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Art. XXVII.—Three Years of Buwaihid Rule in Baghdad, a.h. 389–393. Being a fragment of the History of Hilāl-as-Ṣābī († A.H. 448) from a MS. in the Library of the British Museum (Add. 19,360).

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

H. F. Amedroz
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Extract

A notice of alaf b. Aḥmad is contained in Ṣafadi's Wāfi bil-Wafayāt (Paris, 2, 064, 22a). The pedigree does not differ from that given by ahabi, but some further information is given about alaf, and on the authority of Yāqūt — presumably, therefore, from his Mu‘jam al-Udabā. We are told that Khalaf was at one time a rationalist in doctrine, when he became notorious for his persecution of members of the contrary sect. And Yaḥya b. ‘Ammāra, who was in Sijistān at the time, had to make his way to Harāt in the disguise of a woman.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , October 1901 , pp. 749 - 786
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1901

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References

Page 750 note 1 Ibn al-Aīr calls him Abu Manṣūr b. Qurād al-Ladīd. In this volume Hilāl mentions him in 390 as quarrelling with a certain Abu Ṭāhir Yaghmā. about property at Bādūrayā (fols. 30, 31); and in 391 as kidnapping an official, who was rescued by Qirwā (fol. 70a).

Page 751 note 1 The founder of the house that reigned at al-Ḥilla and the ancestor of Ṣadaqah; died in 408. He is mentioned previously by Ibn al-Aīr in 387 as at war with al-Muqallad the Oqailid (vol. ix, pp. 95 and 96).

Page 751 note 2 later on, fol. 107b, . In Ibn al-Aīr, ix 121, The place does not seem to be mentioned by Arab geographers.

Page 752 note 1 I can find only one mention of him in Ibn al-Aīr, under 426 A.H., vol. ix, p. 302, where he is stated to have been murdered by his nephew, who thereupon succeeded him as head of the tribe. The first instance of a member of the family being taken into the Government service was in 374 A.H., when Abu Ṭarīf ‘Alyān b. umāl was made Governor of Kūfa (ib., p. 28).

Page 752 note 2 Ibn al-Aīr (ix, 96) mentions him as in possession of Daqūqā, situate between Baghdad and Irbil, saying how it had been seized in 387 A.H. by a certain Jabra'īl b. Muḥammad; that later it was held by al-Muqallad the Oqailid, and after him by Muḥammad b. ‘Annāz. (Hilāl, fol. 37b, states that in Shawwāl, 390, news reached Baghdad that al-Muqallad had seized Daqūqā and the neighbouring town of ānijār, and had left there as his deputy Abu Muḥammad Jabra'īl, called Dabbūs ad-Daula.) Muḥammad b. ‘Annāz also figures elsewhere in the manuscript. In 389 he treacherously seized and murdered a certain Zahmān b. Hindi and his three sons (fols. 5, 6); in 391 an adherent of his, named Abu'l-Fawāris Behistūn b. Dazīr (who was head of the police, fol. 53a), was killed by the Bani Sayyār, a branch of the aybān tribe, from whom he was recovering stolen cattle (fols. 65, 66); and in 392 he was himself induced to submit to ‘Amīd al-Juyūsh, then governor of ‘Irāq (fol. 108,). He was also concerned in the contest between the latter and Abu Ja‘far al-Hajjāi at Baghdad in 397 (Ibn al-Aīr, ix, 136), and in the hostilities between Badr b. Hasanwaih and his son Hilāl in 400 (ib., 150). He died at Ḥulwān in 401, after twenty years’ rule (ib., 158).

Page 754 note 1 The word is also written . See Dozy, Supp., sub voc. In ahabī's Tārī al-Islām it occurs in both forms (see B.M. Or. 48, 13b, and Or. 49, 25b). We read in the latter passage that it was worn in 446 a.h. by the troops of Mu‘izz b. Bādīs of Tunis when attacked by the Arabs under Mūms b. Yaḥya, who said to him: See the same incident in Ibn al-Aīr, ix, 389, who concludes with . It was worn also by Saladin in 571 a.h.—Ibn al-‘Adīm in the Zubdat al-Ḥalab, Paris, 1666, 192b.

Page 755 note 1 I cannot understand this term.

Page 755 note 2 One of two tall buildings near Kūfa, where is the tomb of ‘Ali (Yāqūt, iii, 790).

Page 755 note 3 This passage is obscure.

Page 756 note 1 The burial-place of Ḥusain (Yāqūt, ii, 189).

Page 757 note 1 The MS. mentions a certain Abu'l-Fawāris Qullaḥ, probably the same person, as attacked by ‘Ali b. Mazyad in 389 a.h. at Dair al-‘Āqūl (fol. 5a), as summoned from Baghdad to assist in expelling the Oqailids under Qurād b. al-Ladīd from Bādūrayā in 390 a.h. (fols. 31, 32), and as meeting ‘Amīd al-Juyūsh on his way to take up his appointment as Nāib of Baghdad in 392 a.h. (fol. 98b).

Page 758 note 1 She is called his sister by ‘Utbi (op.eit., 371). Her death occurred in 419 a.h.(Ibn al-Aīr, ix, 260).

Page 759 note 1 They came to open warfare in 400 a.h., and Badr, being worsted, called in the aid of Bahā ad-Daula, who sent a force under his vizier, Abu Ghālib Far al-Mulk. He defeated and captured Hilāl, and forced him to surrender a fortress where he seized vast treasure (Ibn al-Aīr, ix, 149–152). The fortress was probably Dazbaz, the citadel of the town of Sābūr uwāst, the capital of Badr's dominion (Yāqūt, ii, 572).

Page 760 note 1 Kar in the MS. (fol. 114b), but Karaj near Barūjird must be intended, known as Karaj Abi Dulaf; see Iṣṭari, 196 and 199, and Ṭabari sub 253 a.h., ser. iii, p. 1687. Karaj was the cradle of the Buwaihids' power. The head of their house, ‘Ali b. Buwaih, afterwards ‘Imād ad-Daula, on joining Mardāwīj, the Ziyarid, was appointed by him Governor of Karaj. How Mardāwīj attempted to recall the appointment and was frustrated by ‘Ali, is related by Ibn al-Aīr (viii, 200).

Page 761 note 1 Abu Ahmad al-Ḥusain b. Mūsa, surnamed at-Ṭāhir, or the ‘pure,’ father to ar - Raḍī and al - Murtadā, was fifth in descent from the Imām Mūsa al-Kāẓim, through his son Ibrāhīm al-Jazzār, and was the Naqīb or head of the descendants of ‘Ali, having been dismissed four times from this office and reappointed. In 394 a.h. he was named Chief Qāḍi of Baghdad by Bahā ad-Daula, but the Caliph, al-Qādir billah, refused to confirm his appointment. He was also judge for criminal matters—al-Muẓālīm, and leader of the pilgrimage. He died in 399 a.h. (ahabī, B.M. Or. 48, 262a).

Page 764 note 1 How on al-Muwaffaq's return to īrāz, after his flight to ad-Dīwānī, he got to distrust him (fol. 94), has been already mentioned.

Page 765 note 1 This place, which is variously pointed in the MS., is described as distant 15 farsas from Sīrāf, and is marked on the coastline to the south of that place on St. John's Map of Persia. I am indebted for its identification to Mr. G. le Strange.

Page 765 note 2 The life of the vizier Sābūr b. Ardaīr is given by Ibn allikān (SI. Eng., i, 554). He succeeded Abu ManṢūr b. Ṣāliḥān as vizier to Bahā ad-Daula in 380, and had had intervals of office up to this date. He died in 416, as did also his predecessor. In 383 he founded the Dār al-‘Ilm or Academy of Sābūr, mentioned in the Risalatu'l-ufrān (J.R.A.S., 1900, p. 648, n. 3 ; see Ibn al-Aīr, ix, 246–7, and ahabī, Or. 48, 19b). We learn from the Mirāt az-Zamān of Sibṭ Ibn al-Jauzi (Paris, 1506, 69a) that this Academy stood in the Kar suburb between the two walls; that on the entry of Ṭuril Beg it was burnt and the contents pillaged and scattered, many of the volumes being removed to urāsān; and that this led to the foundation, in 452 a.h., of another library in the street of Ibn Abi ‘Aun in West Badād, which was endowed with a thousand volumes. It is possible that this reters to the shortlived library of Hilal's son, ars an-Ni‘ma, mentioned ante, p. 509.

Page 766 note 1 His name was Yuwānīs, and his appointment late in the year 391 is recorded at fol. 71a. His predecessor, Mar Mārī b. Ṭūbi, died in the previous year (fol. 53a). For the Nestorian Church and Katholikos, see al-Bīrūnī, pp. 282–284.

Page 766 note 2 His revolt against his master, Muhadhdhib ad-Daula, whom he expelled from al-Baṭīḥa, as he did Lakar Sitān from al-Baṣra; his defeat of ‘Amīd al-Juyūsh; the flight of Bahā ad-Daula before him from Ahwāz, which he occupied and pillaged; and his eventual defeat by the vizier Abu ālib, and death, are related by Ibn al-Aīr under the years 394–397, vol. ix, 127–130 and 137. In this narrative he is mentioned on fol. 76a as in possession of ‘Abbādān, at a date when al-Baṣra still belonged to Lakar Sitān, and in the autograph of Elias of Nāṣibīn (B.M. Add. 7, 197), his attack on Muhadhdhib ad-Daula is given under 393 a.h. (In the Syriac text of the passage he is called a Cushite or Ethiopian, for which the Arabic equivalent of az-Zanji is given by Bäthgen in his translation, loc. cit.) ahabī, in the Tārī al-Islām (B.M. Or. 48, 249b, under 397 a.h.), notices his death, calling him Abu'l-anāim, and says that people used to tell him he would be a king, and laughingly ask him for future employment and favours; that he did eventually rule at Sīrāf and al-Baṣra; that he attacked Ahwāz and drove away Bahā ad-Daula (the event referred to in the text) ; then conquered al-Baṭīḥa, when Muhadhdhib ad-Daula went off to Baghdad, and lost his baggage on the road, so that he was forced to ride on a cow; that later, unable to withstand the vizier Abu ālib, he sought help from Ḥassān al-afāji; then fled to Badr b. Ḥasanwaih, and was finally put to death at Wāsiṭ, after being captured, according to Ibn al-Aīr, by Muḥammad b. ‘Annāz.

Page 767 note 1 ‘As-Sīrāfi u al-Sa‘ādatain’ (ahabī, B.M. Or. 49, 77b). In 402 he was operating with the Khafaja tribe against the Oqailids, and his allies laid a plot against him, which he discovered and punished by slaughtering many of them (Ibn al-Aīr, ix, 165, 166). In 409 he succeeded Ibn Fasanjis as vizier of Sulṭān ad-Daula (ib., 219, 220), and in 412 he was murdered by the Dailamite troops at Ahwāz, when serving as vizier to Muarrif ad-Daula, who in 411 had taken ‘Irāq from his brother Sulṭān ad-Daula. The latter had, in violation of his promise, employed Ibn Saḥlān as his vizier, and no doubt Abu ālib had taken the side of Musharrif ad-Daula (ib., 224 and 228). This is the Abu ālib whom de Slane distinguishes from the vizier Far al-Mulk in his English version of Ibn allikān (i, 455, n. 7).

Page 768 note 1 He was appointed vizier by araf ad-Daula in 374, confirmed in office by Bahā ad-Daula in 379, dismissed in 380, restored in 382, and he resigned finally in 383 (Ibn al-Aīr, ix, 28, 71); died in 416 (ib., 246).

Page 771 note 1 Amongst others that of the Chief Qāḍi Abu'l-Ḥasan ‘Abd al-Jabbār b. Aḥmad and Abu'l-Ḥusain ‘Ali b. Mīkāl, who passed through Baghdad in 389 a.h.on their way to perform the pilgrimage, who were received with much state by the principal officials (fol. 4b). The former was a native of Hamaān and Chief Qāḍi of ar-Rayy. He owed his advancement to the Ṣāḥib Ibn ‘Abbād, and, like his patron, held Mu‘tazilah doctrines. Nevertheless, on the Ṣāḥib's death, he doubted whether he had found mercy, as he had given no sign of repentance. This was held to be odious conduct, having regard to his obligations to the deceased, and it led to his being arrested and dismissed by Far ad-Daula, and fined three million dirhams. He died in 414 or 415 (Ṣafadi, B.M. Add. 23, 358, 178b). The latter is possibly the same person as the Khwāja Ḥusain ‘Ali Mīkā'īl, who is mentioned in the Chahār Maqāla as the bearer of a letter from Maḥmūd of aznah to Ma'mūn warizmāh (see E. G. Browne's translation, London, 1900, p. 119).

Page 771 note 2 As to the nature of this office and its duties, see Ibn aldun, Proleg. lxxiv, and Dozy, Supp., sub voc. ‘adl. See also “The Letters of Abu-l-‘Alā,’ by D. S. Margoliouth, Oxford, 1898, p. 100.

Page 772 note 1 His maternal uncle according to ahabī (Or. 48, 19a), uncle to his son Jalāl ad-Daula according to Ibn al-Aīr (ix, 119). His death in 391 is recorded at fol. 60b.

Page 772 note 2 The welcome appearance of the author's completed work, Oxford, 1900, enables me to add the reference thereto, p. 138.

Page 773 note 1 On the Dujail river near Awānā. Mus‘ab was killed there in 72 a.h., in a battle against ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwān (Yāqūt, iv, 529).

Page 773 note 2 See Yāqūt, ii, 188–9, and al-Bīrūnī, p. 326.

Page 773 note 3 See al-Bīrūni, p. 329.

Page 774 note 1 Mu‘izz ad-Daula, on occupying Baghdad in 334, even thought of deposing the Abhasids altogether, as usurpers of the Caliphate, and of substituting the Fatimide Caliph or some other descendant of ‘Ali, but was dissuaded by one of his advisers (Ibn al-Aīr, viii, 339).

Page 775 note 1 The fluctuations in the relative values of the dirham and the dinar are mentioned by v. Kremer (op. cit., pp. 7, 8), and he concludes that the tendency during this century was towards stability.

Page 776 note 1 These fines — ‘Muṣādarah’ — were frequent throughout the century. Instances are given by v. Kremer, op. cit., p. 9. On p. 11 be discusses their origin and motive, and whilst admitting the practice to be, on principle, indefensible and dangerous, considers that it did no injury to the community as a whole, and that in the absence of any system of State credit, it was the readiest way of meeting a deficit. He observes that they are mentioned by the historians without a word of disapproval. But it is to be observed that in this very narrative (fol. 98), Hilāl mentions among the causes which led the inhabitants of Baghdad to rejoice at the appointment of ‘Amīd al-Juyu as their governor, a letter he had written to the principal inhabitants in which he promised to have done with such fines. And I have met with passages in other historians where to have refrained from exacting these fines is recorded of a sovereign or governor whose rule is eulogized as beneficent.

Page 779 note 1 The Court of ‘Aḍud ad-Daula was the resort of the leading men of letters of the age. For an account of his buildings and improvements at Baghdad, see “ Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate,” pp. 234 et seq. and 319.

Page 779 note 2 Bahā ad-Daula, like other members of the Buwaihid dynasty, bore a Dailamite name—āād. It does not appear in this MS., but is disclosed by a MS. of the history of Mayyāfāriqīn by Ibn al-Azraq al-Fāriqi, to which I have had access. This historian, who was writing in 572 a.h., should be added to the list of those who have quoted Hilāl's history. He does so with reference to the accession of the Caliph al-Qādir billah in 381 a.h.