A Short History of Saracens:Chapter XXVIII

CHAPTER XXVIII

Accession of Hisham II. — Hajib al-Mansur — His intrigues— Seizes all the powers of the State — His victories over the Christian tribes — His death — Is succeeded by his son, al-Muzzaffar — His successful government — Al-Muzzaffar's death — Hajib Abdur Rahman — Mahdi seizes the throne — Abdication of Hisham II. — Sulaiman kills Mahdi— Convulsion in Cordova

Hakam left him surviving a son named Hisham, barely eleven years of age. He had tried in his lifetime by every means in his power to assure the young lad's peaceable succession to the throne. A few months before his death he held a convocation of the magnates and nobles; and all took the oath of fealty to Hisham, and subscribed the document by which Hakam devised the Caliphate to the son of his old age whom he so tenderly loved. On his death-bed he confided the care of the child to the Hajib Mashafi and to the secretary of state, Mohammed bin Abi Aamir. He trusted that under the guardianship of his mother, the Empress Subh, a woman of great ability, and with the help of these favoured servants, his son would rule peaceably and successfully, Hisham was accordingly proclaimed Caliph under the title of al-Muwaiyyid b’Illah.

But the deceased Caliph had miscalculated the fidelity or ambition of Mohammed bin Abi Aamir. Before long he overthrew Hajib Mashafi and the other nobles who were opposed to his ascendency. He put to death many leading walis and magnates, "and when the kingdom was denuded of its leading men," he seized all power and authority, and kept the young Caliph almost confined in his palace. The state officials were not allowed to come near him except on festive occasions, when they made their obeisance and departed. After seizing on the vizierate Ibn Abi Aamir assumed the title of the Hajib al-Mansur, and built a magnificent palace for himself which was named the Zahira. "His name was borne on the coins, and all orders and edicts were issued under his seal, and prayers were offered for him along with the Caliph from the pulpits." After ridding himself of the rivals who inspired alarm or jealousy, he turned his attention to the army, which he re-organised by removing the Arab element and introducing in its place large bodies of Berbers, on whose devotion he could rely. "In fact, he relegated the Arabs to a secondary position." 

According to Ibn Khaldun he undertook fifty-two campaigns, in which he was invariably successful. "Never was a detachment of his army cut up, or his standard lowered." The Galicians and Basques had, immediately on the death of Hakam, risen against the Saracens and resumed their raids. By a series of brilliant operations, al-Mansur reduced Leon and Navarre to the condition of tributary provinces, and garrisoned the capitals of those principalities with his troops. He then turned his arms against Catalonia; sacked Barcelona, and drove out the French counts. The boundaries of the empire were thus again extended beyond the Pyrenees. In Mauritania, his arms were equally successful, and a large part of Western Africa was reduced to subjection by his generals. In the year 991 a.c. he conceived the design of making the office of Hajib hereditary in his family. He would have, if he could, removed the son of his patron from the throne, and made himself sovereign de jure as he was de facto, but he was afraid of the nation, among whom the idea of legitimacy was ingrained. The nobles, perhaps, would have considered a change of dynasty useful; but the people, chiefly of Spanish origin, thought otherwise. "Like the religious sentiment, the love of dynasty was a part of their being; and although Mansur had given the country unprecedented glory and prosperity, they hated him for keeping their sovereign in a condition of pupilage." Aware of this feeling, but hopeful that it might change in time, he contented himself with declaring his son Abdul Malik his successor to the vizierate, under the nominal orders of the Caliph. In 996 a.c, he assumed the titles of Syed (lord) and Malik Karim (generous king).

This remarkable man died in 1002 a.c, and was buried at Medina Salim (Medinaceli). None of the rulers of Andalusia was so dreaded by the Christians of the north as the Hajib al-Mansur. His military ability and wonderful talent for organisation had made him the idol of the soldiery. His solicitude for their well-being and discipline was constant and unceasing; and with the splendid army he had created and trained, he had given to Spain a power "which it had not enjoyed," says Dozy, "even in the times of Abdur Rahman III." But this is not his sole claim to the gratitude of his people. Although he was forced by political considerations to show himself intolerant to free-thinkers and philosophers, he did not hesitate to protect them when he could do so without wounding the susceptibilities of the legists.During the whole period of his rule, with the glory of arms was combined a taste for letters and arts and the love of industry and agriculture. "Never was Mussulman Spain," says Reinaud, "more prosperous than under his domination." He fostered learning, and patronised learned men with generous munificence. Although the means he had employed to attain to power must be strongly condemned, it cannot be denied that once he got it he exercised it nobly. In character he was generous, just, and loyal to his word. His sagacity and love of justice passed in fact into a proverb.

Hajib Mansur was succeeded in the Hajibate by his son Abdul Malik, surnamed al-Muzzaffar (the Victorious). He followed in the footsteps of his father in the management of the state. He won several victories over the Christian tribes, and under his successful rule the country advanced still further in prosperity. "They were days of festivity," says an old writer. And yet the Bani-Aamir were not loved. Had they remained content with ruling in the name of the sovereign, their mayoralty in all probability would have lasted some time, but their vaulting ambition over-stepped all bounds. They aimed not only at the reality of power under the shadow of the throne, but at the throne itself.

They thus made the princes of the blood and the whole Ommeyade clan their bitter enemies, and completely alienated the fakihis and the people. At the same time, the change which had taken place in the peninsula since the accession of Nasir favoured a revolution. The old Arab society, "with its virtues and its faults," had disappeared. The unification of the nations which had been the aim of an-Nasir and of the great Hajib, had been attained at the expense of the ancient aristocracy, which, ruined and impoverished, were fast disappearing, and gradually the old historic names faded away from the memories of men. The court-nobility, allied to the Ommeyade by ties of clientage, had no doubt withstood the shock, and hitherto maintained intact their wealth and influence. But the most powerful men at this epoch were the Berber and Slav generals who had made their fortunes under the Hajib al-Mansur. Material development had brought into prominence another social factor, viz. an opulent middle-class; and the merchants, traders, and the industrial classes generally began now to play an important part in the economy of the country. But this very fact gave birth to new difficulties, for with the increase of wealth and the rise of a new order commenced the struggle of classes. One can see mirrored in the history of those times all the troubles which beset the statesman of the present day — the mutual aversion of the military and the civilian, the hatred of the proletariat against employers, the envy of the commonalty towards the upper ranks of society. In the capital the social conditions were such that the smallest disturbance was sure to result in a fearful conflict between the rich and the poor. "Cordova had become" says Dozy "a vast manufactory filled with thousands of workmen, ready at the slightest notice to take part in any riot or revolt which promised a harvest of loot. But the opulent classes forgot the danger in their detestation of the Banu-Aamir."

The death of Muzaffar in the flower of his age brought about the catastrophe which was feared by some and hoped for by all. The Banu-Aamir fell, but, like blind Samson, they brought down with them the whole fabric of the empire.

He was succeeded by his brother Abdur Rahman, nicknamed Sanchol for his mother was daughter of Sancho, the king of Naverre. He was hated by the people for his flagrant immorality, and yet he was ambitious of making himself the Caliph. He forced Hisham II. to declare him heir-presumptive to the pontifical throne. His audacity brought the discontent of the Cordovans to a head. Sanchol had hardly left the capital on an expedition to the north than a revolt, headed by a member of the royal family named Mohammed, broke out in Cordova. The palace of the Bani-Aamir (az-Zahira) was plundered and reduced to ashes. Hisham signed his own abdication in favour of Mohammed, who assumed the title of Mahdi. Immediately upon his accession he proclaimed the attainder of Sanchol. The enthusiasm of the capital communicated itself to the provinces, and in a short time a large army gathered round the Mahdi's standard, oflicered, as in the French Revolution, by members of the middle-class, or "men of the people," doctors, butchers, saddlers, etc. Mahdi had, however, raised in the popular excitement a Frankenstein which he could not lay, and which practically caused the destruction of the Ommeyades in Spain. Sanchol, deserted by his followers, was taken prisoner and put to death.

But the new Caliph did not reign long; he soon alienated all parties by his conduct. The ferocious Berbers fell off, and put forward another candidate to the throne. He, too, was an Ommeyade, and bore the name of Sulaiman. Cordova now became the theatre of frightful riots, in which the worst excesses were practised on both sides. Baited by the wild troops, Mahdi brought out Hisham II. and again placed him in the pontifical chair. Sulaiman thereupon invoked the assistance of the Christians of Castile and Leon, whilst Mahdi applied for help to the Catalonians. Thus, in the course of a few months, from the death of Muzzaffar, the Saracens, instead of dictating the law to the Galicians and other tribesmen, were supplicating their aid, which was granted only on the retrocession of all the conquests made by an-Nasir and the great Hajib. Two hundred fortresses and cities were thus abandoned to the Christians. Cordova was alternately captured and recaptured by the allies of Sulaiman and Mahdi, and treated as a city taken by storm. The beautiful az-Zahra of Abdur Rahman III. was sacked and partially destroyed. Mahdi was at last killed; Sulaiman then seized the person of the helpless Hisham, who was either put to death or allowed to escape to Mecca. The usurper, who assumed the title of Mustain b'Illah, did not, however, long enjoy the fruits of his ill-gotten victory. Another revolt led to his fall and death. A member of the Idriside family, Ali bin Hamud, then seated himself on the throne. Upon his assassination, shortly after, his brother Kasim was raised to the supreme power. Kasim's administration was mild and just. But he was before long deserted by the Berbers. A struggle with his nephew ended in his expulsion from Cordova. The Cordovans then raised an Ommeyade to the throne, which, however, he did not occupy long. Two other Ommeyades followed in rapid succession. With the last of these unfortunate sovereigns, merely in name, the Ommeyade dynasty came to an end in Spain. The Cordovans submitted for a while to Yahya, the son of Ali bin Hamud. Upon his assassination in 1035 a.c. they established a republic in their city, which continued in existence until its reduction forty years later by the King of Seville.