Mahdi
bin Mansoor
Mohammad Al-Mahdi bin Mansoor's
familiar name (kunya) was Abu Abdullah. He was born in Edaj in 126 A.H. His
mother's name was Umm Musa Arwa bint Mansoor Himyari. Mahdi was very generous,
widely admired, true in faith, popular and a handsome man. His father put him
under the charge and tutelage of a number of scholars. When Mahdi was 15 years
old, Mansoor sent him to put down the mutiny caused by Abdul Jabbar bin
Abdur-Rahman. In 141 A.H., he was sent to Khorasan. When he returned from there
in 144 A.H., Mansoor had him married to his niece, Saffah's daughter. He made
him the heir-apparent in 144 A.H. and sent him to Rayy as the administrator of
the Southern and Western parts of Khorasan. He appointed him Amir al-Hajj
(leader of the pilgrimage) in 153 A.H. and following his father's death in 158
A.H., he ascended the throne of the caliphate in Baghdad. When the people took
bay'at (pledge or oath of allegiance) with him in Baghdad, he climbed up the
pulpit (the pulpit in mosques is generally raised so the whole congregation can
see the Imam) and delivered the following sermon:
"The man whom you call Amir
al-Muminin (Leader of the true believers) is nothing but a slave. When somebody
calls him, he responds and complies. It is Allah Who is the Protector of the
Amir al-Muminin. It is from Allah only that I seek help in order to run the
work of the caliphate. Just as you express your sense of obedience with your
tongue, co-operate with me with your soul also so that you might become the
beneficiaries of welfare in this world and in the world hereafter. Don't oppose
those who propagate justice. I shall remove obstructions from your way and
dedicate my whole life serving you and punishing those among you who are
criminals and wrongdoers."
The first thing that Mahdi did after
taking over as caliph was to release all the captives in Mansoor's jail. Only
those who were rebels, usurpers and murderers were not freed. Among the
captives set free was Yaqub bin Dawood. Those who were not released included
Hasan bin Ibrahim bin Abdullah bin Hasan bin Hasan. As mentioned earlier, both
Hasan and Yaqub were arrested in Basra together following Ibrahim's death and
imprisoned. Yaqub's father Dawood was from among the liberated slaves of Banu
Sulaim. He was Nasr bin Sayyar's head-clerk in Khorasan. Dawood had two sons,
Yaqub and Ali. Both were scholars and extremely clever and wise. When Banu
Abbas came into power, Banu Sulaim was subjected to humiliation. Yaqub and Ali
who were from Banu Sulaim were neglected though they merited serious attention
by virtue of their qualifications.
When Mohammad Mahdi and Ibrahim
began to invite the people to support them against Banu Abbas, Yaqub joined
them and invited people to support Mohammad Mahdi and Ibrahim, until he was
imprisoned along with Hasan bin Ibrahim. After his release from the jail, Yaqub
was found out that Hasan bin Ibrahim was trying to escape from jail. He
informed caliph Mahdi. Mahdi transferred Hasan to another jail but he escaped
anyway. Mahdi called Yaqub to him and consulted with him about Hasan. Yaqub
said, "If you grant safety and pardon to him, I can present him before
you." Mahdi granted it and Yaqub brought Hasan before him. He had the
assurance from Mahdi that Hasan would be able to visit the caliph in court and
out of court. The occasion arose and Mahdi made Hasan his friend and gave him
100,000 dirhams. After a few days, Mahdi deposed Abu Abdullah, his minister
since the time he was declared heir-apparent, and replaced him with Yaqub.
Mahdi displayed a sense of justice
and recognition of merit by honoring Yaqub and Hasan and established their love
for him in their hearts even though they were his former enemies. The greatest
danger to the caliphate of the Abbasids was from the members of Mohammad Mahdi
and Ibrahim's group who had joined hands with Yahya bin Zaid and they all were
intent on bringing about the fall of Banu Abbas. By making Yaqub his minister,
Mahdi avoided all of these dangers, for Yaqub had links with both of these
groups. He appointed them to high posts in the government and thus kept them
from opposing the caliphate and dampened their enthusiasm for opposition.
The
Rise of Hakeem Muqanna
In 159 A.H., the first year of
Mahdi's caliphate an inhabitant of Merv named Hakeem Muqanna made a mask of
gold and put it on his face. He claimed that he was Allah. He believed that
Allah created Adam and entered his body, then entered Noah's body, then entered
Abu Muslim's body and Hashim's body. He believed in transmigration and said,
"Allah's soul is within me, He has entered my body." His belief was
the same as held by the people of Ravind who had created perversions in the
religion at Hashmiyah in the time of Mansoor. They were all members of Abu
Muslim's group and were the aberrations of his strange and deviant form of
propagation.
Whoever Abu Muslim met, he presented his
peculiar form of propagation to him adapting it to the demands of the situation
and the person concerned. Abu Muslim's ultimate motives were political and not
religious and he bent everything to suit those ends, even Allah's religion. All
these deviated sects were the consequences of using the Prophet's family for
political ends in different forms. Hakeem Muqanna also believed that Yahya bin
Zaid (who was from the Prophet's family) was not killed but went into hiding
and was expected to reappear to take revenge and exterminate his enemies. Many
Khorasanis became his followers and began to make prostration to him (in Islam
the act of prostration is due only to Allah and not to any creation).
He stayed in the fort of Basam and
Sanjar (in modern day Uzbekistan). The people of Bukhara, Safhad and Turkistan
supported him and started slaughtering the Muslims. The administrators of those
regions like Abu An Noman, Junaid and Laith bin Nasr bin Sayyar fought against
them. Laith's brother Mohammad bin Nasr and nephew Hasan bin Tamim were killed
in the fight. When Mahdi came to know of it, he sent Jibrail bin Yahya to help
them. He deputed Jibrail's brother Yazid to punish the insurgents of Bukhara
and Safhad. First Bukhara and Safhad were invaded. After 4 months of fighting
the forts of Bukhara were captured by the Muslims.
700 rebels were killed and the rest
fled to Muqanna. After a short time, Mahdi dispatched Abu Aun to attack Muqanna
but those commanders could not defeat Muqanna. Then Mu'az bin Muslim was sent
to defeat him. The officer of Mu'az bin Muslim's vanguard was Sayeed Huraithi.
Then Oqba bin Muslim was also ordered to join him. These commanders led a very
bitter attack on Muqanna and put him to flight and encircled him in the fort of
Basam. During the fight, there appeared some differences between Mu'az and
Sayeed. Sayeed wrote to Mahdi and secured his permission to do away with
Muqanna all alone. Muqanna was besieged along with 20,000 of his men. The
besieged asked Sayeed Huraithi for a guarantee of safety. Sayeed granted it and
they came out of the fort leaving only 2,000 men with Muqanna. When Muqanna was
certain of his failure, he made a fire and pushed all the members of his family
into it and then he himself jumped into it and died. The Muslims entered the
fort, took Muqanna's dead body out of the fire, cut off his head and sent it to
Mahdi.
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