Al-Mansur

“ This pre-eminent distinction; the unbroken triumph of more than fifty campaigns; the humiliation of its enemies in their formerly impregnable strongholds; the desecration and plunder of their most sacred shrines; the devastation and impoverishment of their territory; their regular payment of tribute and acknowledgment of vassalage,—all of these results are to be attributed to the talents of the hajib, Al-Mansur, the most consummate political and military genius that ever guided the destinies of any portion of the vast and opulent empire conquered and ruled by the sectaries of Mohammed. ”

“ For when not in open revolt they must needs profess Islam. In 167, we find al-Mahdi, who was also, it is true, much more strict than his father, al-Mansur, appointing a grand inquisitor to deal with such heretics. Al-Mansur, however, had contented himself with crushing actual rebellion; and Christian, Jew, Zoroastrian, and heathen of Harran were tolerated so long as they brought to him the fruits of Greek science and philosophy. ”

“ The most remarkable and distinguished of the family, he was in office when Al-Mansur transferred the capital from Damascus, the head-quarters of the hated Ommiades, to Baghdad, built ad hoc. After securing the highest character in history by his personal gifts and public services, he was succeeded by his son and heir Yáhyá (John) , a statesman famed from early youth for prudence and profound intelligence, liberality and nobility of soul. [265] He was charged by the Caliph Al-Mahdi with the education of his son Harun, hence the latter was accustomed to call him father ”

“ The erection of magnificent houses of worship might elicit the applause of the devout; but the possession of the most noble qualities availed nothing in the hour of disaster. The prestige of a distinguished name, the memory of splendid exploits, the sight of grand architectural monuments, the omnipresent culture of a great people, were trifles in the eyes of the Arab bent on blood-revenge, or of the Berber savage with the prospect of the booty of a palace like that of the Medina-al-Zahrâ before him. The rottenness of the Moslem system was disclosed by the death of Al-Mansur. ”

“ When al-Manṣûr became caliph, he assigned stipends for 400 men at al-Maṣṣîṣah. In the year 139, al-Manṣûr ordered that the city of al-Maṣṣîṣah, the wall of which had become shattered by earthquakes and whose population within the walls had become few in number, be well populated. Accordingly, in the year 140, he built the wall of the city, made its inhabitants settle in it and called it al-Maʿmûrah. Moreover, al-Manṣûr erected a cathedral mosque in it on the site of a heathen temple, and made it many times the size of the mosque of ʿUmar. ”

“ On this the witnesses retraced their evidence, and Isa and Sulaiman ceased to speak of their secretary, knowing that he had been killed by order of Al Mansur, who, disregarding his promise, cast Abdallah Ibn Ali into prison.
Terrible as was the wrath of Al Mansur when roused, there were not wanting on occasion those among his subjects who had the courage to rebuke him. Once the Caliph was addressing an audience at Damascus, and said: "O ye people! it is incumbent on you to give praise to the Most High that he has sent me to reign over you. ”

“ Al-Maʾmûn enlarged the mosque in the governorship of ʿAbdallâh ibn-Ṭâhir ibn-al-Ḥusain over al-Maghrib. Al-Manṣûr assigned stipends for 1,000 men of its inhabitants. Besides, he transplanted [into it] the inhabitants of al-Khuṣûṣ, who were Persians, Slavs and Christian Nabateans—all of whom were settled in al-Khuṣûṣ by Marwân—gave them in it lots marked for dwellings in exchange for and of the same measure as their old homes, pulled down their old dwellings and helped them to build the new ones. To these soldiers, who received stipends, al-Manṣûr gave fiefs and dwellings. ”

“ Others, among them the son of Al-Mansur, and another Abdallah, who was of royal lineage and noted for his avarice, fled to the Christian court for protection. Garcia Fernandez, Count of Castile, entertained the son of the minister, until the presence of a great Moslem army admonished him that the privilege of asylum must yield to political necessity. As soon as the misguided youth fell into the hands of his father he was beheaded. Then, with exquisite cruelty, Al-Mansur devised a scheme of retaliation, which, in spite of its malice, was singularly appropriate. ”

“ But the latter, who now, more than ever, felt his incompetency to govern, again voluntarily renounced the rights of sovereignty. The tumult increased; the garrison was called out, and Al-Modhaffer signalized his accession as hajib by the massacre of several hundred citizens. This example of severity was not soon forgotten; the spirit of revolt was crushed, and Al-Mansur, who on his death-bed had foreseen the occurrence of a similar catastrophe, thus averted by his prophetic wisdom a rebellion, which, unchecked, must have been productive of appalling consequences. ”

“ Al-Manṣûr died in Makkah in the year 158 and was buried near the well of Maimûn ibn-al-Ḥadrami, an ally of the banu-Umaiyah.
Ar-Ruṣâfah. Ar-Ruṣâfah [3] was built for al-Mahdi by al-Manṣûr on the east side of Baghdâdh. This side was called ʿAskar [camp] al-Mahdi [4] because al-Mahdi camped in it on his way to ar-Rai. When he returned from ar-Rai, he settled in ar-Ruṣâfah, although it had occurred to al-Manṣûr to direct him to settle in Khurâsân. This took place in the year 151. Before al-Mahdi had occupied the east side, a palace was built for him by al-Manṣûr's order ”

“ Two centuries and a half had passed since the distrust and the partiality of Al-Mansur had elevated to posts of pre-eminent dignity and power individuals of a race that Arab pride disdained as inferior, and whose influence subsequent experience had conclusively proved to be inconceivably [Pg 407] destructive to art, learning, and every instinct of civilization. Since that fatal day the supremacy of Islam in the West had steadily declined. ”

“ Many were driven into exile. The intensity of popular odium forced those who still pursued their studies into obscurity, sometimes into penury. Consciousness of a defective title to the crown often impelled a prince to resort to the ignoble expedient of persecuting science for the sake of obtaining popularity. It was thus that Al-Mansur, the greatest of Moorish conquerors, himself an enthusiast for and an adept in the very studies he professed to condemn, as a political measure for the consolidation of his power discouraged literature and oppressed philosophy. ”

“ So el-Mansûr praised his deed, and extolled him, and sent him back to his country highly honoured. And el-Mansûr always said, "I never in my life saw any one like this old man, nor one possessing greater firmness of mind, nor one who could overcome me in argument as did he ”

“ In the study of history, the attention of the observer is drawn by a peculiar charm towards those epochs, at which nations, after having secured their independence externally, strive to obtain an inward guarantee for their power, by acquiring eminence as great in science and in every art of peace as they have already attained in the field of war. Such an epoch was, in the history of the Arabs, that of the Caliphs Al Mansur, Harun al Rashid, and Al Mamun, the illustrious contemporaries of Charlemagne ”

“ Secure of the support of the soldiery, whose affections he had gained by his liberality, Al-mansur so little affected to disguise his assumption of supremacy, that he ordered his own name to be struck on the coin, and repeated in the public prayers, along with that of Hisham, thus arrogating to himself a share in the two most inalienable prerogatives of sovereignty. [pg 446] His robes were made of a peculiar fashion and stuff appropriated to royalty; he received embassies seated on the throne, and declared peace and war in his own name. ”

“ During the administration of Al-Mansur, no African prince would have cherished the apparently chimerical hope that his dynasty was destined to influence, in a decisive way, the future of the Peninsula. The death of that great commander, who left no worthy successor, encouraged the aspirations of every ambitious chieftain to plunge the country into anarchy, a condition from which he might possibly emerge with the lion’s share of power and plunder. In less than forty years the Berbers obtained control of the most valuable portion of the rich inheritance of the Moslems of Spain ”

“ Reign of Mansur.—Abuʽl-Abbas had designated as his successors first Abu Jaʽfar, surnamed al-Manṣūr (the victorious) , and after him his cousin ʽĪsā b. Mūsā. Abu Jaʽfar was, according to the historians, older than Abuʽl-Abbas, but while the mother of the latter belonged to the powerful Yemenite tribe of al-Ḥārith b. Kaʽb, the mother of Abu Jaʽfar was a Berber slave-girl. But he was a son of Mahommed b. Ali, and was therefore preferred by Abu Moslim to his uncles and cousins. Abuʽl-Abbas, however, had promised the succession to his uncle Abdallah b. Ali, when he marched against Merwan. ”

“ The religious character which invested the Khalif deepened and intensified this feeling. The sagacity of Al-Mansur did not suffer him to be deluded with the idea that he could violate with impunity [750] the most sacred opinions and prejudices of the people. Moreover, an ancient tradition, universally believed, declared that a change of the dynasty portended the speedy destruction of the khalifate. The man who in defiance of these ideas could attempt open usurpation was a public enemy, something worse, if possible, than a traitor. ”

“ A rejoinder by one of them to al-Mansur's remark that the people were lucky to escape the plague in his days typifies the then prevailing sentiment : c God is too good to subject us to pestilence and your rule at the same time. 5 They never did wholly reconcile themselves to the loss of Syria's privileged position, nor to their exclusion from government offices. ”

“ Al Mahdi, the third Caliph of the Abbasside dynasty, succeeded his father, Abu Jafar al Mansur, A.D. 774. He was as prodigal as his father was avaricious, and rapidly squandered his vast inheritance. Al Mansur had appointed as his instructor, before he succeeded to the throne, Sharki Ibn Kotami, who was learned in all the lore and traditions of the Arabs. One evening Al Mahdi asked his preceptor to divert him with some amusing anecdote. "I obey, Prince. May God protect you," answered Sharki. "They relate that a certain King of Hirah had two courtiers whom he50 loved equally with himself. ”

“ Georgios cured Al-Mansur, and received from him three thousand ducats for his reward, along with a beautiful slave girl; the latter was, however, returned to the Khalif with thanks, and the remark that, 'being a Christian, he could not keep more than one wife.' From that moment the physician attained free access to the harem, and enjoyed high favour with the Khalif, who greatly pressed him in A.D. 770 to make a profession of Islam ”

“ The martial spirit of the Spanish Moslems appears, from various anecdotes related by Al-Makkari, to have suffered great deterioration from the progress of luxury and decay of discipline; but the armies led by Al-mansur were mainly recruited from the fiery tribes of Barbary, and strengthened by numerous Christian slaves or Mamlukes, trained to serve their captors in arms against their own countrymen. ”

“ Nevertheless, al-Mansur and his successors strengthened the border fortresses of Syria and fortified the seaports of Lebanon. In 759 a band of Christians in Lebanon, resentful of harsh conditions and intolerable exactions and en- couraged by the presence of a Byzantine fleet in the waters of Tripoli, burst forth from their mountain stronghold al- Munaytirah and plundered several villages in the Biqa. ”

“ And dost thou say, 'I only gather treasure together to raise my position,' that is the highest position in which thou art already, and by Allâh! there is but one station above thy station, and to this thou canst attain solely through practising holiness."
Then el-Mansûr wept bitterly, and cried, "But what can I do, when of a truth the pious flee me, and the virtuous draw not nigh me nor enter my presence?" ”

“ In times of the greatest victories, when the people were intoxicated with success, there were discerning men who dreaded the ascendency of such dangerous allies. It was, however, the inexhaustible supply of African recruits which secured the unbroken series of triumphs that signalized the career of Al-Mansur. Their numbers were overwhelming. In a review held before an expedition into the North, six hundred thousand troops were mustered in the plain of Cordova. ”

“ Popular favor they seem never to have enjoyed. As the Umayyads grew weak, they became more stiff in their orthodoxy; but with the Abbasids, and especially with al-Mansur, thought was again free. As has been shown above, encouragement of science and research was part of the plan of that great man, and he easily saw that the intellectual hope of the future was with these theological and philosophical questioners. So their work went slowly on, with a break under Harun ar-Rashid, a magnificent but highly orthodox monarch, who understood no trifling with things of the faith. ”

“ In particular we are told of the arrival at his court in 772 of a scholar from India bearing with him an Indian treatise on astronomy, [1] which was translated into Arabic by order of the Caliph, and remained the standard treatise for nearly half a century. From Al Mansur's time onwards a body of scholars, in the first instance chiefly Syrian Christians, were at work at the court of the Caliphs translating Greek writings, often through the medium of Syriac, into Arabic. The first translations made were of the medical treatises of Hippocrates and Galen ”