14. Reign of Mohtadī.—Immediately after the seizure of Motazz, the Turks, led by Ṣāliḥ b. Waṣīf, proclaimed as caliph one of the sons of Wāthiq with the title of al-Mohtadī billāh (“the guided by God”), who, however, refused to occupy the throne until his predecessor had solemnly abdicated. Mohtadī, 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 Abnā, 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 Mohtadī came too late, and the Turks did not leave him time to finish his work.
On the news of the conspiracy against Motazz, Mūsā, the son of the famous general Boghā,[1] then governor of Media (Jabal), ordered his deputy-general Mofliḥ to return at once from a proposed invasion of Dailam, and moved with his army towards Sāmarrā, notwithstanding the peremptory orders of the caliph. At his approach Ṣāliḥ, who was afraid of Mūsā, hid himself, but was soon discovered and killed. At that moment a Kharijite, named Mosāwir, who in 867 had risen in Mesopotamia and beaten more than one general of the government, took Balad and menaced Mosūl. Mūsā could not refuse to comply with the formal command of the caliph to march against him. During the absence of these troops, Mohtadī seems to have tried to get rid of the principal Turkish leaders. A brother of Musa and one of his best generals, Bāyikbeg (Baiekbāk), were killed, but the soldiery he had gained over for himself were not strong enough. Mohtadī 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, Mūsā b. Boghā, 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-Moʽtamid ʽalā’llāh (“he whose support is God”). He was a feeble, pleasure-loving monarch, but Mohtadī had regained for the Caliphate some authority, which was exercised by Obaidallah b. Khāqān, the able vizier of Mohtadī, and by Motamid’s talented brother Abū Ahmad al-Mowaffaq; Mūsā b. Boghā 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 Ṭāhirids, 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 Yaʽqūb the Saffārid occupied Nīshāpur and imprisoned Mahommed b. Ṭāhir with his whole family. The power of Yaʽqūb 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 Jondisāpūr in Khūzistān, where he died three years later, leaving his empire to his brother ʽAmr. This prince maintained himself in power till the year 900, when he was beaten and taken prisoner by Ismāʽīl b. Ahmed the Sāmānid. The Sāmānids had been governors of Transoxiana from the time of Mamun, and after the fall of the Ṭāhirids, 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.[2]
In the west, Ahmad b. Tūlūn 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 Sāmarrā as a prisoner in the year 882. From that time there was war between the Abbasids and the Ṭūlūnids. Ahmad died in 270 (884). His son Khomārūya 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 Moktafī.
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 Aḅū ʽl-ʽAbbās, al-Moʽtaḍid (“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 Mansūr, 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 Ḥamdān, who became the founder of the well-known dynasty of the Ḥamdānites. The mighty house of Abū 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 Sājids or Sājites, 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 Kūfa the celebrated sect of the Carmathians (q.v.), Fātimites[3] or Ismaʽilites. 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. Abū Saʽīd al-Jannābī, who had founded a Carmathian state in Bahrein, the north-eastern province of Arabia (actually called Laḥsā), 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 Sijilmāsa (in Tafilalt) in the far west, whence he reappeared ten years later at Kairawan as the Mahdi, the first caliph of the Fatimites.[4]
Motadid died in Rabia II. A.H. 289 (March 902), leaving the Caliphate to his son al-Moktāfī billāh (“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
- ↑ This Boghā was called al-Kabir, or major; the ally of Waṣīf, a man of much inferior consideration, al-Saghir, or minor.
- ↑ See Nöldeke, Orientalische Skizzen, pp. 155 seq.
- ↑ For the connexion between Carmathians and Fatimites see under Fatimites.
- ↑ M. J. de Goeje, Mémoire sur les Carmathes du Bahraïn et les Fatimides (Leiden, 1886).
