Al-Ma'mun

Michael Cooperson is Associate Professor of Arabic at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Classical Arabic Biography: The Heirs of the Prophet in the Age of al-Ma'mun.

• Acknowledgements 1 INTRODUCTIONAl-Ma’mun Attacks the PyramidThe Scholar-CaliphThe World Inherited by IslamMuslims: A Divided MinorityThe Coming of the AbbasidsThe Problem of the Sources 2 EDUCATIONParents, Step-parents and Foster ParentsTopography and Domestic SpaceElementary EducationGrammarPoetryHistory and HadithLearning to ThinkThe Legacy of IranThe Question of the LawAn Inscrutable Personality? 3 THE FIRST SUCCESSION CRISISThe Succession to al-RashidAl-Ma’mun Left in the LurchA New Force in KhurasanThe Civil WarThe Siege of BaghdadThe Death of al-Amin and the Crisis of Legitimacy 4 THE SECOND SUCCESSION CRISISAl-Rida’s Claim to the ImamateThe End of the World?An Appeal to Iranian Muslims?The Proto-Sunni ResponseA Reversal of Policy?Al-Ma’mun’s Return to BaghdadAl-Ma’mun’s Later pro-Alid PoliciesLater Shiite ResponsesThe Pilgrimage to Mashhad 5 SCIENCE AND RATIONALISMThe Ancient Scientific LegacyThe Translation MovementMeasuring the EarthGreek Medicine in BaghdadThe Book of Ingenious DevicesBreakthroughs in MathematicsThe Map of the WorldHostility to the Literalists 6 DEFENDER OF THE FAITHRecentralization and the New MilitaryThe Byzantine CampaignsThe Dome of the RockProvoking the LiteralistsThe InquisitionThe Scholars ResistThe Death of al-Ma’munThe Inquisition After al-Ma’munThe Historical Significance of the Inquisition EpilogueBibliographyIndex