TEN

The Eastern Persian Lands, Transoxania and Khwārazm before the Seljuqs

82

The Ṭāhirids and Muṣ‘abids

205–78/821–91

Governors in Khurasan (Khurāsān) and in Baghdad and Iraq

1. The governors in Khurasan and its administrative dependencies

205–59/821–73

2. The military governors (Aṣḥāb al-Shurṭa) in Baghdad and Iraq

207–78/822–91

Táhir b. al-Husayn was probably of Persian mawld or client origin, though eulogists of the Táhirids endeavoured to give them a direct lineage from the aristocratic Arab tribe of Khuzá’a. Táhir rose to favour under al-Ma’mün as commander of the latter’s forces in the fratricidal war against al-Amin in 194/810, and after the fall of Baghdad became governor of that city and of Jazira. Finally, he was appointed governor of the East. Just before his death shortly afterwards, he had started to omit al-Ma’mün’s name from the Friday khutba or sermon, this being tantamount to a renunciation of allegiance or declaration of independence. Nevertheless, the caliph handed on the governorship to his son Talha, being unable to find anyone more reliable for this important office. Henceforth, the Táhirids ruled from Nishapur as a hereditary line of governors but remained faithful vassals of the ‘Abbásids, continuing to forward tribute regularly to Iraq (the Turkish military slaves in this tribute became one of the mainstays of the caliphs’ professional armies), although ‘Abdallāh b. Táhir was careful never to leave Khurasan for Baghdad. Hence the Táhirids may be considered as a virtually autonomous line of governors but not as a separate, independent dynasty, as were their rivals the Saffárids. The family’s strong Sunnī orthodoxy and their favour towards the established Arab and Persian landed and military classes assured them of top-level support, while they also had a reputation for protecting the interests of the masses, of encouraging agriculture and irrigation, and of patronising scholars and poets.

In Khurasan, the main political and military efforts of the Táhirids were first aimed at suppressing rebels like the Qárinid Mázyár (see above, no. 80) and keeping in check, also in the Caspian provinces, the Zaydi Shlfis; but latterly, their position was threatened by the rising power of the Saffárids in Sistan (Sístán) (see below, no. 84, 1), an administrative dependency of Khurasan, and this they failed to withstand. Muhammad b. Táhir II lost Nishapur to Ya‘qüb b. al-Layth in 259/873, and eventually escaped to Iraq. The caliph reappointed him to the governorship of Khurasan, but he was never able to take this up, and for the next twenty years the province was disputed by the Saffárids and several local commanders.

Khurasan was, however, only one of the governorships held by the house of Mus’ab b. Ruzayq, for other members functioned as military governors in Baghdad and Iraq until the end of the ninth century, a longer tenure of office than their kinsmen in Khurasan. After Táhir I left for the East, his command in Baghdad was at first given to the parallel branch of the Mus’abids, but then after 237/851 the descendants of Táhir I took over. The Táhirids’ position in Baghdad was based on their great wealth and estates there, in particular, their Harim, a complex of buildings and markets to the north of al-Mansür’s Round City. The governors in Baghdad were renowned as patrons of Arabic culture, and some of them, like ‘Ubaydalláh b.‘Abdalláh, themselves enjoyed contemporary reputations as litterateurs.

Justi, 436; Lane-Poole, 128; Sachau, 19–20 no. 39; Zambaur, 197–8; Album, 32.

EI¹ Táhirids’ (W. Barthold).

Sa’id Nafisl, Ta‘rikh-i khdnddn-i Tdhirl I. Tahir b. Husayn, Tehran 1335/1956, with a genealogical table at the end.

C. E. Bosworth, The Táhirids and Saffárids’, in The Cambridge History of Iran, IV, 90–106, 114–15.

Mongi Kaabi, Les Tdhirides au Hurdsdn et en Iraq (III^iéme H./IX^iéme J.C.), 2 vols, Tunis 1983, with a genealogical table at I, 409.