The Armies of al-Ma'mu¯n in Khura¯sa¯n (193-202/809 - 817-18): Recruitment of its contingents and their commanders and their social-ethnic composition

The following subjects are elaborated on in this article: a) The recruitment of commanders and military units in Marw. The most important was Ta¯hir b. al-Husayn and other members of his family; b) The mobilization of a non-Arab army from Khura¯sa¯n and Transoxiana; c) A discussion on the three chief commanders of al-Ma'mu¯n (and also others), Ta¯hir b. al-Husayn, and two of the most honoured commanders of al-Abna¯', Harthama b. A'yan and Zuhayr b. al-Musayyab b. Zuhayr; d) The armies of al-Hasan b. Sahl in al-'Ira¯q from 198 or 199/813-814, which at the beginning mainly consisted of the armies of Harthama and Zuhayr b. al-Musayyab, the Abna¯wi¯s; e) The stiff opposition to al-Mamu¯n and to al-Fadl b. Sahl in Khura¯sa¯n. A notable opposition to al-Mamu¯n and al-Fadl b. Sahl was that of Harthama b. A'yan and another senior Abna¯wi¯. It seems that the main reason for this opposition, which eventually ended in Harthamas execution in Marw, was his opposition to the murder of al-Ami¯n that was carried out with the agreement and approval of al-Mamu¯n. Close study of the evidence on the senior commanders who were sent by al-Ma'mu¯n from Marw to al-'Ira¯q (between 200-203/815-818) reveals that most of them were in fact Arabs, or belonged to veteran families of the Abna¯. Only rare information is given about the ethnic nature of their contingents; there is no evidence of non-Arab commanders or troops sent from Marw.