminent danger they
conjured up. When N?sir died, Ramadan 622 (October 1225),
the eastern provinces of the empire had been trampled down by
the wild hordes, the towns burned, and the inhabitants killed
without mercy.
35.
Reign of Z?hir
.?
Al-Z?hir bi-amri’ll?h
(“the victorious
through the orders of God”) died within a year after his father’s
death, in Rajab 623 (July 1226). He and his son and successor
are praised as beneficent and just princes.
36.
Reign of Mostansir
.?
Al-Mostansir bill?h
(“he who asks
help from God”) was caliph till his death in Jornada II. 640
(December 1242). In the year 624 (1227) Jenghiz Kh?n died,
but the Mongol invasion continued to advance with immense
strides. The only man who dared, and sometimes with success,
to combat them was Jelaleddin, the ex-king of Khw?rizm, but
after his death in 628 (
A.D.
1231) all resistance was paralysed.
37.
Reign of Mostasim
.?
Al-Mosta
?
?im bill?h
(“he who clings
to God for protection”), son of Mostansir, the last caliph of
Bagdad, was a narrow-minded, irresolute man, guided moreover
by bad counsellors. In the last month of the year 653 (January
1256) Hulaku or Hulagu, the brother of the gteat kh?n of the
Mongols, crossed the Oxus, and began by destroying all the
strongholds of the Ism?’?l?s. Then the turn of Bagdad came.
On the 11th of Muharram 656 (January 1258) Hulaku arrived
under the walls of the capital. In vain did Mostasim sue for
peace. Totally devoid of dignity and heroism, he ended by
surrendering and imploring mercy from the barbarian victor.
On the 4th of Saphar (February 10th) he came with his retinue into
the camp. The city was then given up to plunder and slaughter;
many public buildings were burnt; the caliph, after having
been compelled to bring forth all the hidden treasures of the
family, was killed with two of his sons and many relations.
With him expired the eastern Caliphate of the Abbasids,
which had lasted 524 years, from the entry of Abu?l-Abbas into
Kufa.
In vain, three years later, did Abu’l-Qasim Ahmad, a scion of
the race of the Abbasids, who had taken refuge in Egypt with
Bibars the Mameluke sultan, and who had been proclaimed
caliph under the title
al-Mostan?ir bill?h
(“he who seeks help
from God”), make an effort to restore a dynasty which was now
for ever extinct. At the head of an army he marched against
Bagdad, but was defeated and killed before he reached that city.
Then another descendant of the Abbasids, who also had found an
asylum in Egypt, was proclaimed caliph at Cairo under the name
of
al-H?kim bi-amri’ll?h
(“he who decides according to the
orders of God”). His sons inherited his title, but, like their
father, remained in Egypt without power or influence (see
Egypt
:
History
, “Mahommedan period”)
. This shadow of sovereignty
continued to exist till the conquest of Egypt by the Turkish
sultan Selim I., who compelled the last of them, Motawakkil, to
abdicate in his favour (see
Turkey
:
History
). He died at
Cairo, a pensionary of the Ottoman government, in 1538.
Another scion of the Abbasid family, Mahommed, a great-grandson
of the caliph Mostansir, found at a later period a
refuge in India, where the sultan of Delhi received him with
the greatest respect, named him Makhdumz?deh, “the Master’s
son,” and treated him as a prince. Ibn Bat?ta saw him when
he visited India, and says that he was very avaricious. On his
return to Bagdad the traveller found there a young man, son of
this prince, who gained a single dirhem daily for serving as im?m
in a mosque, and did not get the least relief from his rich father.
It seems that this Mahommed, or his son, emigrated later to
Sumatra, where in the old Sam?tra the graves of their descendants
have been lately discovered.
(
M. J. de G.
)