A literary history of Persia

252 THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAMincreasing laxity at Court of manners and morality ;and also thosetranscendental views that now sprung up of the divine Imamate, orspiritual leadership, of some member of the House of 'Ali ;as wellas the rapid growth of free thought. These things will be developedas we go on. But I have thoughtit well to draw attention atthis point to the important changes wrought by the closer connectionof the Caliphate with Persia and Khurasan caused bythe accession of the 'Abbasids."In a similar strain Dozy writes 1 :"The ascendancy of the Persians over the Arabs, that is tosay of the conquered over the victors, had already for a longwhile been in course of preparation ; it becameChara enSedby Do zycomplete when the 'Abbasids, who owed theirelevation to the Persians, ascended the throne. Theseprinces made it a rule to be on their guard against the Arabs,and to put their trust only in foreigners, Persians, 3 especiallythose of Khurasan, with whom, therefore, they had to make friends.The most distinguished personages at court were consequentlyPersians. The famous Barmecides were descended from a Persiannoble who had been superintendent of the Fire-temple at Balkh.Afshin, the all-powerful favourite of the Caliph al-Mu'tasim, wasa scion of the princes of Usrushna in Transoxiana. The Arabs,it is true, murmured, and endeavoured to regain their ancientpreponderance. The war which broke out between the twobrothers al-Amm and al-Ma'mun, the sons of Harunu'r-Rashid,was in its essence merely the renewal of the war waged betweenthe Arab and Persian nationalities for the supremacy. But theArabs again experienced a check ; again, cost them what it might,they had to recognise the supremacy of Persia ; again they werecompelled to watch as passive spectators a change of governmentdependent on the defeat of one of these races by the other andresulting from The it. democratic point of view of the Arabs was,indeed, replaced by the despotic ideas of the Persians."" Know," says that charming historian al-Fakhri,' " that the'Abbasid dynasty was a treacherous, wily, and faithless dynasty,wherein intrigue and guile played a greater partCharacfcrtwdby than s tren gth and energy, particularly in its latterdays. Indeed the later rulers of this House lostHist, de I'lslamisme translated by Victor Chauvin, pp. 228-229.See Tabari's 3Annals, iii, 1142.d. Ahhvardt, pp. 176-177.