The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall/Chapter 59

by William Muir

CHAPTER LIX

REMAINDER OF MERWĀN'S REIGN. ʿABBĀSID RISING IN
THE EAST UNDER ABU MUSLIM AND ḲAḤṬABA.
RECOGNITION OF ʿABBĀSID CALIPH. BATTLE OF THE
ZĀB. DEFEAT AND DEATH OF MERWĀN.

130–132 A.H. 728–750 A.D.

Growth of ʿAbbāsid influence in the East.The progress of recent events in the East has been kept for separate treatment. The same causes were there at work as elsewhere,—Khāriji risings and tribal jealousies. But there were special elements of weakness besides. The authority of the Court was felt less in Khorāsān than elsewhere, and, in fact, was fast disappearing altogether. Hāshimi treason, long secretly hatching its disloyal brood, was now coming to an open head: and powerful clubs in support of the ʿAbbāsid rising were appearing fearlessly everywhere. The body politic was falling to pieces; and the specious claim of the Prophet's house as against the ungodly Umeiyads, paved an easy way for the great change now looming in the future.

Critical position of Umeiyads in Khorāsān,
126–128 A.H.
743–745 A.D.The position of Naṣr, Viceroy in Khorāsān, had become in the last degree critical. Al-Kirmāni, as already stated, had drawn to his standard the Yemeni faction,—that, namely, hostile to Naṣr. Put in prison as a dangerous agitator, e effected his escape, and kept up an armed opposition. To increase the disorder, Al-Ḥārith, for whom Naṣr had obtained amnesty from the Court, turned against him; and, confederate as he had been of the pagan Turk, assumed now a high religious profession, and raising the black flag, demanded a reform of government in accordance with "the Book of the Lord." After many fruitless negotiations, Naṣr offered to help him if he would again depart and fight beyond the Oxus, but he preferred to remain and do battle, now on the side of Al-Kirmāni, and now against him.Events in Khorāsān. In one of these engagements he was killed: Al-Kirmāni maintained his ground against Naṣr, who had retired to Nīsābūr. It was still the endless quarrel of Moḍar and the Yemen pitted one against the other, with no decisive result other than that Khorāsān was left with hardly even the form of government.

The Arabs of Khorāsān were almost more Persian than Arab. Their fathers had married Persian wives, and the sons spoke Persian rather than Arabic, drank wine, wore trousers, and kept the Persian holidays. The Persians, on the other hand, were probably better off after the Arab conquest than before. Heathenism was tolerated, and when they did go over to Islām, it was from social, not religious motives. They then joined an Arab tribe and assumed Arabic names, and in time became more sincere believers than the Arabs themselves. The latter always regarded them, however, with suspicion. In the army, which offered the readiest gate to Islām, the Mawāli fought on foot, the Arabs on horseback. They shared in the spoil, but were not on the pension-list, and still paid the subject-tax. It was Islām itself which taught them their equality with their masters. This was acknowledged by the Khawārij, the Murjīya, but most of all by the Shīʿa. The Shīʿa was of two kinds, the merely political, which wished to keep the succession in the line of Moḥammad, and the theosophic, which found incarnations of the Divine in Ibn al-Ḥanefīya, his son Abu Hāshim, and others.

Abu Muslim agent of the ʿAbbāsids,Just then, towards the end of 129 A.H. the great black standard of the ʿAbbāsids was unfurled in Khorāsān by Abu Muslim.^[1] The origin of this famous man who, though still young, was already the hero of the new dynasty, is obscure. He certainly was no Arab. Amidst much that is discordant, we may assume that he was born a slave. In the year 125 A.H. (743 A.D.) Moḥammad, head of the ʿAbbāsid house, with a party of his adherents, visited Mecca; and anticipating decease (he died the same year) bade his followers in that event to take his son Ibrahim as successor. At the same time he purchased Abu Muslim, then not twenty years of age, as a likely agent for the service of the House. Abu Muslim fulfilling thus the office of confidential agent, was kept going to and fro between Khorāsān and Al-Ḥomeima (the village in south Palestine where the family lived) to promote the cause, and to report its progress. At last, in 129 A.H., he gave so promising an account of the zeal of his adherents, of the impotence of Umeiyad rule in Khorāsān, and of the distractions there, that he received from Ibrāhīm command to delay no longer, but raise at once the banner of the new Dynasty.raises black standard in the East,
ix. 129 A.H.
May, 747 A.D. In the month of Ramaḍān accordingly, Abu Muslim proceeding to the far East, sent forth his emissaries in all directions with instructions when and how the rising was to take place. Before the month was over, contingents had begun to pour in from every quarter. In one night there arrived no fewer than sixty from as many different places. The first religious service took place on Friday, 1 x. 129 A.H. (June 15, 747 A.D.), at the breaking of the great fast. The Imam was Suleimān ibn Kethīr of Khozāʿa, who was still nominal head of the movement. The Umeiyad garrisons were expelled from Herāt and other cities in the far East. Elsewhere, Abu Muslim's agents sought to win over the Moḍar by abuse of the Yemeni tribes; and the Yemen by abuse of the Moḍar. He came in person to Merv and succeeded in detaching the Azd from the Arab alliance, but in such a way as not to offend Moḍar. Even Naṣr and Al-Kirmāni were tampered with; but the latter was assassinated by a son of Al-Ḥārith ibn Sureij. Then Abu Muslim, persuading them that Nasr had instigated the murder, was joined by the son of that chief^[2] with the Azd who followed him, drove Naṣr out of Merv,Takes Merv, and took possession of the Citadel. But this success at last united the Syrians of either party against the Hāshimi rebellion; and if the Caliph had only been able to strengthen Naṣr's hands, the event must have been very different. The unfortunate Viceroy appealed to his Caliph in bitter terms that he was left without support;Naṣr appeals for help. and quoting verses to the effect that beneath was a volcano ready at any moment to burst forth, he added the fateful words—Is the house of Umeiya awake, or is it slumbering still? On receiving this despairing cry, Merwān ordered Ibn Hubeira to hasten reinforcements to the East; but with disaffection around him in the West, it was little that the General could do for Naṣr. About the same time, the Caliph intercepted a letter from his ʿAbbāsid rival, Ibrāhīm son of Moḥammad, to Abu Muslim, upbraiding him for not making more rapid progress in Khorāsān, and warning him against the hostility of the Arabs and Syrians towards the rising cause.Arrest and death of Ibrāhīm. Startled and alarmed at his machinations, Merwān bade the governor of the Belka arrest Ibrāhīm. He was accordingly seized in his house at Al-Ḥomeima, and sent to Ḥarrān, where shortly after he died, but whether by a violent death, or a natural one, is uncertain.^[3] On the arrest of Ibrāhīm, his brothers Abuʾl-ʿAbbās and Abu Jaʿfar, with the rest of the family, fled to Al-Kūfa, where they remained for the present in concealment.

Abu Muslim's able administration.Meanwhile Abu Muslim was making steady progress in the East. His open unassuming habits, with neither body-guard nor courtly ceremony, attached men to him. He committed the ordinary administration to a Council of twelve, chosen from the earliest adherents of the new cause. He was also wise enough to make his watch-word simply the House of Hāshim, the common ancestor of ʿAlids and ʿAbbāsids,^[4] without declaring by name the master or even the family for whom he fought. There were still many who held by the line of Abu Ṭālib, and wished to see one of his descendants, rather than an ʿAbbāsid, succeed; the cry, therefore, of Abu Muslim embraced all these branches, including that of ʿAlī. At one time Abu Muslim opened friendly communications with Naṣr, who, seeing no hope of help from Syria, had thoughts to throw in his lot with him; but fearing treachery, he at last resolved on flight, and so, with the troops still faithful to the Umeiyad cause,Naṣr flees south; is defeated by Ḳaḥṭaba,
end of 130 A.H. hastened south to Sarakhs, and thence to Nīsābūr. There, pursued by Ḳaḥṭaba of the tribe of Ṭaiʾ, Abu Muslim's famous general, he suffered a defeat in which he lost his son. Thence he, accompanied by the Arab fugitives from Khorāsān belonging to Temīm, Bekr, and Ḳeis, fled to Jurjān, where was a strong force of friendly Syrians. But fortune had deserted the Caliph's cause, and Ḳaḥṭaba again achieved a signal victory, slaying thousands of his enemy. Naṣr, again appealing bitterly, but in vain, for help, continued his flight westward to Ar-Reiy.Death of Naṣr,
iii. 131 A.H.
Nov., 748 A.D. There he fell sick, and was carried on towards Hamadān, but died upon the way. He was eighty-five years old, and his long and distinguished services as viceroy of Khorāsān deserved a better fate. He was the one loyal man of the time.

Ḳaḥṭaba advances on Kūfa,
131 A.H.
749 A.D.Ḳaḥṭaba now advanced rapidly westward. His chief lieutenants were Abu ʿAun of the Azd, Khāzim of Temīm, and the Persian Khālid ibn Barmek. Entering Reiy he restored order there, while his son, Ibn Ḳaḥṭaba, with other generals reduced the country all around,—the followers of the Umeiyads, as well as the Khawārij whose rebellion had recently been quelled, flying terrified before them. Ibn Ḳaḥṭaba laid siege to Nihāvend. The Caliph's army from Kirmān (now released by Ibn Muʿāwiya's defeat and flight) advancing, 100,000 strong, to its relief, was intercepted by Ḳaḥṭaba, who with 20,000 men, after a fierce battle, entirely routed his enemy, and took his camp, itself a little city filled with all the luxuries of the East. After a three months' siege, Nihāvend fell, and then Ḳaḥṭaba, having fetched a northern circuit across the Euphrates to avoid Ibn Hubeira, the Syrian general at Jalūlā, made direct for Al-Kūfa where, with expectations raised by the tidings of recent success, the Hāshimi citizens were looking impatiently for his appearance.Defeats Ibn Hubeira, who falls bock on Wāsiṭ, 8 i. 132 A.H.
Aug. 27, 749 A.D. It was the beginning of the year 132 A.H. when Ḳaḥṭaba crossed the Euphrates, some thirty or forty miles above Al-Kūfa; but Ibn Hubeira was before him, and the two armies met somewhere in the vicinity of Kerbalā. In this encounter the Syrians were worsted, but the Hāshimis too suffered, for Ḳaḥṭaba fell upon the field. His son, Al-Ḥasan ibn Ḳaḥṭaba, then took command, and, following up his father's success, forced Ibn Hubeira, abandoning his camp and all its stores, to retire on Wāsiṭ.Takes Kūfa; Abuʾl-ʿAbbās emerges from hiding, 14 i. 132 A.H.
Sept. 2, 749 A.D. Al-Kūfa thus uncovered, the Hāshimi force advanced, and after slight opposition,—for the Syrian troops deserted hastily the Umeiyad leader,—took possession of the city; and shortly after Abuʾl ʿAbbās with his family and relatives emerged from their hiding there. In anticipation of the new order of things (reserved for another chapter), Abu Salama, who had been one of the busy agents of the Hāshimis in Khorāsān, was recognised provisionally as "Wazīr of the house of Moḥammad," and Moḥammad, son of Khālid (former governor of Al-Kūfa), as "Amīr."^[5] In general the Yemen (with Rabīʿa) supported the revolution, Moḍar the Arab supremacy, and in Al-Baṣra Moḍar for the moment succeeded.

Abu ʿAun defeats Merwān's son on Little Zāb,
20 xii. 131 A.H.
Aug. 749 A.D. Meanwhile, stirring events were passing in Upper Mesopotamia. Ḳaḥṭaba, in his victorious progress westward, had detached an able general, Abu ʿAun, from Nihāvend to press forwards to Mesopotamia. Reaching Shahrazōr, east of the Little Zāb, towards the end of 131 A.H., he there defeated with great slaughter the troops of ʿAbdallah, Merwān's son, and occupied the region east of Mosul.Merwān II. at last takes the field. The Caliph himself, since his campaign against the Khawārij, had remained inactive at Ḥarrān. He was now roused, by seeing the enemy at his very door, to take the field in person,—which earlier done, the issue might have been very different; but now with rebellion, defeat, and disaffection around, the ground was sinking under foot. Crossing the Tigris, he advanced.upon the Greater Zāb with an army of 120,000, sufficiently strong in numbers to meet his enemy, but made up in great measure of lukewarm Yemeni tribes and Khawārij. Meanwhile, Ibn Hubeira having retired on Wāsiṭ, Abuʾl-ʿAbbās the rival Caliph—allegiance had been sworn to him in Al-Kūfa on Friday, November 28, 749 A.D. (12 iv. 132 A.H.)—was able from Al-Kūfa heavily to reinforce Abu ʿAun. To give the army also an Imperial bearing; he sent his uncle ʿAbdallah as commander-in-chief:Battle of the Zāb, 11 vi. 132 A.H.
Jan. 25, 750 A.D. and to him accordingly Abu ʿAun resigned the state-pavilion, mark of supreme command. ʿAbdallah found Merwān encamped with his great host on the right bank of the Zāb, and Abu ʿAun with only 20,000 on the left. A party of the latter crossed, but after a skirmish retired. Next day, Merwān, against advice, threw a bridge across the river, and advanced to fight. His son at the first beat back a column of the enemy; and Abu ʿAun, lest the report should dishearten the army, resolved at once to bring on a general action. Historians tell us that Merwān did nothing that day to prosper; but the real truth is that the Syrians had lost both loyalty and heart. Abu ʿAun made his men dismount on the first attack and plant their lances in the ground; while ʿAbdallah incited them, as the heroes of Khorāsān, to revenge the death of his nephew Ibrāhīm; he shouted, Yā Moḥammad! Yā Manṣūr! and the battle-cry was taken up by all around. Merwān, on his side, called aloud to the Arab tribes, one after another by name, to advance, but none responded to the call. Then in an evil moment, expecting thereby to raise their zeal, he made known that he had treasure in the camp and would reward the brave; on which, some of the soldiers hastened thither, hoping at once to seize the prize. To prevent this, Merwān detached his son; and as he turned aside with guard and standard to protect the camp, the army took it for flight;Defeat and flight of Merwān II. and with the cry Defeat! Defeat! broke and gave way. Merwān, to stay the flight, cut the bridge adrift; and more were drowned in the Zāb than perished by the sword.^[6] This battle, which sealed the fate of the Umeiyad Caliphate, took place in the year 132 A.H., or 750 A.D. ʿAbdallah remained for a week on the field, and reported his victory to Abuʾl-ʿAbbās, who, overjoyed at the tidings, ordered 500 golden pieces, and promise of increased pay, to be given to every combatant.

His flight.Merwān fled. At Mosul, his followers cried out, "It is the Caliph, let him cross." "A lie," they answered from the other bank, "the Caliph doth not fly"; and so they showered abuse upon the fallen Monarch, and glorified the triumphant "House of the Prophet." Merwān then made the best of his way to Ḥarrān, where he spent some weeks in the vain endeavour to raise another army. But ʿAbdallah was on his track, and so he hurried on to Hims, and thence, receiving no support, to Damascus. But neither could he safely make any stay there, and so desiring the governor, his son-in-law, to hold on and raise another army, he fled to Palestine, where he found refuge with an Arab chief at Abu Fuṭrus (Antipatris).

Damascus taken by ʿAbdallah, brother of Abuʾl-ʿAbbās,Meanwhile, under orders from Al-Kūfa, ‘Abdallah had advanced from the Zāb to Mosul, where the people streamed forth to meet him with open arms, clad in the black colours of the new dynasty. At Ḥarrān, the governor, Merwān's nephew, came out in similar attire to make his submission; and there ʿAbdallah avenged the death of Ibrāhīm, his nephew, by the unmeaning demonstration of demolishing the house which had formed his prison.^[7] Passing onward to Syria, he received the adhesion of all the chief places by the way. At Damascus reinforcements joined him from Al-Kūfa under his brother Ṣaliḥ, raising the force to 80,000. The city closed its gates against him, but after a short resistance was stormed, and the governor slain. Thereupon the black standard of the ʿAbbāsids was unfurled in triumph on the Citadel, the 14th Ramaḍān, 132 A.H.,April 26, 750 A.D. eight months from the entry of the Hāshimī into Al-Kūfa, and three from the battle of the Zāb.Merwān II. pursed to Egypt, xi. 132 A.H.
June, 750 A.D. After a short stay, ʿAbdallah passed on to Palestine in pursuit of Merwān, but found that he had fled to Egypt. Then, under orders from the new Caliph, he despatched his brother Ṣāliḥ and Abu ʿAun with a force to follow up the fugitive. At Aṣ-Ṣaʿīd he found that, to stay pursuit, Merwān's followers had burned all supplies of grass and fodder in the neighbourhood. From Fusṭāṭ Ṣāliḥ detached Abu ʿAun with a column, which took prisoners a troop of cavalry still attached to the fallen Caliph.Slain, 26 xii. 132 A.H.
Aug. 5, 750 A.D. Some they put to death; the rest were faithless enough to purchase their lives by disclosing their Master's hiding-place. He had taken refuge in a church at Būṣīr, where surprised by a small party he was overpowered and slain, just as the year expired (August, 750 A.D.).

Head sent to Abuʾl-ʿAbbās.His head was sent to Ṣāliḥ, who had the tongue cut out and thrown contemptuously to a cat. Thus disfigured it was despatched to Al-Kūfa. On seeing it, Abuʾl-ʿAbbās bowed low in adoration. Then raising his head towards heaven, he praised the Lord who had given him victory and revenge over an ungodly race. He recited also a verse indicative of the fire that still burned within his heart:—"Had they quaffed my blood, it had not quenched their thirst; so neither is my wrath slaked by theirs." True to the sentiment, he named himself (as we shall see) ʿAs-Saffāḥ, the Blood-thirsty, and by that title he has ever since been known.

His sons and daughters.Two of Merwān's sons fled to Abyssinia, where, attacked by the natives, one was killed; the other escaped, and lived long concealed in Palestine, from whence he was sent many years after to the Court of Al-Mehdi. The ladies of Merwān's family had been placed for safety in a church, from which they were dragged to the presence of Ṣāliḥ.^[8] Before him the elder daughter pleaded for mercy. She was answered with reproaches for the cruel treatment by her people of the house of Hāshim:—"How," said the Caliph's uncle, "can I spare any of this wicked race?" Again she pleaded for grace and mercy:—"Nay," he replied, "but if thou wilt, thou mayest marry my son and save thyself." "What heart have I now for that?" she answered; "but send us back to Ḥarrān again." And when they returned there, and saw the old home and palace of Merwān, they lifted up their voices and wept.

His character.Merwān was over threescore years at his death, and had reigned for nearly six. His mother was a Kurdish slave-girl, and from her he inherited a handsome countenance, with blue eyes and a ruddy complexion. He was called the Ass of Mesopotamia, perhaps not in derision, but in virtue of his great power of physical endurance. Others say, because he was fond of the peony, of which asses are fond; or his real by-name was Al-Faras (the Horse), which the people of Khorāsān changed to the Ass. He was one of the bravest and best of his house, and deserved a better fate.^[9]

End of Umeiyad dynasty.So perished the Umeiyad dynasty. Its reliance had been altogether upon the temporal power; it was religious only in name. Its sovereigns, as far as they had any religion, were Unitarians and so might be called Muslims; but in the matter of drinking wine and of most other things, they set Islām at nought. This fact was so clearly appreciated by the theologians of the time as to give rise to a school which held that no Muslim would be called to account for his sins until after the Resurrection, and that, at any rate, none, however Umeiyad he might be, would be eternally lost. These astute philosophers were named Murjīya—Putters off.

The Syrians had let Merwān, whom they hated, perish, and only too late discovered that his ruin was theirs. The seat of government passed from Damascus to Al-Kūfa. Al-ʿIrāḳ recovered the hegemony which it had held, though not undisputed, under ʿAlī. As the Syrians, so also the Arabs ceased to be the ruling race. Henceforth there was no distinction of Arab and non-Arab; the Mawāli came into their own. The people who gained most were the people of Khorāsān. They formed a kind of military aristocracy. Bagdad was their barracks later on.

1. Black may have been chosen because that was the colour of Moḥammad's banner, or because it was that of Al-Ḥārith ibn Sureij, and so liked by the Mawāli, or because it is the colour of Vengeance. Umeiyads and ʿAlīds in contrast had white; the Khawārij red.
2. The two sons of Al-Kirmāni were, however, found by Abu Muslim, probably from their Syrian associations, to be inconvenient allies, and were, with their attendants, treacherously put to death. Abu Muslim made no scruple of assassinating by any underhand means those whom he found in his way.
3. Some say he died of the plague; others that he was poisoned in a draught of milk; others that Merwān caused his prison house to fall upon him. The presumption is against a violent death. Abuʾl-ʿAbbās succeeded him.
4. The Hāshimīya now means the extreme Shīʿa, so named from Abu Hāshim the son of Ibn al-Hanefīya
5. The title Amīr is Arabic and ancient, denoting "Commander." The appointment of Wazīr (usually written Vizier) or Minister is a distinguishing feature of the ʿAbbāsid as contrasted with the Umeiyad dynasty. The word is usually derived from the Arabic root wazara, "to bear a burden," but it is probably from a Pahlawi word meaning "to decide." Hebrew gězar, Darmesteter, Études iraniennes, i. 58; Al-Fakhri, p. 205.
6. Observing a grandson of ʿAbd al-Melik struggling in the waves, ʿAbdallah, the new Caliph's brother, is said to have cried, "Let him alone," quoting from the Ḳorʾān the passage on the destruction of the Egyptians: "And (remember) how We divided the sea and saved you alive, but drowned the host of Pharaoh therein, while ye looked on." Sūra, ii. 49.
7. This action is in favour of the impression that Ibrāhīm did not die a violent death.
8. The servant, in whose charge they were, is said to have had instructions to put them to death if Merwān should have lost his life.
9. He was also called Al-Jaʿdi, from professing the heretical views of Al-Jaʿd, a theologian who held the doctrine of Free-will, and denied that the Ḳorʾān was eternal and uncreate. But this may have been one of the calumnies heaped by the ʿAbbāsid courtiers on the house of Umeiya. His mother was the Um Weled of Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ashtar, taken over by his father the day her master was slain.