Abd Allah al-Ma'mun ibn Harun al-Rashid

عبد الله المأمون بن هارون الرشيد

Abbasid caliph, given the oath of allegiance at Baghdad after the deposition of his brother al-Amin in 196 AH ¹; he died in 218 AH ². Al-Tabari also records the mihna over the Qur'an in his reign ³. 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 ⁴. 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 ⁵. He alone, after Uthman ibn Affan (may God be pleased with him), 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 ⁶. 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 (may God be pleased with him): 'Imru' al-Qays, banner-bearer of the poets, to the Fire' ⁷. 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 ⁸. 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' ⁹. 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 ¹⁰. 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' ¹¹. 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 ﷺ, 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 (may God be pleased with him), 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?' ¹².