Episode 84: General Mu’nis

Having discussed the disorder in the caliphate’s civil bureaucracy we’ll turn our attention to the state of its military. The sharp contrast between the state of the two is in large part thanks to the figure of Mu’nis, the general who led Abbasid armies to one victory after another. His heroic efforts preserved the caliph’s authority over lands that would have otherwise broken away, and Mu’nis kept it up for as long as he could.

Glossary

• Badr: al Mu’tadid’s trusted confidant was often referred to as “Badr al Mu’tadidi” and his daughter was promised to al Muqtadir when she was born. His close-knit relationship with the caliph (and wazir) went a long way towards ensuring successful and efficient governance. That was the golden standard, never again attained by any subsequent administration using the same model. Following repeated failures it was abandoned, to the detriment of the Abbasids.
• Mu’nis: from the failed coup to the countless campaigns he led on the caliphate’s behalf, the indefatigable general saved al Muqtadir’s reign time and time again. He’s such an influential figure that I can’t imagine what would have happened without him. Would the caliphate have been better off under the leadership of an older, wider Abbasid? Would it have succumbed to foreign invasions without his unique military abilities? Or perhaps imploded in civil conflict since he alone could bring the Turks into the fold? It’s tough to say, but what’s clear is that he was the truly indispensable man. 
• Husayn ibn Hamdan: the leader of the Hamdanids worked well with the caliphate during al Muktafi’s reign as he had with his father before him, but he immediately found al Muqtadir unacceptable. Although he was one of the main instigators of the coup against the caliph just four months into his reign, Husayn was pardoned for his role, probably due to his importance as governor of Mesopotamia. He and his family were taken captive after their rebellion was put down by Mu’nis. Husayn’s brother Abdallah replaced him as leader of the tribe after Husayn was executed in 915.
• Yusuf ibn abi al Saj: the last of the Sajids met his end in hubristic disaster. The histories only focus on this supposed dynasty because of the region it governed over. Daylam, between Azerbaijan and Iran today, was already home to the family that would one day replace the Abbasids. It’s still a few decades away, but the fall of the power that replaced the Sajids will precipitate the onset of the Buyid age.
• Abu Tahir al Jannabi: the new leader of the Qaramita was only 16 years old when he replaced the system of joint rule with his brothers. Under his direction the group became extremely violent and more organized and dangerous than ever before. Their incursions went from thuggish and profane to murderous and sacrilegious. The caliphate found it difficult to counter the threat posed by this agile group of nomadic warriors. The best the Abbasids could hope to do was repel them when they invaded, but they struggled even with this. Their raids on the hajj caravans earned them the ire of the umma and made the Qaramita one of the most hated groups we’ve come across since the Basran rebels almost fifty years back.