Indeed at a casual glance it might seem that centralisation had drawn into unity all their various provinces, and that a long and prosperous future lay before the nation; but to an observant eye the signs of approaching decadence were already apparent. In the material order of things, that a sovereign should have supreme rights over the property of his subjects necessarily destroys all impulse towards emulation and progress among the latter. A people so governed is bound to die out in discouragement and decay. Under the earlier caliphs no injustice or spoliation was to be feared; but when the brutal and astute Turks took the reins of power, the law of the Koran, by which supreme authority centred in one individual, the representative of God on earth, was certain to work irreparable harm. In the moral and religious order the same unfortunate conditions prevailed. Gifted minds, irresistibly drawn towards science while still bound by the letter of Mohammed’s books, had need of a deliverer who should free them from the yoke of principles too rigid for the times. Al-Mamun, and after him Mutasim and Wathik, attempted some modification of doctrines formed for primitive times, but their efforts were set at naught by the blind obstinacy of the doctors of the Moslem faith. The Koran now being established as the direct word of God, its laws were held to be beyond appeal, and all the prerogatives of absolute despotism were still accorded to monarchy even against the judgment of those in whom it was vested. If the later Abbasid princes had been men of high attainments and solid virtue, they would doubtless have wielded their unrestricted power entirely for the good of the people, and the golden age might again have been ushered in; but unfortunately during the second half of the ninth century we see on the throne only crowned and sceptred slaves. The contempt they inspired broke the springs of government; anarchy reached its height, and numerous factions, long suppressed, took up arms once more and spread abroad disorder and dread.
The Alids had several times renewed their pretensions to the throne. Once Al-Mamun was on the point of abdicating in their favour, thus recognising the justice of their claims; but a revolt was immediately raised in Baghdad by the house of Abbas and its partisans, which forced Al-Mamun to relinquish the idea of dispossessing his whole family. Though their ambition was not yet fulfilled, the Alids were emboldened by the caliph’s attitude toward them, and henceforth lost no chance of profiting by the divisions that necessarily arose in a state possessing no definite law of succession.
Under Harun and Al-Mamun the Arabian empire in the East attained its greatest degree of splendour; we shall now observe its gradual dissolution.
From the reign of Wathik (846) onwards, we see the caliphate becoming the sport and prey of anarchy, and Baghdad fell under the yoke of a series of cruel or implacable despots. Mutawakkil, whose reign ushered in the new order of things, was guilty of atrocities that surpass those of Nero. He took vengeance on a vizir who had offended him by causing him to be thrown into a furnace lined with points of steel; and fearing that a plot was being formed against him, he invited to a festival all the important officers of his court and had them massacred by his soldiery. The horror which his cruelties inspired armed against him the hand of his own son, Muntasir, who himself died of sorrow and remorse within a year of his accession to the throne (862).
Mustain, grandson of Mutasim, was chosen to succeed him, to the exclusion of four brothers, two of whom, Mutazz and Mutamid, subsequently came to the throne. Mustain reigned little longer than three years, and was replaced by Mutazz, whom a faction raised to the caliphate in 866. A second faction deposed him in 869 and a son of Wathik, Muhtadi Billah by name, was proclaimed caliph. This prince’s projects of reform aroused hatred in many quarters, and he was murdered in his own palace. After him Mutamid enjoyed the exceptionally long reign of twenty-two years (870-892), thanks to the ability and devotion of his brother, Muwaffak, who frustrated all attempts at revolt. Most of the perpetual disorders from which the country suffered were caused by the Turks whom Mutasim had raised to the position of body-guard. In permanent garrison at Baghdad, and in close proximity to the person of the sovereign, these slaves had from the first been guilty of such excesses that Mutasim was obliged to leave the capital and retire to the little village of Samara. Their number and influence had constantly increased during the reign of Wathik, and at the time of his death they had become such a power in the state that they had no difficulty in placing Mutawakkil on the throne.
The danger that can arise from the establishment of alien bodies, organised to be the instrument of the will of a sovereign who is himself the first victim, is plainly apparent. With interests distinct from those of the native Arabs, and subject to no control save that of the caliph himself, these unruly Turks made brute force the agent by which they obtained their desires. They became accomplices of the parricide Muntasir out of revenge for some slight suffered at his father’s hands, and forced him to exclude his brothers and appoint Mustain to the throne. A delay in the distribution of their pay was sufficient to excite a revolt, and oblige the caliph to sign his abdication. Muhtadi met with a still sorrier fate for having desired to subject his redoubtable body-guard to some sort of discipline; and Muwaffak’s only means of diverting them from dangerous enterprises at home was to employ them on distant missions.
An Arab Chief
(Based on decorations in the Alhambra)
[819-879 A.D.]
The troubles which surrounded the caliphate in Baghdad wrought the most serious consequences throughout the empire. The governors of provinces, sole depositaries of power during the intervals of government, aspired to complete independence and sold their submission to each successive sovereign. The provinces themselves, regretting the riches that went from them to swell the disorders of the capital, encouraged the pretensions of their governors, until these latter finally succeeded in reducing the caliph to a purely nominal supremacy.
The dismemberment of Spain and Africa had been the first blow struck at the unity of the Moslem states; when the Abbasid caliphs had invested the Aghlabites with the government, they had not regarded it as an act of final abdication on their own part. In Asia the work of disintegration had gone on more slowly. The Tahirites, whom Al-Mamun had established in Khorasan by giving full control of that province to his general Tahir, maintained amicable relations with the caliphs until their realm in turn became torn by dissensions, and they were finally overthrown by the power of the Saffarids. Yakub, the leader of this family of Saffarids, wished to push his victories further, and advanced to the attack of Baghdad (874). Muwaffak, who was in command of the city, met and defeated him at Wasit, but did not feel sufficiently strong to follow up his advantage by pursuit. Yakub retired to his own dominions, and having by the following year regained all his losses, would shortly have visited the caliph with complete destruction, had not his life been suddenly cut short (879).
[819-913 A.D.]
The establishment of the dynasty of the Saffarids in Khorasan, Sistan, and Tabaristan cut off all communication between the centre of the empire, Khwarizm, and the Mawarannahar, and Ismail, the governor of those provinces, declared his independence in full assurance of impunity. In 819 the sons of Asad ben Saman had obtained from Al-Mamun the command of Samarcand, Ferghana, and Balkh respectively; one of them, Akhmed, transmitted his power to his eldest son Nasr, who, by taking possession of Bokhara, became later sovereign over all Transoxiana. Suspecting his brother Ismail of complicity with the Turks and Saffarids, against whom he was obliged vigorously to defend his province, Nasr pursued him with an armed force (888), but was himself taken prisoner. On this occasion, Ismail revealed the magnanimity of his character; he caused all the deference due his rank to be paid to his brother, and up to the time of the latter’s death in 892 saw that his authority was respected. When he was at last free to act as sovereign, Ismail forced the Turks to retreat beyond the Jaxartes, and laid a solid foundation for the Samanid dynasty.