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From Baghdad to Bukhara, from Ghazna to Delhi: The Khil‘a Ceremony in the Transmission of Kingly Pomp and Circumstance

  • Gavin R. G. Hambly
Chapter
Part of the The New Middle Ages book series (TNMA)

Abstract

Prior to his death in 193/809, the fifth ‘Abbāsid caliph, al-Rashīd, made an unusual disposition of the caliphate, bequeathing to his eldest son, al-Amīn, the caliphal office together with the western and central provinces, while endowing his second son, al-Ma’mūn, the offspring of a Persian slave-girl, with the great province of Khurasan north and east of the Iranian Dasht-i Lut and Dasht-i Kavir.2 This latter charge provided the fiscal and manpower resources for the younger son to challenge the elder, and after a protracted fratricidal struggle, al-Amīn was killed and al-Ma’mūn took his place (198/813). Recognizing the practical problems of administering Khurasan from Baghdad, he appointed his most trusted henchman, Ṭāhir b. al-Husayn, its governor in 205/821.

Keywords

British Museum Fourteenth Century Islamic Society Islamic Culture Independent Ruler 
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Notes

  1. 11.
    See, for example, Richard N. Frye, The Golden Age of Persia: The Arabs in the East (London: Thames and Hudson, 1975), pp. 186–212.Google Scholar
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