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Abu Sulaym Faraj al-Khadim al-Turki

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Abu Sulaym Faraj al-Khadim al-Turki
Rebuild of the city of Tarsus.
In office
787 – 788
MonarchHarun al-Rashid
Supervised the Prisoner exchange
In office
805
MonarchHarun al-Rashid
Personal details
DiedBaghdad, Abbasid Caliphate
OccupationAbbasid Courtier and Court eunuch
Known forSupervised the prisoner exchange with the Byzantines

Abu Sulaym Faraj al-Khadim al-Turki,[1] sometimes erroneously called Faraj ibn Sulaym,[2] was an Abbasid court eunuch and official.

In 787, Caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809) established a new province encompassing the borderlands (Thughūr) with the Byzantine Empire in Cilicia and Upper Mesopotamia. As part of this, he sent Faraj to rebuild and repopulate the city of Tarsus.[3] Faraj first sent 3,000 Khurasanis to the city, followed by a thousand each from the Syrian districts of al-Massisa and Antioch. The troops arrived in June 788 and encamped outside the city until the reconstruction of its walls, and the erection of a mosque, were completed.[4][5] Furthermore, he supervised the very first prisoner exchange with the Byzantines recorded by al-Mas'udi for Harun's reign, in 805, on the Lamos River.[6] Faraj evidently played an important role in the Byzantine frontier, as he is attested as the collector of the tithe in the area during the last years of Harun al-Rashid, and is recorded as having restored the "palace of Sayhan" in the area, and as the owner of a house in Antioch.[7]

He is mentioned in 819, as accompanying the captured anti-caliph, Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi, into the presence of Caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833).[8]

References

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  1. ^ Ayalon 1999, p. 252.
  2. ^ Ayalon 1999, p. 296.
  3. ^ Bosworth 1989, p. 99.
  4. ^ Ayalon 1999, p. 110.
  5. ^ Bosworth 1992, pp. 271–273.
  6. ^ Ayalon 1999, pp. 115–116, 118.
  7. ^ Ayalon 1999, p. 111.
  8. ^ Bosworth 1987, p. 148.

Sources

[edit]
  • Ayalon, David (1999). Eunuchs, Caliphs and Sultans: A Study in Power Relationships. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew University. ISBN 978-9-6549-3017-8.
  • Bosworth, C. E., ed. (1987). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXXII: The Reunification of the ʿAbbāsid Caliphate: The Caliphate of al-Maʾmūn, A.D. 813–33/A.H. 198–213. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-88706-058-8.
  • Bosworth, C. E., ed. (1989). The History of al-Ṭabarī, Volume XXX: The ʿAbbāsid Caliphate in Equilibrium: The Caliphates of Mūsā al-Hādī and Hārūn al-Rashīd, A.D. 785–809/A.H. 169–192. SUNY Series in Near Eastern Studies. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-88706-564-4.
  • Bosworth, C. E. (1992). "The City of Tarsus and the Arab-Byzantine Frontiers in Early and Middle ʿAbbāsid Times". Oriens. 33: 268–286. doi:10.1163/1877837292X00105. ISSN 0078-6527. JSTOR 1580607.