# The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall/Chapter 66

CHAPTER LXVI
AL-MAʾMŪN
198–218 A.H. 813–833 A.D.
Maʾmūn persuaded by Faḍl to stay at Merv, 198 A.H. 813 A.D.Al-Maʾmūn had no affinity to the debauchee. We nowhere read of any revelries like his brother's, nor indulgences at variance with the teaching of Islām. On the contrary, his life was commendable, and his reign, if we except certain flagrant cruelties, not only illustrious, but just. Singularly susceptible to influences about him, and loving the East as much as he disliked the West, Al-Maʾmūn now made the fatal mistake of holding on at Merv, where he fell blindly under the mastery of Al-Faḍl, his Wazīr, and embraced the dogmas of the ʿAlid persuasion—dogmas not only hateful at the Capital, but dangerous to the stability of his throne. Hence trouble in prospect for Bagdad, and for the Empire at large.
Ṭāhir supplanted by Hasan, brother of Faḍl.Not long after Bagdad had been taken, the local troops and populace rose upon Ṭāhir for the murder of their favourite Caliph, and the banishment of Zubeida with her two grandsons to Mosul; but after a few days, pacified by gifts, they returned to order. Ṭāhir continued at the head of affairs, till Al-Maʾmūn sent Al-Ḥasan ibn Sahl, at the instance of his brother Al-Faḍl, as Viceroy to supersede him;—a doubly unfortunate step,—alienating as it did Ṭāhir, and arousing antagonism throughout the older Provinces which feared the floodtide of Persian interest.Rebellion of Naṣr in Asia minor. First, Naṣr ibn Sḥabath, an Arab chieftain, faithful to the memory of the late Caliph, took up arms to avenge his fall, and, followed by a host of Arabs, seized on the country between Aleppo and Sumeisāṭ. Ṭāhir, sent to oppose him, ​but sick at the course events were taking, entered without heart on the contest, and, after some unsuccessful battles, retired. Thus Naṣr for many years. dominated the border-lands of Asia Minor, while Ṭāhir, in charge of Syria and Mesopotamia, remained spiritless and inactive at Ar-Raḳḳa.
Rebellion of Abu Sarāyā at Kūfa and Baṣra, 199 A.H. 814 A.D.In the following year a more dangerous rebellion was headed by Abuʾs-Sarāyā, a notable adventurer, who, beginning as brigand, soon raised a great following, and having gained possession of Al-Kūfa, there set up as its ruler a descendant of ʿAlī. The fickle city, ready at any moment to rise in favour of the house of ʿAlī, and, like others, displeased at the Caliph falling under Persian influence, went entirely over to Abuʾs-Sarāyā, who also gained possession of Al-Baṣra and great part of Al-ʿIrāḳ, beating back army after army sent against him from Bagdad. He even coined money in the name of his ʿAlid protégé, and sent envoys of the same stock throughout Arabia and elsewhere.Defeated by Harthama and slain, 200 A.H. 815 A.D. At last, Bagdad itself was threatened, and the Viceroy in alarm sent for Harthama, who, vexed like Ṭāhir with the state of affairs, had retired into seclusion. Harthama soon changed the scene, drove Abuʾs-Sarāyā back into Al-Kūfa, and besieged him there. The Kūfans, tired of the Pretender and his marauding followers, gave them no further countenance, and so Abuʾs-Sarāyā effected his escape with 800 horse. Pursued over the Tigris, he was taken prisoner and carried before Al-Ḥasan the Viceroy, who sent his head to Al-Maʾmūn, and had the body impaled over the bridge at Bagdad. His career was thus, after ten months, cut short; but it was some time before Al-Baṣra and Arabia settled down. The ʿAlid governors of Abuʾs-Sarāyā committed great atrocities in various quarters,—to such an extent indeed that one earned the name of "the Butcher," and another that of "the Burner."Pilgrimage, Dhuʾl-Ḥijja, 199 A.H. At Mecca, his upstart envoy attempted to head the pilgrimage, and the ceremonies ended in great disorder. The golden linings of the Kaʿba and its treasury were plundered, and the brocaded covering torn down and divided amongst the insurgents. A rival Caliph was even ​set up, who continued to rule there for a time, but eventually submitted himself to Al-Maʾmūn and was pardoned.
Harthama's journey to Merv, 200 A.H.Harthama having subdued this rebellion returned to Nahrawān without visiting the Viceroy. There he received orders from the Caliph to take up the government of Syria and Arabia. But he resolved first to go direct to Merv, and there warn Al-Maʾmūn of the critical state of things which his Wazīr was hiding from him, and that the West would speedily slip from his grasp, unless he made an early return to Bagdad. But Al-Faḍl, anticipating Harthama's errand, poisoned his master’s mind against him. It was near the end of the year before he reached Merv which, fearing lest the Wazīr should conceal his errand, he entered with martial music.Received angrily by Maʾmūn, xi. 200 A.H. June, 816 A.D. Apprised thus of his arrival, the offended Caliph summoned him at once to his presence, and covered him with reproaches for not more speedily and effectively suppressing the rebellion of Abuʾs-Sarāyā. As the loyal general opened his lips to make explanation and deliver his warning, the bodyguard rushed upon him, fiercely buffeted him on face and body, and hurried him off to prison, where he shortly died of his injuries, or (as popularly believed) was put to death by Al-Faḍl.His death. So perished, the victim of cruel ingratitude, this great captain who had fought for the empire from Africa to Khorāsān, and to whom in great part Al-Maʾmūn owed success over his faithless brother.
Rising at Bagdad, 200 A.H.The fate of Harthama, a favourite in the West, caused fresh excitement in Bagdad. The troops rose against Al-Ḥasan, and abused him as the tool of his brother Al-Faḍl,—"the Magian and son of a Magian." After three days' fighting, Al-Ḥasan, driven from the city, took refuge in Al-Medāin, and eventually retired to Wāsiṭ. Continual encounters ensued for many months, but without material result.Ḥasan flies to Wāsiṭ. Beginning of 201 A.H. Meanwhile confusion prevailed at Bagdad; and the unfortunate city was for a time at the mercy of bands of robbers, which committed all kinds of spoliation and excess.Peace restored to Bagdad, x. 201 A.H. But the better class of citizens at last banded themselves together, and outnumbering the rabble, held them in check; while two chief men, respected for their wisdom and probity, were placed at the head of affairs. Al-Manṣūr, son of the Caliph, Al-Mehdi, was offered the throne. He declined, but agreed to conduct the government in the name of Al-Maʾmūn. ​Towards the close of the year, weary of the struggle, the leaders at Bagdad came to terms with Al-Ḥasan, the Viceroy, who published an amnesty, promising six months' pay to the troops, and the people their allowances according to their stipendiary roll. Things were settling down on this footing, when the Capital was again thrown into confusion, by an act of inconceivable infatuation on the part of Al-Maʾmūn.
Maʾmun proclaims ʿAlī ar-Riḍa heir-apparent, ix. 201 A.H. 817 A.D.This was no less than the adoption by the Caliph of ʿAlī, surnamed Ar-Riḍa ("the well pleasing"), the eighth Imām of the Shīʿa or party of ʿAlī, who was summoned to Merv and, though twenty-two years older than the Caliph himself, proclaimed heir-apparent. The Wazīr, no doubt, persuaded his subservient master that this was the likeliest means of putting an end to the ʿAlid insurrection in the West. At an earlier period, a coalition between the houses of ʿAlī and Al-ʿAbbās might possibly have been successful. It was now an idle dream; and at the present moment, when the two factions were arrayed against each other in strife implacable, the act was one of suicidal folly. Thus the edict went forth throughout the Empire that allegiance was to be sworn to ʿAlī ar-Riḍa as next in succession to the throne; and the more publicly to mark this new departure, the national dress was changed from ʿAbbāsid black to Shīʿa green. Towards the end of the year, Al-Ḥasan received from his brother command to proclaim and carry out this order, which fell like a thunder-bolt upon the Capital. The Shīʿa were feared and hated there, and the ʿAbbāsids at court felt the blow as aimed at the very existence of their dynasty.Bagdad revolts. All rose in rebellion, ready to depose Al-Maʾmūn and choose another Caliph in his stead. Al-Manṣūr no longer opposed the measure; and so on the last Friday of the year, instead of prayer for Al-Maʾmūn as reigning sovereign, Ibrāhīm, brother of Al-Manṣūr, was saluted Caliph; and shortly after the oath of fealty taken in his name.Ibrāhīm proclaimed Caliph. 1 I. 202 A.H. July 20, 817 A.D. It is the same Ibrāhīm whom we have already met in the moonlight scene by the Tigris. He was the son of Al-Mehdi by an African slave-girl; proficient in music, song, and poetry, he altogether lacked strength ​for the difficult position which he now assumed, and which with difficulty he held for two years.
Bagdad and ʿIrāḳ in rebellion, 202–203 A.H.Al-Ḥasan, Al-Maʾmūn's viceroy, was thereupon obliged again to retire to Wāsiṭ, and fighting was renewed between the Imperial troops and those of the Usurper. Al-Ḥasan, thinking to gain over Al-Kūfa with its Shīʿa proclivities, appointed as its governor a brother of ʿAlī ar-Riḍa; and it is significant of the caprice of that fickle city, and the hopelessness of the new coalition, that, while ready to receive him as a purely ʿAlid leader, they would hear nothing of him as the Persian representative of Al-Maʾmūn; and so fighting went on there as elsewhere. While the West was in this state of turmoil, a fresh and startling change took place at Merv.
Maʾmūn's eyes opened, 202 A.H. 817–818 A.D.Al-Maʾmūn's eyes at last were opened. The first to tell him the truth, strange to say, was ʿAlī ar-Riḍa himself. Things had gone on from bad to worse since his adoption the year before. He ventured now to warn the Caliph that his Wazīr was hiding from him the truth; that the people of Al-ʿIrāḳ held him to be either half-witted or bewitched; and that between Ibrāhīm and the ʿAlids the empire was slipping from his hands;—Al-Ḥasan, the Wazīr's brother, was hurrying the West to ruin, while Ṭāhir, who might have righted the vessel in the storm, was thrust neglected into Syria. A body of leading men, guaranteed against the resentment of the Wazīr, confirmed the facts, and advised Al-Maʾmūn's return at once to Bagdad, as the only safety for the Empire. This, they added, was the loyal errand of Harthama, had his Master but listened to. him two years before.Sets out for Bagdad, viii. 202 A.H. Feb., 818 A.D. Al-Maʾmūn, now convinced that the insurrection was due to his own subservience to Al-Faḍl, and his Shīʿa teaching, gave orders for his Court to march towards the Capital. Arrived at Sarakhs, Al-Faḍl, who had vented his displeasure against the informers, was found murdered in his bath.Murder of Faḍl, March, ix. 202 A.H. A reward was offered for the assassins; but these asserted that they had done what they did by command of the Caliph. They were executed nevertheless, and their heads sent to Al-Ḥasan with a letter of condolence on the death of his brother, and the promise that he should succeed to the vacant office. Al-Maʾmūn further showed his attachment to Al-Ḥasan by contracting a marriage with his ​daughter Būrn, a child then of ten years of age; but the bridal ceremony did not take place for another eight years. About the same time he gave one of his own daughters in marriage to ʿAlī ar-Riḍa who was now fifty-four years of age, and a second to ʿAlī ar-Riḍa's son, thus to all outward appearance cementing his alliance with him. A brother of ʿAlī ar-Riḍa was also nominated to the high office of presiding at the annual pilgrimage.
Death of ʿAlī ar-Riḍa, ii. 203 A.H. August, 818 A.D.Shortly after this another unexpected event took place. In his progress westward, Al-Maʾmūn rested in the autumn for a while at Ṭūs. There ʿAlī ar-Riḍa died suddenly of a surfeit of grapes, and Al-Maʾmūn buried him by the side of his father. The world was startled by this death, following so rapidly on that of Al-Faḍl; and the report went forth that the grapes had been poisoned by Al-Maʾmūn. Our annalist (it may be for decency's sake) says he does not believe it; and, indeed, the favour shown to the deceased, and the marriages just mentioned, make against the dark impeachment. On the other hand, ʿAlī and Al-Faḍl were the two insuperable obstacles in Al-Maʾmūn's way, and by their disappearance the Gordian knot was solved. And so, while in a letter to Al-Ḥasan he lamented the death of ʿAlī, the Caliph at the same time wrote to the citizens of Bagdad saying that as ʿAlī, against whose accession they had been so bitter, was gone, nothing was now left to prevent their returning to their loyalty. Though this advance met with but an unceremonious answer, the cause of Al-Maʾmūn began to be canvassed there with some success. Meanwhile, Ibrāhīm, by his weak and harsh administration, was alienating even the few friends remaining. His troops made no head against the Caliph's; and Al-Medāin, where he had been holding his court, fell into their hands. During the winter months, things went from bad to worse with him; and as the captains of Al-Maʾmūn closed in upon the Capital, the chief men, one after another, went over to them. At last, about the end of the year, these gained possession of the city.Flight of Ibrāhīm, xii. 203 A.H. June, 819 A.D. Ibrāhīm escaped into hiding, after an ignoble reign of close on two years. For eight years he was lost sight of, but was at last apprehended by the police, walking abroad at an untimely hour of the night in female disguise. He offered his costly ring as a bribe, but that only revealed ​his birth; and he was carried an object of ridicule in woman's attire to the court of the Caliph. "Bravo!" cried Al-Maʾmūn; "is it thou, Ibrāhīm?" He appealed for mercy; and it was granted, for it was the time of the bridal ceremony with Būrān, and she made intercession for him. Ibrāhīm celebrated the royal clemency in a poem which is much admired. On its being recited before him, Al-Maʾmūn was greatly pleased, and exclaimed in the words of Joseph to his brethren:—"There shall be no reproach on you this day; God forgiveth you: He is the most merciful of the merciful ones!"
Maʾmūn enters Bagdad, ii. 204 A.H. August, 819 A.D.While the Capital was being recalled to its allegiance, Al-Maʾmūn advanced slowly, halting as he journeyed to secure complete restoration of order before his entry. At Jurjān he remained a month, and a week at Nahrawān, whither the members of the royal house, captains, and chiefs of state came out to bid him welcome; and Ṭāhir also, by invitation, from Ar-Raḳḳa. So advancing, he entered Bagdad early in 204 A.H. The edict still held for green, and so the people at the first dressed accordingly. Al-Maʾmūn, however, having invited his Court to make known their requests, the first favour preferred by Ṭāhir was that black might be reverted to. The Caliph graciously acceded, and bestowed dresses of honour in that colour upon his Courtiers. Indeed, the advent of Al-Maʾmūn, after the long rebellion, was conspicuous for the total absence of retaliatory measures. Al-Faḍl ibn ar-Rabīʿ, in hiding ever since Al-Amīn's death, and ʿĪsa, Wazīr of Ibrāhīm, who had both thrown all their influence into the opposite cause, were now readmitted to favour. The whole attitude of Al-Maʾmūn was, on this occasion, generous and forgiving.
Ṭāhir viceroy in East, 205 A.H. 820 A.D.Ṭāhir was appointed governor of Bagdad, and his son ʿAbdallah, equally distinguished, left to succeed him at Ar-Raḳḳa. But whether suspicious of Ṭāhir's ambitious aims, or (as is also said) his presence reminding him of his brother's sad death, Al-Maʾmūn now conceived an aversion to him. Ṭāhir, aware of it, prevailed on the Wazīr to propose him for the viceroyalty of the East, where a strong hand was needed. Why, if suspicious of his fidelity, Al-Maʾmūn consented to appoint him to so great a charge, is ​not clear. We are told that a confidential eunuch accompanied him with secret orders to administer poison if ever he should swerve from loyalty. After ruling successfully for two years, Ṭāhir, as had been feared, showed signs of insubordination. At the weekly service, he dropped the Caliph's name from its place in the accustomed prayer, substituting for it some vague petition for guidance.His death, 207 A.H. 822 A.D. The Master of the Post (an office everywhere charged with such duty) immediately reported the alarming incident to the Court; and the next dayʾs despatch, awaited with anxiety by Al-Maʾmūn, brought the expected tidings of Ṭāhir being found dead in his bed. The circumstances of his viceroyalty are singular and obscure, and his opportune decease justifies the suspicion of foul dealing. Still more singular, the name of Ṭāhir remained so great, that, imputation of disloyalty notwithstanding, the viceroyalty of the east was continued in his family.Ṭāhir's character. Ṭāhir is famous not only as a soldier and a ruler, but also as a generous patron of learning and poetry. A letter addressed to his son on being appointed to Mesopotamia, in which are embodied instructions on all the duties of life, social and political, is justly regarded a model, not only of perfect writing, but of culture and precept. As such the Caliph so greatly admired it, that he had copies multiplied and spread all over the empire. Ṭāhir, we have seen, was called from his dexterity in the field, Dhuʾl-Yamīnein, "He of the two right hands"; he had also but one eye, so that a hostile poet said of him:—"O thou Ambidexter, thou hast an eye too little and a hand too much," signifying that he was a brigand who should lose a hand.Ṭāhirid family hold government of Khorāsān. His eldest son, ʿAbdallah, being engaged in the west, Al-Maʾmūn appointed his brother Ṭalḥa to succeed. At the same time he sent his Wazīr to see to the establishment of a loyal and efficient administration. The Wazīr so deputed crossed the Oxus and waged a successful campaign in Central Asia. On leaving, he received from Ṭalḥa a purse of three million pieces, and his secretary 500,000; such was the lavish fashion of the day.
Naṣr the ʿAlid was, up to this time, still in rebellion on ​the Western frontier.End of Naṣr's rebellion, 210 A.H. Ṭāhir, when in Syria, had of purpose carried on operations languidly against him. But ʿAbdallah, on succeeding his father, attacked him more vigorously, and drove him into an impregnable fortress on the borders of Asia Minor, from whence, after a five years' siege, he was induced to submit himself to the Caliph; and his return to Bagdad as a loyal subject was celebrated with great rejoicings. But a party of malcontents, who had been in hiding with Ibrāhīm ever since his deposition, now sought to create a diversion against Al-Maʾmūn by sundering the bridge of boats as the procession carrying Naṣr approached.Cruel treatment of rebels. Headed by Ibn ʿĀisha, a relative of the royal house, they were seized and treated with singular cruelty by Al-Maʾmūn, who had the leader exposed in the palace court under a burning sun for three days, then scourged, and with several of his companions put to death. His body was impaled in public, the first instance of one of royal blood being so treated. The Caliph may have had reason for the execution of these conspirators; but it was rare for him to resort to such inhuman practices. Ibrāhīm himself was also arrested about this time, but, as we have seen, freely pardoned.
Maʾmūn's marriage to Būrān, ix. 210 A.H. Jan., 826 A.D.In the same year Būrān, now eighteen years of age, was married to Al-Maʾmūn. Her father Al-Ḥasan celebrated the occasion with a magnificence truly Oriental, at his country residence near to Wāsiṭ. Thither flocked the Court and its surroundings in great splendour; Zubeida too, and the grandfather of the bride, who on the marriage night showered a heap of pearls upon the bridegroom, which, gathered up by his command to the number of 1000, were bestowed upon Būrān. Invited to ask for any special favours, she obtained grace for Ibrāhīm, and leave for Zubeida to go on pilgrimage. The bridal chamber was lighted with candles of costly ambergris, and Zubeida arrayed the bride in a robe of priceless pearls. Al-Maʾmūn spent a fortnight in this brilliant company, and Al-Ḥasan, to mark his gratitude for the royal favour, spent fabulous sums in presents to all around. Balls of musk were cast amongst the crowd who rushed about to catch them. In each was the name of an estate, slave-girl, steed, or other prize, which ​fell to the lot of him who caught it. Dresses of honour were conferred on all, and so this festival, unparalleled in its magnificence, came to an end. To make amends for all that he spent, the Caliph placed the revenues of certain provinces at Al-Ḥasan's disposal for a year. Such were the vast fortunes that fell in these days to the lot of men in power. Būrān survived her husband over fifty years.
Insurrection in Egypt, 200–210 A.H.,Egypt had been long the scene of chronic revolt, aggravated by the inroad of adventurers from Spain who joined the insurgents and for several years held Alexandria. ʿAbdallah, to whose charge it belonged, while engaged with Naṣr in the north, was unable to turn his arms in that direction.put down, 212 A.H. He now attacked the rebels and suppressed the insurrection. The adventurers took ship for Crete, which now (210 A.H.) fell into the hands of the Muslims. About this time also Sicily fell under the Aghlabid arms (though it took two generations to complete the conquest), which further ravaged lower Italy, and as a maritime power dominated the shores of the Mediterranean all around. It was not till August, 846 A.D. (231–232 A.H.) that they appeared before the walls of Rome. But over these western lands the Caliphate now had little power.
Bābek's rebellion, 201 A.H. 816 A.D.ʿAbdallah, having reduced Egypt, was now employed against the brigand Bābek. This famous freebooter arose in the beginning of the century, and was for twenty years the terror of the northern provinces of the Caliphate. He professed strange doctrines, as transmigration, incestuous marriage, and other tenets of the Eastern mystics. He was followed by multitudes, and held the difficult country towards Azerbījān. One after another he routed the Imperial forces, which sometimes were cut entirely to pieces in the mountain passes through which they sought to pursue the enemy.Unsuccessfully attacked, 214 A.H. ʿAbdallah, now sent to the attack, had hardly the opportunity of crossing arms with him; for an outbreak occurring just then at Nīsābūr, he was called away to Khorāsān, where he remained as viceroy. The Muslim army being also now engaged with Greece, Bābek was left for a time alone.
For sixteen years there had been an armed peace between ​the Empire and the Caliphate.Asia Minor i. 215 A.H. March, 830 A.D. Even the rebellion of Thomas, the rival of Michael the Amorian, did not lead the Muslims to invade Asia Minor. But, no doubt, the reason of this was that Thomas had been crowned by the Patriarch at Antioch in Syria, and, had he succeeded in becoming Emperor, would have been a vassal of Al-Maʾmūn. What made Al-Maʾmūn, in the later years of his reign, take the field in person, which he had never done before, and renew the war with the Greeks, may have been that they had made common cause with Bābek on the confines of Armenia. However that may be, early in the year 215 A.H., Al-Maʾmūn set out from Tarsus, and from thence led a successful campaign against the Emperor Theophilus. On the way he received Moḥammad, son of ʿAlī-ar-Riḍa, gave him in marriage the daughter to whom he had been affianced thirteen years before, and accorded them leave to settle at Medīna.Further campaigns there, 216–217 A.H. There followed in the two succeeding years a second and a third invasion of Asia Minor, and likewise an expedition to Egypt, which was again disturbed;—all three campaigns commanded in person by Al-Maʾmūn.
Maʾmūn commences foundation of Tyana citadel.At the close of his life, Al-Maʾmūn was still in the vicinity of Tarsus, returning from his last campaign against the Greeks. To hold them the better in check, he had begun the foundations of a grand military settlement at Tyana, which had been already occupied in 806 A.D. by Hārūn, but abandoned, 70 miles north of Tarsus. The plan was laid out by Al-Maʾmūn himself. The walls, three leagues in circumference, were pierced by four gates, each to be guarded by a strong fortress. Artificers were gathered from all quarters of the empire; and the Caliph, on returning, left his son Al-ʿAbbās to carry on the work. This martial ardour, emulating even that of Hārūn, and coming, as it did, at the close of an otherwise pacific life, is a remarkable trait in the changeful character of Al-Maʾmūn.
The Ṣābians.As Al-Maʾmūn passed through the ancient city of Ḥarrān on his third and last campaign against the Byzantines, he noticed people with long hair and tight-fitting coats. These were none other than Syrian pagans who continued to carry on the religion of their ancestors undisturbed by the advent of Christianity or of Islām until about the year 830 A.D. They were now offered the choice of Islām or the sword; ​but they escaped from this dilemma, by protesting that they were Ṣābians—a sect recognised by the Ḳorʾān. Under this name many of them continued to practise their old heathen rites.
Maʾmūn visits Damascus.On these expeditions he repeatedly visited Damascus, and gave princely donations to the chief families residing there, and also to the Syrian poets who sang his praises, for he was bountiful even to extravagance. But he had no love for the people of Syria; and when asked to regard them with the favour wherewith he regarded the Persians, he was not slow in recounting their misdeeds and disloyalty towards his dynasty. At the Great Mosque of Damascus he was shown arescript from the Prophet with his seal, which he pressed to his eyes in reverence, and shed tears upon.
Maʾmūn's Persian proclivities, 211 A.H. 826 A.D.In point of fact, Maʾmūn never shook off the prejudices acquired in Persia, the country of his mother and his wife, nor with them his ʿAlid proclivities. In the later years of his reign there was evolved from these a remarkable (though by no means rare) combination of free-thought and intolerance. In some matters indeed the liberality of Al-Maʾmūn was singularly wide. Thus a few years previously, he abolished the ban imposed by his predecessors on the favourable mention of Muʿāwiya or any of the Umeiyad "Companions"; and even to Christians liberty of discussion on the comparative claims of the Gospel and Islām was allowed. But the Persian predilections which he all the time entertained, inclined him at last zealously to canvass the doctrines of the liberal-minded if free-thinking Moʿtazila. He surrounded himself at the same time with theologians ​and divines of all the schools, and had discussions in his presence on such abstract doctrines as man's relation to the Deity, and the nature of the Godhead.Heterodox views on Ḳorʾān, Freewill, etc., 212 A.H. In the end he avowed his conversion to certain tenets opposed to the orthodox faith. Amongst these he held Freedom of the Will in place of Predestination; and that the Ḳorʾān, though inspired, was "created," in place of the hitherto undisputed tenet that it is "uncreate and eternal." He also declared his belief that, after the Prophet, ʿAlī was the chiefest of mankind; on which dogma is also built up the divine Imāmate, or spiritual leadership vested from time to time in some member of the house of ʿAlī. Hence also it began to be taught that, "apart from the Ḳorʾān and tradition, there might be other infallible sources of divine guidance. The Ḳorʾān itself was explained allegorically, and difficulties besetting the orthodox, such as offended reason or cramped the growth of society, thus easily evaded. With advancing years the conviction of Al-Maʾmūn in respect of the Ḳorʾān being an emanation in time, led to the unfortunate resolve to impose this view by pains and penalties, on his subjects.Enforces his views with intolerance and cruelty, 218 A.H. 833 A.D. When on his last campaign in Asia Minor, he sent a mandate to the governor of Bagdad to summon the leading Doctors, and having tested them on that vital doctrine, to report their answers to him. At this inquisition, held repeatedly, most quailed under the process and confessed. Some stood firm, among whom was Aḥmed ibn Ḥanbal (founder of the Ḥanbali school), who was ordered to be conveyed in chains to the Caliph's camp. We are told of threats, even of death, against two of these; and twenty others who refused to confess were sent under escort to await at Tarsus the return of the Caliph from the wars; but on ​the way tidings were received of his death. Such cruel intolerance dims the lustre of Al-Maʾmūn's later years.
Development of science and literature.For his reign was without question a glorious one ushering in, as it did, the palmy days of literature, science, and philosophy. He was himself addicted to poetry, and once struck a poet with amazement who, on reciting an original piece of a hundred stanzas, found the Caliph readily "capping" every verse as he went along. At his Court were munificently entertained men of science and letters, poets, physicians, and philosophers. Besides philologists and grammarians, it was the age also of the collectors of tradition, such as the great Bokhāri, and of historians, as Al-Wāḳidi, to whom we owe the most trustworthy biography of the Prophet; and of Doctors of the law, as Esh-Shāfiʿi and Ibn Ḥanbal. Moreover Jews and Christians were welcome at the Court not only for their own learning, but as versed both in the Arabic tongue and in the language and literature of Greece. The Monasteries of Syria, Asia Minor, and the Levant were ransacked for manuscripts of ​the Greek philosophers, historians, and geometricians. These, with vast labour and erudition, were translated into Arabic; and thus the learning of the West was made accessible to the Muslim world. Nor were their efforts confined to the reproduction of ancient works; in some directions they extended also to original research. An Observatory, reared on the plain of Tadmor, furnished materials for the successful study of astronomy and geometry. In other walks of literature, we have books of Travel and History, and, above all, of Medicine; while much attention was paid to the less practical, but more popular, branches of astrology and alchemy. It was through the labours of these learned men that the nations of Europe, then shrouded in the darkness of the Middle Ages, became again acquainted with their own proper but forgotten patrimony of Grecian science and philosophy.
Maʾmūn's reign brilliant and just;Al-Maʾmūn was undoubtedly upon the whole a ruler at once just and mild. Repeated change in views and sentiment, both political and religious, was due partly to Persian training and affinity, partly to a yielding nature which made him unduly subject, as in the case of Al-Faḍl, to personal influence. He cannot be acquitted of acts of capricious violence, some of which are just as cruel as those which stain the memory of his predecessors. One instance of singular inhumanity I should not omit. Abu Dulaf, a brave and noble Arab, was chief of the principality of Hamadān, where his family held a high repute. Having taken the side of Al-Amīn, he was unwilling after his fall to bow before Al-Maʾmūn, and so retired to his Persian home.certain caprice and cruelty notwithstanding. A blind poet composed a beautiful but extravagant panegyric, lauding his friend as the first of the Arabs, which so irritated Al-Maʾmūn, as if aimed in depreciation of himself, that he had the poet cruelly put to death. Abu Dulaf himself shortly after surrendered, and his honourable reception is extolled as an act of grace on the Caliph's part which cannot, however, affect our judgment of his heartless criminality towards the blind poet. For the rest, even ​leaving out of account the dark imputations as to the death of Al-Faḍl and ʿAlī ar-Riḍa, we have still the cruel treatment of Ibn ʿĀisha, as well as. the fate of Harthama and Ṭāhir, to both of whom he owed so much; and lastly his bitter intolerance towards victims of the barbarous Inquisition. But considering the length of his reign and his magnanimous attitude towards the rebels of Bagdad, the balance must incline to the verdict of leniency and moderation in a Caliphate which, taken as a whole, is one of the most brilliant in the history of Islām.
Death of Maʾmūn, vii. 218 A.H. August, 833 A.D.Al-Maʾmūn was eight-and-forty years of age, when death overtook him near Tarsus. It was a hot autumn day, and he sat with his brother Abu Isḥāḳ on the bank of a mountain stream, in the clear cool flood of which they laved their feet. "Come," said he to the companion who tells the story, "come, see how refreshing to the limbs are these limpid waves. All that we want is but a dish of dates to make the moment perfect!" Just then a mule was heard approaching with a burden of that very fruit. Two baskets full of the choicest dates, fresh gathered from the tree, were brought. They partook plentifully of them, with draughts also of the delicious icy water. As they arose, all three were struck with a burning fever. It was Al-Maʾmūn's last illness. The fever gained rapidly; and finding his end to be near, he had a rescript drawn up for all the Provinces, proclaiming his brother Abu Isḥāḳ successor, under the title of Al-Moʿtaṣim. Then he gave minute instructions as to his own funeral and grave, direct​ing that none should at it weep or mourn. Calling his brother, he especially enjoined upon him, along with other admonitions for a religious life and just administration, to enforce the right teaching which he held as to the origin of the Ḳorʾān and other doctrines of Islām, and to hasten back to Al-ʿIrāḳ. He left him also an ill heritage in his love for the employment of a Turkish praetorian guard. So passed Al-Maʾmūn away, and was buried at Tarsus, having reigned twenty years, besides the five preceding, during which he held at Merv the government of the East.
* ↑ Al-Kindi, the contemporary Christian apologist, tells us that ʿOthmān's exemplar of the Ḳorʾān, deposited in the Kaʿba, was burned in the conflagration which he says took place at this time.—Apology, S.P.C.K., p. 75.
* ↑ That is, "the one chosen as such from amongst the Prophet's descendants."—Ibn al-Athīr.
* ↑ Sūra xii. 92.
* ↑ The penalty in the Ḳorʾān for robbery. His letter is given at length by Ibn al-Athīr,—occupying eleven pages of the printed edition, vi. 257 ff.
* ↑ Tradition speaks of sums amounting to a million sterling.
* ↑ Hence called from a Persian term Khurramīya, or Voluptuaries. He is mentioned by Al-Kindi as the scourge of the empire.—Apology, p. 46.
* ↑ E.g. the Apology of Al-Kindi could only have been possible under a Moʿtazili court like Al-Maʾmūn's.
* ↑ That is Seceders. Their principal doctrines were the following: (1) Free-will, in contrast to the orthodox Determinism—good works are from God, evil works from man. Hence they are also called Ḳadarīya, as opposed to Jabrīya. (2) The Ḳorʾān is not uncreated, otherwise there would be a sacred Eternal. (3) God will not be visible to mortal eye on the Day of Resurrection. Cf. the heresy of Pope John XXII. (4) Muslims guilty of deadly sin are to be counted as neither Muslims nor non-Muslims, but as occupying an intermediate position. The school may have been a spontaneous growth within Islām, or a result of the study of Greek philosophy or of the teaching of John of Damascus.
* ↑ It was easy thus to justify, for example, the use of wine and temporary marriage (Mutʿa). The latter, by which conjugal contract can be entered into for a limited period, is still a tenet of the Shīʿa; but is justly reprobated by the orthodox. As regards wine, though we nowhere hear of Al-Maʾmūn's being given to its indulgence, it certainly was handed round in golden beakers at his marriage with Būrān; and other occasions are mentioned by Weil.
* ↑ One of his arguments was this syllogism; God created all things; the Ḳorʾān is a thing: therefore the Ḳorʾān is created. Also such passages as (Sūras xii. 2 and xli. 2) "We have sent down or ordained for thee a Ḳorʾān in the Arabic tongue," etc. "Yes," replied the defendant, "it may have been sent down or ordained, but not created."
* ↑ Curiously enough, in a later passage under the reign of the orthodox Mutawakkil, Ibn al-Athīr traces the Moʿtazili doctrines by tradition to Labīd the Jew, who bewitched Moḥammad, taught that the Old Testament was created, and spread the Zindiḳi creed. It is more likely to have been an offshoot of the Buddhist and Zoroastrian teaching of India and Central Asia, or a Muslim offset to the Christian Logos.
* ↑ Moḥammad Ibn ʿOmar died 207 A.H.: and his Secretary, who wrote from his master the famous biography, was one of those had up before the Inquisition just mentioned on the question of the Ḳorʾān. [The biography of Ibn Isḥāḳ is older than that of Al-Waḳidi, and according to the general opinion more trustworthy.]
* ↑ Founders of two out of the four great schools of law. The other two were Abu Ḥanīfa (d. 150) and Mālik (d. 178). The school of Abu Ḥanīfa prevails throughout the Turkish Empire, the Mālikite in North Africa outside of Lower Egypt, whilst that of Ibn Ḥanbal survives in Central Arabia amongst the Wahhābīs, and that of Esh-Shāfiʿi prevails in Egypt, Southern India, and elsewhere. A fifth school, that of the Ibāḍites in ʿOmān and at Mzāb in the Sahara, is actually the oldest of all. The Persians are of course Shīʿites. There is no material divergence in doctrine between the four,—merely matters of ritual, For example, the Ḥanifites are taught to say Amen softly, and forbidden in adoration to raise the hands to the ears, to pray with the legs apart, or to fold their hands across the breast. Our Indian fellow-subjects are much exercised on these trivial points. See judgment of the Privy Council, reported in The Times, February 23, 1891.
* ↑ According to a grand-nephew of the Caliph, who tells the story, the verse which offended Al-Maʾmūn was to the effect that "every Arab entering the lists of glory must borrow his nobility from Abu Dulaf," which Al-Maʾmūn thought to be a slight upon himself. The blind poet excused the obnoxious verse by saying that of course he regarded the Caliph as altogether beyond the range of comparison. Al-Maʾmūn then said he would execute him not for that verse, but for another verse, in which he ascribed divine attributes to a mortal, whereupon his tongue was cut out and the poet died a miserable death. The narrator is a son of Al-Mutawakkil, who reversed the policy of Al-Maʾmūn. Weil holds it to be a well-grounded "historical fact"; but it is not given in the annals of the day; and one would be glad to question it as, at the least, greatly exaggerated. I should also mention that under the year 200 A.H., i.e., while Al-Maʾmūn was yet in Merv, I find the entry: "Al-Maʾmūn in this year slew Yaḥya, because he called out to him—'O thou Caliph of the Unbelievers.'" There is no further explanation given.
* ↑ "He who maketh his refuge in the Almighty."