Al-Ḥasan ibn ʻAlī Kūrah (Arabic: الحسن بن علي كراه) was a military leader of the Abbasid Caliphate under Caliph al-Mu'tadid.
Al-Hasan ibn Ali Kurah first appears in 894/5, during the course of the reimposition of Abbasid authority over the Jibal and Rayy by al-Mu'tadid. According to al-Tabari, he was the agent of the renegade general Rafi ibn Harthama in Rayy, and surrendered to al-Mu'tadid's son Ali (the future al-Muktafi) with a thousand men.[1] In 896, al-Mu'tadid sent him as leader of an expedition against the Kharijite rebels in the Jazira, but he failed to achieve any decisive result.[2]
Sometime in the year 900, he was appointed as governor of the Cilician border zone (ath-thughur ash-Shamiya) with the Byzantine Empire.[3] In November of the same year, he participated in al-Mu'tadid's pursuit of the eunuch Wasif in the border regions,[4] while in 901, he dispatched his deputy Nizar ibn Muhammad for a raid into Byzantine territory, from which the latter returned with many prisoners and booty, including 160 priests and many crosses and flags.[3]
Following the death of al-Mu'tadid and the falling out of the new caliph al-Muktafi and the commander-in-chief Badr al-Mu'tadidi in June/July 902, al-Hasan was sent with an army to Wasit, where Badr had sought refuge. In the event, abandoned by his followers, Badr was tricked into accepting a caliphal pardon and was murdered on his way to meet with al-Muktafi.[5]
References
edit- ^ Rosenthal 1985, pp. 14–15.
- ^ Rosenthal 1985, p. 20 (note 114).
- ^ a b PmbZ, Al-Ḥasan b. ʻAlī Kūrah (#22560).
- ^ Rosenthal 1985, pp. 89ff.
- ^ Rosenthal 1985, pp. 105–109.
Sources
edit- Lilie, Ralph-Johannes; Ludwig, Claudia; Pratsch, Thomas; Zielke, Beate (2013). Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nach Vorarbeiten F. Winkelmanns erstellt (in German). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.
- Rosenthal, Franz, ed. (1985). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXXVIII: The Return of the Caliphate to Baghdad: The Caliphates of al-Muʿtaḍid, al-Muktafī and al-Muqtadir, A.D. 892–915/A.H. 279–302. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-87395-876-9.