al-Mansūr (Abbaside)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abū Jafar al-Mansūr , full name Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muhammad ibn ʿAlī al-Mansūr bi-llāh ( Arabic ابو جعفر عبد الله بن محمد بن علي المنصور بالله, DMG Abu Ǧa'far Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn'Alī al-Mansur bi-llāh ) (* August 714; † 7 October 775 ) was the second Caliph of the Abbasid (754-775), the actual founder of the Abbasid Empire and founder of the city Baghdad .

Dinar from the reign of al-Mansur

The way to the caliphate

Abu Jafar was born in 709 in al-Humaima east of the Jordan, where the Abbasid family lived at that time. Between 744 and 746 he took part in the unsuccessful revolt of the Talibid ʿAbdallāh ibn Muʿāwiya against the Umayyads . During the caliphate of his brother Abu l-Abbas as-Saffah (749-754) he was governor of the Jazīra and Armenia and designated heir to the throne. When Abu l-Abbas died on June 9, 754, al-Mansour was honored as the new caliph in Iraq. The new caliph himself was at that time on pilgrimage in Mecca with Abu Muslim , the governor of Khorassan . He was also paid homage there.

The revolt of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAlī

Al-Mansur, however, first had to enforce his rule against his uncle ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAlī , who at that time was about to attack the Byzantine Empire with an army of Syrians and Khorasans. When he heard the news of as-Saffāh's death, he returned and claimed the caliphate for himself in Harran . With the assertion that Abū l-ʿAbbās had promised to designate him as his successor when he had assumed the supreme command against Marwan II in 750 , ʿAbdallāh did not recognize the caliphate of al-Manṣūr. He sent Abu Muslim against him, who was able to put ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAlī to flight near Nisibis in November 754 .

Assassination of Abu Muslim

When Abū Muslim informed al-Mansūr of his victory, the latter sent a messenger to pick up the booty made at Nisibis. Abū Muslim became angry at this. In order to be able to better control him and to separate him from his supporters, al-Mansūr appointed Abu Muslim as governor of Egypt and Syria, but Abu Muslim refused to take this office and made his way home to Khorasan. After a lengthy exchange of letters, in which the caliph ordered Abū Muslim to come to the capital under threat of death, and after various attempts at mediation, Abū Muslim was finally persuaded in February 755 to visit the caliph. Al-Mansūr had him murdered in the palace by the chief of his bodyguard, ʿUthmān ibn Nahīk al-ʿAkkī, and four other men. In Chorāsān, the Zoroastrian Sunbādh then tried to punish the murder of Abū Muslim and instigated a rebellion, which was soon put down.

Confrontation with the Alides

From the very beginning of his caliphate, al-Mansūr feared the Alids , especially the two brothers Muhammad an-Nafs az-Zakīya and Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbdallāh , who challenged the Abbasids for power. They had gone into hiding in June 754, thus making it clear that they did not recognize his caliphate. Al-Mansour had them looked for all over the empire. During his pilgrimage in 758, he learned that Muhammad lived in the mountains of the Juhaina tribe west of Medina, but could not have him captured there. In order to get hold of the two brothers, he had their father ʿAbdallāh arrested in 758 and mistreated in custody. In the meantime, Muhammad and Ibrāhīm were traveling around the Arabian Peninsula and gathering followers, without, however, coming out openly anywhere.

Al-Mansour was particularly troubled by the fact that Muhammad an-Nafs al-Zakīya had written to the respected scholar ʿAmr ibn gestUbaid (d. 761) to get him to his side. Thereupon he summoned ʿAmr and asked him about his contact with Muhammad. ʿAmr informed him that he had not complied with Muhammad's request, but refused the oath of allegiance that al-Mansour demanded from him, arguing that if he had lied to him from Taqīya , he would also use his Taqīya oath could. The warning sermon that ʿAmr ibn ʿUbaid is said to have given the caliph on this occasion is passed down in many works of Arabic literature.

After Ziyād ibn ʿUbaidallāh, the governor of Medina, failed to take advantage of an opportunity to seize Muhammad in 759, al-Mansur had him shackled and replaced by Muhammad ibn Chālid al-Qasri. Al-Qasrī spent a lot of money persecuting the two Alides, but was unable to do anything. At the end of 761, al-Mansūr finally appointed Riyāh ibn ʿUthmān, who promised to locate the two brothers, as governor of Medina. Riyāh was actually able to find Muhammad's hiding place on Mount Radwā, but Muhammad escaped him shortly before his discovery. In order to force Muhammad to come out, the caliph al-Mansur ordered all Hasanids in Medina to be captured and chained to Iraq. The caliph had some of them whipped, others beheaded or buried alive.

Finally, on September 22nd, 762, Muhammad an-Nafs al-Zakīya appeared in front of Medina, took the city by surprise and imprisoned Riyāh. Several prominent personalities in the city, including the legal scholar Mālik ibn Anas , announced their loyalty to the Abbasids and joined him. A relative of Muhammad, al-Hasan ibn Muʿāwiya, was sent to Mecca as governor , was also able to take control of this city and pull the inhabitants to the side of the Alides. There was an exchange of letters between al-Mansour and Muhammad in which the caliph promised the rebel the prospect of complete impunity in the event that he surrendered. After this had shown no effect, he sent his relative ʿĪsā ibn Mūsā with an army of 4,000 fighters against him. When his army approached Medina, many residents of the city broke up with Muhammad and advised him to go into hiding again. On December 6th, he was killed in battle and his head was sent to the caliph.

Muhammad's brother Ibrāhīm had meanwhile taken the city of Basra with the support of the Zaidites . Together with his supporters he moved towards Kufa in order to take the poorly fortified city. Those who supported his uprising also included some followers of the Muʿtazila and various fiqh and hadith scholars such as Abū Hanīfa and al-Aʿmash . Al-Mansūr sent troops from Syria and the Jazīra to repel the insurrection and asked ʿĪsā ibn Mūsā after the suppression of the uprising in Medina to go to Iraq immediately with his troops. Together, the caliphate troops defeated Ibrāhīm and his followers on January 21, 763 in Bāchamrā south of Kufa.

Foundation of Baghdad

Even before the outbreak of the Aliden uprising, on July 30, 762, al-Mansūr laid the foundation stone for his capital, Baghdad. After the uprising was put down, he was able to devote himself to expanding the administration of the Reich. This expansion of the administration led to the growing influence of the Iranians in the civil service, but increasingly also in the aristocracy. The concentration of administration in the person of the caliph increased his power considerably. In addition, al-Mansur began to interpret the rule of the caliph as a theocracy willed by God . He also ensured that the caliph could freely choose his successor in order to prevent power struggles after his death.

Al-Mansūr died on October 7, 775 in Biʾr Maimūn after falling from his horse. His son al-Mahdi (775-785), who was designated heir to the throne , succeeded him as caliph. The city of Baghdad, founded by al-Mansūr, was soon to become the most important economic and cultural metropolis in the Muslim world.

literature

Arabic sources
  • Abū Saʿīd Našwān al-Ḥimyarī: al-Ḥūr al-ʿīn ʿan kutub al-ʿilm aš-šarāʾif dūna n-nisāʾ al-ʿafāʾif. Dār Āzāl, Beirut, 1985. pp. 263-265.
Secondary literature
  • Albert Dietrich: "The political testament of the second Ἀbbāsidenkalifen al-Manṣūr" in Der Islam 30/1 (1952) 133-165.
  • Hugh Kennedy: Art. "Al-Manṣūr" in Encyclopaedia of Islam . 2nd edition. Vol. VI, pp. 427a-428b.
  • Jacob Lassner: "Did the caliph Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣur murder his uncle ʿAbdallah b. ʿAli and other problems within the ruling house of the Abbasids" in Myriam Rosen-Ayalon (ed.): Studies in memory of Gaston Wiet . Jerusalem 1977. pp. 69-99.
  • Franz-Christoph Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate (136/754 to 145/762): from d. arab. Chronicle of aṭ-Tabarī trans. u. with histor. u. prosograph. Note provided . Frankfurt / Main 1988.
  • Theodor Nöldeke : Oriental sketches . Berlin 1892. pp. 113-51. Digitized
  • Renato Traini: "La Corrispondenza tra al-Manṣūr e Muḥammad 'an-Nafs az-zakiyyah'" in Annali di Istituto Orientale di Napoli Nuova Series 14 (1964) 773-798.

Individual evidence

  1. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 199f.
  2. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 3-12.
  3. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 12, 16-17.
  4. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, p. 17.
  5. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 25-31.
  6. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 35-36.
  7. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, p. 3.
  8. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, p. 62.
  9. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 77-79.
  10. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 67-69.
  11. See e.g. B. al-Ḥimyarī: al-Ḥūr al-ʿīn . 1985, pp. 264f.
  12. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 55, 79-81.
  13. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 82-83.
  14. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 83-84.
  15. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 89f.
  16. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 92-114.
  17. Cf. Muth 121-122.
  18. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 128, 145-150.
  19. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, pp. 176-178.
  20. See al-Ḥimyarī: al-Ḥūr al-ʿīn . 1985, p. 263f.
  21. See Laura Veccia Vaglieri : Art. "Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbdallāh" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. III, pp. 983b-985b.
  22. Cf. Muth: The caliph al-Manṣūr in the beginning of his caliphate. 1988, p. 199.
predecessor Office successor
Abu al-Abbas as-Saffah Abbasid Caliph
754–775
al-Mahdi