Al-Muwaffaq

The Middle East: 868–879 CE

Abbasid Turmoil: Rebellions and Instability

This era sees the Abbasid Caliphate struggling to recover from a prolonged period of instability known as the "Anarchy at Samarra" (861–870), which has severely undermined the authority of the central government.

The Fall of Mu'tazz and Continued Court Instability

In July 869, Caliph al-Mu'tazz, known for his energetic efforts to curb military interference in civil administration, is violently deposed and executed by the powerful Turkish military factions. His successor, al-Muhtadi, attempts to reaffirm the caliphal authority, only to meet a similar fate, being killed in June 870.

The violent power struggles at Samarra subside when al-Mu'tamid ascends as caliph, with strong backing from Turkish factions led by Musa ibn Bugha. This group, closely linked to Mu'tamid’s brother and vizier, al-Muwaffaq, consolidates control over the Abbasid court. Though this ends the immediate crisis of the "Anarchy at Samarra," the damage inflicted on the Abbasid state is profound, significantly weakening central authority and emboldening secessionist and rebellious movements throughout the empire.

The Kharijite Uprising in Al-Jazira

A particularly persistent challenge to Abbasid rule emerges with a significant Kharijite uprising, centered around Mosul and Diyar Rabi'a in the northern Mesopotamian region of Al-Jazira. Beginning under the leadership of Musawir ibn 'Abd al-Hamid al-Shari, this rebellion persists for nearly three decades, successfully defying multiple attempts by both central and local Abbasid authorities to suppress it. Musawir's death in 877 leads to the ascension of Harun ibn 'Abdallah al-Bajali, who continues the rebellion, sustaining the Kharijite resistance.

The Zanj Rebellion near Basra

Concurrently, another fierce rebellion, known as the Zanj Rebellion, erupts near the important southern Iraqi city of Basra. Initially composed of multiple smaller revolts, it evolves into a massive, sustained uprising involving over half a million enslaved people drawn from across the Islamic Empire. Under the charismatic and controversial leadership of Ali ibn Muhammad, who claims descent from Caliph Ali ibn Abu Talib, this revolt becomes one of the largest and bloodiest rebellions against Abbasid authority.

Historians such as Al-Tabari and Al-Masudi describe the Zanj uprising as exceptionally brutal and devastating, with tens of thousands killed over its fifteen-year span. The Zanj rebellion severely disrupts trade, agriculture, and governance across lower Iraq, further highlighting and exacerbating the Abbasids' already weakened grip on their vast empire.

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This era exemplifies the profound internal stresses within the Abbasid Caliphate, marked by recurring rebellions and courtly intrigue, ultimately signaling the continued erosion of central Abbasid power and authority.

Abbasid Caliph Mu'tazz is able and energetic, and tries to control the military chiefs and exclude the military from civil administration.

His policies are resisted, and in July 869, he, too, is deposed and killed.

His successor, al-Muhtadi, also tries to reaffirm the Caliph's authority, but he, too, is killed in June 870.

With Muhtadi's death and the ascension of al-Mu'tamid, the Turkish faction around Musa ibn Bugha, closely associated with Mu'tamid's brother and vizier al-Muwaffaq, becomes dominant in the caliphal court, ending the "anarchy".

Although the Abbasid Caliphate is able to stage a modest recovery in the following decades, the troubles of the "Anarchy at Samarra" inflict great and lasting damage on the structures and prestige of the Abbasid central government, encouraging and facilitating secessionist and rebellious tendencies in the Caliphate's provinces.

A major Kharijite uprising against the Abbasid Caliphate, centered in the districts of Mosul and Diyar Rabi'a in the province of al-Jazira (upper Mesopotamia), will last for approximately thirty years, despite numerous attempts by both the central government and provincial authorities to quell it.

The uprising is initially led by a local Kharijite named Musawir ibn 'Abd al-Hamid al-Shari.

Following Musawir's death in 877, he is eventually succeeded by Harun ibn 'Abdallah al-Bajali, who will remain in command until the end of the rebellion.

Zanj—the Arabic meaning "Land of the Blacks" or "Land of the Negroes"—is a name used by medieval Arab geographers to refer to both a certain portion of the coast of East Africa and its inhabitants, Bantu-speaking peoples called the Zanj.

The seaboard is also the origin of the place name "Zanzibar Arabic”.

In recent decades, a number of Basran landowners had brought several thousand Zanj) into southern Iraq to drain the salt marshes east of Basra.

The landowners subject the Zanj, who generally speak no Arabic, to heavy slave labor in the salt flats and on the sugarcane and cotton plantations of southwestern Persia, providing them with only minimal subsistence.

In September 869, 'Ali ibn Muhammad, a Persian claiming descent from 'Ali, the fourth caliph, and Fatimah, Muhammad's daughter, gains the support of several slave-work crews, which can number from five hundred to five thousand men, by pointing out the injustice of their social position and promising them freedom and wealth.

'Ali's offers become even more attractive with his subsequent adoption of a Kharijite religious stance: anyone, even an enslaved East African, could be elected caliph, and all non-Kharijites are infidels threatened by a holy war.

Zanj forces grow rapidly in size and power, absorbing the well-trained enslaved East African contingents that defect from the defeated caliphal armies, along with some disaffected local peasantry.

In October 869, they defeat a Basran force, and soon afterward a Zanj capital, al-Mukhtara, is built on an inaccessible dry spot in the salt flats, surrounded by canals.

The Zanj rebels gain control of southern Iraq by June 870, capturing al-Ubullah, a seaport on the Persian Gulf, and cutting communications to Basra, a few miles downstream, then …

…seize Ahvaz in Khuzestan (southwestern Iran).

The Muslim caliphate’s Turkish military leaders, having murdered or deposed each of the three caliphs they have installed from 861, install al-Mu'tamid as caliph in 870.

Having emptied the imperial treasuries to maintain the army and the court, and now deriving scant income from the caliphate’s increasingly restive provinces, the Turks finally end their murderous rule within the caliphate and allow al-Mu'tamid to govern without interference.

The caliphal armies, now entrusted to al-Muwaffaq, a brother of the new caliph, al-Mu'tamid, still cannot cope with the rebels.

The Zanj sack Basra in September 871.

The Zanj subsequently defeat al-Muwaffaq himself in April 872.

Signs of internal decay, in addition to the ongoing Zanj rebellion, began to appear in the 'Abbasid empire as petty states (some not so petty) emerge in different parts of the realm.

The Tulunid dynasty of Egypt, which marks the beginning of the disengagement of Egypt and, with it, of Syria and Palestine from 'Abbasid rule, is one of the first such polities to affect Palestine.

Ahmad bin Tulun, the son of a Turkic slave who had eventually come to command the Caliph's private guard, had gained the favor of the Caliph al-Musta'in after serving in military campaigns against the Roman Empire in Tarsus.

On returning to Baghdad in 863, the Caliph had presented him with a concubine, Meyyaz, with whom he has Khumarawaih, the son who will eventually succeed him as ruler of Egypt.

The Caliph al-Mu'tazz in 868 had appointed Bayik Bey as the governor of Egypt; Bayik Bey in turn had sent Ahmad ibn Ṭūlūn as his regent.

Ibn Ṭūlūn, on arriving in Egypt in September 868, had found that the existing capital of Egypt, al-Fustat, established in 641 by Amr ibn al-'As, was too small to accommodate his armies.

He had founded a new city to serve as his capital, Madinat al-Qatta'i, or the quartered city.

Al-Qatta'i is laid out in the style of grand cities of Persia and the Eastren Roman Empire, including a large public square, hippodrome, a palace for the governor, and a large ceremonial Mosque of Ibn Tulun, which is named for ibn Ṭūlūn. (The city will be razed in 905; the mosque alone has survived.)

Ibn Ṭūlūn's rule in Egypt had been marked initially by a struggle for control with the existing head of the council of financial affairs, Ibn al-Mudabbir, who reported directly to the Caliph, not to the governor of Egypt, and as such had ignored ibn Ṭūlūn entirely.

Ibn al-Mudabbir was disliked by the local population because of high rates of taxation (particularly against non-Muslim citizens, which comprised over half of Egypt's population) and greed.

Ibn Ṭūlūn had used his influence at the Abbasid court to work against Ibn al-Mudabbir, and had finally been able to have him removed after four years.

Bayik Bey had been murdered around 870, and governorship had passed to Yarjukh al-Turki, father of ibn Tulun's wife, Hatun.

Yarjukh had retained ibn Ṭūlūn as his regent in Egypt, and increased his power by granting him authority over Alexandria and other territories in the region.

Ibn Ṭūlūn had led a campaign against the rebellious governor of Syria, ‘Īsā ibn Shaykh ash-Shaybanī, using the rebellion as a pretext in purchasing a large number of slaves to increase the strength of his army, which forms the basis of his personal authority, and allowing him to amass an army of one hundred thousand men.

The Caliph al-Mu'tamid in 871 had appointed his brother Al-Muwaffaq as governor of Damascus, and his son, later the Caliph Al-Mu'tadid, to succeed Yarjukh as governor of Egypt.

The rebellion of the Zanji, a group of black slaves who seized control of Basra and much of southern Iraq during this decade, has siphoned much of the caliphate's resources away from the provinces.

Ibn Ṭūlūn in 874 had taken advantage of the chaos in Iraq to sever relations with Baghdad and declare independence.

When in 877 Ibn Tulun fails to pay Egypt's full contribution to the 'Abbasid campaign against the Zanj uprising in Iraq, the caliphal government, dominated by the caliph's brother al-Muwaffaq, realizes that Egypt is slipping from imperial control.

Al-Mu'tamid sends armed forces under Musa ibn Bugha to retake control of Egypt, but the attempted invasion is a rout, with most of Musa's army scattering before the larger forces led by ibn Ṭūlūn.

Ibn Ṭūlūn's forces follow and take control of large portions of Syria, but the campaign is cut short when ibn Ṭūlūn has to return to Egypt to deal with a revolt led by his own son, ‘Abbās.

The Zanj seize Wasit in 878 while al-Muwaffaq is occupied in eastern Iran with the expansion of the Saffarids, an independent Persian dynasty, …