Abbasid Caliphs: Harun Al-Rashid and Mamun's Contribution to the Islamic History

Harun Al-Rashid became the fifth Abbasid Caliph

On this day, 14 September 786 AD, Harun al-Rashid became the caliph of Abbasid dynasty at the age of twenty. A caliph is the religious and political leader of an Islamic state. During his rule, the dynasty was at its most powerful and wealthy. However, some people say that this was also when it started to fall apart.

Harun was the third child of al-Mahdi, the third caliph of the Abbasids, and Khayzuran, a former slave from Yemen who was married to him. Before becoming Caliph, Harun won a battle against the Byzantines in the Bosphorus in 782 CE, when his father was ruler.

This amazing success made al-Mahdi love his son Harun even more, so he made him Musa al-successor Hadi's and gave him the name al-Rashid (the Rightly-Guided or the follower of right cause). So, he became the crown prince at the age of 16.

In 785, Harun's father al-Mahdi died, and his brother al-Hadi took over as king. Al-Hadi, on the other hand, died in September 786 for no clear reason. People said that a court plot or conspiracy led to his death. So, in 786 CE, Harun was finally able to become the Abbasid caliph.

Read in details about Harun Al-Rashid and mamun

Islam welcomed East and West ideas. Muslims reconstructed these concepts as Islamic. Art, architecture, astronomy, chemistry, math, medicine, music, philosophy, and ethics evolved. Fiqh and its application to societal problems were moulded by history. Fourth Abbasid king Harun faced internal revolts and invasion in 786. Regional revolts in Africa and Egyptian tribal and sectarian revolts were repressed. Byzantines were taxed. He united China, India, Byzantium, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic during his 23-year reign. Men, goods, and ideas crossed continents. Harun built a culture, not an empire. Islam boomed. Not the empire's wealth or Arabian Nights fairy tales made it golden; it was its ideas and contributions. The kingdom experienced Greek, Indian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and Hindu ideas. Al Mansur translated global ideals. Harun and Mamun helped.

Foundation of Bait ul Hikmah Harun founded Bait ul Hikmah and was surrounded by scholars. Bermecides ran his government. His courtiers included poets, musicians, logicians, mathematicians, writers, scientists, and Fiqh academics. At Harun's court, Ibn Hayyan invented chemistry. Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Hindus translated. Greeks Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Galen, Hippocratis, Archimedes, Euclid, Ptolemy, Demosthenes, and Pythagoras. Indians brought the Siddhanta of Brahmagupta, zero, and Ayurvedic medicine. China invented alchemy, paper, silk, and pottery. Zoroastrians introduced farming and irrigation. Texts taught Muslims algebra, chemistry, sociology, and infinity. Faith aided Muslim civilizations. Muslims approached foreign civilizations with revelation-based trust, adapting what they found valid. The Qur'an invites men and women to meditate on nature's patterns and mould it to instil wisdom. (Qur'an 41:53) We'll show them indications on the horizon and in their souls until they see the Truth. Hakim, the archetype of early Islamic culture, emerges (meaning, a person of wisdom). In Islam, a scientist is an insightful man who studies nature from inside. The Hakim seeks to realise creation's underlying Unity and interrelationships, which reflect God's wisdom. Mamun completed Harun's work. Mamun studied medicine, Quran, Fiqh, and logic. He requested ancient texts and experts from Constantinople, Indian, and Chinese princes. Translators were rewarded. Best told by the era's finest guys. The first Muslim philosopher was Al Kindi (873). Mamun's court employed Al Khwarizmi. Al Khwarizmi's algorithms are still used today. He visited India and Baghdad. Al Khwarizmi invented algebra (from the Arabic word j-b-r, meaning to force, beat or multiply), introduced the Indian numerical system to the Muslim world (where it travelled to Europe and became "Arabic"), and invented the empirical method (measurement-based knowledge) in astronomy. He wrote geography and astronomy books and measured Earth's arc. Al Khwarizmi's contribution goes on in scientific and engineering "algorithms." Harun and Mamun made Islam a beacon of study for 500 years. Baghdad's translation schools made al Razi (d. 925), al Masudi (d. 956), Abu Ali Sina (d. 1037), al Hazen (d. 1039), al Baruni (d. 1051), Omar Khayyam (d. 1132), and Ibn Rushd's later works possible (d.1198). Contradictory ages for Harun and Mamun. Harun and Mamun's era shows Muslims' schizophrenic approach towards their own history. Muslim success. They reject core ideas. Muslim scientists and thinkers are proud of their Western conversation. They discredit scientists and philosophers. Age was reasonable for Harun and Mamun. Mamun supported rationalists. Islam's rationalists were Mu'tazilites. Mamun institutionalised Mu'tazilite orthodoxy. Mu'tazilites overused reason. Using this manner, they created the Qur'an's "createdness" theory. In a hierarchy of knowledge, this mistake places reason above revelation. The Mu'tazilites used logic to reveal time and physics. The fell. They grew defensive and authoritarian instead of admitting their shortcomings. Mamun's successors enforced ideology. The ulema doubted the Qur'an was created. Imam Hanbal spent 20 years in jail opposing Mamun. Imam Hanbal opposed anything that devalued the Qur'an. Mutawakkil opposed Mu'tazilite theology (d. 861). Rationalists were tortured, executed, and robbed. Al Ashari (d. 936) and his disciples proposed "occasionalism hypothesis" to unite logical and transcendental perspectives. Asharite ideas were incorporated into Islam and still influence Muslim thought. Rationalists, philosophers, and scientists sent their intellectual technique to the Latin West, which built modern world civilization. Muslim countries adopted logical ideas, then rejected them. Harun and Mamun's era taught us that Islamic culture must include philosophy and science. Tawhid requires a hierarchy of knowledge that honours revelation, reason, and free will. The Mu'tazilites were right that man builds his own fortune, but they were wrong about human reason. We're not self-reliant. God blesses human effort. Nobody can predict action's outcome. Asharites were right to believe in Divine Grace. Free will shouldn't be limited. Infinite human reason and free will fall beneath Divine transcendence.