Nasr ibn Sayyar

Nasr ibn Sayyar
Born	663
Died	9 December 748
Allegiance	Umayyad Caliphate
Battles/wars	Wars against the Turgesh, Arab tribal wars in Khurasan, Abbasid Revolt

Nasr ibn Sayyar (Arabic: نصر بن سيار‎, full name Naṣr ibn Sayyār al-Laythi al-Kinani; 663–748) was an Arab general and the last Umayyad governor of Khurasan in 738–748.^[1] An experienced commander in the wars against the Turgesh, as governor he introduced tax reforms in his province and stabilized Umayyad control beyond the Oxus. Preoccupied by inter-tribal rivalries and uprisings however, he was unable to stop the outbreak and spread of the Abbasid Revolt, which enjoyed widespread support in Khurasan. Evicted from his province, he fled to Iran where he died in late 748.

Early life and career

Map of the Caliphate ca. 750. Khurasan, where Nasr spent almost all of his career, was the north-easternmost province of the Arab empire

Nasr was a military leader with long service and experience in Khurasan. Already in 705 he participated in a campaign along the upper Oxus River, led by Salih, the brother of Qutayba ibn Muslim, the general who had been tasked with subduing Transoxiana. For his service during this campaign, Nasr was awarded an entire village in this region.^[1][2] Despite the successes of Qutayba, much of Central Asia east of the Oxus remained outside effective Arab control; while garrisons had been established in places like Samarkand, Balkh, or Bukhara, the Caliphate largely relied on cliental relationships with the multitude of local rulers, who became tributary to the Umayyads. In addition, clashes with the Chinese-backed Turgesh, the ambiguous policy followed regarding conversion of the native population (mass conversions would lessen the taxable population and hence the amount of tribute received) and increasing inter-Arab tribal factionalism weakened Umayyad control over the region and necessitated increased military activity.^[3]

Thus Nasr is recorded as campaigning in Ferghana in 724, while in 734 he was appointed as governor of Balkh.^[1][4] There he faced the rebellion of the local Khurasani troops under al-Harith ibn Surayj, who called for reforms in taxation and the ending of discrimination towards the native converts (mawali). With 4,000 men, Ibn Surayj marched on Balkh and took the city, although Nasr disposed of 10,000 men. Nasr and his army remained passive for the remainder of the revolt; they did not aid the provincial capital, Merv, when the rebels attacked it, and this stance encouraged several local tribes to join the uprising. Eventually however the rebels were defeated by Juday' al-Kirmani, with Ibn Surayj fleeing across the Oxus to the Turgesh.^[5][6][7]

Appointment as governor of Khurasan, reforms and campaigns

Despite his failure to act against Ibn Surayj, Nasr was appointed in July 738, at the age of 74, as governor of Khurasan. This decision was a result not only of his experience, but also of his proven loyalty to the Umayyads and his appropriate tribal affiliation.^[1][8] Nasr's appointment came four months after the death of the previous incumbent, Asad ibn Abd Allah al-Qasri. In the interim, the sources report variously that the province was run either by the Syrian general Ja'far ibn Hanzala al-Bahrani or by Asad's lieutenant al-Kirmani. At any rate, the sources agree that al-Kirmani stood at the time as the most prominent man in Khurasan and should have been the clear choice for governor. His Yemeni roots (he was the leader of the Azd tribe in Khurasan) however made him unpalatable to Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik.^[9][10] Nasr on the other hand, in addition to his other qualities, was a Mudari and married to a Tamimi wife. He would therefore be acceptable to the numerous Mudari element of the Khurasani army, on which Hisham chiefly relied for support, but could also, as a local, help to reduce the Khurasani Arabs' discontent towards the Umayyad government. Nasr's own relatively obscure tribal background—from a non-noble family of the Layth tribe from Kinanah—also suited the Caliph's purposes, as it meant that he lacked any local power base of his own.^[11][12][13]

In the event, Nasr would succeed in retaining his office for a decade, despite the turmoil that swept the Caliphate after 743. When Yazid III came to power in early 744, he initially ordered Nasr replaced. Nasr refused to accept this, and held on to the post, being eventually confirmed to it a few months later. After Marwan II's rise to power in December 744, he likewise affirmed Nasr's position.^[1][14] Nasr's major achievements during his tenure were the reform of the tax system and the restoration of Umayyad control over Transoxiana.^[15] The Khurasani tax system had been established at the time of the Muslim conquest and remained unchanged since. It relied on the collection of a fixed tribute by the local non-Muslim (mostly Zoroastrian) gentry, the dihqans, who often discriminated against the Muslim settlers and the native converts. This contributed to the latter's increasing resentment of Umayyad rule, and the demand for a tax reform had fuelled past revolts like that of Ibn Surayj. Consequently, Nasr streamlined the tax system in 739, implementing a blanket imposition (the kharaj) on all owners of agricultural land and forcing the non-Muslims to pay an additional poll tax (the jizyah).^[1][16][17] In this way, the chroniclers report, 30,000 Muslims were absolved of the jizyah, and 80,000 non-Muslims were forced to pay it instead. Modern scholars however consider the effect of this belated reform on the prevailing anti-Umayyad climate as minimal.^[15][18] Upon his appointment, Nasr also moved the provincial capital back to Merv from Balkh, where Asad had established it. Additionally, for the first time in the province's history he appointed sub-governors. They were drawn from among his allies and supporters in order to reward them and to improve his own control of the province.^[19]

Taking advantage of the disintegration of the Turgesh khaganate after the murder of its khagan Suluk, Nasr moved aggressively across the Oxus. He occupied Saghaniyan in 739, and recovered much territory in the next year, including Samarkand. Aiming to recover all the lands previously conquered under Qutayba ibn Muslim and to curtail the activities of the renegade Ibn Surayj, Nasr then launched an expedition targeting al-Shash (Tashkent). Although his army defeated a 15,000-strong Turgesh force under Suluk's murderer and successor Kül Chor at Syr Darya, Nasr apparently failed to subdue al-Shash, and Ibn Surayj was left unmolested to continue his opposition to the Umayyads from his base at Faryab. Another expedition, against Ferghana, plundered and ravaged the surrounding countryside and took many captives, but it seems that Nasr's reconquest did not extend much beyond Samarkand.^[20][21]

Nasr gave his province an unprecedented period of good government, stability and prosperity, so that, in the words of the 9th-century historian al-Mada'ini, "Khurasan was built up as it had never been before".^[22] Outwardly at least, by 743 the Umayyad position in Khurasan appeared stronger than ever.^[23] The reality beneath the splendid façade however was different. Tension and mutual mistrust existed between the Khurasani Arab levies (muqatila) and the 20,000 Syrian troops introduced into the province as a security measure after the disastrous Battle of the Defile in 731,^[23] while tribal antagonism continued to create trouble: as elsewhere during Hisham's reign, the Umayyad government favoured the North Arab Mudar tribal group, which in turn was generally supportive of and loyal to the Umayyads, while the Azd and Rabi'ah tribes (collectively called the "Yemenis") were relegated into de facto opposition. In Khurasan in particular, Nasr was especially reliant on the support of his wife's powerful Tamim tribe living around Marv, for not all the Mudari tribes backed him, and even the Syrian contingent sided with his opponents. As long as he was supported by a strong central government in Damascus, Nasr was able to keep his internal enemies in check, but in the troubles that followed Hisham's death in 743, that support vanished.^[24][25][26]

In addition, Khurasan was a major center of Shiism and specifically of the Kaysanite sect of the Hashimiyya, which had gained wide acceptance in the province, especially among the mawali.^[27] In 742–743, Nasr confronted and defeated a revolt led by Yahya, son of Zayd ibn Ali and the leader of the Hashimiyya in Khurasan. Yahya was captured and executed, and the resulting vacuum in Hashimi leadership opened the path for the Khurasani movement to come under the control of the Abbasid family.^[22][28][29]

Civil wars and the Abbasid revolt

In 743, after the death of Caliph Hisham, Walid II reconfirmed Nasr in his post, but the influential governor of Iraq, Yusuf ibn Umar, an opponent of Nasr, tried to lure him away from his province by calling him to Iraq. Nasr delayed his departure, stalling for time, and was saved by the murder of Walid in April 744.^[25] However, Walid's successor, Yazid III, moved to install a regime dominated by the Yemeni Kalbi tribe. Nasr's position was severely undermined, and the Yemeni faction now hoped to see their leader Juday' al-Kirmani appointed governor in his stead. Indeed, Yazid appointed his favourite, the Kalbi Mansur ibn Jumhur, as governor of Iraq, and he in turn nominated his own brother as Nasr's replacement. Nasr refused to accept this, and was again fortunate in his persistence, for Mansur fell out of favour and was dismissed after only two months.^[30][31][32] Agitation among the Yemeni faction persisted, amidst rumours that Nasr had intercepted letters appointing al-Kirmani as governor, and a dispute on the payment of stipends to the muqatila. Nasr tried to secure his own position by deposing al-Kirmani from his leadership of the Azd, as well as by trying to win over Azd and Rabi'ah leaders. This led to a general uprising by the Azd and Rabi'ah under al-Kirmani. It is indicative of the lingering inter-tribal antagonism of the late Umayyad world that the rebellion was launched in the name of revenge for the Muhallabids, an Azd family that had been purged after rebelling in 720, an act which had since become a symbol of Yemeni resentment of the Umayyads and their northern Arab-dominated regime.^[31][33][34]

On 13 July 744, Nasr captured and imprisoned al-Kirmani. After barely a month, the latter escaped, and his rebellion was joined not only by Azd soldiers, but also by many of the Arab settlers around Marv. A tentative truce was initially agreed upon, during which fruitless negotiations were conducted, but after Yazid reconfirmed Nasr in his post, al-Kirmani and the Yemenis—in reality, al-Kirmani's followers included other tribes as well, including most of the Syrians and even some Mudaris, but they were collectively called yamaniyya in the sources—resumed their revolt.^[35][36] Nasr in turn tried to strengthen his own position by enlisting the services of al-Harith ibn Surayj, al-Kirmani's one-time adversary, who enjoyed considerable support among some Arab tribes and especially his native Tamimis. When Ibn Surayj arrived at Merv in July 745 he was enthusiastically received by the town's inhabitants. Scorning Nasr's proposals for cooperation, Ibn Surayj soon withdrew to the countryside and rose in rebellion as well. Among the Mudaris and Nasr's followers, Marwan II was widely opposed, even though Nasr recognized him as the legitimate Caliph in exchange for his own confirmation to his post. Exploiting this resentment, Ibn Surayj soon gathered around him an army over over 3,000 men.^[37][38]

In March 746 Ibn Surayj's army attacked Marv, but was repulsed with many casualties, and he then made common cause with al-Kirmani—of whose activities between his escape in 744 and this point nothing is known. With Marwan II still trying to consolidate his own position in Syria and Mesopotamia, Nasr was bereft of any hopes of reinforcement, and the allied armies of Ibn Surayj and al-Kirmani drove him out of Merv towards the end of 746.^[39][40][41] Nasr retreated to Nishapur, but within days al-Kirmani and Ibn Surayj fell out among themselves and clashed, resulting in the death of Ibn Surayj. Nasr now resolved to take back Marv, backed by the Qaysis settled around Nishapur. During summer 747, Nasr's and al-Kirmani's armies confronted each other before the walls of Marv, occupying two fortified camps and skirmishing with each other for several months. The fighting stopped only when news came of the start of the Hashimi uprising under Abu Muslim.^[42][43][44]

Negotiations commenced, but were almost broken off when a member of Nasr's entourage, an embittered son of Ibn Surayj, attacked and killed al-Kirmani. Calmer heads prevailed for the moment, the two sides were able to tentatively settle their differences, and Nasr re-occupied his seat in Marv. Tensions however remained and Abu Muslim soon managed to persuade al-Kirmani's son and successor Ali that Nasr had been involved in his father's murder. As a result, both Ali al-Kirmani and Nasr separately appealed to Abu Muslim for aid against each other, although the latter eventually chose al-Kirmani. On 14 February 748, the Hashimi army occupied Marv, and Nasr again had to flee the city.^[45][46] Pursued by the Hashimi forces under Qahtaba ibn Shabib al-Ta'i, Nasr was forced to abandon Nishapur too after his son Tamim was defeated at Tus, and retreat to the region of Qumis, on the western borderlands of Khurasan. At this point, the long-awaited reinforcements from the Caliph arrived, but their general and Nasr failed to coordinate their movements, and Qahtaba was able to defeat the Caliph's army at Rey and kill its commander. Nasr was now forced to abandon Qumis and flee towards Hamadan. On the way, in the town of Sawa, he fell ill and died on 9 December, at the age of 85.^[1][47][48]

His grandson, Rafi ibn al-Laith, led a large-scale rebellion against the misgovernment of the Abbasid governor Ali ibn Isa ibn Mahan in 807–810, which spread across Khurasan and Transoxiana.^[49]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Bosworth (1993), pp. 1015–1016
2. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 8, 88
3. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 84–85
4. ^ Blankinship (1994), p. 176
5. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 86–87
6. ^ Blankinship (1994), pp. 176–178
7. ^ Shaban (1979), pp. 118–119
8. ^ Sharon (1990), p. 35
9. ^ Shaban (1979), pp. 127–128
10. ^ Sharon (1990), p. 34
11. ^ Blankinship (1994), pp. 182–183
12. ^ Shaban (1979), p. 127
13. ^ Sharon (1990), pp. 34–35
14. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 96, 105
15. ^ ^{a b} Blankinship (1994), p. 183
16. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 106–107
17. ^ Shaban (1979), pp. 129–130
18. ^ Zarrinkub (1999), p. 48
19. ^ Shaban (1979), p. 129
20. ^ Blankinship (1994), pp. 183–184
21. ^ Shaban (1979), pp. 130–131
22. ^ ^{a b} Sharon (1990), p. 37
23. ^ ^{a b} Blankinship (1994), p. 185
24. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 105–107
25. ^ ^{a b} Shaban (1979), p. 131
26. ^ Sharon (1990), pp. 36–37
27. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 106, 110–113
28. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 113ff.
29. ^ Shaban (1979), p. 157
30. ^ Hawting (2000), p. 96
31. ^ ^{a b} Shaban (1979), p. 134
32. ^ Sharon (1990), pp. 42–43
33. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 76, 107
34. ^ Sharon (1990), pp. 43–44
35. ^ Shaban (1979), pp. 134–135
36. ^ Sharon (1990), pp. 44–45
37. ^ Shaban (1979), pp. 135–136
38. ^ Sharon (1990), p. 45
39. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 107–108
40. ^ Shaban (1979), pp. 136–137
41. ^ Sharon (1990), pp. 45–46
42. ^ Hawting (2000), p. 108
43. ^ Shaban (1979), p. 137
44. ^ Sharon (1990), pp. 46–47
45. ^ Hawting (2000), pp. 108–109, 115
46. ^ Shaban (1979), pp. 159–160
47. ^ Hawting (2000), p. 116
48. ^ Zarrinkub (1999), p. 55
49. ^ Mottahedeh (1999), pp. 71–72

Sources

• Blankinship, Khalid Yahya (1994), The end of the jihâd state: the reign of Hishām ibn ʻAbd al-Malik and the collapse of the Umayyads, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0-791418277, http://books.google.com/books?id=Jz0Yy053WS4C 
• Bosworth, C.E. (1993). "Naṣr b. Sayyār". The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume VII: Mif–Naz. Leiden and New York: BRILL. pp. 1015–1016. ISBN 90-04-09419-9. 
• Daniel, Elton L. (1979), The political and social history of Khurasan under Abbasid rule, 747–820, Bibliotheca Islamica 
• Hawting, G.R. (2000), The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661–750 (2nd Edition), Routledge, ISBN 0-415-24072-7, http://books.google.com/books?id=KNczPUUdTbsC 
• Mottahedeh, Roy (1999) [1975], "The ′Abbāsid Caliphate in Iran", in Frye, R. N.; Fisher, William Bayne; Gershevitch, Ilya et al., The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs, Cambridge University Press, pp. 57–89, ISBN 0-521-20093-8, http://books.google.com/books?id=hvx9jq_2L3EC 
• Shaban, M. A. (1979), The Abbasid Revolution, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-2-9534-3, http://books.google.com/books?id=1_03AAAAIAAJ 
• Sharon, Moshe (1990), Revolt: the social and military aspects of the ʻAbbāsid revolution, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, ISBN 965-223-388-9, http://books.google.com/books?id=cTLMgO9dU4cC 
• Zarrinkub, Abd al-Husain (1999) [1975], "The Arab conquest of Iran and its aftermath", in Frye, R. N.; Fisher, William Bayne; Gershevitch, Ilya et al., The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs, Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–56, ISBN 0-521-20093-8, http://books.google.com/books?id=hvx9jq_2L3EC 

Persondata
Name	Nasr Ibn Sayyar
Alternative names
Short description	General and last Umayyad governor of Khurasan
Date of birth	663
Place of birth
Date of death	748
Place of death