Ibrahim II ibn Ahmed

Abu Ishaq Ibrahim was the son of the emir of Ifricia Ahmad . After the death of his father in 863 , power passed to Uncle Ibrahim, Ziyadatallah II , but he died soon after, and inheritance returned to the main line - to the brother of Ibrahim Abul al-Garanik Muhammad II .

Muhammad II was a frivolous and pleasure-loving ruler. In his reign, Ibrahim was appointed Governor of Kairouan , and in this position he demonstrated exemplary effectiveness and seriousness ^[1] . When the depraved Muhammad II died prematurely in February 875 , the emirate passed into the hands of Ibrahim II, and his candidacy was supported by the people and legalists of Kairouan, who rejected the claim to power of the son of Muhammad II ^[2] .

Although Ibrahim II inherited the state from the plagues of 874 , its rule brought economic prosperity. He managed to rid the roads of robbers and ensured the safety of trade. The coin reform in 888–889 , on the one hand, provoked riots in Kairouan, which were brutally suppressed, but on the other hand, led to an influx of precious metals from the eastern Abbasid caliphate ^[3] . The emir also sought to develop agriculture by creating irrigation systems.

Ibrahim finished the mosque of al-Zaytun , expanded the Ukba mosque in Kairouan, built a new extensive reservoir for the city, erected the walls of Susa and installed a number of new naval signal towers along the coast of Ifricia (this allowed sending a message from Ceuta to Morocco to Alexandria in just one night) in Egypt) ^[4] .

In 876 , Ibrahim erected a new palace-city - Raccada ("sleepy") - just a few miles southwest of Kairouan ^[5] . He replaced the palace of Al-Abbasiy as the residence of the emir. Raccada was built on a grand scale. According to Al-Bakri , its walls were ten kilometers long and encompassed an area larger than Kairouan itself. The city was equipped with huge gardens, pools and hydraulic systems. The city was divided into two approximately equal sizes of districts: one was occupied exclusively by the emir, and the other by his noble retinue, there were also attributes of ordinary city life - mosques, bazaars, baths, etc. The division of the city emphasized the royal greatness of the emir Aglabid and his independence from the aristocracy. According to Al-Bakri, the leader of the Fatimids , Ubaidallah al-Mahdi , when entering the conquered city in 909 , he was struck by the level of buildings and hydraulic structures that were unparalleled in the East ^[6] .

At the beginning of his reign, Ibrahim II was considered as a fair and enlightened ruler, but in the end he began to be perceived by the nobility as a tyrant and autocrat. He trusted the old Arab aristocracy of Ifricia, which was often a thorn in the eyes of previous emirs. Every week in Rakkaba he held trials after Friday prayers , when commoners could submit their petitions directly to the emir. Ibrahim severely punished the nobility for violence against the people and distributed severe punishments even to his family members ^[7] .

Ibrahim led a rather ascetic lifestyle and remained practically free from the influence of the courtiers and officials. Only a few names are known from his entourage: his son Abu al-Abbas Abdallah was engaged in military affairs under him, Muhammad ibn Korob (later his successor Hassan ibn Nakib) was chamberlain (hajib), and the best generals were Maimun and Rashid ^[8] . The only person whose opinion was respected by Ibrahim and appreciated was his mother, whom the anniversaries respectfully referred to simply as Sayyida ("The Supreme Lady") (although even he obligated her to pay his debts to two merchants in the amount of 600 dinars) ^[9] .

Ibrahim tried to undermine the autocracy of the semi-autonomous Arab regiments ( jund ), which were the basis of the power of the aristocracy, by replacing them with loyal black African slave soldiers ("Abid" or "Sudan"). At the grand opening of Raccada in 878 , Ibrahim ordered the killing of the bodyguards of his predecessor in the tower of Abu al-Fet to make way for his new Sudanese guard. ^[10] Ibrahim expanded the Sudanese regiments (later replenished by the Saklibs ) to 10,000, much to the chagrin of the Arab commanders ^[11] . The Arab nobility was also outraged by the enormous taxes and requisitions imposed by the emir to maintain such a large regular army.

In 893 , when Arab commanders and nobles rebelled against their military reforms and requisitions in Belezm (near Batna ), Ibrahim invited them to Rakkad for negotiations. They were greeted with fanfare. But at night, while the Arab commanders slept in the chambers of the palace, their subordinates - almost a thousand people - were killed by the protection of Ibrahim ^[12] .

This massacre provoked uprisings of other Arab aristocrats in Tunisia . The uprising spread throughout Ifricia from 893 to 894 , and during this time Ibrahim ruled virtually one Rakkada. However, the riots were ruthlessly suppressed by the efforts of the Sudanese regiments of the emir.

Ibrahim II came into conflict with the ambitious Turkic dynasty of the Tulunids , who seized control of Egypt in 868 and Syria and Hijaz in 878 . In 879 - 880 , while the Tulunid emir Ahmad ibn Tulun was far in the east, his hot-tempered son al-Abbas ibn Ahmad decided to invade Ifricia without the permission of his father and led a large Egyptian army to the west. Upon reaching Barka, al-Abbas sent a message, falsely claiming to have credentials from the caliph Abbasid with an order to Ibrahim to resign and transfer the emirate to him. The Egyptian army reached the outskirts of Tripoli and defeated the detachments of the local governor of Aglabid, Muhammad ibn Kurub. But in 880 , the Egyptian army was defeated in the Nafus mountains by troops of the Berber Kharijits , who led an independent existence in the Nafus mountains to the south-west of Tripoli for more than a century ^[13] . Hurried from Tunisia, Ibrahim II arrived just in time to capture the Tulunid train, which significantly replenished the treasury of the Aglabids.

After the assassination of the Emir of Tulunids Humaravayi ibn Ahmad in 896 , Egypt plunged into chaos. In the years 896 - 897 , Ibrahim II led a campaign to restore and strengthen the eastern borders. Some of the darkest stories of the cruelty of Ibrahim II refers to this expedition. Having reached Tripoli, Ibrahim II ordered the local governor Muhammad, his cousin, to be counted (allegedly because of rumors about the collusion of Muhammad with the caliph Abbasid al-Mutamid ) ^[14] . In the same year, he attacked and defeated the Kharijits of Nafusa in a large-scale battle near Manu (south of Gabes ), putting an end to their independent imamat. According to legend, Ibrahim II ordered the captive Kharijits to fight each other in front of his throne ^{[15] [16]} .

As the emirate strengthened, Ibrahim gained a reputation not only as a cruel tyrant, but also as an outspoken sadist. Allegedly, he himself admitted that he committed murders with great pleasure and often carried out executions in person (as is the case with prisoners of captive Kharijits). Among other episodes, Ibrahim allegedly ordered the execution of 300 palace servants, having discovered a shortage of napkins for dinner ^[17] . Hearing accusations of homosexual relations between his bodyguards, Ibrahim personally smashed the accused’s head with a mace and ordered to light a brazier to burn the others alive in his presence ^[17] .

According to chroniclers, the emir did not spare even his family members. He executed on vague suspicions eight of his brothers and son Abu al-Aglab. He allegedly ordered several of his wives to be strangled, imprisoned or dismembered, and newborn daughters to be executed immediately. When he learned that sixteen of his daughters had escaped death and reached adulthood, he invited them all to a feast, kindly greeted them, and then ordered them to be beheaded. When his mother gave him two slaves, hoping to please him, he sent her a note of gratitude, accompanied by the severed heads of the girls on a tray ^[18] .

These episodes are only an example of the many cruel stories that were spread about the emir - executions, abductions, rape, torture carried out by him personally or on his orders ^[19] .

It is impossible to determine how true all these stories are and how many of them were fabricated by his many enemies. Perhaps Ibrahim himself contributed to their spread in order to intimidate possible opponents. He was often described as mentally ill - chroniclers such as Ibn al-Asir and Ibn Khaldun wrote about the first seven years of the reign of Ibrahim II as good years, after which he became obsessed with the soil of “melancholy” ( malihulia ) ^[20] . Nevertheless, as one historian notes, "the savagery of Ibrahim II was most likely the result of a sound mind. His reign was a battle for absolutism by pacifying the nobility, army, cities, tribes, all the elements that threatened the survival of the monarchy" ^{[21 ]} . In the context of stories of the atrocities of Ibrahim in the West, they are often compared with Ivan the Terrible ^[22] .

By the time of the accession of Ibrahim in 875 , most of Sicily was already in the hands of the Aglabids. In his reign there was little stability in the management of Sicily - the governors changed almost annually ^[23] .

In 877 , the governor of Ibrahim II in Sicily, Jafar ibn Muhammad al-Tamini captured the eastern, Byzantine part of the island. After a long siege, the citadel of Syracuse fell in May 878 , with the result that the Muslim conquest of Sicily was almost completed ^[24] . Only Taormina , Catania, and several other outposts remained in Byzantine hands.

The fall of Syracuse seemed to clear the way for the Aglabids to invade the Italian continent. But the Aglabid fleet, which plowed the Mediterranean Sea with virtually no opposition for most of the century, soon faced the first major setback. In 880 , the Byzantine fleet, assembled by Emperor Vasily I , under the command of Drungari Nasar , scattered the Aglabid fleet at the naval battle of Methoni , in southern Greece ^[25] . After that, the Byzantines went on the offensive in the south of the Italian mainland and seized Muslim possessions in Puglia and Calabria, in particular, the Taranto fortress, which was captured by Aglabids forty years ago. Streams of Muslim refugees poured into western Campania, where they were met by Bishop Prince Athanasius of Naples and resettled in the valley of Agropoli and Garigliano ^[26] .

The loss of the fleet hampered the position of the Aglabids. Small fleets from Sicily will continue to support the remaining Muslim colonies on mainland Italy, but the prospect of more concerted action has been delayed.

Meanwhile, internal conflict was growing on Sicily itself. Since the conquest of the island in the 820s , Arab and Berber colonists have been at odds with each other. Arab colonists concentrated in the northern part of the island came with the first wave of conquest, and Arab feudal lords staked out vast territories. But Berber immigrants, concentrated in the south, became more numerous after the completion of the conquest. The Berber demographic pressure to the north provoked internal clashes. The Sicilian governors of Ibrahim II, reflecting the prejudices of their master, as a rule, acted in favor of the Berbers and against the Arab aristocrats.

The governors of Sicily regularly conducted sai'fa (raids for the extraction of trophies and prisoners of war) to the mainland, and external campaigns, as a rule, helped to defuse domestic political tensions ^[27] . But the Greek offensive in Calabria in 885-886 stopped the Muslim raids. The Aglabid army in Sicily weakened; in December 886 , the Arab feudal lords of Palermo rebelled, expelled the governor, and elected their henchman in his place ^[28] . However, the uprising was short-lived, and Governor Aglabidov returned to the city the following year.

In 888 , the revived Aglabid fleet conducted a massive raid on the coast of Calabria. The Byzantine fleet was sent by Emperor Leo VI to confront the Arabs, but was defeated at the Battle of Milazzo in September 888 ^[29] . The internal tensions in Sicily, however, did not prevent the Aglabids from regaining their naval supremacy. In March 890 , the Arab feudal lords of Palermo revolted again ^[30] . The Berbers of Agrigento declared themselves supporters of Ibrahim II and took up arms against the Arabs, plunging Sicily into a civil war. In 892 , Ibrahim sent to the island at the head of the large army of Aglabids a new governor, Muhammad ibn Fadhi, who managed to break through to Palermo and restore the emir’s power in the city for a short time. But soon the situation worsened again ^[31] .

The revolt of the nobility in Ifricia from 893 to 894 captured Ibrahim's attention, and the Sicilians continued to sort things out over the next few years. In 895 , a 40-month truce was concluded with the Byzantines ^[32] . In the summer of 900 , Ibrahim sent powerful expeditionary forces to Sicily, led by his son Abu al-Abbas Abdallah . Having landed in Mazzara del Vallo at the beginning of August 900 , the Aglabid forces launched a siege of Trapani ^[33] .

As Ibn Khaldun reported, the Arabs of Palermo and the Berbers of Agrigento temporarily forgot their differences in order to form a united Sicilian front in negotiations with the Aglabids. ^[34] Other sources report that both sides tried to negotiate separately with Abdullah. In any case, the negotiations failed, and the Arabs of Palermo gathered an army under the command of a certain Rakamuwei to oppose the expeditionary corps of Aglabids. The Sicilians and Aglabids clashed at the Battle of Trapani and did not reveal a winner. Sicilian Arabs retreated to Palermo, hoping to regroup and gather reinforcements. Abu al-Abbas Abdullah gathered his army and pursued the enemy. In September 900 , the Aglabid army overtook and defeated the Sicilian army, which did not manage to reach Palermo. The remains of Sicilian rebels settled in the fortified citadel of Palermo (now known as Cassaro), leaving the city and suburbs to be plundered by Ifrikans ^[35] . A week later, on September 18, 900 , Sicilian rebels surrendered in exchange for the safe departure of the rebel leaders in exile. Streams of refugees from Palermo made their way east to take refuge in Byzantine possessions.

The following year ( 901 ), Abu al-Abbas Abdullah led the Aglabid army against the remaining Byzantine enclaves in Sicily. At the same time, Abu Abbas Abdullah learned about the gathering of the Byzantine army in Calabria. He rushed with the army to Messina and ferried his troops across the strait, and soon reached the walls of Reggio Calabria in June 901 . The unprepared Byzantine garrison left the city. The Aglabids captured Reggio and sacked him.

Rumors of the atrocities of Ibrahim II finally reached Baghdad , causing Caliph Abbasid al-Mutadid to react. The Caliph sent a messenger who arrived in Tunisia at the end of 901/902 with written instructions. Referring to the mistreatment of his subjects, the caliph ordered Ibrahim II to go to Baghdad and deprived him of the status of governor of Ifricia, appointing his son Abu al-Abbas Abdullah instead.

Surprisingly, Ibrahim II dutifully accepted the news without objection. Apparently full of true repentance, putting on the clothes of the penitent, Ibrahim abolished illegal taxes, opened prisons, freed his slaves and transferred most of his treasury to the lawyers of Kairouan for distribution to those in need. Ibrahim II abdicated in favor of his son Abu al-Abbas Abdullah, who returned from Sicily in February-March 902 ^[36] .

The overthrown Ibrahim, however, did not go to Baghdad, as ordered. Instead, he declared himself a mujahideen and declared that he would seek to atone for his crimes by waging a holy war against Christians. Ibrahim went to Sus and raised a large army of volunteers, whom he promised to go all over Europe and conquer Constantinople (in a letter to the caliph, Ibrahim assured that he obeyed orders, but simply chose a longer, roundabout route to Baghdad).

In May 902 , the army went to Sicily, landed in Trapani and proceeded to Palermo, where Ibrahim attracted even more volunteers ^[37] . Ибрахим направил его армию против Таормины, последней большой цитадели, находившейся в византийских руках. Он разгромил недавно усиленную византийскую армию, которая вышла против него в Джардини-Наксос ^[38] . Сама Таормина казалась неприступной. Ибрахим, тем не менее, приказал добровольцам подняться на скалистый берег, примыкающий к цитадели, которую защитники не подготовили к обороне. После того, как чёрный флаг халифата был развернут на вершине башни, армия Ибрахима вышла к воротам. Защитники были застигнуты врасплох, ворота распахнулись, и Таормина пала 1 августа 902 года.

С падением Таормины вся Сицилия оказалась в руках мусульман.

В сентябре 902 года бывший эмир вошёл в Мессину и переправил свою армию через пролив в Калабрию, чтобы начать свой обещанный марш по суше в Константинополь. Новости о высадке большой ифрикийской армии во главе с Ибрахимом вызвали панику на юге Италии, несколько городов начали эвакуацию, крепости были разрушены, чтобы ифрикийцы не использовали их ^[39] . Но Ибрахим не смог пройти далеко. Он увяз в осаде Козенцы , небольшой цитадели на севере Калабрии. Внезапно заболев дизентерией, Ибрахим умер 23 октября 902 года в часовне рядом с осадным лагерем. Командование экспедиционными войсками перешло к его внуку, Зиядет-Аллаху III , который сразу же снял осаду и вернулся с армией на Сицилию.

Останки Ибрахима были похоронены в Палермо или в Кайруане ^[40] . Ныне его могила утрачена.

Царствование Ибрахима II оказалось началом заката эмирата Аглабидов. Хотя завоевание Сицилии было завершено им самим в 902 году, хаотичное и деспотичное правление Ибрахима спровоцировало гражданскую войну и сепаратизм среди мусульманских общин острова.

Возможно, более серьёзные последствия имело разрушение Ибрахимом II арабской аристократии. Вскоре после ухода основной массы ифрикийских войск в последний безумный поход Ибрахима в Италию в 902 году, Кутама, берберское племя из Малой Кабильи, восстало и было организовано исмаилитским проповедником Абу Абдулла аль-Шии для войны с Аглабидами. В конечном итоге атаки берберов завершились падением эмирата Аглабидов и завоеванием Туниса Фатимидами ^{[41] [42]} .

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