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The Accession of Harun al-Rashid

c. 14 September 786 CE · 14 Rabi' I 170 AH approximate

Harun al-Rashid acceded by his father's designation on his brother al-Hadi's death — Saturday night, 14 Rabi' I 170; that same night his son Abdallah al-Ma'mun was born. Per al-Suli, in all of time there was never a night in which a caliph died, a caliph rose and a caliph was born but this one .

تاريخ الخلفاء — السيوطي (طبعة دار المنهاج)

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Span: c. 14 September 786 CE · 14 Rabi' I 170 AH — c. 838 CE · c. 223 AH

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Abbasid caliph, given the oath of allegiance at Baghdad after the deposition of his brother al-Amin in 196 AH ; he died in 218 AH . Al-Tabari also records the mihna over the Qur'an in his reign . According to al-Suyuti, he was born on the night of Saturday, fourteen days before the end of Rabi' I 170, the night his paternal uncle al-Hadi died and his father's accession was made; there was no other night in all time in which one caliph died, another rose, and a child was born, except this one . Also according to al-Suyuti, in 204 he set out and entered Baghdad in Safar, where the Abbasids asked him to return to black, the Abbasid colour, and he agreed; in 218 people were tested on the doctrine that the Qur'an was created . He alone, after Uthman ibn Affan, is said to have memorised the Qur'an among the caliphs, and his seal bore the inscription 'Abd Allah ibn Ubayd Allah'. A woman asked him about the division of an inheritance of 600 dinars; he reckoned it out: two daughters take two-thirds, a mother a sixth, a wife an eighth, and twelve brothers received two dinars each while she received one dinar, and it came out as he had said . Also according to al-Suyuti, a Kharijite came to him and asked what had moved him to oppose them; he answered with a verse of God's Book, and when asked whether he knew it was revealed he said yes, and when asked for proof he gave the consensus of the community. The Kharijite replied: 'As you accepted their consensus on the revelation, accept their consensus on the interpretation.' The Kharijite said, 'You have spoken truly,' and addressed him as Commander of the Faithful. The first hadith he transmitted from a pulpit set up for him was, through Hushaym, Abu al-Jahm, al-Zuhri, Abu Salama and Abu Hurayra: 'Imru' al-Qays, banner-bearer of the poets, to the Fire' . According to al-Mas'udi, at the start of his career, while al-Fadl ibn Sahl dominated him, al-Ma'mun engaged in judging by the stars, followed the ways of the Sasanian kings such as Ardashir ibn Babak, and laboured at reading ancient books. When he came to Iraq he gave this up, professed divine unity and the promise and the threat, sat with the theologians, and favoured the disputatious ones such as Abu al-Hudhayl al-Allaf and Ibrahim ibn Sayyar al-Nazzam. He kept jurists and men of letters attending his council and paid them stipends, so that each party wrote books defending its school. He was the most forgiving of people, the most patient, and the most generous with money . Also according to al-Mas'udi, al-Rashid said of him: 'I recognise in Abd Allah the firmness of al-Mansur, the piety of al-Mahdi, and the dignity of al-Hadi.' After al-Asma'i had recited to them, a prophecy was made concerning the two of them, that their word would be scattered, blood would be shed and the veils of women torn. Al-Rashid gave him war and the son of his own mother peace, and said: 'We fear your son for Abd Allah, and we do not fear Abd Allah for him' . His mother was from Badhghis, named Marajil. Al-Fadl ibn Sahl dominated him and pressed him over a slave-girl he wished to buy, and he killed him, though some claimed that someone had been secretly sent against him to kill him. He showed Shi'i leanings and lampooned his paternal uncle Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi, nicknamed Ibn Shakla, in verse; Ibrahim answered him in verse. He used to say that everything could be forgiven except disparaging the kingship, disclosing secrets and violating the sanctity of women, and that the masters of people in this world are the generous and in the next the prophets. He addressed the estates of his family, citing a verse of the Qur'an. He died at al-Budandun, near Ayn al-Qushayra, in 218 AH, aged 49, and was buried at Tarsus . More remarkable still was the man who broke wind during his address: al-Ma'mun said of him, 'I have never seen a man steadier of heart,' and gave him fifty thousand dirhams. He said to Abu al-Atahiya: 'The nature of the soul is boredom and the love of novelty' . Al-Suli related from Ya'qub ibn Ja'far, as in al-Mas'udi, the reason for his wearing green and then black: the Hashimites gathered before Zaynab bint Sulayman ibn Ali, the most senior of the Abbasid line in descent, and she spoke to him. He answered her: 'O aunt of the Messenger of God, when he died Abu Bakr succeeded, then Umar, who did not go beyond the practice of those before him; then Uthman, who turned to the Umayyads; then the matter came to Ali ibn Abi Talib, who appointed Abd Allah ibn al-Abbas to Basra, Ubayd Allah ibn al-Abbas to Yemen, and Qutham to Bahrain, and he left none of them without an office. So this debt stayed upon us until his offspring sufficed us.' Then he returned to wearing black. He also had a poem fitting the theme, including the line: 'Am I to be blamed for giving thanks to the legatee, Abu al-Hasan?' .

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The Accession of Harun al-Rashid — c. 14 September 786 CE · 14 Rabi' I 170 AH

Harun al-Rashid acceded by his father's designation on his brother al-Hadi's death — Saturday night, 14 Rabi' I 170; that same night his son Abdallah al-Ma'mun was born. Per al-Suli, in all of time there was never a night in which a caliph died, a caliph rose and a caliph was born but this one .
The Division of the Caliphate among al-Rashid's Sons — between 791 and 802 CE · 175 AH

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 .
Clash of Tahir ibn al-Husayn with Ali ibn Isa — c. 811 CE · 195 AH

In year 195 al-Amin gave Ali ibn Isa ibn Mahan the mountain lands — Hamadhan, Nihawand, Qum and Isfahan — and he left Baghdad in mid-Jumada II with forty thousand in unmatched array, carrying a silver shackle with which he meant, he boasted, to bind al-Ma'mun. Al-Ma'mun sent Tahir ibn al-Husayn with under four thousand; victory was Tahir's — Ali was slaughtered, his army routed, his head carried to al-Ma'mun and paraded through Khurasan, and men greeted al-Ma'mun as caliph. News reached al-Amin as he fished: 'Woe to you — leave me; Kawthar has caught two fish and I have caught nothing yet' .
Siege of Baghdad in the war of al-Amin and al-Ma'mun — c. 812 CE · c. 196 AH

The siege of Baghdad lasted fifteen months; most Abbasids and the pillars of the state joined al-Ma'mun's army until none fought for al-Amin but Baghdad's rabble and harafish. His affairs rotted, the army collapsed, the treasuries ran dry, the people suffered, and ruin multiplied from the fighting and the mangonels and naphtha until Baghdad's beauties were effaced and laments composed over it. As year 198 opened Tahir ibn al-Husayn entered Baghdad by the sword, and al-Amin fled with his mother and household from the palace to Madinat al-Mansur .
Census of the Descendants of al-Abbas in the Year 200 — c. 815 CE · 200 AH

In al-Ma'mun's days the Abbasids were counted — thirty-three thousand souls, male and female, in year 200 .
al-Ma'mun's designation of Ali al-Rida as heir — c. 817 CE · 201 AH

In year 201 al-Ma'mun deposed his brother al-Mu'tamin from the succession and made Ali al-Rida ibn Musa al-Kazim heir — moved by his Shi'ite devotion, it was said, to the point of considering abdication outright. He it was who dubbed him 'al-Rida', struck dirhams in his name, married him to his daughter, wrote it to all the provinces and ordered the black dropped for green. The Abbasids took it extremely ill — they rose and swore to Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi 'al-Mubarak' .
Al-Ma'mun's embassy for the Greek books — c. 820 CE · c. 204 AH†

Al-Maʾmūn wrote to the Byzantine king for leave to fetch the ancient sciences stored in his lands, and sent out for them al-Ḥajjāj ibn Maṭar, Ibn al-Biṭrīq and Salm, master of the Bayt al-Ḥikma .
The Conquest of Crete — c. 824 CE · c. 209 AH†

In al-Baladhuri: Janada raided Crete; in al-Walid's time part of it was opened then it closed; Humayd ibn Ma'yuf al-Hamdani raided it in al-Rashid's caliphate and opened part; then in al-Ma'mun's caliphate Abu Hafs Umar ibn Isa al-Andalusi — known as al-Iqritishi — raided it, opened a single fortress and settled it, then kept opening bit by bit until no Romans remained in it and he ruined their fortresses.
The Marriage of al-Ma'mun and Buran — c. 825 CE · 210 AH

In year 210 al-Ma'mun married Buran bint al-Hasan ibn Sahl; her trousseau ran to forty jewelled girdles and ten chests of pearls and rubies. Her father gave the commanders their khil'a robes, feasted them seventeen days, scattered slips bearing names of his estates among the generals and Abbasids — whoever drew one took the property — and strewn a trayful of gems before al-Ma'mun as she was presented to him .
al-Ma'mun's Proclamation Disavowing Whoever Praised Mu'awiya — c. 826 CE · 211 AH

In year 211 al-Ma'mun ordered it proclaimed: the dhimma is quit of whoever spoke well of Mu'awiya — and that the best of creation after the Messenger of God is Ali ibn Abi Talib .
al-Ma'mun Enters Egypt — c. 831 CE · c. 216 AH

In year 215 al-Ma'mun marched against the Byzantines, taking the fortresses Qurra and Majida, then went to Damascus; in 216 he returned and took several more. He then made for Egypt and entered it — the first Abbasid caliph ever to do so — before returning in 217 to Damascus and the frontier .
The Sack of Zibatra and al-Mu'tasim's Retaliation — c. 838 CE · c. 223 AH

In al-Baladhuri: Zibatra was an old Roman fortress taken with the old fortress of al-Hadath by Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri, standing until the Romans wrecked it in al-Walid ibn Yazid's days; rebuilt unsoundly, the Romans camped on it in Marwan ibn Muhammad's civil war and demolished it; al-Mansur rebuilt it, they damaged it, and al-Rashid rebuilt and garrisoned it through Muhammad ibn Ibrahim; in al-Ma'mun's caliphate the Romans raided it and its people's pasturage, driving off livestock, and al-Ma'mun ordered its repair and fortification; when the Byzantine tyrant's embassy came in year 210 seeking peace he refused and wrote to the frontier governors, who ranged Byzantine lands killing and subduing with handsome success, only Yaqzan ibn Abd al-A'la ibn Ahmad ibn Yazid ibn Asid al-Sulami being hit; then in the caliphate of al-Mu'tasim — Abu Ishaq ibn al-Rashid — the Romans came to Zibatra, killed the men, captured the women and wrecked it, which grieved and angered him so that he raided them as far as Amorium — having destroyed forts before it — camped on it, took it, killed the fighters, captured the women and children, then demolished it and ordered Zibatra rebuilt, fortified and garrisoned, which the Romans afterwards attempted and failed to take.