CHAPTER V

THE ABBASIDS

THE battle of the great Zâb was the Persians' revenge on the Arabs a very incomplete revenge, for it did not come till a whole century had rolled by, and by that time Persia bore indelible marks of the Arab domination, both in religion and in language. The religious code of the Sâsânian dynasty, the Avesta, a revival of the old worship of Ahura-Mazda, had disappeared, and was only preserved round the very few fire-altars the victors' tolerance still permitted to exist. The Persian language was nothing but a spoken tongue; all the literary character had departed from it. All Persians now wrote in Arabic, and so strong was the impression made by the Semitic tongue that it has maintained itself to this day. But Persia possessed another and an intangible force, the Aryan genius, the powerful, imaginative, and creative mind of the great Indo-European family, the artistic, philosophic, and intellectual brain which, from this period onward, so mightily affects Arab literature, enabling it to develop in every quarter of the Caliphs' realms, and to produce that enormous aggregate of works, of which many, no doubt, were lost in the destruction attending the Mongol conquest. But the chief specimens have been preserved, and their effect on the Europe of the Middle Ages has been far greater than many have imagined.

When the 'Abbâsids founded the city of Bagdad, on the right bank of the Tigris, they seem to have sought for a site which would be a compromise between the Arab creators of the Caliphs' Empire and the Persian authors of the revolution which had placed the sons of 'Abbâs on the throne. To the right of the Tigris lies Mesopotamia, a Semitic country from times immemorial, and overrun, since the fall of the ancient empires, by the nomad Arabs. To the left, Iranian territory begins at once. The very name of the city is Persian, and signifies given by God. The Bagdad of the Caliphs now lies in ruins-only a very small number of the buildings remain; modern Bagdâd, which stands, as my readers are aware, on the left bank of the Tigris, being still inhabited by many Persians.

From the very outset of the eighth century, Persian influence was so strong in political matters that Manşûr did not hesitate to rid himself, by the assassin's hand, of Abû Muslim, the leader who had overthrown the Omeyyad dynasty, just as Hârûn al-Rashîd, at a later date, rid himself of the Persian Barmakides, who had supplied him with two powerful ministers. In literature, this Persian influence is immense. It pervades everything-poetry, theology, jurisprudence: the Arabs had ceased to write; all posts, administrative, court, and legal, were held by men who were not Arabs, and the same applies to all the literature of the time. From this period onward, Arabic became the language, and the sole language, of the huge Empire of the Caliphs. But it was Arabic spoken and written by men who were Arabs by education, not by blood. All races, Persians, Syrians, Berbers from Maghrib, were melted and amalgamated in this mighty crucible. The most intel

lectual parts of this medley were finally to recover their identity; the Persian tongue, which was never to drop the cloak cast upon it by the Semite domination, was once more to become a literary language, and to have the glory of giving birth to other literatures, such as the Ottoman-Turkish and the Hindu; but in the west, Arabic was only to be driven out of Spain together with the Moors, and the Maghrib was to keep the language of its conquerors, now become its native idiom, for ever.

Poetry now began to alter. The lengthy qaşîdas of the desert, held up as models for students by the theorists, found no more original exponents. This form was doomed to servile imitation, and hence to platitude. But a new kind of poetry appeared on the banks of the Tigris, whither the imperial splendour was attracting the most brilliant talents.

A family from Palestine produced MUȚI IBN AYÂS. His father had been with Al-Hajjâj when that general went into the province of Mecca to reduce the pretender 'Abdallah ibn Zubair to submission, and also when he defeated another pretender, Ibn al-Ash'ath, who came out of the distant land of Arachosia and very nearly succeeded in overthrowing the Caliphate. Muti ibn Ayâs himself took service, first of all, with Caliph Walid ibn Yazîd, but after the fall of the Omeyyads he appealed to Jafar, son of Caliph Mansûr, who took him into his service, and kept him till he died, thereby greatly displeasing the Caliph, his father. His poems are marked by elegant expression and deep feeling. His description of the two palm-trees at Hulwân would in itself suffice to make him famous. Under an apparent indifference in religious matters, he seems to have concealed heretical leanings. He was

accused of not being really a true Moslem. He denied the imputation of being a Zindîq (Manichean), but he was caught in the act of reciting suspicious verses. Men fought shy of his company, for he was a debauchee. His verses were very loose. One day he told a woman she was just as fit as the Caliph Al-Mahdî to mount the preacher's pulpit, which caused the sovereign to laugh most heartily.

As a maker of jokes and court jester, we must glance at ABÛ DULÂMA Zand ibn al-Jaun, an Abyssinian negro, who had fought against the Omeyyads, and was permitted to entertain the Caliphs Manşûr and Mahdî. He was the favourite of Mansûr, to whom he certainly rendered good service by praising him, in a panegyric, for having put Abû Muslim to death. For the populace found it hard to understand why the ‘Abbâsids rewarded the great general who had set them on the throne in such ungrateful fashion. He mocked at the Caliph's order that his subjects should wear black, the 'Abbâsids' colour, and a witty sally earned him leave, alone of all the population, to disregard the edict. When Mûsâ ibn Dâ'ûd made his pilgrimage to Mecca, he promised the jester 10,000 drachmas if he would travel with him. Abû Dulâma pocketed the cash and disappeared into the villages, whither he went to drink wine. Mûsâ, fearing to miss the pilgrimage season, started on his journey, came across the toper, had him bound and thrown into a palanquin. But so impudent were the fellow's repartees that he was fain to get rid of him, and leave him to spend the rest of the money he had given him. Abû Dulâma died in 778. He suggested to a physician to whom he owed money for curing his son, that, to secure payment of the debt, he should

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bring a suit against a certain rich Jew, he himself offering to bear false witness to prove the claim. The judge well knew the real value of the demand, but such was his dread of the negro's wicked tongue that he preferred to pay the sum claimed out of his own pocket. Thus Abû Dulâma got his doctoring for nothing. One day, when he had alluded in verse to a supposed relationship between himself and the Caliph, Al-Mahdi, greatly enraged, inquired to whom he traced this kinship. "To Adam and Eve," replied the jester, and the Caliph laughed. was said of him that he would make the very devil laugh. Al-Mahdî once ordered him, on pain of death, to satirise every member of the numerous company present. Abû Dulâma's presence of mind saved him in this hour of peril. He attacked himself, called himself "monkey-face, with a turban upon it," "forerunner of the Last Judgment," with other amenities, which vastly amused the gathering. On another occasion, out hunting, the Caliph killed a gazelle with an arrow, whilst his companion, ‘Alî ibn Sulaimân, only hit one of the hounds, which died. Abû Dulâma summed up the "The Caliph kills a

incident in comical fashion. gazelle and 'Alî kills a dog! Bravo! Each shall feed on the provisions he has provided for himself." Whereupon Al-Mahdi laughed till he nearly fell out of his saddle.

BASHSHÂR IBN BURD (693-783) was of Persian, and possibly even of royal race, as he himself asserted. He was born in the neighbourhood of Bassora, whither his father had been carried into slavery; his grandfather had been made a prisoner of war in Tukhâristân, far away in Khurâsân. He was a skilful worker in clay, although he was born blind. Later in life he obtained