Ibrahim
bin Aghlab and the city of Abbasia
It has been stated above that Haroon
Rasheed sent Mohammad bin Muqatil bin Hakam as governor after Harsima bin
Ayun's resignation. Muhammad bin Muqatil was Haroon's foster brother. He put
down the rebellion in Africa, which was caused by Harsima bin Ayun's departure
from Africa. Mohammad bin Muqatil cleverly and intelligently disciplined them
into obedient subjects but their silence and obedience was under compulsion.
They were ready to revolt at any time, displeased as they were with Muqatil.
The main cause of rebellion was that he always consulted the administrator of
the state of Zâb, Ibrahim bin Aghlab, who was in a secret conspiracy with the chiefs
of the rebels and helped them and misguided Muqatil. Due to the repeated
rebellions in North Africa, 100,000 dinars from the Egyptian treasury had to be
spent annually on the upkeep, expenses and defense of the North African
government. Africa, instead of creating revenue, had become a liability with
the expenditure of 100,000 dinars per annum. Though Mohammad bin Muqatil
restored peace expenses to the Egyptian treasury continued as usual. Now
Ibrahim bin Aghlab requested Haroon Rasheed to make him the governor of North
Africa and in exchange not only would he eliminate the 100,000 dinars per annum
expense but would also send him 400,000 dinars per tax. He consulted his
advisors. Harsimah bin Ayun said that there was no harm in making him the
governor of Africa. So, Haroon Rasheed sent the certificate of governorship to
Ibrahim in Muharram 184 A.H. Soon after arriving in North Africa he arrested
all the ring leaders of the rebels who he knew well and sent them to Baghdad.
That put an end to all disturbances at once. Then he founded a city near Qirwân
and called it Abbasia. He made it the capital. His descendants continued to
rule over it, which will be recorded later on in the narrative.
That same year 184 A.H. Haroon
Rasheed handed over the governorship of Yemen and Makkah to Hammâd Berberi and
sent Dawood bin Yazid bin Hatim as the governor of Sindh. Similarly, he gave
the governorship of Qahistan and Tabristan to Yahya Huraishi and Maharaya Razi
respectively.
In 185 A.H., the inhabitants of
Tabristan attacked and killed Maharaya. Then In his place Abdullah bin Sayeed
Huraishi was sent. The same year saw the death of the governor of Azerbaijan
and Armenia, Yazid bin Mizyad Shebani. His place was taken by his son Asad bin
Yazid.
As has already been stated, Ali bin
Isa was able to stamp out all rebellions in Khorasan and restore peace after
Wahab bin Nisai's death in 186 A.H. Ali bin Isa was not lucky enough to enjoy
peace for long. A new intrigue was created against him in Khorasan. The
Khorasanis continuously sent letters of complaints to the Caliph's court. Yahya
bin Khalid was not pleased with Ali bin Isa as the governor of Khorasan.
Yahya's younger sons Musa and Mohammad who commanded respect and influence in
Khorasan had incited Wahab bin Abdullah and Hamza Khwarji to rebel. And it was
due to their covert activities that Khorasan continued to reel under the impact
of unrest and riots for years. During this period Haroon Rasheed's attention
was drawn by Yahya and Jafar to the necessity of removing Ali bin Isa from the
governorship of Khorasan. But he did not listen to them on this point. When
peace was restored, paper horses started running. It was the result of
instigation by the Barmuk family that the Khorasanis began to write letters of
grievances against Ali bin Isa. When these letters became countless and the
complaints started pouring in that he not only crossed all limits by torturing
and persecuting civilians, he also was busy trying to topple the caliphate.
Haroon Rasheed, under compulsion, left Baghdad and camped at Rayy. Hearing of
the Caliph's arrival Ali bin Isa left Merv with gifts and reached Rayy and
called on him and offered proof of his loyalty and sincerity. Being pleased,
Haroon Rasheed retained him as the governor of Khorasan and included Rayy,
Tabristan, Nahawand, Qomas and Hamdân under his jurisdiction.
Motamin
as Crown Prince
The same year, in 186 A.H. Caliph
Haroon Rasheed made his third son Qasim as the third heir apparent. He took the
oath from the people that Qasim would succeed Mamoon as caliph and on that
occasion, he honored him with the title Motamin. While making Motamin the third
successor following Mamoon, the condition included in the oath was that if
Motamin proved himself capable, he would succeed Mamoon otherwise Mamoon would
be entitled to remove him and make someone else the successor. He handed over
the reins of Iraq, Syria and the Arab countries to the first crown prince.
Mamoon was given the Eastern countries and Qasim was entrusted with Saghoor,
Jazirah and the Province of Awasim. Ameen, the first crown prince, was made to
write an agreement that read:
"I shall fulfil my commitments
to Mamoon" Similarly he made Mamoon write one: I shall fulfill my
commitments to Ameen." These arrangements were duly signed by men of
repute, the elders, leaders of the army, officials of the government and the elders
of Madinah and Makkah and it was hung on Ka'bah. They were made to swear to
remain content with what they were given and avoid usurping the other brother's
territories. This was an order only concerning the matter of succeeding to the
caliphate.
First Ameen would be the caliph of
the Muslims and Mamoon would obey him. But Ameen would not have any authority
to remove him from the governorship of those territories, which were chosen by
Haroon. Mamoon would become caliph after Ameen and so on.
There were clarifications of these
agreements, which were duly signed by Ameen, Mamoon and the others, which were
also hung up on Ka'bah. Thus by dividing his sultanate among his sons Haroon
Rasheed wanted to rule out the possibility of any quarrel among them in future.
But this was not a wise step on his part and it probably was his paternal
affection that compelled him to do such a thing, which was fated to end in
failure.
A
Remarkable Hajj of Haroon Rasheed
Caliph Haroon Rasheed was very fond
of performing Hajj. He never missed any except under the most compelling
circumstances. It was his regular practice to go for Hajj and Jihad every
alternate year.
No caliph ever performed Hajj as
many times as he did but the Hajj he performed in 186 A.H. is specifically
remarkable because it was during this pilgrimage that the particular agreement
mentioned above was hung on the Ka'bah, and it was after this Hajj that he
destroyed the power of Barmuk family.
Haroon left Ambâr for Makkah with
the intention to perform Hajj. He was accompanied by his three sons Ameen,
Mamoon and Motamin. Jafar bin Yahya, the Prime Minister, was also with him.
Finishing the Hajj, he left Makkah for Madinah. He enriched the people of both
the places with gifts and rewards. He distributed 10,500,000 dinar (gold coins)
as charity on behalf of himself and his sons. He returned from Madinah and
camped at Ambâr. At this place, he had Jafar bin Yahya Barmuk killed at the end
of Muharram 187 A.H.
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