AL-MAMUN AND HIS SUCCESSORS
[809-847 A.D.]
Al-Mamun surpassed all hopes that had been formed of him. Less brilliant than Harun, he was superior to him in the range of his knowledge and the practical force of his genius. The single political mistake with which he can be reproached was an act of gratitude and kindness. In recompense for services received, he gave to Tahir the hereditary governorship of Khorasan, and this was the first step towards the dismemberment of the eastern caliphate; not because the Tahirites were disposed to abuse their power, but because an unfortunate example had been set, which led the governors of provinces to seek gradually to cut themselves free from the control of their rightful sovereign.
Holding education to be the highest blessing of the people, Al-Mamun opened schools in all parts of his realm, and insured the pursuit of letters by permanent endowments. He gathered about him learned men of all nationalities, and would admit no distinctions in religion. He even decreed that any ten heads of families, whether Christians, Jews, or magi, who assembled for the purpose, could constitute a church, and that all were eligible to appointment for public offices. But, liberal as he was, Al-Mamun was not always safe from hostile attack. The theologians of Baghdad had already been active in putting down zendism, a religion compounded of the beliefs of Islam and the magi; and on Al-Mamun’s making use of some of the writings of this faith to render odious the memory of Abu Muslim, they brought violent accusations against him. To silence his adversaries Al-Mamun increased the penalties against separatism, but true to his principles of tolerance forbore to inflict them.
Al-Mamun’s immediate successors, Mutasim and Wathik, were worthy of the throne. The first-named made the single mistake of forming his body-guard of young Turks, whose later successors were to renew the excesses committed by the prætorians in the time of the Roman emperors; while the reign of Wathik was disturbed solely by doctrinal disputes. Great indeed must have been the diversity of opinion in religious matters, since there are to be counted no less than sixty-three principal sects among the Arabs. Wathik having brought the light of his reason to bear on the dogma of the eternity of the Koran, sustained with great heat by Akhmed ben Nasr, was at one time on the point of being dethroned and supplanted by his rude antagonist. Although treated with severity by prejudiced historians, Wathik was an excellent prince, who governed his realm with such wisdom and benevolence that it soon came to contain no beggars, and he died with the resignation of a firm, enlightened character.
The reigns of the earlier Abbasids are marked by a complete absence of expeditions undertaken with a view to aggrandisement, the wars with neighbouring populations being carried on without any thought of invasion. The Greeks offered the Arabs of the Orient more frequent pretexts for dispute than other nations, and the frontier line which separated them became the scene of many sanguinary conflicts. The vanity of the degenerate Greeks who constituted the population there, was inordinately flattered by success even in border-warfare, and they continued their aggressions through the reigns of most of Abul Abbas’ successors.
[754-833 A.D.]
During the reign of Al-Mansur the Byzantine emperors had been afflicted by the loss of Melitene, an important city of Cappadocia, the devastation of Cilicia, and the defeat of an army on the shores of the Melas, in Pamphylia, and were destined to suffer further reverses at the hands of the caliph himself. Irritated by successive defeats, the Arabs got together all their forces and entered Asia Minor, where they vanquished all the troops that Irene, guardian of Constantine Copronymus, sent against them, and finally appeared before the walls of Constantinople. Preferring capitulation to the horrors of a siege, the empress surrendered the cities of Cilicia and agreed to pay an annual tribute of sixty thousand dinars. Harun ar-Rashid, whom Al-Mahdi had placed in command of this expedition, returned to Syria with considerable booty and with six thousand prisoners in his train.
In 792 Irene believed herself strong enough to break the treaty, and preparations for hostilities were begun on both sides. Harun, now become caliph, had vessels equipped which ravaged the islands of the Mediterranean and destroyed the Greek fleet in the Gulf of Adalia, making Irene pay dearly for her attempt at rebellion. She again agreed to pay tribute, stipulating merely an exchange of captives; which exchange took place on the bank of a little river in Cilicia, and was ever afterward a custom when a truce occurred between belligerents. Nicephorus, Irene’s successor, confident in his courage, hesitated not to tempt fortune again.
Saracen Swords
(From a panel in the Alhambra)
He addressed a haughty letter to the caliph, which elicited this brief reply: “In the name of the all-merciful God, Harun ar-Rashid, commander of the faithful, to Nicephorus, dog of a Roman. I have received your letter, son of an infidel, and you shall not hear my reply, you shall see it.” Harun indeed wrote his reply in letters of fire all over the plains of Asia Minor. He was constantly victorious; but, though the wars in which he was engaged proved that the Arabs had not yet lost their military skill, they showed that they had greatly deteriorated from the standard of the generals of Omar, who would not have paused till they reached Constantinople itself.
In 829 the war was resumed under a singular pretext. Al-Mamun, who was a passionate lover of mathematics, learned that Leon, an adept in that science, resided at Constantinople, and made known his desire to consult him at Baghdad. The emperor refused to allow Leon to leave Constantinople, and Al-Mamun again took up arms, but did not push the war with great vigour. In 833, after Mutasim had come to the throne, the emperor, encouraged by some slight Greek successes, in his turn took the offensive, and for a long time the issues were about even between the two rulers. At last after the taking of Zapetra, the caliph’s native town (836), by the emperor, Mutasim swore to be revenged; and marching on Amorium took the city (840) and subjected it to the same treatment as had been inflicted on Zapetra. Wathik, Mutasim’s successor, was less bent on war; but the Greeks continued hostilities until, under the emperor Basil, they regained all the domains in Cilicia that Harun had taken from them.
In their western provinces the Abbasids displayed no great eagerness or concern; they scarcely sought to hold Spain under their sway, and left Africa almost entirely to itself, even serving by their own direct acts to elevate the family of the Aghlabites, and free it from all allegiance to themselves except the formal recognition of sovereignty. Ibrahim ben Aghlab thus assumed governorship over all Maghreb; but his successors were not able to prevent a member of the Alid family from severing from the Baghdad caliphate the whole of western Mauretania.