Chapter III: American (4)

On the news of the murder of the caliph, the citizens of Homs (Emesa) put at their head Abu Mahommed as-Sofiani, a grandson of Yazid I., and marched against Damascus. They were beaten by Suleiman b. Hisham at a place called Solaimania, 12 m. from the capital. Abu Mahommed was taken prisoner and shut up with several of his brethren and cousins in the Khadra, 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 Rahit 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 _Naqis_ (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, Mansur b. Jomhur, a hot-headed and unscrupulous man. Yusuf b. Omar was unable to offer resistance, and was ultimately taken and confined in the Khadra. Mansur 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. Habib, a descendant of the famous 'Oqba b. Nafi', was almost independent. In Spain every amir tried to free himself from a suzerainty which appeared to him only nominal. Nasr b. Sayyar, 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-Hijja A.H. 126 (25th September A.D. 744).

13. Yazid III. left his brother Ibrahim 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. Suleiman b. Hisham, 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 Suleiman b. Hisham, Yazid, the son of Khalid al-Qasri, and other chiefs, hastened to the Khadra and killed the two princes, together with Yusuf b. Omar. Suleiman then made himself master of the treasury and fled with the caliph Ibrahim to Tadmor (Palmyra). Only Abu Mahommed as-Sofiani 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 Thabit 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. Thabit b. No'aim revolted in Palestine, Emesa (Homs) and Tadmor were turbulent, Damascus was besieged by Yazid b. Khalid al Qasri. Merwan, who wanted to march against Irak, was obliged to return to Syria, where he put an end to the troubles. This time Thabit 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 Hisham. 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 (Qinnasrin) and Mesopotamia, who, under Yazid b. Omar b. Hobaira, were already on the march towards Irak. When these Syrians came to Rosafa (Rusafa), Suleiman b. Hisham 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 Durin, and marched with the main force against Suleiman, whom he utterly defeated at Khosaf 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 Yusuf 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'id al Harashi. 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 Rabi'a, who always stood more or less aloof from the other Arabs, and had a particular grudge against the Modar. Their leading tribe, the Shaiban, 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'id al Harashi tried to defend their province, but were completely defeated. Harashi fled to Merwan, Ibn Omar to Hira, which, after a siege of two months, he was obliged to surrender in Shawwal 127 (August A.D. 745). Mansur b. Jomhur 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 Dahhak the Shaibanite as his Imam, was an event of which the Khawarij were very proud. Ibn Omar was rewarded with the government of eastern Irak, Khuzistan and Fars.

Whilst Merwan besieged Homs, Dahhak returned to Mesopotamia and took Mosul, whence he threatened Nisibis, where Abdallah, the son of Merwan, maintained himself with difficulty. Suleiman b. Hisham 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 Kafartutha (September A.D. 746) the Khawarij were defeated; Dahhak and his successor Khaibari 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 Kafartutha, 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; Mansur b. Jomhur fled to Ibn Moawiya. Ibn Hobaira was at last free to send Ibn Dobara 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 Dobara and Nobata b. Hanzala defeated his army; Ibn Moawiya fled to Khorasan, where he met his death; the chief of the Kharijites, Shaiban Yashkori went to eastern Arabia; Suleiman b. Hisham and Mansur b. Johmur 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, Nasr b. Sayyar 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 (Shawwal 126) he was confirmed in his post by Yusuf b. Omar, the governor of Irak. But Nasr had a personal enemy, the chief of the Azd (Yemenites) Jodai' al-Kirmani, a very ambitious man. A quarrel arose, and in a short time the Azd under Kirmani, supported by the Rabi'a, who always were ready to join the opposition, were in insurrection, which Nasr tried in vain to put down by concessions.

So stood matters when Harith b. Soraij, seconded by Yazid III., reappeared on the scene, crossed the Oxus and came to Merv. Nasr received him with the greatest honour, hoping to get his aid against Kirmani, but Harith, to whom 3000 men of his tribe, the Tamim, had gone over, demanded Nasr's abdication and tried to make himself master of Merv. Having failed in this, he allied himself with Kirmani. Nasr could hold Merv no longer, and retired to Nishapur. But the Tamim of Harith could not endure the supremacy of the Azd. In a moment the allies were divided into two camps; a battle ensued, in which Harith was defeated and killed. Originally, Harith 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 Tamimite, he belonged to the Modar, 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 Hashimiya after Abu Hashim the son of Mahommed b. al-Hanafiya, 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-Hanafiya, and at his decease his son Abu Hashim, from whom Mahommed b. Ali, the grandson of Abdallah b. Abbas, who resided at Homaima 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 Ibrahim, the Imam, took his place. Ibrahim 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 Suleiman b. Kathir. 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 Siqadenj in the province of Merv. Then, on the 1st Shawwal (15th June 747), the first solemn meeting took place and the black flags were unfolded. On that occasion Suleiman b. Kathir 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, Nasr 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. Nasr 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). Nasr 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 Nasr from Merv, paid for it with his life.

As soon as Abu Moslim had consolidated his authority, he sent his chief general Qahtaba against Nishapur. Nasr's son Tamim was vanquished and killed, and Nasr retreated to Kumis (Qumis) on the boundary of Jorjan, whither also advanced from the other side Nobata at the head of an army sent by Merwan. Qahtaba detached his son Hasan against Nasr and went himself to meet Nobata, whom he beat on the 1st of Dhu'l-hijja 130 (6th August 748). Nasr could not further resist. He reached Sawa 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 Dobara, at the head of a large army, encountered Qahtaba, 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 Qahtaba. Ibn Hobaira was overtaken and compelled to retire to Wasit. Qahtaba himself perished in the combat, but his son Hasan 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 Ibrahim 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 Homaima 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 Ibrahim, 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, Qahtaba had detached one of his captains, Abu 'Aun, to Shahrazur, 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 Basra, Suleiman b. Ali. Abu'l-Abbas himself killed those he could lay his hands on in Hira and Kufa, amongst them Suleiman b. Hisham, 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, Abdarrahman, 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.

C.--THE ABBASIDS

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 Hashimiya, 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 Suleiman b. Kathir, 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 Bathaniya and the Hauran, 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 Yamama (Yemama); to his cousin 'Isa b. Musa, the province of Kufa. Another uncle, Suleiman b. Ali, received the government of Basra with Bahrein and Oman; Isma 'il b. Ali that of Ahwaz; Abu Moslim, Khorasan and Transoxiana; Mahommed b. Ash'ath, Fars; Abu 'Aun, Egypt. In Sind the Omayyad governor, Mansur b. Jomhur, had succeeded in maintaining himself, but was defeated by an army sent against him under Musa b. Ka'b, and the black standard of the Abbasids was raised over the city of Mansura. 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-hijja 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-Mansur (the victorious), and after him his cousin 'Isa b. Musa. 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-Harith 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 Basra, where he found a refuge with his brother Suleiman. 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 Nasr, to come to Madain (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 _Sahib addaula_, as he is commonly called, the _Amin_ (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 Khazim 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 Abdarrahman, announcing the death of Abu'l-Abbas, and requiring him to take the oath of allegiance. Abdarrahman sent in his adhesion, together with a few presents of little value. The caliph replied by a threatening letter which angered Abdarrahman. 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 Abdarrahman, Ilyas, 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. Habib, the eldest son of Abdarrahman, 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. Ilyas was marching against them, when the idea occurred to Habib of challenging him to single combat. Ilyas hesitated, but his own soldiers compelled him to accept the challenge. He measured arms with Habib, 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, Ibrahim 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, Abdarrahman b. Moawiya, grandson of the caliph Hisham. 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) Abdarrahman 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 Abdalwahhab, the son of Ibrahim the Imam, whom he had made governor of Mesopotamia, the real chief being Hasan b. Qahtaba. 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 Hadath (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 Rawendis (q.v.), went to Hashimiya, 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 Rawendis 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 Hashimiya, which the reigning family still retained, was henceforward derived not from Abu Hashim, but from Hashim, 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 Ziyad b. Obaidallah governor of Medina, with orders to lay hands on Mahommed and his brother Ibrahim, 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, Ibrahim in Basra. 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, 'Isa b. Musa, 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-Fiqar to a merchant to whom he owed 400 dinars. It came later into the possession of Harun al-Rashid. In the meanwhile Ibrahim had not only gained possession of Basra, Ahwaz and Fars, but had even occupied Wasit. 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 'Isa b. Musa. Had Ibrahim marched at once against Kufa he might have crushed Mansur, but he let slip the opportunity. A terrible conflict took place at Ba-Khamra, 48 m. from Kufa. Homaid b. Qahtaba, the commander of Mansur's army, was defeated, only a small division under 'Isa b. Musa holding its ground. At that moment Salm, the son of the famous Qotaiba b. Moslim, came to the rescue by attacking the rear of Ibrahim. Homaid rallied his troops, and Ibrahim 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 Rawendis took place he saw clearly that his personal safety was not assured in Hashimiya,[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 Hazm, "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.

'Isa b. Musa had been designated, as we have seen, by Abu'l-Abbas as successor to Mansur. The latter having vainly tried to compel 'Isa 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, 'Isa was obliged at last to yield, but it was understood that, in case of Mahommed's death, the succession should return to 'Isa. One of the false witnesses was, it is asserted, Khalid 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 Khalid, 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. 'Adi[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 Ansar,[32] to whom he assigned a quarter in Bagdad, named after them the Qati'a (Fief) of the Ansar. Struck by the difficulties of every kind which had to be encountered by poor pilgrims to Mecca from Bagdad and its neighbourhood, he ordered Yaqtin, 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. Yaqtin 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" ([Greek: hae katakekaumenae]), by Ma'yuf b. Yahya 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 Dabiq. In 778, however, Hasan b. Qahtaba made a victorious raid as far as Adhruliya (Dorylaeum); it was on his proposition that Mahdi resolved on building the frontier town called Hadath (Adata), which became an outpost. In 779 the caliph decided on leading his army in person. He assembled his army in the plains of Baradan north of Bagdad and began his march in the early spring of 780, taking with him his second son Harun, and leaving his elder son Musa 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 Harun, but in reality under that of his tutor, the Barmecide Yahya b. Khalid. Harun captured the fortress Samalu 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 Harun 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 Abdalkabir who, being afraid of encountering the enemy, retired with his troops. Irritated by this failure, the caliph in 781 sent Harun, accompanied by his chamberlain Rabi', 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 Harun's general, Yazid b. Mazyad, and put to flight. Harun 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 Harun that he appointed him successor-designate after Musa and named him _al-Rashid_ ("the follower of the right cause"). Three years later, he resolved even to give to him the precedence in the succession instead of Musa, yielding to the importunity of Khaizoran, the mother of the two princes, and to his own predilection. It was necessary first to obtain from Musa a renunciation of his rights; and for that purpose he was recalled from Jorjan, where he was engaged on an expedition against the rebels of Tabaristan. Musa, 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 Masabadhan, 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 Musa 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 Hadi_.--On the death of Mahdi, Harun, following the advice of Yahya. b. Khalid, sent the insignia of the Caliphate, with letters of condolence and congratulation, to Musa in Jorjan, and brought the army which had accompanied Mahdi peacefully back from Media to Bagdad. Musa returned in all haste to the capital, and assumed the title of _al-Hadi_ ("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. Suleiman 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, Idris b. Abdallah, a brother of Mahommed and Ibrahim, 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).