Arabian Nights: Harun al-Rashid

One of my favorite Disney movies, after Robin Hood and The Jungle Book, is Aladdin. The story is filled with the romance, mystery, and action that I loved as a child and is why I still enjoy the movie today. Stories such as Aladdin, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and Sinbad’s Voyages are folktales in the book One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Europeans compiled and translated these stories in the 18th century, but the earliest known written versions date back to the 14th century. Even though the stories in One Thousand and One Nights had their origins in the Golden Age of the Islamic Empire, there is no definitive text or author. This collection of stories was hugely popular influential in later European literature, and, even today, the adventure and mysticism from One Thousand and One Nights inspires films and plays. Many of these tales are based on actual people and events, but they are greatly exaggerated. Immortalized within the stories of One Thousand and One Nights is the caliph, Harun al-Rashid. His adventures disguised as a commoner, where he wanders the city streets with his closest companions as they discover the issues the common people face, solve murders, and help people in distress are told in stories such as The Tale of the Three Apples. Like characters in many stories, the real Harun al-Rashid was not nearly as noble or as successful as his fictional self.

Harun al-Rashid was born to the prince Mahdi in Iran and to a slave mother, Khayzuran in approximately 762 CE. He would eventually come to be caliph of the Abbasid Islamic Empire that stretched from modern day Tunisia through Egypt to Syria and Central Asia. The Abbasid dynasty overthrew the Umayyad dynasty in 750. Many Muslims considered the Umayyads tyrannical and impious, whereas the Abbasids ruled more in keeping with the Koran. During the reign of Harun al-Rashid, Baghdad grew into a prosperous city. The people attributed the relative safety and security they felt within the Islamic Empire to his rule, but overall, Harun al-Rashid did little to improve or advance the Islamic Empire. Harun’s son and successor, Ma’mun was the one who established the House of Wisdom and greatly expanded scholarship within the empire. Harun was not a great political ruler, he struggled militarily, and he faced internal conflicts. His popularity today comes, not from his achievements, but from his role in One Thousand and One Nights.

Harun was second in line to ascend to the role of caliph after his brother Hadi. Following their father’s death, Hadi took power, which was fine with Harun but not with their mother, Khayzuran, who favored the younger son. When Hadi forcefully recommended that his mother remain in the women’s quarters and stick to domestic affairs, she became angry. He died under mysterious circumstances shortly thereafter. Harun was then able to gain power but he left the business of ruling to his close friends in a powerful Persian family, the Barmakids. His closest friend from this family was Ja’far who appears in many of the tales alongside Harun. From all accounts, Harun al-Rashid was closely tied to this family, until, for no apparent reason, either to the people of the time or future historians, Harun had the entire Barmakid family murdered.

Harun had frequent contact with his contemporary, Charlemagne, and the two seemed to be allied against the Byzantine Empire. Harun supported annual raids and skirmishes against the Byzantines along the border between the Islamic and Byzantine empires. He died of natural causes in 809 CE when he was in his mid-forties, but he will forever remain a character in the stories of the Arabian Nights.

Sources:
Kennedy, Hugh. "The True Caliph of the Arabian Nights." History Today 54.9 (2004): 31-36. Academic One File. Web. 15 Nov. 2009. <>.

Saunders, J.J. "Harun al-Rashid and His Times." History Today 13.1 (1963): 52-62. Periodicals Archive Online. Web. 15 Nov. 2009. .