A JEWISH CHILD OF BOKHĀRĀ
It has been stated above that the province of Māvarā-un-Nahr, or Transoxiana, had been held during the supremacy of the Tāhirides by various members of the house of Sāmān. At the time of the overthrow of the Tāhirides by Ya`kūb ibn Layth, Nasr ibn Ahmed was governor of Samarkand. We are told[223] that, after the fall of the Tāhirides, Muwaffak sent a regal mandate to Nasr ibn Ahmed appointing him to the government of all Transoxiana, from the banks of the Oxus to the farthest East.[224] It is not apparent how he became independent of the new masters of Khorāsān;[225] but in the year 261 we find Nasr, with the help of his brother Isma`īl, engaged in the direction of affairs in Transoxiana. Narshakhi tells us that the names of both were mentioned in the public prayers, while that of Ya`kūb ibn Layth was omitted. Nasr appears to have had a natural predilection for the town of Samarkand, and on this account, perhaps, on receiving his appointment from the Caliph, he did not proceed to the then capital, Bokhārā, but sent thither a deputy in the person of his brother Isma`īl, who was then but twenty-seven years of age. Bokhārā was at this period in a state of great disorder owing to the dissensions of political and religious factions, and partly to the rapine caused by organised robber-bands which infested the country. Isma`īl, who shone as a general and an administrator, and possessed the rarer faculty of winning men’s hearts by his justice and clemency, soon established order throughout the country, and succeeded in extirpating the banditti, whose numbers, we are told, even between Rāmtīna and Barkad, amounted to 4000.[226] All would have gone well in Nasr’s dominions had not his jealousy, or proneness to listen to the voice of slander, led him to quarrel with his brother. It is not necessary to recount the various phases of these one-sided disputes. Suffice it to say that while, on the one hand, Isma`īl always remained loyal to his brother, Nasr himself was too prudent to withdraw him abruptly from Bokhārā, where he had won the esteem and affection of the people. But in A.H. 272 (885) he succumbed to the wiles of self-interested advisers and marched against his brother, who fled from Bokhārā and called upon his friend Rāfi` ibn Harthama,[227] the viceroy of Khorāsān, for aid.[228] Nasr soon brought most of the towns of Bokhārā to submission, and forbade their citizens to furnish supplies to Isma`īl and his army, who soon felt the stress of famine. So pitiable, indeed, was their plight by the time that Rāfi` arrived, that the governor of Khorāsān, rather than embark upon so losing a venture, suddenly declared to Nasr that he was not come to make war, but peace, between the brothers. Terms were soon arrived at by which the government of Bokhārā was given to Ishak, while Isma`īl was appointed tax-collector (`āmil-i-kharāj), A.H. 273 (886). These matters being settled, Nasr returned to Samarkand, and Rāfi` to Khorāsān. But in the following year Nasr, dissatisfied with the accounts rendered by Isma`īl, and perhaps suspecting treachery on the part of Isma`īl and Ishak, again prepared to attack Bokhārā. To this end he drew large reinforcements from Farghāna. Isma`īl, determined on this occasion to be better prepared to encounter his brother, raised a powerful contingent in Khwārazm. After suffering a few slight reverses, Isma`īl, at the end of the year A.H. 275 (888), administered a crushing defeat on his brother and took him prisoner. At this crisis, as on many other occasions,[229] if we are to believe the historians, Isma`īl displayed an almost incredible degree of generosity, for he treated his fallen brother with the utmost deference and kindness, and sent him back to Samarkand without suggesting any change in their relative positions. Nasr seems from this date to have ruled peacefully until his death in A.H. 279 (893).
CHAPTER XV
The Sāmānides
On the death of Nasr ibn Ahmed, A.H. 279 (892), Isma`īl became the acknowledged lord of Transoxiana and Khwārazm, with Bokhārā as his capital. His succession was furthermore confirmed by a royal patent from the Caliph Mu`tadhid. The first recorded act of Isma`īl’s reign was the ghazā, or Holy War, which he conducted against the Christian settlement of Tarāz.[230] The undertaking, according to Narshakhi,[231] cost him no little trouble; but finally “the Amīr and many of the Dihkāns embraced Islam,” and opened the gates of Tarāz to Isma`īl, who immediately converted the principal church into a mosque and had prayers in the Caliph’s name. His troops returned to Bokhārā laden with booty.[232] In the meantime `Amr ibn Layth had reorganised his shattered forces,[233] and set out on a fresh career of conquest. In 279 Mu`tadhid, on the death of his brother, succeeded to the Caliphate. `Amr ibn Layth, who had been the late Caliph’s bitterest enemy, now offered his services to his successor, who appointed him to the governorship of Khorāsān. The Caliph doubtless thought that `Amr would act as a useful counterpoise to the Sāmānides, whose power was daily increasing in Transoxiana, and Rāfi` ibn Harthama, who was in possession of part of Khorāsān and Persian `Irāk.[234] In A.H. 283 (896) `Amr defeated Rāfi` and took possession of Nīshāpūr. Rāfi` was cruelly murdered, and his head sent as a trophy of `Amr’s successes to Baghdād. `Amr’s ambition now knew no bounds. He insisted that the Sāmānides should be removed from Transoxiana, and that the province should be added to his governorship. The Caliph, in reply to these demands, urged him to attack Isma`īl, and practically offered him the province should his expedition prove successful, while at the same time he confirmed Isma`īl in his governorship, and encouraged him to withstand `Amr.[235] He doubtless hoped, by provoking a conflict, to weaken the power of both men. These hostilities finally culminated in the siege and capture of Balkh, A.H. 288 (900), when `Amr fell into Isma`īl’s hands.[236] In this connection, again, wonderful stories are told of Isma`īl’s generosity towards his fallen enemies. It is said, indeed, that he would have kept `Amr by him, and treated him with kindness and distinction, had not the Caliph demanded that his enemy should be delivered over to him for punishment. `Amr was therefore sent to Baghdād, where he remained a close prisoner until his death by the executioner’s hand in A.H. 290 (903).[237] He was nominally succeeded by a son, Tāhir, who, however, only held his post for one year.
As soon as `Amr arrived a prisoner in Baghdād the Caliph sent a royal patent confirming the appointment of Isma`īl to the governorship of “Khorāsān, Turkestān, Māvarā-un-Nahr, Sind, Hind, and Jurjān.”[238] Isma`īl’s government is spoken of in the highest terms, and we are expressly told by Narshakhi that throughout his rule he owed implicit obedience to the Caliph. He chose Bokhārā as his capital,[239] and appointed separate governors for all the towns in his realms.
The last campaign in which he engaged was against the Turks in the modern Hazrat-i-Turkestān, whom in A.H. 291 (903) he drove back within their own frontiers, while Isma`īl returned to Bokhārā laden with plunder.
The last four years of Isma`īl’s reign were characterised by internal peace and progress, which enabled him to devote much of his attention to the welfare of his beloved city of Bokhārā, which now became a great centre of Mohammedan learning and culture.[240] Many of the principal buildings in Bokhārā date back to the days of Amīr Isma`īl, and among her children are to be reckoned some of the greatest theologians, jurisconsults, historians, and poets of the day. Bokhārā was, moreover, the capital of an empire which included such famous and widely separated towns as Merv, Nīshāpūr, Ray, Āmul, Herat, and Balkh.[241] At this date Bokhārā fully deserved the title of Sherīf or “the Noble,” which she has retained to the present time, when the memory alone of her ancient greatness survives.
Such was the inheritance which Isma`īl, on his death[242] in A.H. 295 (907), left to his son Ahmed.