al-Amin

Baghdad is second in size only to Constantinople by the reign of Mansur's grandson, Harun ar Rashid (786-806).

Baghdad is able to feed its enormous population and to export large quantities of grain because the political administration had realized the importance of controlling the flows of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.

The Abbasids reconstruct the city's canals, dikes, and reservoirs, and drain the swamps around Baghdad, freeing the city of malaria.

Harun ar Rashid, the caliph of the Arabian Nights, actively supports intellectual pursuits, but the great flowering of Arabic culture that is credited to the Abbasids reaches its apogee during the reign of his son, Al Mamun (813-33).

After the death of Harun ar Rashid, his sons, Amin and Al Mamun, quarrel over the succession to the caliphate.

Their dispute soon erupt into civil war.

Amin is backed by the Iraqis, while Al Mamun has the support of the Iranians.

Al Mamun also has the support of the garrison at Khorasan and thus is able to take Baghdad in 813.

The Abbasids, although Sunni Muslims, hope that by astute and stern rule they will be able to contain Shia resentment at yet another Sunni dynasty.

The Iranians, many of whom are Shias, hope that Al Mamun will make his capital in their own country, possibly at Merv.

Al Mamun, however, eventually realizes that the Iraqi Shias will never countenance the loss of prestige and economic power if they no longer have the capital.

He decides to center his rule in Baghdad.

The Iranians, disappointed, began to break away from Abbasid control.

The second Abbasid caliph, Al Mansur (754-75), decides to build a new capital, surrounded by round walls, near the site of the Sassanid village of Baghdad.

Within fifty years the population outgrows the city walls as people throng to the capital to become part of the Abbasids' enormous bureaucracy or to engage in trade.

Baghdad becomes a vast emporium of trade linking Asia and the Mediterranean.

Baghdad during the reign of its first seven caliphs becomes a center of power where Arab and Iranian cultures mingle to produce a blaze of philosophical, scientific, and literary glory.

This era is remembered throughout the Arab world, and by Iraqis in particular, as the pinnacle of the Islamic past.

Baghdad flourishes under Caliph Harun ar-Rashid, becoming the most splendid city of the period.

Tribute is paid by many rulers to the caliph, and these funds are used on architecture, the arts and a luxurious life at court.

Harun decides in 796 to move his court and the government to …

…Ar Raqqah at the middle Euphrates.

Here he will spend twelve years, most of his reign.

Only once will he return to Baghdad for a short visit.

Several reasons might have influenced the decision to move to ar-Raqqa.

It is close to the border with the Empire.

The communication lines via the Euphrates to Baghdad and via the Balikh river to the north and via Palmyra to Damascus are excellent.

The agriculture is flourishing to support the new Caliphal center, and from Raqqa, any rebellion in Syria and the middle Euphrates area could be controlled.

Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani pictures in his anthology of poems the splendid life in his court.

In ar-Raqqah, the Barmakids will manage the fate of the empire, and there both heirs, al-Amin and al-Ma'mun will grow up.

Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid declares, in the so-called Meccan Document of 802, that his two sons, Muhammed al-Amin and Allah al-Ma'mun, should rule the Muslim empire after his death, with the imperial title held by al-Amin and the rule of Khorasan and the eastern half of the caliphate under al-Ma'mun.

Harun recognizes the existence of the two different politico-religious trends by assigning Iraq and the western provinces to his son Muhammad al-Amin, the heir apparent, and the eastern provinces to the second in succession, his son al-Ma'mun.

The former is the son of the Arab princess Zubaydah, a niece of al-Mansur, the second 'Abbasid caliph, and after 803 has al-Fadl ibn ar-Rabi' as tutor.

His half brother Al-Ma'mun, the elder by six months, is the son of an Iranian concubine and after 803 has as tutor a Barmakid protégé, al-Fadl ibn Sahl.

One of the founding fathers of the Hanafi school of law, Muḥammad ash-Shaibānī, chief qadi (judge) in Ar-Raqqah and a leader of the movement towards systemetizing the Sharia, dies in 804.

The Fourth Fitna or Great Abbasid Civil War is a conflict between the brothers al-Amin and al-Ma'mun over the succession to the Abbasid Caliphate's throne.

Their father, Harun al-Rashid, had named al-Amin as the first successor, but had also named al-Ma'mun as the second, with Khorasan granted to him as an appanage, while a third son, al-Qasim, had been designated as third successor.

After Harun dies in 809, al-Amin succeeds in Baghdad.

Encouraged by the Baghdad court, al-Amin begins trying to subvert the autonomous status of Khorasan; Qasim is quickly sidelined.

In response, al-Ma’mun seeks the support of the provincial elites of Khorasan, and makes moves to assert his own autonomy.

As the rift between the two brothers and their respective camps widens, al-Amin declares his own son Musa to be his heir, and assembles a large army.

Al-Amin's troops march towards Khorasan, but al-Ma'mun's general Tahir ibn Husayn defeats them in the Battle of Rayy, then invades Iraq and besieges Baghdad itself.

The city falls after a year, al-Amin is executed, and al-Ma'mun becomes Caliph, but he remains in Khorasan and does not come to Baghdad.

This allows the power vacuum, which the civil war had created in the Caliphate's provinces, to grow, and several local rulers spring up in Jazira, Syria and Egypt.

In addition, the pro-Khorasani policies followed by al-Ma'mun's powerful chief minister, al-Fadl ibn Sahl, and al-Ma'mun's espousal of an Alid succession, alienates the traditional Baghdad elites, who see themselves increasingly marginalized.

As a consequence, al-Ma'mun's uncle Ibrahim is proclaimed rival Caliph at Baghdad in 817, forcing al-Ma'mun to intervene personally.

Fadl ibn Sahl is assassinated and al-Ma'mun leaves Khorasan for Baghdad, which he enters in 819.

The next years will be taken up with consolidating al-Ma'mun's authority and reincorporating the western provinces, a process that will not be completed until 827.

Some local rebellions, however, notably that of the Khurramites, will drag on for far longer.

Harthama ibn A'yan had first appeared during the reign of the second Abbasid Caliph, al-Mansur (reigned 754–775), as one of the supporters of the Abbasid prince and heir-apparent Isa ibn Musa.

Isa had been forced to renounce his claim on the throne in favor of al-Mansur's son, al-Mahdi (r. 775–785), who had Harthama brought to Baghdad in chains and kept him under arrest throughout his reign.

Under al-Mahdi's son and successor al-Hadi (r. 785–786), however, he was released and rose to prominence as one of the Caliph's closest advisors.

At one point he is said to have recommended that the Caliph should execute his younger brother and heir-apparent, the future caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809) to open the path for the succession of al-Hadi's own sons, but this plan had been foiled through the intervention of the Caliph's mother, al-Khayzuran.

Nevertheless, when al-Hadi died it was Harthama himself who had released Harun from prison.

He has continued to enjoy a privileged position and high office under Harun as well, serving as governor of Palestine, Egypt, Mosul and then Ifriqiya, before assuming command of the caliphal guard (haras) under the supervision of Harun's trusted vizier, Ja'far ibn Yahya the Barmakid.

From this post he had played a role in the downfall of the Barmakids in 803, and had established himself as one of the Caliphate's senior military leaders.

He also led two summer raids into Asia Minor against the Empire.

When the large-scale rebellion of Rafi ibn al-Layth broke out in Khurasan in 805–806 and the local governor, Ali ibn Isa ibn Mahan, proved himself incapable of suppressing it, al-Rashid had sent Harthama to replace him, following himself shortly after, in 808.

Al-Fadl ibn al-Rabi', born in 757–8 CE, is the son of al-Rabi' ibn Yunus, a former slave who had risen to occupy the influential post of chamberlain (hadjib) under caliphs al-Mansur (r. 754–775) and al-Mahdi (r. 775–785).

Rabi's power relied on his control of the access of outsiders to the Caliph, as well as his de facto leadership of the Caliph's numerous and influential mawla (servants, freedmen).

Fadl had effectively inherited his father's position at court, and benefited from the high esteem in which Harun al-Rashid held him: upon his accession, the Caliph placed Fadl in charge of his personal seal, and in 789–90 he was made head of the diwan al-Nafaqat (the "Bureau of Expenditure").

In 795–6, he was named to his father's old post of hadjib, reportedly after succeeding in finding the poet Ibn Jami, who had been exiled under al-Hadi (r. 785–786).

Fadl, utterly loyal to his master, serves as Harun's trusted agent.

Despite his apparently good personal relations to the Barmakid patriarch Yahya ibn Khalid, stories portray Fadl as the Barmakids' chief rival at court.

Following the fall of the Barmakid family from power, Fadl had succeeded Yahya as wazir, in effect becoming the Caliph's chief minister and advisor.

However, Fadl lacks the almost plenipotentiary powers that Harun had granted Yahya, and his remit is limited to a supervisory role over expenditure and in the handling of petitions to the Caliph, while the actual financial administration is entrusted to another official.

As vizier, al-Fadl ibn ar-Rabi' lacks the efficiency of the Barmakids, and the personal decisions of Harun may carry more weight.

The Caliphate has conducted further successful operations against the East Roman Empire, but Harun falls ill at Tus (near modern Meshed) in the autumn of 808, while on his way to Khorasan to deal personally with the serious two-year-old revolt of Rafi ibn al-Layth.

Harun had arranged the division of the Abbasid empire between his sons, a step that accelerates the caliphate’s administrative decline and political disintegration.

In the last days of Harun's life his health is declining and sees in a dream Musa ibn Jafar sitting in a chamber praying and crying, which makes Harun remember how hard he had struggled to establish his own caliphate.

He knows the personalities of both his sons and decides that for the good of the Abbasid dynasty, al-Maʾmūn should be caliph after his death; this he confides to a group of his courtiers before his death on March 24, 809.

One of the courtiers, Fadl ibn Rabi', does not abide by Harun's last wishes and persuades many in the realm that Harun's wishes had not changed.

Later, the other three courtiers of Harun, who had sworn loyalty to Harun by supporting al-Maʾmūn, namely 'Isa Jarudi, Abu Yunus, and Ibn Abi 'Umran find loopholes in Fadl's arguments, and Fadl admits Harun had appointed al-Maʾmūn after him, but, he argues, since Harun was not in his right mind, his decision should not be acted upon.

Al-Maʾmūn is reportedly the older of the two brothers, but his mother is a Persian woman while al-Amin's mother is a member of the reigning Abbasid family.

Fadl ibn al-Rabi causes the army to pledge its allegiance (bay'ah) to Harun's heir al-Amin, who has remained behind in Baghdad.

Amin, who had need of Fadl's experience, sends letters to him urging him to return to the capital, and to bring with him the treasury, which Harun had taken along, as well as the entire expeditionary army assembled to crush the rebellion.

Al-Ma'mun, who is tasked with the governance of Khurasan, regards the withdrawal of the entire army as a betrayal, and vainly tries to dissuade Fadl from this move.