Abu'l-Qasim al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Maghribi | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 981 |
| Died | 1027 |
| Occupation | Poet, Statesman |
| Language | Arabic |
| Nationality | Umayyad Arab |
| Notable works | Various treatises, including a "mirror for princes" |
Abu'l-Qasim al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Maghribi (Arabic:أبو القاسم المغربي;Aleppo, May 981 –Mayyafariqin, 1027), also calledal-wazir al-Maghribi ("theWesternVizier") and by the surnameal-Kamil Dhu'l-Wizaratayn ("Perfect Possessor of the Two Vizierates"),[1] was the last member of the Banu'l-Maghribi, a family of statesmen who served in several Muslim courts of theMiddle East in the 10th and early 11th centuries. Abu'l-Qasim himself was born inHamdanid Aleppo before fleeing with his father toFatimidEgypt, where he entered the bureaucracy. After his father's execution, he fled toPalestine, where he raised the localBedouin leaderMufarrij ibn Daghfal to rebellion against the Fatimids (1011–13). As the rebellion began to falter, he fled toIraq, where he entered the service of theBuyid emirs ofBaghdad. Soon after he moved to theJazira, where he entered the service of theUqaylids ofMosul and finally theMarwanids of Mayyafariqin. He was also a poet and author of a number of treatises, including a "mirror for princes".
Abu'l-Qasim al-Husayn was the son ofAbu'l-Husayn Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Maghribi, himself the grandson of the family's founder,Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad al-Maghribi, aPersian official who had originally served at theAbbasid court ofBaghdad as head of thediwan al-maghrib, the "Bureau of the West", whence the family'snisbah of "al-Maghribi".[2] In the late 940s, Abu'l-Qasim's grandfather entered the service of theHamdanidEmirate of Aleppo, serving as a secretary (katib) under EmirSayf al-Dawla (r. 946–967), a post to which he was followed by Abu'l-Qasim's father Ali.[3]
According to the 13th-century Aleppan historianIbn al-Adim, Abu'l-Qasim was born in May 981 in Aleppo. The later Egyptian historianal-Maqrizi reports that he was born in Egypt instead, but this is in all likelihood incorrect.[1] In 989/90, Abu'l-Qasim was forced to flee the Hamdanid domains when his father Ali sided with the rebellious governor ofHoms,Bakjur, in his effort to capture Aleppo from Sayf al-Dawla's son and heir,Sa'd al-Dawla (r. 967–991). Ali defected to the rebel camp, but Bakjur's assault failed, and the Banu'l-Maghribi were forced flee toEgypt and the "lusher pastures of theFatimid court", in the words ofHugh N. Kennedy.[1][4] In Egypt, Ali rose to senior posts in the caliphal administration, while Abu'l-Qasim received his education as akatib, and in the early reign of Caliphal-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (r. 996–1021) acquired an influential position in theDiwan al-Sawad (the fiscal bureau responsible for theland tax).[1][5]
Soon, however, the Banu'l-Maghribi became involved in the intrigues between various factions of the Fatimid court, and in 1009/10, the powerful Christianvizier,Mansur ibn Abdun, convinced al-Hakim to have all the members of the family executed.[1] According to the poetIbn al-Qarih, who had been tutor to the Banu'l-Maghribi before the massacre, Abu'l-Qasim was largely responsible for this turn of events: in a polemical text (hija) written against him, Ibn al-Qarih accused him of "having been the indirect instigator of his family's ruination through his own intrigues" (P. Smoor). This provoked the reaction of the famous Syrian poetAbu'l-Ala al-Ma'arri, who had been in contact with Abu'l-Qasim and later wrote an elegy on the latter's death; nevertheless, in the exchange of letters that followed al-Ma'arri himself recognized that Abu'l-Qasim's intrigues played a role, although he tried to minimize this by ascribing them to "youthful ambition and inexperience, and their terrible result as being the ultimate effect of crushing Fate".[6]
Abu'l-Qasim was the only one of his family to escape death, and fled to theJarrahids ofPalestine in 1011.[1][7][8] Driven by a flaming desire to avenge himself upon the Caliph, he persuaded the Jarrahid emir,Mufarrij ibn Daghfal ibn al-Jarrah, to raise theBedouins in open rebellion against al-Hakim. The revolt spread swiftly through the Palestinian hinterland. Even the provincial capital,Ramlah, fell to the Bedouin, and the coastal cities were besieged, but not taken. Abu'l-Qasim went as far as orchestrating the proclamation of an anti-Caliph, theAlidSharif of Mecca,Abu'l-Futuh al-Hasan ibn Ja'far, in July 1012. Despite the rebellion's initial success, the Jarrahids were susceptible to bribery by the Caliph and did not inspire trust in their confederates: dismayed by the lack of respect shown to him by the Jarrahids, Abu'l-Futuh abandoned the revolt and returned toMecca, while Abu'l-Qasim himself fled toIraq.[1][9][10]
In Iraq, Abu'l-Qasim tried to seek refuge in the Abbasid administration (then underBuyid control). Ibn al-Adim reports that the Abbasid caliph,al-Qadir (r. 991–1031) was initially suspicious of Abu'l-Qasim's intentions due to hisnisbah, which implied Fatimid sympathies, and Abu'l-Qasim was forced to remain atWasit until the true origin of his surname could be explained.[1]
From the Baghdad court, he switched to the service of theUqaylid ruler ofMosul,Qirwash ibn al-Muqallad, as his vizier,[1][11] before entering the court ofNasr al-Dawla ibn Ahmad, theMarwanid ruler ofMayyafariqin. He then returned briefly to Baghdad to serve as vizier under al-Qadir, but soon fell out with the Caliph due to his support for pro-Alid factions inKufa, and was forced to return to Nasr al-Dawla's service, where he remained as vizier until his death in 1027.[12][4] In accordance with his will, he was buried inKarbala.[13]
Abu'l-Qasim was also an author and poet of some note. His more important works were a compilation ofIbn al-Sikkit, a work on Arab tribal nomenclature, and a short manual on statecraft, or "mirror for princes", theKitab fi'l-si'yasa, probably written for his patron, Nasr al-Dawla ibn Ahmad.[6][14] In his work, al-Ma'ari records al-Maghribi's possession of a precious library. It survived long after his death in Mayyafariqin, whereIbn Shaddad reported it as still extant two centuries later.[6][14]
Abu'l-Qasim's alleged conversations with theNestorianarchbishopElijah of Nisibis form the basis of that cleric'sBook of Sessions (Arabic:Kitāb al-Majālis), covering religious, literary, and linguistic topics.[15]
