Ali ibn Isa ibn Mahan

Ali ibn Isa ibn Mahan (before 785 – 3 July 811) was a prominent Iranian military leader of the Abbasid Caliphate in the late 8th and early 9th centuries.

Ali's father, Isa ibn Mahan, was an early follower of the Abbasids; he mutinied after the Abbasid Revolution and was executed by Abu Muslim. Ali himself appears first in the reign of al-Mahdi (775–785) as commander of the caliphal guard (haras) and secretary of the army department (diwan al-jund). He continued in these offices under al-Hadi (r. 785–786), having in addition the powerful post of chamberlain (hajib). Under Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809) he continued to serve as commander of the guard until 796, when he was named governor of Khurasan. As a leader of the abna′ al-dawla, the troops that formed the core of the Abbasid army in Iraq, he antagonized and Khurasanis and oppressed them through heavy taxation, with the revenue diverted for the upkeep of the abna′ and for filling his own coffers; during his eight-year tenure, he amassed a vast fortune. This resulted in the outbreak of a major rebellion under Rafi ibn al-Layth, which eventually required the personal intervention of Harun al-Rashid. Ali was imprisoned, and released on the death of Harun in March 809. He then sided, as many of the Baghdadi elites, with the new Caliph, al-Amin (r. 809–813), against his brother al-Ma'mun, who had been given a large viceregal domain encompassing Khurasan. The dissension between the two brothers and their supporters mounted until it finally spilled over into open warfare—the "Fourth Fitna"—in early 811. Ali was entrusted with a huge army of 40,000 men drawn from the abna′. In the Battle of Rayy on 3 July 811 he was crushingly defeated and killed by a far smaller army under Tahir ibn al-Husayn.

Sources

• Crone, Patricia (1980). Slaves on horses: the evolution of the Islamic polity. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 178. ISBN 0-521-52940-9. 
• Kennedy, Hugh N. (2004). The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the 6th to the 11th Century (Second ed.). Harlow, UK: Pearson Education Ltd. pp. 144–148. ISBN 0-582-40525-4. 
• Sourdel, Dominique (1986). "Ibn Māhān". The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume III: H–Iram. Leiden and New York: BRILL. p. 859. ISBN 90-04-08118-6. 
• Mottahedeh, Roy (1975). "The Abbasid Caliphate in Iran". The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 57–90. ISBN 0-521-20093-8.