History was not a perfect or utopian day, and this applies first of all to Islamic history. History is a modified version of the reality that we live in with different people and different events.

While each time has its own character, man is the same in terms of internal impulses and emotions, especially the emotions of love of power and possession, and men are no different from women. Since an early period in the history of Islam, women played important roles in decision-making mechanisms, and even in trying to Managing the affairs of governance and politics, and controlling the necks of men and their destinies.

And if the first Abbasid era, which began with Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah, passing through Abu Jaafar al-Mansur and his sons and grandsons such as al-Hadi, al-Rashid, al-Amin, al-Ma’mun, al-Mu’tasim, al-Wathiq and al-Mutawakkil over a period of one hundred and odd years, was known as the era of power and victories, the development of sciences and knowledge, and the unification of the state after the last period of the Umayyad collapse. Some of the women of the palaces played influential roles in this golden period of the Abbasid era (132-247 AH), and the Yemeni “Khaizran bint Ataa” comes to the fore, the wife of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mahdi bin Abi Jaafar Al-Mansur (d. 169 AH), and the mother of the two caliphs Musa Al-Hadi (d. 170 AH) and Harun Al-Rasheed (d. 193 AH).

Al-Khazaran continued to interfere for decades in the affairs of politics and the corridors of palaces during the era of her husband, Al-Mahdi, and her children, until the famous clash occurred between her and her son, Musa Al-Hadi, who was tired of her interference in political affairs, and even in separating people and fulfilling needs, until his image in front of the public and the private became that of the caliph. The weak who has nothing to do with his affairs, so who are the Yemeni bamboo?

And how did she become the wife of Caliph Al-Mahdi bin Abi Jaafar Al-Mansour?

Then how did her political influence become so great that people lined up in front of her palace to fulfill their needs?

Going to dominate the necks

A woman did not give birth to two Abbasid caliphs, except for Khaizaran, the daughter of Ataa al-Jarshiyya, a Yemeni woman. Legs).

From this favour, the position of al-Khazayruz increased with her husband, the caliph al-Mahdi, and over time it became a growing political role for her, until it became her command and prohibition, and delegations would come to her palace sometimes before they went to the caliph himself, and in this some historians say: "The bamboo was Simplified (ruling) in the state of the Mahdi, commanding and ending, interceding, concluding and vetoing, and processions going and coming to its door”[2].

Indeed, the bamboo was finally able to convince the Mahdi to appoint Harun al-Rashid as the guardian of the Covenant instead of his great brother Musa al-Hadi;

For her love for Aaron, and his complete obedience to her, but the death of the Mahdi prevented the realization of this desire, and the Crown Prince at that time was in the Gorgan region in northern Iran fighting some of the revolutionaries against the state.

However, a crisis almost ignited after the death of Al-Mahdi due to the revolution of the soldiers who sought to exploit the political vacuum in Baghdad, and this crisis was managed brilliantly by Al-Khazaizuran, as it was sent to the senior men of the state, headed by Minister Al-Rabee and Yahya bin Khalid Al-Barmaki, “the mastermind of the offices of Harun Al-Rashid before he followed caliphate and its minister after it” and others;

To meet together to discuss this crisis and reach a solution to it, so Minister Al-Rabee came to her.

However, Yahya bin Khalid refused to enter her palace for fear of the jealousy of her son, the new caliph, Musa al-Hadi.

bloody struggle

And while Al-Khaizran played a pivotal role in passing the transfer of power to her eldest son, Musa Al-Hadi, her act was the beginning of a hidden struggle between her and her son, who was afflicted with anger and jealousy over his mother's meeting with senior officials of the state and interference in her political affairs.

But despite that, Al-Hadi was righteous to his mother, obedient to her a lot, and he remained obedient to her until four months had passed since his caliphate, so the people’s greed increased for the intercession of bamboo and the influence of her word in the Abbasid state, until the historian Al-Masoudi said in his book “Meadows of Gold”[4] : “The processions were not removed from their door, and in that the poet says: O bamboo there and then there ** the servants are driven by your sons.”

Gradually, the influence of the bamboo moved from meeting the needs of the public to meeting the needs of the senior men of the state, including leaders, ministers, employees, and others, such as the police chief, Abdullah bin Malik, who wanted her to intercede with the caliph to fulfill a need. The problem is between the caliph and Mrs. Khaizouran, who is influential in palaces and bureaus, so Al-Masoudi says in “Meadows of Gold”: “She (meaning bamboo) said: I must answer, he said: I do not, she said: I have guaranteed this need for Abdullah bin Malik (chief of police) Al-Hadi got angry, and said: Woe to the son of the perpetrator, I knew that he was the owner of it, and God did not fulfill it for you. She said: So, by God, I will never ask you for anything.

But Al-Hadi stopped her and increased his rebuke to her, saying: “Your place, so absorb my words, by God, or else I will be banished from my kinship with the Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him. What are these processions that come to your door every day? Do you have a spinning wheel to keep you busy, or a Qur’an that reminds you, or a house that protects you? Beware, then beware, of opening your mouth in need of a Muslim or a dhimmi. He has sweetness and there is no bitterness after that.” [6].

Al-Hadi did not stop at this point, but rather gathered his entourage, leaders, and senior statesmen who were accustomed to the mediation of Mrs. Khaizouran and her fulfillment of their needs. Al-Tabari says in his history: “When the fate of those who become her commanders increased, he said one day when he gathered them: Which is better, me or you They said: Rather, you, O Commander of the Faithful, he said: So who is better, my mother or your mothers? They said: None of us like that, so he said: What is the matter with men who come to my mother and narrate her hadith?!

Some historians have discussed that al-Hadi's wrath was met by al-Khazaizran with more anger, and blinded her heart with hatred until she devised tricks to get rid of him. And it was said that she poisoned him because he wanted to remove his brother Harun al-Rashid from the mandate of the Covenant and make it in his young son Jaafar, and even wanted to kill Harun, as al-Dhahabi says in the biographies of the flags of the nobles.

The relationship between the mother and her son, then, reached a watershed point, as each of them worked to get rid of the other since that time. Al-Tabari says: “Moses sent bamboo to his mother with cedar (a type of food), and he said: I sought her out, so I ate from her, so I ate from her.” The bamboo): I said to her: Hold on until you see, for I am afraid that there is something in it that you dislike, so they brought a dog that ate from it, and its meat fell off, and after that he sent to her: How did you see the rice? From you, when will a successor become successful for him, or?!”[8].

For this reason or for another, al-Hadi became ill, and death throes descended upon him while he was still a young man of twenty-five years of age, and because of the estrangement with his mother, al-Khazayn, he sent her while he was in his death throes, saying: “I am doomed on this night, and in it my brother Harun will come to power, and I have commanded you to do things.” And I forbade you from another, which was required by the policy of the king, not the obligations of the law of your righteousness, and I was not disobedient to you, but rather I was a guardian and righteousness to you, and then he decreed holding her hand, placing her on his chest "[9].

Back to her first biography.. and her end

When al-Hadi died, al-Khazran summoned the army commander, "Harthama bin Ain," and told him to take the pledge of allegiance to her son Harun al-Rashid. She also summoned Yahya bin Khalid al-Barmaki, who became Harun al-Rashid's minister and disposer of affairs, and al-Khaizran returned to her first biography of strength, greatness, and management of state affairs throughout the years. The first three years of Harun’s caliphate, which are the same as the last three years of Al-Khazayn’s life. Al-Tabari says: “Khazayn was the one looking into matters, and Yahya [Al-Barmaki] was presenting to her and issuing her opinion” [10].

The senior men of the state, from the caliph upside down through the ministers and without them, became commanded by the order of the bamboo, the mistress of the Abbasid palace for two decades, and Harun al-Rashid admitted this fact to his minister al-Fadl ibn al-Rabee after her death, saying: “I am more important to you than the night with something from taking over and others. So my mother forbids me, so I obey her order.”[11]

And in the year 173 AH / 718 AD, the mother of the Abbasid caliphs and their great-grandmother, the first woman to intervene in the affairs of the Abbasid politics without fear or relent, died. Only the first lady, who is in control behind the curtain, continues even in the beginnings of the era of the greatest Abbasid caliph, Harun al-Rashid, who did not dare to violate her order.

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Sources

[1] Ibn al-Jawzi: al-Muntazam 8/346.

[2] Ibn al-Taqatqa: al-Fakhri fi al-Adab al-Sultani, p. 189.

[3] Al-Tabari History 8/188.

[4] Al-Masoudi: Promoter of Gold 3/327.

[5] Murooj al-Dhahab 3/328.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Al-Tabari History 8/207.

[8] Al-Tabari 8/206.

[9] Al-Tabari History 3/333.

[10] Previous 8/234.

[11] Al-Tabari 8/238.