The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

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CHAPTER LXXI
AL-MO'TADII) AND AL-MUKTAII
279-295 A.ir. 892-907 A.l\
Al-M()'taI)ID, already in possession of supreme ]30\ver, Mo'tadid,
continued as Caliph abl}' to administer the Government. 892 a!d.
Egypt returned to her allegiance; for Khumaraweih,
tempted by the honour, gave his daughter in marriage to the
Caliph with a great dower, and promise of a yearly
tribute. He was shortly after murdered in circumstances
little creditable to the morality either of himself or of
his Court. The countr}' fell into disorder under his )-oung Eg>'pt.
• ,'.•'.
son, who, after a few months' reign, was also assassinated
;
and another son, Harun, who succeeded, suffered things to
go from bad to worse.
Khorasan begins to fade from our view. The rulers, Khorfifan.
even in the far East, were still glad to get their title
chie'f'beats
accredited from Bagdad. But there was little virtual power 'Amr the
beyond the limits of ;\l-'Irak. The Samanid house, which
^
stood for the independence of the Persian
_
nation, rose on H;igd.id,
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sends hini to
the decay of the Saffarid, whose rule was now confined to -^'*'*•"•
Sijistan ;
and
the chief of the latter, 'Amr ibn Leith, taken
prisoner by the Samanid, was by him sent to Bagdad
;
where, after remaining some time in prison, he was at last,
by the tacit sign of Al-Mo*tadid on his deathbed, executed.
The 'Alid dynasty, so long dominant in Tabaristan, was also 287 a. 11.
swallowed up by the Samanid. The immediate authorit\-
of the Caliph reached eastward onh' as far as Ar-Reiy;
and even within that limit the powerful famil)- of .Abu Dulaf
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Tlic same whose praises, suni; l)y tlic bliml Jioct, so irritated .\I-
Ma'inun. Above, p. 509 n.
553