beginning of the new era.
"The Omayyads," says the Spanish writer Ibn Hazm, "were an Arabic
dynasty; they had no fortified residence, nor citadel; each of them
dwelt in his villa, where he lived before becoming caliph; they did not
desire that the Moslems should speak to them as slaves to their master,
nor kiss the ground before them or their feet; they only gave their care
to the appointment of able governors in the provinces of the empire. The
Abbasids, on the contrary, were a Persian dynasty, under which the Arab
tribal system, as regulated by Omar, fell to pieces; the Persians of
Khorasan were the real rulers, and the government became despotic as in
the days of Chrosroes." The reign of Abu'l-Abbas and the first part of
that of Mansur had been almost a continuation of the former period. But
now his equals in birth and rank, the Omayyads and the Alids, had been
crushed; the principal actors in the great struggle, the leaders of the
propaganda and Abu Moslim were out of the way; the caliph stood far
above all his subjects; and his only possible antagonists were the
members of his own family.

'Isa b. Musa had been designated, as we have seen, by Abu'l-Abbas as
successor to Mansur. The latter having vainly tried to compel 'Isa to
renounce his right of succession, in favour of Mansur's son Mahommed
al-Mahdi, produced false witnesses who swore that he had done so.
However unwillingly, 'Isa was obliged at last to yield, but it was
understood that, in case of Mahommed's death, the succession should
return to 'Isa. One of the false witnesses was, it is asserted, Khalid
b. Barmak, the head of that celebrated family the Barmecides (q.v.),
which played so important a part in the reign of Harun al-Rashid. This
Khalid, who was descended from an old sacerdotal family in Balkh, and
had been one of the trusty supporters of Abu Moslim, Mansur appointed as
minister of finance.

A son of Mahommed the Alid had escaped to India, where, with the
connivance of the governor Omar b. Hafs Hazarmerd, he had found refuge
with an Indian king. Mansur discovered his abode, and caused him to be
killed. His infant son was sent to Medina and delivered to his family.
Omar Hazarmerd lost his government and received a command in Africa,
where he died in 770.

In A.H. 158 (A.D. 775) Mansur undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca, but
succumbed to dysentery at the last station on the route. He was about
sixty-five years of age, and had reigned for twenty-two