The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall/Chapter 52
CHAPTER LII
SULEIMĀN
96–99 A.H. 715–717 A.D.
Suleimān,
96 A.H.
715 A.D.Suleimān succeeded at once to the throne. It went as a saying at Damascus that Al-Welīd's turn was for art; Suleimān's for the ḥarīm and good living; ʿOmar's (the next to follow) for devotion. The fashion of the Court changed accordingly. With the first, the talk was of culture; with the second, of slave-girls, marriage, and divorce; with the third, of austerity, and recitation of the Ḳorʾān by night. The prowess of the Empire waned under Suleimān. He was called, indeed, the Key of Blessing,—but only because he nominated ʿOmar for his successor.
Declension in Spain and the East.Suleimān weakened the administration of Spain by conniving at,—if indeed he did not actually order,—the murder of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, the able follower of his father Mūsa; the Christians, profiting by the neglect that followed, rose upon their conquerors in the Asturias, and the mountainous region in the north, Moḥammad ibn al-Ḳāsim, the successful invader of India, recalled as a follower of the hated Al-Ḥajjāj, came to an evil end. And under one of the sons of Al-Muhallab the Azdi (now the favoured house) who succeeded, the progress of Islām in the far East slackened, and its prestige declined.
Rebellion and end of Ḳoteiba,
97 A.H.With Ḳoteiba, the death of Al-Welīd caused the utmost consternation, Appointed by Al-Ḥajjāj, he well knew the bitterness of Suleimān towards all his adherents, and the danger in which they stood from the enmity of Yezīd, the favourite of the day. In an evil hour he set up for himself, and called on the army to join him against the Government. But miscounting his influence, he fatally overshot the mark. The Azd were his enemies all through, and he had deeply offended Temīm. Fighting thus with but a scanty following, he was slain, and his head, with those of eleven of his brethren, sent a welcome offering to the Caliph. And so the conqueror of Bokhārā, Samarķand, and Kāshghār, came to an untimely and dishonoured end. It was said of him by a Turk, Ḳoteiba at the world's end was more terrible to us than Yezīd at our very door. He had been one of the greatest heroes of Islām, were not his name stained by treachery and bloodshed, and his career cut short by a heedless rebellion.
Yezīd succeeds in ʿIrāḳ, 96 A.H.;Yezīd son of Al-Muhallab, the Caliph's minion, was at first appointed to Al-ʿIrāḳ, but unwilling to incur unpopularity in collecting the severe assessments of Al-Ḥajjāj, which barely sufficed for the now lavish expenditure at Damascus, he obtained the nomination of a financial officer to undertake the ungrateful task. He was Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān, the Maulà of Sijistān, who had procured the change of language in the government offices. Finding, however, the exchequer thus closed against his own extravagance, Yezīd prevailed on the Caliph, by the vain boast that his conquests would cast Ḳoteiba's into the shade, to give him Khorāsān.and Korāsān,
98 A.H. With him, the Azd again come to power, and Temīm take second rank. He also introduced Syrian government troops into Khorāsān, a thing which Al-Ḥajjāj had not done. Arriving at Merv nearly a year after the outbreak of Ḳoteiba, he felt bound to make good his boast; and casting aside his luxuries, took the lead of an immense army, recruited chiefly from Syria and Al-ʿIrāḳ. His efforts were directed to Jurjān, on the south-eastern recess of the Caspian Sea, which, as we have seen, had been overrun by Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ so long ago as the reign of ʿOthmān. But though tributary in name, the native rulers, conscious of their strength, were ever withholding payment of their dues, and no one dared to set foot within that inaccessible and rebellious region, This region formed a barrier to communication between Al-ʿIrāḳ and Merv, and a southern circuit had consequently to be made by troops and travellers for Central Asia. It was therefore an important object to reduce the intervening space. Starting from Merv, Yezīd first attacked Jurjān; and its defenders were driven back into their defiles, where, after suffering much hardship, they came to terms. Here Yezīd gave first proof that he might vie with Ḳoteiba in cruelty as well as conquest;Yezīd's campaign in Jurjān and Ṭabaristān,
98 A.H.
716 A.D. for although all who had made terms were spared, the country was ravaged, innumerable captives taken, and multitudes slain in cold blood.[1] Leaving 4000 in Jurjān, he marched south-west to Ṭabaristān, where the Prince, notwithstanding help from Jīlān and the Deilem, was discomfited and driven into the hills. Thither the Muslims following were drawn within dangerous defiles, whence, severely punished, they were pursued again into the plain. This reverse encouraged the men of Jurjān, breaking their treaty, to fall upon the garrison, and slay them to a man. Alarmed at his rear being thus cut off from Merv, Yezīd made peace with Ṭabaristān; and turning back again to Jurjān, swore a great oath (similar to that of Khālid) that he would not stay his sword till he had eaten bread of corn ground by the blood of his enemies. The city, strongly planted on an eminence, held out for seven months, and then fell into the hands of the inhuman conqueror, who,His cruelty in Jurjān. butchering thousands of his victims in an adjoining valley, turned the stream upon a mill that overlooked the ghastly scene, and so fulfilled his oath. He also lined the approaches to the city on the right hand and on the left, for miles, with impaled bodies.[2] Yezīd returning to Merv, reported his success to the Caliph, and with a vainglorious boast magnified the booty into an enormous sum, such as would have yielded four million dirhems for the fifth.[3]
Unsuccessful attack on Constantinople,
96–98 A.H.
714–716 A.D.To counterbalance the victories in Central Asia, Suleimān had the mortification of finding the vast preparations made to storm Constantinople useless. Shortly before his death, Al-Welīd had fitted out a fleet to attack the Byzantine capital by sea, while columns from Armenia and Asia Minor co-operated by land. Everything appeared to favour the project. Rebellion at home had paralysed the Greek power, while the disloyalty of Leo the Isaurian, who joined hands with Maslama the Caliph's brother in command, afforded the best prospect of success. Unexpectedly, Leo himself was raised to the throne, and threw the unnatural alliance over.98 A.H. The Muslim troops on both sides of the Bosphorus were defeated, and suffered such hardship from hunger, frost, and pestilence, that after lying before Constantinople for a year, the fleet was forced to retire, and the invasion came to a disastrous and inglorious end. Greek fire played a not inconsiderable part in the defeat.
Death of Suleimān,
ii. 99 A.H.
Sept., 717 A.D.Suleimān retained as Caliph his residence at Ramleh in Palestine, but made frequent excursions to Dābiḳ, the base of the army operating against Constantinople, and there he died early in 99 A.H. A son, nominated his successor, died before him. On his deathbed the Caliph wished to appoint another son, a minor; but he was persuaded by the saintly Rajā ibn Ḥayā, whose influence had been felt under the two preceding reigns also, to name instead ʿOmar, son of his uncle ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, so long governor of Egypt, and after him his brother Yezīd, to succeed. For the nomination of ʿOmar, the memory of Suleimān is blessed, though he himself receives but little other praise.[4]
Suleimān cruel and dissolute.Suleimān was not only cruel but dissolute and jealous; and as such was used to guard his ḥarīm by a watch of eunuchs. Handsome in mien and feature, it is related of him that at Dābiḳ, arrayed in a green robe and turban, he looked at himself in the mirror, and said, "Am I not the kingly youth?" slave-girl stood admiring by. "What thinkest thou?" he said to her. "I was thinking," she sang in plaintive verse, "that thou art the best of joys, if thou wouldest but remain; yet for mankind there is no continuing here. No blemish can I see in thee that is in other men, excepting only that thou, like them, must pass away." And he died within the week—having reigned two years and a half.
- ↑ Tradition places the number at 14,000, which seems hardly credible.
- ↑ Tradition varies as to the numbers from 12,000 to 40,000; but here again the statement seems incredible.
- ↑ Another tradition says six million. His secretary warned him of the danger of making so extravagant an estimate, a warning which, as we shall see, was not misplaced.
- ↑ The following incident illustrates his heartless cruelty, and how the manners of his Court did but follow suit. On pilgrimage to Mecca, he halted at Medīna, where a convoy of 400 Greek captives were brought into his camp. Doomed to death, they were ranged before the royal assembly for the courtiers and poets in the Caliph's train, by way of sport, to try their hands upon. The turn came to Al-Farazdaḳ, the poet, who was handed a sword the worse for wear. Once and again the blow failed of its effect, whereat the Caliph and those around him jeered. Upbraided thus for his awkwardness, Al-Farazdaḳ cast the sword away, and extemporised some couplets which turned the laugh aside. The poetry is indubitable evidence of the cruel tale being founded on fact. The point of it lies in this, that a somewhat corresponding failure had once been experienced by a chief of the Beni ʿAbs. These were the maternal relatives of the Caliph, who, joining their master, had exposed Al-Farazdaḳ to the ridicule of the company; and so he adroitly turned the laugh against them in his stinging verses, which ridiculed the failure of their own chieftain.
The first captive brought up, a Patrician, was assigned as a mark of honour to a great-grandson of ʿAlī, to behead. The poet Jarīr was also honoured with a captive of rank. It is almost incredible that such heartless despite should have been shown towards human life. But so we read, and that without any comment or expression of surprise.