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Mu'Tasim and the Turks1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Osman S. A. Ismail
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Extract

In the course of their expansion into Central Asia the Muslims came into contact with Turks, either settled and Iranized or else nomadic and marauding in their mode of life. As early as the time of the Caliph ‘Uthmān, when the conquest of Khurāsān was barely complete, there were, according to the historical sources, a number of incursions by Turkish nomads into that province in the neighbourhood of Marw and even as far as Nīshāpūr. Under the Umayyads, however, the Muslims came into direct contact with both the Western and the Northern Turkish states. In the period 86–96/705–15, under Qutaiba b. Muslim, the famous Umayyad governor, the Muslims won their first important victory over the Western Turks. Under Naṣr b. Sayyār, in the year 121/738–9, the Muslims broke the power of the Western Turks by defeating the dominant group amongst them, that of the TürgeshKhāqāns. The empire of the Northern Turks was destined to come to an end shortly afterwards in the year 744.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , February 1966 , pp. 12 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1966

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References

1 For bibliography, giving fuller details of works cited in footnotes, see p. 24.

2 Ya'qūbi, Buldan, 56; Balādhurī, Futūḥ, V, 583; cf. Gibb, The Arab conquests in Central Asia.

3 Barthold, Histoire des Turcs, 31; Wittek, ‘Türkentum’, 495; El, first ed., s.v. ‘Turks’.

4 Barthold, Histoire des Turcs, 31–2; Wittek, ‘Türkentum’, 509. It is to be remembered that the final victory over the Western Turks took place only some 20 years before the 'Abbāsid Revolution.

5 Mas'ūdī, Murūj, II, 2–3; Ya'qūbī, Buldān, 56; Qudāma, 262; Ibn al-Faqih, Buldān, 304; Ibn Isfandiyār, 27; Barthold, Histoire des Turcs, 32; Wittek, ‘Türkentum’, 509.

6 Ibn al-Faqīh, Buldān, 399. Earlier, p. 6, he gives a different explanation for the name: they were called Turks because of their egg-shaped faces. This shape was the result of the constant cold to which they were exposed. Cf. C. E. Wilson, ‘The wall of Alexander’, and Lisan, sub trk; see also Qur'ān xviii, 90–7.

7 Qudāma, , 262; Ibn al-Faqīh, Buldān, 316; cf. Goldziher, Muh. Stu., 270. Jāḥiẓ, Manāqib, 34, attributes to the Caliph ‘Uraar I a tradition which describes the Turks as an enemy difficult and unrewarding to pursue.

8 Mas'ūdī, Murūj, I, 298–300, and ii, 14–15; Barthold, Histoire des Turcs, 32, 35; El, first ed., s.v. ‘Turks’.

9 Mas'ūdī, Murūj, i, 286–90, and n, 38–64; Barthold, Histoire des Turcs, 25.

10 Barthold, op. cit., 25; Wittek, ‘Türkentum’, 495; El, first ed., s.v. ‘Turks’.

11 Frye and Sayih, ‘Turks’, 194–5; Wittek, ‘Türkentum’, 496; Barthold, Histoire Turcs, 29–31; cf. B. Lewis, The Arabs in history, introduction.

12 Barthold, Turkestan, 197–8.

13 Ṭabarī, years A.H. 198–204.

14 Futūḥ, v, 603–4; Barthold, Turkestan, 212.

15 Barthold, Turkestan, 109–11.

16 Mas'ūdi, Murūj, vii, 118; idem, Tanbih, 356.

17 Balādhurī, Futūḥ, v, 606; Ya'qūbī, Buldan, 29–33; Mas'ūdī, Murūj, VII, 118; Jāḥiẓ, Manāqib, 5–8; Ibn Kāmil, vi, 319; Ibn Khaldūn, ‘Ibar, iii, 357. Only the two latter sources give the names and Maghariba as collective names for the two categories of troops.

18 Balādhurī, Futūḥ, v, 606.

19 Ṭabarī, 1250, 1312 (tr. Marin, 71, 118) mentions the Maghariba

20 Jāḥiẓ is here reporting the views of al-Fatḥ b. to which he, however, subscribes and in favour of which he argues. For both al-Fatḥ and Jahiz the only distinction between Turks and Khurāsānīs was that the latter were settled and the former were nomads. The arguments of Jāḥiẓ for identifying the Turks with the Khurāsānīs bear witness to his recognition of the importance of the role of the Khurāsānīs in the rise of the 'Abbāsids and in the empire of i his own time.

21 , LaṬā'if, 15; , Wuzarā', 134; Ibn al-Faqīh, Buldān, 282; Ibn Badrūn, and Ibn Badrūn state that it was Manṣūr who first introduced Turks into the service of the 'Abbāsid state.

22 Ṭabarī, 1181 (tr. Marin, 17); Ya'qūbī, Buldan, 29.

23 Jāḥiẓ, Manāqib, 37.

24 Jāḥiẓ was a contemporary of Mu'taṣim, but most of t he other writers were not.

25 Ya'qūbī, Buldān, 29–30; Ṭabarī, 1180–1 (tr. Marin, 15–16); Mas'ūdī, Tanbīh, 356; Yāqūt, Mu'jam iii, 16; Ibn al-Faqīh, Buldān, 319; Ibn Bidāya, 296; SuyūṬī, Ta'rlhh, 133; Wittek, ‘Türkentum’, 510. Cf. El, second ed., s.v. 'abd; El, first ed., s.v. mamlūk and

26 El, second ed., s.v. abnā' and 'Arab al-dawla; El, first ed., s.v. mawlā.

27 See p. 14, n. 17; cf. Bar-Hebraeus, Chronography, i, 140. Jāḥiẓ, Ibn , and Ibn Khaldūn, might have had good reasons for not calling them slaves. The evidence shows, however, that, together with Mas'ūdī and Balādhurī, these authors are more reliable than the other writers.

28 Ya'qūbī, Buldān, 30, al-Kindi, Wuldh, 188; here al-Kindī refers to t h e number of those who were with Mu'taṣim in Egypt in the year 214/829–30. These numbers in all cases do not include the troops from the west, but refer specially to the so-called ‘Turkish’ slaves.

29 Ya'qūbī, Buldān, 29–30, cf. Ṭabarī (tr. Marin), index.

30 Ṭabarī, 1164 (tr. Marin, 1); Ya'qūbī, Buldan, III, 197; Ibn Qutaiba, Ma'ārif, 199.

31 Ya'qūbī, Buldān, 24.

32 Ya'qūbī, Buldān, 24; Ṭabarī, 1067, 1181 (tr. Marin, 16); Ibn Miskawaih, Tajārib, vi, 437.

33 Barthold, Turkestan, 212.

34 Barthold, Histoire des Turcs, 35–6, 47–8, 56–9; Wittek, ‘Tūrkentum’, 513; cf. Ibn Khaldūn, Muqaddima, 147.

35 cf. Niẓām al-Mulk, Siyāsat-nāma, 68, 165; also C. Cahen, ‘The Turkish invasion’, and Wittek, ‘’, BSOAS, xvii, 2, 1955, 271–8. Niẓām al-Mulk refers to the existence of ḥanafī influences amongst the Turks.

36 Abū Nu'aim, ḥilya, 198.

37 Dūrī, 'Aṣr, 228.

38 Ṭaifūr, (ed. Muḥammad Zāhid b. al-ḥusayn ), Cairo, 1949,80.

39 See Jāḥiẓ, Manāqib; idem, ḥaiawān, II, 353–4, and 161.

40 Ya'qūbī, Buldān, 29; Yāqūt, Mu'jam, iii, 16; Ibn , Bidāya, 296. Bar-Hebraeus, Chronography, I, 140, relates that on his death Mu'taṣim freed 8,000 slaves and left 30,000 slaves for the stables.

41 Ibn Khaldūn, Muqaddima, 10.

42 Mas'ūdī, Murūj, vii, 118.

43 See Jāḥiẓ, Manāqib.

44 Jāḥiẓ, Manāqib, 5, speaks of Jund the Caliphal troops, which includes the Jund al-ḥaḍra, the Caliphal Corps; cf. Balādhurī, Futūḥ, iv, 474. It was the latter who were distinguished from the rest by their gold-decorated girdles; Mas'ūdī, Murūj, vii, 118, SuyūṬī, 113. They were not, however, of Turkish origin only. and his officers, probably all of them Iranian in origin, were amongst the bodyguards of Mu'taṣim. Cf. Ṭabarī, 1306 (tr. Marin, 113).

45 Ṭabarī, 1303 (tr. Marin, 110).

46 Ibn Badrūn, , 292–3.

47 Ṭabarī, 1327–8 (tr. Marin, 130–1). Mu'taṣim is reported to have expressed this opinion to Isḥāq b. Ibrāhīm b. Muṣ'ab b. al-ḥusayn, who, together with his brother Muḥammad, his uncle Ṭāhir b. al-ḥusayn, and the latter's son 'Abd Allāh, are designated as the four men favoured by Ma'mūn. Isḥāq was governor of at that time and 'Abd Allāh the governor of .

48 Ṭaifūr, , VI, 12; Ṭabarī, 1236 (tr. Marin, 60–1).

49 By this is meant the period 221–79/836–92, in which the ‘Abbāsid Caliphs ruled from Sāmarrā. Cf. El, second ed., s.v. ‘'Abbasids’; also G. Le Strange, Baghdad, 13; Ṭabarī (tr. Marin), p. 15, n. 105.

50 C. Cahen, ‘The Turkish invasion’.

51 cf. C. Cahen, ‘The Turkish invasion’, 136.

52 'Ibar, iii, 443, 450; cf. Muqaddima, index.

53 'Ibar, iii, 170.

54 Niẓām al-Mulk, Siyāsat-nāma, index, s.v. ‘Turks’; El, first ed., s.v. ‘Turkoman’.

55 See D. Sourdel, Le viziral 'Abbaside, I, 245–80.