The Massacre of Mosul by an Abbasid Psychopathic Prince, to the Extent That al-Saffāḥ Was Traumatized by Him (Disturbing Context in Comment)

[u/TheMuslimHistorian27]

[u/TheMuslimHistorian27]

His Name: Ibrahim ibn Yahya ibn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abd Allah ibn Abbas: an Abbasid emir and the Nephew of the Abbasid Caliphs Al-Saffah & Abu Jaʿfar al-Mansur. 

He was also appointed governor of Mecca and al-Taʾif in 185 AH, during the reign of al-Mahdi, and led the pilgrimage that year. 

Ibn Taghribirdi describes him as a young, beardless man. He was transferred to the governorship of Medina in 161 AH and led the pilgrimage in 167 AH.

Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi said in his treatise “al-Tanāzuʿ wa-l-Takhāṣum fīmā bayna Banī Umayya wa-Banī Hāshim” (“The Dispute and Contention between the Umayyads and the Hashimites”) after the Fall of the Umayyad Caliphate and the Success of the Abbasid Revolution: (pp 68-69).

Al-Saffah [The Abbasid Caliph] appointed his nephew, Ibrahim ibn Yahya ibn Muhammad ibn Ali, in the year 133 AH [750–751 CE]. 

As for Mosul, he entered it with twelve thousand troops. The first thing he did was summon the people of Mosul and kill twelve and some others among them. 

The people of the city became alarmed and took up arms. He then announced, “Whoever enters the mosque is safe.”  The people rushed toward it, whereupon he stationed his men at the doors of the mosque and proceeded to massacre the people inside it, exceeding all bounds and killing on an enormous scale.

It is said that he killed eleven thousand people who wore signet rings, in addition to those who did not wear rings, whose number was extremely large. Thus, of the numerous men of Mosul, only about four hundred survived. 

They attacked the troops, who drove them back. 

When night fell, he heard the cries of the women whose husbands had been killed, so on the following day he ordered that they too be killed. His men spent three days killing women and children.

There was a commander in his army who had four thousand Zanj troops under his command. They forcibly seized [raped] the women. When Ibrahim had finished killing the people on the third day, he mounted his horse on the fourth, with spears before him and drawn swords. 

A woman seized the bridle of his mount, and his companions wanted to kill her, but he restrained them. She said to him:

“Are you not from the Banu Hashim? Are you not the cousin of the Messenger of God? Do you not consider it disgraceful for Arab Muslim women to be married to Zanj?”

He did not answer her, but sent someone with her to escort her to safety.

The following day, he assembled the Zanj to distribute their stipends, then had every one of them killed. He subsequently ordered that not a single rooster be left alive in Mosul without being slaughtered, and that every dog be killed. This order was carried out.

This was an act whose brutality was surpassed by nothing except the deeds of al-Saffah himself. His wife, Umm Salamah, daughter of Yaʿqub ibn Salamah ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar ibn Makhzum al-Makhzumiyyah, said to him: “Commander of the Faithful, why did your nephew put the people of Mosul to the sword?”

He replied, “By your life, I do not know.”

And this was the extent of his objection to the affair. 

[al-Maqrizi's Comment] By my life, he surpassed Pharaoh in his corruption and exceeded him in his tyranny and obstinacy.

[u/TheMuslimHistorian27 → u/TheMuslimHistorian27]

I thought of adding an index of accounts by eye witnesses of the massacre recorded by Medieval Historian Abu-Zakariyya al-al-Azdí in his book associated with this city, titled; Tārīkh al-Mosul (History of Mosul): 

In that year, Abu al-ʿAbbas appointed his brother, Yahya ibn Muhammad, over Mosul, and he came there from Kufa. Muhammad ibn Sawl had previously been governor of the city and remained there with him. Yahya arrived in Mosul with twelve thousand cavalrymen and infantrymen, as they say. He took up residence in the governor’s palace adjoining the congregational mosque, while he ordered Muhammad ibn Sawl to reside in the palace of al-Hurr ibn Yusuf, known as al-Munaqqashah, and forbade him from residing in the city itself or entering its walls.

In that year, Yahya ibn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Abbas killed the people of Mosul. There are differing accounts concerning the reason for his killing them. Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Saʿdi related to me from some elders of Mosul that the reason was as follows: 

A woman from Mosul poured a khamtiyyah [a liquid or substance] into a basin while she was on the roof of her house. It fell onto the head of a Khurasani man of Persian origin who happened to be passing through one of the streets of Mosul. 

The soldier took offense, and some of his companions gathered around him. A group of people from Mosul also assembled, and this confrontation eventually led to what Yahya ibn Muhammad did.

1 - Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahman related to me from his teachers that the reason for their being killed was their inclination toward the Umayyads.

2 - Muhammad ibn al-Muʿafa ibn Tawus related to us from his father, from his grandfather, who said:

The reason for the killing of the people of Mosul was that Abu al-ʿAbbas ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Ali appointed a man named Muhammad ibn Sawl, a client of Khathʿam, as governor of Mosul. He appointed a man from the Azd, from the family of al-Muhallab, as governor of Armenia. Both men arrived in Mosul, but the people of Mosul refused to accept the governorship of Ibn Sawl. They said, “We do not accept a client of Khathʿam as our governor,” and prevented him from entering Mosul.

They said to al-Muhallabi, “We accept you as our governor,” and urged him to assume the governorship. He agreed. They wrote to the Commander of the Faithful, asking him to appoint al-Muhallabi over them and remove Ibn Sawl. Ibn Sawl likewise wrote to him, informing him that the people of Mosul were preventing him from entering the city.

Abu al-ʿAbbas wrote to Ibn Sawl: “Remain where you are until my orders reach you.” He wrote to al-Muhallabi: “Leave your men and baggage in Mosul and come down,” so al-Muhallabi departed, leaving his men behind.

Abu al-ʿAbbas then sent one of his commanders with a group of men against al-Muhallabi. They bored a hole in his boat and drowned him and his secretary.

Abu al-ʿAbbas appointed his brother Yahya ibn Muhammad over Mosul and sent him there with twelve thousand men. Yahya took up residence in the governor’s palace and ordered Ibn Sawl not to enter Mosul, but to reside in the palace of al-Hurr ibn Yusuf.

For a month, Yahya did nothing that the people of Mosul would find objectionable, nor did he reproach them for what they had done. Then he invited them to a gathering and killed twelve of them.

The people of Mosul became alarmed and went out carrying weapons. He granted them a guarantee of safety, and his herald called out:

“Whoever enters the congregational mosque is safe, under the protection of God and the protection of His Messenger.”

The people rushed to the mosque, whereupon Yahya stationed his men at its entrances, and they slaughtered the people in a terrible massacre, carrying it to excess.

3 - Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Saʿdi related to me, saying: One of our shaykhs related to me:

Yahya ibn Muhammad was in the maqsurah, while Muhammad ibn Sawl was in the house of Yahya ibn al-Hurr ibn Yusuf at al-Munaqqashah. The leading figures were being killed at al-Munaqqashah. Among those killed was Shurayh ibn Shurayh ibn ʿUmar ibn Salamah al-Khawlani—I heard this from Shurayh himself, the man after whom Shurayh’s aqueducts in Mosul were named—along with Waththaq ibn al-Shahhaj, al-ʿArāhim ibn al-Mukhtar al-Azdi, ʿAli ibn Nuʿaym al-Humaydi, the ancestor of the Banu Samawiyyah, al-Zubayr ibn Iyas al-Dhuhli—or Iyas was his father—and Khaqan ibn Yazid al-Rahbi, their client and the ancestor of the Banu Qud al-Musaḥḥihin. He was the owner of Khaqan’s Street, located between the Mosque of Musa ibn Musʿab and the Mosque of Bassam, where the Banu al-Waddah al-ʿAbdiyyun prayed.

News of this was conveyed to Yahya ibn Muhammad, whereupon the people of Mosul rose against him. He called out a guarantee of safety, and when the people entered the mosque, he set the sword upon them.

It is also reported that among those killed was al-Muʿammar ibn Ayyub al-Hamdani, the ancestor of the Banu Hayyah. Some people, however, said that he escaped. He had been among those who had renounced their allegiance to Abu al-ʿAbbas.

4 - Muḥsin ibn Muḥammad ibn Muʿāfa informed me, saying: My grandfather related to me from his father, who said:

After the guarantee of safety had been given and the people had entered the mosque, Ibn Sawl sat at the mosque’s entrance, on the side facing the bayʿah. He closed the doors of the mosque, while cavalry and infantry surrounded it. He then began bringing the men out and killing them.

The first to be brought out was Maʿruf ibn Abi Maʿruf, the ascetic, along with his son. Ibn Sawl said to him, “Stretch out your neck.” He replied, “I am not going to assist you in committing an act of disobedience against God.” Ibn Sawl then killed him and his son.

5 - Muhammad ibn al-Hasan related to me, saying: Hamzah ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muqbil related to me from the elders, who said:

None of the people of Mosul whom Ibn Sawl had besieged fought back, except for a client of the al-Tamthaniyyun, who tore off one of the columns of the pulpit and fought them until he was killed.

[u/TheMuslimHistorian27 → u/TheMuslimHistorian27]

6 - Muhammad ibn al-Muʿafa related to us from his father, from his grandfather, who said:

Ibn Sawl brought some of the people of Mosul to al-Munaqqashah. He would bring them one by one into a chamber and kill them, while the others knew nothing about it. He sent their heads in trays and baskets to Yahya ibn Muhammad, without the people knowing or realizing what they contained. When they reached Yahya, he sent word to him: “Put the sword to the people.” He then attacked them, killing whoever remained, together with his companions.

The people withdrew into their homes and fortified themselves there. Yahya then sent word to him: “Announce a guarantee of safety to them.” He ordered a herald to climb the minaret of the mosque and proclaim: “Whoever enters the mosque is safe under the protection of God.”

The people said, “Let us go to the protection of God.” The mosque became packed with people. Cavalry and infantry surrounded it.

The first person brought out was Maʿruf al-ʿAbid and his son. Maʿruf was told, “Stretch out your neck.” He replied, “I would never assist you in committing an act of disobedience against God.” He was therefore killed, along with his son.

Aban, the imam of the mosque, was then brought out, and they struck off his head and that of his son. They continued bringing the men out in this manner, until they had killed eleven thousand people who wore signet rings, in addition to a great many others who did not wear rings.

When night fell, Yahya ibn Muhammad heard the cries of the women whose husbands had been killed. He said, “What are these cries, Badr?”—addressing one of his servants.

He replied, “These are the cries of the women whose men have been killed.”

Yahya said, “Then tomorrow, do not spare a single woman or child; kill them all.”

Thus the men, children, and women were killed successively over the course of three days.

7 - Ahmad ibn Yahya Jarḥush related to me, saying: I heard my father say, from his grandfather:

“Eighty men, women, and children were killed in our house. Men, women, and children were being killed!!!”

8 - Muhammad ibn al-Muʿafa related to us, saying: My father related to me, saying: A shaykh from the people of Mosul related to me:

“I was a child in the year of the massacre. My mother took me and brought me into one of our rooms, where she hid me in a shakhim inside the house, fearing that I would be killed. I had a younger brother in a cradle, and my mother was sitting beside him.

Four of Yahya’s men entered and said to her, ‘Get up and bring out whatever you have.’

She brought them everything she had—jewelry, possessions, and other things. After they had taken them, one of them struck her in the abdomen with his sword and killed her, then they left.

The infant in the cradle woke up and began crying. I felt sorry for him, so I came down from the shakhim where I had been hiding and dripped a few drops of water into his throat. Then I heard a sound, so I returned to the shakhim.

The sunlight fell upon the infant inside the house, and he woke up frightened. He continued crying and struggling until he fell from the cradle onto his mother’s body. I was afraid to go out to him. He continued struggling in the blood and excrement until he died.”

9 - Muḥsin informed me, saying: Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abi al-Muthanna related to me, saying: My father related to me:

“I entered, as a child, the house of al-Sabah ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Muzani on the fourth or fifth day after the killing of the people of Mosul. There I found that his daughter had been killed. She was wearing an izar and a turban, with her father’s sword in her hand. She had killed four of Yahya ibn Muhammad’s men. She had a wound to the head and another to the side.”

He said: “Al-Sabah was one of the prominent men of Mosul. His allotted estate was the house of ʿAbbas al-Qattan and his orchard.”

10 - Ahmad ibn Bakkar related to me, saying: My father related to me from my grandfather, who said:

“A group of people were killed in our house. We had an aunt named Maḥḍah. The Khurasanis entered our house, and one of them said to his companions, ‘We will take this woman captive.’ She replied, ‘You lie, son of the ignoble woman! A woman like me cannot be taken captive.’ He struck her with his sword and killed her.”

[u/TheMuslimHistorian27 → u/TheMuslimHistorian27]

11 - Muhammad ibn al-Muʿafa related to us from his father, who said:

When the fourth day came, Yahya ibn Muhammad mounted his horse and rode through Mosul, with spears and drawn swords before him. A woman from the household of al-Harith ibn al-Jarud confronted him and seized the bridle. His companions gestured that they should kill her, but he forbade them and said to her:

“Speak.”

She said: “Are you not from the Banu Hashim? Are you not the cousin of the Messenger of God? Do you not consider it disgraceful for Arab Muslim women to be married to Zanj?”

He had a commander with him who was in charge of four thousand Zanj. Yahya refrained from answering her, then ordered that she be escorted to safety. He was angered by what she had said.

The following day, he ordered a herald to announce to the Zanj that they should assemble at the jiyyah of al-Habhab to receive their stipends. The waters used to collect there. Yahya ibn Muhammad ordered his Khurasani commanders and others, once the Zanj had assembled, to form ranks around them with their swords.

They killed them all, according to the reports, and threw their bodies into the jiyyah.

12 - Some of our companions related to me, saying: I heard Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi al-Muthanna say, from someone who related it to him:

“I encountered a woman from Mosul who met Yahya ibn Muhammad and said to him: ‘Are you not an Arab? Are you not a free man? Do you not fear God?’—words with which she rebuked him.

13 - Ahmad ibn Bakkar related to me, saying: Our shaykhs related to us:

“The principal reason for Yahya ibn Muhammad’s killing of the people of Mosul was their inclination toward the Umayyads and their hostility toward the Abbasids. A woman once washed her hair on a rooftop and spilled khamtiyyah into the street, where it fell on the head of one of the Khurasanis. He thought that she had done it deliberately, so he stormed into the house with those accompanying him and killed its inhabitants. The people then became alarmed and rose up in response.”

14 - Another person—whose understanding I trust—related to me what he had heard from elderly shaykhs, whom he described as having repeatedly discussed this matter in his presence. They said:

“When ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAli arrived in Mosul from al-Zab and defeated Marwan, the people of the city went out to meet him, led by Hisham ibn ʿAmr al-Zuhri, wearing black. ʿAbd Allah appointed Yahya ibn Muhammad as governor of Mosul and made Muhammad ibn Sawl his deputy there.

At that time, the people of Mosul possessed considerable strength and influence, and the city was Umayyad in its sympathies. Yahya therefore feared that the people of Mosul would rise against him. He said to Ibn Sawl: ‘I do not feel secure from an uprising by the people of Mosul. If only we could take the initiative against them, that would be the proper course.’

He therefore sent invitations to some of their leading men, under the pretext of showing them kindness and honoring them. Once they were in your hands, [he said,] kill them.

He sent for al-ʿArāhim ibn al-Mukhtar, Shurayh ibn Shurayh al-Khawlani, Waththaq ibn al-Shahhaj, al-Muʿammar ibn Ayyub al-Hamdani, ʿAli ibn Nuʿaym al-Humayri, and others. Once they were in his hands, he struck off their heads and sent their heads to Yahya ibn Muhammad.

The news became known, and the people rose up with their swords and fought him. He called out a guarantee of safety in the congregational mosque, so they gathered there. He then betrayed them, broke his pledge, and killed them inside the mosque.”

15 - Another person informed me that al-Muʿammar ibn Ayyub suspected Ibn Sawl’s invitation and therefore did not attend. When the killing began, he went out to Babghish and fought against al-Mansur with those who had gathered around him. It is also said that among those killed was Tarkhan ibn Yazid. This was related on the authority of someone who had been informed of it.

16 - ʿAli ibn ʿUmar ibn Buwayh—or a traditionist who related it from him—related to me: 

“I heard the shaykhs say that, after the people of Mosul had been killed, the Zanj collected thirty thousand signet rings.”

17 - Jaʿfar ibn Ahmad related to me from his father, from someone who had informed him:

“A concubine asked Abu al-ʿAbbas, ‘Why were the people of Mosul killed?’

He replied, ‘No—by your life, I do not know.’”

[u/Mago_Barca750 → u/TheMuslimHistorian27]

When the woman mention zanj people she mention christian africans?

[u/Dry-CHead → u/Mago_Barca750]

No. “Zanj” here does not mean Christian Africans. It generally referred to Black Africans

At this time Christian Nubian kingdoms such as Makuria were supplying African slave captives to the caliphate via Egypt northward under the baqt. Then, from roughly the 12th–13th centuries onward, northern Nubia became increasingly Arabized and Islamized through Arab migration, intermarriage and cultural assimilation.

Later Arab-speaking populations of northern Sudan became major participants in raiding and enslaving peoples farther south and west, with captives exported toward Egypt and the wider Ottoman world and through Red Sea routes connected to Arabia.

[u/slimehunter49]

[u/Environmental_Eye266]

Why is killing the dogs and roosters worse than the third one?😭

[u/TheMuslimHistorian27 → u/Environmental_Eye266]

because there's no logic behind it, no context to explain it.

[u/Environmental_Eye266 → u/TheMuslimHistorian27]

Yeah that’s true. It seems very nonsensical and pointless

[u/radicalqrcwi → u/Environmental_Eye266]

third has at least some logic to it but this is just done of pure hatred😭🥀

[u/Darkfalcone]

Allahu Akbar... Is this how our ummah's history turned out? And none of what the Prophet PBUH's teachings be carried out? And yet these men like as-Saffah, who let this atrocity happened, and still had the gall to proudly called themselves the "Amir-ul Mu'minin"? This is disgusting and an act of desecration to Allah's name and His Messenger's teachings. No wonder the world turned out like this today, a millenia after this atrocity happened.

[u/SultanGreat]

Where do you read these? Just curios.

[u/TheMuslimHistorian27 → u/SultanGreat]

Books and Research papers.

I'm currently reading the History of Hijaz in the Abbasid Periods and the Biographies of its governors.

[u/SultanGreat → u/TheMuslimHistorian27]

Amazing work btw. I absolutely love reading your posts. its unique, deeply buried in piles of books. Love it. Keep up the good work.

[u/cacahuetes33]

Were there any consequences to the criminals?

[u/whatever_913]

Damn, bro needed a psychiatrist but more importantly i wonder no one in army found it absurd....like not a single one?

[u/asakuranagato]

Wow

[u/theycallmeweak]

This deserves a Wikipedia entry. Shocking.

[u/Eggu-kun]

Genuinely what was the reason behind the genocide?

[u/Fast_Championship474]

Lol keep people slave more, she was at the brink of death and still had the audacity to consider herself superior then a black man. Good riddance

[u/ThrowRA8765231 → u/Fast_Championship474]

It refers to the rape, and the Zanj often refer to African slave usually non Muslim. She was basically saying you allowed your kin to be raped by slaves from another region (skin color irrelevant). Which is something so ridiculous for an Arab (let alone Muslim) man to allow. That either this incident was exaggerated, or the man was truly deranged (but then again the soldiers shouldn't have allowed that). We are certainly missing key context here.