CHAPTER II: An Overview of Slavery in the History of Muslims

Slavery during the Reign of the Pre-Umayyad Caliphs and Arab Conquests:

Firstly: slavery in the Islamic Yathreb city-state:

1- The Islamic city-state of Yathreb established by Prophet Muhammad was based on the following principles. 

1/1: Peace with the outside world: we have explained in many of our previous writings that fighting or waging wars in Islam is ONLY for the sake of self-defense, especially to prevent religious persecution. Accordingly, there was no room in the city-state of Yathreb for aggression, injustice, enslavement, or looting. Peace with inside world: citizens of this city-state were those peaceful ones in general, regardless of their religious beliefs, even idol-worshippers who refused Islam; see 22:30 and 5:90-92, and even those who opposed city-state of Yathreb and Islam, as long as they did not hold arms and did not commit aggression, such as hypocrites of Yathreb at the time. 

1/2: Justice: this principle includes equality among all citizens regardless of social rank or status, economic status, and gender. Piety is not included as criterion to differentiate citizens, but it is included only as the criterion by God in the Judgment Day; see 49:13.

1/3: freedom (religious and political): the principle of freedom overlaps naturally with the concept of citizenship; citizens are to have absolute religious freedom (faith, beliefs, rituals, acts of worship, call and proselytization, houses of worship, etc.). Citizens are to have absolute political freedom; this means the right to form opposition movements, self-expression, participation within direct democracy, active participation in rule and government. The core Quranic principles support this; all citizens are servants/slaves to Almighty God alone and not to any mortals; they are not to have any master/deity except God, and they are not to obey mortal creatures in things that are deemed disobedience of God; see 4:59. Consequently, within Islam (the Quran alone, for Quranists), it is prohibited that one is to think herself/himself as superior over others as ruler of them; see 28:83. The reason: societies rule themselves by themselves within the mechanism of Shura (i.e., consultation) or better known in modern terms as direct democracy, explained in our previous writings in Arabic and in English.  

2- Within a really Islamic country that applies Quran, slaves of both genders, if present, enjoy all citizenry rights, religious freedom, and political freedom like the rest of all free citizens, and Quranic sharia laws about slaves had been revealed within such frame.

3- Of course, such Quranic sharia were ignored, overlooked, and discarded during the caliphate of Abou Bakr and his wars: the Arab conquests outside Arabia and the so-called renegades' wars before it.

Enslavement is linked to Arab wars within the renegades' wars and Arab conquests beginning during the reign of the caliph Abou Bakr

1- Self-defense fighting in Islamic sharia in the Quran entails setting free of POWs or captured ones in return to nothing at all as an act of charity or within a process of exchanging POWs with the other warring party: "… either release them by grace, or by exchange for others, until war lays down its burdens…" (47:4). See also 9:6, 8:68-71, and 4:94. Moreover, no Islamic teachings in the Quran urge killing of captured ones or POWs. A coming historical research of ours will be published about criticizing and refuting the narratives of killing captured ones, authored by Ibn Ishaq in his false biography of Muhammad.

2- It was typical during the crime called Arab conquests and during inter-Muslim civil wars that broke out decades later to kill off POWs among ordinary captured men or soldiers while keeping alive captured military leaders to get ransom money, or to use them as cards/pawns during negotiations. Of course, such was the case with warring captured persons; as for non-warring civilians like women and children, they were enslaved. Enslavement of civilians was typical during pre-Islamic era raids among Arabian tribes. Such a bad habit was stopped with the advent of Islam and its call for peaceful behavior, and when all Arabians entered into ''peace'' within that level of meaning of Islam (see 110:2), enslavement stopped. Yet, once Muhammad died, enslavement returned with a vengeance; especially during the so-called renegades' wars during the caliphate of Abou Bakr, as per historical accounts of that period. Sadly, enslavement spread the more during the crime of Arab conquests; Arab fighters of conquests felt the urge to capture as many pretty women as possible to have sex before they might possibly die in battlefields, and pretty enslaved women became part of ''spoils'' of wars, and it was a coveted target to achieve to enslave as many women as possible! In the coming paragraphs, let us quote some passages, with a focus on enslavement, from historical accounts written by the historian Ibn Al-Atheer, in his known book of accounts of history titled "Al-Kamel", about the year 12 A.H. during the caliphate/rule of Abou Bakr.       

3- (… About renegades from the people of Oman … historians held diverse views about the history of engaging into wars against those renegades, as Arabs conquered Bahrain, Yemen, Oman, and Al-Yamama territories, and Arab fighters were sent later on to the Levant in 12 A.H. … Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed knew that among the renegades was Rabeia, and he hunted him down to kill him along with his family and he confiscated his possessions and enslaved his family members and children … the daughter of the killed Rabeia was sent to the caliph, Abou Bakr, who sent her as a gift to Ali Ibn Abou Talib … she bore Ali Ibn Abou Talib a son, named Omar, and a daughter, named Roqayya …). We read here about enslavement of women and children. After the death of his wife who was Muhammad's daughter, Fatima, Ali Ibn Abou Talib used to seize any chance to get (by buying or given to him as gifts) as many pretty enslaved women as possible to enjoy them in bed, and he had several offspring born to him by these female slaves, and such offspring died in the battle of Karbala, in Iraq, later on. This is just an example from the incidents of the so-called renegades' wars; let us quote in the next paragraph a passage about the Arab conquest of Iraq, which was controlled at the time by Persians.

4- (… At least 30 thousands of Persians were killed in the battlefield, and countless ones were drowned … spoils were distributed within five equal portions, and large portions were sent to Yathreb … children and women of dead fighters were enslaved and sent to Yathreb, and Iraqi peasants were dhimmis who paid taxes and annual tributes and cultivated the lands for the caliph …). When we imagine the plight and suffering of countless children and women who walk in caravans from Iraq, the Levant, Egypt, and North Africa until they reach Yathreb, we can easily discern that such grave injustice was so pleasing to Satan as it was against God and His Quranic teachings; Arab conquests were for the sake of Satan and not God.  

5- (… Foreigners were vanquished by Arab armies, and Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed planned movements of his armies in a way to surround the enemies, killing most of them, and those who fled died of thirst and hunger … peasants were given peace on condition of becoming dhimmis who paid taxes and annual tributes and cultivated the lands for the caliph … all offspring and women of dead soldiers were enslaved and sent to Yathreb …).

6- (… As Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed conquered Al-Anbar region, in Iraq, he appointed an Arab governor over it, and he led his troops to a neighboring area … a huge Persian army was waiting for Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed and his army … Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed was shrewd enough to plan a plot to capture the Persian leaders of that army in an ambush … the rest of the Persian army lost its morale and many of its soldiers were captured … victory was achieved without much fighting … many Persian fighters were panicked and deserted their fortress to flee … some remained inside and tried to negotiate peace with Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed … he refused and killed all those inside the fortress, while enslaving their women and children … forty children inside a nearby monastery were learning the gospels, but Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed enslaved all such children and sent them to Yathreb to the caliph Abou Bakr …).

7- (… An Arab governor sent a letter to Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed  to ask him for troops to defeat infidels who deserted Islam after feigning conversion to it … Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed led such troops himself … after killing so many of the dwellers of the city, he killed the captured men as well … he enslaved all children and women present, and bought for himself from such enslaved women a pretty famous local beauty who was the daughter of one of the dead leaders of rebellion …).

8- (… Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed marched with his troops from Iraq to the Levant, as the Byzantines began to threaten the borders, and Muslims of the Levant asked for the help of Abou Bakr, the caliph, who in his turn sent an epistle to Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed to march along with his soldiers to the Levant to deter the Byzantines … Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed  fought and crushed all Byzantines and all Levantine rebels he found all his way, enslaving so many of their women and children, and hoarding countless spoils … a pretty women was sent to Ali Ibn Abou Talib as a gift, who bore him a son later on … all looted money were distributed among troops of Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed, while sending the usual share to the caliph in Yathreb … all those who tried to make peace an surrender were enslaved and sent to Yathreb … some men, women, and children took sanctuary in a church; the men were killed and the women and children were enslaved and sent to Yathreb …).

9- Ibn Al-Atheer wrote  shortened version of the history book authored by Al-Tabari which is filled by more details and accounts. Yet, lines written by Ibn Al-Atheer are also filled with incidents of murdering thousands of POWs and captured persons as well as enslavement of hundreds of thousands of women and children among families of fighters in nations conquered by Arabs; those fighters were true heroes who defended their respective countries and folks. Khaled Ibn Al-Waleed would to spare peasants from being killed in order to make them dhimmis (i.e., the lowered status of dhimmitude: non-Muslims second-  or third-class citizens) to plant and cultivate lands for the sake of the Qorayish tribe.

10- The Qorayish tribe was never contemporary alongside with Islam except for few years, and before its members converted OVERTLY and APPARENTLY to Islam, it had its black history of persecuting Muhammad and early Muslims, driving them out of Mecca and fighting them within borders of Yathreb. They feigned to convert to Islam as an afterthought shortly before Muhammad's death to protect their political and economic interests, especially as people converted by throngs (see Quranic Chapter 110) to Islam, on the level of peaceful behavior and not necessarily in terms of faith/belief in the Quran. Once Muhammad died, Qorayish retrieved its authority and power within the caliphate/rule of Abou Bakr, who insisted on Arabs paying zakat money for him (this is against the Quran, of course), and during the lifetime of Muhammad, zakat was voluntarily paid to Muhammad to be distributed to the poor, and even God commanded Muhammad not to accept money paid by hypocrites; see 9:53-54. Typically, tribes would gather donations, charity money, and zakat money to be distributed among the poor within these tribes, and Arabs had every right to revolt against Abou Bakr who insisted on collected such money himself. Hence, the first civil war fights began, known as the so-called renegades' wars. Qorayish leaders quelled revolts and rebels, and among the Qorayish tribesmen who fought alongside with Abou Bakr were those who never saw Muhammad before. Once the so-called renegades' wars ended, Qorayish felt obliged to direct and channel the force and momentum of Arab military fighters outside Arabia. Hence, the crime of Arab conquests of other countries began, led by Qorayish – without the participation of Yathreb dwellers at first – and Qorayish gained huge benefits, more than Arab fighters. Hence, another crime was perpetrated: the Arab civil war by Arabian Bedouins (or desert-Arabs) against Qorayish hegemony and confiscation of ill-gotten wealth from spoils of Arab conquests.        

11- This contradicted Islam and caused the discarding and overlooking of all Quranic teachings about self-defense fighting and about slaves, and even Quranic terminology about such topics, among other topics, had other different false meanings to Arabs at the time, in an intentional act of distortion of meanings of the Quranic teachings.

COMMENTS:

1- Dalya Samy: I have a question to put to you, dear Dr. Mansour, about your assertion above that slaves are to have the same equal citizenry rights in religious, intellectual, and political aspects: who exactly are to be considered as ''slaves'' in any given Islamic country?!  Slavery was allowed before the advent of Islam but I do believe it is prohibited by the Quran, right? And please, dear Dr. Mansour, I would like you to explain to me 8:67. Thank you in advance.

2- Ben Levante: I tend to think that before entering into the labyrinth of historical accounts, we must define some terms and answer some questions about slaves. How does the Quran define slaves? What were the sources of procuring slaves in Arabia before Islam and after it? Does the Quran endorse owning slaves? What about the Middle-Ages enslavement, captivity, piracy, etc.? Is slavery linked with 16:126 and 2:194? What about POWs?  

3- Dr. A. S. Mansour: May God bless all of you and reward you in Heaven for your help to our person. Most of the questions posed here will receive their answers in the next sections/articles. As for how to deal fairy and justly with POWs in Islam, we refer you to our article in Arabic titled "Proving that ISIS Terrorists Are Archenemies of Islam: Dealing Fairly with POWS in Islam", and here is its link: www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/show_article.php?main_id=12939

4- Ahmed Drami: I thank our dear Dr. Mansour for his lucid articles. I am sure self-defense fighting in the Quran does not include capturing POWs or enslaving any civilians as ''spoils''; see 33:27 that assert my point here, and many other verses that urge believers to care for widows and orphans and to marry widows for that purpose, especially when circumstances of self-defense fighting lead to the killing of so many men.

Enslavement and forced military service:

Introduction:

1- Islam, the religion of peace, and its peaceful country that applies the Quran have no room for forced military service. Like all acts of worship, self-defense fighting must be done voluntarily as long as a believer physically have the ability, seeking to obey and please God. Hence. There is no penalty exacted in this life by a human being from another in case of not performing acts of worship and not to perform one's role and duty of self-defense fighting or jihad by money and otherwise. Let us remember that we know from the Quran that hypocrites used to be reluctant to participate in self-defense fighting in Yathreb; see 9:81-82,. God punished them only by not allowing them the honor of taking part in it in the future; see 2:83. 

2- During the Middle Ages, Arabs linked enslavement to military recruitment within tyranny rule and within forms of Arab aggressions, as some men voluntarily enslaved themselves by joining Arab armies in their aggressions. 

3- River-banks countries were usually stable ones in term of being unified strong political entities. Egypt, for instance, was ruled by Pharaonic despots and tyrants in ancient times, with their power consisting of huge armies, obsequious clergymen, government officials, cronies, viziers, henchmen, etc. and this retinue would think of itself as owning – or enslaving – the working force of the citizens in agriculture to serve the tyrant and his retinue. Moses' Pharaoh was an example of this; he thought he owned Egypt; see 43:51, and likewise, he thought he owned its people who cultivate its land. Hence, a nation would be slaves of Pharaoh. This was repeated in ancient times in Egypt, Persia, India, and China. Such agricultural civilizations were sometimes in times of weakness and degeneration raided by desert shepherding tribes who were assassins and thought of their tribe as a mobile homeland/nation/army or state, as the case with tribes of Arabia, Anatolia, and that of the Moghuls in the Far East. In some cases, like in Asia Minor, tribesmen would unite from all tribes, after decades of experience in daily raiding and fighting, to decide to form empires, which were temporary and vast in the Ancient World where rivers would be, as done by Arabs, the Moghuls, and the Ottomans. Yet, soon enough, such empires would lose so many skilled soldiers, and intrigues and conflicts to ascend to thrones would arise, and collapse would occur inevitably. On the margin of all this, enslavement occurred to fill in gaps and shortage of soldiers, within those who join armies voluntarily to seek treasures, adventure, or thrones as mercenaries, or those male slaves bought and trained to join the armies, and we give below a brief overview.

Firstly: slaves in service of tyrants and despots:

1- To avoid intertribal civil wars in Arabia, the Qorayish tribe had mobilized all Arabs to conquer river-side countries in Egypt, Iraq, Persia, and the Levant, under the motto of 'Islam' and 'jihad', and within one century, Arabs conquered all territories in the Ancient world between China and south of France. 

2- Arabs were the only race of soldiers before the emergence of the Umayyad caliphate, as later on, non-Arabs from conquered nations joined Arab armies as well as slaves bought by Arab masters. Within the Abbasid caliphate, more non-Arabs were recruited into Arab armies, especial Persians, and when rivalry between Arabs and Persians grew fiercer with the passage of time, Persians achieved a  decisive victory in controlling the Abbasid caliphate when Persians won victory for the caliph Al-Maamoun over his Arabs-backed brother/predecessor the caliph Al-Amin.  

3- The Abbasid caliph Al-Motassim who ruled between 218 and 227 A.H. introduced a new custom of buying Turkish slaves to recruit them into the army from Asia Minor, among other races as mercenaries from tribes in Egypt, Samarkand, etc. and hence, military recruitment of enslaved men began by the Abbasid caliphs. 

Secondly: slaves controlling the Abbasid caliph:

1- The Abbasid caliph Al-Motawakil who succeeded his father, Al-Motassim, relied on Turkish slaves in his personal guards, armies, and rule and appointed some of them as viziers. Hence, a new era began where Turkish political and military leaders, who were originally bought slaves, fully controlled the Abbasid caliphate to the extent that they would depose, dethrone, murder, and appoint caliphs. Some Turkish leaders actually managed to establish independent states within the Abbasid caliphate, like the Tulunids in Egypt and the Levant (256:292 A.H.) and the Ikhshidid State (323:358) in Egypt and the Levant.   

2- We of course focus here on the fact that those Turkish political and military leaders were originally bought male slaves who received military training. Some of them would voluntarily join the Abbasid armies without being a slave in the first place: this was enslaving oneself as per personal choice as mercenaries. Many of them were be promoted as leaders, as many Arab and Persian leaders and soldiers died and there were shortage. By the way, Asia Minor at the time suffered abject poverty and raids against it led by primitive tribes coming from the east, and the Turkish men found no alternative but to immigrate to Baghdad to join Abbasid armies seeking adventure, employment, and the chance to amass wealth and to get power and authority.   

Thirdly: succession of the rule of Asian tribes within the Abbasid caliphate:

1- Turkish leaders replaced Persian ones in controlling the Abbasid caliphate. Persian leaders had previously resorted to tribalism and Shiite and racial fanaticism to join forces and control Persia, Middle Asia and larger parts of Iraq, under the Shiite Buyyids dynasty, since 334 A.H., but they later on fought one another and grew weak before their inevitable collapse. Turkish tribalism and racial fanaticism began with the Sunnite extremists called the Seljuks, who emerged in 420 A.H., and began to establish their empire in 447 A.H. that controlled Middle Asia, Asia Minor, Iraq, and the Levant, and had to fight the crusaders. Later on, the Seljuks fought one another and grew weak before their inevitable collapse. Their previous territories in the Levant were inherited by the Zengid dynasty who later on took over Iraq, and the Zengid rulers Emad Eddine and Nor Eddine were famous in history because of their defeating the crusaders.   

2- The Zengid rulers grew weak once Nor Eddine died, and the Kurdish Ayyubids replaced them, who took over Egypt as well, and hence, the way was paved to allow male slaves to rule over nations of free people, as we will explain below.

Fourthly: the slaves (i.e., the Mamelukes) became sultans ruling over free people:

1- Ayyubids were not tribes; rather, they were one family or household of military leaders, like Najm Eddine Ayoub and his brother Assad Eddine Shirkoh, and the former was the father of Saladin (Salah Eddine in Arabic), who was in his turn the most powerful and prominent leader in the armies of the Zengid ruler Nor Eddine at one point.   

2- Each powerful leader and ruler had to buy as many slaves (i.e., literally in Arabic: Mamelukes) to train them militarily to increase one's power against one's rivals. Assad Eddine Shirkoh had his own Mamelukes to rule over Egypt on behalf of the sultan Nor Eddine the Zengid, and before that, he managed to oust the last Fatimid sultan in Egypt. The number of Mamelukes owned and trained by Assad Eddine Shirkoh increased and they were called Assadiyya Mamelukes, a name to signify their being owned by Assad Eddine Shirkoh. When he died, Saladin ruled over Egypt as he succeeded him and had his own Salahiyya Mamelukes, a name to signify their being owned by Salah Eddine (Saladin), and who were rivaled by Assadiyya Mamelukes. After Saladin's death, he was succeeded by his brother Al-Adil, who had his own Adileyyia Mamelukes, a name to signify their being owned by the sultan Al-Adil. When Al-Adil died, he was succeeded by his son, a sultan named Al-Kamel, who had his own Kameleyyia Mamelukes, a name to signify their being owned by the sultan Al-Kamel. Hence, each new sultan would have his own Mamelukes and the ancient ones would have less power and were often persecuted. Rivalries increased and loyalties would change by money. The last Ayyubid sultan, Al-Saleh Najm Eddine Ayoub, ruler of both Egypt and the Levant, had the largest number of Mamelukes; Cairo could not host all of them, and he had to build barracks for them overlooking the River Nile outside Cairo. They were called the Bahariyya Mamelukes (a name signifying their residence near the River Nile). Those Mamelukes hated the son of Al-Saleh, Turan Shah, as he persecuted them cruelly and was never thankful for them as they preserved his throne for him after his father's death during his absence and for their defeating the crusaders led by Louis IX of France who tried to occupy Egypt. Those Mamelukes had to kill him to end the Ayyubid dynasty and to establish their Mameluke State headed first by Shagaret Al-Dor, the Queen who was a former female slave an later wife of Al-Saleh, the dead sultan, and after her murder, Mameluke sultans succeeded to the throne of Egypt and the Levant, as slaves who ruled over free people.       

3- At the time when the very first male Mameluke became sultan, it was unprecedented that former slaves rule free nations, and the Egyptians revolted against this, though they rarely revolt at all. We quote here the words of Abou Al-Mahasin, the historian of that era: (… The Egyptians did not like to be ruled by a sultan who was formerly a bought slave, a Mameluke, and mocked the sultan whenever he would appear on horseback in the streets of Cairo …). When Egyptians revolted and demanded the ouster of such Mameluke sultan, the Mamelukes had no choice but to act cruelly against all revolting Egyptians and the masses. Abou Al-Mahasin and another historian of that period, Al-Makrizi, assert in their accounts that the cruelty of Mamelukes at the time against the Egyptians exceeded what to be expected if ever crusaders would have ruled Egypt! Egyptians had to be subjugated by military force to accept the new rule, however unwillingly. Yet, deep-seated hatred drove some Arabs in Egypt, who were Shiite Alawites, to lead another revolt under the claim that only people of Arab origin should rule over Egypt, and not non-Arab Mamelukes (i.e., slaves) whose origin was unknown. The leader of this revolt was Hisn Eddine Thaalab, who established a state of his own in Middle Egypt and the area near Nile Delta known today as Al-Sharqiyah Governorate in Egypt. Hisn Eddine Thaalab tried to contact Ayyubids ruling parts of the Levant and northern Iraq to seek their aid to defeat the Mamelukes, enemies of Ayyubids, but unfortunately, the Ayyubids ignored him and made pacts with the Mamelukes, and the latter vanquished Hisn Eddine Thaalab and killed off most of his men, thus bringing an end to revolts against the Mamelukes, as per words of Al-Makrizi.       

4- Hence, a new era began by the Mamelukes: former slaves became sultans and rulers, and being a former slave began to be among the qualifications required to be enthroned, as well as military prowess and skills that ensured more power, control, authority, and wealth. Thus, a sultan may have been a slave bought by a former master, militarily trained and cultured in Arabic literature and arts, as well as martial arts, and would be promoted to be a military leader and had access to palaces intrigues until he might reach the throne. Hence, on very rare occasions, a Mameluke sultan could leave the throne to his offspring after his death; other Mamelukes would deem themselves more worthy of the throne as they were military slaves with prowess and power, not inheritors of thrones by 'royal' birth. Hence, only one powerful Mameluke sultan, named Qalawun, managed to leave the throne to his descendants, by buying all military slaves and buying their loyalty, but such Mamelukes, who resided in castles and fortresses around Cairo, controlled for long decades sultans who were descendants of Qalawun the sultan, as they were sources of any sultan's power and authority.       

5- Regular enslavement (voluntarily by youths and forced kidnapping and buying of children) allowed the society of Mamelukes to renew itself continuously; each prince or leader had to have his own military group to increase his power. The most powerful Mamelukes were the ones bought and trained to be loyal only to the enthroned sultan. Such leaders would be promoted as per their skills and abilities, and both bribery and intrigues were thrive to allow one to be promoted to high-rank posts in the military and government. The over-ambitious ones would struggle to be enthroned as the sultan of Egypt and the Levant; some succeeded in achieving that goal and many lost their lives while endeavoring to achieve it. 

6- The Mamelukes ruled Egypt and the Levant, and their era witnessed the phenomenon of voluntary enslavement: youths of Europe and Asia saw that they would be enslaved into Egypt like those children kidnapped or bought into slavery from such areas – in order to have the chance to receive military training by Mameluke sultans and be promoted to high-rank posts to achieve wealth and power soon enough. The demand was high for such type of military recruitment as high-rank Mameluke princes each had to have his own army of mercenaries. Hence, brought Mamelukes increased from among non-Arab youths who were blond. They were evil embodied; they had no morals or creed, and they specialized in theft, raids, looting, rape of both women and children, and causing political and military unrest all over Egypt and the Levant. These atrocities were repeated by the Janissaries in the Ottoman era: they were youths trained properly to be fierce military leaders, but they were evil and  power- and wealth-hungry group that made use of the weakness of the Ottomans to form gangs of looting, rape, chaos, and corruption. Of course, when Muhammad Ali Pacha became the ruler of Egypt, he killed off and massacred such gangsters of Mamelukes and Janissaries to rid Egyptians of their evil corruption.    

Lastly: we have various cases:

1- A tyrannical Pharaoh, with armies of mercenaries, who was enslaving people in river areas.

2- An army which was the ruling tribe(s) that enslave men to recruit and train them into military armies.

3- A tyrannical despot or Pharaoh used to buy and train slaves (i.e., Mamelukes in Arabic) to use them to rule and control people, but soon enough, such military former slaves would control the despot and his dynasty or household: this occurred to the Abbasids by their Turkish leaders who were former slaves, and to the Ottomans by its their bought leaders the Janissaries.   

4- The Mamelukes bought by the Ayyubids managed later on to establish the Mamelukes caliphate, and they were fitter than their former masters the Ayyubids in terms of rule and military prowess. The Mamelukes set the new criterion of reaching the throne: a caliph must be  former military slave (i.e., a Mameluke) with military prowess and expertise as well wealth and authority over fierce military leaders. 

5- Anyway, such conditions increased the phenomenon of those who voluntarily join enslavement in order to achieve their ambition to reach the throne or to seek wealth and power, and this began within the Abbasid dynasty and reached a peak during the Mameluke era.

6- Finally, we feel bound to say that the role of slaves in that aspect is a topic rarely researched by historians.

7- We will give below some details from various historical accounts.

The power and authority of castrated slaves in palaces of the Ottomans:

Introduction:

 During the caliphate of Al-Maamoun, the Abbasid caliph, a leader named Abdullah Ibn Taher, died in 230 A.H., hated very much the phenomenon of castration and the presence of eunuchs, repeating his famous phrase: (… eunuchs are acting like men among gathered women and acting like women among gathered men …). This was despite the fact that the existence of eunuchs in the social Abbasid life was considered familiar an normal, and rarely anyone could hide sexual feelings of men who liked to have sex with eunuchs, as we read in books of Al-Jahiz, who died in 255 A.H. With the passage of centuries, presence of eunuchs increased and they were often prompted to high-rank posts in Ottoman palaces. We give below a brief overview about this phenomenon based on the encyclopedia titled "The Ottoman Empire: Tome One", authored by the late Dr. Abdel-Aziz Al-Shennawi, who used to teach us at Al-Azhar University decades ago. This will be followed by another brief overview about eunuchs and castration in Egypt, based on the book titled "Apercu general sur l'Egypte" (1840) (in English: A General Overview of Egypt) authored by the French physician Antoine Barthelemy Clot who resided for a while in Egypt, and was known there as Clot Bey.     

Firstly: eunuchs in palaces of the Ottomans:

 In general, eunuchs were too powerful in their posts in Ottoman palaces court. There was rivalry and competition between black and white eunuchs. In many cases, interests of eunuchs were the same as concubines in seraglios of sultans, as eunuchs were sexually used by sultans and the wealthy affluent men during the Ottoman era. Eunuchs used to receive certain education to be culturally fit, with proper training and etiquette, serve in palaces. The Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III abolished formally castration an eunuchs system in 1716; yet, he failed to stop this phenomena, as eunuchs were associated with the Ottomans and existed until the Ottoman caliphate was abolished in 1920s, and we give more details below.

1- Sources of eunuchs: governors of cities and countries throughout the Ottoman Empire used to choose the pretty male children to castrate them and send the surviving ones as gifts to the Ottoman caliph/sultan. Many agents under the Ottoman sultan used to procure such children by buying them from gangs specialized in kidnapping children from Middle Europe, and their captors castrated them before selling them. Many of the surviving eunuchs rejected by the Ottomans in Turkey would be sold as slaves in other Ottoman cities all over the empire. Sometimes, white-skinned military Mameluke soldiers would be punished, for one reason or the other, by being castrated, and they would leave the military service to join white eunuchs.      

2- Measures taken to receive and prepare eunuchs: once they reached Istanbul, eunuchs would convert to Islam and join groups of castrated ones to be trained and educated. They were presented to the head of black eunuchs and other high-rank eunuchs in the hierarchy, and their names would be written down. They would be subdivided into smaller groups to be trained and educated. They would learn Arabic, Turkish, Islamic teachings, etiquette, and the military training fit for the job of guarding seraglios.   

3- Two types of eunuchs: there were black-skinned and white-skinned ones. The black eunuchs used to serve concubines inside seraglios and serve and guard free women in general, with a hierarchy that allowed promotion in ranks and posts. The white eunuchs had the same jobs in seraglios and serving and guarding free women, but they had additional tasks of training and educating novices among castrated victims brought into Istanbul. Of course, such education included how to please men sexually in bed! 

4- Power and authority of eunuchs: during times of weakness of the Ottoman sultans, leaders of eunuchs had more power and authority. As per Ottoman sultans' protocol, the head of black eunuchs had the highest rank in the palace, preceded only by the grand vizier and the 'Islamic' judge/scholar. Powerful heads of eunuchs used to wield power just like some women of the seraglio, to the extent that a black head of eunuchs managed to convince Mehmet IV the Ottoman sultan to appoint a certain man as the grand vizier. Eunuchs in general used to convey messages and orders of the women in seraglios, to be done at once, whether they were personal requests or interference in political affairs of the empire. Hence, black eunuchs used to participate in palaces intrigues and gain wealth by bribes and the like.  

Secondly: eunuchs in Ottoman Egypt (tears of slaves):

 In the book titled "Apercu general sur l'Egypte"  (in English: A General Overview of Egypt) authored in 1840 by the French physician Antoine Barthelemy Clot who resided for a while in Egypt, and was known there as Clot Bey, we read about Egypt of the first half of the 19^th century. Clot Bey (1793:1868) was the Minister of Health during the reign of the king, Muhammad Ali Pacha, and a member of the royal medical academy in Paris. He dedicated his book to Muhammad Ali Pacha. This book was translated into Arabic by Muhammad Masood, who used to work in the Egyptian Foreign Office, and who died in 1940. Let us quote from this book passages linked to castration and eunuchs of that era in Egypt.      

1- Clot Bey writes the following about the habit of castration in Egypt that went on during the first half of the 19^th century: (…  Castration is being done exclusively in Egypt, as the country became the source of exporting eunuchs to all over the Arab world for palaces of the rich and affluent as well as governors and rulers … all enslaved children captured from all over the world are gathered in the cities of Asyut and Girga, in Upper Egypt, as Coptic clergy in two monasteries there would undertake committing the crime of castrating male children … I could not have imagined that such Christians would be engaged in such disgraceful act that is shameful to human dignity and to religion … residents of both cities despise such Coptic clergy for their deeds … this crime of castration is done to about 300 male children annually, within the age group 6-9 … black children are brought from Darfur, in Sudan … many of die as a result of such cruel, bloody act, and the miserable survived ones are sold in return for sums from 1500 up to 3000 piasters to palaces of the rich, the affluent, and the rulers …). Readers of the book authored by Clot Bey could discern easily the reformist tone and the ire against bad habits and practices, and that is why he criticized Coptic clergy in Upper Egypt at the time who deserted the uppermost value of Christianity, Love, to engage into mutilating male children in return for money, in an ongoing lucrative business.

2- Clot Bey writes the following about castration: (… Castration is usually done in the autumn/fall season, as it is considered the best time of year for such horrid inhuman process; as the number of survivors would increase … penises and testicles are removed totally, while adding boiled oil on the injury at once to stop blood from flowing, and a tube is installed in the urine passage … the injury is later on dressed in bandages soaked in henna powder, and the victims would be buried up to the waist for 24 hours in the soil … many castrated children die as a result, while survivors would be extracted from holes of soil and the injury is bandaged again with a mixture of oil and special mud … survivors will certainly spend their lives in severe pains and chronic state of weakness, apart from psychological pain …).

3- Clot Bey writes the following about the future of the surviving eunuchs after reaching the palace of the Ottoman sultan/caliph: (… These Muslims would treat them with due respect and care and would honor them … even the head of eunuchs in Istanbul is deemed to be a high-rank official in the retinue of the Sultan, with honorific titles … one of them once assumed the position of being the military leader of all Ottoman armies …).

4- Clot Bey writes the following about enslavement in that era: (… well-known philosopher and thinkers as well as some government officials in Europe led a successful campaign to abolish slavery, and steps to abolish it were taken indeed … what about the unnatural crime of castrating male children? It is an inhuman crime that no on stood against to abolish it and to prevent people from employing and buying eunuchs …). Clot Bey has called European powers to interfere in Istanbul to stop the crimes of slavery and castration, among other reforms for the sake of humanity: (… Europe today is interfering in the Ottoman affairs, with harmful results to the Ottoman Empire … I would rather have a useful interference for the sake of humanity to apply reforms that include abolishment of slavery and castration, in accordance with civility and modernity … apart from political gains and interests … this will glorify and dignify Europe and its honorable goals … Europe must seek to make the Ottoman Sultan and the King of Egypt to stop the crimes of castration and slavery, to perform its duty for the sake humanity … it is a pity that Egypt would be the scene of such inhuman crimes one generation after the other … this can no longer go on overlooked and condoned ….).

Lastly:

 We feel some comfort that some of the eunuchs, the victims of the crime castration, attained to some measure of authority and wealth in many instances, and they could never achieve this inside their native villages. It is ironic that 'free' peasants lived enslaved for a lifetime to the despot or tyrant ruler in Europe and elsewhere without hope for reform or amelioration of their despicable conditions, and yet, they were deemed free persons! In contrast, many male and female slaves reached power, wealth, and authority, even eunuchs, and got promoted in palaces and in high social ranks and stature, and some were enthroned, thus making up for their miserable past, while 'free' peasants had not comfort or compensation at all for centuries.  

COMMENTS:

1- Saeed Ali: I implore Almighty God to help our dear Dr. Mansour in his writing such painful articles that wring our hearts and his, of course. Such dreadful history would not have occurred if ancient ones would have adhered steadfastly to the Quran; hence, Prophet Muhammad will complain to God in the Last Day about their forsaking the Quran; see 25:30. I feel terrible about the enormity and amount of injustices committed past and present by human beings on their fellow human beings. The system of sponsors of foreign workers and employees in the Gulf monarchies is one of the masked slavery worst types of injustices that linger until the present day. Yet, in some of the Gulf monarchies, there are cases of treating employees and workers kindly and charitably. Piety is lost when one discards the Quran. May God make us always Quranists who stick to the Quranic teachings all our lives and may He preserve Dr. Mansour and his fellow Quranists all over the globe.  

2- Dr. A. S. Mansour: We say to our dear Saeed Ali that our reformist writings entails to expose ailments of the Muhammadans, which are so many and grievous, inherited via traditions of the forefathers. Sadly, Arabs glorify their history that they rarely read carefully in detail. Those few who read it focus on outlines that glorify and deify tyrant despotic rulers, sultans, and caliphs. For instance, some writers/journalists of our modern age would glorify the Ottoman caliphate as the one that fought Europe and spread Islam into it. this is wrong, of course; such writers would intentionally overlook corruption, profligacy, tyranny, heinous crimes, and grave injustices of the Ottomans who lived within immorality and affluence while committing massacres against people and even within the Ottoman Dynasty itself. No Ottomans cared to propagate Islam, and there is one simple reason for this: they never knew Islam. In fact, Ottomans embraced the Sunnite Sufism which was dominant at the time when the Ottoman Empire was established first in Asia Minor. Because most people hate reading, we ourselves have to write outlines that we hope that one day, after our passing away, our fellow Quranists will follow and add to them. The Muhammadans have inherited a huge mountain of traditions that maintain injustices, backwardness, falsehoods, tyranny, etc. and we hope Quranists will go on with the reform and enlightenment endeavors all their lives. May the Merciful God make all of us join one another in  Paradise in the Hereafter.  

3- Muhammad Shaalan: It is disgraceful that eras of slavery and prostitution are still there in the countries of the Muhammadans. I thank our dear Dr. Mansour for his intellectual endeavors to reform faiths of Arabs and Egyptians by using the Quran and less-known history. Modern, contemporary slavery still lingers when a female minor is forced to marry an old rich man who pays the victim's father a huge amount of cash, as we see happening in many Arab countries nowadays.  

4- Muhammad Shaalan: Modern, contemporary slavery still lingers when persons in the Gulf monarchies employ Muslim workers and employees, from poorer countries, in return for measly stipends and force them to work in inhuman despicable conditions, this is not to mention the masked slavery of the notion of the sponsor system. All such bad practices are akin to mental castration imposed by corrupt tyrant rulers to their citizens to serve the affluent classes of aristocrats and capitalists. Such cases are against the Quranic principles of true, real Islam. I hope one day that Arabs will wake up and return to the Quran alone to draw and apply real values before it is too late.   

The Eunuch Kafur Al-Ikhshidi Is One of the Best Sultans of Egypt and the Levant:

Introduction:

 Some eunuchs reached high-rank posts like Qaraqosh who served Saladin, the Ayyubid sultan, and we have tackled how the Egyptians at the time hated Qaraqosh for his forced-labor policies with them. On the contrary, the Egyptians loved a very good ruler who was enthroned despite being a black eunuch. His name was Kafur, and using his intelligence, he was made ruler of Egypt and the Levant during the decline of the Ikhshidid dynasty, as he ruled in its name. once Kafur died, the Ikhshidid caliphate came to an end and the Fatimid took over Egypt without exerting any efforts. We give more details below.

Firstly: a brief outline of the Ikhshidid caliphate before the advent of Kafur as a ruler:

1- Al-Ikhshid was the title of the military leader named Muhammad Ibn Taghag, who entered Egypt with his army and defeated its governor Ibn Keghlegh and arrested him and drove his supporters and men out of Egypt. The one who gave him his title was the Abbasid caliph Al-Radi who admired him immensely, and Al-Ikhshid ruled Egypt under the auspices and in the name of the Abbasid caliph, and he sent to Baghdad an annual large sum. Al-Radi ordered imams of mosques to pray for Al-Ikhshid in the weekly Friday congregational prayers. After his defeat, Ibn Keghlegh fled to Morocco to seek refuge within the court of the Fatimid ruler there, Al-Qa'im Biamrallah, and he urged him to conquer Egypt. This Fatimid ruler sent his troops and armies to Egypt, but he was defeated by the powerful Egyptian army of Al-Ikhshid. 

2- Al-Radi was a weak caliph, and some of his governors dared to stop sending annual money to Baghdad; simultaneously, the Buyids conquered Persia and threatened Iraq. Al-Radi brought a military leader, Ibn Ra'iq, to help him, but this leader ruled the caliphate instead! Governors in all regions of Persia and other parts of the Abbasid empire ruled separately away from the Abbasid influence, like Bani Hamadan in Mosul, and Egypt and the Levant were in their turn ruled by Al-Ikhshid away from the Abbasids.   

3- When Al-Radi headed his armies to engage into wars against Bani Hamadan in Mosul as they did not send the annual money, Ibn Ra'iq seized the chance to declare himself a caliph in Baghdad. Ibn Ra'iq and Al-Radi engaged into negotiations, and when Ibn Ra'iq found he lacked legitimacy and armies to defend himself, he agreed readily to the offer of Al-Radi to appoint him as the governor of the Levant. This led to fierce wars between Ibn Ra'iq and Al-Ikhshid.  

4- Ibn Ra'iq conquered cities of the Levant easily, and once he conquered Damascus, he drove out the governor appointed by Al-Ikhshid, and then he took over Palestine, and coveted to conquer Egypt. The troops of Ibn Ra'iq met that of Al-Ikhshid in the Egyptian city of Arish, in the Sinai peninsula, and this battle broke out in 318 A.H., and Al-Ikhshid was defeated at first rounds, and when Ibn Ra'iq was busy looting spoils, Al-Ikhshid defeated him in the next rounds. Ibn Ra'iq fled with only 70 men to Damascus, and Al-Ikhshid defeated him there as well. Ibn Ra'iq had to accept the peace treaty conditions imposed by the victorious Al-Ikhshid: Egypt and the southern region of the Levant were exclusively ruled by Al-Ikhshid, whereas the rest of the Levant regions ruled by Ibn Ra'iq, with clear-cut borders and treaty of mutual defense. Thus, Al-Ikhshid had the time to fight off the Fatimids coming from the west, as he could not fight on two fronts at the same time.      

5- Later on, Ibn Ra'iq was killed by the agents of Bani Hamadan in 330 A.H., and the armies of Al-Ikhshid conquered Damascus and Aleppo and fought off armies of Bani Hamadan. Al-Radi had to acknowledge the rule of Al-Ikhshid over the Levant. Eventually, Al-Ikhshid died in 334 A.H., and his successor was his young son Nujur, under the protection and tutelage of Kafur, the black eunuch.

Secondly: the role played by Kafur:

1- Kafur became the de facto ruler of Egypt, and he removed the adolescent son of Al-Ikhshid from the throne, and he ruled Egypt for 32 years (334:357 A.H.). Kafur managed to retrieve Damascus from Bani Hamadan as his Egyptian military armies defeated them.

2- The first sign that showed the political genius of Kafur was that after his defeating Seif Al-Dawla, the Bani Hamadan ruler, he made a peace treaty with him, as Kafur would pay a large annuity in return for keeping Damascus to secure east frontiers of Egypt in the southern region of the Levant. Kafur managed to deter the Fatimid threat as well as the Fatimid still coveted the rule of Egypt. Kafur managed to defeat the king of Nubia who raided the southern region of Egypt in 345, and he secured the southern borders of Egypt as a result. Kafur was wise enough to be gentle and pleasing to the Fatimids during negotiations; he managed to convince the Fatimids to spread their peaceful Shiite proselytizers into all Egyptian cities and villages without military campaigns that would stir and incite Egyptians against them. Kafur welcomed such Shiite proselytizers in his palace himself, as he did not care about who would rule Egypt after him, as he was a eunuch. Kafur realized that the Fatimids would conquer Egypt anyway after his death. Kafur died in 357 A.H., after 23 years of rule, after keeping Egyptian borders secure from Libya to Damascus and stopped bloodshed of Egyptians by foreign conquerors.  

Thirdly: words that have been said about Kafur (292:357):

1- Kafur was an ugly-looking black eunuch, with disfigured lowered lip, who talked slowly and walked sluggishly. He was oppressed and persecuted by his first owner/master, an oil merchant, until he was sold to a scribe who taught him to read and write. This scribe felt that Kafur was honest, efficient, and diligent, and he sold him to Al-Ikhshid, ruler of Egypt and the Levant, to be a private tutor to his son. In his turn, Al-Ikhshid felt that Kafur was loyal, intelligent, honest, efficient, and diligent, and he made him the military leader of one of his troops. Kafur was brilliant in his success in his new role, and was made a guardian of the son of Al-Ikhshid, Nujur, for his loyalty and perhaps for being a eunuch who would have no progeny to drive him to covet the throne. Yet, once Al-Ikhshid died, Kafur removed his ward, Nujur, from the throne and appointed himself as the sultan of Egypt. Nujur was incited by foes of Kafur in the palace to revolt against Kafur, but the mother of Nujur stopped her son and advised him never to revolt against his tutor and guardian. Thus, Nujur and his mother lived in the palace under the protection of Kafur. The Egyptians loved Kafur for his generosity and as he was a just judge within judicial courts.

2- Al-Zahaby, the historian, has written the following about Kafur in his book titled "A History of Islam": (… Kafur Al-Ikhshidi was a black eunuch who came from Abyssinia, bought by Al-Ikhshid, ruler of Egypt and the Levant, and was made tutor to his son, and he received titled like ''Abou Al-Misk'' and ''The Master'' … His bright mind and intelligence led Al-Ikhshid to appoint him as the military leader of the troops that defeated Seif Al-Dawla, leader of Bani Hamadan, in the Levant … When Al-Ikhshid died, Kafur set aside Nujur, his pupil, and became ruler instead … Kafur used to give money generously to poets who came to chant their verses in the palace, and he liked to hear daily the histories of late kings and rulers, especially the Umayyads and the Abbasids, and he had several female slave singers, plus a number of enslaved black and white children for his service … Kafur used to give lots of gifts from rich clothes and garments, and he had political acumen … Kafur would please the Fatimids and show them his support, and he would pretend to be obedient to Abbasids, while deceiving all parties until he secured Egyptian borders … Kafur loved poetry and literature, and made gifts to scribes, artists, musicians, and scientists … Kafur would judge justly in court and people felt his justice in their daily affairs and cases … Kafur used to pray a lot every night, imploring to God …).

3- Abou Al-Muzafar, the historian, has written the following about Kafur in his book titled "Miraat Al-Zaman": (… Kafur was a courageous leader and ruler, a wise eunuch better than males who were enthroned before him … Kafur was generous with all people … once Abou Jaffer, the Alawite, said that he once saw the gold, precious-stones-studded mace of Kafur fall from his hand during his march in a procession on horseback, and when he returned it to Kafur later on, Kafur rewarded his honesty and gave him precious gifts that cost more than 15 thousand dinars …).

4- Ibn Zoulaq, the historian, has written the following about Kafur in his historical accounts: (… Kafur was a pious, religious, generous, and just ruler, and he used to feed poor people in streets daily with tables filled with cooked 300 sheep, 250 geese, 500 chickens, 1000 pigeons, and 100 plates of desserts … Kafur died in 357 A.H., months before the Fatimids took over Egypt … Kafur ruled Egypt for about 23 years, and mosques of Egypt, the Levant, and Hejaz prayed for him … his coffin was carried to Jerusalem to be buried there as he wished in his written will, with these lines of poetry written on his epitaph as he wished:

The tomb of Kafur, is a reminder to all

That death is the inevitable end of all mortals

Even if they were military leaders and rulers

Kafur ended up in a tomb, stepped upon by the masses

And during his life, the most brave men feared him! ).

Fourthly: we assert the following about Kafur:

1- Let us imagine Kafur as a child: a disfigured black child was kidnapped from his folks in Abyssinia, and after a long tiring journey, slave-traders sold him in Upper Egypt, where he was castrated. Kafur survived and most of his companions died of such brutality. Carried off to Cairo, no one would buy him except an oil merchant, and he was later sold to a scribe who taught him to read and write. His genius would emerge and he was sold to the ruler of Egypt to tutor his son. Kafur was admired by all in the palace in an era when eunuchs and slaves in general were despised and persecuted, and the ruler gave him honorific titles. Later on, people accepted him as a ruler of Egypt and the Levant.   

2- Once enthroned and in power, Kafur never felt the desire to revenge for his misfortunes; he never vented his pain and ire for being castrated by acting harshly or cruelly toward anyone at all. He was esteemed as a just ruler loved by all people for his justice, wisdom, knowledge, acumen, generosity, piety, modesty, military prowess, and awe. Poets gathered in his palace to chant their verses and gain his gifts. Among such poets was Al-Mutanabbi, who praised Kafur in verse, and Kafur granted him many gifts, but the greedy poet wanted a political post, and Kafur denied him such wish. Al-Mutanabbi feared Kafur and fled Egypt, and eventually, he composed verses to satirize Kafur and to mock and abuse him verbally. Kafur never punished Al-Mutanabbi nor sent someone to murder him, though he might have done like despots and tyrants would do at the time. Kafur ignored Al-Mutanabbi totally, and Al-Mutanabbi flattered another ruler, Adad Al-Dawla, with hypocritical praise poems, but this ruler eventually sent assassins who managed to kill Al-Mutanabbi when he heard that this poet allegedly slandered him. this is the difference between the just Kafur and the tyrannical Adad Al-Dawla. We will discuss the difference between the genius and humanity of Kafur and the base, immoral nature of Al-Mutanabbi in the coming section.    

COMMENTS:

1- Saeed Ali: I am sad that Arabs used to deride and despise black people of African origin. It is disgraceful that such slanderous libelous poems of Al-Mutanabbi about Kafur are still taught in Arab schools and universities, within a corrupt culture that deify the mortal ''heroes'' of the past, starting from the killers among the so-called companions of Prophet Muhammad to other evil figures of history who emerged in later eras. Many people of African origin settled in Arabia (in Yemen, Oman, UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain), and some were slaves bought and brought there in ancient times. Later on since 1970, all of them were naturalized in Oman, my country, and are seen to be pious moralistic Muslims and law-abiding citizens. I myself used to kiss the forehead of a former black slave bought by my grandpa 70 years ago, and we treat him as an elderly family member and a close acquaintance now. He is now free and owns his house and lands, and my family members are his close relatives now. In rare cases, some Omanis do not like to deal with black former slaves, but they never verbally abuse them as this might make them punished for slander in accordance to Omani laws.

2- Shukry Al-Safy: It is a disgrace that in history school textbooks, no one taught us the genius, greatness, and morals of Kafur; rather, they taught us the immoral poems of Al-Mutanabbi. History must be from now on taught in a creative way to allow students to think critically to reach higher values and to prevent discrimination and bias against colored persons and against non-Arabs

3- Ben Levante: I sincerely hope that my comments are not so tiresome to our dear Dr. Mansour; I feel bound to say that the issues raised in the above article still boggle my head, especially regarding the contradictions within Muslims' history and their dominant culture at certain eras. I wonder why Arabs in the Abbasid era accepted enslavement and castration and the terrible class distinctions unknown in Arabia before. I tend to think that this was the influence of other neighboring cultures of conquered non-Arab nations like Kurds, Persians, Turks, etc. I thank Dr. Mansour for opening up such topics to discussion.   

4- Dr. A. S. Mansour: We thank all our dear fellow Quranists and we implore the Almighty to help us go on with this book. We assert here the above comments by affirming that Al-Mutanabbi was a poet and a historical figure who embodies all negative traits of Arabs at that era, while a great figure like Kafur was not heeded enough by historians at the time. Islam was applied properly for the very first and last time in the 11-year-old Yathreb city-state headed by Prophet Muhammad till his death, and Arabs of Qorayish in Mecca have risen in stature when they pretended to convert to Islam instead of fighting it militarily, shortly before Muhammad's death, to unify Arabs of Arabia within one goal: to conquer the ancient world to form an Arab Empire. Hence the Qorayish hegemony returned with a vengeance once the Quranic revelation that has exposed the hypocrites and conspirators stopped. When Qorayish tribesmen committed the crime of Arab conquests, the Quran was forsaken, but is still preserved in its entirety until now. On rare occasions, few rulers were just and fair and used the Quranic guidance in a good way, at varying degrees of success, hence the contradictions in the stances of those few rulers. As for the Quranic/Islamic solution of the problem of slavery, we will tackle it in a coming section/article of this book, indicating how West-countries solutions have been incomplete and caused more injustices.    

5- Muhammad Shaalan: I am glad that within writings of Dr. Mansour, history is never stories for amusement; rather, they are lessons to ponder upon for a long time. We miss fair, wise, and just rulers who in the Middle Ages defended and protected Egypt and Egyptians despite their being non-Egyptians: like Kafur, Beibars, and Qotoz. Kafur the eunuch was better than many rulers of those who came before and after him.

Between the Moralistic Genius of Kafur and the Immoral Genius of Al-Mutanabbi:

Between Kafur the Noble Eunuch Former Slave and Al-Mutanabbi the Mean Free Man:

Firstly: the moralistic genius of Kafur:

1- There are criteria to judge what is a great ruler in terms of humanistic and moralistic aspects: stopping wars, preventing bloodshed, and taking decisions to retain peace. Most rulers sacrifice blood of their nations and risk their lives for political ends or for ideologies; this is of course immoral. For instance, Hitler killed millions for the sake of Nazism.  Hence, Hitler was a bad ruler in terms of bloodshed caused by him. worse than Hitler were the immoral caliphs who for centuries raised the banner of Islam (religion of peace and safety: one of God's Holy Epithets is ''Peace'') to justify their massacring of millions of people in many regions. This applies to crimes committed by Europeans who colonized continents. Within margin of such grave injustices, enslavement spread and millions of free persons were practically enslaved one way or the other. Within such circumstances, castration was legalized socially and increased without any pangs of conscience!   

2- As for criteria in terms of humanistic and moralistic aspects to judge rulers, we personally could not find but three rulers who were just in the history of caliphate that lasted for centuries: 1) Mu'aweiya II, who decided to leave the throne voluntarily after the death of his father, the Umayyad caliph, Yazeed Ibn Mu'aweiya, so that he would not bear the burden of bloodshed committed by the Umayyad dynasty, and though he refused to be appointed as caliph, such embarrassment he caused to his household drove the Umayyad to assassinate him 2), Omar Abdul-Aziz, who tried to save as much as possible by imposing justice, peace, and fairness, but he was assassinated by poison after a brief caliphate period, and presumably he was poisoned by his household members, as we have written in our previous writings, and 3) Kafur, the often-ignored one by contemporary historians in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, despite his greatness; in our opinion, he was greater than the previous two rulers here in this list, as Kafur knew pain, injustice, and humiliation, whereas the other two were nearer to the era of Muhammad the Prophet and lived within a royal household.

3- Kafur lived within an era of local and regional wars within different fronts: the Ibn Hanbal doctrine extremists controlled Iraqi cities and terrorize people (by the way, this is going on in the 21^st century in many regions of the Arab world: ISIS terrorists for instance) wars between the Byzantines and the Bani Hamadan, massacres committed by the Qarmatians in Arabia, and the Buyyids poised to gain control in lieu of the Abbasid caliphate that was on the verge of collapse. The eunuch ruler Kafur never engaged into useless wars or battles despite this era of political upheavals, transitions, and transformations, especially that all warring parties coveted Egypt and felt the grudge against Kafur for his good fortune to appoint himself as ruler of Egypt and parts of the Levant, especially the Fatimids who were bent to conquer Egypt soon enough. 

4- Kafur avoided as much as possible, relying on 8:60; as Kafur used his military troops ONLY to deter foes. Peaceful countries must have military power to preserve peace and deter potential aggressors and thus preserve blood of people on both sides. Later on. When Kafur had to engage into war against Bani Hamadan, he defeated and vanquished them, and they had to agree to sign peace treaty with Kafur to secure Egyptian borders. Likewise, when Kafur defeated the troops of the Fatimids coming from the west borders, he convinced them to stop attacking Egypt and to send instead Shiite  missionaries all over Egyptian villages and cities to call for and propagate Shiite notions of the Fatimids, thus gaining the favor of Egyptians and to rule it peacefully without wars upon his death. Hence, the genius of Kafur prevented bloodshed of thousands of Egyptians and non-Egyptians. Hence, in our view, caliphate system never knew a more just and wiser ruler than Kafur the eunuch.    

Secondly: the immoral genius of Al-Mutanabbi:

1- Al-Mutanabbi had most of the weaknesses, defects, and shortcomings of Arab nature and characteristics, mainly the tendency to voice words/declarations and not to enact them, without accusations of telling lies, like most medieval poets. Such a defect has been persisting still as we had Arab leaders who told us nothing but lies in a vociferous outspoken manner and failed to enact their mottoes: Abdel-Nasser, Saddam Hussein, Kaddafi, etc. Hence, inveterate liars grew into fame within Arab societies; that was why Al-Mutanabbi was so famous and his immorally ingenious unique poems spread as they reflect Arab nature of talking and not doing anything at all, whereas the real moralistic and political genius of a ruler like Kafur was eclipsed, despite his great deeds; as he never left writings or poems at all. The acts of the eunuch ruler were great and so was his biography, as he rose from slavery and misery to power and the throne; yet, historians and literati never cared about Kafur except through the verses of Al-Mutanabbi slandering him. Such satirical verses of Al-Mutanabbi about Kafur are signs of the baseness, racism, and meanness of the poet, and the poet's different stances vis-à-vis Kafur and Seif Al-Dawla, the Bani Hamadan ruler, prove his mean, hypocritical nature.  

2- The analysis of the biography of Al-Mutanabbi shows that he had two main contradictory features: cowardice and ambition, and he tended to tell lies and falsehoods to combine and weave both feature. In an era troubled with turmoil, Al-Mutanabbi desired very much to rule, but using swords of others. Because of his cowardice and ambition, his carried his title ''Al-Mutanabbi'' all his life and after his death. This title means in Arabic: the one who is a self-proclaimed prophet.  

3- Al-Mutanabbi was born in 303 A.H. in the city of Kufa, Iraq, and his father was a very poor water-skins carrier who would supply water to houses and palaces in return for money, but Al-Mutanabbi lied to others around him by claiming he was a descended of Ali Ibn Abou Talib, the main figure/deity in the Shiite religion, in order to achieve his ambition one day and to hide his cowardice.

4- Al-Mutanabbi claimed that he was a prophet who received divine revelations shown in his poems and rhetoric as well as his erudition in mastering the Arabic tongue, and he used to flatter hypocritically all leaders of tribes and governors of cities, when he coveted their rich gifts or wanted to ward off their ire. He was once imprisoned for a long time because of the heresy of claiming himself a prophet, and he was made to repent and was declared a repentant to be set free later on. Beforehand, he used to compose verses and claim they were his 'Quran'! But when Seif Al-Dawla repeated such verses to him in court, Al-Mutanabbi refused to acknowledge the fact that he was their author, as he felt he would be put to death or imprisoned if he owned up to such verses.    

5- That was why the title Al-Mutanabbi stuck to him all his life and he never disowned such title; he took pride in it instead! His poetical genius made him gain money and fame, but one line of verse led to his being murdered:

Horses, nights, and deserts know me,

And so do battles, wars, papers, and pens

Of course, such a verse tells a lie about Al-Mutanabbi who claimed in it being so brave and so erudite, but in fact, he did not achieve his goal of being appointed as ruler or governor anywhere. When he met accidentally his assassins, who were desert-Arabs sent to murder him at night, he fled at once for his life, but his boy-servant reminded him of the above line of verse that became so famous about him. Thus, finally, Al-Mutanabbi hesitated and fought back his assassins reluctantly with his sword, while cursing the boy-servant, and he was killed by such assassins.

Thirdly: the meeting of the moralistic genius of Kafur and the immoral genius of Al-Mutanabbi:

1- As typical of poets of the period, Al-Mutanabbi would seek money gifts by means of praising wealthy men, leaders, and rulers to gain rich gifts and large sums of money from them, and their money was of course ill-gotten from toil and blood of the masses and injustices committed within countless forms of despotism and enslavement. Yet, Al-Mutanabbi could not curb his ambition; he wanted power and authority, not just wealth. That was why he would get into trouble with retinue of any sultan/ruler, when he would exceed the mark or transgress his limits as a beggar hypocritical poet. Once in deep trouble within political intrigues into which he stepped, he would flee as he was a coward. This occurred when Seif Al-Dawla, ruler of Bani Hamadan who was killed in 357 A.H., made Al-Mutanabbi one of his retinue for a while, but as on several occasions Al-Mutanabbi meddled into affairs that were not his own, he got into serious trouble and fled his court. He went to Egypt, to Kafur.    

2- Al-Mutanabbi went to the palace of Kafur, hoping that this eunuch ruler would appoint him as a governor of any Egyptian city or province. He praised Kafur in many poems, and Kafur gave him a lot of money in return for such poems, but Al-Mutanabbi despaired later on of being appointed in any post, and he had to hold close ties to one of the opponents of Kafur. Kafur knew of it and treated Al-Mutanabbi coldly, but never punished or even reproached him. feeling despaired the more, Al-Mutanabbi left Egypt by night, and composed satirical poems about Kafur.

Fourthly: the immoral genius of Al-Mutanabbi in verbally abusing Kafur in verse:

1- There are four fates in which humans could not interfere and are not to be judged through them: one's birth, one's death, one's calamities, and one's share in life. Such factors of fate are never within one's control; they are ordained by God. Hence, Kafur was not responsible for his skin-color, facial features calamities that he underwent: castration, enslavement, bondage, persecution, etc. sound minds must praise Kafur because despite the above, he managed to create what free rulers could not in Egypt. As for the immoral attitude and genius of Al-Mutanabbi, it led him to slander and verbally abuse Kafur, despite his merits.  

2- Al-Mutanabbi did not only contradicted moralistic attitudes or high morals, but also contradicted himself; he praised and flattered Kafur in many poems upon his arrival to Egypt in 347 A.H. after he fled the palace court of Seif Al-Dawla, until 349 A.H., and for another year, Al-Mutanabbi avoided Kafur so as not to arouse his fury, until he fled Egypt in 350 A.H. after gathering all his belongings, and chanted a poem to slander and satirize Kafur the night before his flight from Egypt. The following are examples of lines of poetry by Al-Mutanabbi in praise of Kafur:

Grand purposes of Kafur are avoided by other kings

His morals are too many to be praised in few verses

They will take long lines to enumerate

…

If one deserted his folks and resided with Kafur

One feels as if living among his dear family

…

Kafur is deemed the apple of one's eyes

For his generous, kind nature with all

And no barriers are between him and his people

And he won their love and respect forever

And these are some lines of satirical verse of Al-Mutanabbi about Kafur:

Who dared to tutor this black eunuch slave

Whose origins and parentage are entirely unknown

For he is envious of white men for their skin

And the slave-trade who brought the knave

And struck him many times on the ears

And disciplined him many times with the rod

Virile white-skinned men are sometimes ungrateful

Let alone black eunuchs who are naturally bad and evil

3- Such satirical poems of Al-Mutanabbi have been accepted and admired within the Arab culture, past and present, though they denote racist attitudes in despising dark-skinned persons, even great rulers like Kafur! Racist people liked such poems that vent their envy toward Kafur. We think that no Arab literary critic, past and present, attacked Al-Mutanabbi and exposed his immoral unethical attitude and cleared the name of Kafur, who was a great ruler of Egypt. Until now, verses of Al-Mutanabbi are being taught in Arabic literature departments at Arab universities, with no pangs of conscience regarding lines deriding the plight and misery of the childhood of Kafur as he was kidnapped and castrated to be sold into slavery. Here are some of such lines that satirize and deride Kafur:

How could a black eunuch be deemed generous

 He could never forget the whip lashes and chains

…

Never buy a slave unless along with a whip for him

Slaves are nothing but a punish of dirty knaves

I have never imagined myself living in an era

When a eunuch insults me while he is being praised

Or when people are so blind as to overlook white slaves

To buy instead black ones as dirty as dark as coal

And with cut lips to boot, as ugly as a devil

Yet obeyed by virile burly men of strength

Who dared to tutor this black eunuch slave

Whose origins and parentage are entirely unknown

For he is envious of white men for their skin

And the slave-trade who brought the knave

And struck him many times on the ears

And disciplined him many times with the rod

Virile white-skinned men are sometimes ungrateful

Let alone black eunuchs who are naturally bad and evil

4- Those who admire and like poems of Al-Mutanabbi rarely ask themselves the following question: why did Kafur ignored such satire and did not punish Al-Mutanabbi? Why did not Kafur have him murdered? Do such satirical lines agree with previous lines of praise? Who would deserve to be praised and immortalized in lines of history: Al-Mutanabbi or Kafur? It is shameful that Al-Mutanabbi accepted his title though it is insulting to Islam. Does that title show contempt of Islam? Is it not disgraceful to carry such title that denotes heresy and rejection of Islam?

COMMENTS:

1- Muhammad Shaalan: I feel bound to say that it is disgraceful that art critics judge decontextualized poems as per the artistic standards and schools, and not according to fairness, morals, principles, and truth. Hence, reforming societies was never a concept for such critics, past and present. 

2- Muhammad Shaalan: As for morals, values, and ethics, Al-Mutanabbi like those critics had none of them; they have cared only to make money by any means by their cheap goods. Thus, real genius and fair rulers, rare in Arab and Egyptian history, were ignored totally. I thank very much our dear Dr. Mansour for teaching us such often-forgotten lessons in history. We pray to the Almighty to allow Kafur into Paradise in the Hereafter.   

3- Saeed Ali: I discern here in the above section/article yet another proof signaling the slumber of the Arab collective mind. God has given us the Quran, the greatest gift ever, to address our minds to deduce what is right and good among values and to discard bad and destructive notions. Yet, the opposite has occurred; old negative habits, traditions, and mores have linger instead of freeing our mind by the Glorious Quran. The slumber of the Arab mind has begun centuries ago and continues until now, as Arabs has forsaken the Quran and resorted to other devilish books filled with lies and authored in the Middle Ages. Hence, instead of higher moralistic values, they admired immoral stances of the likes of Al-Mutanabbi and never took heed of the genius of a ruler like Kafur. I immensely encourage and thank Dr. Mansour for brushing dust from such great historical figures like Kafur to give them their due.  

4- Dr. A. S. Mansour: We thank all of our beloved Quranists, and we implore the Almighty to help us in writing the rest of this book. We assert the following points. 1) No doubt that Al-Mutanabbi was  poetic genius, but such genius never excelled except in verbal slander and in the evil ways. This is shown in poems vilifying Kafur; such poems show the immorality and moral degeneration of this poet. Even in the earlier poems to praise Kafur, we perceive them to be lacking in sincerity of feeling and poetic vigor, and the opposite is true in his libel verses: vigor and genius would reach the zenith!  2) Kafur took over the rule of Egypt in troubled times; the young and vigorous Fatimids struggled against the old Abbasids, and Kafur pared thousands of persons in Egypt and outside it bloodshed and being killed in endless conflicts. It is wrong to suppose things to happen or not to have happened in historical research; yet, we are bound to say that rulers who came after the death of Kafur never learnt from his wisdom. Sadly, Kafur is not known unless within the satirical poems of Al-Mutanabbi the hypocrite that reflect he corrupt, negative side of the Arab culture at the time. 

A Female Slave Appointed as the Supreme Judge:

Introduction:

1- As far as we know, in Middle-Ages Europe – contemporary to the Abbasid caliphate – no female slave reached the throne to control and rule over people, let alone a female slave to be appointed a supreme judge. Well, both instances occurred within the Abbasid caliphate.

2- Female slaves exceeded skills and ambitions of free women and of princes of the Abbasid dynasty; a female slave was appointed a supreme judge, and several ones controlled fully the Abbasid throne. If we are to summarize the Abbasid caliphate in one line, we are to assert here that it was an era when female slaves and concubines of caliphs controlled the Abbasid throne, and many were wives and mothers of Abbasid caliphs as well: such as the famous concubine named Al-Khayzuran who controlled her lover (and later on husband) the Abbasid caliph named Al-Mahdi, and she controlled the affairs of the Abbasid rule well into the era of her son Harun Al-Rashid. After the death of Al-Khayzuran, the era of powerful concubines and female slaves went on; for instance, the concubine named Qabeeha controlled fully her lover (and later on husband) the Abbasid caliph named Al-Motawakil, and later on controlled her son the caliph named Al-Moataz. During the reign of the Abbasid caliph named Al-Mostakfi, the grand vizier of the Abbasid court was a former female slave named Alam Al-Shiraziyya, and she was the one who helped him to ascend to the throne, and he was grateful to her and to her wisdom, and he appointed her as the grand vizier who controlled everything in the affairs of the caliphate. When some other male notables and viziers protested against this, he told them his famous phrase, well-known in history and biographies: "We found all of you around us in times of prosperity, and we found her alone alongside us in times of adversity."

3- During this era of powerful female slaves, most of the grand imams of the Sunnite religion lived, especially those who specialized in fabricating hadiths such as Al-Bokhary, Moslem, Ibn Hanbal, Al-Shafei, Al-Tabari, etc. and some of them were notable historians, and no one of them wrote anything frankly about condemning the fact that concubines would control the 'Islamic' caliphate or the fact that caliphs (deemed at the time as the shadow of God on earth!) lived an affluent life of wine, fornication, homosexuality, etc. In fact, such Sunnite imams and scholars fabricated hadiths that vent their anger, frustration, and envy regarding powerful female slaves who control the caliphate. Of course, such hadiths are still spread today in the Arab world, tarnishing the reputation of the gender of women until now, especially the one about women supposedly lack religion and brains (!) and the one about women doomed to failure when they headed any groups of men. The Sunnite Muhammadan cattle still believe until now that such falsehoods are part of Islam, and they never know the historical circumstances that led to the fabrication of such hadiths during the Abbasid era. 

4- Let us summarize below the story of the female slave Thamal, who was appointed by Shaghab as the supreme judge to achieve justice within trials and cases of people.

Firstly: historical accounts about the female slave assuming the position of the supreme judge:

1- Ibn Al-Jawzy, the scholar and historian, has mentioned the following in his history book titled "Al-Muntazim": (… In 306 A.H., Shaghab, Al-Sayeda Um Al-Moqtadir (i.e., a title that meant: the lady-mother of the caliph Al- Moqtadir),  made her Qahramana (i.e., the head gentlewoman) named Thamal the Supreme Judge and she examined and judged on Fridays cases of people, and her court was attended by other male judges and scholars …). (Source: Al-Muntazim 13/180).

2- The previous historical account is asserted by another historian, Al-Siyouti, in his book titled "History of Caliphs": (… Al-Sayeda Um Al-Moqtadir decided to appoint Thamal, her main gentlewoman in her palace, as the Supreme Judge of Baghdad, and in her court, held on Fridays, people waited for her wise and just decrees and judgment, and the court sessions were attended by other male judges and scholars …).

3- We conclude from the above that during the Abbasid caliphate, this unprecedented event of appointing a female slave as the Supreme Judge was never condemned or disapproved by Arabs at the time; on the contrary, people were satisfied with Thamal. In addition, Abbasid scholars of fiqh never condemned or disapproved of Thamal and her post; they were under her command in her court, actually. 

Secondly: how did Thamal the female slave assume the position of the supreme judge?

 What did drive Shaghab to issue such a decree about Thamal? To understand this, we are to briefly mention the following details from the intrigues of the Abbasid palaces, and they will shock the silly dreamers among Arabs of today who wish the caliphate ruling system back, along with its side effects!

Shaghab the female slave and her master the Abbasid caliph Al-Mo'tadid:

1- The concubine Shaghab was owned by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mo'tadid, who had an eye for women and died of addiction to having sex, and she gave birth to the caliph Al-Moqtadir, who became caliph at the age of 13, and hence, Shaghab was the actual ruler of the caliphate, making her son under her full control for about 25 years until his assassination in 320 A.H. and her painful and sad downfall. the caliph Al-Mo'tadid saw, admired, and bought Shaghab, whose real name was Naeim (i.e., the soft-skinned one) as his concubine in his seraglio. She bore him a son, Al-Moqtadir, who was to become a caliph later on. Soon enough, the caliph favored other concubines, and Shaghab was thin and of yellowish skin, and she could not compete with other white blond, fat concubines of the seraglio.

2- She felt jealous of the 4000 concubines of the caliph. She entered into a series of endless conflicts with these concubines in the Abbasid seraglio. Shaghab engaged in endless quarrels and fights and intrigues.  She hated the fact that the caliph deserted her company and bed. Hence, the caliph punished, humiliated, and beat her, and he changed her name from Naeim to Shaghab (in Arabic, it means troubles!), and that name stuck to her ever since. The caliph decided, however, to confine her in a certain palace which became her prison for a while. She brought up her son and in her sorrowful nostalgia for her better days with the caliph. 

Shaghab the female slave and her friend the female slave Thamal: how did they kill Futna the pretty concubine of Al-Mo'tadid:

1- Shaghab never had any friends but one, a slave-girl named Thamal, who brought all news to her and helped her in her intrigues and conspiracies. Confined in her palace-prison, Shaghab planned to make her son the next caliph and relied on Thamal to get all news. When Shaghab knew that the caliph was in love with his new concubines, Futna and Jeejeik, Shaghab planned their deaths by poison, helped by Thamal. Futna, before her death, bore a son to the caliph, who was to be another caliph later on named Al-Qahir. Shaghab had to raise this son along with her own, by orders of the caliph. Al-Qahir never forgot to avenge his killed mother later on. The caliph at first never knew the secret behind the mysterious deaths of his concubines especially those who bore him male children. Later on, he suspected Shaghab, but found no evidence enough to punish her. At first, he decided to kill her himself, but he did not do that for her care of her son Al-Moqtadir and his son Al-Qahir. Shaghab killed the new wife of the caliph: the Egyptian princess Qatr Al-Nada (in Arabic, her name means: ''dew drops'') famous for her beauty, who was the daughter of the ruler of Egypt at the time Ahmed Ibn Tulun, of the Tulunids dynasty.   

2- The caliph Al-Mo'tadid saw nothing in Shaghab but a cow to breastfeed both his sons, Al-Qahir and Al-Moqtadir, and this fact infuriated Shaghab. At one time, Al-Mo'tadid was so furious at his son Al-Moqtadir, when he saw the child distributing his food in equal shares among his friends among children and servants. Such 'socialist' trend would prove dangerous to the caliph-to-be and crown-prince, and he decided to kill Al-Moqtadir. Shaghab implored him in tears to spare the life of her son, and she beseeched him repeatedly until he pardoned her son and advised her to change her  way of bringing him up. Of course, the hatred of Shaghab toward the caliph increased to a dangerous level. 

Durayrah in the pool:

1- Shaghab got the news from Thamal that the caliph was in love with his new concubine Durayrah, and he built her a special palace with and orchard and a piscine-like water pool, with total cost of 60 thousands dinars of gold, to live with her away from prying eyes. He sometimes would bring other singing slaves to entertain him and Durayrah. The poet Ibn Bassam, after being bribed by Shaghab and Thamal, of course, mocked and derided this caliph in these short lines of poetry:

He left all people astonished and bewildered

And he stayed away from them at the pool

To enjoy ramming into the vagina of Hurayrah!

2- The caliph feared that the awe of the Abbasid dynasty would be threatened by the verses of the poet Ibn Bassam, whose popularity made people memorize and repeat his verse. He had to demolish the pool, the orchard, and the special palace of Durayrah, and hence, the plot of Shaghab and Thamal succeeded to separate Durayrah from the caliph. Yet, the caliph kept Durayrah in his court and bed in the royal palace. Under orders of Shaghab, Thamal had to poison Durayrah, as typical of assassination during the Abbasid era. The caliph suspected Shaghab and found some evidence enough to prove his suspicions this time, and he was about to punish her by cutting off her nose to disfigure her face, but he did not; maybe he felt she might kill his son, Al-Qahir, who was being brought up by her in her palace.

The sudden deaths of Al-Mo'tadid and his son/heir Al-Moktafy: Al-Moqtadir, the son of Shaghab, became caliph:

1- Al-Mo'tadid was depressed after the death of Durayrah, and he composed verses and dirges to mourn her, and he found some consolation in having sex with as many concubines as possible every day and every night. Eventually, he got sick and died months after the death of Durayrah in 289 A.H. Did Shaghab kill him? No historian of the period was quite sure of that. Hence, his son/heir Al-Moktafy, who was 25 years old when his father died, became caliph and succeeded his father to the throne. Al-Moqtadir, the son of Shaghab, was 6 years old at the time, and Al-Qahir was two years old. 

2- When her arch-enemy Al-Mo'tadid died, Shaghab got out of her prison-palace, and became very close with her chief friend Thamal, and made her the head gentlewoman (Qahramana, in Arabic), and when Al-Moqtadir, the son of Shaghab, was old enough, Shaghab plotted the death of Al-Moktafy by poison in 295 A.H., with the help of Thamal of course, after his six years of rule. Al-Moqtadir, the son of Shaghab, was the eldest surviving heir, 13 years old at the time, and Shaghab claimed to retinue men of the palace and to judges and scholars that her son attained to puberty as a full-grown man. He was the youngest caliph ever in the Abbasid dynasty, and Shaghab ruled the caliphate in his name for 25 years.  

Shaghab fully controlled her son the caliph Al-Moqtadir:

1- Al-Moqtadir was raised as a child in the palace-prion of Shaghab, and therefore, he was so strongly attached to her, and he used to obey all her orders, and this led to her controlling rule and caliphate affairs.

2- The first decree of Shaghab was to ban others from calling her "Shaghab"; instead, she called herself in the formal title Al-Sayeda Um Al-Moqtadir (the great lady the mother of Al-Moqtadir).

3- Within such a title, she controlled the Abbasid caliphate for 25 years, until the death of her son in 320 A.H.

The power and influence of Thamal under the auspices of Shaghab:

1- Shaghab took violent revenge as usual from her foes when she became ruler: in 299 A.H., she confiscated the money of Fatima Al-Qahramana, whose drowned body was found in River Tigris. Other killed female slaves and concubines were the old ones who became gentlewomen (Qahramanas). Shaghab confiscated possessions of so many viziers and retinue men and dismissed them from their posts.

2- Moreover, the redoubtable Thamal had power to dismiss viziers and all men in the retinue of the caliphate from their posts. Shaghab changed the name of Thamal into Um Moussa Al-Qahramana.

3- The persecution done by Shaghab and Thamal drew near some viziers as well: the vizier Ibn Al-Jaraah did not show enough respect to Thamal, and his money and possessions were confiscated, and he got dismissed from his post. Shaghab confiscated money and possessions of so many notable and elite people in Baghdad as well (source: Al-Muntazim: 13/166, 304 A.H.)

Thamal became the supreme judge:

Shaghab confiscated all jewels of concubines to take revenge from them, and she granted treasures to all slave-girls who helped her before, and on top of all Thamal, who was granted the major part of the confiscated jewels and was made the Supreme Judge of Baghdad in 306 A.H. This was an unprecedented act in the history of caliphate. Thamal used to examine legal complains of people on Fridays, presiding over all religious scholars, theologians, commissionaires, clergymen, and judges, who wait for her orders and verdicts.

The plight of Thamal after assuming her position as supreme judge:

1- Thamal did not had time enough to enjoy her high-rank post; disputes occurred between her and Shaghab, as we read in writings of Ibn Al-Jawzy about the year 310 A.H.: (… Al-Sayeda Um Al-Moqtadir was furious at Um Moussa Al-Qahramana, and she had her arrested and had her possessions and money confiscated, and those of her in-laws and cronies, and a million dinar thus entered into the Abbasid Treasury  …).

2- Of course, Shaghab was not furious at money embezzlement or financial corruption, as such corruption was ordinarily done in the Abbasid caliphate by all notables, judges, scholars, viziers, etc., but Thamal was persecuted because of her political over-ambition that threatened Shaghab.

3- Thamal, in her heart, felt equal to Shaghab, as both were former female slaves and concubines brought to Baghdad together into the royal palace. The only difference was that Shaghab was desired in bed by Al-Mo'tadid and she bore him a son, and Thamal was not lucky enough in that respect. Thamal helped her best friend Shaghab in getting rid of her enemies, by poisoning them, until Al-Moqtadir became the caliph. Hence, of course, Thamal wanted to secure her gains, position, and stature by allowing some power and authority to her in-laws as she made an Abbasid prince her in-law, to make herself in the same stature like mistress Shaghab.

4- Such a vision is asserted by words of Ibn Al-Jawzy about the plight of Thamal: (… the reasons of her plight are not clear, but it is rumored that when Al-Moqtadir fell ill, Um Moussa seized the chance to send an Abbasid friend of hers to take charge of the palace on behalf of the caliph, thus ending the full control and power of Al-Sayeda Um Al-Moqtadir … It is certain that Um Moussa married off the daughter of her sister to an Abbasid prince, and her rivals aroused the suspicions of Al-Sayeda Um Al-Moqtadir that Um Moussa is planning to appoint this prince as the next caliph, and Al-Moqtadir and Al-Sayeda Um Al-Moqtadir had to get rid of Um Moussa …). (source: Al-Muntazim, about 310 A.H., 13/209). Hence, the political ambition of Thamal brought about her downfall.

Lastly:

 This unprecedented appointment of a female as supreme judge is an event we hope to see it occur one day in a real Islamic country that will apply Quranism.

Female Slaves in Rule: Al-Khayzuran: the Matriarch and Mother of Many Abbasid Caliphs

Introduction:

 She is the mother of all the progeny of Abbasid caliphs since her marriage to the third caliph, Al-Mahdi, until the last Abbasid caliph in Baghdad. Most of the Abbasid caliphs were sons of concubines and female slaves. In contrast, during the Umayyad caliphate, the ethnic prejudice against non-Arabs made the Umayyads feel the urge to avoid impregnating non-Arab concubines and female slaves, by practicing coitus interruptus. In fact, sons of concubines during the Umayyad caliphate lost their right to the throne, even if they were first-born sons. This changed during the Abbasid caliphate, of course, as female slaves wielded a great measure of power, authority, and control over the Abbasid palaces. We give below an overview of Al-Khayzuran, the most famous concubine that had the biggest influence and control over the Abbasid throne during the reign of her husband, Al-Mahdi, and her son, Harun Al-Rashid.   

1- She gave birth to two sons who became caliphs successively: Al-Hady and Harun Al-Rashid. The latter's progeny brought forth all the rest of the Abbasid caliphs, even the ones resided in Cairo until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 921 A.H./1517 A.D. That is why we assert here that Al-Khayzuran is the great mother of all caliphs of the Abbasid Dynasty. Her lover, the third Abbasid caliph Al-Mahdi (the son of the caliph Al-Mansour), freed her and got married to her after she bore him his two sons.

2- Al-Khayzuran was a mere bought slave-girl brought to the palace of Al-Mahdi. Usually, slave-girls would move from one household to another since their abduction by criminals and gangsters, and many men would have copulated with them. They were usually sold in slaves markets. Within such a horrid journey, slave-girls were taught how to please men and gratify them sexually, besides learning a measure of knowledge in fields of theology, literature, poetry, history, philosophy, etiquette, tidbits of wisdom, singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments as well as general knowledge of daily life and society on all its levels. Hence, slave-girls who were brought to palaces of caliphs were fully knowledgeable in feminine aspects, mental aspects, and human conditions. Besides the beauty of female slaves, their knowledge of etiquette and sex and culture and their having so many masters that enjoyed them in bed made them ambitious to reach the bed of the caliph and gain a measure of authority.  

3- Such was the case of Al-Khayzuran when she was probed semi-naked by the hands of Al-Mahdi, the then emir and heir to the throne, as usually done before buying slave-girls. The emir decided to buy her and said to her that her beauty is perfect, despite her legs that are rough to the touch of his hands, and she told him, to arouse him sexually, that he would need her much more when he would try her in bed, regardless of her legs that he would not see in the dark chamber! She became his favorite concubine in his seraglio, despite his wives among free women. Her two sons became caliphs and Harun Al-Rashid had his progeny that were caliphs; she was indeed the mother of the Abbasid caliphate.

4- Al-Mahdi loved Al-Khayzuran very much indeed, but when he became caliph, he got married to the daughter of his paternal uncle for political reasons in 159 A.H., and when Al-Khayzuran got angry and jealous, he freed her from slavery in the same year, and married her in 160 A.H., but in the same year, he performed pilgrimage and married in Yathreb one of the grand-daughters of Othman Ibn Affan, the third pre-Umayyad caliph.  

5- Hence, it was natural that troubles would often erupt between Al-Khayzuran and Al-Mahdi, as she dared to wreak havoc in the palace because she knew he favored her most and loved her above all women in his seraglio, free or enslaved. The famous historian, Al-Waqidi, was a friend of Al-Mahdi, and used to tell him accounts and histories of past kings. Once, Al-Mahdi complained to Al-Waqidi about the fact that Al-Khayzuran tearing his clothes when he was about to embrace her to make love to her, and she shouted at him to leave as she never felt his love. He complained to Al-Waqidi that she was his favorite woman and he made her two sons as crown-princes, and how she could have demanded more than that, and he asked his advice. Al-Waqidi was shrewd enough to gratify and pacify the sad caliph, and he praised Al-Khayzuran and her merits. Al-Waqidi knew that the caliph told her everything in his daily life, and he knew he must gain favor of Al-Khayzuran, the real queen and controller of the throne, and Al-Waqidi indeed gained favors and gifts of both Al-Khayzuran and Al-Mahdi.  

6- Indeed, Al-Khayzuran used all her feminine charm and her power over Al-Mahdi to make him prefer her progeny to his other offspring by his other wives and concubines. Eventually, he made his heir to the throne her two sons Al-Hady and then his successor would be Harun Al-Rashid. For a long period of time, she enjoyed full control authority over the Abbasid caliphate during its flourishing times of strength and power, during the reign of her husband Al-Mahdi. Yet, her son and crown-prince, Al-Hady, felt threatened and annoyed by such hegemony of his mother, and often expressed his ire at such state of affairs in public. Al-Khayzuran knew of course of such negative sentiments of her son Al-Hady, and she urged Al-Mahdi to make Harun Al-Rashid his successor instead of her first-born, Al-Hady. Al-Mahdi was about to grant her wish in 169 A.H., but before he would issue such decree, he died suddenly. Some historians suspected that Al-Hady had poisoned his father. When Al-Hady became enthroned as caliph, troubles ensued between him and his mother, Al-Khayzuran.  

7- Al-Hady never felt content regarding his mother's hegemony, full authority, and political power. He never looked with satisfaction to her meddling and interfering into the affairs of the caliphate. Al-Hady was a burly, strong youth with tempestuous temper as Ibn Tababa, the historian, writes about him, and he made sure his mother would lose all influence she used to have during his father's reign.

8- Conflicts arose between the new caliph and his mother, Al-Khayzuran. Al-Hady was an agile, strong-built, firm, violent and revengeful youth with alertness and brimming vitality, as per Al-Tabari, the historian. Yet, it seemed that he held a temporary truce with his mother; Al-Tabari mentions that Al-Hady allowed his mother only months to enjoy her power and authority, then to hand him full power over everything. He used to shout at her face to face, saying that women should never interfere in caliphate matters, this was not the fate allotted to them! He ordered his mother to keep to her chamber to spend time in prayers. Processions of those who sought the help, interference, aid, and intercession of Al-Khayzuran went on to her residential palace. Al-Khayzuran interceded on behalf of some wealthy man and asked her son the caliph to help him. He refused to oblige her request, threatening to kill the man who appealed to her and to confiscate his money. Al-Hady shouted his wonder about such processions, and he commanded his mother to keep herself secluded in affairs of her household and her acts of worship. He ordered her as well to never receive any visitor at all among Muslims or non-Muslims. She was so furious that she could hardly walk, but she never addressed Al-Hady, and vowed never to speak to him all her life.

9- Thus, Al-Khayzuran lost all her power during the rule of her son Al-Hady, who also planned to remove his brother, Harun Al-Rashid, from being the heir to the throne, putting his own son, Jaffer Ibn Al-Hady, in his place. To maintain her full hegemony and control, she did not hesitate to kill her son Al-Hady. Al-Khayzuran had to stop her son at any cost; she had to kill him! Harun Al-Rashid was her only hope to regain her former power and stature. Yet, this was not her only motive. Al-Hady tried to kill both Al-Khayzuran, his mother, and Harun Al-Rashid, his younger brother, using poison. Al-Hady sent her, as a token of love, a grilled goose filled with poison, and Al-Khayzuran was about to from it but her loyal woman-slave advised her to test it by throwing a piece of the goose to a hungry dog, who died instantly! Al-Khayzuran got wind of another conspiracy against her son Harun Al-Rashid. Attempt on the life of Al-Rashid was thwarted only by Al-Khayzuran, who sent some of her slave women to strangle Al-Hady in his sleep in 170 A.H., after 14 months of his caliphate. In the same night, she ordered Yahiya Ibn Khaled Al-Barmaky to make all men swear allegiance and fealty to the new caliph, her son Harun Al-Rashid. Al-Tabari asserts in his historical accounts that Al-Khayzuran was the actual behind-the-curtain ruler, not Harun Al-Rashid, with the aid of Yahiya Ibn Khaled Al-Barmaky, until her death in 173 A.H. in Mecca after she performed pilgrimage, and she was buried in Qorayish cemetery. Her son Harun Al-Rashid attended her funeral and walked in her burial procession full of tears and barefooted!

References: ( Al-Muntazim by Ibn Al-Jawzy 8/346, History of Baghdad 14/430, History of Al-Tabari 8/72, 121, 188, 205, 205, 210, 212, 223, 230, 238, and 252).

COMMENTS:

1- Saeed Ali: Within such periods of history, worship of money led one to commit crimes of murder, as people were away from the Quranic guidance. Mentalities of the period reflect the fact that people worshipped hadiths as their creed and never took care to ponder upon the Quranic verses at all, as such people were controlled by devils. Let us draw useful lessons from history and never to follow the example of such corrupt people.

2- Muhammad Shaalan: Such intrigues of palaces indicate corruption and decay in the caliphate, but could we trust narratives and historical accounts of historians of such a period?!

Female Slaves in Rule: Qabeeha: the Mother of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Moataz:

Introduction:

1- Arts of sex and carnal pleasures of concubines and female slaves during the Abbasid era brought an end to literary traditions of the Umayyad era and the pre-Islamic era of Platonic love, typical of literary verse and prose stories of Qais and Layla, and to the poems of platonic love as well that describe beauty of the beloved's eyes, eye-pupils, or eyelashes, in a chaste manner without sexual innuendos at all during the Umayyad era. During the Abbasid era, erotic literature and sexual love poems spread, and they have been copied in books authored by 'liberal' thinkers like al-Jahiz as well as 'conservative' religious Ibn-Hanbal-doctrine scholars and historians like Ibn Al-Jawzy. Abou Nawwas was very well-known at such liberal era because of his explicit erotic poems of heterosexual and homosexual love. Once even an anonymous concubine during the Abbasid era expressed in her poetical lines her view of love which was nothing for her but torrid sexual intercourse:

Love is nothing but hot hugging and kissing

With both bellies heaving one into the other

And entering penises into moist holes

So hard that tears pouting to drown the eyes

While clutching chests, shoulders, and heads

2- During such an era, Qabeeha was an outstanding example; Qabeeha was the most beautiful concubine among the 3000-concubine seraglio of the Abbasid caliph Al-Motawakil, who adored her immensely and could not bear to remain away from her. As she was so beautiful, and Arabs used to describe things by opposite epithets, the caliph called her Qabeeha (in Arabic, this word means the ugly one). This means that she was a sex expert in arts of carnal love, since she controlled the caliph and the political affairs of the Abbasid throne, and she made him forget the women of his seraglio. She became nearer to his heart when she gave birth to his son, Al-Moataz, who was known at the time by the title Al-Moataz son of Qabeeha. She made her son ascend to the throne as caliph and she controlled her son, as she was greedy for both power and money, and such greed brought about her tragic downfall, and we give more details below.

Qabeeha, the mother of the Abbasid caliph Al-Moataz

1- Al-Motawakil could never bear to be away from Qabeeha, his favorite concubine that won his heart, and his love to her increased when she bore him a son, Al-Moataz, who was known in his youth by his sharp intelligence, and hence, his mother Qabeeha urged Al-Motawakil to make Al-Moataz heir to his throne instead of his eldest son Al-Montasser. Al-Montasser conspired against his father's life using Turkish military leaders, who managed to assassinate Al-Motawakil, and later on Al-Montasser himself, the caliph Al-Mostaeen, and Al-Moataz and to subdue and humiliate Qabeeha herself.  

2- Qabeeha used to live her glory days of supreme power and authority I the caliphate of Al-Motawakil. She controlled the Abbasid dynasty and caliphate when her son, Al-Moataz, became the caliph. Her foolish unsound policies led to the downfall of her son, Al-Moataz, and to her humiliation in her last days. Between her periods as the favorite concubine of Al-Motawakil to her days of humiliation by the hands of the Turkish military leaders, she witnessed the greatness of the Abbasid caliphate during the reign of Al-Motawakil, and the degeneration period of this caliphate in her last days. Qabeeha was among the factors that led to the beginning of the degeneration of the Abbasid caliphate.

3- Historians tackled the unbridled passion of the power-hungry Qabeeha of supreme authority and hegemony. She urged Al-Motawakil to throw parties and lavish banquets filled with splendor and extravagance to celebrate her son when he finished memorization of the Quran by heart. Al-Moataz became caliph at the age of 19, in 251 A.H. He was the first Abbasid caliph to embroider his horses with gold jewelry. He fell totally under the control of Qabeeha, his mother.

4- Qabeeha enlisted the help of Turkish military leaders to assassinate the caliph Al-Mostaeen, deposed earlier by plans plotted Qabeeha. She plotted for her son in many ways to get rid of his foes and competitors within the Abbasid household. She controlled Turkish military leaders by making use of their rifts and inner quarrels. She used to confiscate huge quantities of money and jewels and to have them stored in hidden locations known only to her.

5- Qabeeha used to incite conflicts and competitions among military leaders and soldiers of Turkish, Moroccan, and Circassian origin, to use them to her advantage. The Moroccans accused the Turkish ones of assassinating and deposing caliphs, and the latter killed the leaders of the formers as a result of such insults. Skirmishes and inner fights ensued.

6- Qabeeha tried another method of control; she urged her son the caliph at one time to stop paying the annuities of the soldiers, which reached to about one million of dinars in 252 A.H., and to her satisfaction, Turkish soldiers revolted as a result against their leader, Wasif, and killed him in 253 A.H. Thus, Qabeeha and her son got rid of the alarming rising authority of Wasif that threatened her. At the same time, Al-Moataz gave the posts of the dead Wasif to another leader named Bagha, to incite enmity between this leader and Saleh Ibn Wasif.

7- As influence and authority of Bagha, the Turkish leader, increased, Qabeeha tried to repeat the same game with Bagha; she withheld the annuities of soldiers to incite them against Bagha, who understood the manipulation done, and attacked with his men a storehouse that contained some possession and money of Qabeeha, confiscating all of the loads on twenty mules, taking advantage of the temporary absence of the caliph in a brief journey away from Baghdad. Yet, some sentinels of the caliph ambushed and killed Bagha. The caliph ordered the burning of corpse of Bagha and the arrest of some of his soldiers in 254 A.H.   

8- Saleh Ibn Wasif was the only option remaining to Qabeeha and her son to be the leader of the Turkish soldiers. Yet, Qabeeha plotted against Saleh Ibn Wasif; she sent for Moussa Ibn Bagha to come to Baghdad to take the place of his father. At the same time, she made a deal with the vizier Ahmad Ibn Israel not to give any money to Saleh Ibn Wasif to pay the annuities of the soldiers, in order to create an opportunity for their revolting against him and kill him. Saleh Ibn Wasif understood the plot and entered with a military force into the palace of the caliph and the vizier to make his soldiers see that the vizier is behind their lack of money. The vizier was humiliated and beaten before the eyes of the caliph, and later on tortured to tell them by force the location of the due money. The caliph felt extremely afraid and could not protect his vizier.

9- Qabeeha sent her orders to Saleh Ibn Wasif to set the vizier free, but he ignored her. He managed to gather all soldiers of other origins around him, inciting them against Qabeeha and her son who withheld their annuities.

10- Saleh Ibn Wasif sent a delegation of soldiers to the caliph to ask for the annuities, knowing that the caliph was powerless and all money and possessions were in the hidden storehouse of Qabeeha. Qabeeha told her son she owned nothing, when he asked her to help him. She urged her son to wait for the arrival of Moussa Ibn Bagha to help in getting rid of Saleh Ibn Wasif. Yet, Saleh Ibn Wasif was faster; he arrested the caliph, and left him to the Turkish soldiers to torture him. They later on deposed him and appointed Al-Mohtadi as the new caliph in 255 A.H. Qabeeha ran away via a secret hidden passage from her chamber leading to outside of her palace.

11- Saleh Ibn Wasif looked for Qabeeha everywhere in Baghdad. He found her soon enough and confiscated all her countless treasures, jewels, money, and hidden possessions that were worth millions of dinars. He wondered at her greed and stinginess as she could not part with her money and possessions to save her own son; she sacrificed him and tried to get away with her wealth instead of saving Al-Moataz!

12- Apparently, Saleh Ibn Wasif  tortured and raped Qabeeha, and later on banished her to Mecca, and she was rumored to invoke God's wrath on him at the Sacred Kaaba Mosque, asserting to pilgrims that he raped her. She remained in her exile in Mecca in utter humiliation until the caliph Al-Mu'tamid allowed her to return to the city of Samraa, until her death in it in 264 A.H.

References: History of Tabari 9/175, 224, 349, 387, 388, 393, 395, 406, 441, 442, and 553, History of Al-Muntazim 12/251, and History of Ibn Katheer 11/11 and 160. 

COMMENTS:

1- Muhammad Shaalan: This scandal of Qabeeha makes readers discern useful lessons drawn from history: a pretty woman's self-worship led to her demise and humiliation, as her conspiracies led to bloodshed and utter destruction. Beauty must be in one's personality and character not in one's looks. 

Female Slaves in Rule: Shaghab: the Ruler of the Abbasid Caliphate for Twenty Five Years:

1- Al-Sayeda (i.e., the lady, or grand dame) was the formal title of the former female slave/concubine Shaghab, who was the mother of the Abbasid caliph Al-Moqtadir, who was made caliph by her upon reaching the age of 13, and he was controlled by his mother to the extent that she enjoyed controlling the caliphate for 25 years, until her son's murder in 320 A.H., followed by her tragic painful end. 

2- Al-Tabari historical accounts had many lines about Shaghab: she was a female slave named Naeim (the soft-skinned one) who was bought by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mo'tadid from her former owner, a lady called Um Al-Qassim Bint Muhammad Ibn Abdulla, and the caliph liked her a lot, but once she bore him his son, Al-Moqtadir, he deserted her for other new concubines. 

3- Shaghab was thin and of yellowish skin, and she could not compete with other white blond, fat concubines of the seraglio. She felt jealous of the 4000 concubines of the caliph. She entered into a series of endless conflicts with these concubines in the Abbasid seraglio. Shaghab engaged in endless quarrels and fights and intrigues.  She hated the fact that the caliph deserted her company and bed. Hence, the caliph punished, humiliated, and beat her, and he changed her name from Naeim to Shaghab (in Arabic: ''troubles''), and that name stuck to her ever since.

4- Shaghab lived a life filled with intrigues and plots, killing off by poisoning all new concubines that Al-Mo'tadid loved, such as: Futna, Jeejeik, and Durayrah, and his new pretty bride, the Egyptian princess Qatr Al-Nada, with the help of her close associate, the female slave Thamal. Al-Qahir was the son of the murdered concubine Futna, and Al-Mo'tadid forced Shaghab to breastfeed and bring him up with her own son, Al-Moqtadir, in her palace-prison. Shaghab dare not to refuse the request and never dared to kill Al-Qahir off, lest the caliph would kill her. Al-Qahir never forgot to avenge his dead mother; once enthroned as a caliph later on, he took revenge from Shaghab, as we will read below about her tragic end.  

5- In her palace-prison, Shaghab knew all news of the outside world and the Abbasid palace from Thamal who helped her in all her plots, and Al-Mo'tadid never dared to have Shaghab murdered so as to make her bring up his two sons and because he had no sufficient evidence that she was behind the mysterious deaths of many of his concubines. 

6- Shaghab conspired to allow her son to become a caliph, but as Al-Mo'tadid died suddenly in 289 A.H., his son, Al-Moktafy, succeeded him to the throne. Shaghab had to wait until her son reached the age of 13 to kill Al-Moktafy by poisoning to allow his successor, her son Al-Moqtadir, to be enthroned. As she controlled her son fully, she wielded such influence and authority over the Abbasid throne for 25 years. 

7- The first decree of Shaghab was to ban others from calling her "Shaghab"; instead, she called herself in the formal title Al-Sayeda Um Al-Moqtadir. Her second decree was to confiscate all jewels and precious stones of all concubines of the seraglio of her rivals, and to grant them to gentlewomen and female slaves under Thamal, who helped her in her plots and assassinations, and Thamal got the lion's share of such confiscated jewels. Shaghab called Thamal Um Moussa Al-Qahramana, as her main gentlewoman in the palace. Thamal had such influence that she dismissed viziers from their posts.    

8- To spite religious scholars/imams/clergy of the Sunnite religion of her age, Shaghab issued an unprecedented decree by appointing Thamal as the Supreme Judge of Baghdad, and on Fridays, she would judge cases of people justly, within male judges and scholars under her command. Fabricated hadiths to vilify and asperse women as a gender were concocted at such era by envious Sunnite imams; yet, most high-rank scholars and historians never expressed their discontent.  

9- Most high-rank deities of the Sunnite religion lived in that era, and they were zeroes and nothings before the Abbasid palaces and diwan (i.e., palace court); yet; they were deified as demi-gods after their deaths by the Muhammadan Sunnite human cattle. Most of such gods never expressed their fury at Thamal and Shaghab, and some died in the era of Shaghab and some outlived her: Al-Bokhary, Moslem, Ibn Hanbal, Ibn Makhlad, Ibn Qotayba, Al-Razi, Abou Dawood Al-Dhaheiri, Ibn Shureih, Abou Othman Al-Heiry, Al-Nisaa'i, Al-Jibaa'i, Ibn Al-Jalaa, Abou Yaali, Al-Astani, Al-Rawandi, Al-Tabari, Al-Zajjaj, Al-Akhfash, Al-Baghoui, etc.  

10- Shaghab went on taking revenge from her rivals and foes; in 299 A.H., she confiscated possessions and money of the former Qahramana (head gentlewoman) named Fatima and had her murdered by drowning in the River Tigris Other killed female slaves and concubines were the old ones who became head gentlewomen (Qahramanas). Shaghab confiscated possessions of so many viziers and retinue men and dismissed them from their posts to appoint new ones loyal to her. 

12- Yet, Shaghab had some charity works done; she established a big hospital on the River Tigris in 306 A.H. and she prepared an army using her own money to defend Baghdad against the Qarmatians in 315 A.H.

13- Conspiracies never stopped against Shaghab and her son, Al-Moqtadir, as Turkish military leaders revolted against the caliph and deposed him, appointing Al-Qahir as caliph instead. Yet, this plot failed and Al-Moqtadir was enthroned once more and he pardoned his younger brother, Al-Qahir, and spared his life. Later on, a second successful revolt occurred; Al-Moqtadir was killed by the Turkish military leaders in 320 A.H., and the rebels, led by the Turkish leader Mo'nis Al-Khadem, appointed Al-Qahir as the legitimate successor and caliph. Once enthroned, he witnessed the torture of Shaghab himself upon his orders, and he tortured her many times by his own hands. Eventually, he tied her legs by a rope, lifted her upside down from the ceiling, and left her screaming for hours. Her urine would drown her face in such position, and after he extorted from her all hidden locations of her treasures and money, he tortured her to death.      

Lastly: This is the era in which the Sunnite religion has emerged and has been named as such; a very corrupt decadent age that begot a very bad, corrupt, and deadly religion!

References: History of Al-Tabari 10/139, History of Ibn Al-Atheer, 6/119, 11/105, and 11/169:175, History of Caliphs by Al-Siyouti: 604, Al-Muntazim by Ibn Al-Jawzy: 13/253, Al-Wafi bi Al-Wafeiyyat by Al-Safadi: 16/167.  

COMMENTS:

1- Muhammad Shaalan: I discern from the article above that all murderers and killers are killed/murdered later on as retribution ordained by Fate. This is true in the Middle Ages of caliphate and today as well. 

2- Salah Amer Al-Najjar: I feel sorry that Egypt was conquered by Arabs to be ruled by sons of whores and prostitutes of Arabia! Yet, such bastards were deified by the Muhammadans later on! Episodes of Dr. Mansour titled "Salafism Exposed" on the YouTube are filled with more details on that subject; the eras of sexual immorality and profligate rulers, sultans, and caliphs and their scandals and crimes fill a huge number of tomes and volumes! Is that the caliphate that the terrorist MB members and Salafists dream of reviving one day in Egypt! Shame on such terrorist ignoramuses!

Female Slaves in Rule: Shagaret Al-Dor the Sultana of Egypt:

Firstly: before she became the Sultana/Queen of Egypt:

1- The Mamelukes (i.e., male slaves bought by the Ayyubids and trained to be military soldiers and leaders) reached the rule of Egypt as they inherited the Ayyubid dynasty, their masters, that came to an end. The Mameluke empire reached from the west of Iraq to east of Libya, and from south of Hejaz to the south of Asia Minor. The Mameluke sultan, leaders, soldiers stopped and defeated the Moghuls in Palestine before they would step into Sinai to conquer Egypt. The Mamelukes were the ones to eradicate crusaders forever from the Levant, once and for all in a decisive victory as they crushed the Europeans. The Mamelukes were the ones to lead and dominate via Egypt the 'Islamic' world; even emperor of India used to send messages to them to declare his nominal submission and loyalty to them. The Mamelukes were the ones to adorn districts of Cairo with monuments, mosques, and buildings that stand until now. Before the Mameluke empire was established, the Mamelukes were the ones to defeat Louis IX of France when he attacked Egyptian Mediterranean coast within a crusade, to capture him, and to make him ransom himself by a huge amount of golden coins. With such great victories and many laurels, the very first Mameluke to be enthroned in Egypt was a former female slave: Shagaret Al-Dor the Sultana of Egypt, who was former concubine and later-on wife of the Ayyubid sultan Al-Saleh Najm Eddine Ayoub.       

2- The Ayyubid dynasty sultans and princes fought and murdered one another within incessant strife before their imminent collapse, and even some of them enlisted the help of crusaders to defeat his kinsmen. The best and wisest one of such dynasty was probably its last one, the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt Al-Saleh Najm Eddine Ayoub.   

3- The redoubtable Ayyubid Sultan Al-Saleh Ayoub was known for his absolute power, supreme authority and control, guarding his silence, dignity, solemnity, and shunning festivity and amusements. No one would dare to begin an audience with him without prior permission, and he was so proud that at one point, his eldest son, Omar, was captured and imprisoned by his rival in the Levant, Ismail the Ayyubid, Al-Saleh Ayoub was too proud to ask him to release his son; eventually this son languished and died in prison. Al-Saleh Ayoub  was so furious at one point at his brother, Al-Adil the Ayyubid, that he had him murdered and confiscated his possessions, and accepted no intercession to spare his brother's life. That is why we cannot say that he fell violently in love with Shagaret Al-Dor, a mere concubine of his of Turkish origin. Yet, she managed to convince him to set her free and to marry her; this was the challenge she won, as she conquered his heart by her beauty, reasoning mind, and sharp intelligence. She bore him a son, named Khalil, who died early as a child, but she was formally titled Um Khalil; this was what she gained from her dead child.

4- Another chance occurred to prove the intelligence of Shagaret Al-Dor in critical periods: crusaders attacked Damietta, and its Ayyubid battalion fled the city in fear as they were surprised and deserted the city to the crusaders led by Louis IX. Meanwhile, the sultan was seriously taken ill during his planning to move the Egyptian army toward Mansoura to face the crusaders. Shagaret Al-Dor felt that her husband was dying, as doctors told her his case was hopeless, and she convinced him to sign and seal thousands of empty formal papers used for issuing his royal decrees. She formed a committee to manage the affairs of Egypt and supervise the military mobilization. She send letters and orders sealed by her husband, the sultan, to mobilize and urge soldiers to fight back the crusaders, and she moved into a palace near Mansoura along with her dying husband, to encourage, plan, and supervise the military actions. She used to send soldiers who would perform military skirmishes to frighten and kill some crusaders in Damietta, to sabotage their camps, and to sap their resources and energy. 

5- When her husband the sultan died, she kept it as a secret from everyone for a certain period. She buried him in secrecy, and made everyone think he was still alive and sending sealed orders. She never changed habits and customs of daily life in the palace to keep his death a top secret, and stopped anyone wishing to visit him during his ailment as he kept to bed, under the pretext that he did not wish to be seen in agony and pain. The Egyptians knew instinctively that their sultan was dead months ago, but they spread the news in hushed voices as they know how critical the situation was. The crusaders got news of the sultan's death and that boosted their moral to march their troops toward Mansoura. A decisive battle  ensued, and the Mameluke armies defeated and vanquished the troops of the crusaders, killing off most of them and capturing Louis IX in 648 A.H. in Mansoura. Queen Shagaret Al-Dor sent for the dead sultan's eldest son, Turan Shah, to come to ascend to the throne of Egypt. She made all people in the retinue and government to swear featly and allegiance to Turan Shah before his coming. She went on heading the military planning process and endeavors until she could defeat the crusaders and crushed his armies. The victory was assured by plans set by Queen Shagaret Al-Dor and the military wisdom and acumen of the two Mameluke leaders: Aqtay and Aybak.

6- Turan Shah reached Egypt to find that Queen Shagaret Al-Dor had earned a decisive victory over crusaders and preserved his throne for him. Instead of being thankful to her and to the Mamelukes, he treated everyone contemptuously and preferred his own Mamelukes that he intended to make them replace the old, victorious ones owned by his late father. He demanded from Queen Shagaret Al-Dor all her money and possessions and that of the State Treasury. She felt that he had evil intentions toward her, and she advised the Mamelukes to kill him, and they did it. Thus, Queen Shagaret Al-Dor began her route toward authority by intrigues and conspiracies.

Secondly: Sultana Shagaret Al-Dor and the Abbasid caliph Al-Mostaasim:

1- Once Turan Shah was murdered, it was natural that his paternal uncles' sons in the Levant would desire to claim the throne of Egypt. The Mamelukes had to quickly prevent this to keep the throne for themselves; acknowledging her stature and role, the notable, powerful, and rich Mamelukes agreed on making Queen Shagaret Al-Dor the Sultana and ruler of Egypt, with the right to seal and sign formal papers of the sultanate of Egypt. She used to sign using her formal title Um Khalil. Mosques imams acknowledged her rule as the Queen of Egypt and prayed for her sake on Friday sermons as the Queen of 'Muslims'. Her rule began in 648 A.H. she wore the robe of sovereignty made of expensive silk embroidered with gold. Princes kissed the ground under her feet as customary at the time, as she stood before a curtain. Her first royal decree was to hold talks with the captured Louis IX, who eventually ransomed himself with the total sum of 400.000 dinars in gold.

2- The Abbasid caliph Al-Mostaasim denounced the fact that Shagaret Al-Dor became the ruler of Egypt, and sent a formal message, within which he mocked all Egyptians by saying that if they lacked men, he would send them a man to be their ruler. Queen Shagaret Al-Dor felt that because of such embarrassing letter that showed her lack or full legitimacy to the throne before the public eye inside and outside Egypt, she had to formally give up authority and rule behind the curtain; she got married to the man who was to be the first Mameluke sultan: Ezz-Eddine Aybak.

3- We have tackled how a former female slave achieved many feats and saved Egypt amidst critical times when she was the Sultana: the Queen of Egypt, who was a former concubine in a seraglio of an Ayyubid sultan. What about the pampered filthily rich Abbasid caliph who was brought up within a ruling dynasty that reigned for more than 700 years? Let us also tackle how the Abbasid caliph Al-Mostaasim lost Iraq and his throne and caused thousands to lose their lives because of the Moghuls. Ibn Tababa, the historian contemporary to this caliph, describes in his periodicals this last Abbasid caliph in Baghdad as a weak, low-profile, impressionable person with no experience in rule and in the affairs of the caliphate, and he was an easy prey for those greedy ones around him. This caliph used to spend his time listening to music and songs and watching dancers in court. His retinue consisted of ignorant, mean, and greedy men living off him. . Ibn Katheer asserts in his books that the last Abbasid caliph used to adore storing huge amounts of money, to the extent that he confiscated to himself the money (about 100.000 dinars) given to him as a trust by Al-Nasser Dawood, of the Ayyubid Dynasty, and people rebuked him for that deed.  

4- This type of avarice and insatiable greed for money was the main reason behind the defeat of this caliph by the Moghuls. Such avarice and greed of the last caliph, like his ancestors, led him to confiscate the annuities of the soldiers in this critical time when the Moghuls drew nearer to Baghdad. Ibn Katheer asserts that this last caliph disbanded the army soldiers and refused to give them their dues, and these soldiers had to beg in streets and markets and at gates of mosques. Poets composed verses to lament those soldiers and the decadent degenerated affairs of the caliphate and Islam, as per Ibn Katheer in his historical accounts.

5- The caliph who confiscated the money due to his soldiers was an extravagant person who used to lavish excessive sums of money over his subordinates, servants, henchmen, and slaves as well as men in his retinue who were used to confiscate other people's money and possessions unjustly. Such evil people were the ones who controlled and monopolized the wealth in Baghdad in such decadent and declining times by controlling the caliph, while scientists and scholars and artist would die of hunger. In such upside-down state of affairs, a declining empire would be about to end and witness its downfall, and the horrid image was completed by the spread of bribery, wide-scale confiscations of properties and possessions of others unjustly, countless internal troubles and general unrest, as well as decadent demeanor of immorality while inhabitants of Baghdad immersed in trivial matters, ignoring the imminent danger of the Moghuls at the gates of the city. This resulted in Moghuls massacring all dwellers of Baghdad, conquering it along with all Iraq, destroying its civilization and heritage, and razing the city to the ground after looting it. After razing Baghdad to the ground, Hulago, the Moghul leader and chieftain, entered with his forces the palace of the caliphate. The last caliph was brought to him, shivering in terror. Hulago shouted at him and said mockingly that he was the caliph's guest and demanded all worthy and valuable things in the palace to be brought before him. All coffers and huge boxes containing precious stones, jewelry, gold …etc. were brought to him. Hulago gave them away to his men and servants as gifts, and demanded to know all the secret chambers and hidden storehouses of treasures that the caliph knew about. Under duress, the terrified caliph told him all about that, and especially of the underground grand basin in the garden of the palace, which was filled with golden bars, each weighing about 100 pounds! Hulago and his soldiers excavated and extracted all gold from this basin. Hulago expressed his wonder at such a fool of a sultan who had such treasures and did not spend some money on soldiers and military armies to defend himself and his throne. Hulago mocked and taunted the last caliph as he owned all such priceless treasures and was stingy enough not to pay the annuities of his soldiers!  Hulago ordered that the women of the seraglio of the caliph were to be brought to him. They were 700 concubines and 1000 slave-girls and female servants. The crying caliph tried to appeal and implore to Hulago to spare them, saying that they never went out of the palace, and that they had never seen moon and the sun, as his women were prisoners of the seraglio, just like the gold bars he buried! Such was his view concerning women, and females in general, and concerning Shagaret Al-Dor! All treasures and precious stones and jewels gathered by the Abbasid caliphs for five centuries were accumulated on top of one another by Hulago and the Moghuls, and appeared like huge mountains seen from afar! Women of the seraglio were distributed among Moghuls. Al-Mostaasim witnessed all sorts of humiliation before he was killed by the Moghuls who trampled over him with their feet until he died, as per the historical accounts of Al-Hamazany, the historian.

5- Such a person was the last Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, and such was the Sultana Shagaret Al-Dor. He lost his caliphate because of his folly and greed, and he was killed brutally and his money and women were taken as spoils. He caused the end of the Abbasid era. Queen Shagaret Al-Dor protected her country and kingdom, Egypt, and forced Louis IX to sign a treaty never to attack any Muslim country at all as long as he would live, among her above-mentioned feats of heroism. Both this queen and that last Abbasid caliph ruled within the tyrannical logic of the Middle Ages. Which of them do we prefer, if we are to submit to tyranny anyway?! 

Thirdly: the death of Sultana Shagaret Al-Dor:

1- Queen Shagaret Al-Dor began her life within margins of the lines of history as a mere concubine, but she jumped into the headlines of historical accounts to occupy a unique place in the history of Muslims as the very first and last woman to be enthroned as sole sovereign/ sultana. Her life was linked to the critical period of Egyptian history as crusaders attacked Egypt and as the Ayyubid dynasty came to an end and gave way to the emergence of the Mameluke era. Queen Shagaret Al-Dor was the very first Mameluke ruler. Her life ended in a tragic manner, as her murder was caused by political intrigues that extinguished her mercilessly, just as she never had mercy toward her rivals and foes.   

2- Because of the condemnation of Al-Mostaasim regarding Queen Shagaret Al-Dor as sole sovereign, and because the public opinion inside and outside Egypt favored and endorsed his rebuke, she felt the urgent need to get married; she formally ceded power and married Ezz Eddine Aybak, the rich and powerful Mameluke military leader, who was made a sultan and enthroned soon afterwards. Of course, Queen Shagaret Al-Dor was the real ruler behind curtains, and she held all power in her hands, with Aybak overtly seen by the public as the new sultan, the very first male Mameluke ruler, like a façade to her.

3- Before getting married, Queen Shagaret Al-Dor had two suitors to choose from: Aybak and Aqtay. Both were rich and powerful Mameluke military leaders who wooed her incessantly. Aqtay had his emissary Beibars (the powerful and intelligent Mameluke military leader who later on was enthroned as caliph on his turn) to woo and court her, but he talked of nothing but his master' military prowess and bravery. The Queen felt Aqtay can never share his power with her; she refused his addresses. Aybak had his emissary Qotoz (the powerful Mameluke military leader who later on was enthroned as caliph before Beibars and vanquished the troops of the Moghuls in Palestine, and then, he was killed and succeeded by Beibars) to woo and court her, and he talked about the fervent and ardent love and desire of his master who would do anything to please her. Queen Shagaret Al-Dor found in Aybak an obedient husband who could not dare to oppose her sovereignty because he loved her. She used to command him and he would gladly obey her as queen of his heart. Aqtay refused to be spurned and threatened to destroy the capital and rule over another part of Egypt independently, and his Mamelukes tried to assassinate Aybak and declared rebellion against the queen. Aybak and the Queen had no choice left but to assassinate Aqtay.

4- After a short period of marital bliss, Aybak soon enough felt irritated and annoyed by the interference of the Queen in affairs of the throne and rule. Aybak began to gradually get rid of her influence and authority, and he successfully wooed and was betrothed to an Ayyubid princess whose father ruled Al-Mosul, in Iraq. Shagaret Al-Dor was furious and blind with jealousy, as Aybak deserted her palace and lived in another palace, sought a new wife from the Ayyubid dynasty in Iraq, and remarried his divorcee, Um Ali, the mother of his only son, Ali. Jealousy and lack of sleep prevented Shagaret Al-Dor from thinking clearly; she plotted  conspiracy to murder Aybak, her husband, to regain her power and authority and to revenge herself. She lost her mind to think that she would manage to go unpunished. Her jealousy clouded her intelligence this time; she forgot that the Mamelukes of Aybak would rebel and avenge his murder.

5- Shagaret Al-Dor sent a letter to Aybak to implore him to return to her palace and bed, and she reminded him of her love and his. He entered her palace to renew and rekindle their love, and after making love to her, he got undressed to bathe in the grand bathroom of the palace. Once inside the basin of hot water, the assassins employed by Shagaret Al-Dor murdered him by crushing his testicles before her eyes. Before his death, he screamed in agony, asking for mercy from the Queen, and when she implored the assassins to stop as she changed her mind, the assassins told her that if he were to live, he would murder them. As expected, Mamelukes of Aybak rebelled and revolted against Shagaret Al-Dor once they knew of the murder of their master; they murdered the assassins brutally and arrested Shagaret Al-Dor, and eventually, she was handed over to her revengeful rival: Um Ali, the widow of Aybak who was his first wife.       

6- Um Ali enjoyed the scene of putting Shagaret Al-Dor to death, upon her orders, as female slaves had beaten her to death with wooden sandals. Um Ali ordered the bloody corpse be thrown, naked, from the palace walls. Few days later, people of Cairo took pity on their queen and put the corpse in a bag made of palm leaves to bury her! Um Ali celebrated her revenge by distributing to all residents of Cairo plates of a special dessert she concocted herself and carried her name until now in English and in Arabic: the Um Ali dessert consists of milk, dried grapes, sugar, nuts, white bread, and ghee. This oriental dessert is well-known now in Europe and Turkey. Both were former female slaves: Shagaret Al-Dor reached the throne and headlines of history books, and Um Ali who entered the lines of cookery and cuisine books!

Lastly: we are to draw useful lessons from such a history:

1- We are still living in the Middle East the masculine culture of Al-Mostaasim: the culture of males whose brains are centered in their genitalia, regarding women (free ones and slaves) only as sub-human sex objects. Such inhuman culture is manifested in writings of the Sunnite religion, especially the Ibn Hanbal doctrine. Such corrupt books revolved around the heritage notions of the second Abbasid Era of decadence. Al-Mostaasim lived this culture of glorifying genitalia and he spent his lifetime between legs of thousands of free women and enslaved concubines; he never contacted their brains, until Hulago deprived him of his women, money, riches, caliphate, possessions, and his life.     

2- Some free men and women were punished by being enslaved forcibly; this was one of the gravest injustices of life, but some were rewarded by appointing themselves as rulers and sovereigns like Kafur and Shagaret Al-Dor, and those former concubines who ruled the Abbasid caliphate behind curtains for decades. Let us not forget that Queen Shagaret Al-Dor was the very first former female slave to rule a nation of free women and men. 

3- People today still commit the grave mistake of using the terms 'Islam' and 'Muslims' (past and present) interchangeably, thinking wrongly that they are synonymous; nothing could be further from the truth. Such wrong overlapping makes Islam (the Quran alone for Quranists) responsible for this false outlook and faulty regard toward women. In fact, such inferior attitude toward women has been maintained, backed, and propagated by the Sunnite religion and NOT by Islam (i.e., Islam as the Quran alone) and has been formed because of the erroneous thinking that the Muhammadans' earthly, man-made religions are part of Islam. This is grave injustice against God and people, and it impedes reformist endeavors by Quranists led by us, Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, especially that West media calls terrorists as 'Islamists' and their terrorism as 'jihad', despite the fact that their terror contradict Islam/the Quran and the fact that their inferior look to women is against the Quranic teachings; yet, some call such misogyny as part of 'Islamic' sharia! Indeed, it is part of the Sunnite/Wahabi sharia. Sadly, the Wahabi Ibn Hanbal jurisprudence (fiqh or theology) is still being taught in the KSA and its Wahabi institutions all over the world, the Cairo-based Al-Azhar and its branches and schools all over the globe, and in all ordinary schools in the Arab world, and its corrupt clergy and imams (of both genders) find outlets to spread their lies and falsehoods in international and local media. In contrast, we Quranists cannot find any widespread media to reach people to spread our enlightenment of Quranism (our vision of real Islam) and we cannot even build a small mosque anywhere. American Quranists are too poor to build a small mosque for Friday congregational prayers. This means one thing: we are still living the age and culture of Al-Mostaasim, even if we had millions of the examples of successful, wise, intelligent, and shrewd women like Queen Shagaret Al-Dor.  

References: Al-Eibar 5/222, Al-Solok 1/361, History of Ibn Katheer, 13/199, Al-Nojom Al-Zahera 7/56, Husn Al-Muhadarah  2/39, Shazarat Al-Dhahab 5/268, Al-Wafeiyyat 16/120.

COMMENTS: 

1- Salah Amer Al-Najjar: I thank our dear Dr. Mansour for showing to us scandals and crimes of caliphs and imams in history that bear the name of Islam forcibly and unjustly; the Muhammadans of today repeat such narratives blindly as if they were religion! All hadiths are fabricated lies that cover millions of sheets! Such ignoramuses of today teach such falsehoods at Al-Azhar and all over the Arab world as Islam! Such calamity must be stopped by spreading enlightenment for years to come. I admire immensely the writings of our dear Dr. Mansour as it is simple to understand and delves deep into knowledge and logic that expose falsehoods and refute fabrications and lies, with the power of knowledge that enters into our deep inner side as readers. I think I can no longer eat the dessert called Om Ali!