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Episode 58: Al Ma’mun
Back in Baghdad, al Ma’mun finally began to play an active role in running the Abbasid state. The five years he spent in Khurasan were rough on the rest of […]
Two decades of al Ma’mun’s capable administration led the caliphate to an extraordinary recovery. His return to Baghdad put an end to the chaotic aftermath of the great fitna and his enduring success helped the umma reach new heights militarily, commercially, and even intellectually. The material we find on the caliph during these prosperous years describes an intelligent, curious, responsible, and sincere man of considerable conscience.
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Glossary
Article about the Mu’tazalite role in Arab reason and the consequences of their downfall
- Ali al Rida: the Hashemite whom al Ma’mun found most impressive, and he passed away by 820, before the caliph made it back to Baghdad. Ali ibn Musa ibn Ja’far ibn Mohammad ibn Ali ibn Hussain ibn Ali bin Abu Talib was the 8th Imam, preceded by everyone I named in his line of ancestry. According to Shi’i jurisprudence, all of these men were the imams of their times, or the true leaders of the umma. Al Ma’mun allowed Ali’s son, Mohammad al Jawad, to live freely, something his predecessors would have never allowed. The caliph even summoned him to Baghdad one day in order to wed him to his daughter, saying he would be honored to become a grandfather in Mohammad’s bloodline.
- Mohammad ibn Ziyad: the Umayyad al Ma’mun sent against the Hashemites of Yemen ruled the province so long that he eventually turned it into a dynasty. It controlled the regions coasts and fertile soil, but was eventually taken out by rivals from the highlands. Mohammad had a strange path into al Ma’mun’s court. He was captured during the fitna for being an Umayyad and sent to him in Merv. Al Fadl ibn Sahl took a liking to the young Mohammad and kept him around as a secretary and eventually was the one who recommended him for duty in Yemen. Isn’t it a strange twist of fate that an Umayyad had to impress a member of the mawali in a Abbasid court to earn his own domain?
- Ahmad ibn Hanbal: the religious scholar who made his name resisting al Ma’mun’s policies and the Mu’tazalites more generally. While he is held as a respected authority on Islam today, things were far less certain during and following his lifetime. Al Tabari, author of our main primary source, did not even consider ibn Hanbal a scholar, a position which put al Tabari in danger as it outraged the violently disposed Hanbalites. They celebrated his death, and a mob of them ruined his funeral procession to boot.
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