Muhammad an-Nafs az-Zakīya

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Muhammad ibn ʿAbdallāh an-Nafs al-Zakīya ( Arabic محمد بن عبد الله النفس الزكية; † December 6, 762 ) was a Hasanid who undertook an unsuccessful uprising against the Abbasid caliph al-Mansūr in Medina in 762 . The uprising was supported by the Zaidite Shiites, but after a few months it was suppressed by the caliph's troops.

During the Umayyad period, Muhammad was raised as a pretender to the throne by his father, ʿAbdallāh, who was then the head of the Alides , and dubbed Mahdi by him . During the caliphate of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik made various Shia propagandists who is Muhammad ibn'Alī al-Baqir would not join, advertising for him. When, after the death of al-Walid II in 744, the collapse of the Umayyad caliphate became more and more evident, ʿAbdallāh called the Alids and various other groups who sympathized with them, including various Muʿtazilites , in the town of al-Abwā in the Hejaz and let her pay homage to his son as the future ruler. Among those who swore the oath of allegiance to him on this occasion , the later Abbasid caliph al-Mansur is said to have been.

Contrary to what Muhammad's father ʿAbdallāh had hoped for, a few years later it was not the Alids but the Abbasids who came to power. Muhammad and his brother Ibrāhīm kept themselves in hiding, thus making it clear that they were not ready to recognize the caliphate of Abu l-Abbas as-Saffah . They behaved in the same way when al-Mansour took office in June 754. Al-Mansur feared the two brothers and had them searched for everywhere. During his pilgrimage in 758, the caliph learned that Muhammad lived in the mountains of the Juhaina tribe, but could not have him captured there. In order to get hold of the two brothers, from 758 onwards he had several of their relatives, including their father and uncle, gone 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.

Finally, on September 22nd, 762, Muhammad appeared in front of Medina and took the city by surprise. Several prominent personalities in the city, including the legal scholar Mālik ibn Anas , announced their loyalty to the Abbasids and joined him. A relative, al-Hasan ibn Muʿāwiya, was sent to Mecca as governor and was soon able to take control of this city and pull the residents to the side of Muhammad. Meanwhile, Muhammad's brother Ibrāhīm took the city of Basra with the support of the Zaidites .

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 the army approached Medina, many residents of the city broke up with Muhammad and advised him to go into hiding again. However, Muhammad refused and prepared the defense of Medina, following the example of the defense of the Meccans by his ancestor Mohammed . After many residents of Medina had left the city, ʿĪsā ibn Mūsā advanced on the city. On December 6th, Muhammad an-Nafs al-Zakīya was killed in battle, and his head was then sent to the caliph.

Muhammad's brother Ibrāhīm was able to stay in Basra until February 763, but was then also defeated by the caliphate troops. Another brother, Idrīs , managed to evade to the western Maghreb and there in 789, with the support of indigenous Berber tribes, to found an Alidian state. His descendants, the Idrisids , ruled over large areas of what is now Morocco until the beginning of the 10th century.

literature

  • Al-Balāḏurī : Ansāb al-ašrāf . Vol. II, Ed. Wilferd Madelung. Steiner, Wiesbaden, 2003. pp. 507-526.
  • F. Buhl: Art. "Muḥammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. VII, pp. 388b-389b.
  • 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.
  • Amikam Elad: "The Rebellion of Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Al-Ḥasan (known as al-Nafs al-Zakīya) in 145/762." In JE Montgomery (ed.): Abbasid Studies: Occasional Papers of the School of Abbasid Studies, Cambridge, July 6-10, 2002. Leuven, 2004. pp. 147-98.
  • Tilman Nagel: "An early report on the uprising of Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh in the year 145 h" in Der Islam 46 (1970) 227-262.
  • 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. ↑ See Muth 63.
  2. ↑ See Muth 62.
  3. ↑ Cf. Muth 77-79.
  4. ↑ Cf. Muth 67-69.
  5. ↑ Cf. Muth 121-122.
  6. ↑ Cf. Muth 128, 145-150.
  7. ↑ See Laura Veccia Vaglieri : Art. "Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbdallāh" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Vol. III, pp. 983b-985b.
  8. ↑ Cf. Muth 155f.
  9. ↑ Cf. Muth 157-158.
  10. ↑ Cf. Muth 159-165.
personal data
SURNAME Muhammad an-Nafs az-Zakīya
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Muhammad ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Nafs al-Zakīya; محمد بن عبد الله النفس الزكية (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Descendant of ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib and organized an uprising against the Abbasid caliph al-Mansūr in 762
DATE OF BIRTH 7th century or 8th century
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 762