Titans of History

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Recollections of the Arabian Nights” (1830)

Renowned for his luxury, hedonism, generosity and piety, Haroun al-Rashid was the remarkable caliph who reigned over the Abbasid Arab empire during its golden age. A lover of poetry, music and learning, Haroun’s fabulous court has been immortalized, and fictionalized, in The Arabian Nights.

Haroun appears in many of The Arabian Nights’ tales as a man devoted to pleasure and sensuality, a ruler who only abandons his magnificent court when he sneaks out incognito into the city at night for amorous encounters. The real Haroun was actually a capable military commander and autocrat. His piety was of the rational sort. He encouraged singing, believing the Koran’s ban on music did not extend to the human voice. A keen horseman, he built race courses and is said to have introduced polo to the Arabs. Feast days and hunting expeditions became occasions of unparalleled splendor.

Haroun’s empire extended from the borders of India to Spain, affording him the pursuit of pleasure on a scale that no other kingdom could match. Occasionally he checked himself, murmuring: “I ask pardon of God, I have spent too much money.” But his largesse was widely distributed: every morning Haroun donated at least 1000 dirhams to the poor, setting an example that his wealthy subjects emulated, and giving rise to rumors that Baghdad’s streets were paved with gold.

The Abbasids had seized the throne of the Islamic empire in 750, moving their court from Damascus to a new capital called Baghdad in Iraq. The court of the Abbasid caliphs was the marvel of the world. Ambassadors from other lands rubbed their eyes as they were shown elephants and lions decked out in brocade and satin, and gasped as they stood under the shade of a tree made of gold and silver, festooned with jeweled fruits. Proceeding through scores of courtyards, miles of marble arcades, innumerable chambers dripping with almost unimaginable wealth, they finally reached the caliph’s presence. Here they were dazzled by the ebony throne and jewels so bright they seemed to eclipse the sun.

The caliphs embraced excess with abandon. When Haroun’s son Mam’un married, the bride was showered with a thousand pearls. Haroun’s 2000 singing and servant girls, twenty-four concubines and five wives seem moderate compared with the 4000 concubines of one of his descendants, who, in a reign lasting only a thousand nights, managed to sleep with every single one of them. Less successful was Mam’un’s wedding night: the newly married couple found the scent of the precious ambergris candles irritating and ordered them to be removed from the bedroom. Mam’un himself subsequently withdrew when it became apparent that the bride’s menstruation precluded consummation.

Legends of the harem abounded, and death awaited any man other than the caliph who gained entry to this shadowy, voluptuous kingdom. Fragranced with saffron and rosewater, each of the seven slave girls who attended Haroun at his daily siesta knew that sensuality could garner unimaginable rewards—Haroun’s mother Khaizuran herself had risen from slave girl to powerful wife of the caliph.

Poets and musicians flocked to the court, which became the cultural center of the Islamic world. Praising their ruler in language as lavish as his surroundings, the poets earned themselves considerable rewards. Musicians, hidden behind velvet curtains, provided the backdrop to long evenings of drinking and feasting. But death could come suddenly amid the hedonism, for intrigues abounded in the shadows.

Haroun made Baghdad the hub of civilization, earning it the name “Bride of the World.” Believing that “It is a disgrace for a ruler not to be learned,” he was on a constant quest for knowledge, and also promoted learning and the arts among his own people. He endowed scholarships, invited wise men from every kingdom to visit Baghdad and encouraged his formerly introspective scholars to profit from their knowledge. Haroun initiated an age of translation of Greek and other Christian classics of philosophy, and mathematics, medicine, astronomy and engineering all flourished.

Haroun’s great love was poetry. No mean poet himself, his knowledge of verse was unparalleled even by learned men—he frequently corrected them on a slipped word. Poets filled his courts and were handsomely rewarded. Poetry was such a consuming passion for Haroun that he gave it up when on pilgrimage as an act of self-denial.