A Short History of Saracens:Chapter XV

The reign of Saffah — His death — Accession of Mansur — His character — Revolt of Abdullah bin Ali — Death of Abu Muslim — Bagdad founded — Manifestation of Mohammed and Ibrahim al-Hassani — Their defeat and death — Invasion of Spain — Its failure — Irruption of the Khazars — Byzantine inroad — Death of Mansur.

With the rise of the Abbassides, the aspect of Western Asia alters. The seat of government is removed from Syria to Irak; the Syrians lose the monopoly of influence and power they had hitherto possessed; and the tide of progress is diverted from the west to the east. But the unity of the Caliphate was gone for ever. Spain from the first never acknowledged the authority of the Abbassides, and was easily reduced by the fugitive Abdur Rahman, who founded a dynasty which rivalled in magnificence the House of Abbas. Over Western Africa the early Abbassides exercised substantial dominion, but in time it dwindled into nominal suzerainty. The shrinking of the empire was not without its advantage, as it helped the founders of the Abbasside Caliphate to consolidate their power, to organise its resources, and to promote the material and intellectual development of their subjects. The first nine sovereigns of this house, with one exception, were men of extraordinary ability and politicians of a superior type, devoted to the advancement of the public weal. All of them combined warlike qualities with high intellectual attainments. And though the reigns of some were stained by deeds of  cruelty, that was the characteristic of the age throughout  the known world, and the outcome of dynastic policy.

"The reign of the first Abbassides," says a distinguished French scholar and historian, "was the era of the greatest splendour of the Eastern Saracens. The age of conquest had passed; that of civilisation had commenced." 

It is already mentioned how Abu'l Abbas came to be proclaimed Caliph, and how by his reckless executions for enemies and suspects he acquired the title as-Saffah. In those days human life was accounted of little value, either in the west or in the east; and religion had little control in checking the natural ferocity of man. Yet, with all his cruelty, Saffah was regarded as a generous sovereign, attentive to his duties, and not given to self-indulgence. Against the prevailing custom of the age and the people, he had only one wife, Umm Salma, to whom he was passionately attached, and who exercised unbounded influence over him. Even she, however, was at times unable to calm his mad frenzy against the Ommeyades. 

This ill-treatment brought its natural consequences. A revulsion of feeling took place in their favour in various parts of the country; and the partisans of the fallen House rose against Saffah in Damascus, Hems, Syria and Kinnisrin, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. The usual mode adopted on these occasions was for the men to shave their face and disclaim fealty to the House of Abbas. These risings were quelled by more politic methods than had hitherto been in vogue, and the insurgents laid down their arms on favourable terms. 

Yezid bin Hobaira, Merwan's viceroy over Irak, was still holding Wasit, where he was hemmed in by Hassan bin Kahtaba and Abu Jaafar, Saffah's brother and successor. The siege lasted eleven months; the besiegers sent burning boats down the river to set fire to the city, but the defenders seized or turned the boats aside by grappling-irons. Finding that the House of Ommeya had fallen beyond recovery, Yezid addressed himself to a descendant of Ali to take up the Caliphate, and thus supply a rallying centre to those who were opposed to the Banii Abbas. Not receiving a reply in time, and despairing of making a longer stand, especially as the Yemenites within Wasit had been won over by Saffah's emissaries, he made his submission to Abu Jaafar upon a solemn covenant of safety for himself, his family and followers, together with all their property. Abu Jaafar intended fully to abide by his covenant, but Saffah was guided by Abii Muslim. This pitiless man saw in Yezid a possible rival. Ibn Hobaira had still a large following; and his influence over his tribe (the Fezara) was un-bounded. Abu Muslim advised Saffah to put Ibn Hobaira to death, and the latter wrote to his brother to do so. Abu Jaafar time after time refused to carry out the cruel order, but was at last compelled to give way. A force was sent to Yezid's house, where he was killed with his eldest son and a number of his followers. 

Saffah was now the undisputed master of Asia and Egypt; and West Africa acknowledged his authority. In the distribution of the governorships, he was careful to entrust them either to members of his family or to men who had distinguished themselves by services in his cause. Abu Jaafar was the viceroy of Mesopotamia, Armenia and Azarbijan; his uncle Daud bin Ali held Hijaz, Yemen and Yemama ; Abdullah bin Ali, Syria; Sulaiman bin Ali, Bussorah and its dependencies; Abii Muslim, Khorasan; and Abii Ayun, Egypt. Khalid bin Barmek was chancellor of the exchequer, whilst Abu Salma, who was instrumental in proclaiming Saffah as Caliphy was made vizier, and probably acted as confidential adviser. The influence exercised by Abu Salma roused the jealousy of Abu Muslim, and one night, while returning home from Saffah's palace, he was set upon by Abii Muslim's myrmidons and assassinated. His death was ascribed to the Kharijis. 

In spite of the arrangements made by the new ruler, the empire was still unsettled, and the Byzantines seized the opportunity of ravaging the Moslem territories on the north. The peaceful inhabitants were either massacred or carried into captivity, and the country was laid waste. 

Saffah died at Anbar, a place not far from Hira, leaving a son named Mohammed and a daughter called Raita, who afterwards married her cousin Mohammed al-Mahdi. Before his death he nominated Abii Jaafar his brother, as his successor to the throne, and his nephew Isa as heir-presumptive. (Nobody knew where Saffah was buried. The Abbassides feared the same treatment for their dead as they had meted out to their fallen rivals; and therefore carefully concealed their graves. It was only for the eleventh sovereign of this dynasty (Muntassir) that a mausoleum was erected.) 

Succession of Abu Jaafar: 

Abu Jaafar was at this time absent on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and accordingly the oath of fealty to him was taken by the proxy of Isa. Although Saffah is the first sovereign of the Banu Abbas, Abu Jaa’far must be regarded as the real founder of the dynasty. The permanence of the family, the power they wielded, and the influence they exercised, even after they had lost their temporal sovereignty, were due to his foresight. He laid the foundations of the Church which maintained and enhanced the prestige of the pontifical throne, and in later years became the chief source of its strength and the mainstay of its influence. With a remarkable knowledge of human nature, he conceived and carried out, in the course of his long reign, the gradual formulation of those doctrines which, whilst they added to the hold of the sovereign on the imagination of the people, by enlisting other interests on the side of the throne, helped to create a powerful hierarchy bound and devoted to the new dynasty. The corner-stone of this far-reaching policy was the sacramental idea attached to "the consensus of the people." 

With Mansur opens the series of those brilliant Caliphs whose names have become so popular in Asia. The first successors of Abu'l Abbas applied their power to the amelioration and the well-being of the nation. Respected by their neighbours, they endeavoured by an active and liberal administration, and by grand and useful enterprises, to merit the veneration and love of their subjects. They devoted themselves to the building of new cities, to the construction of roads, caravan- serais, canals, fountains, the formation of charitable and educational institutions, the stimulation and protection of letters, and the promotion of commerce and all arts of peace. Schemes of conquest were abandoned. "In renouncing warlike enterprises," says Sedillot, "the Abbasside Caliphs acceded to the spirit of their times; the Eastern Saracens commenced to understand the benefits of civilisation; and the masters of Bagdad responded to the voice of the people in giving them regular administration, in establishing a strict system of justice, in spreading education, and connecting the different provinces of the Empire by intimate commercial relations." 

Abu Jaafar's character was a strange mixture of good and evil. As a politician, a statesman, and a sovereign, he is almost unsurpassed. Nor can he be said to be inferior to any in far-sighted wisdom or attention to the public weal. As a parent he was devoted to his children. As a man, however, he was both treacherous and unsparing of human life: Saffah's cruelty was due to vindictive frenzy; his successor's bloodshed sprang from calculation. Cold-blooded, calculating, and unscrupulous, he spared none whom he thought in the least dangerous to himself or his dynasty. His treatment of the descendants of the Caliph Ali forms the darkest page in Abbasside history. Suyuti says that "Mansur was the first who occasioned dissensions between the Abbassides and Alides, for before that they were united." 

Immediately on hearing of Saffah's death, he hastened back to Kufa and assumed the reins of government under the title of al-Mansur or the Victorious. Hardly had he been seated on the throne than Abdullah bin Ali, his uncle, who was governor of Syria under Saffah, rose in revolt. Mansur, as we shall henceforth call him, a directed Abii Muslim to crush the rebellion. In a well-fought battle near Nasibin, Abu Muslim inflicted a heavy defeat on Abdullah bin Ali, who fled with his family to his brother Sulaiman bin Ali at Bussorah, and there remained in concealment until Sulaiman was removed from his government. Abdullah and his two eldest sons then fell into the hands of Mansur, and were imprisoned in a castle not far from Hashimieh. But the victor of Zab was considered too dangerous a man to be allowed to live in such close proximity to the capital. A new house was built for him over foundations of salt, and Abdullah was conducted into it with much ceremony. The first heavy shower of rain, however, demolished the foundations, and the unhappy prisoner was killed under the crumbled house — a fate which he well deserved for his barbarity to the Ommeyades! 

After the battle of Nasibin, Abu Muslim desired to return to his government of Khorasan, of which he had practically made himself the king. His power in the province was unbounded, and had indeed become a source of danger to the Abbassides. He had a large following, and there were sectaries who considered 

him a prophet. He could, by raising his finger, destroy the House of Abbas as he had built it up. His attitude also now became overbearing. At Nasibin, when the royal messenger arrived to make a list of the spoil, his language towards the careful sovereign was neither respectful nor conciliatory. The removal of such a dangerous subject now became the first consideration of Mansur, and for this purpose it was necessary that he should not be permitted to return to Khorasan, where he would be in the midst of his own devoted partisans. He was offered the government of Syria with all its dependencies; but Abu Muslim was too wary to be caught thus. With the army which had crushed Abdullah bin Ali, he commenced his return march towards Khorasan. It was impossible for Mansur to oppose him; so he had recourse to his favourite weapon. 

People who have employed treachery against others often fall easy victims themselves. Lavish promises made in Mansur's name induced Abu Muslim to turn aside from his march and visit the court. He was received with consideration, and for a time the honours shown to him were almost regal. One unlucky day, however, whilst in the palace, his retainers were disarmed, and he himself murdered almost in the royal presence. 

So long as Abu Muslim died Mansur did not think himself secure on the throne; he felt now that he was indeed the ruler, and began to cast about for the site of a capital. Damascus not only lacked attraction for the Abbasside, but was a place of peril, whilst the uncertain and fickle temperament of the people of Bussorah and Kufa made those cities undesirable as the seat of government. After much questing, he fixed upon the locality where Bagdad now stands — six days' journey by river from Bussorah. 

Bagdad is said to have been the summer retreat of Kesra Anushirvan, the famous monarch of Persia, and derived from his reputation as a just ruler the name it bears — the "Garden of Justice." With the disappearance of the Persian monarchy had disappeared the famous Garden, where the Lord of Asia dispensed justice to his multitudinous subjects; tradition however, preserved the name. The beautiful site, central and salubrious, attracted the eyes of Mansur, and the glorious pity of the Caliphs arose, like the sea-goddess issuing from the waves, under the magic wands of the foremost architects of the day. 

The Bagdad of Mansur was founded on the western bank of the Tigris. Soon, however, another city — a new Bagdad — sprang up on the eastern bank under the auspices of the heir-apparent, the Prince Imperial of the Caliphate, and was named after him the Mahdieh. This new city vied in the splendour of its structures with the beauty and magnificence of the Mansurieh. In the days of its glory, before the destroying hordes of Chengiz, sweeping over Western Asia, had engulfed in ruin every vestige of Saracenic civilisation, Bagdad presented a beautiful and imposing appearance — a fit capital for the Pontiffs of Islam. The city was circular in shape, and surrounded by double walls. The palace stood in the centre, with the Cathedral Mosque close by. The mansions of the chief officers of state were beyond the space which was reserved for reviews and inspections. The streets were laid out regularly, and were forty cubits wide. The bazaars or market-places, being the haunts of vagabonds and suspicious characters, were placed outside the walls; but each street had a special set of provision-dealers at the corners, who were under police supervision. The barracks for the troops were on the eastern side of the river, and were divided into three blocks, one for the Modharite soldiery, another for the Yemenite, and the third for the Khorasani; each forming a check on the other. There were several gates to the city, each surmounted by a lofty tower, which was guarded night and day by relays of soldiers. 

Bagdad was not completed until 150 a.h., and many events had happened in the meantime, all of which had turned out successfully for Mansur. The murder of Abu Muslim caused an insurrection among his followersin Khorasan,! but they were defeated and dispersed. About the same time, the Rawendieh,- who professed to look upon the Abbasside Caliphs as incarnations of the Deity, raised a riot in Hashimieh, which actually placed in jeopardy the life of Mansur. His life was saved on this occasion by Maan bin Zaidah (celebrated for his generosity), an adherent of Merwan, on whose head a price had been put by the Abbassides. After this incident, he was not only received into favour, but made successively governor of Yemama and Sijistan.The disturbance was quelled, and the ignorant and superstitious sectaries were expelled from the city. A Byzantine inroad was Byzantine repulsed with great slaughter, and the Emperor of inroad. Constantinople was compelled to sue for peace, which resulted in a truce of seven years. After this, Mansur applied himself to repair the ravages committed by the Christian raiders, to repopulate the ruined and deserted cities, and to put the frontier in a proper state of defence. 

With this object he himself made a tour of the provinces, and sent Hassan bin Kahtaba into Cappadocia with a large army. Malatia (Melitene), Massisa(Mopsuesta), and a number of other cities were thus rebuilt, re-populated, and strongly garrisoned. New fortresses were built at Claudia and other strategical points, to check Byzantine inroads. In the mountains of Tabaristan, to the south-west of Caspian, the inhabitants still followed the ancient cult, and were governed by their own chiefs under the nominal sovereignty of the Caliphs. Suddenly they rose upon the Saracens and massacred a number of them. An expedition followed of necessity. The native chiefs were either killed or expelled; and Tabaristan and Ghilan were definitively annexed to the Abbasside empire. Hardly had this conquest been achieved than the people of Deilem, who also adhered to the old Magian religion, and were only nominally subject to the Moslem rule, raided into the Saracenic territories. They were driven back after some hard fighting, and military stations, carefully planted, prevented any further incursions on their part. In 143 a.h. a new distribution was made of provincial governorships, and the system of employing newswriters, for the purpose of keeping the central government informed of all that occurred in the provinces, was inaugurated. An extensive ramification of detectives and spies, such as would take the palm from any modern government, whilst it helped the sovereign to watch the growth of combinations against his authority, certainly did not promote a sense of security among the people. 

We now arrive at a page in the history of this remarkable monarch which reflects the least credit on treatment the goodness of his heart, or the clemency of his nature. To understand the subsequent events, it is necessary to glance back for a moment at the position occupied at this period by the Alides. The Banu Hassan, the descendants of the fifth Caliph, had hitherto taken no part in politics; and, in spite of frequent ill-treatment, had never attempted a rising against the established government. The descendants of Ali II., the son of Hussain, led a still more retired life, devoting themselves to literary and philosophical pursuits, standing wholly aloof from the agitations in which their kinsmen of the family of Abbas were engaged. Zaid and his son had been driven by cruelty to take up arms against Hisham and Walid II., and had lost their lives. The Banii Hassan and the Banii Hussain lived in Medina, where they maintained themselves with the income of the little property that was left to them, supplemented by the proceeds of commerce or the more uncertain profits of the lecture-room. But in spite of their comparative lack of means, they were held in the highest esteem by their fellow-citizens. Here dwelt also the descendants of the first three Caliphs, of Zubair, and other principal Companions of the Prophet, all of whom were connected in different ways with the Alides. The influence exercised by the latter, and the consideration they enjoyed, alarmed the dark and suspicious nature of Mansur; and the ease with which the Merwanian dynasty had been overturned led him to fear a similar fate for his House. 

With the object of discovering if any conspiracy was afoot, he resorted to various methods of espionage; emissaries were sent with instructions to worm themselves into the confidence of the Alides, and to instigate them to speak incautiously, so as to furnish a ground for accusation afterwards. But this was not the only cause of the persecution of the Alides in this reign. When the Ommeyade Caliphate was falling to pieces, the family of the Prophet were naturally interested in the event. A meeting was held in Medina, at which were present most of the members of the Banu-Hashim, including Mansur himself. At this gathering, Mohammed, a great-grand-son of Hassan regarded as the head of the Banii- Hassan, was chosen as Caliph, notwithstanding that his father was alive. His noble and pure character, his high aspirations and lofty standard of virtue, had obtained for him the name of an-Nafs-uz-Zakiya or "the Pure Soul." There was a consensus of opinion regarding his worth and pre-eminence, and the entire assembly, including Abil Jaafar (Mansur), took the oath of fealty to him. We have seen, however, how the Caliphate fell eventually into the hands of the Abbassides. When Mansur was seated on the pontifical throne, the memory of that unforgotten oath darkened his life and deepened his suspicion. And his spies poisoned his mind with false accusations against the Banu-Hassan. He attempted to seize the person of Mohammed and his brother Ibrahim, but they escaped. He then arrested all the leading members of the family, including the old father, Abdullah, and the head of the Caliph Osman's descendants, named Mohammed al-Osmani, whose daughter was married to Ibrahim. They were sent in chains to Kufa, and imprisoned in the castle of Hobaira. Mohammed al-Osmani, owing to the veneration in which he was held by the Syrians, was regarded as a person likely to prove dangerous to the Abbasside throne. He was flogged, and afterwards put to death. The others were treated with great cruelty, so much so that the poor sufferers admitted that they had fared better even under the Ommeyades. Mohammed and Ibrahim were now hunted on all sides. Bedouins were employed as detectives to haunt the watering-places; every hamlet likely to harbour the fugitives was searched, and anyone suspected of giving them shelter was thrown into prison and flogged. Driven to desperation, Mohammed sent his brother Ibrahim to raise Ahwaz and Bussorah, whilst he himself appeared in Medina. The proclamation of Mansur's deposition in Bussorah and Medina was to be made simultaneously. Had this plan been successfully carried out, it is probable that the Abbasside rule would have come to an end. But Mohammed was forced to declare himself before his brother's preparations were completed; and Mansur was thus able to attack them in succession. At first Mohammed carried everything before him. Mansur's deputy in Medina was seized and imprisoned, and in the course of a few days the whole of Hijaz and Yemen accepted Mohammed as the Caliph of Islam. Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik, the founders of two of the great schools of law among the Sunnis, pronounced in 

favour of the validity of Mohammed's claim. Finding the movement more dangerous than he had expected, Mansur had recourse to his usual method of duplicity. 

He addressed a letter to the Nafs-uz-Zakiya offering him absolute Aman (quarter), permission to live anywhere he liked, a large pension, and free grace for his relatives. To this Mohammed replied, that it was for him to offer pardon and grace, as the Caliphate by right belonged to him, and concluded by asking if the Aman that was offered by Mansur was of the same character as had been given to Abu Muslim, to Abdullah bin Ali, and to Yezid bin Hobaira. Cut to the quick by this rejoinder, Mansur answered Nafs-uz-Zakiya in a long recriminatory letter, in which he laid down the principles on which the Abbasside dynasty eventually came to be founded. He ignored the oath he had taken, but insisted that as the Prophet had died without leaving any male issue, his daughter's children were not entitled to his inheritance, which devolved on the descendants of his paternal uncle Abbas. Mansur hurried Isa, his nephew, with a large army to crush the Nafs-uz-Zakiya. Before the battle, Mohammed told his followers that they were free to leave, or abide with him; on this the bulk of his supporters, who were anxious about their families, departed for their homes, and he was left with 300 men to make head against the host of Mansur. A heroic fight closed with death; his followers were killed to a man, and their bodies gibbeted as usual. A lady of the House obtained Isa's permission to give them a burial, and they were interred in the Martyrs' Cemetery, near Medina. 

Ibrahim's hands were forced by the premature rising of his brother; nevertheless he was able to collect a large force, with which he several times routed Mansur's troops, until the Abbasside's position became so perilous that he resolved to fly from Kufa. In his extremity he despatched Isa against Ibrahim. In a battle on the bank of the Euphrates the Abbasside troops were driven back with great slaughter; but again the scrupulous humanity of the Alides led to the loss of their cause. Seeing the enemy flying, Ibrahim stopped pursuit; as soon as the Abbassides saw this, they turned, and many of their men who had thrown themselves down feigning to be wounded, jumped up. In the fight that followed, Ibrahim was struck by an arrow and killed, and his followers dispersed. 

Mansur now vented his rage on Medina and Bussorah. Many notables in Bussorah who had joined Ibrahim were caught and executed. Their houses were rased to the ground; their date-groves cut down. In Medina, the properties of the Banu Hassan and Banu Hussain were confiscated, all the privileges Medina had enjoyed were withdrawn, and the supplies it received from Egypt were stopped. He even threatened with death the venerable Imam Jaafar as-Sadik for asking for a release of his properties. He threw into prison Imam Abu Hanifa, and had Imam Malik cruelly flogged. Of the prisoners in the castle of Hobaira some were summarily put to death, others were allowed to die poisoned by the miasmatic exhalations of the prison-house. On receiving the head of Ibrahim, Mansur sent it to the victim's father, to add to the poignancy of his grief. Abdullah's message in reply is memorable. "Tell thy master", he said to the messenger, "that the days of our adversity, like the days of his prosperity, are fast running their course, and we shall soon come before the Eternal Judge, who will judge between him and us." The narrator adds, he never saw a man so crushed as Mansur after this message was delivered to him. 

Mansur's authority was now acknowledged over Western Asia and Africa, and although Spain was not subject to his temporal sway, the Khutba was read in his name even in that country, as he was the possessor and custodian of the Holy Cities. 

In 146 A. H. he sent Jaafar, his son, as governor of Mosul, with Harb bin Abdullah, a great warrior, as his deputy. Harb had a beautiful castle in the neighbourhood of this city, where Jaafar took up his abode, and here his daughter Zubaida was born. 

About this time an attempt was made by the governor of Ifrikia to conquer Spain. The invading force was defeated by Abdur Rahman the Ommeyade, and the head of the Abbasside commander was sent by a secret messenger and thrown in front of Mansur as he was holding his court at Mecca. None knew who brought it. Mansur was so struck with the audacity that he thanked the Lord who had placed a wide sea between him and the "falcon of the Koraish," as he called 

Abdur Rahman. 

An irruption of the Khazars into Georgia was repelled, and measures were taken to prevent further incursions on the part of the nomades. As the Kurds were beginning to give trouble, Mansur appointed Khalid bin Barmek, his chancellor of the exchequer, governor of Mesopotamia. Khalid, by a mixture of firmness and justice, soon brought the province into order, and effectually curbed the unruly Kurds. 

Mansur now thought of forcing his nephew Isa to resign the succession to the Caliphate. Coercive measures were employed with that object, and Isa was compelled to postpone his claim, whereupon Mansur nominated his son Mohammed with the title of al- Mahdi as his successor, and this nomination was accepted by the people, and the oath of fealty duly taken. 

In 148 A.H. the apostolical Imam Jaafar as-Sadik died at Medina, but the school of learning he had founded did not fortunately close with his life. It continued to flourish under his son and successor, Musa, surnamed al-Kazim. A further split now occurred among the Shiahs, or adherents of the House of Ali. The Imam Jaafar had nominated as his successor his eldest son Ismail, who predeceased him. He then appointed Musa. Some of his followers, however, refused their adhesion to Musa, and accepted instead Habib, the son of Ismail, as their Imam. This was the beginning of the Ismailian sect, which afterwards founded the Fatimide dynasty in Egypt. 

In the following year a violent insurrection broke out in Khorasan, under one of the principal notables of the province named Ustad Sis. The disturbance was quelled; Ustad Sis and his family were brought as prisoners to Bagdad, where they were well treated. 

Africa was a source of incessant trouble to Mansur. Aghlab, a member of the tribe of Temim, who was appointed in 148 a.h., ruled successfully for nearly two years, but he fell in an action with the Khariji insurgents near Tunis. His successor Omar, son of Hafs, who proved himself a good and able governor, held the post for three years. The Kharijis rose again, and besieged Kairowan, which was reduced to dire straits. 

Omar was killed during the siege, and the capital of Ifrikia fell into the hands of the rebels. Mansur's rage was unbounded, and he hurried off another army under a new governor, named Yezid Muhallibi a man of indomitable energy and great administrative power. He defeated the Kharijis, killed their leader, hunted their flying bands from place to place, and within a few months restored peace and order in the distracted country. He held the government of Ifrikia for fifteen years, until his death in 170 A.H., when he was succeeded by his son Daud. In 155 A.H., Mansur built the city of Rafika, and surrounded Kufa and Bussorah with walls and trenches. He also ordered a census of the population. 

The Roman Emperor, in violation of his convention, invaded the Moslem territories, and suffered a terrible defeat. A fresh treaty followed upon his undertaking to pay tribute. In 156 a.h., Mansur made a new distribution of the provincial governorships, and actually appointed a member of the House of Hassan - as the governor of Medina. 

The energy with which he had worked to build up his empire had told upon his physical strength, and he now felt that he had not long to live. Sending for the Crown Prince, he gave him his last instructions for the government of the empire. Among the many counsels he gave his heir some are characteristic. "Never allow a thing which has to be done today, to remain over for tomorrow." "Keep the people and the army contented." "Never go beyond the bounds of moderation in inflicting punishment." "Never have your treasury empty." "Whatever you have to do, do it yourself." "Concentrate your energy on your work." "Associate with people from whom you can get good advice and counsel." "Do not neglect your friends and relatives." "Defend the frontiers religiously." "Nothing maketh a Caliph virtuous but piety, nor well disposeth a monarch but obedience, nor reformeth a people but justice; and the last of men to pardon is he who oppresseth him that is beneath him". "Do not proceed with any business until you have reflected upon it, for the meditation of a wise man is a mirror which showeth him his faults and his merits." "Seek the continuance of bounty by gratitude, and of power by pardon, and of obedience by conciliating affection, and of victory by humility and forgiveness of men." 

After a touching parting between father and son, the former left Bagdad for Mecca to end his days in the Holy Land, but died on the way at Bir Maimuna, some hours' journey from Mecca. A hundred graves were dug for him, and he was surreptitiously buried in one, so that people might not know where he was interred. 

Mansur reigned nearly twenty-two years. He was a thin, tall man, of fair complexion; exemplary in his conduct and life. Nothing unseemly or indecent was ever seen at his court. Ibn ul-Athir remarks: "He devoted the principal part of the forenoon to the issuing of orders, the appointment and removal of officers, to the consideration of measures for safeguarding the passes and frontiers, the protection of roads, the improvement of the condition of his subjects and their dwelling-places, in the examination of the receipts and disbursements, etc."; the afternoon he spent with his family and children, to whom he was devoted. After evening prayers, he listened to the dispatches of the day, and took counsel with his ministers, retiring to rest when one-third of the night was well spent. He slept little, and rose early for the morning prayers. He personally reviewed his troops and inspected the fortresses; the army was fitted throughout with improved weapons and armour. He was most careful in the scrutiny of the accounts of his intendants, "even to fractions of dirhems and grains, which obtained for him the designation of Abu'd-Dawanik or ad-Dawaniki." 

This despotic monarch, so tenacious of his rights, set an example to his subjects of strict obedience to the constituted courts of justice. Summoned by the Kazi of Medina, at the instance of some camel-owners, he attended in person accompanied only by his chamberlain, and stood as an ordinary litigant before the judge, who did not even rise from his seat to receive his sovereign. The suit was decided in favour of the plaintiffs; and Mansur acknowledged the independence and integrity of the judge by presenting him on a fitting occasion with a large purse. He left a well-filled treasury, the contents of which, as he told his son, were sufficient for ten years expenditure.