Who is Abu Jafar Al-Mansur?
Al-Mansur, Almanzor or Abu Ja'far Abdallah ibn Muhammad
al-Mansur (712–775; Arabic: ابو جعفر عبدالله ابن محمد المنصور) was
the second Abbasid Caliph. He was born at al-Humaymah, the home of
the 'Abbasid family after their emigration from the Hejaz in
687–688. His father, Muhammad, was a great-grandson of 'Abbas; his
mother was a Berber woman[1]. He reigned from 754 until 775. In 762
he founded as new imperial residence and palace city Madinat
as-Salam, which became the core of the Imperial capital Baghdad.
Al-Mansur was concerned with the solidity of his regime after the
death of his brother, Abu'l `Abbas, who later become known
as-Saffah (the bloodshedder). In 755 he arranged the assassination
of Abu Muslim. Abu Muslim was a loyal freed man from the eastern
Iranian province of Khorasan who had led the Abbasid forces to
victory over the Umayyads during the Third Islamic Civil War in
749-750. At the time of al-Mansur he was the subordinate, but
undisputed ruler of Iran and Transoxiana. The assassination seems
to have been made to preclude a power struggle in the empire.
Al-Mansur certainly saw himself as universal ruler with religious
and secular authority. His victory against Nafs az-Zakiya, a Shiite
rebel in Southern Iraq and in the Arabian Peninsula further
alienated certain Shiite groups. They had been hoping that an
'Abbasid victory would restore the caliphate to the Imamate, and
that the rule of the "Al Muhammad", the family of the prophet would
begin. But many were disappointed. During his reign, literature and
scholarly work in the Islamic world began to emerge in full force,
supported by new Abbasid tolerances for Persians and other groups
suppressed by the Umayyads. Although the Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn
Abd al-Malik had adopted Persian court practices, it was not until
al-Mansur's reign that Persian literature and scholarship were
truly appreciated in the Islamic world. The emergence of Shu'ubiya
among Persian scholars occurred during the reign of al-Mansur as a
result of loosened censorship over Persian nationalism. Shu'ubiya
was a literary movement among Persians expressing their belief that
Persian art and culture was superior to that of the Arabs; the
movement served to catalyze the emergence of Arab-Persian dialogues
in the eighth century. Al-Mansur also founded the House of Wisdom
in Baghdad. Perhaps more importantly than the emergence of Persian
scholarship was the conversion of many non-Arabs to Islam. The
Umayyads actively tried to discourage conversion in order to
continue the collection of the jizya, or the tax on non-Muslims.
The inclusiveness of the Abbasid regime, and that of al-Mansur, saw
the expansion of Islam among its territory; in 750, roughly 8% of
residents in the Caliphate were Muslims. This would double to 15%
by the end of al-Mansur's reign. Al-Mansur died in 775 on his way
to Mecca to make hajj. He was buried somewhere along the way in one
of the hundreds of graves that had been dug in order to hide his
body from the Umayyads. He was succeeded by his son, al-Mahdi.
According to Shiite sources, the scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu'man was
imprisoned by al-Mansur and tortured. He also had Imam Malik, the
founder of another school of law, flogged. (Ya'qubi, vol.lll, p.86;
Muruj al-dhahab, vol.lll, p.268-270.)