Mansur I b Nuh (EI3)

manr i b. n Studies Michele Amari, Biblioteca arabo-sicula, vol. 2, (Turin and Rome 1880), 2:213; Lawrence E. Attard, The great exodus (1918–1939), Malta 1989; Salvatore Bono, Naval exploits and privateering, in Victor Mallia-Milanes, Hospitaller Malta 1530–1798. Studies on early modern Malta and the order of St John of Jerusalem (Malta 1993), 1–52; Henri Bresc, Un monde meditérranéen. Économie et société en Sicile 1300–1450 (Rome 1986), 1:60; Joseph M. Brincat, Malta 870–1054. Al-Himyari’s account and its linguistic implications, Malta 1995; Bishop Burchard of Strasbourg, Saracenis inhabitata, in Monumenta Germaniae historica. Scriptores. (Hanover 1869), 22:236; Carmel Cassar and Paul Sant Cassia, Patrolling society’s borders. Slavery, apostasy and the Inquisition, Sacra Militia 6 (2007), 55–62; Mario Cassar, The surnames of the Maltese islands. An etymological dictionary, Malta 2003; Frans Ciappara, Society and the inquisition in early modern Malta, Malta 2001; William G. Clarence-Smith and David Eltis, White servitude, in David Eltis, Keith Bradley, and Paul Cartledge (eds.), The Cambridge world history of slavery, vol. 3, AD 1420–AD 1804 (Cambridge 2011), 132–62; Charles Dalli, A Muslim society under Christian rule, in Toni Cortis, Thomas Freller, and Lino Bugeja (eds.), Melitensium amor. Festschrift in honour of Dun Gwann Azzopardi (Malta 2002), 37–56; Stanley Fiorini, Giliberto Abbate’s report and serfdom in the Maltese islands, Melita Historica 17/1 (2016), 31–56; Michel Fonteney and Alberto Tenenti, Course et piraterie méditerranéen de la fin du moyenâge au début du XIXè siècle, in Course et piraterie. Études présentées à la Commission Internationale d’Histoire Maritime à l’occasion de son XVe colloque international pendant le XIVe Congrès International des Sciences historiques (Paris 1975), 77–136; Joshua M. Hayes, M’hemm l-ebda post ie9hor b9had-dar (there’s no place like home). Maltese migration to French Algeria in the nineteenth century, Journal of Maltese History 2/1 (2010), 33–47; Anthony Luttrell, Approaches to medieval Malta, in Anthony Luttrell (ed.), Medieval Malta. Studies on Malta before the knights (London 1975), 1–70; Anthony Luttrell, Ibn Hauqal and tenthcentury Malta, Hyphen. A Journal of Melitensia and the Humanities, 5/4 (1987), 157–60; Anthony Luttrell, Giliberto Abbate’s report on Malta. Circa 1241, in Keith Sciberras 91 (ed.), Proceedings of History Week 1993 (Malta 1997), 1–29; Illuminato Peri, Uomini, città e campagne in Sicilia dall’XI al XIII secolo, (Rome and Bari 1990), 154; Charles A. Price, Malta and the Maltese. A study in nineteenth century migration, Melbourne 1954; Ettore Rossi, Le lapidi sepolcrali Arabo-Musulmane, RSO 12 (1931), 428–44; Carmel Sammut, La minorité maltaise de Tunisie. Ethnie arabe ou europeenne?, in Micheline Galley (ed.), Actes du premier congres ethnologie et culture Mediterraneene/Proceedings of the first Congress on Mediterranean studies of Arabo-Berber influence (Algiers 1973), 424–38; Commandeur de Viguier, Relation de la conspiration tramée par Mustafà Bachá de Rhodes, Paris 1749; Godfrey Wettinger and Michael Fsadni, Peter Caxaro’s Cantilena. A poem in medieval Maltese, Malta 1968; Godfrey Wettinger, The abolition of slavery in Malta, Archivum. The Journal of Maltese Historical Research 1 (1981), 1–19; Godfrey Wettinger, The Arabs in Malta, in Peter Serracino Inglott, Anthony Bonanno, and Vincent Borg (eds.), Malta. Studies of its heritage and history (Malta 1986), 87–104; Godfrey Wettinger, Place-names of the Maltese islands ca. 1300–1800, Malta 2000; Godfrey Wettinger, Slavery in the islands of Malta and Gozo ca. 1000–1812, Malta 2002; Martin R. Zammit, Andalusi Arabic and Maltese. A preliminary survey, Folia Orientalia, 45–6 (2009–10), 21–60; Martin R. Zammit, Malta, in Jørgen Nielsen, Samim Akgönül, Ahmet Alibaic, and Egdunas Racius (eds.), Yearbook of Muslims in Europe (Leiden 2011), 3:375–81; Themistocles Zammit, Saracenic remains in Malta, Melita 5 (1925), 1–3. Carmel Cassar Manr I b. N Manr I b. N Ab li (r. 350–65/961–76), also called Amr-i Sadid (“The Righteous/Just Amr”), was the sixth Smnid amr to rule over a unified Transoxania and Khursn. His reign began at the height of Smnid imperial authority but was troubled by increasing challenges from his military commanders and 92 by continuing conflicts with the Byids (320–454/932–1062). When Manr’s brother and predecessor ‘Abd al-Malik (r. 343–50/954–61) died suddenly during a riding accident, a split emerged among the Smnid elites. Their father, N b. Nar (r. 331–43/943–54), had established a line of succession through his sons, but the powerful Turkish commander-in-chief (jib al-ujjb) and governor of Khursn Alptekin (Alptign, d. 352/963) instead attempted to install ‘Abd al-Malik’s young son Nar. Manr was backed by his mamlk guardian Fiq Kha (d. 389/999), who rallied the military commanders to his side and won him the throne. Upon securing his position (Nar was reportedly king for a day), Manr dismissed Alptekin and appointed Ab Manr b. ‘Abd al-Razzq (d. 350/962) as governor of Khursn with orders to capture his predecessor. Alptekin fled to Ghazna with his supporters, ousted the local lord, and established his own base of authority, laying the foundations for the Ghaznavid dynasty (366–582/977– 1186). Fearing Manr’s wrath for having failed to capture Alptekin, Ab Manr looted Khursn and resolved to flee to the Byids. Before he could do so, he was killed in battle against the Smnid army in 351/962. Ab l-asan Muammad al-Smjr (d. 378/989) was then made governor of Khursn, a position he held for the next 21 years. When Alptekin’s son and successor Ab Isq Ibrhm (d. 355/966) was ejected from Ghazna in 352/963 by the local rulers his father had removed a year earlier, he sought Manr’s aid. In return for Manr reinstalling him in Ghazna, Ab Isq acknowledged Smnid suzerainty, paid tribute, and named Manr on his coins. manr i b. n During Manr’s reign, the wars against the Byids continued. Much of this conflict focused on the vassal lords on the frontiers between the two empires, the Ilysids of Kirmn (320–57/932–68) and the Ziyrids of Jurjn (319-c.483/931c.1090). In 356/967, Manr ordered Ab l-asan al-Smjr to lead the army of Khursn against Rayy, the Byid capital, in support of the Ziyrid Washmakr (r. 323–56/935–67), who hoped to retake abaristn. After Washmgr died in a hunting accident, however, the campaign fell apart, and a succession struggle between two of his sons saw the pro-Byid Bsutn (r. 356–67/967–78) rise to power. The following year, the Smnids lost Kirmn to an invasion led by the Byid ‘Aud alDawla (r. 338–72/949–83). A treaty negotiated between the Smnids and Byids in 361/971–2 promised an annual tribute of 200,000 dnrs to Bukhr and a diplomatic marriage between a daughter of ‘Aud al-Dawla and Manr’s son N (II) (r. 365–87/976–97). The size of the tribute payment is evidence of perceived Smnid strength under Manr, even though the Byids had successfully taken Kirmn and the Caspian provinces from the Smnids. The geographer Ibn awqal (died after 367/978) travelled in Transoxania during Manr’s reign, leaving us a first-hand account of the amr and his domains. He praises Manr, calling him “the most just monarch of his age” and providing a list of his virtues (although he also declares him weak in body and constitution). He similarly lauds the Smnid army, administration, and financial system for its smooth operation (468–70, 472). This portrayal of a strong Smnid state under Manr, including the direct taxation of many of his vassals, such as the Ilysids, Ziyrids, and even the nascent maronites 93 Ghaznavids, contrasts with the reports of al-Muqaddas (d. after 381/991), writing not much later, according to whom the fiscal reach of the Smnid state was limited to those lands under direct rule (337). Manr patronised some of the earliest works of new Persian prose as a courtly and literary language. Most famously, he sponsored the Persian translation and expansion of the historian al-abar’s (d. 310/923) Tarkh al-rusul wa-l-mulk by his vizier, Ab ‘Al Muammad Bal‘am (d. c.382–7/992–7), known as Trkh-i Balam. Begun in 352/963, this is the oldest work of new Persian prose that has survived in its entirety. After requesting a fatw on the permissibility of translating the Qurn from a group of legal scholars, Manr also commissioned a translation of al-abar’s Tafsr. Manr died on 11 Shawwl 365/13 June 976 and was succeeded by his son N II. Bibliography Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The Ghaznavids, Edinburgh 1963; Richard N. Frye, Bukhara. The medieval achievement, repr. Costa Mesa 1997; Richard N. Frye, The Smnids, CHIr 4:136–61; Gardz, Trkh-i Gardz, ed. ‘Abd al-ayy abb, Tehran 1363sh/1984–5; Ibn awqal, rat al-ar, ed. J. H. Kramers, Leiden 1939; Ibn Isfandiyr, Trkh-i abaristn, ed. Abbs Iqbl, Tehran 1941; al-Muqaddas, Asan al-taqsm f ma‘rifat al-aqlm, ed. M. J. de Goeje, Leiden 19062; Narshakh, Trkh-i Bukhr, ed. Mudarris Raav, Tehran 19842; Nim al-Mulk, Siyar al-mulk (Siysat-nma), ed. Hubert Darke, Tehran 1340sh/1962; Luke Treadwell, The account of the Samanid dynasty in Ibn fir al-Azd’s Akhbr al-duwal al-munqai‘a, Iran 43 (2005), 135–71; Luke Treadwell, The political history of the Smnid state, Ph.D. diss., University of Oxford 1991; Ab Nar al-‘Utb, Shar al-Yamn al-musamm bi-l-Fat al-wahb ‘al ta’rkh Ab Nar al-‘Utb, ed. Amad b. ‘Al al-Mann, 2 vols. in 1, Cairo 1869. Robert Haug Maronites The Maronites (Ar., Mawrina) are a community of Eastern Christians named after Saint Maron (d. before 423 C.E.). Their church is part of the Catholic Christian Church, following the Antiochian-Syriac rite. Originating in the region of Hama, Maronite beliefs and spirituality spread to many other regions in Syria and in Mount Lebanon, which then became and remained the stronghold of the Maronites for most of the Islamic period, before massive emigration beginning in the nineteenth century made them an international community. 1. Early history The history of the Maronite community up to the time of the Crusades has not been comprehensively elucidated. According to Maronite tradition, the community originated in the monastery of Saint Maron (Syr., Mor Môrn, Ar., Mr Mrn), an anchorite who lived in the Cyrrhestica district of northern Syria and died before 423 C.E. (Théodoret de Cyr, 2:33). After his death, his disciples built a monastery near the Orontes river, in the Roman province of Syria Secunda and named it after him (Naaman, 1). Since then, the monastic way of life has marked Maronite spirituality, as exemplified in the sainthood of Sharbil Makhlf (d. 1898, canonised 1977) and others. The monastery soon became a pillar of Chalcedonian orthodoxy (established 451 C.E.) in its fight against monophysitism. Beginning in the seventh century C.E., its members embraced the Monothelite theology of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (r. 610–41), which defined for several centuries Maronite confessional identity (Suermann, 159–270).