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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Story of the Sun: A Look at Imam al-Ridha Life The Abbasid Ma’mun and his Ominous Objectives The Abbasid Ma’mun, named ‘Abd Allah son of Harun al-Rashid, whose mother was an ugly slave-girl called Marajil who served in Harun’s court, was born in 170/786 – the year his father took over caliphate – and died at the age of 48 in 218/833, i.e., fifteen years after Imam al-Ridha’s (a.s.) martyrdom. His mother died at his birth and Ma’mun left him with Ja‘far b.

Yahya al-Barmaki to be trained. His instructor was Fadhl b. Sahl who was famous as Dhu al-Riyasatayn and later on became Ma’mun’s vizier. He was killed by Ma’mun in a bath-house in Sarakhs. Contrary to Amin, Ma’mun lived an industrious life far from welfare; he became skillful in various sciences and more learned in jurisprudence and theology than all other caliphs.

In his predictions about the Abbasid caliphs, Imam ‘Ali (a.s.) said about him: “The seventh among them will be the most erudite of all.”[^1] Ma’mun’s Problems It was obvious that Ma’mun was not in an ideological and spiritual mindset to hand over the caliphate to another person, since he had made great efforts in obtaining it, and had even killed his brother Amin to this end; other incidents clearly confirm this issue.

Thus, the reason for his offering the caliphate to the Imam and his insistence on his offer is to be taken as his cunning policies and plots; and the main reason is considered to be the problems he was facing, which he thought he had no choice to avoid in order to preserve his rule, except by offering the heir apparency.

The problems he faced were: He was considered a rebel by the people, especially by the Abbasids, who revolted despite Harun’s will and murdered his brother Amin, who was formally the caliph. Originally, he was not of adequate nobility, as his mother was a non-Arab slave-girl who lacked social distinction, contrary to Amin, whose mother, Zubayda Hashimi, was a learned woman.

Members of Ma’mun’s inner circle were mostly Iranians, an issue with which the Arabs, especially, the Abbasids were dissatisfied. The Alawis (‘Alawiyan), who were very influential in Iran and particularly in Khurasan and were dissatisfied with the Abbasids, especially with Ma’mun’s father whose hands were stained with many of the Alawis’ blood, would rise up in revolution in different regions; Abu al-Saraya in Kufa, Zayd b. Musa in Basra, Muhammad b.