Abd Allah al-Ma'mun ibn Harun al-Rashid
Seventh Abbasid caliph, born in 170 AH, 786 CE, a son of Harun al-Rashid. He governed Khurasan as heir, then won a civil war against his brother al-Amin, who was killed in 198 AH, 813 CE. He designated Ali al-Rida as his successor, returned to Baghdad in 204 AH, 819 CE, and, according to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, encouraged translation, founded the Bayt al-Hikma, favoured the Mu'tazila and instituted the mihna in 218 AH, 833 CE. He died near Tarsus in Rajab 218 AH, August 833 CE, and was succeeded by his brother al-Mu'tasim.
Reign · Abbasid Caliphate · no. 19 in the chain · 813–833 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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Census of the Descendants of al-Abbas in the Year 200
In al-Ma'mun's days the Abbasids were counted — thirty-three thousand souls, male and female, in year 200.
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al-Ma'mun's designation of Ali al-Rida as heir
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'.
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Battle of Ancyra (825)
Draft card for Battle of Ancyra (825); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Charsianon (831)
Draft card for Battle of Charsianon (831); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Hashtadsar (829)
Draft card for Battle of Hashtadsar (829); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Mazara del Vallo (827)
Draft card for Battle of Mazara del Vallo (827); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Pancorbo
Draft card for the Battle of Pancorbo in 816, the Andalusian army's victory over Velasco's Basque-Gascon revolt; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Birth of Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, 202/817
Abu Ubayd al-Ajurri reported him saying: I was born in the year two hundred and two, and the Encyclopaedia of Islam confirms the year 202/817. His nisba points to the province of Sijistan bordering Sind, not to a village near Basra as some wrongly held.
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Birth of Imam Ahmad ibn Shu'ayb al-Nasa'i at Nasa in Khurasan, 215/830
Abu Abd al-Rahman Ahmad ibn Shu'ayb ibn Ali ibn Sinan ibn Bahr ibn Dinar al-Khurasani al-Nasa'i was born at the city of Nasa in Khurasan in 215/830, with 214 also reported.
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Birth of Imam Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj at Nishapur, c. 206/821
Abu al-Husayn Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj ibn Muslim al-Qushayri al-Naysaburi was born at Nishapur after the year 200 — one report says 202/817, while Ibn al-Salah is thought to have given 204; Ibn Khallikan reckons his birth in 206/821 since he died in 261/875 aged fifty-five lunar years.
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Birth of Abu 'Isa al-Tirmidhi at the village of Bugh near Tirmidh, Dhu al-Hijja 209/825
Muhammad ibn 'Isa ibn Sawra ibn Musa ibn al-Dahhak al-Sulami, Abu 'Isa al-Tirmidhi, was born in Dhu al-Hijja 209/825 at the village of Bugh in the district of Tirmidh on the Jayhun (Oxus) — or at the town of Tirmidh itself on another report — his origin lying with the Banu Sulaym of Ghaylan; his birth is also given as 210/825.
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Al-Bukhari's first hearing of hadith at Bukhara, 205/820
Al-Bukhari's first hearing was in 205 when he was about ten years old; reared an orphan, he memorised hadith by heart until his companions would correct what they had written down from what he dictated to them from memory; he was so gifted in intelligence and memory that as a boy he could already correct his teachers.
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Al-Bukhari's pilgrimage and his stay in the Hijaz seeking hadith, 210/825
Al-Bukhari set out in 210 after he had heard much in his own town from Muhammad ibn Salam al-Baykandi, Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Baykandi, Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Musnadi, Ibrahim ibn al-Ash'ath and others; when he reached sixteen, having already memorised the works of Ibn al-Mubarak, he made the pilgrimage with his mother and his brother, and when they returned he remained behind seeking hadith.
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Al-Bukhari composes the Tarikh at the Prophet's tomb in Medina, c. 212/828
Al-Bukhari said of himself: when I reached eighteen I began to compile the Tarikh at the Prophet's tomb on moonlit nights; it is the Tarikh al-Kabir giving the biographies of the men whose names appear in the isnads, which he wrote as a young man by moonlight at the tomb.
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The Conquest of Crete
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.
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The Cyprus library comes to Baghdad
When al-Maʾmūn made a truce with the lord of Cyprus he asked for the island's collected Greek library — kept in a house no one had opened — and it was sent to him, Sahl ibn Hārūn made its keeper.
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The pilgrimage of 199 AH without an imam
Khalifa ibn Khayyat reports that al-Ma'mun sent Sulayman ibn Dawud ibn Isa to lead the pilgrimage of 199 AH, but Ibn al-Aftas rose at Mecca and raised the white banner; Sulayman withdrew without going to Arafa, and the people stood at Arafa without an imam.
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al-Jahiz's works on the imamate win al-Ma'mun's praise
About 200/815-6 comes the first proof of al-Jahiz's literary activity: several works of his on the imamate won the compliments of al-Ma'mun and thereby the recognition of the capital, and from then on, without abandoning Basra, he stayed for long periods in Baghdad and later Samarra.
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Kabul's Opening and its King's Islam under al-Ma'mun
The Mahdi's and Rashid's agents took Sijistan's atawa from Rutbil as strength allowed, posting their own men over the marches Islam had lost. Under al-Ma'mun at Khurasan the atawa came doubled, Kabul was opened, its king showed Islam and obedience, the governor's agent entered, the post-road was joined, and fresh myrobalan was sent him from it — and the land held steady for a time.
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Kabul Shah's Submission to al-Ma'mun
Al-Ma'mun loosed the troops on Sughd, Ushrusana and Farghana's breachers with incessant raids and daw'a letters; a force sent to Kabul Shah drew his tribute and submission — and the post-road ran till green myrobalan reached the caliph as fresh fruit.
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The Algebra composed
At the House of Wisdom in Baghdad under al-Maʾmūn, al-Khwārizmī composed his Algebra — rules and geometric demonstrations for solving linear and quadratic equations; its Latin translation gave Europe the word algebra.
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al-Ma'mun Enters Egypt
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.
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Al-Ma'mun's embassy for the Greek books
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.
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al-Ma'mun's Proclamation Disavowing Whoever Praised Mu'awiya
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.
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The Marriage of al-Ma'mun and Buran
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.
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Fatima al-Ma'suma dies at Qumm
Fatima bint Musa al-Ma'suma died at Qumm about 201/816 on her way to Khurasan; her shrine has drawn pilgrims ever since.
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The meridian measurement at Sinjār
Al-Khwārizmī joined al-Maʾmūn's project to fix the Earth's circumference by measuring the length of one degree of meridian across the plain of Sinjār in Iraq.
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Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj's hadith journeys to the Hijaz, Iraq, Syria and Egypt, c. 215/830
From his youth Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj journeyed to the Hijaz, Iraq, Syria and Egypt in the quest for hadith, entering Baghdad more than once; among the many masters he heard were Yahya ibn Yahya al-Naysaburi (d. 224-6), Abd Allah ibn Maslama al-Qa'nabi (d. 220-1) and Qutayba ibn Sa'id (d. 240), all leading pupils of Malik ibn Anas, together with Sa'id ibn Mansur (d. 227), Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241), Ishaq ibn Rahwayh (d. 237-8) and Muhammad ibn Bashshar Bundar (d. 252).
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The battle of al-Rabad
The Rabad revolt: Cordoba's learned and pious rose against al-Hakam I in his dissolute early years; he crushed the western suburb, razed its houses and mosques and scattered its people to Fez and Alexandria — whence Abdallah b. Tahir expelled them to Crete, where they held the island until the Franks took it.
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The Rabad fitna in Cordoba
The famous revolt of the Rabbaḍ of Cordoba under al-Hakam ibn Hisham: the scholars of learning and piety — Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi, Malik's companion and Muwatta transmitter, the faqih Talut and others — rose against him, deposed him and gave bay'a to a kinsman; al-Hakam crushed them, demolished their houses and mosques, and the exiles went to Fez and Alexandria — where they revolted again until Abdallah ibn Tahir expelled them to Crete, which they held until the Franks took it.
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Rebellion of Thomas the Slav
Draft card for the Rebellion of Thomas the Slav in 820–23, his alliance with Caliph al-Ma'mun against Michael II; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Baghdad
Draft card for the Siege of Baghdad in 812–813, al-Ma'mun's armies closing on al-Amin in the civil war; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Girona (827)
Draft card for Siege of Girona (827); its sources are not yet checked on the page.