Harun al-Rashid
Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi, fifth Abbasid caliph; in al-Baladhuri: as prince he led the summer raid of year 163 for his father, besieging Damalu and granting its people aman — settled at Baghdad's Samalu quarter — and in year 165 descending on the Gulf, repairing Masisa and its mosque, increasing its garrison and building the Adhana-bridge palace on the Sayhan; as caliph he learned in year 171 that the Byzantines had conspired to fortify Tarsus and forestalled them through Harthama ibn A'yan and Faraj ibn Sulaym, settling the two levies, ordered Ayn Zarba built and fortified in year 180 and the city of the Black Church likewise, named the march cities the 'Awasim, returned the Cypriot captives taken by Hayy ibn Ma'yuf, restored Filastin's deserted estates to their people through Harthama with the takhafif and rudud, disbursed funds through the marches and coasts, and carried the craft of raiding, in Mu'awiya ibn Amr's words, to a pitch unmatched before him. Tarikh Baghdad (#7347): born at Rayy three nights short of Dhu'l-Hijja 150 (another report 149), given the bay'a at Baghdad on Friday 14 Rabi' I 170 — the very day al-Hadi died — aged nineteen years, two months and thirteen days, with al-Ma'mun born that same night; he kept al-Khuld, alternated a year of hajj with a year of ghazw, took a hundred scholars and their sons on pilgrimage, loved fiqh and fuqaha' and loathed kalam disputation; he wept convulsively at Abu Mu'awiya al-Darir's hadith 'I would love to be killed in God's path then live again' yet was told his place in Islam was too great to go raiding in person. He died at Tus on Saturday night, four days into Jumada II 193, buried at Sanabadh with his son Salih praying over him — forty-five years old after twenty-three years, two months and sixteen days of rule. Harun ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi, fifth Abbasid caliph, born at Rayy in 149 AH/766 CE in the account of the Encyclopaedia of Islam and acclaimed caliph on 15 Rabi' I 170 AH/786 CE. The article says the vizier Yahya ibn Khalid al-Barmaki and his sons held power for about seventeen years until their fall in 187 AH, that he organised the frontier zone as the Awasim and led campaigns against the Byzantines himself in 187 and 190 AH, and that his reign saw revolts in Syria, Egypt, Ifriqiya, Yemen and Khurasan. The article judges that his division of the empire among his sons began its decline; he died at Tus on 3 Jumada II 193 AH/809 CE.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 17 in the chain · 786–809 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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The Aqsa Mosque earthquake and its rebuilding under the Abbasids
The Abbasid-era earthquake that felled the Aqsa's roofed part save the mihrab: when the treasury pleaded it could not restore it as before, the caliph ordered each provincial amir and commander to rebuild one arcade — raising it stronger and thicker, the repair still legible as a 'seam' in al-Muqaddasi's day — and Abdallah ibn Tahir added marble arcades.
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Battle of Anusan (795)
Draft card for Battle of Anusan (795); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of the Burbia
Draft card for the Battle of the Burbia in 791, the Umayyad Andalusian army's victory over Bermudo I of Asturias; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Campo da Matanza (795)
Draft card for Battle of Campo da Matanza (795); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of the Cilician Gates (807)
Draft card for Battle of the Cilician Gates (807); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Kopidnadon
Draft card for the Battle of Kopidnadon in 788, the Abbasid victory over Byzantium on the Anatolian marches; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Krasos
Draft card for the Battle of Krasos in 804, the Byzantine army's defeat by the Abbasids on the Anatolian marches; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Las Babias
Draft card for the Battle of Las Babias in 795, the Andalusi army's victory over Asturias in the northern marches; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Lutos
Draft card for the Battle of Lutos in 794, an Arab-Byzantine clash of the Anatolian frontier under Harun al-Rashid; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Río Quirós
Draft card for the Battle of Río Quirós in 795, the Umayyad campaign into Asturias; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Tahert (790)
Draft card for Battle of Tahert (790); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of the Nalon River (795)
Draft card for Battle of the Nalon River (795); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Capture of Oviedo (795)
Draft card for the capture of Oviedo in 795, the Cordoban emir's raid on the Asturian capital; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Capture of Thebasa (793)
Draft card for Capture of Thebasa (793); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The fall of Barcelona to the Franks (185 AH)
While the fitna between al-Hakam I and his uncles burned, the Franks seized their chance and took Barcelona in AH 185 — the Muslim armies fell back south of it, and the hajib Abd al-Karim ibn Mughith led the riposte.
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The Building of Tarsus
In al-Baladhuri from al-Waqidi: al-Hasan ibn Qahtaba al-Ta'i raided Byzantine lands in year 162 with the men of Khurasan, Mosul and Syria, Yemenite reinforcements and the volunteers of Iraq and the Hijaz, setting out by way of Tarsus, and reported to al-Mahdi the great benefit for Islam in building, fortifying and manning it and the check and vexation it would give the enemy — al-Hasan having fought so well on that raid and harried the Byzantine land that they named him the Shaytan; coming out of Byzantine territory he camped at Tarsus's meadow and rode to the ruined city, circling it on every side and reckoning its capacity at a hundred thousand; he described it to al-Mahdi and likewise told him of al-Hadath, rousing him to build it, so al-Mahdi ordered him to build Tarsus beginning with al-Hadath city, which was built, and charged him with Tarsus; in year 171 al-Rashid heard the Byzantines had conspired to go to Tarsus to fortify and man it, so he sent the summer raid of year 171 under Harthama ibn A'yan ordering him to settle, build and fortify it, putting the work in the hands of Faraj ibn Sulaym the eunuch at his command, and Abu Sulaym marched him to Madinat al-Salam whence he mustered the first levy of Khurasanis — three thousand men — who entered Tarsus, then a second levy of two thousand — a thousand of Masisa's people and a thousand of Antioch's, each man on a ten-dinar increase over his pay — who camped with the first levy at al-Mada'in at the Jihad gate at the opening of Muharram year 172 until Tarsus's building, fortification and mosque were complete; Faraj surveyed from river to river four thousand lots, each twenty cubits square, granted the Tarsusis their lots, and the two levies settled it in Rabi' II year 172; Abd al-Malik ibn Salih had appointed Yazid ibn Makhlad al-Fazari over it, whom the Khurasanis expelled in resentment for the Hubayriyya, and Abu al-Fawaris replaced him, confirmed in 170-and-odd.
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The Great Earthquake of 180 AH
In year 180 came the great earthquake, from which the head of Alexandria's lighthouse fell.
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The General Ransom and the Conquests of 190 AH
In year 189 the Romans ransomed captives until no Muslim remained prisoner in their lands; in 190 Heraclea was conquered and al-Rashid spread his armies through Roman lands — Sharahil ibn Ma'n ibn Za'ida took the Saqaliba fortress, Yazid ibn Makhled took Malquniya, and Humayd ibn Ma'yuf sailed to Cyprus, demolishing and burning and carrying off sixteen thousand of its people.
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The Division of the Caliphate among al-Rashid's Sons
Al-Rashid settled the succession on his son Muhammad — titled al-Amin, aged five, at his mother Zubayda's urging — in 175; on Abdallah — al-Ma'mun, with all Khurasan — after him in 182; and on al-Qasim — al-Mu'tamin, with the Jazira and the marches, still a boy — in 186, and hung a copy of the compact in the Ka'ba. Al-Dhahabi calls this the first weakening to enter the Islamic state from the imamate's side; a sage said he had cast enmity between them to the flock's harm. Some add that al-Mu'tasim was passed over for illiteracy — yet God brought him the rule and made all later caliphs his descendants.
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Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab's Founding of al-Abbasiyya
In al-Baladhuri: when the frontier army besieged Ibrahim at Qayrawan, al-Muradi and al-Mamrun came to him bearing money from Egypt's kharaj — when paid, they dispersed. Ibrahim then built the White Palace two miles in Qayrawan's qibla direction, laid out plots around it for the people who built and made it a misr, built a congregational mosque of gravel and brick on marble columns roofed with cedar, two hundred cubits by about two hundred; he bought slaves he freed — they reached five thousand — settled them around it and named that city al-Abbasiyya, inhabited and flourishing to al-Baladhuri's day.
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Harun's Appointment of Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab over the Maghreb
In al-Baladhuri: Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab was of Egypt's army notables; he rose with twelve men who took from the treasury only the measure of their rations and fled, reaching a place called al-Zab over ten days' march from Qayrawan, the frontier's agent then being Harun's Harthama ibn A'yan; Ibrahim claimed the leadership over that district's troops, sending gifts to Harthama, courting him and writing that he had not left obedience nor embraced sin — only need and necessity had driven him — so Harthama gave him his district and sufficed him for it; when Harthama left the frontier Ibn al-Akki ruled after him and his conduct soured until the province rose on him, so al-Rashid consulted Harthama on a man to appoint and he counselled reconciling Ibrahim, cultivating him and giving him the frontier; al-Rashid wrote that he had pardoned his offence and seen fit to give him the Maghreb as a benefaction — Ibrahim ruled that frontier, stood over it and held it firm.
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Idris II builds Fez
Idris ibn Idris built the city of Fez on the two banks of its wadi in 193/808, making it the capital of the Maghreb.
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The Khazar raid on Armenia
In year 183 the Khazars broke upon Armenia, slaughtering and carrying captive more than a hundred thousand souls — a calamity upon Islam the like of which had not been heard before.
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Nikephoros's Letter and the Expedition to Heraclea
In year 187 a letter reached al-Rashid from Nikephoros, king of the Romans, repudiating the truce made with Empress Irene: 'she set you as the rook and herself as the pawn, carrying you loads of her wealth from women's weakness — restore what reached you or the sword is between us.' Al-Rashid raged and wrote on the letter's back: 'from Harun, Commander of the Faithful, to Nikephoros, dog of the Romans: I have read your letter, son of the infidel woman — the answer is what you will see, not what you will hear.' He marched that day to Heraclea — a witnessed conquest — and Nikephoros sued for peace at yearly tribute; but on the caliph's return to Raqqa he broke faith, trusting winter, and al-Rashid turned back in hardship until he camped before his city and took his prize.
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The embassies of Harun al-Rashid and Charlemagne
The Harun al-Rashid–Charlemagne embassies of 181-192 AH (797-807 CE), known only from Latin sources — Einhard, the Monk of St Gall and the Royal Annals: Isaac's three-year journey returning alone with the elephant, the Persian-Maghribi counter-embassy to Aachen, and the Jerusalem patriarch's gift of the Sepulchre's keys.
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Al-Rashid lays the nucleus of the House of Wisdom
Harun al-Rashid laid the nucleus of the Khizānat al-Ḥikma at Baghdad: Yūḥannā ibn Māsawayh set over the translation of the ancient medical books with skilled scribes, al-Faḍl ibn Nawbakht rendering Persian into Arabic and ʿAllān al-Shuʿūbī copying.
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The conquest of the fortress of al-Safsaf
In year 181 the fortress of al-Safsaf was taken by storm — al-Rashid himself its conqueror; in year 176 the city of Dabasa was conquered under the amir Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Salih al-Abbasi.
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Siege of Girona (793)
Draft card for Siege of Girona (793); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Lleida (800)
Draft card for Siege of Lleida (800); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Patras
Draft card for the Siege of Patras about 805, the Arab siege of the Byzantine city; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The Revolt of al-Walid ibn Tarif in al-Jazira
The Jaziran revolt of al-Walid ibn Tarif, broken by Yazid ibn Mazyad's patient tactics, 178 AH.
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The Mutual Imprecation of Yahya al-Alawi and Abdallah ibn Mus'ab
In year 175 Abdallah ibn Mus'ab al-Zubayri slandered Yahya ibn Abdallah the Alid before al-Rashid, claiming Yahya had invited him to revolt; Yahya challenged him to mutual imprecation in the caliph's presence, entwining hands: 'Say — O God, if You know Yahya did not call me to rebel against this Commander of the Faithful, abandon me to my own power and scourge me with Your punishment.' The Zubayrid faltered, spoke it, Yahya spoke likewise — and the Zubayrid died that very day.