The Last of the Geonim

The title of gaon (plural geonim) was used for the deans of Talmudic academies. Modern Hebrew defines it as "genius." Geonim were important in the development and dissemination of Jewish scholarship. The Geonim Era lasted from 589 to 1038 CE, when the academies of Sura and Pumbedita flourished.

The last gaon of Sura was Samuel ben Hofni, who died in 1034 CE leaving behind a great many writings. At Pumbedita the last gaon was Hai ben Sherira, also called Hai Gaon. He was taught by—and assisted in teaching—his father, Sherira ben Hanina, who was also called Sherira Gaon.

This was during the Abbasid Caliphate, when the Pumbedita Academy had moved to Baghdad. Hai and his father had enemies who caused them to be imprisoned in 997 and had their property confiscated by Caliph al-Qadir. Their troubles were brief, and shortly after their release Sherira named Hai the new gaon.

Hai's promotion was very popular in the community. When Sherira died in 1006, the following Sabbath saw the passage read from Numbers in which Moses asks for an able follower. It was followed by a reading about Solomon with the words altered to read "And Hai sat on the throne of Sherira his father, and his government was firmly established."

Questions from all over where the Jewish Diaspora landed people—Anatolia, France, Germany, the Iberian Peninsula, Ethiopia and India—came to Pumbedita for advice and rulings. More than 800 responses from Hai Gaon helped to codify rules about holidays and civil law.

In his responses he quotes not only numerous Jewish sources. It is clear he was familiar with the Quran, Plato and Aristotle, Greek history, and Persian. He also consulted with the heads of the local Christians—in this case, Assyrian Christians—over the meaning of Psalms 141:5, whose literal translation is:

The righteous beat me [in] kindness. And reprove me, My head does not disallow oil of the head,  For my prayer [is] still about their distress. [source]

His death marked the end of the Geonim Era, and he has been called the last of the Geonim. (To be fair, there was one more. Hezekiah ben David was elected Gaon at Hai's death, but he was imprisoned and supposedly tortured to death. On the other hand, supposedly a contemporary in 1046 said Hezekiah was the head of Pumbedita. Still, histories of the Eras say it ended in 1038 with Hai.)

I find that I've mentioned Assyrian Christians before, but haven't gone into any detail about whence they came or what made them different. I'll rectify that starting tomorrow.

Charlemagne and the Arabic World

At the end of yesterday's post on the Auld Alliance I mentioned that France (or the Franks) had formed earlier alliances, some of them seemingly more unusual than that with Scotland. If the cultures of the French and the Scots were different, imagine the cultural divide between the Franks of the 8th and 9th centuries and the Abbasid Caliphate.

In the Life of Charlemagne written by Einhard, and a few other Latin/Frankish sources, we find references to the Carolingians reaching out to the Abbasids. The Franks had clashed with the predecessors of the Abbasids, the Umayyad Caliphate, most notably at the Battle of Tours in 732. The Umayyads were finally expelled from Gaul by Pepin the Short.

After the collapse of the Umayyads and the rise of the Abbasids, Pepin reached out to Caliph al-Mansur. The Carolingians were powerful enough in Western Europe at that time that the Abbasids were open to the possibilities of an alliance; Umayyads still existed on the Iberian Peninsula, posing a potential threat to the southern border of the Carolingians and the western border of the Abbasids.

A Carolingian embassy visited Baghdad in 765 and returned with gifts after three years, followed by an Abbasid embassy to France in 768. Arabic coins from that era are found throughout the Carolingian world, and Arabic gold was exchanged for materials like timber and iron; also, slaves went eastward.

The alliance included a request from the Abbasids in 777 for military aid against the Umayyads in Cordoba. Charlemagne crossed the Pyrenees into Iberia in 778 with a large force, joining in Zaragoza with the Abbasid forces of Sulaymaniyah al-Arabi in an attempt to reconquer the peninsula. This was unsuccessful, and on Charlemagne's return to the north he was ambushed disastrously by Basques at Roncevaux.

Charlemagne did not give up on an alliance, however, and had a strong relationship with Harun al-Rashid, who gifted Charlemagne an elephant, recorded in the Royal Frankish Annals as Abul-Abbas. A few embassies went back and forth between the courts of Charlemagne and al-Rashid. (The illustration is of al-Rashid receiving a Frankish embassy.)

A few centuries later, France saw value in another alliance to the east, with the Mongol Empire. The reason and the result will be tomorrow's topic.

Great Mosque of Samarra

During the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Mutawakkil (822 - 861), he commissioned several building projects. Up to 20 palaces are listed as his work, their cost totaling between 258 and 294 million dirhams.

One of his projects was a huge mosque in Samarra along the Tigris River. His desire for ostentatious displays of wealth and devotion made it the largest mosque in the world at the time, and it was completed in only three years.

The minaret (shown here) is 171 feet high and 108 feet wide, the top reached by a spiral ramp. It is all that remains of the original structure. The main building was constructed from baked brick octagon piers with four columns in the corners of imported marble. It had 17 aisles, and the walls were covered with dark blue tiles.

A total of 16 doors allowed the faithful inside, where light was provided by 28 windows, 24 of were oriented by the qibla, the direction to face when praying. A fountain in the center was believed to be carved from a single stone and delivered by elephants. That had been commissioned by al-Mutawakkil's predecessor, his brother al-Wathiq. The baked brick ceiling was 35 feet high, supported by 464 pillars.

In 1278, the mosque (but not the minaret or outer wall) was destroyed when Iraq was invaded by Hulagu Khan's Mongols. A restoration process started in 1956.

The construction of the Great Mosque was part of a plan to make Samarra the center of an expansive urban area, so there were other projects in the area. Part of this expanded area was named al-Mutawakkiliyya for himself. Another new city he founded needed water, and he commanded two courtiers, the brothers Muhammad and Ahmad ibn Musa, to make it happen. They ignored local engineers and turned instead to al-Farghani, an astronomer. He was very smart, and a good mathematician with a good reputation, but he made a tiny mistake with great consequences. That's a story for tomorrow.

Ending Religious Tolerance

The 10th Abbasid caliph was not intended to rise to that position. Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn Harun was born in 822 to an Abbasid prince and a slave concubine. His father, al-Mu'tasim, was a court official to Ja'far's uncle, his father's brother caliph al-Ma'mun. Both al-Ma'mun and al-Mu'tasim were sons of Harun al-Rashid, who reigned at the start of Islam's Golden Age.

When al-Ma'mun died in 833, he nominated his brother rather than his son to rule. When al-Mu'tasim died, his eldest son (Ja'far's brother al-Wathiq) became caliph. al-Wathiq had a fairly non-dramatic reign except for ongoing battles with the Byzantine Empire. al-Wathiq ended that conflict for several years after agreeing to a prisoner exchange in 845. His death from natural causes in his mid-30s caught the nation by surprise. His son was fairly young, and so for the second time in that dynasty the succession went "sideways" to a brother rather than a son. Ja'far found himself elevated to the caliphate and taking the regnal name al-Mutawwakil ala Allah, "He who relies on God." He was 26 years old. (The illustration is of his face on a silver dirham.)

His well-educated brother had been a lover of poetry and the arts, enjoying poets, scholars, and musicians. In contrast, al-Mutawwakil cared more for power and grandiosity. His reign was known for ending the religious tolerance of his predecessors. Whereas dhimmi ("protected ones," a designation given to those of other faiths) had many privileges, he took steps to revoked or disrespect them. In 850 he decreed that all Jews and Christians had to wear garments that distinguished them from the faithful: honey-colored (yellow) hoods and belts. Moreover, their places of worship were destroyed and they were no longer allowed to hold public office.

An ancient sacred cypress of the Zoroastrians was ordered cut down to be used as timber for a new palace. It was 1400 years old, and legend said it had been brought by Zoroaster from heaven.

He even attacked fellow Muslims. There was on ongoing debate over whether the Koran was created or not. That is (to put it simply): was it produced by a man, or was it divine knowledge that was then "un-created" by a man, because it was eternal? There was a sect that rejected the idea that the Koran was the literal word of and co-eternal with God, and therefore did not exist until Muhammad wrote it. al-Mutawwakil stomped on this heavily, taking hostile steps to anyone promoting the doctrine that the Koran was created by a man.

al-Mutawwakil had named his eldest son, al-Muntasir, as his successor, but over time was showing favor to his second son, al-Mu'tazz. The two sons had support from different political factions, and the elder was unhappy with his father's shifting attention, especially when the younger was given the privilege of leading prayers at the end of Ramadan. Other humiliations followed, and a faction approached the elder son with a plan to assassinate his father. al-Muntasir was not opposed. The plan was carried out in December 861, and al-Muntasir became caliph. al-Mutawwakil had died before lumber from the Zoroastrian cedar arrived to be used.

Unfortunately, this began a period known as the Anarchy at Samarra, lasting until 870 and almost destroying the Abbasid Caliphate.

Let's turn away from politics and find something good about al-Mutawwakil's reign. How about the Great Mosque of Samarra? I'll bet there are some interesting stories there. I'll check it out and get back to you tomorrow.

The Maintenance of Health

The modern Italian word for a notebook is taccuino. It comes from the medieval (and later) popularity of the Tacuinum Sanitatis. That name is a Latinized version of the Arabic Taqwīm aṣ‑Ṣiḥḥa ("Maintenance of Health"). It was written in the 11th century by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad, a physician and Christian theologian during the Abbasid Era.

The original was organized in synoptic tables: a way to present data in a simple and condensed manner, previously used for astrological tables. Ibn Butlan used them to present not just ways to treat illness and to maintain health, but also ways to prepare food and how and what to grow for health. Later manuscripts were lavishly illustrated, especially after the 14th century. (The illustration is of a facsimile edition made in 1986.)

Ibn Butlan set out the essential elements of health and well-being:

• sufficient food and drink in moderation
• fresh air
• alternations of activity and rest
• alternations of sleep and wakefulness
• secretions and excretions of humors
• the effects of states of mind

If one is not paying attention to these elements, illness occurs.

The Tacuinum includes lists of many vegetables, fruits, nuts, and herbs that are good for treating certain conditions. It also includes the dangers of excess consumption. As the manuscript was copied and distributed, changes were made, and not every copy includes every list. Some added remedies that were not in the original.

The word "humors" was italicized in Ibn Butlan's list because I wanted to draw attention to it. I've ignored discussing the medieval idea of humors for over a decade because I assumed people have already heard of them and I want this blog to focus on all the things that are not generally known. Of course, the details of humors are probably worth talking about. See you tomorrow.

Jabir ibn Hayyan

The previous post mentioned the man who discovered the combination of chemicals that dissolved gold. He could not have done that haphazardly; he had to have gained extensive knowledge of chemicals first. As it turns out, his works include the oldest known system for classifying chemicals.

His name was Abū Mūsā Jābir ibn Ḥayyān, and he lived in the 8th century...we think. To be fair, he does not get mentioned until the 10th century by a  Baghdad bibliographer who said Hayyan was a disciple of the Shi'ite Imam Ja'far al-Sādiq (who died in 765; Haiyan's writings refer to al-Sādiq as "my master"). That biographer assured his audience that Jabir existed, and made a list of his works, although many later Shi'ite biographers never mentioned Hayyan, and it is considered unlikely that he wrote the many hundreds of texts attributed to him.

Someone had to create the writings attributed to Hayyan, however, and perhaps the name was a pseudonym used to avoid the potential negative publicity because it looked like alchemy, which was rejected by many. Also, the works attributed to him are so many and varied that it is difficult to believe they were the work of one man. He may have inspired a "workshop" of students and followers who produced many of the works. Despite the confusion about his existence, a 271-page biography was written in the 20th century, and is readable at the Library of Congress website (if you can read Arabic, that is).

The body of work includes many techniques that are familiar to any high school student who has taken Chemistry: precipitation, crystallization, and distillation. It also teaches procedures for making apparatus (see the illustration) and equipment, for improving the quality of products such as steel, and how to reduce oxidation in metals. We learn from them how to dye and waterproof cotton and leather, the purification of gold, and how to treat cinnabar to extract pure mercury.

You may notice, in large sheets of glass used for, say, store fronts, that there is a greenish hue (most visible if you look at the edge of the glass sheet). Hayyan's writings explain how manganese oxide can be added to glass production to eliminate the greenish hue, resulting in a perfectly clear pane. These writings provide most of what is known about chemical analysis until the 16th century.

I want to go back to the question of Haiyan's identification. One of his writings implies an association with a certain family, the Barmakids. His 10th century biographer, Ibn al-Nadīm (c. 932–995), reports that Hayyan was devoted to Jaʿfar ibn Yaḥyā al-Barmakī, an Abbasid vizier. You may not recognize that name, but I promise you that you have heard of him. In fact, I promise 1001% that you have heard of him. With that teaser/clue, I'll see you tomorrow.

The Reconquista—Abbasid Alliance

I have mentioned before the disagreements, after the death of Muhammad, over which direction the faith should go. The Rashidun Caliphate was the successor to the Prophet, followed by the Umayyads. Not everyone approved of the Umayyads, however, and there was a third caliphate ready to be "born": the Abbasid, descended from Muhammad's uncle. As it happens, in the second half of the 9th century, there were Abbasid-leaning Muslims in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula who were willing to ally themselves with Christian kingdoms if it meant getting rid of Umayyad rule.

Sulayman al-Arabi, the Abbasid-preferring governor of Barcelona, sent a message to Charlemagne in 777, offering his submission to Charlemagne's rule if he could get military aid against the Umayyad emir of Córdoba, Abd ar-Rahman I. Sulayman had allies: Husayn of Zaragoza and Abu Taur of Huesca. Charlemagne was all too happy to bring an army south to reconquer territory from Muslims.

Reaching Barcelona, Sulayman welcomed him, and their two armies marched next to Zaragoza to add Hosayn's military forces. Reaching Zaragoza, however, they found that Husayn would not allow them into the walled city. He had just recently defeated Abd ar-Rahman's general and taken him prisoner. Husayn was willing to rely on his own power to deal with further Umayyad threats, and no longer was willing to risk his autonomy being usurped by a Christian ruler.

Charlemagne settled into a siege of Zaragoza. After more than a month, however, an agreement was made: Husayn would pay Charlemagne some gold to go away. This he did, but on his way back north Charlemagne decided to make an example of the Basques, whom he suspected of being allied with the Moors. He spent some time destroying villages, tearing down the walls of Pamplona, and setting up his own garrisons. Satisfied, he set off for home through the Pyrenees.

Unknown to him, the angry Basque forces organized and pursued. Not only had this attempt at Reconquista come to naught, but Charlemagne was about to be handed a terrible defeat that would be immortalized in literature. Details tomorrow.

Mamluks & Mongols

[source]

The Mongols were expanding westward. Under Genghis Khan they had taken a huge chunk out of Asia, from what is now the Koreas, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan and the areas south of it, all the way to the Caspian Sea. Twenty years later, under Ögedei and Güyük and Möngke, they held most of what is now China in the east, and had extended into Ukraine and Belarus in the west and south to the Persian Gulf. Through conquering Turkey, they had control of the northeastern shores of the Mediterranean.

Mongol hordes were ruthless when taking over a new territory. Iran's resistance required such force to subdue that much of the country's agrarian infrastructure was destroyed, causing famine and serious population loss in the years following the wars.

The Mongol Empire had benefits, however, to others as well as itself: an enforced peace throughout this realm made travel and trade safe for foreigners as well as residents. Given time, they might have conquered—and therefore united—North Africa and Europe as well. For the first time in their history, however, they were stopped, defeated when they encountered the Mamluks.

Hulagu, a grandson of Genghis and brother to Kublai and Möngke, managed the southwestern front of the Mongol Empire, moving from Persia toward Egypt. He took down the Assassins, and conquered Baghdad by defeating the Abbasid Caliphate. He then sent a message to Qutuz in Cairo, advising him to submit to Mongol rule. Qutuz killed the messengers and stuck their heads on one of Cairo's gates.

Then word came that Möngke Khan had died, and Hulagu took much of his army back home to lobby for the throne. When Qutuz learned that a much smaller military force had been left behind in the Middle East, he gathered his Mamluk army and marched out of Cairo. Two armies of about 20,000 men each met on 3 September 1260 at Ain Jalut ["Spring of Goliath"] in Galilee.

The Mongol army did not know the territory as well as the Mamluks did (Qutuz had allied himself with a Mamluk leader from the region who knew it well and planned their strategy). The Mamluks played a "hit-and-run" game, then pretended to retreat, luring the Mongol army to follow them into the highlands where the largest part of the army was hidden, its archers waiting to ambush the Mongols. Although the Mongols rallied somewhat, they were unable to gain the upper hand. For the first time, their forward advance to expand their territory was stopped, placing a western border in the face of Genghis Khan's dream of a worldwide Mongol empire.

The Mamluks had another advantage: explosives, specifically hand cannons. Hand cannons were metal cylinders packed with gunpowder and set off with a flame. They were not good for aiming projectiles with any kind of accuracy, but in the Battle of Ain Jalut they were used to startle the opposing cavalry mounts and create confusion.

Who Were the Mamluks?

Mamluk going to war, from a 14th century History of the Tatars

The short answer to the question posed in the title is "slaves." The name mamluk (plural mamalik) means "property" or "owned" (as in, "owned by the king"). The Mamluks were a warrior caste composed of slaves that grew so important and powerful that they lasted as part of the culture for a millennium; some Mamluks even became sultans.

When they began exactly is still up for debate. Certainly the Abbasids in Baghdad had a military caste, believed to have been bought as slaves from foreign tribes. They became the largest part of the military by the end of the 9th century. By "owning" the military, a ruler was free from the fear that a powerful political family might have control of the military and therefore threaten the throne. (Western Europe often relied on mercenaries for the same reason, as in the case of John Hawkwood.)

Saladin had dealings with Mamluks. While trying to consolidate his rule against the encroaching Crusaders, he encountered a Mamluk leader named Surhak who had taken control of the strategic town of Harim. He offered Surhak a different city in exchange for Harim. Surhak held out for more, angering his own followers, who cast him out and into Saladin's hands. Later, Saladin rewarded a Mamluk who had helped Saladin escape assassination, by giving the Mamluk the town of Aleppo.

After Saladin's death, his sons fought reach other over his territory. Saladin's brother Al-Adil fought his nephews and brothers, adding each defeated leader's Mamluk armies to his own. His successors did the same. When the 7th Crusade came through Egypt in 1249, they found the Mamluk army there too powerful: King Louis IX of France was captured and ransomed. Around this time, Egypt was ruled by the last sultan's widow, Shajar al-Durr; political pressure to have a male ruler resulted in Shajar al-Durr marrying a Mamluk. After his death, the political struggle the ensued resulted in the Mamluk Qutuz taking over; the Mamluk Sultanate was begun, which was to rule Egypt (and Syria) from 1250 until 1517 when it was overthrown by the Ottoman Empire.

Mamluks, taken from their families and raised under strict military and religious discipline, were extremely loyal to their owner and supportive of their comrades. The lifestyle and privileges they enjoyed were such that some Egyptians would get themselves sold into slavery to be trained as Mamluks, ensuring a steady career.

Although very few people today know about the Mamluks, we owe them a debt for saving the West from the grandson of Genghis Khan...but that's a story for tomorrow.

The Founding of Baghdad

The red pin is Kufa, the purple pin
is Baghdad, about 170 km north.

The Abbasids had taken over from the Umayyads, and in order to make a clear break with their predecessors, they had to make some bold changes. One was to move the capital city. The Umayyad Caliphate had as its capital Kufa, on the banks of the Euphrates. Caliph Al-Mansur (714 - 775) built an imperial palace on the banks of the Tigris, well north of Kufa, on the site of several Aramaic Christian villages. One of the villages was named Baghdad, and even though the palace and city Al-Mansur built was called Madinat as-Salam ["City of Peace"] and that name was used on coins and official documents, locally the name Baghdad continued to be used.

Although the date of its founding is accepted as 30 July 762, building Baghdad took 100,000 workers from 764 to 768. The location of the city on the Tigris was beneficial: the abundance of water throughout the city encouraged growth that allowed for all residents to have easily accessible water. By the 9th century, Baghdad had grown to be the largest city in the Middle East, with a population between 300,000 and 500,000.

The entire city complex was originally built as a circle about 19 kilometers in diameter and was nicknamed al-Mudawara ["Round city"]. The wall was built to last: it was about 44 meters thick at the base, and about 30 meters high. Al-Mansur brought together artists as well as engineers to build his capital, and the circle included parks and promenades, gardens, and a mosque at the center. The city walls had four gates called Basra, Khorasan, Kufa and Syria, named for the places that the highways from those gates led to.

Baghdad became a center of knowledge. The first university in the world is considered to be the Bayt al-Hikma ["House of Wisdom"], founded during the reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid (786 - 809). Scholars here made it a goal to translate all Greek works available to them, which made much of Classical Era learning available to the West through Arabic translations.

The strength of the Abbasid Caliphate started to deteriorate due to religious and regional strife. A grandson of Ghengis Khan (but not Kublai, well-known to Marco Polo fans) managed to sack Baghdad in 1258, destroying much of what made it great in learning and art and religion. The city was further devastated in 1401 by Tamerlane.

The Abbasid Caliphate

The Abbasid Caliphate has only been mentioned so far as a target of the Assassins, but deserves more attention. Descended from Muhammad's uncle Abbas, the caliphate took power from the Umayyad caliphate and ruled from 750 until its conquest by Mongols in 1258.

That means that the Abbasid Caliphate was "in charge" during many of the Islamic interaction with Europe mentioned in this blog:

• Abu Ma'shar, the Father of Arab Astrology, who brought commentaries on Aristotle to Western Europeans
• The astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, who reconciled Greek and Arab star charts
• Averroes the Commentator
• Avicenna the surgeon
• ...and, of course, it was during this time that Algebra came to be

Besides math and philosophy, the Abbasid Caliphate was at the forefront of technology, adopting the use of Chinese paper-making techniques and gunpowder. Arabs developed the sextant, windmills for industrial use, and kerosene from petroleum.

The Abbasid's first capital was Kufa, on the banks of the Euphrates, but they shortly chose a different city, whose only shortcoming was that it did not exist.

On 30 July, 762, that would change; but that's a story for tomorrow.