Abu Ja'far al-Mansur was the second Abbasid caliph. He built Baghdad — al-Mas'udi says fifty thousand men worked on it each day — and in his days Ibn Ishaq wrote the sira and books were translated from other languages into Arabic. He died on the road to the Sanctuary.
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Abu Ja'far al-Mansur
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Abu Ja'far Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Mansur, second Abbasid caliph, was born in 95 AH to Salama the Berber. Al-Suyuti describes him as the most dignified, brave and resolute of the Abbasids, nicknamed Abu al-Dawaniq for counting workmen to the last grain. He built Baghdad — al-Mas'udi says fifty thousand men each day — and al-Rusafa in 151 AH, and returned Cyprus to Mu'awiya's old treaty. Al-Mas'udi's 'firsts' for him: the first caliph to court astrologers, the first to have books translated from foreign tongues into Arabic — Kalila wa-Dimna and Euclid — the first to employ his clients over the Arabs, and in his days Ibn Ishaq composed the sira. He died at Bi'r Maymun on the road to the Sanctuary.
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