Academic
Developments
Mamoon Rasheed's regime was
constantly involved in betrayal and rebellion and he remained busy maintaining
order in the administration of the territories and provinces and punishing
insurgents. It is beyond expectation that a man who had to constantly monitor
the situation and the latest developments in his caliphate, could have paid
attention to the acquisition of knowledge and the development of the arts. It is
surprising that during his administration the sciences and arts developed
greatly. Mamoon achieved many remarkable feats in the field of learning; he
patronized scholarship in an unprecedented manner exceeding that of any other
age. That is why his fame is so enduring. Haroon Rasheed founded in Baghdad the
institute of Translation and the institute of Compilation called the House of
Wisdom, where educated of different foreign countries, followers of different
religions and scholars of various languages were always found at work.
Mamoon was interested in having
Aristotle's works translated. He wrote to the Roman Emperor requesting him to
send all of Aristotle's works available with him. The Emperor hesitated. He
consulted his Christian scholars. They said to him, "The books on
philosophy are under lock and key in our country and none is allowed to read
and teach them because they expel respect for religion from the people's
hearts. We must send these books to the Caliph of Islam so that the publicity of
philosophy will dampen the religious spirit of the Muslims." The Emperor
had five camels loaded with these books and sent them to Mamoon Rasheed. Mamoon
assigned the work of translation to Ishaq bin Kindi. He then sent his Christian
scholars, under his employment, to Rome and Greece to search and bring books of
science and the arts to him. A Christian scholar named Costa bin Luka went to
Rome of his own accord and brought many books from there. Mamoon appointed him
in the institute of Translation. In a similar manner, he employed Zoroastrian
scholars with high salaries and entrusted them with the translation of the
sciences and arts of that civilization, when Indian kings knew the interests of
Mamoon they sent Sanskrit scholars of repute to him as a gift to please him.
The translators at the institute of Translation received salaries up to 2,500
and these scholars numbered in the hundreds. Famous among them are Yaqub Kindi,
Hunain bin Ishaq, Costa bin Luka Balbakki, Abu Jafar Yahya bin Adi, and Jibrail
bin Bakhtishu. Besides salaries, the translators used to receive gold or silver
equal to the weight of the books they translated. The books brought from
Palestine, Egypt, Alexandria, Sicily, Rome, Iran and India were translated into
Arabic. Most of the translators themselves authored books on sciences and arts.
Some meritorious translators were deputed for correction and revision of
previous translations.
It was during Mamoon Rasheed's
regime that a famous scholar Muhammad bin Musa Khwarzami wrote a book on
Algebra in a competition sponsored by Mamoon in which he formulated the
principles of Algebra and till this age those principles were not broken and
not amended. When the study of the Greek books revealed to him that the earth
was round, he called the scholars of Geography and Astronomy and ordered them
to measure the circumference of the earth by selecting a vast and level field
and measuring one degree of it. The level field of Sanjar was chosen. At a
point an angle was formed with the height of the North Pole and then measuring
with a surveyor's measuring chain they moved straight towards the north. When
they had gone 69 and 2/3 miles to the North, one degree had increased in the
angle of the height of the North Pole. Therefore, if a distance of one degree
on the surface of the earth is 69 and 2/3 miles, the circumference of the whole
earth should be approximately 25,000 miles. 360 degrees multiplied by 69 and
2/3 miles is approximately 25,000 miles. When the experiment was repeated on
the plains of Kufa, the same results were arrived at.
[Editors note: The actual
circumference of the earth is 24,902 miles. It makes an interesting footnote
since this event took place more than 650 years before the time of Columbus.]
He had an observatory built at
Shamsiyah by Khalid bin Abdul Malik Marwrozi and Yahya bin Mansoor, and
appointed scholars of Astronomy to study the heavenly bodies. He called
scholars and those who were enlightened from all areas of the caliphate by
order. He held academic seminars and symposia and participated in them in
person. Scholars of literature, poets, orators, doctors, in short, the leaders
in all fields the like of whom one could have hardly found in the whole world
at that time, were present in Baghdad. Asmai was the most eminent scholar of
Arabic compilation, syntax and literature could not leave Kufa due to old age.
His salary was sent to him there. Important problems were sent to him in Kufa
for solution. Farra Nahwi collected and compiled the Science of Syntax with
many books written on this subject. A separate room in the royal palace was
vacated and reserved for him. Scholars used to come to be benefited as his
students. It was during Mamoon's regime that books on calligraphy were written
and its principles and rules were collected, classified and set in order. In
brief, it was due to Mamoon's patronage of learning that the Muslims were fully
exposed to the sciences and arts of Greece, Iran, Egypt and India all in one
place, the city of Baghdad.
Although the Muslims needed no other
sciences and arts in the presence of the Quran and Hadith, they turned to the
ancient philosophers and the physical sciences and systemized them as if they
were newly formulated. They worked with absolute freedom. Although these
foreign sciences and philosophies clashed with the Quran at times, the servants
of Islam had the opportunity to prove these philosophies and principles wrong.
A chain of clashes between religion and science began. The academic superiority
that Islam achieved surpassed the conquests of territory achieved during the
dynasty of Banu Umayyah. These academic conquests elevated the status of the
caliphate of the Abbasids to be on par with Banu Umayyah. However, from the
standpoint of worldly conquests the caliphate of the Abbasids can never be equal
to the caliphate of Banu Umayyah. On the contrary, if we evaluate on the basis
of worldly conquests the caliphate of Banu Abbas totally failed because it was
not able to hold all the territory it acquired from Banu Umayyah.
Rebuttal
of a Charge
In some history books it was
recorded wrongly that Mamoon Rasheed Abbasi invaded an Indian king of Rajputana
named Bapa Rawal 22 times and every time he was defeated and chased away by
Bapa Rawal. It is said that the same distortion has also been recorded in some
other books used in the Indian school system. Those who read in their youth
that Mamoon was defeated 22 times by Bapa, automatically have a low image about
Mamoon who, in order to subdue an ordinary feudal lord, had to use all his
might throughout the long period of his Caliphate in vain. In the above pages,
the conditions of Mamoon Rasheed Abbasi's regime have been recorded including
the activities he was engaged in before he became Caliph. After becoming the
ruler of Khorasan, he lived in Merv. It was at that time that Haroon Rasheed
died at Tus. After that, Mamoon remained in Tus six years and did not leave. It
is correct that his armies put down the rebellion in Kandahar and Kabul and
Islam came to be accepted in that territory by 200 A.H.
During that period, the king of
Tibet embraced Islam and sent his images of gold and silver to Caliph Mamoon
Rasheed at Merv. Sind was a part of his Caliphate and the governors, appointed
by the Caliph's court, ruled there. However, Mamoon never went there in person.
He left Merv and went to Baghdad. The details of that journey are recorded in
historical documents. However, there is no mention of his journey to Sind or
his invasion of India. After arriving in Baghdad, he lived there for a long
period. At the end of his life, he left Baghdad to launch attacks on Roman
territory. He also went to Syria and Egypt.
While he was returning from the
campaigns against the Romans, he died. It defies reason to find the period in
which to record his supposed attacks on India. It is possible that some
governor of Sind might have sent a division of an army to Rajputana to
discipline and punish some feudal lord. But it probably was such an
insignificant expedition that it was not recorded in the historical
documentation. If it is said the governor of Sind sent an army, which was
defeated by Bapa and the Muslims did not record it to preserve their
reputation. Such an objection exposes the objector's dishonesty for he
justifies falsehood in the recording of history, in all other cases the Muslim
historians never concealed the defeats of Mamoon's armies and the many failures
of his generals. While mentioning the plundering by the Zutt, they have
mentioned Nasr bin Sheeth's taunt that Mamoon could not even defeat the few
toads of Zutt. The historians, who supposedly committed the crime of distorting
facts to favor him, could have easily deleted the Zutt incident because after a
short time, that community was totally wiped off the surface of the earth by
the Romans and the incident could have remained hidden. However, this baseless
lie was fabricated to extol Bapa's valor. This is the same kind of joking lie
that the Hindu historians have stated about Vikramaditya, without any shame
that he went to Italy and defeated the Roman emperor Julius Caesar in Rome.
This is probably a reply to Alexander's invasion of India where they harmlessly
even the historical score with their fabrication. Such light talk may provide a
momentary pleasure at village meetings but it is not the recording of history.
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