Al-'Abbas ibn 'Amr al-Ghanawi

Al-'Abbas ibn 'Amr al-Ghanawi (Arabic: العباس بن عمرو الغنوي‎) (died 917) was a military commander and provincial governor for the Abbasid dynasty. He is known for his defeat and capture at the hands of the Qarmatians in 900.

Life

Al-'Abbas was likely born in the Diyar Mudar district of al-Jazira. He embarked on a military career in the service of the Abbasids and is first recorded as one of the officers in charge of an expedition sent against unruly Arab tribes in Iraq.[1] In the following year he was appointed by the caliph al-Mu'tadid as governor of al-Bahrain and al-Yamamah[2] and tasked with driving the Qarmatians led by Abu Sa'id Jannabi out of the region. Since the Qarmatians had already successfully occupied much of al-Bahrain, including al-Qatif, al-'Abbas assembled an army of regular soldiers, bedouin fighters and volunteers before departing from al-Basra for the province.

Shortly after their departure, al-'Abbas and his army met the Qarmatians and engaged them in battle. The first day of fighting ended in a standstill, but in the evening the bedouins and volunteers abandoned the campaign and returned to al-Basra. The following morning, the two armies resumed fighting, and al-'Abbas's depleted forces were routed; he and seven hundred of his men were compelled to surrender. The day after the battle, Abu Sa'id ordered that the captured soldiers all be put to death; al-'Abbas alone was spared and was eventually released, with instructions to warn al-Mu'tadid of the futility in opposing the Qarmatians. He returned to Iraq and was rewarded by al-Mu'tadid for his efforts.[3]

Following his failed campaign, al-'Abbas remained in military service, and in 902 he was in Fars serving under Badr al-Mu'tadidi, the commander-in-chief of the army. When Badr fell out of favor with the new caliph al-Muktafi, al-'Abbas was one of several commanders who complied with the caliph's order to abandon the general and return to Baghdad.[4] He was subsequently made governor of Qom and Kashan in 908-9,[5] and he may have been a member of the campaign led by Mu'nis al-Khadim to defend Egypt against the Fatimids in 914-5.[6] His last post was as governor of the Diyar Mudar, and he died there in 917. He was succeeded as governor by Wasif ibn al-Buktamiri following his death.[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ Canard, p. 11; al-Tabari, pp. 78-9
  2. ↑ Canard, p. 11; al-Tabari, p. 83. Neither area was effectively controlled by the Abbasid government by the time of his appointment; al-Bahrain was in the process of being overrun by the Qarmatians, and the Banu 'l-Ukhaidhir had been independently ruling in al-Yamamah since the 860s
  3. ↑ Canard, p. 11; Daftary, p. 119; al-Tabari, pp. 86-8; al-Mas'udi, pp. 193-4
  4. ↑ Canard, p. 11; al-Tabari, pp. 105-6
  5. ↑ Canard, p. 11
  6. ↑ Becker, p. 11, believed that the al-'Abbas b. 'Amr who participated in the Egyptian campaign was a different person; this assertion was explicitly rejected by Canard, p. 11
  7. ↑ Al-Tabari, p. 139 n. 682; Miskawaihi, p. 60

References

  • Becker, C. H. "Al-'Abbas (b. 'Amr al-Ghanawi)." First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936, Volume I. 1927. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993. ISBN 90-04-09787-2
  • Canard, M. "Al-'Abbas b. 'Amr al-Ghanawi." The Encyclopedia of Islam, Volume I. New Ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1960. ISBN 90-04-08114-3
  • Daftary, Farhad. The Isma'ilis: Their History and Doctrines. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-521-42974-9
  • Al-Mas'udi, Ali ibn al-Husain. Les Prairies D'Or, Tome Huitieme. Trans. C. Barbier de Meynard. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1874.
  • Miskawaihi. The Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate: the Concluding Portion of the Experiences of the Nations, Vol. I. Trans. & ed. H. F. Amedroz and D. S. Margoliouth. London, 1921.
  • Al-Tabari, Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir. The History of al-Tabari, Volume XXXVIII: The Return of the Caliphate to Baghdad. Trans. Franz Rosenthal. Ed. Ehsan Yar-Shater. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1985. ISBN 0-87395-876-4
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