Islamic leaders, their biographies and accomplishments. Saul Silas Fathi

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Название Islamic leaders, their biographies and accomplishments
Автор произведения Saul Silas Fathi
Жанр Биографии и Мемуары
Серия
Издательство Биографии и Мемуары
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781626203761



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and sentenced to life imprisonment for seditious conspiracy for a bombing plot. In early 1999, from his high security jail in the US, he endorsed the unilateral cease-fire declared by al Gamaat al Islamiya.

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      Abdullah al-Ma’mun ibn Harun al-Rashid was born in Baghdad after his father’s accession to the Abbasid throne at the age of twenty-two. The Caliph invited the leading scholars to come and teach al-Ma’mun. He thus received a thorough education in Arabic language, literature and aspects of Islamic sciences. Young al-Ma’mun acquired considerable knowledge of Islamic sciences and became thoroughly familiar with the Qur’an.

      In 809, Caliph Harun al-Rashid died at the age of forty-three. During his reign of twenty-two years he completely transformed the fortunes of the Abbasid Empire. He restored peace, order and security throughout his vast empire. Under Harun’s patronage, Baghdad became one of the Muslim world’s most famous educational, cultural and architectural centers.

      Al-Ma’mun was keen to reward his staff handsomely so as to prevent corruption, bribery and malpractice from rearing their ugly heads within his Government, and in this respect he was very successful. Like his father, al-Ma’mun transformed Baghdad into a thriving city. Under his stewardship, it became the world’s most dazzling capital city, being renowned for its schools, colleges, hospitals, markets, bookshops and libraries. As a generous patron of learning and education, he transformed the bait al-Hikmah (‘the House of Wisdom’), which was originally founded by his father Caliph Harun al-Rashid, into one of the Muslim world’s most famous libraries and research centers. He not only expanded its activities and renamed it as dar al-Hikmah (‘the Abode of Wisdom’), he also went out of his way to recruit some of the Muslim world’s brightest minds.

      Al-Ma’mun chose to champion the views of the Mu’tazilites with the result that, during his reign, Mu’tazilism became the official creed of the State. Unlike the Islamic traditionalists, who argued that the Qur’an was the uncreated Word of God, al-Ma’mun – like the Mu’tazilites – considered it to be a created Word of God.

      Caliph al-Ma’mun’s reign of two and a half decades came to an end when he was forty-seven. He died in the village of Budandun (in present-day Pozanti) during a military expedition he led against the Byzantines. His body was transferred to Tarsus where he was laid to rest following a simple funeral. His half-brother Abu Ishaq Muhammad Mu’tasim Billah succeeded him as Caliph.

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      During World War I, Abdullah, with British support, led Arab revolts against Turkish rule. After the war, the unsuccessfully fought against Ibn Saud for control of the Hejaz. In 1921, Great Britain made Abdullah the emir of Transjordan as well as placed Abdullah’s brother Faisal as king of Iraq. In World War II, Abdullah strongly opposed the Axis powers. Following the partition of Palestine (May, 1948) he led the troops of his British-trained force, the Arab Legion, against the newly declared state of Israel. Abdullah annexed the portions of Palestine now known as the West Bank. His foreign policy was directed toward creation of an Arab federation, preferably under Hashemite rule. In 1951 he was assassinated in Jerusalem.

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