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caliph decided according to his personal viewpoints, for he was the shadow of Allah on earth, as
they say. So he went too far in practicing dictatorship, plundering properties, preventing
freedoms, and forcing the people to do what they hated.
In most of its historical periods, the ‘Abbasid government was similar to the Umayyad one in
material and form. Lithfy Dilla Fida says: “Certainly the administrative system followed by the
‘Abbasids was in essence the system of the Umayyads.”[1]
The official circles damaged the rights of the common people, while they flattered the notables,
the heads, and the possessors of influence. Amin al‐Rayhani says: “The oppressive did not suffer
from adversities. Rather the miserable, those who paid taxes and answered the summons to
jihad[2] suffered from adversities. It was they who suffered from oppression and tyranny. For
their affair was simple with those rulers who alone possessed distributing good and evil among
those whom they liked and disliked. They spent the wealth of the miserable Muslim peoples on
their low desires and on their followers. They sometimes admired a song, so they gave to the
singer a lot of money. In the meantime they hated the word of a reformer, so they shed the
reformer’s blood and confiscated his properties. When al‐Mu‘tazid, the ‘Abbasid Caliph, was angry
with a military commander, he ordered the military commander to be buried alive.[3] Many
‘Abbasid rulers were famous for violence, oppression, and shedding blood.
Al‐‘Atabi was asked the state of the then government: “Why do you not seek nearness to the ruler
through your poems?” “I saw him give ten thousand (dirhams) for nothing, and he ordered
someone to be thrown down the wall for nothing,” replied al‐‘Atabi, “I do not know which of the
two men I follow.”[4] Muhammed b. al‐Harith was ordered to go to al‐Wathiq, and he said: “I was
very afraid. I was afraid that someone had informed the Caliph against me or a certain misfortune
had happened.”[5]
When al‐Ma’mun killed his minister al‐Fedl b. Sahl, he entrusted the ministry with Ahmed b. Abi
Khalid, but he refused to accept it and said: “All those who undertook the ministry were
endangered.”[6] The reason for that is that the caliphs did not follow a certain law; rather they
decided according to their personal inclinations. So they divided death and life among those
whom they liked and disliked. The caliphs ordered people to be killed in group for a certain piece
of information. An example of that Abu Ja‘far was informed against a man called al‐Fudayl, the
[1] Al‐'Asr al‐'Abbasi al‐Awwal, p. 45.
[2] Al‐Nekebat.
[3] Tarikh al‐Islam, vol. 3, p. 18.
[4] Al‐Mustatraf, vol. 1, p. 215.
[5] Abu al‐Farajj al‐Asfahani, al‐Aghani, vol. 3, p. 215.
[6] Tayfur, p. 215.
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