History has never been ideal or utopian, and this is the first thing that applies to Islamic history. History is a modified version of the reality we live in with different people and different events. While every time has its own character, man is one in terms of internal impulses and emotions, especially the emotions of love of power and ownership, and men do not differ in this from women. Managing the affairs of governance and politics, and controlling the necks of men and their destinies.
And if the first Abbasid era, which began with Abu al-Abbas the butcher and passed through Abu Jaafar al-Mansur and his sons and grandsons such as Al-Hadi, Al-Rashid, Al-Amin, Al-Mamun, Al-Mu’tasim, Al-Wathiq and Al-Mutawakkil over a period of more than one hundred years, was known as the era of power and victories, the development of science and knowledge and the unification of the state after the last Umayyad collapse period, then it played Some of the women of the palaces played influential roles in this golden period of the Abbasid era (132-247 AH), and they come to the head from these Yemeni “Khizan bint Ataa”, the wife of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mahdi bin Abi Jaafar Al-Mansur (d. 169 AH), the mother of the two caliphs Musa Al-Hadi (d. 170 AH) and Harun Al-Rasheed (died 193 AH).
For decades, al-Khayzaran had been interfering in politics and the corridors of palaces during the era of her husband, the Mahdi and her sons, until the famous clash occurred between her and her son Musa al-Hadi, who was tired of her interference in political affairs, and even in separating people and fulfilling needs, until his image became before the public and private the image of the Caliph. The weak who has no control over anything, so who is the Yemeni bamboo? And how did you become the wife of the Caliph Al-Mahdi bin Abi Jaafar Al-Mansur? Then how did her political influence become so great that people stood in queues in front of her palace to fulfill their needs?
A maid dominate the necks
No woman gave birth to two Abbasid caliphs except Al-Khayzaran Bint Ataa Al-Jarashiah Al-Yamaniya, and she was originally a female slave who was presented to the Caliph Al-Mahdi Muhammad bin Abi Jaafar Al-Mansur (158-169 AH), and he said to her: “By God, maidservant, you are very wishful, but you are five-legged (meaning weak). legs). She said: O Mawlana, you need them more than you see them. He said: Buy them.[1].
From this privilege, the status of bamboo rose to her husband, the Caliph al-Mahdi, and with the passage of time she had a growing political role, until she had commands and prohibitions, and delegations would sometimes come to her palace before she went to the Caliph himself. Simplicity (controlling) in the state of the Mahdi orders and forbids, intercedes, concludes, and overthrows, and the processions go and go to its door.”[2].
Indeed, al-Khayzaran was finally able to convince the Mahdi to assign Harun al-Rashid the mandate of the covenant instead of his older brother Musa al-Hadi; Because of her love for Aaron, and his complete obedience to her, but the death of the Mahdi prevented the realization of this desire, and the Crown Prince at the time was in the Gorgan region in northern Iran fighting some rebels against the state.
However, a crisis almost erupted after the death of the Mahdi due to the revolt of the soldiers who sought to exploit the political vacuum in Baghdad, a crisis which al-Khayzaran managed brilliantly. The caliphate and its minister after it” and others; To gather together to discuss this crisis and reach a solution to it, then Minister Al-Rabee came to it. However, Yahya bin Khalid refused to enter her palace for fear of the jealousy of her son, the new caliph, Musa al-Hadi, “and the bamboo collected the money until it was given to the soldiers for two years, so they remained silent,” as al-Tabari says in his history, meaning that she calmed the soldiers’ rebellion by giving them the salary of the next two years.[3].
bloody struggle
And while al-Khayzaran played a pivotal role in passing the transfer of power to her eldest son, Musa al-Hadi, her act was the beginning of a muffled conflict between her and her son, who was enraged and jealous over his mother’s meeting with senior statesmen and interference in its political affairs. But despite that, Al-Hadi was righteous with his mother, very obedient to her, and remained in his obedience to her until four months passed after his succession, so people’s greed increased for the intercession of bamboo and the influence of her word in the Abbasid state, until the historian Al-Masoudi said in his book “Morouj Al Dahab”[4]: “The processions did not leave their door, so the poet says: O bamboo, there and then there ** Indeed, the servants are controlled by your sons.”
Little by little, the influence of bamboo moved from fulfilling the needs of the common people to fulfilling the needs of senior statesmen, leaders, ministers, employees and others, such as the police chief Abdullah bin Malik, who wanted her to intercede with the Caliph to fulfill a need. The tension between the Caliph and the influential lady Al-Khayzaran in palaces and offices, Al-Masudi says in “Morouj Al-Dhahab”: “She (i.e. Al-Bamboo) said: I must answer. Al-Hadi got angry, and said: Woe to Ibn Al-Fa’ila, I knew he was her owner, and by God, I did not decree it for you. She said: So, by God, I will never ask you anything. He said: So, by God, I do not care.[5].
But Al-Hadi stopped her and increased his violence against her, saying: “Your place, so understand my words, by God, or else I will be banished from my relationship with the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace. What are these processions that come to your door every day?Do you have a spindle that keeps you busy, or a Qur’an that reminds you, or a house that protects you? He has a sweet and no bitter after that.”[6].
Al-Hadi did not stop at this point, but gathered his entourage, his leaders and the senior men of his state who were accustomed to the mediation of the lady Al-Bamboo and her fulfilling their needs. They said: Rather, you, Commander of the Faithful, he said: Which is better, my mother or your mothers? They said: Rather, your mother, Commander of the Faithful, he said: Which of you would like men to talk about his mother’s news, so they say: So and so did the mother of so-and-so did, and the mother of so-and-so did, and she said the mother of so-and-so? They said: None of us likes that. He said: So what about the men who come to my mother and talk about her hadeeths? When they heard that, they cut off from her at all, so it made it difficult for her, so she retired from him, and swore not to speak to him, so she did not enter into him until death approached him.[7].
Some historians have discussed that al-Hadi’s wrath was met by al-Khayzran with even greater anger, and the hatred that blinded her heart until she plotted tricks to get rid of him. And it was said that she poisoned him because he wanted to depose his brother Harun al-Rashid from the mandate of the covenant and place it in his young son Jaafar, and even wanted to kill Harun, as al-Dhahabi says in the biography of the nobles.
The relationship between the mother and her son, then, has reached a turning point, as each of them has worked to get rid of the other since that time, so al-Tabari says: “Moses sent his mother bamboo with rice (a kind of food), and he said: I used it and ate from it, so eat from it. Al-Bamboo: I said to her: Hold on until you see, for I am afraid that there may be something in it that you hate. So they brought a dog and he ate from it, and its flesh fell off. Then he sent to her after that: How did you see the rice? From you, when did his successor succeed or?!”[8].
For this reason or for someone else, Al-Hadi became ill, and the agony of death descended upon him while he was still a young man of twenty-five years of age, and because of the estrangement with his mother Al-Khizam, he sent to her while he was in the throes of death, saying: “I am doomed on this night, and in it my brother Aaron follows, and I have commanded you to do things.” And I forbade you from another, which was dictated by the king’s policy, not the requirements of the law from your piety, and I was not disobedient to you, but I was for you a protector, a keeper and a keeper, then he decided, holding her hand, placing her on his chest.[9].
Back to her first biography.. and its end
When al-Hadi died, al-Khayzaran summoned the army commander, Harthama bin Ayan, and told him to take the pledge of allegiance to her son, Harun al-Rashid. The first three years of Harun’s caliphate, which are the same as the last three years of al-Khayzaran’s life, al-Tabari says: “The bamboo was the one in charge of matters, and Yahya was [البرمكي] It is presented to her and her opinion is issued.”[10].
Senior statesmen, from the caliph directly through to the ministers and without them, became submissive to the order of bamboo, the lady of the Abbasid palace for two decades, and Harun al-Rashid admitted this fact to his minister, al-Fadl ibn al-Rabi` after her death, saying: Then my mother forbade me, so I obey her command.”[11].
In 173 AH / 718 AD, al-Khayzaran, the mother of the Abbasid caliphs and their great grandmother, and the first woman to intervene in the affairs of Abbasid politics without fear or relentlessness, died, and she did everything she could to maintain power and influence to the extent that some historians accuse her of being involved in the murder of her son, as we have seen, in order to Only the first lady, who rules behind the scenes, continues even in the early days of the greatest Abbasid caliph, Harun al-Rashid, who did not dare to disobey her order.
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Sources
[1] Ibn al-Jawzi: al-Muntazid 8/346.
[2] Ibn al-Taqtqa: The Honorary in the Royal Arts, p. 189.
[3] Al-Tabari History 8/188.
[4] Al-Masudi: Morouj Al-Dhahab 3/327.
[5] Gold promoter 3/328.
[6] Previous.
[7] Tabari date 8/207.
[8] Al-Tabari 8/206.
[9] The history of al-Tabari 3/333.
[10] Previous 8/234.
[11] Al-Tabari 8/238.