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| 803 |
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| Fall of the Barmakid family. The caliph Harun al-Rashid ended the family's role as chief administrators when the Barmakids became too powerful. One of them was killed and the rest imprisoned. Their demise underscored the vulnerability of those who served the caliph at the highest levels. | 1 |
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| 809 |
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| The first public hospital in the Islamic world was founded in Baghdad. Similar institutions, usually supported by endowed property, appeared in other major cities and served as teaching centers for medical students. | 2 |
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| c. 815 |
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| Death of Abu Nuwas (al-Hasan ibn Hani), a renowned lyric poet who cut a colorful and raucous figure at the court of Harun al-Rashid. | 3 |
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| 816–38 |
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| The revolt of Babak in Azerbaijan. This heretical movement, called the Khurramiyya, attracted peasants and villagers. Followers waged the longest dissident uprising in Abbasid history. Babak espoused the doctrines of Mazdak (d. 528) in regard to shared property and women, and also advocated transmigration of souls (tanasukh), a doctrine unacceptable in Islam. | 4 |
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| 818 |
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| Death of the eighth Shi’ite imam, Ali al-Rida. The caliph al-Ma'mun appointed the imam his heir (Mar. 817), to placate Shi’ite Muslims in his realm, but Ali died before the caliph did. Since the imam was 20 years older than al-Ma'mun, the appointment was largely symbolic. | 5 |
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| 820 |
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| Death of Muhammad al-Shafi’i (b. 767), founder of the Shafi’i law school. He systematized Islamic law and is considered the greatest legal scholar of the formative period of the shari’a. The Shafi’i school predominates in lower Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, and East Africa to this day. | 6 |
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| 821–73 |
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| THE TAHIRID DYNASTY. Situated in Khurasan, this semi-independent dynasty was founded by the general Tahir ibn al-Husayn (d. 822), who gained the governorship of the province as a reward for his services to the caliph al-Ma'mun. The Tahirids rendered tribute to the caliph in Baghdad and acknowledged him on the coins they minted. They held court at Nishapur and encouraged the opening of trade routes to central Asia. They were defeated by the Saffarid regime in 873. | 7 |
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| 823 |
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| Death of Muhammad al-Waqidi, a historian whose work, the Kitab al-maghazi, ranks among the earliest accounts of the conquests directed by the Prophet Muhammad. | 8 |
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| 827 |
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| Invasion of Sicily by the Aghlabids. The island was captured from the Byzantines in a series of campaigns lasting about half a century, in the course of which Muslim forces even attacked Rome (846). Sicily remained under Islamic control until the Norman conquest (completed 1091) (See 1072–91). | 9 |
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| 827–48 |
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| The mihna (ordeal, or inquisition) imposed by the caliph al-Ma'mun. All judges, scholars, and theologians had to take an oath, a test of faith that was also a test of political loyalty to the caliph and his preference for the theology of the Mu’tazili school. Most Muslims believed the Qur'an was uncreated and coeternal with Allah, but the Mu’tazili believed this contravened their central notion of the unity of God. In attempting to dictate theology, the caliph also sought to ensure the loyalty of his subjects and the uniformity of their political and doctrinal thought. Such tyranical interference was opposed by the ulama, some of whom refused to accept Mu’tazili doctrine and faced torture, imprisonment, and death. | 10 |
| The mihna was an attempt by al-Ma'mun to enlarge the scope of the caliphate into the religious sphere. His inquisition lasted beyond his death, but was ultimately abandoned in 848 by the caliph al-Mutawakkil. The failure of the Islamic inquisition meant the triumph of the ulama as a body of jurists, educators, scholars, and theologians who served as the sole interpreters of the Islamic faith. After the mihna, no Abbasid caliph would ever again attempt to impose religious doctrine. | 11 |
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| 830 |
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| House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma) founded in Baghdad by al-Ma'mun for the translation of Greek and Syriac works into Arabic. The translations included the works of Aristotle, Plato, Galen, and Hippocrates. Texts from Sanskrit translated into Arabic also included manuals that described plants and medicinal herbs. | 12 |
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| 833–42 |
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| AL-MU’TASIM. In an attempt to strengthen his political position, al-Mu’tasim introduced an innovation that took root and reshaped the structure of Middle Eastern regimes. He created a slave army designed to be loyal to him alone, to serve as a trustworthy counterweight to ambitious opponents in Baghdad. The recruits consisted of central Asian Turks, who were captured as youths and converted to Islam, trained for a life in the military, and paid for their services. The slave soldier (called ghulam and, from the 11th century, mamluk) became a member of a new military elite that steadily took control of Abbasid politics. Subsequent Middle Eastern regimes, including the Ottoman and the Safavid empires, adopted the institution of the slave army. | 13 |
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