Rafe
and Harsimah in the Service of Mamoon
It has been stated above that
Harsimah had laid a siege to Rafe at Samarkand and Rafe was still at large when
Haroon died in Tus. Rafe's brother, Basheer, was arrested and brought to Haroon
Rasheed who had him killed.
After Haroon's death Harsimah bin
Ayun entered Samarkand by force and occupied it, at the time he was accompanied
by Tahir bin Husain. Rafe escaped and ran away from Samarkand and took refuge
with the Turks. He came back with a Turkish army to fight with Harsimah but he
lost this battle. Rafe became estranged from the Turks and he became very weak.
He sent his messenger to Mamoon and begged for pardon and safety. Mamoon
granted it to him and he came to Merv in his service. He was given a warm
reception. Harsimah visited Mamoon and Mamoon made him an officer of his cavalry.
It was during the same period that Mamoon deposed Abbas bin Abdullah bin Malik
from the governorship of Rayy.
Ameen
and Mamoon as open Rivals
Ameen received the news in Baghdad
that Mamoon had made Harsimah an officer of his cavalry and accepted Rafe as
his companion with honor and deposed Abbas bin Abdullah as the governor of
Rayy. He was justifiably displeased to hear this and expunged Mamoon's name
from the Friday sermon and entered his son's name as heir apparent. He then
sent Abbas bin Musa bin Isa bin Jafar and Muhammad bin Isa bin Naheek to Mamoon
with the message, that said, "Agree to my son superceding you as heir
apparent and make an announcement to the effect that Musa bin Ameen is the heir
apparent in your place." Mamoon rejected this and Fadal bin Sahal took
advantage of the situation. He converted Abbas bin Musa to his camp secretly
and persuaded him to remain stationed in Baghdad and work as to spy and
communicate any important information. Ameen had asked Mamoon to withdraw from
the governorship of a few states in Khorasan, which he refused immediately.
When Mamoon was informed that his name had been removed from the Friday sermon
in Baghdad, he also deleted Ameen's name from sermons is Khorasan. Ameen tore
up the document that was hung on the Ka'bah by Haroon. This occurred in the
beginning of 194 A.H. From this point forward Mamoon Rasheed had the right to
oppose Ameen openly. Mamoon very carefully sealed Khorasan so that no letter or
messenger of Ameen's could enter it and create any unrest or revolt there.
Unrest
in the Provinces
When the news of the enmity between
the two brothers caused by the removal of the document from the Ka'bah and
tearing it into pieces, and the removal of their names from their respective
sermons became common knowledge, forces that breed on dissension began to
appear. Khagan, Tibet, the lands of the Turks and Kabul territories that paid
their taxes and were loyal to the Islamic authority, began to revolt. The news
upset Mamoon however, on the advice of Fadal bin Sahal he wrote mild letters to
the Kings of those lands, excused the taxes of some and allowed concessions to
some and thereby strengthened the bond of reconciliation with them. Mamoon's
worries were short lived and no disturbances inside his territory were created
because most of the Khorasanis supported Mamoon wholeheartedly and wanted to
defeat Ameen who was supported by the Arabs. Negative forces of dissension
caused unrest, and disturbances surfaced in the provinces under Ameen and they
proved more dangerous to him. Only one man from among the Banu Umayyad dynasty
had survived named Ali bin Abdullah bin Khalid bin Yazid bin Muawiya. His
mother was Nafisah bint Obaidullah bin Abbas bin Ali bin Abi Talib. He was
known as Siffenane. He used to say, "I am the son of the chiefs of Siffen,
that is, Muawiya's and Ali's son." He was educated and wise. Seeing Ameen
and Mamoon preparing to confront each other he revolted in Syria and the Syrian
tribes, which had connections with Banu Umayyad, joined him. Ameen sent his
army to Syria and it was defeated. Syria remained unstable for several years.
At last in 198 A.H., Siffenane was defeated by some other Syrian tribes and he
fled from Syria and the Syrians captured Damascus. When Ameen had the document
of Ka'bah torn into pieces, Dawood bin Isa refused to obey him and contended to
the inhabitants of Madinah and the Hijaz, "Ameen is unjust to Mamoon. What
we have promised before to Haroon Rasheed, we should keep it and we must never
take the oath of succession for Musa who is only a baby." His efforts bore
fruit and all the inhabitants of the Hijaz recognize Mamoon as Caliph and
removed Ameen's name from the Friday sevations. Dawood bin Musa then left
Makkah for Merv via Basra, Persia and Kerman and apprised Mamoon of the
situations in the Hijaz. Mamoon was very pleased with him and appointed him
governor of Makkah. That occurred in 196 A.H. In brief, disobedience and
rebellions damaged Ameen considerably. Mamoon suffered no damage or loss and
that was a pointer to the fact that Ameen was wanting in his capability of
governing the land.
The
Romans
Just a few days before Haroon
Rasheed's death the Roman emperor Nagfoor was killed in the battle of Barjān.
His son succeeded him after his death. He also died after two months. Then his
sister's son-in-law Michael bin Jarjees sat on the throne. When the Romans
rebelled against him the next year 194 A.H., he left the capital and joined a
band of ascetics. Then the Romans chose their commander in chief as their King.
In short, at the time when internal riots and disturbances were taking place in
Haroon's government, the Roman Empire was not free from similar complications.
The
Tug of War between Ameen and Mamoon
During the last days of 194 A.H.,
Ameen removed Mamoon as heir apparent and Mamoon expunged Ameen's name from the
Friday sermon. After that, Ameen not only replaced Mamoon by his own son as
heir apparent but also deposed his brother Motamin and replaced him by his
other son Abdullah as second heir apparent. Now Musa and Abdullah's names were
read in the sermons. There was nothing to stop Ameen and Mamoon from fighting
with each other for superiority. Mamoon conferred the title of Dhurriyasatain
on Fadal bin Sahal and appointed him as the Prime Minister. Tahir bin Husain
bin Mus'ab bin Zaraiq bin Asad Khaza'i was made commander-in-chief of the army.
Fadal bin Sahal went to the border state of Rayy and recruited veteran soldiers
and by recruiting the people of the border regions formed an army and gave it
to the commander. Tahir bin Husain appointed Abul Abbas Khazai the Commander of
the army of Rayy, Abul Abbas equipped and fully armed his troops. On the other
side, Ameen Rasheed sent Esmat bin Hammad bin Sālim with an army of infantry to
Hamadan and ordered him to stay there and send the vanguard to Sadah, then he
prepared a huge army under commandership of Ali bin Isa bin Mahan and sent it
to Khorasan to face Mamoon. It was a great mistake on the part of Ameen and his
Minister Fadal bin Rabl to send Ali bin Isa as commander to Khorasan because
the inhabitants of Khorasan had been displeased with Ali bin Isa when he was
governor there. As soon as they heard about his approach, they became
determined to fight even more. Ameen handed over to Ali bin Isa Nahawand,
Hamadan, Qum and Isfahan as feudal estates for him and gave him cash and
equipment for more than his needs, he sent him a 50,000 man cavalry. He issued
commands to all the administrators and officials to send reinforcements and
every type of aid to him. When Ali bin Isa came to Ameen's mother Zubaidah
Khatoon to say good-bye to her, she instructed him to refrain from showing
disrespect to Mamoon if he was captured. In Sha'bān 195 A.H. he set out from
Baghdad. Caliph Ameen along with officials of the government went with them for
a little distance. The army was so large and impressive that the people of
Baghdad had not seen the like of it before. When Ali bin Isa arrived near Rayy,
his companions advised him to make fortifications and assign a vanguard. But
Ali said, "Fortifications and vanguards are not needed to fight a man like
Tahir." Hearing the news of Ali approaching near, Tahir also left Rayy and
at a distance of five miles from Rayy, they clashed. Ali bin Isa had more than
50,000 fighters while Tahir had only 4,000 men. The distinction of strength
between the two armies was so great that Ali bin Isa said to his men at the
time of forming lines. "They need not be killed. They should be surrounded
and captured." Seeing the huge army some of Tahir bin Husain's men fled at
the time of marshalling of the troops in battle array and came to Ali bin Isa
to reap the benefits of belonging to the victorious side and be safe from
defeat. However, Ali bin Isa broke the rebels up and turned some out and
captured others. This benefited Tahir considerably making every soldier in his
army, ready to fight for his life. Tahir bin Husain's right and left flanks
were defeated by Ali bin Isa's right and left flanks and they fled. Tahir,
taking the center of his army, launched such a fierce attack on the middle part
of Ali bin Isa's army that they had to withdraw. Seeing this, the defeated
right and left flanks of Tahir's army returned and courageously joined him. A
very fierce clash took place and during the turmoil of battle, an arrow pierced
Ali bin Isa's neck and killed him. As he fell, his army began to retreat.
Tahir's men chopped off Ali bin Isa's head. His victorious army chased the
runaways for two miles and kept killing and capturing the Baghdad troops. The
darkness of night intervened and saved them from further death and captivity.
Tahir bin Husain came back to Rayy and sent a victory letter to Mamoon:
No comments:
Post a Comment