Part 19

In the time of the civil war the marshlands in Irak between Basra and Wasit had been occupied by a large population of Indians, called _yat_, or, according to the Arabic pronunciation, _Zott_, 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 Zott, 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 Zott 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 Babak al-Khorrami in Azerbaijan. Though the name Khorrami is often employed by the Moslem writers to designate such extravagant Moslem sectaries as the Hashimiya, the real Khorrami were not Moslems, but Persian Mazdaqites, or communists. The name Khorrami, or Khorramdini, "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 Afshin, 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 Babak. After three years' fighting, Babak was taken prisoner. He was carried to Samarra, 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 "Babak's Cross."

In the hope of creating a diversion in Babak'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 Babak, 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 'Abbas 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 Samarra when a serious revolt broke out in Tabaristan, Maziyar, one of the hereditary chiefs of that country, refusing to acknowledge the authority of Abdallah Ibn Tahir, 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 Afshin, who hoped thereby to cause the fall of the Tahirids, and to take their place, with the ulterior object of founding an independent kingdom in the East. Afshin, 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 Wathiq._--His son Wathiq, 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. Musa into Asia Minor to find out all about the Seven Sleepers which he discovered in the neighbourhood of Arabissus,[36] and Sallam 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 Harun al-Rashid after the disgrace of the Barmecides, and occasionally by his successors, but Wathiq 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. Nasr al-Khoza'i was seized and brought to Samarra, where Wathiq beheaded him in person. The only other event of importance in the reign of Wathiq was a rising of the Arabian tribes in the environs of Medina, which the Turkish general Bogha with difficulty repressed. When he reached Samarra with his prisoners, Wathiq had just died (August 846). That the predominance of the praetorians was already established is clear from the fact that Wathiq gave to two Turkish generals, Ashnas and Itakh respectively, the titular but lucrative supreme government of all the western and all the eastern provinces. In his days the soldiery at Samarra was increased by a large division of Africans (Maghribis).

10. _Reign of Motawakkil._--As Wathiq had appointed no successor the vizier Mahommed Zayyat had cast his eye on his son Mahommed, who was still a child, but the generals Wasif and Itakh, seconded by the upper cadi Ibn abi Da'ud, refused their consent, and offered the supreme power to Wathiq's brother Ja'far, who at his installation adopted the name of _al-Motawakkil 'ala 'llah_ ("he who trusts in God"). The new caliph hated the vizier Zayyat, 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 Itakh, 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 Wasif.

About this time an impostor named Mahmud 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 abi 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 Wathiq, 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 dinars 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 Abu Yusuf to Harun 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, Yahya 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'ith, who had rendered good service in the war against Babak, but had for some cause been arrested, fled from Samarra to Marand in Azerbaijan and revolted. Not without great difficulty Bogha, the Turkish general, succeeded in taking the town and making Ibn Ba'ith 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, Bogha 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 Fostat. 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 (Diarbekr), 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-Qommi, who subdued them in 856 and brought their king Ali Baba to Samarra before Motawakkil, on condition that he should be restored to his kingdom.

About this time Sijistan liberated itself from the supremacy of the Tahirids. Ya'qub b. Laith al-Saffar proclaimed himself amir 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 Wasif, who had taken the place of Itakh as head of the Turkish guard, transferred his residence to Damascus. But the place did not agree with him, and he returned to Samarra, where he caused a magnificent quarter to be built 3 m. from the city, which he called after his own name Ja'fariya, 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-Montasir billah_ ("he who seeks help in God"), _al-Mo'tazz billah_ ("he whose strength is of God"), and _al-Mowayyad billah_ ("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 Qabiha. The day had been fixed on which Montasir, Wasif and several other Turkish generals were to be assassinated. But Wasif and Montasir had been informed, and resolved to anticipate him. In the night before, Shawwal A.H. 247 (December 861), Motawakkil, after one of his wonted orgies, was murdered, together with his confidant, Fath b. Khaqan. The official report, promulgated by his successor, was that Fath b. Khaqan 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. Khasib and the Turkish generals. He was compelled to send Wasif, the personal enemy of Ibn Khasib, 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'in._--The Turkish soldiery, now the chief power in the state, chose, by the advice of Ibn Khasib, in succession to Montasir, his cousin Ahmad, who took the title of _al-Mosta'in billah_ ("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'in on the throne, led by Ibn Khasib and Otamish, were soon overpowered by Wasif and Bogha. Ibn Khasib was banished to Crete, Otamish murdered. The superior party, however, maintained Mosta'in 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 Wasif and Bogha fled with Mosta'in to Bagdad, and Motazz was proclaimed caliph at Samarra. A terrible war ensued; Mosta'in 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 Tahirid 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 Jorjan 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 Wasif and Bogha, 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 Samarra. 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 Wasif killed by his own troops, and succeeded, a year later, in having Bogha 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 Salih the son of Wasif, 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 Qabiha, 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'qub the Saffarid (see SAFFARIDS and PERSIA, _History_, § B) in Seistan, and Ahmad b. Tulun in Egypt.

14. _Reign of Mohtadi._--Immediately after the seizure of Motazz, the Turks, led by Salih b. Wasif, proclaimed as caliph one of the sons of Wathiq with the title of al-Mohtadi billah ("the guided by God"), who, however, refused to occupy the throne until his predecessor had solemnly abdicated. Mohtadi, 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 Abna, 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 Mohtadi came too late, and the Turks did not leave him time to finish his work.

On the news of the conspiracy against Motazz, Musa, the son of the famous general Bogha,[39] then governor of Media (Jabal), ordered his deputy-general Moflih to return at once from a proposed invasion of Dailam, and moved with his army towards Samarra, notwithstanding the peremptory orders of the caliph. At his approach Salih, who was afraid of Musa, hid himself, but was soon discovered and killed. At that moment a Kharijite, named Mosawir, who in 867 had risen in Mesopotamia and beaten more than one general of the government, took Balad and menaced Mosul. Musa could not refuse to comply with the formal command of the caliph to march against him. During the absence of these troops, Mohtadi seems to have tried to get rid of the principal Turkish leaders. A brother of Musa and one of his best generals, Bayikbeg (Baiekbak), were killed, but the soldiery he had gained over for himself were not strong enough. Mohtadi 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, Musa b. Bogha, 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 'ala'llah_ ("he whose support is God"). He was a feeble, pleasure-loving monarch, but Mohtadi had regained for the Caliphate some authority, which was exercised by Obaidallah b. Khaqan, the able vizier of Mohtadi, and by Motamid's talented brother Abu Ahmad al-Mowaffaq; Musa b. Bogha 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 Tahirids, 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'qub the Saffarid occupied Nishapur and imprisoned Mahommed b. Tahir with his whole family. The power of Ya'qub 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 Jondisapur in Khuzistan, 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 Isma'il b. Ahmed the Samanid. The Samanids had been governors of Transoxiana from the time of Mamun, and after the fall of the Tahirids, 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. Tulun 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 Samarra as a prisoner in the year 882. From that time there was war between the Abbasids and the Tulunids. Ahmad died in 270 (884). His son Khomaruya 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 Moktafi.

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.