Mansur

“ Al Mansur then took his seat on the throne, and Abu Muslim, being introduced, made his salutation, which the Caliph returned. Al Mansur then permitted him to sit, and, having commenced the conversation, proceeded to level sundry reproaches against him. "Thou hast done this," said he, "and thou hast done that." "Why does my lord speak so to me," replied Abu Muslim, "after all my efforts and services?" "Son of a prostitute!" exclaimed Al Mansur,42 "thou owest thy success to our own good fortune. Had a negress slave been in thy place, she would have done as much as thou! ”

“ Al-Mansur, though a bloody tyrant, had been a great statesman and had known how to bend people and things quietly to his will. He had sketched the firm outlines of a policy for the Abbasids, but had been cautious how he proclaimed his programme to the world. The world would come to him in time, and he could afford to wait and work in the dark. He knew, above all, that no people would submit to be school-mastered into the way in which they should go. Al-Ma’mun, for all his genius, was at heart a school-master. He was an enlightened patron of an enlightened Islam. ”

“ Our hero stood perfectly still and looked around. In order to go on his way he would have to step over the giant. “I’ll do it,” said185 Mansur; and drawing his sword he stepped on the giant’s silver belt. The blue-haired monster opened his eyes and was just going to jump when Mansur plunged his sword into the bad giant’s heart. “There are two of them gone,” said Mansur; “I wonder what the third is like.”
He traveled on till he came to a great castle, in the very heart of the forest, and as he was hungry he went up to the great door and knocked. ”

“ Unfortunately, not many of Mansúr’s governors were so tender of conscience as to take seriously to heart a word of the Prophet guaranteed on such authority. At the same time, all things considered, I do not venture to maintain that Mansúr was at heart an utter unbeliever. In the East, still less than in the West, does one expect to find absolute consistency in matters of religion. The man who in cold blood violated his most sacred oaths may yet have argued with himself that Alláh the All-merciful would at last forgive him, good Moslem as he was, all his sins. ”

“ Reign of Mahdi.—As soon as Mansur was dead, Rabi’, his client and chamberlain, induced all the princes and generals who accompanied the caliph, to take the oath of allegiance to his son Mahommed al-Mahdi, who was then at Bagdad. Isa b. Musa hesitated, but was compelled to give in. In 776 Mahdi constrained him for a large bribe to renounce his right of succession in favour of his sons, Musa and Harun. Mansur wrote in his testament to his son that he had brought together so much money that, even if no revenue should come in for ten years, it would suffice for all the wants of the state. ”

“ Salih replied, “Contrive how thou mayst speedily acquit thyself, else thou art a dead man; for I cannot grant thee an eye-twinkling of delay after the time appointed me by the Caliph; nor can I fail of aught which the Prince of True Believers hath enjoined on me. Hasten, therefore, to devise some means of saving thyself ere the time expire.” Quoth Mansur, “O Salih, I beg thee of thy favour to bring me to my house, that I may take leave of my children and family and give my kinsfolk my last injunctions.” ”

“ There were some hundreds of you; and now you are only fifteen." "We loaded the ammunition and rockets on the camels," replied Mansur, nervously, "and they and the merchants started the same time as we did; but we got separated on the march." "What!" said I, in a tone of wonder, "how could heavily laden camels become separated from horsemen? Only in one way: they move slowly, and you have deserted them in your terror. How long did you take to come here?" By this time Mansur had worked himself into such a state of nervous excitement that he had become incoherent. ”

“ Replied the Caliph, "If thou have seen aught worth telling, let us hear it; for hearing is not like seeing." Said Ibn Mansur, "O Commander of the Faithful, lend me thine ear and thy heart;" and he answered, "O Ibn Mansur, behold, I am listening to thee with mine ears and looking at thee with mine eyes and attending to thee with my heart." So Ibn Mansur began: "Know then, O Commander of the Faithful, that I receive a yearly allowance from Mohammed bin Sulaymбn al-Hбshimi, Sultan of Bassorah ”

“ Now when Al-Rashid heard the tale of Ibn Mansur there fell from him somewhat of his cark and care but he was not wholly comforted. He spent the night in this case and when it was morning he summoned the Wazir Ja’afar ibn Yahyá the Barmaki, and cried to him, “O Ja’afar!” He replied, “Here am I! Allah lengthen thy life, and make permanent thy prosperity.” ”

“ He brought it, therefore, to Elias, who believed it to be gold, but, loth to trust his judgment, advised Mansur to show it to a certain jeweller of high repute, as well for virtue as for craftsmanship; and Mansur did so. The jeweller asked Mansur to leave it with him for a day or two, that he might apply certain tests, and when asked for a receipt, appeared so hurt, called so loudly upon Allah and the neighbourhood to attest his honesty, and in all respects bore himself so nobly, that Mansur retired convinced that he had left his treasure in clean hands. ”

“ They could see no more than their dim contours where they squatted on the ground beside the huge Arab bed. They could feel each other's eyes; could feel the fear that bloated under the burden of sounds as the pounding was repeated violently. Presently, there came a popping, bursting noise, and then the crackle of steel, the dull, brutish thud of rifle butts, and footsteps mounting the creaky stairs—nearer, ever nearer. Mansur rose. ”

“ 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?" ”

“ So shall the land be pleasant to us and we will be down upon the True Believers and win our wishes." And quoth Mansur, "Thou counsellest well, O my brother," and they agreed upon the murther. So Nasir made an entertainment and said to Abdullah, "O my brother, verily I am thy brother, and I would have thee hearten my heart thou and my brother Mansur and eat of my banquet in my house, so I may boast of thee and that it may be said, The Emir Abdullah hath eaten of his brother Nasir's guest meal; when my heart will be solaced by this best of boons." ”

“ In the last days of the Omayyads, the Shi‘ites had chosen as caliph, Mahommed b. Abdallah b. Hasan, whom they called the Mahdi and the “pure soul,” and Mansur had been among those who pledged themselves to him by oath. Not unnaturally, the Alids in Medina were indignant at being supplanted by the Abbasids, and Mansur’s chief concern was to get Mahommed into his power. Immediately after his occupying the throne, he named Ziyād b. Obaidallah governor of Medina, with orders to lay hands on Mahommed and his brother Ibrāhīm, who, warned betimes, took refuge in flight. ”

“ Whenever Al-Mansur undertook an expedition, there followed in his train a number of bards and chroniclers, who could without delay record his achievements, and celebrate in the most stirring and pathetic strains of which the poesy of the Desert was capable the valor, the generosity, the piety, of the renowned champion of the Moslem faith. Forty-one of the most accomplished literary men of the empire accompanied the army for this purpose during the Catalonian campaign. ”

“ OF THE KHALÎFAH EL-MANSÛR. [1]
IT is said that he could remember a poem having once heard it, and he had a Mamlûk [2] slave who could commit to memory anything that he had heard twice, and a slave-girl who could do the same with what she had heard three times. And el-Mansûr was so extremely miserly that he had gained the appellation of el-Dauwânik, because he reckoned even to Dauwânik. [3] And one day there came to him a poet bringing a congratulatory ode. ”

“ The removal of the powerful individuality, of whom we hear that his followers would have sacrificed their lives and their very souls for him, but upon whose fidelity the Caliph could hardly rely, was a political necessity. An intimate of Mansúr’s is said to have quoted to him against Abú Moslim the verse of the Koran in which it is said that if the world held other gods besides Alláh it would go to ruin (súra 21, 22) . Such a prince as Mansúr could tolerate no rival in the kingdom. ”

“ At the time that the king of Maja-pahit drove the Malays from Singapura, as above related, he likewise subdued the country of Indragiri in Sumatra; but upon the occasion of Mansur Shah's marriage (about the year 1380) with the daughter of the then reigning king, a princess of great celebrity, named Radin Gala Chendra Kiran, it was assigned to him as her portion, and has since continued (according to Valentyn) under the dominion of the princes of Malaka. Mansur appears to have been engaged in continual wars, and to have obtained successes against Pahang, Pase, and Makasar. ”

“ Jalaluddin Rumi, the great mystic poet, says of him:
"Pharaoh said 'I am the Truth,'30 and was laid low. Mansur Hallaj said 'I am the Truth,' and escaped free. Pharaoh's 'I' was followed by the curse of God. Mansur's 'I' was followed by the mercies of God. Because Pharaoh was a stone, Mansur a ruby, Pharaoh an enemy of light, Mansur a friend. Mansur's 'I am He,' was a deep mystic saying, Expressing union with the light, not mere incarnation."31
Similarly Abdurrahman, the chief poet of the Afghans says:
"Every one who is crucified like Mansur, After death his cross becomes a fruitful tree." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In process of time Sultan Mansur Shah fell sick, and perceiving that he was about to quit the world, he called the bandahara and all his mantris, and said, "be it known that the world is now fading from my grasp, and I have no hope, but in the world to come ”

“ 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. ”

“ Mansur now sent in 757 an army of 70,000 men under the command of his cousin Abdalwahhāb, the son of Ibrāhīm the Imam, whom he had made governor of Mesopotamia, the real chief being Hasan b. Qaḥṭaba. They rebuilt all that the emperor had destroyed, and made this key of Asia Minor stronger than ever before. The Moslems then made a raid by the pass of Ḥadath (Adata) and invaded the land of the Byzantines. Two aunts of the caliph took part in this expedition, having made a vow that if the dominion of the Omayyads were ended they would wage war in the path of God. ”

“ Mansúr lived a great deal in Háshimíya, founded by his predecessor, in the immediate neighbourhood of Cufa. But the Cufans, little attached as they were to the Abbásids, were no desirable neighbours. After the death of Ibráhím, Mansúr had preached them as sharp a sermon against their sins as any Omayyad governor could have delivered, and expressed in it his astonishment that the Omayyads had not long ago depopulated the accursed place as an abode of unbelievers. Moreover, nothing but a creation of his own could have satisfied Mansúr’s haughty nature. ”

“ Even the Arab Moslems were much more inclined to attribute such an advantage to the Alids than to the reigning family. Mansúr himself doubtless viewed this doctrine of his own special enlightenment much as an intelligent Roman emperor regarded the divine honours paid him by poets and subservient provincials. At any rate, his nature was cool, and religious zeal will be imputed to him by no one. ”