oi.uchicago.edu Two Queens of ^Baghdad oi.uchicago.edu Courtesy of Dr. Erich Schmidt TOMB OF ZUBAIDAH oi.uchicago.edu Two Queens of Baghdad MOTHER AND WIFE OF HARUN AL-RASH I D By NABIA ABBOTT ti Vita 0CCO' cniia latur THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO • ILLINOIS oi.uchicago.edu The University of Chicago Press • Chicago 37 Agent: Cambridge University Press • London Copyright 1946 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. Published 1946. Composed and printed by The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. oi.uchicago.edu Preface HE historical and legendary fame of Harun al- Rashld, the most renowned of the caliphs of Bagh­ dad and hero of many an Arabian Nights' tale, has ren­ dered him for centuries a potent attraction for his­ torians, biographers, and litterateurs. Early Moslem historians recognized a measure of political influence exerted on him by his mother Khaizuran and by his wife Zubaidah. His more recent biographers have tended either to exaggerate or to underestimate the role of these royal women, and all have treated them more or less summarily. It seemed, therefore, desirable to break fresh ground in an effort to uncover all the pertinent his­ torical materials on the two queens themselves, in order the better to understand and estimate the nature and the extent of their influence on Harun and on several others of the early cAbbasid caliphs. As the work progressed, first Khaizuran and then Zubaidah emerged from the privacy of the royal harem to the center of the stage of early cAbbasid history. Each queen revealed, in turn, a vivid and colorful personal­ ity, the first determined to rule the state, the second eager to dazzle court and society. Harun himself felt the full impact of both women. But Khaizuran's ruling pas­ sion had already left its mark on his father and brother, while Zubaidah's gentler influence was to continue into the reigns of his two sons. Hence, the full and dramatic V oi.uchicago.edu vi PREFACE stories of these queens shed light alike on the character and career of five successive cAbbasid caliphs. Students seeking to comprehend the various forces that helped to shape the course of the early cAbbasid Empire will find here, it is hoped, some answers to the many questions that seldom fail to confront them. No longer need they be content or baffled with the familiar phrase "harem intrigue" when the many recorded actions of these royal women speak louder and clearer than these over­ worked words ever did. The name of Harun al-Rashid is still a household word in the far-flung Moslem world of today. Zubaidah, too, has her niche in the hall of popular fame. But few are they who can recall even the name of the more ag­ gressive and politically more effective Khaizuran. This is, in part, the natural result of the traditional Moslem aversion to women in public life. Times, however, are changing. Progressive Moslems everywhere are ceasing to allow woman's so-called weakness or sanctity to deprive her of an effective role in the life and thought of their rapidly modernizing world. These progressives, as yet but comparatively few, have the promise of a sizable and ever growing following from among the steadily increas­ ing output of school and college halls. It is hoped that these men and women of vision and these boys and girls of promise will find in this story of the two queens some­ thing both to amuse and to instruct. Times are also changing in the Western world. Old imperialistic nations are adding to their political and economic interests in the Moslem world a growing awareness of its vital and distinctive culture. Two world oi.uchicago.edu PREFACE VLL wars and political Zionism have forced on the New World the discovery of the Arab lands—core of the Moslem world and the historic scene of our story. Dur­ ing World War II, Western archeologists uncovered fresh ruins of Harun's palace in his northern capital of Raqqah, now within the Syrian boundary. And, quite recently, Hollywood released its own glamorized version of the romantic Harun al-Rashld—a version in which neither Khaizuran nor Zubaidah had a part. Laymen seeking to go beyond bare ruins and fantastic moving- picture episodes to a fuller and truer knowledge of the historical and historic Harun have here, as first guides to their goal, the two women most influential in that monarch's imperial career—two queens who reveal, be­ sides, their own no less significant and romantic stories. There remains the ever pleasant duty of grateful ac­ knowledgment. Once again Professor Martin Sprengling has put me under deep obligation for his enthusiastic and critical reading of the present study. Director John A. Wilson of the Oriental Institute was generous with pertinent suggestions, which were as gratefully received as the subvention he graciously provided toward publi­ cation. For the photograph of the tomb of Zubaidah, I am happily indebted to Dr. Erich F. Schmidt, field di­ rector of the Oriental Institute Persepolis Expedition. My thanks are due also to the University of Chicago Press for broad vision and pleasant service in the course of publication. NABIA ABBOTT ORIENTAL INSTITUTE May 1946 oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu Contents INTRODUCTION i PART I. KHAIZURAN I. MISTRESS OF THE HAREM 21 II. POWER BEHIND THE THRONE 54 III. HUMILIATION 77 IV. TRIUMPH 113 PART II. ZUBAIDAH V. ROYALTY AND ROMANCE 137 VI. HEIRS TO HARUN'S EMPIRE 170 VII. WAR AND PEACE 204 VIII. IN THE HALL OF FAME 236 TABLE OF FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS OF CHIEF CHARACTERS facing 264 INDEX INDEX 267 ix oi.uchicago.edu ,25 30 40 45 50 55 60 BLACK SEA TABRIZ JURJAN 7us# \ Vv-SARAWS TARSUS © ALEPPO MAUSIL» (RAOOAH OHULWAN NIHAVANO JOAMASCUS O NAHRAWAN ?BAGHDAD FAM AL-SILH^— JERUSALEM ^WASIT BASRAH* FAID MEDINA* o RIYAD 30 35 40 59 THE EASTERN CABBASID EMPIRE oi.uchicago.edu Introduction I HE stories of Khaizuran and Zubaidah ran their Tpartly overlapping course in that period of Islamic history conceded by all to be the Golden Age of the cAb- basid Empire. Golden politically, economically, and cul­ turally, this period stretched from the middle of the eighth to about the middle of the ninth century of our era. It included the reigns of the first nine cAbbasid caliphs, six of whom were involved, directly or indirect­ ly, with either Khaizuran or Zubaidah or with both of these queens. The short reign of the first cAbbasid, Abu al-cAbbas al-Saffah, "The Shedder of Blood,, (A.H. 132-36/A.D. 750-54), accomplished the destruction of the Umayyads. It was left for his half-brother, Abu Jacfar al-Mansur, "The Victor" (136-58/754-75), to consolidate the dy­ nastic victory. Mansur is rightly accounted the greatest of the cAbbasid caliphs. He brought to his imperial task a great personal talent for sound organization and an un­ tiring industry for effective administration. His vigilant eye watched every avenue of state finance. He realized, better than any of his successors, that "money was not only the sinews of war but an insurance for peace." His farsighted thrift, however, earned for him the title of Abu al-Dawaniq, or "Father of Farthings."1 1 Tabarl, TiPrikh ("Annales"), ed. de Goeje (15 vols.; Lugduni Batavo- rum, 1879-1901), 111,404-5, 444; ThacalibI,Z,tf/<P/y al-Macarif,ed. P. de Jong 1 oi.uchicago.edu 2 TWO QUEENS OF BAGHDAD Not the least of his great boons to the dynasty he established was the new, safer, and more central capital —Baghdad, the Round City of Mansur. The original unit took several years to build and cost close to five mil­ lion dirhams.2 The ambitions that this caliph cherished for the city of his choice and creation are reflected in the names he bestowed on royal palace and capital—the Golden Palace in the heart of the City of Peace and the Palace Immortal without the city wall. Here, then, arose the Round City of Mansur, with its huge concen­ tric fortifications, to expand and prosper, to match fame and glory with imperial cities past and to come, and to live forever in memory and legend as the historic capital of the cAbbasids and the magic city of the Arabian Nights .3 Vast empire won and new capital established, Man­ sur next used his wealth for the "winning of hearts." This meant securing the prosperity of a strong, united, aggressive political party. It was, however, Mansur's favorite son, Mohammed al-Mahdl, "The Well-guided," who was to reap the ultimate benefits of his father's (Lugduni Batavorum, 1867), pp. 16, 81; cf. Theodor Noldeke, Sketches from Eastern History, trans. John Southerland (London, 1892), pp. 107-45. 3 Muqaddasi, Ahsan al-Taqasim ("Bibliothica geographorum Arabicorum [BGA]" Vol. Ill [Leiden, 1906]), p. 121; TabarT, III, 326; Ibn Tiqtiqa, Al- Fakhrty ed. Derenbourg (Paris, 1895), P- 22°« 3 For the topography, building, and growth of Baghdad see Abu Bakr al- Khatlb, Ta~>rlkh Baghdad (14 vols.; Cairo and Baghdad, 1931), Vol. I, and the part of this volume translated by Georges Salmon, UIntroduction topo- graphique Vhistoire de Bagdadh (Paris, 1904); Guy Le Strange, Baghdad dur­ ing the Abbasid Caliphate (Oxford, 1900); Reuben Levy, A Baghdad Chronicle (Cambridge, 1929); K. A. C. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture (2 vols.; Oxford, 1932 and 1940), II, 1-38. oi.uchicago.edu INTRODUCTION 3 great expenditures and vast accumulations. It was for him that Mansur bought the succession, at no small figure, from a reluctant but threatened and outwitted cousin.