al-Amin (Muhammad)

Muhammad al-Amin was born in Shawwal 170/April 787 to Harun al-Rashid and Zubayda, daughter of Ja'far b. al-Mansur, so that he was of pure Hashimite stock on both sides. He was given priority over his brother 'Abd Allah, the future al-Ma'mun, who was born six months earlier to a slave mother. The first bay'a as heir was given to him in 175/792, and al-Ma'mun was named second successor in 183/799. In 186/802 al-Rashid settled the double succession in the "Meccan documents": al-Amin acknowledged al-Ma'mun's right of immediate succession and his near-absolute sovereignty over the eastern half of the empire, and al-Ma'mun in turn acknowledged his brother as caliph. ¹

Al-Rashid died at Tus on 24 March 809, and al-Amin was recognized as caliph at Baghdad, while al-Ma'mun went back to Khurasan. In 194/810 al-Amin put his own son Musa's name in the Friday prayer after al-Ma'mun's, and in 195/810-11 he formally violated the Meccan documents, substituting his son for al-Ma'mun and the third brother al-Qasim as direct heir. 'Ali b. 'Isa b. Mahan was sent against al-Ma'mun, and open hostilities began. The Khurasani troops of Tahir b. al-Husayn defeated 'Ali b. 'Isa near al-Rayy and then the second army, and took al-Jibal; contingents of Syrian Arabs failed to stop them. An attempt to depose al-Amin in Baghdad failed in 196/812, and by the end of that year Harthama b. A'yan and Tahir had invested Baghdad. ¹

The defence of Baghdad lasted more than a year, supported by the most turbulent elements of the city. In Muharram 198/September 813 al-Amin asked Harthama for a safe-conduct; on the way to him he was intercepted by Tahir's men, who feared he would escape, and was captured and killed on the night of 24-25 Muharram 198/24-5 September 813. The article holds that al-Ma'mun was not directly responsible but was not sorry for the murder. The war was primarily a dynastic dispute, not a conscious struggle between Arabism and Iranism. Al-Amin is depicted as a hedonist, ignorant of the intricacies of politics, whose minister al-Fadl b. al-Rabi' was in large part responsible for the policy, and whose companions included Abu Nuwas, who lamented him. His four years of rule saw no outstanding administrative measure, apart from the war against his brother. ¹