Page 75 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

894 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

least nominally, in expeditions against Byzantium and In 801 al-Rashid reciprocated, sending an embassy to
as governor of the western provinces. His candidature Aachen under the direction of a Jewish merchant named
for caliph was stage-managed by his mother and Yahya Isaac and bearing a number of notable gifts, including a
ibn Khalid (d. 805 CE), a scion of the powerful Bar- water-clock and an elephant. No practicable alliance
makid family. He suffered under the rule of his brother resulted, but certain general accords were reached con-
al-Hadi (reigned 785–786 CE), whose death under sus- cerning trade and travel. In 806, however, a spectacular
picious circumstances left the way clear for Harun’s suc- Abbasid military victory against Irene’s usurper,Nicepho-
cession. As caliph he assumed the honorific al-Rashid rus, forced Byzantium into humiliating submission.
(“the Rightly Guided”). Al-Rashid’s rival in the far west, the Umayyad emirate
The Barmakids remained the real power behind the of al-Andalus (on the Iberian Peninsula), also benefited
throne until 803, by which time al-Rashid had established from contacts with the Abbasid caliphate, primarily in
an independent administrative regime based on palace matters of culture and technology.Al-Rashid’s patronage
slaves and clients who owed their loyalty to him alone— of the musical innovator Ziryab prompted envy in the
a pattern that was to be followed in future caliphates. Ziryab’smaster,theheadcourtmusicianIshaqal-Mawsili,
Under al-Rashid’s rule, the caliphate was torn by forces who orchestrated Ziryab’s exile. In 821 CE Ziryab arrived
of decentralization, characterized by the loss or impend- in Cordoba, where he rapidly became a favorite of the
ing loss of Africa, Khorasan (present-day northeastern emir and an arbiter of taste among the Andalusi aristoc-
Iran), and Yemen. Much of this was due to factors beyond racy, single-handedly revolutionizing western Mediter-
the ruler’s control, although some of his policies, includ- ranean cooking, poetry, music, and dress habits.
ing dividing his realms among his chief heirs, hastened The Abbasids had long-standing trade and diplo-
the subsequent decline. matic relations with China, both via the Indian Ocean
The period comprising his rule was culturally dynamic, and overland, through the mediation of Jewish mer-
marked by important developments in Islamic jurispru- chants, the Radhans. From the mid-eighth century,
dence (including the development of Malikism, one of China and the caliphate were political rivals inTransox-
the four main schools of jurisprudence), philosophy iania (northeast of Khorasan), and Muslims began to
(with the continued translation of Greek works), litera- intervene occasionally in Chinese internal power strug-
ture (with the integration of Persian influences) and per- gles. A regular series of diplomatic missions had been
sonal piety (with the emergence of early Sufism). sent to theTang emperors since the early 700s; this was
Al-Rashid’s relationship with the Eastern Roman em- continued under al-Rashid.
pire, or Byzantium, was characterized by a mixture of The Thousand and One Nights, a collection of folktales
military aggression and pragmatic diplomacy.Byzantium and parables drawn from Arabic, Persian, and Indian
made a suitable object for the regular raiding that a caliph traditions, several of which feature al-Rashid as a lead-
was ideally expected to carry out against the non-Muslim ing character, are the primary source of the caliph’s
world, and al-Rashid himself led many such missions. image in the modern West.The first European-language
Although these did not result in permanent territorial version appeared in French in 1704 and was eventually
gains, they forced the Empress Irene (reigned 780–802 followed by Richard Burton’s The Arabian Nights (1885–
CE), under pressure from the Bulgarians, to seek a peace 1888). Thanks largely to this, al-Rashid enjoys a repu-
treaty.Al-Rashid was compelled to accept given the threat tation as a cultured, wise, and effective ruler, an assess-
of the Khazars,Turkic tribal allies of Byzantium who con- ment which does not necessarily conform to the his-
trolled European Russia. torical evidence.
In798Charlemagne (742?–814 CE),theFrankish king
Brian A. Catlos
and aspirant to the title of Holy Roman Emperor, sent an
embassytoBaghdad,proposinganallianceagainstIrene. See also Islamic World