The Hujariyya ( ar, حجرية, Ḥujariyya, Men of the Chambers) were an elite cavalry corps that was one of the chief components of the late Abbasid army, from to their forcible disbandment in 936.

Etymology

The name derives from the word for 'chamber, room' (), and refers to troops housed and trained in or near the caliphal palace and its chambers.

Establishment

The first unit of this name was established by the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

caliph

al-Mu'tadid Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Ṭalḥa al-Muwaffaq ( ar, أبو العباس أحمد بن طلحة الموفق), 853/4 or 860/1 – 5 April 902, better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtaḍid bi-llāh ( ar, المعتضد بالله, link=no, ...

(). They were military slaves (s or ) who were placed under the training of eunuch tutors () and kept under close supervision, not being allowed to exit the palace except in the company of their tutors. They fought mainly as

mounted archers A horse archer is a cavalryman armed with a bow and able to shoot while riding from horseback. Archery has occasionally been used from the backs of other riding animals. In large open areas, it was a highly successful technique for hunting, f ...

Role and history

First mentioned in 900, they would form the main cavalry force of the Abbasid army in the 10th century. Despite their military prowess, they are rarely recorded as participating in campaigns or in provincial garrisons, and spent most of their time in Baghdad, where they served ostensibly as guards of the caliph, but more often as the power base of ambitious generals. One notable exception is their mobilization to confront the

Qarmatian invasion of Iraq The Qarmatian invasion of Iraq was a large-scale raid by the Qarmatians of Bahrayn (historical region), Bahrayn against the Abbasid Caliphate's metropolitan region of Iraq (region), Iraq, that began in autumn of 927 and continued until the summe ...

in 927, but they did not engage in combat. By the death of al-Mu'tadid in 902, they were a significant force, and his successor,

al-Muktafi Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ( ar, أبو محمد علي بن أحمد; 877/78 – 13 August 908), better known by his regnal name al-Muktafī bi-llāh ( ar, المكتفي بالله, , Content with God Alone), was the Caliph of the Ab ...

() increased their salaries to ensure their loyalty, especially as he moved to depose al-Mu'tadid's commander-in-chief,

Badr Badr (Arabic: بدر) as a given name below is an Arabic masculine and feminine name given to the "full moon on its fourteenth night" or the ecclesiastical full moon. Badr may refer to: .and it is also one of the oldest and rarest names in the Arabi ...

. According to the surviving records, the senior members of the corps received 16

gold dinar The gold dinar ( ar, ﺩﻳﻨﺎﺭ ذهبي) is an Islamic medieval gold coin first issued in AH 77 (696–697 CE) by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. The weight of the dinar is 1 mithqal (). The word ''dinar'' comes from the La ...

s, and the junior ones 12. They remained the core of the Abbasid armies under

al-Muqtadir Abu’l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Ahmad al-Muʿtaḍid ( ar, أبو الفضل جعفر بن أحمد المعتضد) (895 – 31 October 932 AD), better known by his regnal name Al-Muqtadir bi-llāh ( ar, المقتدر بالله, "Mighty in God"), wa ...

(), and are often recorded as rioting in demand of higher salaries and interfering in the politics of the Abbasid court. By 927, they numbered some 12,000 men, and were able to destroy their long-time rivals and competitors for the Caliphate's increasingly scarce financial resources, the more numerous Masaffi infantry corps.

Disbandment

They became even more actively involved in court politics after the overthrow of al-Muqtadir, and deposed Caliph

al-Qahir Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mu'tadid ( ar, أبو المنصور محمد بن أحمد المعتضد, Abū al-Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Muʿtaḍid), usually known simply by his regnal title Al-Qahir bi'llah ( ar, القاهر � ...

in 934. As a result, in 936 the strongman

Ibn Ra'iq Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ra'iq (died 13 February 942), usually simply known as Ibn Ra'iq, was a senior official of the Abbasid Caliphate, who exploited the caliphal government's weakness to become the first '' amir al-umara'' ("commander of commander ...

decided to eliminate them. They were ordered to accompany Caliph

al-Radi Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad (Muhammad) ibn Ja'far al-Muqtadir ( ar, أبو العباس أحمد (محمد) بن جعفر المقتدر, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad (Muḥammad) ibn al-Muqtadir; December 909 – 23 December 940), usually simply known by his r ...

Wasit Wasit ( ar, وَاسِط, Wāsiṭ, syr, ‎ܘܐܣܛ) is an ancient city in Wasit Governorate, south east of Kut in eastern Iraq. History The city was built by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf in c. 702 CE on the west bank of the Tigris across from the hist ...

. Once there, they were mustered and those unfit for service ("the interlopers, the substitutes, the women, the traders and the refugees") dismissed. This provoked an uprising, but in a battle with Ibn Ra'iq's men, the Hujariyya were defeated with heavy loss of life. Their remnants were pursued and attacked even in Baghdad, where their quarters were plundered and torched. A few of the corps survived, and some even joined Ibn Ra'iq, but the Hujariyya as a corps was destroyed. With them perished the last body of troops still loyal to the

Abbasid dynasty The Abbasid dynasty or Abbasids ( ar, بنو العباس, Banu al-ʿAbbās) were an Arab dynasty that ruled the Abbasid Caliphate between 750 and 1258. They were from the Qurayshi Hashimid clan of Banu Abbas, descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-M ...

, rather than individual strongmen, opening the way for the establishment of Ibn Ra'iq, and other military commanders after him, as quasi-dictators over a powerless, puppet caliph.

References

Sources