Al-Mahdi
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Manṣūr, better known by his regnal name al-Mahdī, was the third Abbasid Caliph who reigned from 775 to his death in 785. He succeeded his father, al-Mansur.
Early life
Al-Mahdi was born in 744 or 745 AD in the village of Humeima. His mother was called Arwa, and his father was al-Mansur. When al-Mahdi was ten years old, his father became the second Abbasid Caliph. When al-Mahdi was young, his father needed to establish al-Mahdi as a powerful figure in his own right. So, on the east bank of the Tigris, al-Mansur oversaw the construction of East Baghdad, with a mosque and royal palace at its heart. Construction in the area was also heavily financed by the Barmakids, and the area became known as Rusafa.When he was 15 years old, al-Mahdi was sent to defeat the uprising of Abdur Rahman bin Abdul Jabbar Azdi in Khorasan. He also defeated the uprisings of Ispahbud, the governor of Tabaristan, and Astazsis, massacring more than 70,000 of his followers in Khorasan. These campaigns put Tabaristan, which was only nominally within the caliphate, firmly under Abbasid control. In 762 AD, al-Mahdi was the governor of the Abbasid Caliphate's eastern region, based in Ray. It was here that he fell in love with al-Khayzuran, a daughter of a warlord in Herat and had several children, including the fourth and fifth future Caliphs, al-Hadi and Harun al-Rashid. Around 770 AD, al-Mahdi was appointed as Amir al-hajj. Al-Khayzuran was gifted to Mahdi by his father.
Reign
Al-Mahdi's father, al-Mansur, died on the hajj to Mecca in 775. The throne then passed to al-Mansur's chosen successor, his son al-Mahdi. According to Marozzi, " was, by the standards of the future, blood-soaked successions of the Abbasid caliphate, a model of order and decorum."Al-Mahdi, whose nickname means "Rightly-guided" or "Redeemer", was proclaimed caliph when his father was on his deathbed. His peaceful reign continued the policies of his predecessors.
Mahdi commenced his rule by releasing several political prisoners, expanding and decorating the holy places of Mecca and Medina, and building fountains and lofts for Hajj pilgrims. He expanded the mail service, increased his secret service, fortified cities, and increased judicial appointments. His charitable giving was also impressive.
Rapprochement with the Alids in the Caliphate occurred under al-Mahdi's reign. The Barmakid family, which had advised the Caliphs since the days of Abu al-Abbas as viziers, gained even greater powers under al-Mahdi's rule, and worked closely with the caliph to ensure the prosperity of the Abbasid state.
File:Abbasid al-Mahdi dirham Kirman 166AH.jpg|thumb|left|Dirham of al-Mahdi, 166 AH, Kirman, silver 2.95 g.
Al-Mahdi reigned for ten years. He imprisoned his most trusted vizier Ya'qub ibn Dawud. In the year 167 AH/ 783 AD, al-Mahdi instituted an official inquisition which led to the execution of alleged Zindiq. He was fond of music and poetry and during his caliphate many musicians and poets received his patronage and he supported musical expression and poetry across his dominion; accordingly, his son Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi and his daughter Ulayya bint al-Mahdi were both noted poets and musicians.
In 775, a Byzantine envoy, Tarath, travelled to Baghdad to convey the congratulations of the Byzantine emperor to al-Mahdi on his accession to the throne. Tarath was so pleased with the hospitality he received that he offered to put his engineering knowledge to use and build a mill that would generate annual profits, of 500,000 dirhams, equal to the cost of its construction. On completion, the envoy's forecast proved to be correct, and so, delighted, al-Mahdi ordered that all profits should be given to the envoy, even after he left Baghdad. It is believed this continued to his death, in 780.
In 775, al-Fadl ibn Salih was appointed governor of the region of al-Jazira north of Damascus by the caliph al-Mahdi. He moved to al-Jazira the same year. Al-Fadl returned to Damascus following his trip to Jerusalem in 780 where he accompanied al-Mahdi as part of his entourage.
While the first Abbasid caliphs were distracted with cementing their authority, the Byzantines were occupied fighting Slavic clans in Macedonia and Thrace and battling the Bulgars. Once Mahdi felt secure in his rule, he fought the Byzantines with more force than his predecessors. He increased his line of control from Syria to the Armenian frontier and claimed the strategic town of Tarsus, that linked Anatolia, Syria, and northern Iraq.
In 777 AD he put down the insurrection of Yusuf ibn Ibrahim in Khurasan. In the same year al-Mahdi deposed Isa ibn Musa as his successor and appointed his own son Musa al-Hadi in his place and took allegiance for him from the nobles.
Al-Mahdi released many Umayyads and 'Alids from prison and returned their wealth and property. His son Harun would also pursue similar policies, releasing many of the Umayyads and Alids his brother Al-Hadi had imprisoned and declaring amnesty for all political groups of the Quraysh.
Mahdi also embarked on two important military voyages, one in 779 and another in 781 with his son Harun.
Al-Mahdi was poisoned by one of his concubines in 785 AD. The concubine's name was Hasanah and she was jealous of another female slave to whom Mahdi was drawing closer. She prepared a dish of sweets and placed a poisonous pear at the top of the plate. The pit of the pear was removed and replaced with a lethal paste. She sent the dish to her adversary via a servant, however, Mahdi intercepted the plate and ate the pear without hesitation. Shortly afterward, he complained of stomach pain and died that night at 43 years old.
A separate account said al-Mahdi fell off his horse while hunting and died.
Family
Al-Mahdi's first concubine when he was a prince was Muhayyat. In 759–60, she gave birth to a son who died in infancy. Another concubine was Rahim, who was the mother of his oldest surviving child, Abbasa. Another was al-Khayzuran bint Atta. She was the mother of caliphs al-Hadi and Harun al-Rashid. She had another son named Isa, and a daughter named Banuqah or Banujah. She was born in Mecca and brought up in Jurash. She had two sisters, Salsal and Asma, and a brother Ghitrif. She was al-Mahdi's favourite wife. In 761, al-Mahdi married Raytah as his first wife after his return from Khurasan. She was the daughter of Caliph al-Saffah and his wife Umm Salamah, a Makhzumite. She gave birth to two sons, Ubaydallah and Ali.Another concubine was al-Bahtariyah, the noble-born daughter of the Persian rebel, Masmughan of Damavand, against whom Mahdi was first sent to Khurasan. Her mother was Bakand, the daughter of Isbahbadh, Farrukhan the Little. She had a sister named Smyr. She bore al-Mahdi a son named for his grandfather, Mansur, and two daughters, Sulaimah and Aliyah. Another was Shaklah, a Negress. Her father was Khwanadan, steward of Masmughan. She had a brother named Humayd. She was acquired by al-Mahdi together with al-Bahtariyah, when she was a child. He presented her to his concubine Muhayyat, who, discovering musical talent in the child, sent her to the famous school of Taif in the Hijaz for a thorough musical education. Years later al-Mahdi, then caliph, took her as his concubine. She gave birth to al-Mahdi's powerful and dark-skinned son Ibrahim.
Another concubine was Maknunah, a singer. She was owned by al-Marwaniyyah. Al-Mahdi, while yet a prince, bought her for 100,000 silver dirhams. She found such favor with the prince that al-Khayzuran used to say, "No other woman of his made my position so difficult." She gave birth to al-Mahdi's daughter Ulayya. Another was Basbas, a singer trained at Medina. He had bought her about the same period for 17,000 gold dinars. Another was Hasanah, a Persian. She was a singer, and was al-Mahdi's favourite concubine. She gave al-Khayzuran some uneasy moments. According to some versions, she was unintentionally but tragically involved in al-Mahdi's death. Some other concubines were Hullah, another singer, and Malkah.
Al-Mahdi's second wife was Asma, al-Khayzuran's younger sister. She grew up at the court. In 775–776, al-Mahdi formed a sudden attachment for her. He then married her, settling on her a marriage portion of one million dirhams. Al-Khayzuran, who had been on the pilgrimage, learned of the marriage. After her return, al-Mahdi divorced Asma, and married al-Khayzuran as his third wife. That same year, he married his fourth wife Umm Abdallah, a noble Arab woman. The next year he married his fifth wife Ruqaiyah, an Uthmanid. After al-Mahdi's death, she married an Alid.
Wars with Byzantium
In 778, the Byzantines, under Michael Lachanodrakon, seized the town of Germanikeia, where they captured significant amounts of booty and took many Syrian Christians captive, and defeated an army sent against them by the Abbasid general Thumama ibn al-Walid. In the next year, the Byzantines took and razed the fortress city of Hadath, forcing Caliph al-Mahdi to replace the rather passive Thumama with the veteran al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba. Hasan led over 30,000 troops in an invasion of Byzantine territory, but the Byzantines offered no opposition and withdrew to well-fortified towns and refuges, until a lack of supplies forced Hasan to return home without achieving much.In response to these Byzantine successes, Caliph al-Mahdi now resolved to take the field in person. On 12 March 780, Mahdi departed Baghdad and via Aleppo marched to Hadath, which he refortified. He then advanced to Arabissus, where he left the army and returned to Baghdad. His son and heir Harun—better known by his laqab, or regnal name, al-Rashid—was left in charge of one half of the army, which raided the Armeniac Theme and took the small fort of Semaluos. Thumama, who had been entrusted with the other half, penetrated deeper into Asia Minor. He marched west as far as the Thracesian Theme, but was heavily defeated there by Lachanodrakon. In June 781, as the Arab invasion force assembled at Hadath under Abd al-Kabir, a great-great-nephew of the Caliph Umar, and again prepared to launch their annual raid, Empress Irene called up the thematic armies of Asia Minor and placed them under the eunuch sakellarios John. The Muslims crossed into Byzantine Cappadocia over the Pass of Hadath, and were met near Caesarea by the combined Byzantine forces under Lachanodrakon. The ensuing battle resulted in a costly Arab defeat, forcing Abd al-Kabir to abandon his campaign and retreat to Syria.
This defeat infuriated the Caliph al-Mahdi, who prepared a new expedition. Intended as a show of force and a clear display of the Caliphate's superiority, it was the largest army sent against Byzantium in the second half of the 8th century: it allegedly comprised 95,793 men, about twice the total Byzantine military establishment present in Asia Minor, and cost the Abbasid state some 1.6 million nomismata, almost as much as the Byzantine Empire's entire annual income. His son, Harun was the nominal leader, but the Caliph took care to send experienced officers to accompany him.