صاحب الزنج

Overview

Leader of the Zanj. He emerged on the marshes of Basra in Shawwal of the year 255 AH ¹. He entered al-Ubulla in Rajab of the year 256 AH ², and took control of Abbadan ³.

His lineage according to al-Mas'udi

Al-Mas'udi reports that he claimed to be Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Isa ibn Zayd ibn Ali ibn al-Husayn. He says that most people held that he was an impostor, and that the family of Abu Talib denied him. He was from Warzanin, in the districts of Rayy ⁴.

His views and actions

Al-Mas'udi considers that his acts of killing women, children and the aged reflect the views of the Azariqa among the Kharijites. He reports that he would begin his sermons with the takbir and the tahlil, then "There is no judgement but God's", and that he regarded all sins as associating partners with God. The first to write an account of his deeds was Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Sahl ⁴.

His period and death

According to al-Mas'udi, his rule lasted fourteen years and four months. He reports that some three hundred thousand people were killed in a single battle at Basra. He was killed on the night of Saturday, two nights into Safar of the year 270 AH ⁵.

Notes for researchers

These judgements and figures come from al-Mas'udi and need to be checked against other sources. The entry needs an additional source.

Sources

Tarikh al-Rusul wa'l-Muluk — al-Tabari (ed. Abu al-Fadl Ibrahim) , j.9 p.410

Tarikh al-Rusul wa'l-Muluk — al-Tabari (ed. Abu al-Fadl Ibrahim) , j.9 p.471

Tarikh al-Rusul wa'l-Muluk — al-Tabari (ed. Abu al-Fadl Ibrahim) , j.9 p.472

Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi , p.568

Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi , p.577-578

al-Muntazam fi Tarikh al-Muluk wa'l-Umam — Ibn al-Jawzi

Abu Ahmad al-Muwaffaq

Brother of the caliph al-Mu'tamid. Al-Tabari records his departure from al-Jabal for Iraq, his illness with gout, and his death on a Wednesday, eight days before the end of Safar 278. According to al-Suyuti, his brother al-Mu'tazz invested him with the robe of kingship, crowned him with a gold crown and a jewelled cap, gave him two shawls and girded him with two swords; in the same year he removed him from office and exiled him to Wasit. Also according to al-Suyuti, his brother al-Mu'tamid placed him in charge of the east, and he commanded the army in most of the engagements against the Zanj; when the leader of the Zanj was killed, the people cried out prayers for al-Muwaffaq and poets praised him. In 269 al-Mu'tamid summoned him back from the direction of Damascus and placed him under restraint; he was given the titles Ibn Kundaj, Dhu al-Sayfayn, and Sa'idan, Dhu al-Wizaratayn, and al-Mu'tamid ordered Ibn Tulun to be cursed from the pulpits. He died in 278, and al-Mu'tamid was relieved of him. According to al-Mas'udi, when al-Musta'in was deposed he went from Baghdad to Samarra, where al-Mu'tazz invested him, put a robe on him, gave him two shawls and clothed his commanders. According to al-Mas'udi, al-Mu'tazz imprisoned him with his brother al-Mu'ayyad, then tightened his confinement and sent him to Basra thirteen nights before the end of Ramadan 252; between his honour and his imprisonment there were six months and three days. According to al-Mas'udi, al-Mu'tamid invested him and Mufallih at the start of Rabi' I 258 and sent them against the leader of the Zanj; he met Ya'qub al-Saffar at Sayb Bani Kuma in 262. According to Ibn al-Jawzi, the gout grew so severe that he could not ride, so he had a domed litter made to sit in, with an attendant who cooled his feet with cold things until ice was applied to them; his leg became elephantiasis. Forty porters carried his litter, twenty at a time in turns. When the pain grew he would order them to set him down and say: 'You are weary of me, and I wish I were one of you, carrying a load on my head and eating in good health.' He also said: 'My register covers a hundred thousand men, yet none of them is in a worse state than I am.' He died in the Qasr al-Hasani on the night of Thursday, eight days before the end of Safar 278, aged forty-seven years less a month and some days. Abdallah ibn al-Mu'tazz wrote a letter of condolence: 'I console you with al-Mansur the second, for I know of no one among his descendants more like him.' In his war against the Zanj he sent their leader a letter calling him to repent and return to God from the shedding of blood, the violation of what is sacred, the ruin of lands, and the claim to a prophethood and messengership that God had not made him fit for, and to give up his course and join the community of Muslims. When the letter reached him it only increased his aversion and obstinacy, and he did not reply. He encamped in the city he named al-Muwaffaqiyya, sent merchants to it, built its congregational mosque, and set up mints there where dinars and dirhams were struck.

At a glance