Part 26 (1/2)
We have other verses by this gallant and loyal officer in which he implores the Arab troops stationed in Khurasan, who were paralysed by tribal dissensions, to turn their swords against ”a mixed rabble without religion or n.o.bility”:--
”'Death to the Arabs'--that is all their creed.”[476]
[Sidenote: Declaration of war.]
[Sidenote: Abu Muslim.]
These warnings, however, were of no avail, and on June 9th, A.D. 747, Abu Muslim displayed the black banner of the 'Abbasids at Siqadanj, near Merv, which city he occupied a few months later. The triumphant advance of the armies of the Revolution towards Damascus recalls the celebrated campaign of Caesar, when after crossing the Rubicon he marched on Rome.
Nor is Abu Muslim, though a freedman of obscure parentage--he was certainly no Arab--unworthy to be compared with the great patrician. ”He united,” says Noldeke, ”with an agitator's adroitness and perfect unscrupulosity in the choice of means the energy and clear outlook of a general and statesman, and even of a monarch.”[477] Grim, ruthless, disdaining the pleasures of ordinary men, he possessed the faculty in which Caesar excelled of inspiring blind obedience and enthusiastic devotion. To complete the parallel, we may mention here that Abu Muslim was treacherously murdered by Man?ur, the second Caliph of the House which he had raised to the throne, from motives exactly resembling those which Shakespeare has put in the mouth of Brutus--
”So Caesar may: Then, lest he may, prevent. And since the quarrel Will bear no colour for the thing he is, Fas.h.i.+on it thus: that what he is, augmented, Would run to these and these extremities; And therefore think him as a serpent's egg Which, hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous, And kill him in the sh.e.l.l.”
[Sidenote: Accession of Abu 'l-'Abbas al-Saffa?.]
The downfall of the Umayyads was hastened by the perfidy and selfishness of the Arabs on whom they relied: the old feud between Mu?ar and Yemen broke out afresh, and while the Northern group remained loyal to the dynasty, those of Yemenite stock more or less openly threw in their lot with the Revolution. We need not attempt to trace the course of the unequal contest. Everywhere the Arabs, disheartened and divided, fell an easy prey to their adversaries, and all was lost when Marwan, the last Umayyad Caliph, sustained a crus.h.i.+ng defeat on the River Zab in Babylonia (January, A.D. 750). Meanwhile Abu 'l-'Abbas, the head of the rival House, had already received homage as Caliph (November, 749 A.D.).
In the inaugural address which he delivered in the great Mosque of Kufa, he called himself _al-Saffa?_, _i.e._, 'the Blood-shedder,'[478] and this t.i.tle has deservedly stuck to him, though it might have been a.s.sumed with no less justice by his brother Mansur and other members of his family. All Umayyads were remorselessly hunted down and ma.s.sacred in cold blood--even those who surrendered only on the strength of the most solemn pledges that they had nothing to fear. A small remnant made their escape, or managed to find shelter until the storm of fury and vengeance, which spared neither the dead nor the living,[479] had blown over. One stripling, named 'Abdu 'l-Ra?man, fled to North Africa, and after meeting with many perilous adventures founded a new Umayyad dynasty in Spain.
CHAPTER VI
THE CALIPHS OF BAGHDaD
The annals of the 'Abbasid dynasty from the accession of Saffa? (A.D.
749) to the death of Musta'?im, and the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols (A.D. 1258) make a round sum of five centuries. I propose to sketch the history of this long period in three chapters, of which the first will offer a general view of the more important literary and political developments so far as is possible in the limited s.p.a.ce at my command; the second will be devoted to the great poets, scholars, historians, philosophers, and scientists who flourished in this, the Golden Age of Mu?ammadan literature; while in the third some account will be given of the chief religious movements and of the trend of religious thought.
[Sidenote: Political results of the Revolution.]
The empire founded by the Caliph 'Umar and administered by the Umayyads was essentially, as the reader will have gathered, a military organisation for the benefit of the paramount race. In theory, no doubt, all Moslems were equal, but in fact the Arabs alone ruled--a privilege which national pride conspired with personal interest to maintain. We have seen how the Persian Moslems a.s.serted their right to a share in the government. The Revolution which enthroned the 'Abbasids marks the beginning of a Moslem, as opposed to an Arabian, Empire. The new dynasty, owing its rise to the people of Persia, and especially of Khurasan, could exist only by establis.h.i.+ng a balance of power between Persians and Arabs. That this policy was not permanently successful will surprise no one who considers the widely diverse characteristics of the two races, but for the next fifty years the rivals worked together in tolerable harmony, thanks to the genius of Man?ur and the conciliatory influence of the Barmecides, by whose overthrow the alliance was virtually dissolved. In the ensuing civil war between the sons of Harun al-Ras.h.i.+d the Arabs fought on the side of Amin while the Persians supported Ma'mun, and henceforth each race began to follow an independent path. The process of separation, however, was very gradual, and long before it was completed the religious and intellectual life of both nationalities had become inseparably mingled in the full stream of Moslem civilisation.
[Sidenote: The choice of a new capital.]
[Sidenote: Foundation of Baghdad.]
The centre of this civilisation was the province of 'Iraq (Babylonia), with its renowned metropolis, Baghdad, 'the City of Peace' (_Madinatu 'l-Salam_). Only here could the 'Abbasids feel themselves at home.
”Damascus, peopled by the dependants of the Omayyads, was out of the question. On the one hand it was too far from Persia, whence the power of the 'Abbasids was chiefly derived; on the other hand it was dangerously near the Greek frontier, and from here, during the troublous reigns of the last Omayyads, hostile incursions on the part of the Christians had begun to avenge former defeats. It was also beginning to be evident that the conquests of Islam would, in the future, lie to the eastward towards Central Asia, rather than to the westward at the further expense of the Byzantines. Damascus, on the highland of Syria, lay, so to speak, dominating the Mediterranean and looking westward, but the new capital that was to supplant it must face east, be near Persia, and for the needs of commerce have water communication with the sea.
Hence everything pointed to a site on either the Euphrates or the Tigris, and the 'Abbasids were not slow to make their choice.”[480]
After carefully examining various sites, the Caliph Man?ur fixed on a little Persian village, on the west bank of the Tigris, called Baghdad, which, being interpreted, means 'given (or 'founded') by G.o.d'; and in A.D. 762 the walls of the new city began to rise. Man?ur laid the first brick with his own hand, and the work was pushed forward with astonis.h.i.+ng rapidity under his personal direction by masons, architects, and surveyors, whom he gathered out of different countries, so that 'the Round City,' as he planned it, was actually finished within the short s.p.a.ce of four years.
[Sidenote: Despotic character of 'Abbasid rule.]
[Sidenote: The Vizier.]
The same circ.u.mstances which caused the seat of empire to be transferred to Baghdad brought about a corresponding change in the whole system of government. Whereas the Umayyads had been little more than heads of a turbulent Arabian aristocracy, their successors reverted to the old type of Oriental despotism with which the Persians had been familiar since the days of Darius and Xerxes. Surrounded by a strong bodyguard of troops from Khurasan, on whose devotion they could rely, the 'Abbasids ruled with absolute authority over the lives and properties or their subjects, even as the Sasanian monarchs had ruled before them. Persian fas.h.i.+ons were imitated at the court, which was thronged with the Caliph's relatives and freedmen (not to mention his womenfolk), besides a vast array of uniformed and decorated officials. Chief amongst these latter stood two personages who figure prominently in the _Arabian Nights_--the Vizier and the Executioner. The office of Vizier is probably of Persian origin, although in Professor De Goeje's opinion the word itself is Arabic.[481] The first who bore this t.i.tle in 'Abbasid times was Abu Salama, the minister of Saffa?: he was called _Waziru ali Mu?ammadin_, 'the Vizier of Mu?ammad's Family.' It was the duty of the Vizier to act as intermediary between the omnipotent sovereign and his people, to counsel him in affairs of State, and, above all, to keep His Majesty in good humour. He wielded enormous power, but was exposed to every sort of intrigue, and never knew when he might be interned in a dungeon or despatched in the twinkling of an eye by the grim functionary presiding over the _na?'_, or circular carpet of leather, which lay beside the throne and served as a scaffold.
[Sidenote: Two periods of 'Abbasid history.]
We can distinguish two periods in the history of the 'Abbasid House: one of brilliant prosperity inaugurated by Man?ur and including the reigns of Mahdi, Harun al-Ras.h.i.+d, Ma'mun, Mu'tasim, and Wathiq--that is to say, nearly a hundred years in all (754-847 A.D.); the other, more than four times as long, commencing with Mutawakkil (847-861 A.D.)--a period of decline rapidly sinking, after a brief interval which gave promise of better things, into irremediable decay.[482]