Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/613

Rh ABBASIDS.] MOHAMMEDANISM 585 God), he established himself with his guard at Sdmarra, a small place situated a few leagues above Baghdad, and changed its name to Sorra-man-ra a (He rejoices who sees it). This resolution of Mo tasim was destined to prove fatal to his dynasty ; for it placed the Caliphs at the mercy of their Praetorians. In fact, from the time of Mo tasim, the Caliphate became the plaything of the Turkish guard, and its decline was continuous. Some glorious feats of arms, however, were still performed under Mo tasim. The sectary Babak was at last taken by Afshin, a Turkish general of the Caliph, in the year 223 (A.D. 837-838). Babak was carried to Baghdad, led through the city on the back of an elephant, and then delivered to the executioners, who cut off his arms and his legs. Afshin, however, was very ill rewarded for his services, for shortly afterwards the Caliph had him put to death on a charge of heresy. The death of Ma mun had for the moment suspended hostilities with Constantinople ; under Mo tasim the war was rekindled. A valiant Greek general, Manuel, who had incurred the displeasure of the Emperor Theophilus, took refuge with the Caliph, who eagerly welcomed him and gave him a command. Manuel began by reducing Khorasan, which had risen in revolt, and Mo tasim was so well satisfied with him that he thought of employing him against his own countrymen. This was precisely what Theophilus dreaded, and he took measures accordingly to bring back the banished general to his side. He sent an ambassador to Mo tasim, under pretence of ransoming some Greek prisoners ; but the real object of his mission, which he contrived to communicate to Manuel, was the recall of that general. Manuel, feigning great animosity against his country, himself asked to be allowed to lead a Moslem army into Cappadocia. The Caliph granted his request, and sent with him his own son Wathik billah. But, as soon as they reached the frontiers of Cappadocia, Manuel confessed to the young prince that his intention was to return to Constantinople, and quitted the army. Theophilus, taking advantage of the confusion into which the departure of Manuel had thrown the Moslems, made an incursion into Syria, laid waste that province as far as Zabatra, and returned loaded with booty. At the news of this disaster, Mo tasim assembled a formidable army, estimated at more than two hundred thousand men, penetrated into Asia Minor, beat the Greeks, and took the city of Amorium, which he ordered to be razed to the ground. A revolt which broke out at Baghdad in favour of his nephew Abbas, the son of Ma mun, compelled the Caliph to turn back. Mo tasim had the unfortunate Abbas arrested, and he was soon after found dead in his prison. Mo tasim survived him only four years. He died at Sorra-man-ra a, in A.H. 227 (A.D. 841-842). Wdthik. 9. His son Wathik, who succeeded him, showed himself no less intolerant on the doctrinal question of the un created Koran. He carried his zeal to such a point that, on the occasion of an exchange of Greek against Moslem prisoners, in the year 231 (A.D. 845-846), he ordered that all the Moslem captives who would not declare their belief that the Koran was a human work, should be left in the hands of the enemy. The reign of Wathik billah was not otherwise marked by any very striking events. He died in 232 (A.D. 84G-847), after a reign of five years. As he had appointed no successor before his death, the principal personages of the state at first cast their eyes on his son Mohammed ; but they had scarcely saluted him with the title of Caliph, when they changed their purpose, and offered the supreme power to Motawakkil ala llah (He who trusts to God), brother of Wathik. This prince was therefore elected in the same year in which Wathik died. 10. The first act of Motawakkil was an atrocious Mota- cruelty. He seized Mohammed b. Abd al-Melik, his wakkil. brother s vizier, who had always been his enemy, and ordered him to be placed in a furnace bristling within with iron points, which was then raised to a red heat. The Caliph looked on at the agonies of his victim, incessantly repeating : &quot; Pity is a weakness.&quot; This had been the favourite maxim of the unfortunate vizier. An impostor named. Mohammed b. Faraj had set himself up as a prophet, giving out that he was Moses risen from the dead. By means of this gross fabrication, he had con trived to attract twenty-seven followers. The Caliph had him seized, and condemned him to perpetual imprison ment ; but first he compelled each of the followers of Mohammed to give the pretended prophet ten blows on the head with his fist ; and the poor wretch expired under the hands of his own disciples. (A.H. 235, A.D. 849-850.) In the year of his elevation to the Caliphate, Mota wakkil had regulated the succession to the empire in his own family, by designating as future Caliphs his three sons, Montasir billah (He who seeks help in God), Mo tazz billah (Strong through God), and Mowayyad billah (Assisted by God). In acting thus, his object was to protest against the tendency of his predecessors to favour the house of All, and to guard against the attainment of the Caliphate by any member of that house. Motawakkil displayed the most extreme hatred for the descendants of the Prophet. He even went so far as to destroy the chapel erected over the tomb of Hosain at Kerbela, and forbade the Shi ites to visit the spot. Not content with attacking the liberty and the property of the descendants of All, he insulted their belief, by taking buffoons into his pay, whose business it was to turn the person of All into mockery. He also persecuted the Christians and the Jews ; excluding them from all public employments, and obliging them to send their children to Moslem schools. In the year 237, a revolt broke out in Armenia. The Caliph sent the Turk Bugha against the rebels ; but they met him with a vigorous resistance, and it was four years before peace was restored to the province. During that time the Greeks effected a descent on Egypt, and Damietta was taken and burned. Motawakkil caused Damietta to be fortified, and transferred his own residence to Damascus, doubtless that he might be able to keep a closer watch on the proceedings of the Byzantines. He soon thought himself strong enough to take the offensive, and poured his Turkish soldiery into Asia Minor, where they encountered the same Manuel who had been formerly received at the court of Mo tasim. After an alternation of successes and reverses, both Moslems and Greeks retired from the conflict. Motawakkil then returned to his residence at Sorra-man-ra a, and there caused a magni ficent quarter to be built, which he called Ja fariyya. 1 There he gave himself up to debaucheries; till at last, during one of his orgies, he was murdered by a Turkish soldier named Wasif, who had been bribed to the deed by his own son Montasir billah (A.H. 247, A.D. 861-862). 11. On the very night of his father s assassination Mon- Montasir had himself proclaimed Caliph. The conspirators ^sir. among the Turkish soldiery compelled him to deprive his two brothers, Mo tazz and Mowayyad, who were not agree able to them, of their rights of succession. Montasir did not long enjoy the fruits of his crime. He died five months after, by poison, it is said. 1 2. The Turkish soldiery, which now arrogated to itself Mosta in. the mastery over the Caliphate, chose in succession to Montasir his cousin Ahmed, who took the title of Mosta in 1 That is, &quot;City of Ja fur.&quot; Ja far was Motawakkil s own proper name. XVI. -74