Zanj uprising

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Southern Iraq during the Zanj Rebellion

The Zanj uprising was a major slave revolt between 869 and 883 in Mesopotamia against the Abbasids , led by Ali ibn Muhammad .

course

Among the multiethnic slaves in Islamic countries, the Saqāliba ( Slavs ) were the “whitest” and the most respected and sought-after commodities from Europe. The African zanj were considered the most despicable and were used for the lowest and heaviest work, for example for draining the salt marshes on the lower reaches of the Euphrates , where luxury fruits for long-distance trade were to be grown in plantations . There were uprisings in 689 , 690 and 694 , which were quickly put down due to poor organization and inadequate armament. Almost 200 years later, however, an uprising broke out on September 7, 869, which lasted for 14 years until August 11, 883 and was led by the Arab Ali ibn Muhammad, the "Lord of the Zanj", until his death.

The countermeasures organized by the caliph in Baghdad failed repeatedly due to the fighting strength of the Zanj. Rather, the Zanj 871 achieved a great success when they brought Basra , which was criticized by Islamic theologians and religious leaders as a religious den, devoted to luxury, under their power and completely destroyed. The slave army massacred the residents and forced the survivors into slavery.

In the vicinity of the destroyed Basra, the rebels built their own capital with a military command, administration and courts. Other discontented people such as peasants, shepherds, river boatmen, porters and “white” deserters from the caliph's army, Turkish prisoners and enslaved enemy soldiers joined the successful Zanj. As victorious warriors and new masters of southern Iraq, many Zanj had themselves become slave owners. This led to social friction and ethnically motivated conflicts that undermined unity. In the ongoing fighting, soldiers increasingly defected to the caliph's units after the impulse to liberate had waned and the opposing officers had made tempting offers. The seat of Ali ibn Muhammad was taken in March 883, but the uprising was not over until August 11, 883 with his death and al-Muwaffaq as the ruling regent of the Abbasids under Caliph al-Mu'tamid was the final victor. The victim's head was impaled and displayed as a trophy in Baghdad. Historians disagree on how many victims the uprising cost. The reported numbers are unreliable and vary between 500,000 and 2 million.

The leader Ali ibn Muhammad

We know of Ali ibn Muhammad that he lived in Samarra , was a poet at the court of the caliph and taught students reading, writing, grammar and astronomy. In 864, there is evidence of a stay in Bahrain , where he declared himself an Aliden , namely pretending to be a relative of Mohammed's son-in-law , Ali . It is more likely, however, that he was a released "white" slave; because he called for the equality of all people regardless of their ethnicity. To this end, he sought an alliance with Hamdan Qarmat , the founder of the sectarian Qarmatians . He gathered supporters to revolt, but had to flee. Further news testify to him in Basra, Baghdad and southern Mesopotamia. By chance he became aware of the Zanj, but immediately sat at its head in 869 and solemnly proclaimed the revolt. As a self-proclaimed Mahdi and alleged member of the Prophet's family, he claimed from his state, which also minted its own coins, to restore Islamic law. Once powerful, however, Ali ibn Muhammad created a strictly hierarchical society in which social and ethnic groups were separated from one another. Goods and wealth acquired as booty were reserved for him and those close to him. The Zanj became a privileged group among others. It can be assumed that the contempt for blacks widespread among Arabs ultimately prevailed in him. As other failed Zandschrevoltage showed, the uprising could not have lasted so long without him as leader. That is why it ended with his death on August 11, 883.

Result of the uprising

Slavery has remained a phenomenon in the Islamic world to the present day, even if it was taboo in the 20th century. In 2007, the French Muslim anthropologist Malek Chebel found it necessary to publicly appeal to those responsible in the Islamic countries he visited not to classify slavery in its adapted forms as a taboo, but to prosecute it as a crime with appropriate penalties.

The Zanj liberation struggle abolished the hard labor in the salt marshes of the Euphrates, but the slave trade , which is cultivated with all neighboring countries of Islam, experienced the least collapse in relation to Africa. Another Zanj uprising, which ended quickly with a massacre, has been handed down from al-Wasit on the Tigris in 885 . Rather, Africa remained the primary reservoir of slaves until the 20th century, with a deported number of 17 million who arrived at their destinations, assumed by Tidiane N'Diaye for a period of 1400 years . For a deportee, however, three to four others who perished in slave hunts, epidemics or castration , etc. must be estimated.

For the French medieval historian Jacques Heers it is noteworthy that the long Zanj uprising alone found over 100 adaptations up to the 13th century (also among oriental Christians), the most important three-hundred -page version of the historian at-Tabarī as a contemporary of the events. Heers, however, accuses European historiography of having made Spartacus an indispensable figure in the history of slavery , but has so far not paid enough attention to slavery in Islam.

literature

  • Malek Chebel, L'esclavage en terre d'islam. Un tabou bien gardé , Paris (Fayard) 2007; ISBN 978-2-213-63058-8 .
  • Jacques Heers, Les négriers en terres d'islam. La première traite des Noirs VIIe-XVIe siècle , Paris (Perrin) 2007; ISBN 978-2-262-02764-3 .
  • Tidiane N'Diaye, Le génocide voilé. Enquête historique , Paris (Gallimard) 2008; ISBN 978-2-07-011958-5 . English: The Veiled Genocide. The history of the Muslim slave trade in Africa , Rowohlt, Reinbek 2010; ISBN 978-3-498-04690-3 .
  • Alexandre Popovic , La révolte des Zandj, esclaves noirs importés en Mésopotamie , Cahiers de la Méditerranée online , 65 | 2002, (accessed February 16, 2011).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jacques Heers (2007), p. 227.
  2. ↑ Jacques Heers (2007), p. 234.
  3. ↑ Ephraim Karsh: Islamic Imperialism - A History , New Haven 2007, p. 49.
  4. ↑ Malek Chebel (2007), p. 131.
  5. ↑ Jacques Heers (2007), p. 239.
  6. ↑ Tidiane N'Diaye (2008), p. 130.
  7. ↑ Jonathan P. Berkey: The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002, p. 141.
  8. ↑ Tidiane N'Diaye (2008), p. 132.
  9. ↑ Malek Chebel (2007), p. 491 f.
  10. ↑ Jacques Heers (2007), p. 240.
  11. ↑ Tidiane N'Diaye (2008), p. 221 f.
  12. ↑ Jacques Heers (2007), p. 236.
  13. ↑ Jacques Heers (2007), p. 232.