Al-Ma’mun was the 7th caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate (786-833 CE). I think of him as “the Pericles of Baghdad”.
He interests me because he promoted the flowering of learning and sciences in Baghdad. In a sense we have him to thank for the Baghdad House of Wisdom, creating space for Al-Khwarizmi and friends to translate Aristotle, invent algebra and so on.
He lived only 47 years, dying of a sudden fever during a military campaign in Tarsus, present-day Turkey.
He became Caliph at 27, succeeding his half-brother after a civil war.
According to M. Rekaya, “he was distinguished by his love of knowledge, making him the most intellectual caliph of the Abbasid family, which accounts for the way in which his caliphate developed.”
Al-Tabari (v. 32, p. 231) describes al-Ma’mun as of average height, light complexion, handsome and having a long beard losing its dark colour as he aged. He relates anecdotes concerning the caliph’s ability to speak concisely and eloquently without preparation, his generosity, his respect for Muhammad and religion, his sense of moderation, justice and his love of poetry and his insatiable passion for physical intimacy.
There’s a lunar crater named after him.
He invited 40 prominent scholars to join him in a discussion on religion as a way to bring all factions together for the good of the faith
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House of Wisdom
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Baghdad:
The Abbasid Caliphate established capital in Baghdad in 762CE
“Hugh Kennedy, who teaches history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, believes far less information is available to readers outside the Middle East about the Abbasid caliphate that once made Baghdad a global power. He says the dynasty was as pivotal to world history in the 8th and 9th centuries as the Roman Empire was in the 1st and 2nd.”
“The Abbasids ruled over a very big area, basically from what is now Tunisia, right up to what is now Pakistan. It was also the most highly developed in terms of literacy and the functioning of government bureaucracy in the area at the time,? said Hugh Kennedy. If we just think of the size of towns — Baghdad probably had a population of between a quarter and half-a-million people, whereas Paris at this stage had perhaps 20,000. But it’s also pivotal because what went on at the Abbasid court set the pattern for how Muslim rulers were to behave in all subsequent generations.”
The city flourished at least in part because of its location — just north of a rich agricultural region and near two major waterways.
“It’s where the two great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, come closest together, so you can import grain from Syria and northern Iraq. You can import dates and fish from Basra in the South,” said Kennedy. “And early Baghdad was sort of like a medieval Venice. It was crisscrossed by canals and streams, and so on. And people came from all over the Middle East. Anyone who wanted to do business would come to Baghdad.”