Al-Rashid ruled from 786 to 809, traditionally regarded to be the beginning of the Islamic Golden Age. He established the legendary library Bayt al-Hikma (“House of Wisdom”) in Baghdad in present-day Iraq, and during his rule Baghdad began to flourish as a world center of knowledge, culture and trade.

During his reign, Baghdad started to develop as a hub of knowledge, culture, and trade. Harun offered multiple presents to his friends. During the rule of Harun al-Rashid, the Abbasid dynasty was flourishing with prosperity and power. Therefore he was declared as an extremely rich and learned ruler of his time.

Answer: The central idea of this book is to relate traditional middle East stories one after the other.

Harun al-Rashid (766-809) was the fifth caliph of the Abbasid dynasty. During his reign the power and prosperity of the dynasty was at its height, though its decline is sometimes held to have begun at that time.

Extract. At the end of January of the year 1258 A.D., after a siege of more than a month, the Mongol array stormed and took possession of Baghdad; then, on or about the 18th of February following, the thirty-seventh and last Caliph of the House of Abbas, Al-Musta’ṣim-billah, was by order of Hūlāgū put to death.

As the empire expanded, unrest among the people and opposition to the Umayyads increased. Many Muslims felt that the Umayyads had become too secular and were not following the ways of Islam. In 750, the Abbasids, a rival clan to the Umayyads, rose to power and overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate.

The Umayyad family had first come to power under the third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan (r. 644–656), but the Umayyad regime was founded by Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, long-time governor of Syria, after the end of the First Muslim Civil War in 661 CE. Under the Umayyads, the caliphate territory grew rapidly.

The area around the Kaaba was expanded in order to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims by the second caliph, ‘Umar, who ruled 634-44 CE. The Caliph ‘Uthman, who ruled 644-56 CE, built the colonnades around the open plaza where the Kaaba stands and incorporated other important monuments into the sanctuary.

Marwān II

Answer: The places they took over were divided into Arab Muslims and non-Arab Muslims. This led to tension and conflict among the varying ethnicities. Also because of bad leaders.

Four Caliphs

The Rashidun Caliphate reached its greatest extent under Caliph Uthman, in 654.

Abdülmecid II

ʿabd Al-malik Ibn Marwān

Hasan ibn Ali

Rashidun

Born in Mecca and raised in Medina, the two most holy sites of Islam, the fifth caliph, Abd Al Malik Ibn Marwan, spearheaded the creation of many of the institutions that centralized the Islamic empire around his capital in Damascus and asserted its independence from Byzantine traditions.

It is built from the Arabic words Abd, al- and Malik. The name means “servant of the King”, in the Christian instance ‘King’ meaning ‘King of Kings’ as in Jesus Christ and in Islam, Al-Malik being one of the names of God in the Qur’an, which give rise to the Muslim theophoric names.

Around 700, Abd al-Malik further unified the empire by introducing a common coinage. Coins were engraved with Arabic quotations from the Qur’an. The coins helped the spread and acceptance of Islam and the Arabic language. They also made commerce among the different parts of the empire much easier.

al-Malik (Arabic: الملك‎), literally “the King”, is a name that may refer to: The title King of Kings. One of the 99 names of God in Islam. Imam Malik.