Al-'Abbas ibn 'Amr al-Ghanawi ( ar, العباس بن عمرو الغنوي; died 917) was an Arab military commander and provincial governor for 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 ...

. He is known for his defeat and capture at the hands of the

Qarmatians The Qarmatians ( ar, قرامطة, Qarāmiṭa; ) were a militant Isma'ilism, Isma'ili Shia Islam, Shia movement centred in Al-Ahsa Oasis, al-Hasa in Eastern Arabia, where they established a Utopia#Religious utopias, religious-utopian Socialis ...

in 900.

Life

Al-'Abbas was likely born in the Diyar Mudar district of al-Jazira. He embarked on a military career in the service of the Abbasids and is first recorded as one of the officers in charge of an expedition sent against unruly Arab tribes in Iraq in 899. In the following year he was appointed by the caliph al-Mu'tadid as governor of al-Bahrain and al-Yamamah and tasked with driving the Qarmatians led by

Abu Sa'id Jannabi Abu Sa'id Hasan ibn Bahram al-Jannabi (; 845/855–913/914) was the founder of the Qarmatian state in Bahrayn (an area comprising the eastern parts of modern Saudi Arabia as well as the Gulf emirates). By 899, his followers controlled large parts ...

out of the region. Since the Qarmatians had already successfully occupied much of al-Bahrain, including

al-Qatif Qatif or Al-Qatif ( ar, ٱلْقَطِيف ''Al-Qaṭīf'') is a governorate and urban area located in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. It extends from Ras Tanura and Jubail in the north to Dammam in the south, and from the Persian Gulf in th ...

, al-'Abbas assembled an army of regular soldiers,

bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...

fighters and volunteers before departing from

al-Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...

for the province. Shortly after their departure, al-'Abbas and his army met the Qarmatians and engaged them in battle. The first day of fighting ended in a standstill, but in the evening the bedouins and volunteers abandoned the campaign and returned to al-Basra. The following morning, the two armies resumed fighting, and al-'Abbas's depleted forces were routed; he and seven hundred of his men were compelled to surrender. The day after the battle, Abu Sa'id ordered that the captured soldiers all be put to death; al-'Abbas alone was spared and was eventually released, with instructions to warn al-Mu'tadid of the futility in opposing the Qarmatians. He returned to Iraq and was rewarded by al-Mu'tadid for his efforts. Following his failed campaign, al-'Abbas remained in military service, and in 902 he was in Fars serving under Badr al-Mu'tadidi, the commander-in-chief of the army. When Badr fell out of favor with the new caliph al-Muktafi, al-'Abbas was one of several commanders who complied with the caliph's order to abandon the general and return to Baghdad. He was subsequently made governor of

Qom Qom (also spelled as "Ghom", "Ghum", or "Qum") ( fa, قم ) is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. Qom is the capital of Qom Province. It is located to the south of Tehran. At the 2016 census, its popul ...

and Kashan in 908-9, and he may have been a member of the campaign led by

Mu'nis al-Khadim Abū'l-Ḥasan Mu'nis al-Qushuri ( ar, ابوالحسن مؤنس ابوالحسن; 845/6–933), also commonly known by the surnames al-Muẓaffar (; ) and al-Khadim (; 'the Eunuch'), was the commander-in-chief of the Abbasid army from 908 to his ...

to defend Egypt against the

Fatimids The Fatimid Caliphate was an Isma'ilism, Ismaili Shia Islam, Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the ea ...

in 914-5. His last post was as governor of the Diyar Mudar, and he died there in 917. He was succeeded as governor by Wasif ibn al-Buktamiri following his death.Al-Tabari, p. 139 n. 682; Miskawaihi, p. 60

Notes

References

*Becker, C. H. "al-ʿAbbās (b. ʿAmr al-Ghanawī)." ''First Encyclopaedia of Islam: 1913-1936, Volume I.'' 1927. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993. * * *Al-Mas'udi, Ali ibn al-Husain. ''Les Prairies D'Or, Tome Huitieme.'' Trans. C. Barbier de Meynard. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1874. *Miskawaihi. ''The Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate: the Concluding Portion of the Experiences of the Nations, Vol. I.'' Trans. & ed.

H. F. Amedroz Henry Frederick Amedroz (8 November 1854 – March 1917) was a leading British orientalist. Life Amedroz was born in London, the eldest of the two sons of Henry Frederick Amedroz, a secretary to the First Lord of the Navy, and Magdalene Judith T ...

and D. S. Margoliouth. London, 1921. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Abbas Ibn Amr Al-Ghanawi 917 deaths Generals of the Abbasid Caliphate Governors of the Abbasid Caliphate Medieval Bahrain Year of birth unknown 9th-century Arabs 10th-century Arabs Prisoners of war