The talk about the early Abbasids comes only with the recall of scenes of conflict and blood, a struggle whose features began to appear since the beginning of the foundation of the state on the ruins of the Umayyads who were crushed by the Abbasids and eliminated their influence, scenes that extended from the east in Khurasan and Iran, then Iraq and the Levant, and ended with the killing of the last Caliphs of Bani Illiteracy of Marwan bin Muhammad in the Busir area in central Egypt.

A struggle that also extended before the Talibs, the sons of Ali bin Abi Talib - may God be pleased with him - who always saw themselves as the most deserving of the caliphate, and assumed its burdens from the Umayyads and the Abbasids alike. In the years of advocacy and revolution, Abu Salamah al-Khilal represented their most famous minister, and Abu Muslim al-Khorasani their feat of military leader, and finally Saleh bin Ali al-Abbasi, uncle of Abu Jaafar al-Mansur, who saw himself more worthy of the caliphate than his young nephew, but he suffered a heavy defeat, after which he was eliminated.

Perhaps the blood that was shed at the beginning of the founding of the state, and the myths spread by the Abbasid propaganda towards the first caliphs, followed the first of them, Abu al-Abbas Abdullah bin Muhammad al-Hashemi, nicknamed the butcher, to come after him, his brother Abu Jaafar al-Mansur, who built the city of Baghdad, and the features of the state were formed in his time. And he also does not follow the Sunnah itself with force and severity and brutality against the dissenters, with the aim of foundation and stability. And let the features of stability and calm begin at the hands of the Mahdi Muhammad bin Abi Jaafar Al-Mansour, who gave birth to Musa Al-Hadi and Harun Al-Rashid. The Abbasid state is entering a new era that lasted for about twenty years, around which many stories and legends were woven.

It is well known that the past is often recalled in the present, as the Islamic imagination is filled with perceptions that differ from viewpoints according to the purpose of the summoning, and according to the historical narrative learned. In this context, Harun al-Rashid often sparked controversy about his personality. Between his gaze, he sees a just caliph who achieved security, reformed the affairs of the subjects, established justice, and frightened the enemies of the state. And between another look that describes him in some narrations and news as a womanizer, a fun-loving, preoccupied with his lust, avenging his opponents. However, before moving on to the era ruled by Harun al-Rashid, we need to read the political and social context that preceded the period of his rational rule, in order to understand the context in which al-Rasheed's personality developed.

Perhaps one of the most famous things that were taken against Harun al-Rashid was his confrontation with the Alawites in his time, until his opponents stigmatized him on this issue with severity and cruelty, and accused him of tyranny, but the matter has its historical and political dimension in the era of Rashid; That is because when Harun al-Rashid, after the death of his brother al-Hadi, ascended the position of caliphate in the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal in 170 AH/September 786 CE, he was twenty-five years old, he saw before him a set of great internal challenges, on top of which was the Alawite student opposition, most of which were not satisfied with the rise of their cousins. The Abbasids to the throne of the caliphate have always seen that they are more entitled to this position since the emergence of Hussein bin Ali - may God be pleased with him - and his martyrdom in the battle of Karbala during the time of Yazid bin Muawiyah.

The two parties apparently agreed to confront the Umayyads, and the relations between them were fine at the time of the revolution, which raised the slogan “satisfaction with the family of Muhammad” in Khorasan in the last years of the Umayyad life. As a culmination of the rise of the family of the house, the Abbasids played this chord, and saw that they were the cousins ​​of the Messenger of God, as they are not far from this matter, and they worked hard on several political, propaganda, secret and finally military levels to eliminate the Umayyads, which was eventually achieved.

However, they soon diverged in the caliphate of Abu al-Abbas, the butcher, the first Abbasid Caliph (132-136 AH / 750-754 AD), who declared from the Shiite stronghold in Kufa that the caliphate was Abbasid, and will remain Abbasid, and that no one has any right in it except them, in a sign and exposing their competitors from The Taliban [1]. However, this relationship, which was characterized by caution in the era of incest, entered into a phase of clashing in the succession of his brother Abi Jaafar Al-Mansur (136-158 AH). Before the Abbasids came to power, and his speech and propaganda had influence and followers and Shiites in the Hijaz, Iraq and Khorasan, and finally declared himself Caliph in Medina in 145 AH / 762 AD, and his brother Ibrahim went to Basra to raise the banner of the uprising in it[2].

The Abbasids intervened with an armed force in the city, and the matter ended with the killing of Muhammad bin Abdullah the pure soul and the confiscation of the money of Bani al-Hassan. The stage of oppression against their Alawite rivals, who declared armed rebellion, but things calmed down a little during the era of Al-Mahdi bin Abi Jaafar Al-Mansur.

In the era of Musa al-Hadi ibn al-Mahdi, and despite his short reign, things returned to turmoil again, due to the violent policy pursued by al-Hadi, which forced the Alawites to declare disobedience and armed revolt against al-Hadi under the leadership of their chief al-Husayn ibn Ali in the month of Dhu al-Qa’dah 169 AH / 786 AD. So he took over Medina, took the Prophet's Mosque as his base, and tried to win over Mecca and its people, but because of his weak strength, no one pledged allegiance to him, and soon the Abbasid Hadi army came to kill him in the "trap" area north of Mecca [3].

Harun al-Rashid came with a new policy, based on leniency and tolerance with the Taliban, descendants of Ali bin Abi Talib, to isolate, according to this strategy, the governor of Medina, who worked on persecuting them at the time of his brother al-Hadi, and lifting the stone from those who were in Baghdad. However, because of the “trap” battle that took place during that period, two of the senior Alawites fled: Idris bin Abdullah Al Alawi, who was able to form the nucleus of the Idrisid state in the Far Maghreb, and his brother Ibrahim, who fled towards the East in the Daylam regions south of the Caspian Sea and tried The establishment of a state is another.

In the face of this "disobedience" by two senior Alawites and their attempts to break up the Abbasid state by establishing independent states in the East and the Maghreb, Harun decided a comprehensive confrontation, intelligence and military, and indeed he was able to bring Ibrahim bin Abdullah Al Alawi into his grip and imprison him, and he tried many times with his brother Idris bin Abdullah, but he failed; Idris Al-Alawi fortified himself among the Berber tribes that provided him with support and support, as well as fortified in the complexities of geography; Morocco was far from the Abbasid force in Baghdad.

Another figure appeared that aroused the concern of Harun Al-Rashid, who had leadership and charisma, was represented by Imam Musa Al-Kazim bin Jaafar Al-Sadiq. And he - he pointed to him: Peace be upon you, cousin! Musa Al-Kadhim replied - and he was standing - saying: Peace be upon you, father. This caused the anger of al-Rashid, who saw that al-Kazim degrades Harun and his lineage compared to him; Therefore, he ordered his arrest and imprisoned him in Baghdad, and Al-Kadhim remained in his prison "not under pressure"[4] as Al-Allama Al-Dhahabi put it. In view of the reality of the state in the era of Rashid and his keenness on its unity, he was forced to monitor the senior Talibs and Alawites, and he did not allow all his energy to disobey or the emergence of leaders competing with the Abbasids; Which brings us to the biggest catastrophe that occurred in the era of Harun al-Rashid, which is the Baramkeh catastrophe because of the extreme danger, and their tightening of their grip on the Abbasid state!

The Baramkeh family belongs to their great-grandfather Barmak, a high-ranking Buddhist priest in the Nubahar temple in the city of Balkh in Khorasan (Northern Afghanistan today). He was brought to the attention of the Abbasid officials, so the first Abbasid Caliph the butcher imitated him as the Diwan of Al-Kharaj and the Diwan of the Soldiers, and even appointed him to a more prestigious position, the position of the ministry. The era of the third caliph, Al-Mahdi bin Abi Jaafar Al-Mansur, Khalid Al-Barmaki maintained his prominent political position in the Abbasid administration wheel, eventually appointing Al-Mahdi as governor of the province of Persia[5].

Khalid bin Barmak gave birth to his son Yahya, who is considered the mediator of the Baramkeh contract, and their head mastermind, and the most influential in the administration and the Abbasid state. Al-Rashid condemned Yahya bin Khalid Al-Barmaki, who stood against his brother Al-Hadi when he tried to depose Al-Rashid from the mandate of the Covenant; Therefore, Aaron favored him, brought him close, and opened the way for his sons to be the upper hand in the state without competitors or censors.

As for Al-Fadl bin Yahya Al-Barmaki, he took over the upbringing of Al-Amin bin Harun Al-Rashid, and was appointed governor of the east of the Abbasid state. On the minting house, the model and the post office, he even ordered his name to be written on the dirhams and dinars in and around Baghdad. Al-Rashid went even further when he assigned the mandate of Morocco from Anbar to Ifriqiya Tunisia, so that the sons of Baramkeh became the leaders of the most important states in the country, east and west , as well as finance, mail, veil and others, so the rational among them became trapped on the truth!

Thus, the influence of the Baramkeh continued until the situation reached the point that Aaron “needed a small amount of money, so he could not afford it”[6] at a time when the Baramkeh were extravagant in expenditures, and were even able to tie him up in some political matters. Harun's incitement against them, so al-Tabari brings a message sent by one of the jurists of Baghdad at that time warning al-Rashid against Baramkeh and their actions and that he will be questioned on the Day of Resurrection about these, because he is the one who ordered them and raised their status, and they became the upper hand in the state and above the subjects, without supervision or accountability, and this message affected In Al-Rasheed, he began to check what they were doing, and stripped them of the garb of prestige in his palaces and among his courtiers.It is also said regarding the Al-Baramkeh catastrophe that Harun Al-Rashid married his sister Al-Abbas with Ja`far bin Yahya Al-Barmaki, but he stipulated that they should not touch each other, with the aim of making him feel comfortable in his meetings and evenings, and the matter is legal at the same time, but they broke the agreement and had twins, so Harun issued his decision to imprison, kill and confiscate Baramkeh because of this matter [7].

What is more dangerous than this is that the Baramkeh, who were originally Persians, the people of Khorasan had been inclined to them in their entirety, and they began to support them and see in them the Persian model through which the Abbasid state was run. Small and large, and they control every incoming and outgoing in the Abbasid state, and in the same context, there are narrations that say that Harun issued his decision to kill and imprison them because they showed “heretics” and hatred of Islam, and inclination to the Persians and their ancient beliefs.

In this regard, Al-Asma’i, a contemporary of those events, and one of the great scholars of language and literature who have always sat with Harun al-Rashid, says, denouncing al-Baramkeh, and exposing their religion and belief [8]:

If polytheism is mentioned in an assembly... the faces of Banu Barmak are illuminated

And if a surah was recited to them...they brought hadiths from Barmak

The image of Harun al-Rashid appears most clearly when we contemplate the relations between the Abbasid Caliphate in his time and the greatest external enemies, represented by the Byzantines.

Aaron did not hesitate to confront them with his soldiers and state funds, and even with himself sometimes when he was at the head of the armies.

Al-Rashid himself participated in many of these campaigns, and one of the divisions of the Abbasid army that he was leading managed to reach Ankara.

The bad relations between the two sides go back to an ancient time, when the generation of the Companions in the era of Islamic conquests at the time of the Rightly-guided Caliphate was able to wrest the Levant, Egypt and North Africa from the Byzantines. The Islamic state, and as long as the Umayyads and the Abbasids after them, especially in the era of their power, tried to penetrate into the depths of this state, and were even able to besiege Constantinople several times, none of which succeeded in overthrowing the city that resisted them due to the power of the Byzantines, and their high fighting technique, which was represented in the Greek fire that It was burning the ships of the Muslims and their fighters.

In the era of Harun al-Rashid, we see him adopting a clear strategy in the face of the Byzantines, as he divided the border areas between the two sides into front and rear parts, and then made them administratively independent areas from the Levant and the countries of northern Iraq and the Euphrates Island, to facilitate freedom of movement for those in charge of them among the Muslim leaders, and to manage them as they see fit. And the borders between the two sides started from Malatya in central Anatolia in the north to Ain Zerba between Edessa and Harran in the Turkish south today. It was launched and located between the two sides in the summer.

Al-Rashid used to participate himself in many of these campaigns, and one of the divisions of the Abbasid army that he was leading was able to reach Ankara (the capital of Turkey today), and some of them reached even more depth until they reached the coast of the Aegean Sea, and was able to include a number of the most important Byzantine fortresses to the state The Abbasids are like the Willow Fort in the year 181 AH / 797 AD, and that was during the era of Empress Irene, who declared her complete inability to confront the Rashid Caliph, so she decided to make peace and armistice on the conditions set by Aaron, on top of which was the release of Muslim prisoners, and the payment of an annual tribute of 90 thousand golden dinars] 10]!

However, Emperor Nikephoros Phokas ascended the throne to succeed Irene, who was overthrown due to her weakness in front of the Abbasids, and who saw himself as the fittest militarily to avenge the Caliph Aaron. Immediately after his accession to the throne, he was sent to Baghdad threatening and refusing to continue the truce and even asking for the money that the Byzantines had paid before as a tribute To the Abbasids, and when Harun al-Rashid received the letter, he was furious, and wrote his most famous letter in which he stated:

Emperor Nikephoros Phokas (networking sites)

 “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, from Harun, the Commander of the Faithful, to Nikephoros, the dog of the Romans.

Aaron came out at the head of the Abbasid armies in the year 187 AH/803 AD, and was able to penetrate deep and central Anatolia in the Cappadocia region. Nikephoros declared his weakness and his acceptance to return to the peace and the previous conditions with an apology and no veto, but he repeated the ball again when he attacked the areas of Muslim influence in Anatolia in the regions Near Malatya and Adana, and seized Tarsus and Marash, taking advantage of Aaron's preoccupation with suppressing some armed revolutionary movements in Iraq and Khorasan. The Mediterranean is like Sicily and Crete, and heavy defeats were inflicted on them. Here Nikephoros realized for the second time how weak and incapable of confrontation he was and sent for the second time to ask for peace at any cost!

Indeed, Aaron accepted the peace to enter the winter season for his army in Anatolia, and his conditions were harsh this time with the aim of disciplining Nikephoros, he obligated him to pay 300,000 golden dinars every year, and ordered him to prevent the rebuilding of the forts and castles that the Abbasid army destroyed in its last attack, especially Ankara, Willow and Debsah And Heraclius, forbidding the Byzantine forces to position themselves in strategic areas between the two sides[12], which the Byzantine emperor committed himself to when he was humble and had nothing of his command but implementation, to please the satisfaction of Caliph Aaron!

Sources from the Arab literary heritage were not devoid of novels that described Harun al-Rashid as the caliph, a distractionist, immersed in his lusts, a lover of evenings, a lover of drink and wine, and perhaps on top of them is the book “Songs” by its author Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, which was scattered in his huge book tales and stories that reveal this aspect of the personality of Harun al-Rashid. .

One of those stories is that a singer named Yahya al-Makki was requested by Harun al-Rashid, and when he entered upon him, he sent Harun al-Rashid to me.

When do elves and eagles meet? Whenever… they ascend from a valley they descend into a valley.

I still sang it and had a cup until it was (unconscious).

So I counted ten times when he regained his voice, drank ten glasses, then ordered me ten thousand dirhams, and ordered me to leave [13].

And if the old book “Songs” came to us with this image of Harun al-Rashid, then the recent book “One Thousand and One Nights” did not differ from that, and even went beyond that, but what should be noted is that these compositions do not prove in front of criticism. serious historical; Some of them even stated that these historical narrations were created for entertainment, and many of them are fabricated lies, especially if we know that the book “The Thousand and One Nights” is translated from a Persian book called “Al Hazar Afsan,” meaning the Thousand Myths. Shawqi Abu Khalil confirms that it came in the book “Mukhtar al-Aghani In Part IV there is support for this; Where he affirmed that “a part of our history comes from those who have little knowledge or who are gentle in religion, who spread lies and fabricate a heap of slander… and time passes and the narrator disappears, and the features are blurred”[14].

However, it is established and correct from the councils of Al-Rasheed that they were either councils to manage the affairs of the state and raise grievances and look into them, or councils attended by scholars and poets who benefited from them in that era, and debates were held between them that Al-Rasheed enjoyed and accepted them in his entirety, and it was proven that Imam Al-Shafi’i was a judge A number of jurists in the presence of Harun al-Rashid and surpassed them, and Harun loved him and brought him close, as he was close to the two great imams, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani and Imam Abu Yusuf, two students of Imam Abu Hanifa.

Al-Shafi’i used to frequently attend some of Al-Rasheed’s councils when he was in Baghdad before moving to Egypt. The imam and historian Ibn Al-Jawzi told us that Al-Shafi’i entered “one day at some of Harun Al-Rashid’s stone and asked him for permission, so the servant seated him at Abu Abd al-Samad, the educator of the children of al-Rashid. He said to him: O Abu Abdullah, these are the children of the Commander of the Faithful, and this is their discipline (their teacher). And what is ugly for them is what you detest. Teach them the Book of God, and do not compel them to it so that they dictate it, and do not leave them so that they abandon it, then add to them poetry the most charitable / and the most honorable hadith, and do not remove them from knowledge to another until they master it, for the congestion of speech in the hearing is an obstacle to understanding” [15].

As for Imam Abu Yusuf, a disciple of Imam Abu Hanifa, Harun al-Rashid approached him and appointed him as a judge of the judges, and he was keen to get close to him and benefit from his vast knowledge, and he was asked to write a number of legitimate books that remove ambiguity and confusion, and help the Abbasid administration men in their work, and Abu Yusuf complied with Rashid When he wrote his famous book "Al-Kharaj", he stated in the introduction to this book that he wrote it in compliance with the order of the Commander of the Faithful Harun al-Rashid.

These are some of the features of Aaron’s biography and his era, the personality that most historians agree that he is the greatest caliph of Bani Abbas in affair, intelligence, worship and leadership, until al-Tabari, Ibn al-Amrani, Ibn Khaldun, al-Imad al-Hanbali and others said that Aaron “prayed a hundred voluntary prayers every day, and he used to invade year and perform the annual pilgrimage”[16]. He is the caliph who was able to put down the revolutions and internal problems that threatened the state and its unity, and was keen to appoint the most skilled and best men in their administrative and military positions, and confronted everyone who tried to divide the state by breaking it, as he did with a number of senior Alawites, and he was famous for his piety and patience in obedience, and working to The comfort of the parish, so that he died on his way to suppress a revolution against him, and it was the biggest cause of the disruption of security in the Khorasan region, so he was buried in Tus (the Iranian city of Mashhad today) in 193 AH/808 AD, and whatever his biography, his personality will remain a subject of dispute between his supporters and opponents !