A
Review of Ameen's Caliphate
Caliph Ameen was 27 or 28 years old.
He had been caliph for 4 years and 7 months. His entire reign was plagued with
riots and carnage. Thousands of Muslims were killed for only political reasons.
His regime was one of troubles, evils and misfortunes for the world of Islam.
Ameen was well versed in syntax and literature and composed verse proficiently,
he honored the scholars but he was inclined to sports and amusement. In matters
of administration and expeditions, he was a misfit. Immediately after becoming
Caliph, he ordered a polo field to be built near the palace of Mansoor. He paid
special attention to decoration and beautification projects. He was fond of
singing and playing musical instruments and worshipping beauty. His greatest
trouble was the body of selfish ministers none of whom ever reminded him that
he was a soldier and he should not dally with women.
In brief, Ameen was overwhelmed with
his own youthful passions and totally devoid of the ability to conquer and
rule. Fadal bin Rabi, his Prime Minister, did not prove to be a good minister
for the dynasty of the Abbasids. It was he who was instrumental in having the
army and the equipment which should have remained under Mamoon's control in
keeping with Haroon's will, brought from Tus to Baghdad. He tried to harm
Mamoon and sowed seeds of contention between the two brothers. Mamoon would
have probably tolerated this as a small matter and Ameen would not have turned
against Mamoon just for the sake of his extravagance. However, the next
destructive act that Fadal bin Rabi had Ameen accomplish was beyond the limit
of reconciliation.
The removal of Mamoon from the
succession and the installation of his own infant son as the next Caliph
destroyed Haroon's well-documented plans for his sons. In order to establish
the succession of his son, Ameen had to capture the territory that belonged to
Mamoon in accordance with Haroon's will and distribution. He had the official
document of Caliph Haroon Rasheed removed from the Ka'bah and destroyed at the
instance of Fadal bin Rabi. Consequently, all the influential members of the
Abbasid dynasty were offended and disgusted with him at the inferred disrespect
to his father and even the holy sites.
If we ponder a little we can easily
infer that the man who is responsible for all this damage done to Islam is
Haroon Rasheed. The biggest blunder and the most condemnable act of Haroon
Rasheed was that he was dishonest in naming his successors. He knew that Mamoon
was more capable and deserving yet he chose Ameen to take the caliphate. A plea
may be offered from Haroon's side that Ameen was noble born from both sides and
a pure Hashimiite and Mamoon's mother was Iranian and he had apprehensions that
Mamoon would weaken the Arab elements and promote and strengthen Iranian
authority and power.
Haroon chose Ameen as his successor
because he was a pure Arab and Hashimiite and he believed Ameen would
successfully continue his policy of breaking the Iranians power that he had
adopted at the end of his caliphate. Ameen's heart and mind were not suited for
this purpose. Haroon was aware of this in the last year of his life and he had
become fully convinced of Mamoon's ability to rule and Ameen's inability. If we
go deeper, we will find that Haroon Rasheed was not at fault but the
fundamental policy adopted and followed by the Abbasids from the very beginning
of their dynasty was bound to yield these results.
First, the Abbasids opposed the
Arabs by using the Khorasanis. They put all their energy into effacing and
destroying Arab power and influence and made the newly converted Khorasanis the
leaders. Mention has been made above about the order given by the leaders of
the Abbasids to Abu Muslim not to spare even a single Arabic speaking soul and
Abu Muslim put to death 600,000 Arabs in Khorasan and Iran. The joint efforts
of the Alawiites and the Abbasids aimed against Banu Umayyah weakened the
Arab's influence and power and strengthened the Khorasanis, Persians and
Iraqis. Every conspiracy against Banu Umayyah that proved fruitful was
supported and implemented by the Iraqis and the Khorasanis. When the Banu
Umayyah were destroyed, the Alawiites stood as mute spectators while the
Abbasids became the masters of the caliphate and authority. When the Alawiites
began to oppose the Abbasids and initiated a series of conspiracies against
them, the Abbasids received aid from the Iraqis and Khorasanis.
Those who were goaded to kill the
Arabs against Banu Umayyah became the greatest threat to the Abbasids. The
Khorasanis power continued to rise until the regime of Mansoor Abbasi. Only for
the short span of a few years during Mahdi's caliphate the Khorasanis rise
stood still and the Arabs were honored. During Hadi and Haroon's regimes, the
Khorasanis continued to increase their power. In the last years of his
caliphate, Haroon realized that by weakening the Arabs they had harmed the
caliphate considerably. He tried to correct the situation but death did not
allow him to do so.
During Ameen's reign, the center of
strength for the Arabs was Ameen and Mamoon for the Khorasanis. In other words,
the clash between the two races Arabs and Iranians manifested itself through
Ameen and Mamoon. Because Ameen was personally incapable and Mamoon was more
capable, the Arab group lost and the Iranians became the masters of the Islamic
world. The Khorasanis held Mamoon dear in order to bring under their control
the machinery of the government and hand it over to the Alawiites after Mamoon.
Due to the sequence of events, they
did not succeed and the government remained with the Abbasid dynasty. Later,
the Khorasanis and newly converted Turks gathered enough courage and power to
decimate the power of the Islamic Caliphate and form their own separate
kingdoms. The details of which will follow in the next chapter. The substance
of the matter is that the curse of the son succeeding his father and inherited
rule is the root cause of these evils, troubles and defects in the Islamic
Caliphate and it was this innovation that has done the greatest harm to the
Muslims and kept the inherent justice of Islamic government from being
maintained. The defects of Ameen's regime were the by products of the curse of
inherited succession.
It is a coincidence that the three
Caliphs Ali (رضي الله عنه), Imam Hasan (رضي الله عنه) and Ameen Rasheed were Hashimiite from
both mother and father and the Caliphate did not obviously suit them. That is,
the entire regime of Ali (رضي الله عنه)
passed in internal conflicts and civil war among the Muslims and eventually he
was martyred. Imam Hasan (رضي الله عنه)
renounced the Caliphate and he still was poisoned to death. Similarly, Ameen's
entire period of rule was dominated by internecine fights at the end of which
he too was killed.
Mamoon
Rasheed
Mamoon Rasheed bin Haroon Rasheed's
given name was Abdullah. His father gave him the title "Mamoon." His
kunya (father of, generally followed by the name of the first son) was Abul
Abbas (father of Abbas). He was born on Friday in the middle of Rabi-al-Awwal 170
A.H. The night Mamoon was born Hadi, his uncle who preceded his father as
Caliph, died. His mother's name was Marajil. She was a Zoroastrian slave girl
and died within forty days of his birth. She was born in Badighais in Herat.
Ali bin Isa, the governor of Khorasan, had presented her as a gift to Haroon
Rasheed. Mamoon did not have the opportunity of being brought up in the lap of
his mother. However, Haroon Rasheed paid special attention to his upbringing
and training. At the age of five, he was put under the tutelage of Kasai Nahvi
and Yazeedi. They taught him Quran and Arabic literature.
At 12 when Mamoon achieved
understanding and intellectual ability by virtue of his divine gifted
intelligence, he was made the apprentice of Jafar Barmuk. In the same year 182
A.H., Haroon nominated him to be the heir apparent after his half brother
Ameen. Besides these teachers there were many religious scholars and those
blessed with deep knowledge of Islam at Haroon's court and they were requested
to educate him from time to time. Mamoon memorized the entire Quran and was a
great scholar. He was eloquent and clever. He was slightly older than his
brother Ameen. He had studied Islamic Law and Hadith under the guidance of
great scholars of these subjects. Haroon had both his sons educated and trained
with great interest and attention however, the impact this produced in Mamoon
was not shared by Ameen.
Although Mamoon Rasheed had been the
ruler of the eastern countries including Khorasan since Jumad-al-Thani 193 A.H.
when Haroon died, the period of his caliphate begins from Muharram 198 A.H.
when Ameen was killed. Ameen was killed on the night of 25 Muharram and the
oath for Mamoon's caliphate was taken on Friday 26 Muharram 198 A.H.
When Mamoon was informed about
Ameen's murder and the capture of Baghdad by his army and his recognition as
caliph by the people of Baghdad, he gave the governorship of Jabal Faras,
Ahwaz, Basra, Kufa, Hijaz, and Yemen, to Hasan bin Sahal, the brother of his
minister Fadal bin Sahal and sent him to Baghdad. Harsimah bin Ayun and Tahir
bin Husain had conquered these territories and it was by virtue of their
courage that the people of Baghdad recognized Mamoon as caliph and Ameen was
defeated.
Tahir who did the most to achieve
the victory expected that he would be given the governorship of the newly
conquered territories. Contrary to his expectations it was given to Hasan bin
Sahal. Hasan bin Sahal then made Tahir bin Husain the governor of Jazirah,
Mousil and Syria and sent him to fight with Nasr bin Sheeth bin Aqeel bin Kab
bin Rabia bin Amir who had taken the oath of allegiance to Ameen and had
collected a huge army to fight against Mamoon's forces and he continued to
conquer territory in Iraq. When Hasan bin Sahal was appointed governor and next
to the caliph, the civilians were sure that he would completely dominate Mamoon
and the Iranians would be the dominant force in the government. The Arab
leaders were worried about these developments and they felt discouraged and
disappointed. They were convinced that Mamoon would retain Merv as his capital
in deference to Fadal bin Sahal's wishes and would not come to Baghdad.
When Hasan bin Sahal sent Tahir to
face Nasr bin Sheeth bin Aqeel, he only had limited success. He stayed at
Riqqah and continued to engage in light skirmishes with Nasr bin Sheeth. While
in Riqqah, Tahir received the news of his father Husain bin Zuraiq bin Mus'ab's
death in Khorasan and Caliph Mamoon's participation in it. Hasan bin Sahal
ordered Harsimah bin Ayun to go to Khorasan. Nasr bin Sheeth bin Aqeel rebelled
simply because the non-Arabs were given priority over the Arabs. Tahir did not
concentrate on defeating Nasr, as he himself disliked the domination of the
Arabs by the non-Arabs. Harsimah bin Ayun, who was one of the old devotees of
the Abbasid dynasty, looked at the rise of the non-Arabs with apprehension.
