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Muhammad al-Amin (787-813 CE)
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Muhammad al-Amin was a caliph of the Abbasid Dynasty of the Islamic Empire, whose brief reign came as the dynasty began its slow decline. He was born Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Amin in Baghdad in 787, the older son of Harun al-Rashid, the caliph whose reign marked the zenith of the Abbasid Dynasty, and who became famous as a character in the Thousand and One Arabian Nights stories. al-Rashid was also known to have a love relationship with his brother-in-law, Ja'far or Giafar, a member of the powerful Barmakis family, before turning on him in a bloody purge in 803. al-Amin's great-grandfather, al-Masur, had founded the city of Baghdad in 762. His mother, Zubaydah, had overseen many civic works throughout the empire and had been a practitioner of the Ismaili faith. She is believed to have secretly warned other Ismailis of crackdowns initiated by her husband. At the age of twelve, al-Amin came under the tutelage of his father's vizier, al-Fadl, another Barmakis, until he was imprisoned during the purge. He also became the student and lover of the poet Abu Nuwas, a close friend of the Barmakis family. Because of this friendship, Nuwas was forced to flee Baghdad in the wake of the Barmakis purge, but not before instilling in al-Amin his own love for wine and boys. In 802, during a pilgrimage to Mecca, al-Rashid composed what came to be known as "the Mecca documents," in which he divided his empire between his two sons. al-Amin was bequeathed Iraq and the western territories as far as Spain and Morocco, while his younger brother Abdullah al-Mamun received Persia and Khurasan. In the event of al-Amin's death, al-Mamun would inherit the entire caliphate. If either brother violated the terms of this will, he would forfeit his right of inheritance. This last provision would set the stage for a bloody end to al-Amin's reign. On 24 March, 809, al-Amin ascended the throne in Baghdad following the death of his father. More interested in pleasure than state craft, he gave Fazl bin Rabi, an associate of his father, full administrative control. He then promptly began holding banquets and parties in his palaces, and had a yacht constructed for pleasure cruises on the Tigris. He also welcomed Abu Nuwas back from exile, and the two began sharing their mutual fondness for wine and boys, much to the consternation of the more conservative members of the court. In time, reports painted al-Amin as a selfish, shallow, and cruel young man. Eventually, the caliph grew tired of sharing his table and his boys with his old teacher, and had Abu Nuwas imprisoned, where he may have spent the rest of his life. Although his fondness for boys was such that one contemporary writer called the caliph "a husband for the eunuchs,” al-Amin did produce one son, Musa, whom he named in 810 as his heir and successor, an act which many saw as a violation of the terms set forth in the Mecca documents, including al-Amin's brother. When al-Mamun refused to recognize the new order of succession, al-Amin attempted to use force against his brother, and civil war broke out in the empire. al-Amin's forces were easily defeated by al-Mamun's armies, led by Tahir bin al-Husayn, which soon closed in on Baghdad and began a fourteen month siege, during which siege engine bombardments reduced much of the city to ruins. al-Amin was briefly deposed in 812 but quickly retook the throne. Finally, Baghdad was captured in 813, and the young caliph was captured and beheaded on 25 September of that year. His brother was invested as caliph, initially ruling from Marw, in Khurasa, before moving his court to Baghdad in 819. Although al-Mamun quickly restored Baghdad to its former glory and renewed his father's civic works and patronage of the arts, the Abbasid caliphate never fully recovered from the civil war between the two brothers, or the many revolts that had occurred during al-Amin's reign. The slow decline of the Abbasid Dynasty had begun, finally ending when Mongols sacked and captured Baghdad in 1258. For further reading see The History of al Tabari : Vol. 31 : The War between Brothers: The Caliphate of Muhammadal-Amin A.D. 809-813/A.H. 193-198, translated by Michael Fishbein, State University of New York Press, 1992. Links: Biography of al-Amin's brother Abu Nuwas, the first and foremost Islamic gay poet Declining Middle East Chronology
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