An interesting sidelight from Islamic history, by Ali MInai. Originally published on his blog “Barbarikon“,Ā reposted here with Ali Minai’s permission.
The Caliph and the Imam
A Shocking Decision
Sometime in 816 CE ā year 200 in the Hijri calendar of Islam ā the seventh Abbasid Caliph al-Mamun made a very strange decision. If near-contemporary historical narratives are to be believed,Ā he offered his throneĀ ā and thus power over lands from India to Morocco ā to the leader of his fiercest opponents,Ā the Shiāa. It was a breathtakingly audacious decision ā so audacious that it failed almost immediately. The eighth infallible Imam of the Shiāa,Ā āAli bin Musa al-Rida, was not interested.Ā Ā Al-Mamun had to recalibrate, and he did so by nominating Ali al-Rida as his successor. The Imam demurred again, but this time the Caliph was adamant: The Imam must accept or he and his family would suffer. Imam Ali al-Ridaās family was no stranger to suffering. Almost all of his ancestors ā direct descendants to the Prophet himself ā had been persecuted,Ā many martyredĀ or imprisoned. His own father, the seventh ImamĀ Musa al-Kadhim, had perished as a prisoner of al-Mamunās father, the famousĀ Harun al-RashidĀ of A Thousand and One Nights. Whatever the reasons, Ali al-Rida acquiesced, and on the 27thĀ day of Ramadan in 201 AH (April 18, 817 CE), he was proclaimed āwali āahd al-musliminā ā the designated successor to the 31-year old al-Mamun.Ā Coins were soon minted asserting this new designationĀ ā the standard way of declaring authority ā and the traditional black flags of the Abbasids were replaced by the green flags of the Shiāa Imams. A little more than a year later, the Imam was dead. Al-Mamun would rule for another fifteen years.
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