Motazid
Billah
The real name of Motazid Billah bin
Mawaffiq Billah bin Motawakkil Alallah bin Motasim Billah bin Haroon Rasheed
was Ahmad. His kunya was Abul Abbas. He was born of a slave girl named Sawab in
Rabia Awwal 243 A.H. and after his uncle Motamid Billah he came to the throne
in Rajab 279 A.H. He was a handsome and wise man. He did not evade strictness
and bloodshed if needed. He was careful and discerning. He was inimical to
astrologers and storytellers. Philosophy had been in vogue since Mamoon's
times. Motazid banned the publication of books on philosophy and debate in
order to avoid religious strife and conflict that the society had become prone
to. He reduced the taxes on his subjects. He loved justice and protected the
people from being subjected to injustice and tyranny.
The building of Dar An-Nadwah in
Makkah had survived until this time. Motazid had it demolished and built a
mosque near the Haram. The majority of the people who were originally
Zoroastrian introduced celebrating their old holidays and performed certain
rites concerning the lighting of their religious fires in Baghdad. Motazid
strictly banned it. He set up an office of religious affairs and gave money to
the poor religious ascetics. The people prayed for him. He married the daughter
of the Governor of Egypt Khumarwaih bin Ahmad Tuloon.
Once Motazid sent word to Qadi Abu
Hazim. "You have managed to recover a certain persons money from another
party. That same party owes something to me. Please have it returned to
me." The Qadi sent the following reply, "If you present a witness you
will also have a decree in your favor." Motazid's witnesses refused to
stand witness on his behalf finally the Qadi declared his case void and Motazid
the Caliph could not get back his money. He had come to the throne at a very
critical and bad time in the Abbasid dynasty. He tried his best to improve the
degenerating condition of the Abbasids. Some signs of improvement began to be
visible but his successors didn't have the ability to maintain the pace of
progress.
Shortly after he came to the throne,
Nasr bin Ahmad bin Asad Samani died and he was succeeded by his brother Ismail
bin Ahmad Samani as the governor of Mawaraunnahr. Two groups of the Khwarij
were at war in the region of Mousil. The leader of one group Abu Jauzah was
brought to Baghdad in 280 A.H. as a captive. Motazid tortured him to death. The
leader of the other group Haroon Shari remained rebellious. In 280 A.H.,
Motazid invaded Jazirah, punished and disciplined the tribe of Bani Shaiban and
returned to Baghdad with a large quantity of spoils of war.
Motazid appointed his slave Badr as
Chief of Police and Obaidullah bin Sulaiman bin Wahab his minister in 281 A.H.
Motazid caught Hamdan bin Hamdoon who had captured the fort of Mardeen and
established a friendship with Haroon Shari. The Caliph then had the fort
leveled to the ground.
In 281 A.H., Caliph Motazid deputed
his son Ali, known as Muktafi, to rule over Rayy, Qazween, Zanjan, Qom and
Jadan. In Rabia Awwal 283 A.H., Caliph Motazid arrived near to Mousil and
succeeded in destroying the Khwarij. He arrested and jailed Haroon and returned
to Baghdad. He made a public display of Haroon and had him killed. In 285 A.H.,
he invaded Azerbaijan, conquered the fort of Amad, arrested Ahmad bin Isa bin
Sheikh and went back to Baghdad in Rabia'Awwal 286 A.H.
Qaramata's
Revolt
In 281 A.H., one of Qaramat's
followers, Yahya bin Mahdi, arrived at Qateef near Dammam and Bahrain and
lodged at Ali bin Moalla bin Hamdan's house and said, "I have been sent by
the Mahdi the leader of our time. He is about to revolt very soon."
Ali was a Shiite. He collected all
the Shiites and read to them the Mahdi's letter brought by Yahya. They very
sincerely promised to revolt at the appearance of Mahdi. Then Yahya disappeared
for a few days and when he returned, he presented another letter written by the
Mahdi instructing everyone to pay 36 dinars each to Yahya. The Shiites at once
complied. Yahya again came after a few days with a third letter from the Mahdi
instructing them to contribute one fifth of their money to Yahya.
In 286 A.H., Abu Sayeed Janani went
to Bahrain and openly invited the people to accept Qaramata's religion. Those
who had already accepted it secretly began to assemble under its flag openly.
Abu Sayeed took all of them to Qateef where he prepared and fully armed them
and set out for Basra. When Motazid was informed of all these incidents, he
wrote to the governor of Basra, Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Yahya Wasqi, "Have
a wall constructed around the city." It was completed at the cost of
14,000 dinars.
When Abu Sayeed reached the vicinity
of Basra, Abbas bin Omar Ghanwi arrived from the capital Baghdad with 2,000 men
to defend Basra. They fought and Abu Sayeed captured Abbas and the men with
him, his men were thrown into a fire and burnt to ashes. This occurred in
Shaban 287 A.H.
Abu Sayeed Qaramati left Basra after
this victory and went to Hajr. He gave amnesty to the civilians and captured it
and then went to Basra. The people of Basra were extremely terrified. The
Governor of the city Ahmad bin Muhammad Wasqi consoled and pacified them. Abu
Sayeed released Abbas from captivity, left Basra and went to Bahrain. In 288
A.H., a man named Abul Qasim Yahya, known as Zikrwaih bin Mehrwaih, went to
Kufa. The tribe of Qalees bin Zamzam bin Adi became inclined to the religion of
Qaramata. Slowly the number of its followers began to multiply.
A chief named Shibl attacked them.
The fight saw the arrest of a commander of Qaramata, Abul Fawaris. The
remainder fled to Damascus. Shibl sent Abul Fawaris to caliph Motazid in
Baghdad who had him killed. Qaramata went to Damascus to try to win the people
over to him. At the time, the governor of Egypt was Tafaj. He fought with
Qaramata several times and each time the Qaramata was victorious. This happened
in 289 A.H. The remaining details about Qaramata will follow later in the
narrative.
In 286 A.H., Caliph Motazid bestowed
on his son Ali, whose future title would be Muktafi, the governorship of
Jazirah and Awasim. He recalled Hasan bin Amr Nasrani and made him his
minister.
In 288 A.H., Tahir bin Muhammad bin
Amr bin Laith Saffar collected an army and wanted to capture Iran but Ismail Samani
warned him saying, "If you have a mind to attack this province, I shall
come." Tahir stopped. However, Caliph Motazid's slave Badr conquered Iran.
After the minister Obaidullah bin
Sulaiman bin Wahab's death, Caliph Motazid made his son Abul Qasim the Prime
Minister. During Caliph Motazid regime the Muslims invaded Rome in 285 A.H. and
287 A.H. Sometimes the Romans were victorious and sometimes the Muslims.
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