The Reign of Cnut

Once Cnut was firmly established as king, he set about ensuring his power. He first executed or drove away (if they were wise) potential rivals, and put Danes in positions of authority until Anglo-Saxons proved their loyalty to him sufficiently.

Remember that England at this time was home to several separate kingdoms (like Northumbria, Wessex, Mercia, etc.) that looked to a more-powerful king as their "first among equals" or "high king." Cnut kept Wessex in his own hands.

He also created a new coinage equal in value to what was being used in Denmark, aiding trade between the two countries (eventually, he would be King of two other countries as well).

Despite his unorthodox double marriage to Ælfgifu of Northampton and Emma of Normandy, he was respectful of the Church and converted to Christianity. Christ Church in Sandwich (his first landing point in England when he came to conquer it) received a tax exemption.

He traveled to Rome in Easter 1027 for the coronation of Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor to strengthen the relations between the Empire and his own North Sea Empire. He also claimed the trip was to repent for his sins before Pope John XIX, and to negotiate with the pope that English archbishops' fees to receive the pallium should be lower. In a letter he wrote in 1027, he talked about the need for better travel conditions for pilgrims:

... I spoke with the Emperor himself and the Lord Pope and the princes there about the needs of all people of my entire realm, both English and Danes, that a juster law and securer peace might be granted to them on the road to Rome and that they should not be straitened by so many barriers along the road, and harassed by unjust tolls; .... And all the magnates confirmed by edict that my people, both merchants, and the others who travel to make their devotions, might go to Rome and return without being afflicted by barriers and toll collectors...

The best-known anecdote about Cnut was recorded by Henry of Huntingdon a century later in which we see what Cnut could not accomplish:

When he was at the height of his ascendancy, he ordered his chair to be placed on the sea-shore as the tide was coming in. Then he said to the rising tide, "You are subject to me, as the land on which I am sitting is mine, and no one has resisted my overlordship with impunity. I command you, therefore, not to rise on to my land, nor to presume to wet the clothing or limbs of your master." But the sea came up as usual, and disrespectfully drenched the king's feet and shins. So jumping back, the king cried, "Let all the world know that the power of kings is empty and worthless, and there is no king worthy of the name save Him by whose will heaven, earth and the sea obey eternal laws."

So he couldn't rule the sea. He did rule more than England, however, when his brother, King Harald II of Denmark, died in 1018. Let's talk about that next, and how he managed two kingdoms so far apart.

King Cnut of England

After over a year of fighting for control of England, Cnut of Denmark and Edmund Ironside made an agreement: Edmund would have London and everything south of the Thames; Cnut would take everything north of the Thames. If Edmund pre-deceased Cnut (the two were of similar age), Cnut would inherit all.

Unfortunately, Edmund had been wounded in the most recent Battle of Assandun. The historian Henry of Huntingdon, writing a century later, says Edmund died in Oxford from multiple stab wounds while using the privy. It is more likely that he died in London, on 30 November 1016. More contemporary records like the Encomium Emmae Reginae ("Encomium of Queen Emma") do not mention murder. Death from battle wounds is a more likely outcome. His burial place at Glastonbury Abbey was destroyed during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries, so an examination of his remains is impossible.

Cnut was now King of England. Archbishop of Canterbury Lyfing crowned him in 1017. As King of England with ties to Denmark, he made sure that both Danes and Anglo-Saxons flourished, with exceptions: he had to make sure that there would be no challenges to his throne. The children of Edmund Ironside, and his father Æthelred's other children, fled to Normandy. Edmund's brother Eadwig Ætheling fled, but was followed and killed by Cnut's men.

Cnut then wed Emma of Normandy, Æthelred's widow. He was, of course, already married to Ælfgifu of Northampton, but this caused no problem. Setting aside one wife for another was common, especially if the first marriage was not by a Christian ceremony. Ælfgifu remained part of the family and the royal court, and her sons by Cnut still had standing.

There was another piece of business he had to conclude: paying off the thousands of mercenaries he had hired to help him conquer England. They had joined for the promise of payment once the country was secure. Cnut collected a Danegeld of £72,000, and a further £10,500 from London alone. He paid his army and sent most of them away, keeping some ships and men. He then used an annual tax called heregeld ("army gold") to maintain a standing army.

Cnut ruled  England for about two decades, and we'll go into some of his accomplishments (and his orchestrated failure) next time.

Cnut's Battles

Svein Forkbeard was King of Denmark and King of England, but when he died in 1014, his son Cnut (c.990 - 1035) was denied succeeding him in Denmark by his brother, Harald II, and in England by the witenagemot, which elected for the return of Æthelred the Unready, who had been driven out by Svein the previous year. If Cnut wanted a kingdom, he was going to have to fight for one, which is exactly what he did.

He landed in southeast England in September 1015 with 10,000 men from all over Scandinavia. The Encomium Emmae Reginae ("Encomium of Queen Emma"), an 11th century encomium of Emma of Normandy (written about 30 years later) described this grand appearance:

...so many kinds of shields, that you could have believed that troops of all nations were present. ... Gold shone on the prows, silver also flashed on the variously shaped ships. ... For who could look upon the lions of the foe, terrible with the brightness of gold, who upon the men of metal, menacing with golden face, ... who upon the bulls on the ships threatening death, their horns shining with gold, without feeling any fear for the king of such a force? Furthermore, in this great expedition there was present no slave, no man freed from slavery, no low-born man, no man weakened by age; for all were noble, all strong with the might of mature age, all sufficiently fit for any type of fighting, all of such great fleetness, that they scorned the speed of horsemen.

Wessex quickly capitulated in the face of this army. Some nobles resident in England joined Cnut. Æthelred's son, Edmund Ironside, was Cnut's chief opposition, but was unable to halt Cnut's advances northward and westward. When Æthelred died on 23 April 1016, Edmund was safe behind the walls of London, whose citizens chose him to succeed his father. The witenagemot, however, seeing the way the wind was blowing, gathered in Southampton and voted to offer the kingship to Cnut. Edmund left London for Wessex to rally that part of the country, getting out before Cnut's forces could complete a siege of the city. Edmund managed to return to London and drive the siege away, but when he went back to Wessex for fresh troops, the Danes once again besieged London.

On 18 October 1016, a series of battles took place with each side alternately having the upper hand. Finally, however, Edmund's brother-in-law, who had joined Cnut upon the Dane's first arrival in England and had since gone back to supporting Edmund, deserted Edmund and removed himself and his forces from the Battle of Assandun, leading to an English defeat.

The two leaders met to negotiate terms. Cnut would take all of England north of the Thames, excepting London. London and everything south of the Thames was for Edmund to keep. Upon Edmund's death, the south of England would also become Cnut's domain. As it turned out, that would happen sooner than expected. Although the two probably never met face-to-face as the above illustration shows, Edmund had been wounded in battle. He died mere weeks after the truce was drawn up. Was it the result of his wounds, or was it murder? Let's talk about that tomorrow.

Cnut of Denmark

The Danish Prince Cnut (also spelled Canute) put together what was called the North Sea Empire: England, Denmark, and Norway. This was a remarkable accomplishment for the early 11th century.

He was born about 990, the son of King Svein Forkbeard of Denmark, and his mother is alternately given as Świętosława, a daughter of the founder of the Polish state, or Gunhild, a daughter of Burislav from Scandinavian sagas. A third chronicle claims Cnut's mother was an unnamed former queen of Sweden.

The 13th-century Icelandic Knýtlinga saga describes him:

Knut was exceptionally tall and strong, and the handsomest of men, all except for his nose, that was thin, high-set, and rather hooked. He had a fair complexion and a fine, thick head of hair. His eyes were better than those of other men, being both more handsome and keener-sighted.

Nothing definitive about his youth is known until 1013, when his father invaded England and ousted Æthelred the Unready. Svein married Cnut to Ælfgifu of Northampton. Svein died a few months after the conquest, on 3 February 1014. Back in Denmark, Svein was succeeded by Harald II (Cnut's brother). The Danes in England chose Cnut as the new king, but the native English nobility gathered the witenagemot and elected to have Æthelred return, which he did.

Æthelred's army drove Cnut out of England handily, but Cnut left a lot of bodies in his wake as he departed from Sandwich. Cnut's brother offered him an army to try to take back England, so long as Cnut had no designs on the kingdom of Denmark itself.

By the summer of 1015 Cnut had assembled mercenaries from all over Scandinavia, numbering perhaps 10,000 in 200 ships. They landed first at Sandwich, and then began a series of bloody battles in a conflict that lasted more than a year.

I'll tell you more next time.

The Town of Sandwich

So...Sandwich. Most people just think about the food item that shares its name, but it has had more history than that, and not just as a Cinque Port. Its significance as a port in southeast England helped to weave it through many events that have been mentioned in this blog before.

The name Sondwic is mentioned first in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, covering events in England from the 800s to 1154. The Domesday Book, an account of all property in England so the new Norman rulers knew what they had, calls it Sandwice. The suffix -wic is Anglo-Sacon for a fortified place where trade takes place (a town). The name means a market town on sandy soil, appropriate for a coastal location.

When Rome invaded Britain in 43 CE, Sandwich was their landing point (technically, a town called Stonar across the river Stour from Sandwich, but Stonar disappeared in the 14th century).

King Cnut (c.990 - 1035) had history with Sandwich, initially leaving a pile of bodies strewn across the beach when he fled to Denmark after fighting with King Æthelred the Unready, but then later giving special rights to the church at Sandwich.

When Richard Lionheart was released from captivity after the Third Crusade and returned to England, Sandwich was his choice of landing port.

During the First Barons War (mentioned here) against King John, Prince Louis (later King Louis VIII) of France landed at sandwich to support the barons against John. The Battle of Sandwich was part of the First Barons War, and had the participation of Eustace, the Pirate Monk.

In the 14th century, a hospital (an almshouse for the poor) was established, named for St. Thomas Becket and still standing (see illustration).

In 1660, an earldom was created to bestow on Admiral Sir Edward Montagu. The 4th Earl of Sandwich was First Lord of the Admiralty and sponsored the voyages of Captain Jame Cook, who named the Sandwich islands for the Earl. The 4th Earl, John Montagu, is also credited with the naming of a food item when asking for meat between two pieces of bread so that he would not have to stop his activities. It bears mentioning, however, that a 1st century CE rabbi, Hillel the Elder, put the lamb and bitter herbs of the Seder between two pieces of matzoh, so this concept predates Montage by several centuries. (I doubt, however, that you'd get anything but blank stares of you ask for a "roast beef hillel" next time you want lunch.)

In a more serious vein: once again, I find a gap in my reporting: although King Cnut has had several references in this blog going back over a decade, he himself has not had his story told. Stay tuned.

The Cinque Ports, Part 2

The Cinque Ports were, initially, five port towns on the southeast coast of England. Over the centuries, the rights and privileges granted to them in exchange for having ships and men available for the king's purposes were extended to other towns, but three of the original five—Dover, New Romney, and Sandwich—were mentioned as having this royal obligation as far back as the Domesday Book.

That royal obligation was laid out in statistical terms: the five had an annual obligation to provide 57 ships for 15 days of service, if requested. The motivation for the obligation was never put on paper. A chief assumption is that they were necessary as part of the royal navy for military purposes. The evidence, however, suggests that those towns did not contribute proportionately more than any other towns to military efforts.

Because the privileges granted (chiefly of self-governance and the ability to salvage and keep the flotsam and jetsam of wrecked ships) started in the time of Edward the Confessor, one assumption is that he simply wanted to ensure the loyalty of a handful of ports that were essential to control traffic and trade to the continent.

Their importance gave them seats in Parliament. Representatives to Parliament were called Barons of the Cinque Ports. These days, the "Baron of the Cinque Ports" is purely honorary and used for those elected by the mayor to attend coronations. The barons had the right to hold the canopy over the monarch during the coronation, a practice which was last enjoyed in 1821 for George IV. For the coronation of Charles III, 14 barons represented the Cinque Ports (five original ports, two "ancient towns," seven "limbs") in the congregation.

In the centuries that followed their establishment, weather was a strong enemy causing their decline. Floods, especially in 1287 and 1362, changed coastlines radically, silting up harbors or washing towns away. Sandwich and New Romney are now each more than a mile from the coast. Hastings was washed away by the sea in the above-mentioned floods, and the remaining town was raided and burnt by the French during the Hundred Years Wars. Dover is still a major port, but the decline of the significance of the Cinque Ports was fairly total by the time of Elizabeth I. Major shipbuilding sites in Bristol and Liverpool stole some of their thunder as well.

Next time, I'm going to focus on one of the five towns: Sandwich. (And yes, I will mention that story.)

The Cinque Ports, Part 1

The Cinque Ports (Old French: "Five Harbors") were five towns on the southeast coast of England where the distance to the continent was shortest. There are and were, of course, more than five towns in this area, but these five were given a special charter from the king to maintain ships in case of need.

The term "Cinque Ports" for these five was in use by 1135, even though a royal charter designating them as special was not created until 1155, and they were not granted liberties in exchange for their obligations until 1260. They were important enough to be listed as part of the 1297 re-issuing of the Magna Carta. The five were required annually to make available a total of 57 ships for 15 days' duty as needed by the king.

What did they get in return for this support? They could handle their own criminal and civil cases. They had the authority to punish murderers, delinquents, thieves, etc. They could claim unclaimed property, stray animals, and the debris and cargo of ships wrecked on their shores. They also had representation in Parliament.

The original five were Hastings, New Romney, Hythe, Dover, and Sandwich. Although the name for the five did not get amended, the number of towns that were part of the arrangement with the king grew over time. Two towns were added in 1190, Winchelsea and Rye. Instead of changing the French name, after these two were included reference was made to the "Cinque Ports and two Ancient Towns."

That was not the end, however. More towns that were near the original five were brought into the confederation and referred to as "limbs" of the original five. Hastings, Dover, and Sandwich each had two limbs. Rye and New Romney each had one limb. Over time, more limbs were added. Eventually, 40 towns were attached to the Cinque Ports, many of whom no longer belong because they have disappeared or are no longer ports due to coastal changes.

So are the Cinque Ports still relevant? Does this designation still have any meaning? Let's talk about the later history tomorrow.

South England Flood of February 1287

We've been looking lately at catastrophic floods of the Middle Ages, like those that took place on the feast days of St. Marcellus and St. Lucia. These floods not only caused great destruction and loss of life, in some cases they also made topographical/geographical changes that persisted into the future.

St. Lucia's Flood in December 1287, along with an event called the South England Flood of February 1287, radically changed the coastline of part of England.

The map shows dotted lines where the current coastline lies, and how previously there were towns linked to the sea that are now far inland. Unlike in the Netherlands where water forced its way inland and created new coastal towns that were formerly landlocked, the storm surge in February 1287 not only did this in some cases but also caused collapsing cliffs and silting that blocked formerly coastal towns from the sea. A cliff at Hastings collapsed, taking part of Hastings Castle with it and blocking the harbor at Hastings from future trade.

Another town, New Romney, used the River Rother as its trade link to the sea. The storm diverted the river, leaving New Romney a mile away from the water. The river's course ran to Rye, increasing its value as a trading port.

Further north along the coast was the town of Dunwich, an important seaport on the North Sea. A storm surge in 1286, followed by the South England Flood and St. Lucia's, so hammered the East Anglian coast that it declined economically as well as geographically. At its peak it was similar in size to London in the 1300s; the census of 2001 put its population at 84.

The flood of 1287 changed the makeup of the Cinque Ports, a designation that has been technically wrong for a very long time. Next time we'll discuss what the Cinque Ports are, and if there really are cinque.

St. Lucia's Flood

St. Lucia's Day, commemorating a 4th century martyr, is 13 December. On that date in 1287, one of the largest floods in recorded history took place in the North Sea. A similar flood in 1953 allows us to look back and ascribe the 1287 event to a particularly high tide and a particularly low pressure system. The North Sea rose enough to pour over dikes and seawalls, flooding the Netherlands and North Germany. Estimates put the death rate at 50,000 in Germany alone, 80,000 people in total.

The flood also made permanent changes to the countryside. The term "Zuider Zee" (Frisian "Southern Sea") begins to be used at this time for the body of water that was created by this flood. The Zuider Zee was expanded by the flood on St. Marcellus day in 1362. The area called the Zuider Zee was already a body of water: the freshwater Lake Flevo (also called Almere). The Flood connected it to the North Sea through a flooded forest and turned it into the saltwater Zuider.

Economic and political changes followed the geographical upheaval. The West Frisian city of Stavoren (officially the oldest city in Friesland, having been granted a charter in the 1060s) was a trade center on the bank of a river (the Vlie). The flood built up a sand bank that interfered with its shipping and started its decline. The Zuider also brought the coastline to other cities that promptly took advantage of it. The formerly landlocked city of Harlingen became a new seaport. The province of West Frisia became separated from the rest of Friesland by a strait that was nine miles wide at its narrowest; it was annexed by the County of Holland (a state of the Holy Roman Empire).

The same storm affected England, where the water rose several feet in Norfolk. It was a year of storms and flooding in England. Several months earlier England experienced the South England Flood of 1287. It likewise caused economic changes, as it crippled one of England's chief seaports, Dunwich. Tomorrow we'll see what happened then and there.

Saint Marcellus's Flood

A year ago, in May 2023, a survey in the Wadden Sea off North Frisia discovered the remains of the sunken church of Rungholt. The town of Rungholt had a population of about 3000 people. It was one of numerous places destroyed on the night of 15 January 1362, during an event called the Grote Mandrenke (Low Saxon: "Great Drowning of Men").

Also known as St. Marcellus's Flood (because the storm surge peaked on the 16th, which was the feast day of St. Marcellus), it was the result of a new moon with high tides and an extratropical cyclone.

A storm surge/tide swept from the North Sea from England and the Netherlands to Denmark and Germany. It battered and eroded the coasts, changing coastlines. Islands were broken up, new islands were created by breaking up the mainland near the coasts, and whole coastal towns were destroyed. An estimated 25,000 people lost their lives in the flooding.

This event is also called the "First St. Marcellus's Flood" because, on the same date in 1219, a storm surge along the coasts of West Friesland and Groningen (most northeastern province of the Netherlands) killed 36,000 people.

The Zuider Zee (Dutch: "Southern Sea"), a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest Netherlands, is believed to have been expanded at this event. It had been called that before this time, however, because of an even greater flood, also named for a saint. Tomorrow I'll tell you about St. Lucia's Flood and the creation of the Zuider Zee.

al-Farghani's Accomplishments

Despite the potentially reputation-damaging error in calculation made by al-Farghani in the case of a canal, he is better known for other accomplishments.

Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī (c.800 - 870) was known as Alfraganus in Western Europe (see illustration, from a 1493 astronomical work). He was described as Arab and as Persian; there is a suggestion that his name comes from being born in Farghana in Uzbekistan.

His best-known work was Kitāb fī Jawāmiʿ ʿIlm al-Nujūm (Elements of astronomy on the celestial motions), a summary of Ptolemey's astronomical Almagest with revised calculations. He concentrated less on the mathematics and more on explaining the concepts in ways that were easy to understand. This work reached the West in translations by John of Seville and Gerard of Cremona. Dante's knowledge of astronomy came from al-Farghani.

One of his first recorded acts is being involved in a team that calculated the diameter of the Earth. This work influenced Columbus in his voyage across the Atlantic. Columbus, however, misunderstood the translation of al-Farghani's use of "mile." Columbus assumed al-Farghani was using the 4856-foot Roman mile; actually, al-Farghani used the 7091-foot Arabic mile. Columbus thought the diameter of the Earth was smaller.

In Cairo, al-Farghani wrote a treatise on the astrolabe earlier than al-Ashraf Umar II and Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi. Also while in Cairo he supervised the New Nilometer. The Nilometer, as you might guess, was designed to measure the height and clarity of the water of the Nile River.

The annual flooding of the Nile was crucial to Egypt's agricultural cycle, but it was unpredictable. Too heavy a flood was destructive; too light could lead to famine. Knowing what was coming was important. Nilometers come in different designs, but the simplest was a vertical column submerged in the river with markings to denote height of the water. Later, more elaborate versions involved shafts with steps that led down. Noting the height and comparing it to previous years helped predict whether the crops would be successful.

Speaking of flooding...next I want to tell you about a flood that killed thousands in more than one country. See you tomorrow.

Al-Farghani's Mistake

While expanding the urban settlements along the Tigris, the 9th century Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil needed a canal to bring water to a new city, al-Jaʻfariyya (after the caliph's birth name). He gave two courtiers the job of finding an engineer to design and build the canal. Two brothers, Muhammad and Ahmad ibn Musa, went for the expertise of al-Farghani (c.800 - 870).

al-Farghani was one of the most famous astronomers in the Muslim world in the 9th century. He had written a summary of Ptolemy's Almagest called Elements of astronomy on the celestial motions with more accurate data. Columbus used al-Farghani's calculations on his voyages across the Atlantic. Under a previous Abbasid caliph, al-Ma'mun, al-Farghani and a team had used the curvature between two points to calculate the diameter of the Earth.

He had also worked as an engineer, and for al-Mutawakkil had successfully created the New Nilometer in Old Cairo (more on that later). So designing a canal was not outside of his abilities. There was something wrong with the construction, however. A miscalculation made the entrance to the canal too deep. Water entering it would have to be abnormally high to be able to enter the rest and flow to its destination.

al-Mutawakkil was angered, and sent someone to figure out how culpable the two brothers were for the error. The investigator was not keen to see Muhammad and Ahmad punished, so he kept delaying his report. In fact, he delayed it long enough that it became a non-issue after the assassination of al-Mutawakkil, saving the lives of the brothers.

al-Farghani was not known for making mistakes, and tomorrow we'll look at some of his accomplishments, as well as explain the New Nilometer, which is exactly what you think it might be based on the name. See you then.

Great Mosque of Samarra

During the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil (822 - 861), he commissioned several building projects. Up to 20 palaces are listed as his work, their cost totaling between 258 and 294 million dirhams.

One of his projects was a huge mosque in Samarra along the Tigris River. His desire for ostentatious displays of wealth and devotion made it the largest mosque in the world at the time, and it was completed in only three years.

The minaret (shown here) is 171 feet high and 108 feet wide, the top reached by a spiral ramp. It is all that remains of the original structure. The main building was constructed from baked brick octagon piers with four columns in the corners of imported marble. It had 17 aisles, and the walls were covered with dark blue tiles.

A total of 16 doors allowed the faithful inside, where light was provided by 28 windows, 24 of were oriented by the qibla, the direction to face when praying. A fountain in the center was believed to be carved from a single stone and delivered by elephants. That had been commissioned by al-Mutawakkil's predecessor, his brother al-Wathiq. The baked brick ceiling was 35 feet high, supported by 464 pillars.

In 1278, the mosque (but not the minaret or outer wall) was destroyed when Iraq was invaded by Hulagu Khan's Mongols. A restoration process started in 1956.

The construction of the Great Mosque was part of a plan to make Samarra the center of an expansive urban area, so there were other projects in the area. Part of this expanded area was named al-Mutawakkiliyya for himself. Another new city he founded needed water, and he commanded two courtiers, the brothers Muhammad and Ahmad ibn Musa, to make it happen. They ignored local engineers and turned instead to al-Farghani, an astronomer. He was very smart, and a good mathematician with a good reputation, but he made a tiny mistake with great consequences. That's a story for tomorrow.

Ending Religious Tolerance

The 10th Abbasid caliph was not intended to rise to that position. Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn Harun was born in 822 to an Abbasid prince and a slave concubine. His father, al-Mu'tasim, was a court official to Ja'far's uncle, his father's brother caliph al-Ma'mun. Both al-Ma'mun and al-Mu'tasim were sons of Harun al-Rashid, who reigned at the start of Islam's Golden Age.

When al-Ma'mun died in 833, he nominated his brother rather than his son to rule. When al-Mu'tasim died, his eldest son (Ja'far's brother al-Wathiq) became caliph. al-Wathiq had a fairly non-dramatic reign except for ongoing battles with the Byzantine Empire. al-Wathiq ended that conflict for several years after agreeing to a prisoner exchange in 845. His death from natural causes in his mid-30s caught the nation by surprise. His son was fairly young, and so for the second time in that dynasty the succession went "sideways" to a brother rather than a son. Ja'far found himself elevated to the caliphate and taking the regnal name al-Mutawwakil ala Allah, "He who relies on God." He was 26 years old. (The illustration is of his face on a silver dirham.)

His well-educated brother had been a lover of poetry and the arts, enjoying poets, scholars, and musicians. In contrast, al-Mutawwakil cared more for power and grandiosity. His reign was known for ending the religious tolerance of his predecessors. Whereas dhimmi ("protected ones," a designation given to those of other faiths) had many privileges, he took steps to revoked or disrespect them. In 850 he decreed that all Jews and Christians had to wear garments that distinguished them from the faithful: honey-colored (yellow) hoods and belts. Moreover, their places of worship were destroyed and they were no longer allowed to hold public office.

An ancient sacred cypress of the Zoroastrians was ordered cut down to be used as timber for a new palace. It was 1400 years old, and legend said it had been brought by Zoroaster from heaven.

He even attacked fellow Muslims. There was on ongoing debate over whether the Koran was created or not. That is (to put it simply): was it produced by a man, or was it divine knowledge that was then "un-created" by a man, because it was eternal? There was a sect that rejected the idea that the Koran was the literal word of and co-eternal with God, and therefore did not exist until Muhammad wrote it. al-Mutawwakil stomped on this heavily, taking hostile steps to anyone promoting the doctrine that the Koran was created by a man.

al-Mutawwakil had named his eldest son, al-Muntasir, as his successor, but over time was showing favor to his second son, al-Mu'tazz. The two sons had support from different political factions, and the elder was unhappy with his father's shifting attention, especially when the younger was given the privilege of leading prayers at the end of Ramadan. Other humiliations followed, and a faction approached the elder son with a plan to assassinate his father. al-Muntasir was not opposed. The plan was carried out in December 861, and al-Muntasir became caliph. al-Mutawwakil had died before lumber from the Zoroastrian cedar arrived to be used.

Unfortunately, this began a period known as the Anarchy at Samarra, lasting until 870 and almost destroying the Abbasid Caliphate.

Let's turn away from politics and find something good about al-Mutawwakil's reign. How about the Great Mosque of Samarra? I'll bet there are some interesting stories there. I'll check it out and get back to you tomorrow.

The Umma Document

Despite Muhammad's treatment of the Jewish tribe the Banu Qurayza, he was not opposed to tolerance of the Jewish religion. He felt the Qurayza had betrayed him during the Battle of the Trench, and so needed severe punishment.

The Constitution of Medina—more accurately called the Umma Document, since it was not organized as a real constitution—was a series of documents produced during Muhammad's time in Medina that formed the basis of a multi-religion state. Its earliest record is from a few generations after Muhammad's death, but Western and Islamic scholars consider it genuine.

Its supposed origin was this: while Muhammad was still in Mecca, a delegation from Medina approached him. Medina was home to a few large tribes and dozens of smaller tribes. Hostility between the Jewish and pagan Quraysh tribes had been going on for a few generations, and Medina needed a trusted outside arbitrator to come and end the "eye for an eye" style of dealing with disputes. The 12 strongest tribes of Medina offered to protect Muhammad if he came to Medina to help them resolve the ongoing feuds.

Here are some of the points of the document:

(1) This is a prescript of Muhammad, the Prophet and Messenger of God (to operate) between the faithful and the followers of Islam from among the Quraysh and the people of Medina and those who may be under them, may join them and take part in wars in their company.

(12) (a) And the believers shall not leave any one, hard-pressed with debts, without affording him some relief, in order that the dealings between the believers be in accordance with the principles of goodness and justice.

(13) And the hands of pious believers shall be raised against every such person as rises in rebellion or attempts to acquire anything by force or is guilty of any sin or excess or attempts to spread mischief among the believers ; their hands shall be raised all together against such a person, even if he be a son to any one of them.

(14) A Believer will not kill a Believer [in retaliation] for a non-Believer and will not aid a non-Believer against a Believer.

(15) The protection (dhimmah) of Allah is one, the least of them [i.e., the Believers] is entitled to grant protection that is binding for all of them. The Believers are each other’s allies to the exclusion of other people.

In that last point, the word dhimmah literally means "protected person" and was applied to Jews and Christians as well as Muslims—the "People of the Book." I have mentioned it before in its plural form (dhimmi) mostly here and here.

Sharia law allowed Jewish communities to have their own courts in place of some Islamic laws (unless there were a capital offense that violated #s 13 and 14). About 200 years after Muhammad and the Umma Document, one caliph decided tolerance of non-Muslims wasn't to his taste, and he made changes. I'll discuss him tomorrow.