Titans of History

Haroun’s strength as a ruler lay in the personal loyalty he commanded. When he became the fifth Abbasid caliph in 786 at the age of twenty-two, Baghdad’s populace spontaneously crowded the streets to rejoice. He has been criticized for leaving a clan of administrators, the Barmakids, to govern in the early years of his reign, and for being too influenced by his redoubtable mother, Khaizuran. Open and instinctively trusting, Haroun was content to accept the advice of his viziers and theologians. Leaving his administration in capable hands, Haroun preferred instead to undertake extensive tours of inspection across his vast territories, making himself personally known to his subjects. His forays through the streets of Baghdad were in fact more paternalistic than amorous; he was said to roam his capital in disguise to check on his people’s welfare.

Haroun was hot-tempered but quick to feel remorse and rarely vengeful. His most ruthless act was his removal of the Barmakids from power. Yahya al-Barmaki had been Haroun’s boyhood tutor, his first vizier, and the man he called father. After seventeen years of service in which Yahya and his family established a monopoly over the government of the caliphate, Haroun, in a lightning coup d’état, executed or imprisoned the entire clan and its clients. Romance has it that this was revenge for an affair between his vizier at that time, Jafar al-Barmaki, and Haroun’s sister. When Haroun eventually decided to move against the Barmakid clan, he ordered his grand vizier Jafar to spend the night feasting; while thus occupied he received a stream of gifts from the caliph until the arrival of a messenger bearing Haroun’s only request: the head of Jafar. More characteristic of Haroun was his subsequent pilgrimage to Mecca. The last of nine, this time he made the thousand-mile journey barefoot as penance for his acts against a family to whom he owed so much.

Haroun was one of the most respected rulers of his age, acknowledged by both of Europe’s emperors. Charlemagne reportedly sent him gifts, receiving an elephant and the keys of the Christian quarter of Jerusalem in return. The tribute of Byzantium’s emperors, however, was secured by military force rather than goodwill: Haroun defeated the Byzantines several times. After Nicephorus I became Byzantine emperor, he tried to renege on the tribute owed to the caliphs and furthermore demanded reimbursement for the tributes made by his predecessor, Empress Irene. Haroun’s response was simple: “You will hear my reply before you read it.” The former civil servant Nicephorus was no match for the military skill of the caliph. After Haroun and his 135,000-strong army laid waste to Asia Minor and a parallel naval force overwhelmed Cyprus, the emperor capitulated and agreed to pay a yearly tribute of 30,000 gold pieces, each stamped with the head of the caliph and his three sons.

Haroun’s death at the age of forty-seven cut short the reign of one of the most admired of the caliphs.

MAROZIA AND THE PAPAL PORNOCRACY

c. 890–932

… this monster without one single virtue to atone for his many vices.

The verdict of the bishops convened by Otto to try Pope John XII, 963

Beautiful, sinister and canny, Marozia was a political harlot and powerful noblewoman who became senatrix and patrician of Rome, queen of Italy and the mistress, murderess, mother and grandmother of popes. Hers was an astonishing career of depravity, greed, murder and ruthlessness that dominated the papacy for decades.

Marozia was born in 890, the daughter of Count Theophylact of Tusculum and his courtesan, Theodora, called a “shameless whore” and “sole monarch of Rome” by her enemies. Indeed both mother and her two daughters Marozia and another Theodora were infamous. As the English historian Edward Gibbon wrote:

The influence of two prostitutes Marozia and Theodora was founded on their wealth and beauty, their political and amorous intrigues: the most strenuous of their lovers were rewarded with the Roman mitre and their reign may have suggested to darker ages the fable of a female pope. The bastard son, the grand-son and great-grandson of Marozia, a rare genealogy, were seated in the Chair of St. Peter.