|
A great caring ruler
The name of Haroon Al Rashid
resonates a magical mix of almost mythical qualities and
deeds with the image of a very real political and
intelectual leader. Indeed, his legacy occupies a
special place in the Arabic psyche as the most famous of
the Abbasid rulers. The following text is a review of
this great man’s life.
Haroon
Al Rashid, roughly was born in the year of 766AD in the
family of the Abbasid dynasty. His father was Al Mahdi,
the ruling Abbasid Caliph at the time. His mother, the
caliph’s wife, was a former slave girl from Yemen who
would later become influential in the political arena.
Her name was Al Khayzuran.
In his
early years, Haroon was tutored by his vizier, or chief
court minister,
Yahya the
Barmakid. Yahya was also an open supporter of Haroon's
mother Al Khayzuran who was fond of him and helped the
Barmakid family to effectively increase their influence
over the court. In return, Yahya later helped Haroon to
become Caliph, well aware that his sons would later be
appointed as high officials as a sign of appreciation.
When
he became caliph, Haroon was still in his early
twenties. From the first days of his rule, he started
gathering a group of well-known intellectuals as his
ministers, whose positive work was soon felt by the
ordinary people. There were better conditions for trade
and business and Baghdad’s prosperity rose quickly,
making the city into a commercial and intellectual
center. Haroon also built a magnificent palace in
Baghdad, unrivaled in its splendour. However, he made
sure he stayed close to the people, never secluding
himself for long. For this reason, he would disguise
himself as an ordinary citizen and would walk out in the
small streets and the souqs at night, listening to
people and talking with them about their daily concerns.
Based on what he personally learned from such visits,
his ruling decisions were well apreciated and popular.
To
further the cause of his people, Haroon built many
schools where the sciences and art, including poetry,
calligraphy, and music were studied and developed. He
himself enjoyed writing on phylosophical matters and
composing poetry, and was very appreciative of scholars
from his caliphate and from the neighbouring states who
would come and exchange knowledge.
A military genius
Having become a caliph at a young
age, Haroon Al Rashid by default became the military
leader of the Caliphate. As it turned out, he soon had a
chance to prove his military skills. He had previously
trained and gained confidence in millitary planning when
his father was caliph. At one point, his father
authorised him to lead a massive Muslim army of
ninety-five thousand men to invade and conquer
Byzantium. The devastation of Constantinople, the
capital of the Bizantine Emire, was spared by Empress
Irene’s diplomatic policy which resulted in Byzanium’s
freedom. In return, humiliated, the Eastern Roman Empire
agreed to pay considerable annual compensations of gold
to Haroon Al Rashid’s Caliphate. This continued for many
years and peace was installed until, in 802, the new
Bizantine emperor Nicephorus made a wrong move.
Nicephorus sent a letter to Haroon Al Rashid declaring
the stop of annual Byzantine payments as well as a
command for the caliphate to repay all Byzantine gold
they have received throughout the years. The essence of
the letter read as follows:
"Irene
was weak and faint-hearted and sold herself and her
people to you. She ought to have made you pay
reparations to her instead. Immediately repay to me all
that she has paid to you, or prepare youself for war."
As
soon as Haroon Al Rashid read the above, he sent a
letter back to Constantinople with the followng short
content: "From Haroon Al Rashid, Caliph of the Faithful
to Nicephorus, the Roman dog: I have read your letter.
You will not hear, you will see my reply."
What
followed the next day was a huge army led by Haroon set
to get revenge for this humiliation. The ravaging Muslim
force advanced quickly and swept through the Byzantine
lands, devastating eveything in its path. Nicephorus had
no choice but to surender and to promise to resume
regular payments to Rashid Al Haroon. Soon though it was
clear that the promise was not kept and this time Haroon
Al Rashid vowed not to spare the Byzantine emperor. Just
as he was preparing his army for a total invasion over
Constantinople, a sudden revolt in his Caliphate broke
out. As if this could not come at a worse moment, on his
way to the revolting region Haroon died of an illness
which had long troubled him.
A splendor builder
When he was not occupied with military
matters and strengthening his rule, Haroon Al Rashid
made best use of his time in building his caliphate and
the splendor of his palace. This features extensively in
the texts of Arab historians.
A famous example is the wedding of Haroon’s son, Mamoon.
For the wedding ceremony, a hundred enormously massive
pearls were poured over around the couple as they sat on
a gold carpet decorated by precious stones. The gifts
for the guests were balls of musk with coupons allowing
the receiver to claim a free slave or land property.
Contributing very
much for the splendor of the court was Zubeidah. She is
apparently the one who set the then fashionable trend of
adorning shoes with precious stones and jewelry items.
Being an artisan, her own palace was no less splendid
than that of Haroon, which he was fond of. For example,
in the middle of the palace there was a golden tree, and
on the tree’s branches golden birds tweeted melodic
tunes by automatic gadgets. The splendor did not end in
the courts of the royal palaces. On the banks of the
Tigris River, the ports were lined up with ships heavy
with loads of Chinese silk, Indian spices and precious
stones, Turkish marble, Arabian pearls, and Russian
furs.
With all he did,
Haroon Al Rashid will remain revered as the most
significant among the Abbasid caliphs. He proved to be
an able ruler of his vast empire at the flourishung
period of early Muslim development. Arabic and European
manuscripts speak of his political and intellectual
might, and his nearly mythical personna has in different
ways reached us to the present day.
POPULAR CULTURE REFERENCES:
Source: Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia.
Future
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, when he was a New
York Police Department Commissioner, was called in the
local newspapers "Haroun-al-Roosevelt" for his habit of
lonely all-night rambles on the streets of Manhattan,
surreptitiously catching police officers off their posts
sleeping or otherwise engaged in restaurants or
brothels.
The
character Jafar, in Disney's animated motion picture
Aladdin, is vaguely based on Harun's vizier Yahya's son.
The
comic book The Sandman issue 50 featured a story set in
the world of the Arabian Nights, with Harun al-Rashid as
one of the protagonists. The story, entitled Ramadan, is
included in the collection The Sandman: Fables and
Reflections.
The
two protagonists of Salman Rushdie's 1990 novel Haroun
and the Sea of Stories, Haroun and his father Rashid
Khalifa, were clearly named after the Caliph Haroun
al-Rashid.
Haroun al-Rashid figures in the third chapter of James
Joyce's Ulysses, in a dream of Stephen Dedalus, one of
the protagonists: "Wait. Open hallway. Street of
harlots. Remember. Haroun al Raschid. I am almosting
it."
CALIPH:
Caliph is a designation given to the head of the Islamic
community known as the Ummah. The term can be translated
as “the one who suceeds”, in referrence to he who
succeeds the propher Muhammad. The caliph was usualy
ellected from within an group of learned men to
represent the head figure of spiritual authority over
the Muslim world. However, this title falls short of
prophetic stature since Muhammad was, and is, believed
to be the last prophet in Islam. The caliph was also
called “Emir Al Mumineen”, or the Prince of those who
believe. The title was historically officialy last used
in the Ottoman Empire.
TIMELINE:
766: Year of Haroon Al Rashid's birth as the son of
Caliph Al Mahdi and his former-slave wife of Yemeni
descent Al Khayzuran.
780: Haroon Al Rashid undertakes first armed invasions
of the Byzantine Empire.
782: Haroon Al Rashid invasion forces reach as far as
the Bosporus, resulting in negotiations with Byzantine.
The following peace treaty results in Byzantine post-war
compensations to Haroon's Caliphate. Haroon is
officially namer Al Rashid, meaning "the upright".
Gaining popularity, he is promoted to second in
succession to the Caliph and becomes acting governor of
Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, Azarbeijan and Armenia.
786: Al Hady, brother of Haroon Al Rashid dies of
unknown causes, perhaps as a result of his mother's
efforts. This results in making Haroon Al Rashid the new
Caliph along with promoting Yahya the Barmakid as
Haroon's Grand Vizier. His mother, Al Khayzuran remains
influential.
789: Year of Al Khayzuran's death. Without his mother,
Haroon Al Rashid consolidates all power in his own
hands.
791: Haroon Al Rashid invades again Byzantine in
response to a broken treaty, vowing this will be final.
800: Haroon makes Ibrahim Ibn Al Aghlab the governor of
Tunisia, granting him a semi-autonomous status in return
for significant annual compensations.
803: Year of Yahya's death. resulting in total ruling
power at Haroon Al Rashid's disposal.
807: Haroon Al Rashid tries further concuests and his
army invades Cyprus.
809: Year of Haroon Al Rashid's death. He is succeeded
by his son. | 
