Harun al-Rashid
Harun al-Rashid (/hɑːˈruːn ɑːlrɑːˈʃiːd/; Arabic: هَارُون الرَشِيد Hārūn Ar-Rašīd; "Aaron the Orthodox" or "Aaron the Rightly-Guided", 17 March 763 or February 766 – 24 March 809 (148–193 Hijri))[1] was the fifth Abbasid Caliph. His birth date is debated, with various sources giving dates from 763 to 766. His epithet "al-Rashid" translates to "the Orthodox", "the Just", "the Upright", or "the Rightly-Guided". Al-Rashid ruled from 786 to 809, during the peak of the Islamic Golden Age. He established the legendary library Bayt al-Hikma ("House of Wisdom") in Baghdad in present-day Iraq, and during his rule Baghdad began to flourish as a center of knowledge, culture and trade.[2] During his rule, the family of Barmakids, which played a deciding role in establishing the Abbasid Caliphate, declined gradually. In 796, he moved his court and government to Raqqa in present-day Syria.
| Harun al-Rashid هَارُون الرَشِيد | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Khalīfah Amir al-Mu'minin | |||||
 Gold dinar of Harun al-Rashid dated AH 171 (AD 787-788) | |||||
| 5th Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate | |||||
| Reign | 14 September 786 – 24 March 809 | ||||
| Predecessor | al-Hadi | ||||
| Successor | al-Amin | ||||
| Born | 17 March 763 or February 766 Ray, Jibal, Abbasid Caliphate (in present-day Tehran Province, Iran) | ||||
| Died | 24 March 809 (aged 43) Tus, Khorasan, Abbasid Caliphate (in present-day Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran) | ||||
| Burial | Tomb of Harun al-Rashid in Imam Reza Mosque, Mashhad, Iran | ||||
| Spouse | List
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| Issue |
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| House | Abbasid | ||||
| Father | al-Mahdi | ||||
| Mother | al-Khayzuran | ||||
| Religion | Sunni Islam | ||||
A Frankish mission came to offer Harun friendship in 799. Harun sent various presents with the emissaries on their return to Charlemagne's court, including a clock that Charlemagne and his retinue deemed to be a conjuration because of the sounds it emanated and the tricks it displayed every time an hour ticked.[3] Portions of the fictional One Thousand and One Nights are set in Harun's court and some of its stories involve Harun himself.[4] Harun's life and court have been the subject of many other tales, both factual and fictitious.
Some of the Twelver sect of Shia Muslims blame Harun for his supposed role in the murder of their 7th Imam (Musa ibn Ja'far).
Biography
Early life
Hārūn was born in Rey, then part of Jibal in the Abbasid Caliphate, in present-day Tehran Province, Iran. He was the son of al-Mahdi, the third Abbasid caliph (ruled 775 – 786), and al-Khayzuran, a former slave girl from Yemen, who was a woman of strong personality and who greatly influenced affairs of state in the reigns of her husband, mother and sons.
Before becoming caliph, in 780 and again in 782, Hārūn had already nominally led campaigns against the Caliphate's traditional enemy, the Eastern Roman Empire, ruled by Empress Irene. The latter expedition was a huge undertaking, and even reached the Asian suburbs of Constantinople.
Caliphate
Hārūn became caliph in 786 when he was in his early twenties. On the day of accession, his son al-Ma'mun was born, and al-Amin some little time later: the latter was the son of Zubaida, a granddaughter of al-Mansur (founder of the city of Baghdad); so he took precedence over the former, whose mother was a Persian. He began his reign by appointing very able ministers, who carried on the work of the government so well that they greatly improved the condition of the people.[5]
Under Hārūn al-Rashīd's rule, Baghdad flourished into the most splendid city of its period. Tribute paid by many rulers to the caliph funded architecture, the arts and court luxuries.
In 796, Hārūn moved the entire court to Raqqa on the middle Euphrates, where he spent 12 years, most of his reign. He appointed the Hanafi jurist Muhammad al-Shaybani qadi (judge), but dismissed him in 803. He visited Baghdad only once. Several reasons may have influenced the decision to move to Raqqa: its closeness to the Byzantine border, its excellent communication lines via the Euphrates to Baghdad and via the Balikh river to the north and via Palmyra to Damascus, rich agricultural land, and the strategic advantage over any rebellion which might arise in Syria and the middle Euphrates area. Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, in his anthology of poems, depicts the splendid life in his court. In Raqqa the Barmakids managed the fate of the empire, and both heirs, al-Amin and al-Ma'mun, grew up there. At some point the royal court relocated again to Al-Rayy, the capital city of Khorasan, where the famous philologist and leader of the Kufan school, Al-Kisa'i, accompanied the caliph with his entourage. When al-Kisa'i became ill while in Al-Rayy, it is said that Harun visited him daily. It seems al-Shaybani and al-Kisa'i both died there on the same day in 804. Harun is quoted as saying: "Today Law and Language have died".
For the administration of the whole empire, he fell back on his mentor and longtime associate Yahya bin Khalid bin Barmak. Rashid appointed him as his vizier with full executive powers, and, for seventeen years, Yahya and his sons served Rashid faithfully in whatever assignment he entrusted to them.[6]
Harun made pilgrimages to Mecca several times, e.g., 793, 795, 797, 802 and last in 803. Tabari concludes his account of Harun's reign with these words: "It has been said that when Harun ar-Rashid died, there were nine hundred million odd (dirhams) in the state treasury."
According to Shia belief, Harun imprisoned and poisoned Musa ibn Ja'far, the 7th Imam, in Baghdad.
Advisors
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Hārūn was influenced by the will of his incredibly powerful mother in the governance of the empire until her death in 789. His vizier (chief minister) Yahya the Barmakid, Yahya's sons (especially Ja'far ibn Yahya), and other Barmakids generally controlled the administration. The position of Persians in the Abbasid caliphal court reached its peak during al-Rashid's reign.[7]
The Barmakids were a Persian family (from Balkh) that dated back to the Barmak, a hereditary Buddhist priest of Nava Vihara, who converted after the Islamic conquest of Balkh and became very powerful under al-Mahdi. Yahya had helped Hārūn to obtain the caliphate, and he and his sons were in high favor until 798, when the caliph threw them in prison and confiscated their land. Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari dates this event to 803 and lists various reasons for it: Yahya's entering the Caliph's presence without permission; Yahya's opposition to Muhammad ibn al Layth, who later gained Harun's favour; and Ja'far's release of Yahya ibn Abdallah ibn Hasan, whom Harun had imprisoned.
The fall of the Barmakids is far more likely due to their behaving in a manner that Harun found disrespectful (such as entering his court unannounced) and making decisions in matters of state without first consulting him. Al-Fadl ibn al-Rabi succeeded Yahya the Barmakid as Harun's chief minister.
Diplomacy
Both Einhard and Notker the Stammerer refer to the envoys travelling between Harun's and Charlemagne's courts, amicable discussions concerning Christian access to the Holy Land and the exchange of gifts. Notker mentions Charlemagne sent Harun Spanish horses, colorful Frisian cloaks and impressive hunting dogs. In 802 Harun sent Charlemagne a present consisting of silks, brass candelabra, perfume, balsam, ivory chessmen, a colossal tent with many-colored curtains, an elephant named Abul-Abbas, and a water clock that marked the hours by dropping bronze balls into a bowl, as mechanical knights—one for each hour—emerged from little doors which shut behind them. The presents were unprecedented in Western Europe and may have influenced Carolingian art.[8][9]
When the Byzantine empress Irene was deposed in 802, Nikephoros I became emperor and refused to pay tribute to Harun, saying that Irene should have been receiving the tribute the whole time. News of this angered Harun, who wrote a message on the back of the Roman emperor's letter and said "In the name of God the most merciful, From Amir al-Mu'minin Harun ar-Rashid, commander of the faithful, to Nikephoros, dog of the Romans. Thou shalt not hear, thou shalt behold my reply". After campaigns in Asia Minor, Nikephoros was forced to conclude a treaty, with humiliating terms.[10][11]
An alliance was established with the Chinese Tang dynasty by Ar-Rashid after he sent embassies to China.[12][13] He was called "A-lun" in the Chinese Tang Annals.[14] The alliance was aimed against the Tibetans.[15][16][17][18][19]
Rebellions
Because of the Thousand and One Nights tales, Harun ar-Rashid turned into a legendary figure obscuring his true historic personality. In fact, his reign initiated the political disintegration of the Abbasid caliphate. Syria was inhabited by tribes with Umayyad sympathies and remained the bitter enemy of the Abbasids, while Egypt witnessed uprisings against Abbasids due to maladministration and arbitrary taxation. The Umayyads had been established in Spain in 755, the Idrisids in Morocco in 788, and the Aghlabids in Ifriqiya (modern Tunisia) in 800. Besides, unrest flared up in Yemen, and the Kharijites rose in rebellion in Daylam, Kerman, Fars and Sistan. Revolts also broke out in Khorasan, and ar-Rashid waged many campaigns against the Byzantines.
Ar-Rashid appointed Ali bin Isa bin Mahan as the governor of Khorasan, who tried to bring to heel the princes and chieftains of the region, and to reimpose the full authority of the central government on them. This new policy met with fierce resistance and provoked numerous uprisings in the region.
Death
A major revolt led by Rafi ibn al-Layth was started in Samarqand which forced Harun al-Rashid to move to Khorasan. He first removed and arrested Ali bin Isa bin Mahan but the revolt continued unchecked. Harun al-Rashid became ill and died very soon after when he reached Sanabad village in Tus and was buried in Dar al-Imarah, the summer palace of Humayd ibn Qahtaba, the Abbasid governor of Khorasan. Due to this historical event, the Dar al-Imarah was known as the Mausoleum of Haruniyyeh. The location later became known as Mashhad ("The Place of Martyrdom") because of the martyrdom of Imam ar-Ridha in 818.
Legacy
Al-Rashid virtually dismembered the empire by apportioning it between his two sons al-Amin and al-Ma'mun (with his third son, al-Qasim, being belatedly added after them). Very soon it became clear that by dividing the empire, Rashid had actually helped to set the opposing parties against one another, and had provided them with sufficient resources to become independent of each other. After the death of Harun al-Rashid, civil war broke out in the empire between his two sons, al-Amin and al-Ma'mun, which spiralled into a prolonged period of turmoil and warfare throughout the Caliphate, ending only with Ma'mun's final triumph in 827.
Anecdotes
Many anecdotes attached themselves to the person of Harun al-Rashid in the centuries following his rule. Saadi of Shiraz inserted a number of them into his Gulistan.
Al-Masudi relates a number of interesting anecdotes in The Meadows of Gold illuminating the character of this caliph. For example, he recounts Harun's delight when his horse came in first, closely followed by al-Ma'mun's, at a race Harun held at Raqqa. Al-Masudi tells the story of Harun setting his poets a challenging task. When others failed to please him, Miskin of Medina succeeded superbly well. The poet then launched into a moving account of how much it had cost him to learn that song. Harun laughed saying he didn't know which was more entertaining, the song or the story. He rewarded the poet.[20]
There is also the tale of Harun asking Ishaq ibn Ibrahim to keep singing. The musician did until the caliph fell asleep. Then, strangely, a handsome young man appeared, snatched the musician's lute, sang a very moving piece (al-Masudi quotes it), and left. On awakening and being informed of this, Harun said Ishaq ibn Ibrahim had received a supernatural visitation.
Shortly before he died, Harun is said to have been reading some lines by Abu al-Atahiya about the transitory nature of the power and pleasures of this world, an anecdote related about other caliphs as well.
In popular culture
- In Shinobu Ohtaka's Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, the former king of Balbadd is called Rashid Saluja. In the spin-off Adventure of Sinbad, Rashid's alias is Harun.
- Rex Stout's The League of Frightened Men (1935), page 191, has Mr. Hibbard say, "[Harun-al-Rashid] was seeking entertainment [not life]."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a short poem titled "Haroun Al Raschid".
- O. Henry uses the character in his story "The Caliph And The Cad". The theme of the story is "turning the tables on Haroun al Raschid".
- Alfred Tennyson wrote a poem in his youth entitled "Recollections Of The Arabian Nights". Every stanza (except the last one) ends with "of good Haroun Alraschid".
- Harun al-Rashid was a main figure and character in several of the stories in some of the oldest versions of the One Thousand and One Nights.
- Hārūn ar-Rashīd figures throughout James Joyce's Ulysses, in a dream of Stephen Dedalus, one of the protagonists. Stephen's efforts to recall this dream continue throughout the novel, culminating in the novel's fifteenth episode, wherein some characters also take on the guise of Hārūn.
- In a 1923 poem by W. B. Yeats, "The Gift of Harun al-Rashid",[21][22] Harun al-Rashid is celebrated.
- A story of one of Harun's wanderings provides the climax to the narrative game of titles at the end of Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler (1979). In Calvino's story, Harun wanders at night, only to be drawn into a conspiracy in which he is selected to assassinate the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid.
- In Charles Dickens' 1842 travelogue, American Notes for General Circulation, he compares American supporters of slavery to the "Caliph Harun al-Rashid in his angry robe of scarlet".
- The two protagonists of Salman Rushdie's 1990 novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories are Haroun and his father Rashid Khalifa.
- In the Sten science fiction novels by Allan Cole and Chris Bunch, the character of the Eternal Emperor uses the name "H. E. Raschid" when incognito; this is confirmed, in the final book of the series, as a reference to the character from Burton's translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night.
- In Roald Dahl's story The BFG, the Sultan of Baghdad says he had an uncle called Caliph Harun al-Rashid who disappeared with his wife and ten children.
- The movie The Golden Blade (1952), starring Rock Hudson and Piper Laurie depicts the adventures of Harun who uses a magic sword to free a fairy-tale Baghdad from Jafar, the evil usurper of the throne. After he finally wins the hand of princess Khairuzan she awards him the title Al-Rashid ("the righteous").
- The comic book The Sandman features a story (issue 50, "Ramadan") set in the world of the One Thousand and One Nights, with Hārūn ar-Rashīd as the protagonist. It highlights his historical and mythical role as well as his discussion of the transitory nature of power. The story is included in the collection The Sandman: Fables and Reflections.
- Haroun El Poussah in the French comic strip Iznogoud is a satirical version of Hārūn ar-Rashīd.
- In Quest for Glory II, the sultan who adopts the Hero as his son is named Hārūn ar-Rashīd. He is often seen prophesying on the streets of Shapeir as The Poet Omar.
- Harun al-Rashid appears as the leader of Arabia in the video game Civilization 5.[23]
- Future US President Theodore Roosevelt, when he was a New York Police Department Commissioner, was called in the local newspapers "Haroun-al-Roosevelt".
- In The Master and Margarita, by novelist Mikhail Bulgakov, Harun al-Rashid is referenced by the character Korovyev in which he warns a door man not to judge him "by [his] suit," and to reference the story of "the famous caliph, Harun al-Rashid".
- In the 1924 film Waxworks, a poet is hired by a wax museum proprietor to write back-stories for three wax models. Among these wax models is Harun al-Rashid, played by Emil Jannings.
- In the 2006 novel Variable Star by Robert Heinlein and Spider Robinson, chapter 1 is prefaced with a quotation from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Recollections of the Arabian Nights" regarding "good Harun Alrashid," the relevance of which becomes apparent in chapter 2 when one character relates stories (probably apocryphal and presumably drawn from Tennyson) of Harun al-Rahsid to another character in order to use them as an analogy.
- The second chapter in the novel Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson has the title "In which the Prince Plays Haroun al-Raschid".
- Haroun al-Rashid has a character page in the video game Crusader Kings II, and it is possible to play as his descendants of the Abbasid dynasty.
- Harun al-Rashid is mentioned in passing by the character Madame de Villefort in Alexandre Dumas's novel The Count of Monte Cristo as an example of how different cultures react to poisoners.
- Harun al-Rashid appears on the children's comic book Mampato, in the stories "Bromiznar de Bagdad" and "Ábrete Sesamo", by the Chilean author Themo Lobos. In this story, al-Rashid is shown at first as lazy and indolent, but after a series of adventures he decides to take the leading role against an evil Visir and help the main character, Mampato.
- Frank Lloyd Wright designed a monument to al-Rashid as part of his proposed 1957 urban renewal plan for Baghdad, Iraq.[24]
- In his book The Power Broker, Robert Caro compares New York City mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia to Harun al-Rashid in the way each "roam[ed] his domain."[25]
- The Syrian television series Harun Al-Rashid (2018), starring Kosai Khauli, Karis Bashar, and Yasser Al-Masry focuses on the two-year power struggle between Harun and his brother Al-Hadi that preceded Harun’s ascent to the Caliphate.
References
- Assuyuti, Tarikh Al Khulafa
- Audun Holme, Geometry: Our Cultural Heritage p. 150.
- André Clot, Harun al-Rashid and the world of the thousand and one nights, p. 97.
- André Clot, Harun al-Rashid and the world of the thousand and one nights.
- New Arabian nights' entertainments, Volume 3
- Masʻūdī, Paul Lunde, Caroline Stone, The meadows of gold: the Abbasids page 62
- Hovannisian, Richard G.; Sabagh, Georges (19 November 1998). "The Persian Presence in the Islamic World". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 1 September 2018 – via Google Books.
- Annali d'Italia: Dall'anno 601 dell'era volare fino all'anno 840, by Lodovico Antonio Muratori, Giuseppe Catalani, Monaco (1742); page 465.
- Muratori describes only some of these gifts.
- Tarikh ath-Thabari 4/668-669
- Ibn Kathir, Al-Bidaya wa'l-Nihaya v 13 .p 650
- Dennis Bloodworth, Ching Ping Bloodworth (2004). The Chinese Machiavelli: 3000 years of Chinese statecraft. Transaction Publishers. p. 214. ISBN 0-7658-0568-5. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
- Herbert Allen Giles (1926). Confucianism and its rivals. Forgotten Books. p. 139. ISBN 1-60680-248-8. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
- Marshall Broomhall (1910). Islam in China: a neglected problem. LONDON 12 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C.: Morgan & Scott, ltd. pp. 25, 26. Retrieved 14 December 2011.CS1 maint: location (link)
- Bajpai 2002, p. 15.
- Bajpai 1981, p. 55.
- Chaliand, Gérard. Nomadic Empires: From Mongolia to the Danube. Transaction Publishers. Retrieved 1 September 2018 – via Google Books.
- Luciano Petech, A Study of the Chronicles of Ladakh (Calcutta, 1939), pp. 73-73.
- Luciano Petech, A Study of the Chronicles of Ladakh (Calcutta, 1939), pp. 55-85.
- Al-Masudi, The Meadows of Gold, p. 94.
- "Yeats Poems Titles". Csun.edu. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 October 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2018.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- Zacny, Rob (24 December 2010). "Civilization V Field Report 2". GamePro. Archived from the original on 6 January 2011.
- Levine, Neil (1 December 2015). "The Urbanism of Frank Lloyd Wright". Princeton University Press. Retrieved 1 September 2018 – via Amazon.
- Caro, Robert (1974). The Power Broker. New York: Vintage Books. p. 444.
Further reading
- al-Masudi, The Meadows of Gold, The Abbasids, transl. Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone, Kegan paul, London and New York, 1989
- al-Tabari "The History of al-Tabari" volume XXX "The 'Abbasid Caliphate in Equilibrium" transl. C.E. Bosworth, SUNY, Albany, 1989.
- Clot, André (1990). Harun Al-Rashid and the Age of a Thousand and One Nights. New Amsterdam Books. ISBN 0-941533-65-4.
- St John Philby. Harun al Rashid (London: P. Davies) 1933.
- Einhard and Notker the Stammerer, "Two Lives of Charlemagne," transl. Lewis Thorpe, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1977 (1969)
- John H. Haaren, Famous Men of the Middle Ages
- William Muir, K.C.S.I., The Caliphate, its rise, decline, and fall
- Theophanes, "The Chronicle of Theophanes," transl. Harry Turtledove, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1982
- Norwich, John J. (1991). Byzantium: The Apogee. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN 0-394-53779-3.
- Zabeth, Hyder Reza (1999). Landmarks of Mashhad. Alhoda UK. ISBN 964-444-221-0.
External links
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Wikisource has original works written by or about: Harun al-Rashid |
- Brentjes, Sonja (2007). "Hārūn al‐Rashīd". In Thomas Hockey; et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 474–5. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. (PDF version)
Harun al-Rashid Abbasid Dynasty Born: 763 Died: 809 | ||
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| Preceded by Al-Hadi |
Caliph of Islam Abbasid Caliph 14 September 786 – 24 March 809 |
Succeeded by Al-Amin |
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