Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/611

ABBASIDS.] MOHAMMEDANISM 58.3 among the courtiers that every one found a thousand reasons for excusing his conduct. Harun confirmed him in his post and returned to Baghdad, through which, how ever, he only passed, and went on to Rakka on the Euphrates, a city which became his habitual residence. He did not long enjoy the repose which he went there to seek, for Nicephorus again broke the treaty of peace, and the Caliph was obliged to take the field anew. Once more Nicephorus was beaten, and so completely that he was obliged to submit to the very harsh conditions which the victor imposed on him. Two years later, new disturbances broke out in KhorA sAn, where a certain RAfi b. Laith had revolted. Harun set out again for that province, accompanied by his son Ma inun. It was to be his last journey. He was attacked by a tumour in the abdomen, and struggled in vain against this malady, which carried him off a year after his depart ure, A.H. 193 (A.D. 808-809), just on his arrival at the city of Tiis, the birthplace of the great epic poet of Persia, Firdausf. HArun was only forty-seven years of age. Amin. 6. On the death of Harun, his minister Fadl b. Rabi hastened to call together all the troops of the late Caliph, and to lead them back to Baghdad, in order to place them in the hands of the new sovereign, Amin. He even led back the corps which was intended to occupy KhorAsAn, and which ought to have fallen to the share of Ma mun, according to the testament of HArun. Fadl b. Rabi thus committed a serious violation of the rights of Ma mun ; but he cared little for this, being chiefly desirous of winning the confidence of the new Caliph. He was quite aware, however, that in thus acting he was making Ma mun his irreconcilable enemy ; and he therefore purposed to use every endeavour to arouse against him the enmity of his brother Amfn. He advised him to exclude Ma mun from the succession, and the Caliph was weak enough to listen to him. Receiving the order to resign his government of Khorasan and to repair to Baghdad, Ma mun was greatly perplexed ; but his tutor and vizier, Fadl b. Sahl, reani mated his courage, and pointed out to him that, if he obeyed the orders of the Caliph, certain death awaited him at Baghdad. Ma mun resolved to hold out against Amin, and found pretexts for eluding the orders of his brother and remaining in Khorasan. Amin, in his anger, caused the testament of his father, which, as we have seen, was preserved in the Ka ba, to be destroyed, declared, on his own authority, the rights of Ma mun to the Caliphate to be forfeited, and caused the army to swear allegiance to his own son MiisA, a child five years of age, on whom he bestowed the title of NAtik bil-Hakk, " He who speaks according to truth " (A.H. 194, A.D. 809-810). On hearing the news, Ma mun, strong in the rightfulness of his claim, retaliated by suppressing the Caliph s name in all public acts. Amin immediately despatched to KhorAsAn an army of fifty thousand men, under the command of All b. IsA. Ma mun, on his side, raised troops among his faithful people of KhorAsAn, and entrusted their command to TAhir b. Hosain, who displayed remarkable abilities in the war that ensued. In the following year, the two armies met under the walls of Ray, and victory declared for TAhir. Ma mun now no longer hesitated to take the title of Caliph. The year after, Amin placed in the field two new armies, commanded respectively by Ahmed b. Mazyad and Abd- allAh b. Homaid b. Kahtaba. The skilful TAhir b. Hosain succeeded in creating divisions among the troops of his adversaries, and obtained possession, without striking a blow, of the city of HolwAn, an advantage which placed him at the very gates of BaghdAd. Ma mun immediately sent TAhir reinforcements under the orders of Harthama b. A yan, which enabled him to maintain a firm hold on all the conquered territory, and to continue his victorious march to the capital. Reverses naturally lead to fresh reverses. One after the other the provinces fell away from Amin, and he soon found himself in possession of BaghdAd alone, which was speedily invested by the troops of TAhir and Harthama. That unfortunate capital, though blockaded on every side, made a desperate defence for two years. Ultimately the eastern part of the city fell into the hands of TAhir, and Amin, deserted by his followers, was compelled to surrender. He resolved to treat with Harthama, as he hated TAhir; but this step caused his ruin. TAhir learned by his spies that Harthama was to receive the Caliph in person, and gave orders to a body of horsemen to arrest Amin as he issued from BaghdAd under cover of the night. On the banks of the Tigris, Harthama awaited Amin with a boat, but scarcely had the Caliph set foot in it, when the agents of TAhir poured on it a storm of arrows and stones. The boat sank, and the Caliph had to make his escape by swimming. But he was closely followed up, and had scarcely left the river when he fell into the hands of his enemies, who shut him up in a hut and went to inform TAhir of the capture. The victorious general immediately ordered him to be put to death, and the order was carried out. The head of the unfortunate Amin was cut off and sent to Ma mun, A.H. 198. It was presented to him by his vizier, Fadl b. Sahl, surnamed Dhu 1-RiyAsatain, or "the man with two governments," because his master had committed to him both the ministry of war and the general administration. Ma mun, on see ing the head, hid his joy beneath a feigned display of sorrow. 7. On the day following that on which Amin had Ma nmu. perished so miserably, TAhir caused Ma mun to be pro claimed at BaghdAd. The accession of this prince appeared likely to put an end to the evils of civil war, and to restore to the empire the order necessary for its prosperity. It was not so, however. The reign of Ma mun that reign on which art, science, and letters, under the patron age of the Caliph, threw so brilliant a lustre had a very stormy beginning. Ma mun was in no haste to remove to BaghdAd, but continued to make Merv his temporary residence. In his gratitude to the two men to whom he owed his throne, he conferred on TAhir the government of Mesopotamia and Syria, and chose as prime minister of the empire Fadl b. Sahl, who had been already his vizier in the government of KhorAsAn. The adherents of Ali seized on the elevation of Ma mun to power as a pretext for fresh revolts at Mecca, at Medina, and in IrAk. At Cufa a certain Ibn TabAtabA also broke out into open rebellion, and placed an army in the field under one of his partisans, Abu 1-SarAyA. Hasan b. Sahl, brother of Ma mun s prime minister, who had been made governor of all the provinces conquered by TAhir, immediately sent troops against Cufa. They were defeated, and Abu 1- SarAyA, encouraged by this first success, and no longer finding a secondary part sufficient for his ambition, poisoned his chief Ibn TabAtabA, and put in his place another of the family of Alf, Mohammed b. Mohammed, whom, on account of his extreme youth, he hoped to govern at his will. Fresh troops sent against Abu 1- SarAyA fared no better than the first, and several cities of IrAk, as Basra, WAsit, and MadAin, fell into the hands of the rebels. Abu 1-SarAyA was already marching against BaghdAd, when Hasan b. Sahl, in great alarm, hastily recalled Harthama b. A yan, one of the heroes of the civil war, who was already on his way back to Merv. As soon as this general had returned from KhorAsAn, the face of affairs changed. The adherents of All were everywhere driven back, and the whole of IrAk fell again into the hands of the AbbAsids. Cufa was taken by assault, and

both Abu 1-SarAyA and Mohammed b. Mohammed were