Superiority of Character

Superiority of Character

1990 5 May 18-19 Superiority of Character (370) In 750 A.D., the Abbasids wrested the throne from the Umayyads, a dynasty of Arab caliphs who had reigned in Damascus over a considerable empire from 661 A.D. The Abbasids thereupon set about slaughtering the members of the Umayyad dynasty, so that no claimant to the throne should survive. One of the younger members, Abdur Rahman ad-Dakhil, did, however, manage to escape this general massacre, fleeing from Damascus to Spain, where he established the famous Umayyad empire, with Cordova as his capital.

In the contest of the rivalry between the Abbasid and Umayyad kingdoms, the Abbasids sent valuable gifts from their capital, Baghdad, to the Christian rulers of France, the object being to curry favour with them and to encourage them to turn against their Umayyad neighbour across the Pyrenees.

Now, Heraclius, heir to the ancient Roman empire, had taken refuge in Constantinople after losing a large part of his empire. In need of allies, and inspired by Baghdad’s efforts to persuade the Christian rulers of France to attack Spain, he sent his messenger in 209 AH to Abdur Rahman the Second, the Umayyad ruler of Spain, with the proposal that they Join forces against Baghdad. In the process, he hoped to find favour with the rulers at Cordova. Abdur Rahman might, indeed, have been expected to give a cordial reception to Heraclius’s messenger, considering that he brought the offer of an alliance against his old enemy. By throwing in his lot with Heraclius, Abdur Rahman could, indirectly, have satisfied any urge he might have felt for revenge. But Abdur Rahman paid no heed to this messenger, even in spite of the latter holding out the hopes to him that, if he joined forces with Heraclius, he would be able to retrieve his ancestral empire (Syria, Iraq, Arabia, etc.) from the Abbasids. After an exchange of formalities the messenger was sent back empty-handed to Constantinople.

Forging a friendship with the enemy of one’s enemy in order to satisfy a desire for revenge is simply stooping to baseness. The truly superior man is one who raises himself above such feelings and who enters into relationships with others, not on the basis of friendship or enmity, but on the basis of principle.