Читать книгу The Heart of Asia - Sir E. Denison Ross - Страница 17

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On the death of Hārūn er-Rashīd, A.H. 193 (809), a serious dispute arose between his two sons, Amīn and Ma´mūn. The former, probably on the advice of his vezīr, Fadhl ibn Rabī`a,205 ordered the army, which was at Tūs, to return to Baghdād. This act was not only unfriendly towards his brother, but was also in direct contravention of his father’s will. Ma´mūn, in retaliation, put a stop to all postal communication between Baghdād and the East, and assumed the title of Caliph over a kingdom which extended from Hamadān to Tibet, and from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf. With the help of his able vezīr, Fadhl ibn Sahl,206 he succeeded in establishing order throughout his realms. Meanwhile Harthama took Samarkand after a protracted siege; whereupon Rāfi` threw himself on Ma´mūn’s mercy and was pardoned, and thus peace was restored throughout Khorāsān. But the elements of civil disorder still held sway. While Amīn, on the one hand, struck Ma´mūn from the succession, the latter ordered the omission of his brother’s name from the public prayers. Amīn, angered at his rival’s attitude, resolved on reducing him by force of arms. To this end he despatched `Alī ibn `Isā against him at the head of 50,000 men. On reaching Ray, A.H. 195 (810), he encountered Tāhir, who had been posted there by Ma´mūn to watch the frontier. In the battle that ensued `Alī was slain in single combat by Tāhir, and his army was put to flight. Tāhir, in obedience to Ma´mūn’s orders, now marched on Baghdād, and with reinforcements brought by Harthama defeated all the armies sent to stop his progress. Having secured the submission of Arabia and Mesopotamia, he laid siege to Baghdād, and took the city by storm in A.H. 198 (813), after twelve months’ investment. Amīn made a vain attempt to escape, and was finally slain by a party of Persian soldiers.

Ma´mūn, who was now the undisputed master of the Caliphate, made Merv his capital instead of removing to Baghdād. He took this fatal step, which gave offence to the people of the West generally, on the advice of Fadhl ibn Sahl; for Ma´mūn, like his brother, was overruled by a selfish and masterful vezīr. After the capture of Baghdād, Tāhir placed himself at the head of affairs in that town; but the people soon rose against him to avenge the death of Amīn. The revolt was quelled by the distribution of largesses, and all `Irāk acknowledged Tāhir’s sway.207 It is impossible to enumerate the disorders which distracted Baghdād and the West, and the countless difficulties which Ma´mūn had to face during the next few years. Suffice it to say that, in spite of repeated risings and conspiracies against the Caliph’s authority, Ma´mūn continued to be guided by the short-sighted counsels of his vezīr, who, as a Persian208 and a Shī`ite, was hated in the orthodox West. Not till A.H. 202 (817) did the monarch awaken to the dangers of the situation and set out from Merv to Baghdād. On reaching Sarakhs, Fadhl, the real cause of all Ma´mūn’s misfortunes, was murdered in his bath—it appears, at the instigation of his master. In A.H. 204 (817) Ma´mūn entered Baghdād, and Tāhir, who had during the recent troubles fallen into disfavour with the Caliph, was now appointed governor of Baghdād. He did not remain long in this office, for at his own request he was appointed to the viceroyalty of the East, A.H. 205 (818).209 With him the Caliph sent a confidential eunuch, who had orders to poison Tāhir should he show any signs of insubordination. After a successful rule of two years Tāhir suddenly omitted the Caliph’s name in the weekly prayers, and on the following day he was found dead in his bed, A.H. 207 (822). But so great were the esteem and influence which the viceroy had gained in Khorāsān, that the Caliph did not dare to take the governorship of that province out of the hands of Tāhir’s family. His two sons, Talha and `Abdullah, did not inherit his turbulent character; and whilst `Abdullah was fighting Ma´mūn’s battles in Mesopotamia and Egypt, his brother Talha governed the Eastern provinces (from A.H. 207–213 (822–828)) in the Caliph’s name. His residence was Nīshāpūr, whence he exercised complete authority over Khorāsān, Tabaristān, and Transoxiana.

It is fitting in this place to revert to the rise of a family destined to play an important part in the East under the Tāhirides, and, after succeeding their former masters in the governorship of Khorāsān, to found the first independent Mohammedan dynasty in Central Asia.

While Asad ibn `Abdullah el-Kasrī210 held the governorship of Khorāsān a certain nobleman of Balkh named Sāmān,211 who had been driven out of his native town, came to Asad in Merv and begged the governor to help him against his enemies. Asad warmly espoused his cause and succeeded in reinstating him in Balkh. Out of gratitude for this action, Sāmān, who had hitherto been a Zoroastrian,212 embraced Islām and named his son Asad after his protector. This Asad had four sons, who rendered excellent services to Hārūn er-Rashīd in quelling the revolt of Rāfi` ibn Layth.213 Ma´mūn, mindful of the obligations under which the sons of Asad had placed his father, ordered the then governor of Khorāsān, Ghassān ibn `Abād,214 to give to each of them the government of a town. Thus in the year A.H. 202 (817)215 Nūh, the eldest son, became Amīr of Samarkand; Ahmed, Amīr of Farghāna; Yahya, Amīr of Shāsh (Tashkent) and Oshrūsana; and Ilyās, lord of Herāt.216 When, in A.H. 205, Ghassān was superseded by Tāhir, these grants to the family of Sāmān were confirmed, and continued in the same hands until the downfall of the Tāhirides and the rise of the Sāmānides to the supreme power in the East.

In A.H. 213 (828) Talha died and was succeeded by his son `Alī, who, however, perished shortly afterwards in a conflict with the Khārijites near Nīshāpūr. Ma´mūn thereupon sent Talha’s brother `Abdullah to Khorāsān to assume the reins of government, which he held until his death in A.H. 230 (844), at the age of forty-eight, after seventeen years of most successful administration. But although the Caliph’s name was scrupulously mentioned in Friday prayers, Khorāsān was now to all intents and purposes independent of Baghdād. The falling away of this essentially Persian province was but the first step towards the final separation of the Arabs and the Persians which was shortly to follow, after two hundred years of involuntary and unnatural association. The Tāhirides continued to rule Khorāsān and the East during a period of fifty-six years, when their last representative, Mohammad,217 in A.H. 259 (872), was overthrown by the Saffāride Ya`kūb ibn Layth, of whom we must now speak.