Abbasid Gardens in Baghdad and Samarra

The Perfumes of Arabia
by RY Deshpande

Not Mecca the birthplace of Mohammad nor Medina where he became the Prophet and King, but Baghdad of the Abbasids was the centre of Islamic culture and civilization for five great centuries. Founded in 762 by the mighty Caliph al-Mansur on the banks of the Tigris this old Babylonian city, aptly called the Gift of God, remained in its conquering glory until the Mongols subjugated it in 1258. Baghdad as capital of the Caliphate became in the Middle Ages the seat of power and also had the distinction of being the intellectual centre of the world. A blaze of philosophical, scientific and literary creations brought to mankind another spirit of life's opulence. The poet Anwari praised it as a seat of learning and art, with gorgeous crafts on display in streets and marts. Here were a thousand splendid mansions, villas and palaces "simple without, but within, nothing but azure and gold.... The royal palace at Baghdad had on its floors 22,000 carpets and on its walls 38,000 tapestries out of which 12,500 were of silk."

Seeing the dead body of Mohammad in 632, Abu Bakr said: "God is our witness. Death will not come upon you twice over." Since then Islam was on its stridency and nothing could hold it back even in distant lands across rivers and seas. During the time of Mohammad tension had already begun to grow between those who accepted Islam as preached by him and the followers of the old Jewish religion. The years 622-30 saw the courageous Prophet enforcing his position by successful military campaigns in the lustre of Damascus steel. This continued with multiple vigour in the later years. Soon through victory and expansion the Muslim armies swept across the Arabian Peninsula, annexing territories from Spain to Persia.

In 634 an army of 18,000 Arab Muslims under the leadership of a brilliant commander, Khalid ibn al-Walid, was at the Euphrates delta on way to conquer Persia. The enemy force, though vastly superior in every respect, was convincingly defeated and the captured soldiers were taken as captives. This battle, known as the Battle of the Chains, was the beginning of the march of the Muslim spirit through the pages of history. "Accept the faith and you are safe," the Sassanids were told; "otherwise pay tribute. If you refuse to do either, you have only yourself to blame. A people is already upon you, loving death as you love life." The Persian tribes rallied briefly under Rustum but soon, in May 636, he was killed on the banks of the Euphrates and all was over.

Islam then quickly spread throughout the Middle East and moved across North Africa. In 711 Tariq ibn Zayyad crossed the distant strait now named after him as Jebel al-Tariq or the Hill of Tariq, Gibraltar. India and Southeast Asia came under its sway in the course of time. The reasons for its expansion can be attributed to the strength of the Arab armies with the vitality that the aggressive life-force had put into them. The use of horse and camel cavalry added to its early military victories and triumphs.

The establishment of Caliphate rule brought great political coherence to the vast empire that got built in such a short period. There was the Promise of the Great, as if bringing with it the sanction of fulfilment: "Caliphate will be established among you on the path and pattern of prophethood." Caliphate or Khilafat has all along been taken as the divine institution and when it was at its peak it also marked the Golden Age of Islam. It is even said that "the establishment and superiority of Islam and existence and stability of Khilafat are inseparable." (Dar-us-Salaam by Chaudhry Rehmat Ali) It is in this context that we have to understand what Mahatma Gandhi wrote about it when the Ottoman Empire was breaking up at the end of the First World War. For him Khilafat was more precious than India's independence. "To the Mussalmans Swaraj means, as it must, India's ability to deal effectively with the Khilafat question." He further added: "It is impossible not to sympathise with this attitude... I would gladly ask for postponement of the Swaraj activity if we could advance the interest of the Khilafat."

Three great Abbasid names, roughly during the period 750-850, that brought renown to the Muslim pride and triumph stand out distinctly: al-Mansur, Harun al-Rashid and his son al-Mamun. Al-Mansur"tall, slender, bearded, dark, austere, no slave to woman's beauty, no friend of wine or song,"was an excellent orator and administrator. His empire stretched from western China to northern Africa. The Caliph of the Arabian Nights, al-Harun, "a gay and cultured monarch, occasionally despotic and violent, often generous and humane," brought wider cultural horizons that also included scientific works. And then al-Mamun, "though capable at times of the fury and cruelty that had disgraced Harun, was usually a man of mild and lenient temper " set up an institute, the House of Wisdom, to promote learning and render into Arabic ancient manuscripts. Amongst translations from Greek writings one of the first was Ptolemy's astronomy based on the geocentric system. Based on this foundation we have three centuries that mark the zenith of Islam's golden age when there was an unrivalled intellectual activity in several fields such as science, mathematics, technology, art, literature including biography, history and linguistics. Along with these also prospered agriculture and trade.

About the cultural expansion during the period of al-Mamun an Arab historian states the following: "He looked for knowledge where it was evident, and thanks to the breadth of his conceptions and the power of his intelligence, he drew it from places where it was hidden. He entered into relations with the emperors of Byzantium, gave them rich gifts, and asked them to give him books of philosophy which they had in their possession. These emperors sent him those works of Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, Euclid, and Ptolemy which they had. As a practical visionary al-Mamun then chose the most experienced translators and commissioned them to translate these works to the best of their ability. After the translating was done as perfectly as possible, the Caliph urged his subjects to read the translations and encouraged them to study them. Consequently, the scientific movement became stronger under this prince's reign. Scholars held high rank, and the Caliph surrounded himself with learned men, legal experts, traditionalists, rationalist theologians, lexicographers, annalists, metricians, and genealogists. He then ordered instruments to be manufactured."

A propos of al-Mamun's intellectual afternoon here is an account: "Caliph al-Mamun used to hold a salon every Tuesday for the discussion of questions in theology and law... The learned men of diverse sects were shown into a chamber spread with carpets. Tables were brought in laden with food and drink... When the repast was finished, servants fetched braziers of incense, and the guests perfumed themselves; then they were admitted to the Caliph. He would debate with them in a manner as fair and impartial, and as unlike the haughtiness of a monarch, as can be imagined. At sunset a second meal was served, and the guests departed to their homes." (The Age of Faith, Will Durant)

Baghdad housing the Academy of Wisdom soon became an active centre of learning in several branches of knowledge. Scholars of all races and religions worked there in secular spirit to preserve universal heritage. It is said that the "rush toward Baghdad was as impressive as the horsemen's sweep through entire lands during the Arab conquest."

Baghdad was a city with the population of almost a million people. The attention that was paid by the ruling monarchs in harnessing the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers brought rich dividends to the kingdom. The development of elaborate irrigation systems yielded large quantities of grain not only to feed its citizens but also to export to other places. At this time Baghdad was second in size only to Constantinople.

The privileged at the Caliph's court were probably invited to play polo or go hunting. Horseracing for the aristocratic public and cockfights and ram-fights for a lower level of society were common pastimes. Popular entertainment was offered in public places. Masudi writes: "In Baghdad, there was a street storyteller who amused the crowd with all sorts of tales and funny stories. His name was ibn Maghazili. He was very amusing and could not be seen or heard without provoking laughter. As he told his stories, he added many jokes which would have made a mourning mother laugh and would have amused a serious man." There were also street hawkers who offered extraordinary products to their gaping customers.

"The cultured residents of Baghdad," narrates an observer, "liked their pleasure. They gathered secretly in cabarets, and some of them met in Christian monasteries on the outskirts of the city. The Book of Convents by Shabushti is really a description of the city's taverns. Wine was certainly drunk in these places. The Bacchic poets of the time were there to testify to that. Snow sherbets were eaten. Concerts were given in rooms cooled by punkahs. Abu Nuwas exclaims, 'in how many taverns did I land during the night cloaked in pitch-like blackness? The cabaret owner kept on serving me as I kept on drinking with a beautiful white girl close to us.' Gambling houses were also popular. Chess, especially, was highly favoured and backgammon was second in popularity. It is probable that the shadow-theater was a form of entertainment also."

We get a flavour of the general sensuous manner of the Arabian Nights in the story of an obsessive prince winning his beloved: "...how desirable the mysterious Princess Duniya was said to be, how beautiful and how expert in the art of silk embroidery, he fell into passion for her which worked greatly in his heart..." The Isle of Camphor and Crystal where she lived must be conquered. Finally, Taj al-Muluk wins his Duniya.

That wine and love can lend themselves as metaphors to the lyric-mystical expression of a Sufi poet is well illustrated in Omar Khayyam (1048-1122). He wrote a tract on algebra which won him the patronage of a rich and influential doctor in Samarkand. Later he became the personal physician of Sultan Malik Shah. He also wrote treatises on physics and mathematics and reformed the Persian calendar. Maker of tents and an astronomer-poet, he is said to have been a God-intoxicated mystic. In his Rubaiyats the occurrence of the potter-pot image is very common. There is also the alchemist's belief that in this intoxication life's leaden metal shall be transmuted into gold. In fact he went farther in stating that the enchanted sword of Virtue shall be victorious in the world of evil, as was warrior-king Mahmud of the time.

The possibility of seeing the spiritual behind the unsubstantial, of the enduring behind the fleeting can dawn on us when we understand the significance of the cosmic play which is also a play of delight in its truest sense.


Therefore, what is uncertain or bygone need not worry us when the present is with us to enjoy. It avails not to regret the passage of Time when the timeless now is today. In it is all sweetness, the true joy of life. This is the moment in which we can achieve all that can be achieved here. So "Omar Khayyam would have no hesitation in divorcing the barren woman Reason and take in his bed the Daughter of the Vine for life's pleasures." That the ideas of the Upanishads with experiential connotations are present in such Sufist poetry is unmistakable. "Sufism repeats [these Upanishadic thoughts and perceptions] in another religious language," says Sri Aurobindo. (The Foundations of Indian Culture, SABCL, Vol. 14, p. 270) This trait with its glittering sensuous decorativeness has arrived in recent times in Indian poetry also. While reviewing in the Arya Harindranath Chattopadhyaya's first book of poems The Feast of Youth, Sri Aurobindo says the following: "...the Moslem mind has the tendency of mosaic and arabesque, loves the glow of many colours, the careful jewellery of image and phrase; its poetry is apparelled like a daughter of the Badshahs.


...[we witness here] carefully compressed artistry of the Persian poets..."
(The Hour of God, SABCL, Vol. 17, pp. 306-07)

In Baghdad perhaps songs and music were more important than in other places. Poetry continued to be cultivated with the same care as well as exuberance. Generally the Islamic artists and poets were occupied with the joys and sorrows of love. Ibn Khaldun the historian writes: "The beautiful concerts given at Baghdad have left memories that still last." The tastes of the time are well indicated by what Abu Nuwas, the great artist, said: "Wine flows among us in an ornate goblet in which the Persians had carved all sorts of figures. Horsemen at Khosrau's side aim at an antelope with their arrows."

But unregenerate vitalistic life not very unoften becomes turbulent and there is a lot of civil blood flowing in streets and palaces. Thus ibn Muqaffa, the creator of secular Arabic prose, was hardly thirty-six years old when al-Mansur got him executed in 757. His work entitled Kalila and Dimna is said to be a masterpiece of Arabic prose with literary qualities that have never been denied by Arab writers. Similarly, Harun al-Rashid the Upright, in his last agony in 809, ordered the rebel leader Bashin "to be cut to pieces limb by limb and himself watched the execution of the sentence." In all these cases the causes at times could be political but the acts were always ruthless and inhuman. This characteristic of tribal Arabia came from ancient days and persisted even during the sunshine of civilization. The Umayyad princes and leaders were treacherously slain. They were invited for a dinner and, while they ate, hidden soldiers put them all to the sword. "Carpets were spread over the fallen men and the feast was resumed by the Abbasid diners over the bodies of their foes, and to the music of dying groans." (The Age of Faith) The calligrapher ibn Muqla was the vizier of three Caliphs, "an honor that earned him the cruel punishment of having his right hand amputated. It is said that he attached a reed pen to his arm and wrote so well that there was no difference between the way he wrote before and after he lost his hand."

But let us move on to the winning cultural aspects of Islam. A number of fortunate circumstances came together to make its golden age possible. "Perhaps most significant was the creation of a vast empire without internal political boundaries, largely free from external attack. Trade began to flow freely across the Asian continent and beyond. The wisdom of India and China mingled with that of Persia, ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt. Thanks in part to Mohammad's assertion that 'the ink of scholars is more precious than the blood of martyrs,' Islamic leaders valuedin fact, sought outthe intellectual treasures of their subject provinces. Arabic became the language of faith and power, and likewise of theology, philosophy, and the arts and sciences."

Muslim scholars made important and original contributions in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and chemistry. "They collected and corrected previous astronomical data, built the world's first observatory, and developed the astrolabe, an instrument that was once called a mathematical jewel. In medicine they experimented with diet, drugs, surgery, and anatomy and in chemistry, an outgrowth of alchemy, isolated and studied a wide variety of minerals and compounds." Public education spread rapidly. At about the same time the so-called "Arabic" numerals, actually imported from India, began to replace cumbersome Roman numerals. In the sequel of intellectual history the concept of zero was carried by the caravans of the Arabian scholars to the European countries.

In the meantime, the paper industry was born. A Chinese prisoner of war had been brought to Samarkand towards the end of the Umayyad period in 795. "There he began a paper industry using linen and hemp, imitating what he had seen in his own country. For a long time Samarkand remained the center of the industry but, in addition to Baghdad, paper was manufactured in Damascus, Tiberius, Tripoli in Syria, Yemen, the Maghreb, and Egypt. The city of Jativa in Spain was famous for its thick, glazed paper."

This marked another phase of splendid development. The number of manuscripts of original as well as translated works grew on a large scale throughout the Muslim Empire. The appearance of publishing houses and selling of books around the main mosques became a common feature. "Scholars and writers met in them and copyists were hired there. In addition to the public libraries open to everyone there were reading rooms where anyone, after paying a fee, could consult the work of his choice."

In the wake of these activities the ancient treasures of knowledge in Greek, Roman, and Sanskrit languages spread widely. It is even maintained that the Hellenic classics travelled through Arabia to Medieval Europe and made the Renaissance there possible. Literary discussions among the scholars became more common; their secular and not so much theological character is a noteworthy feature. In this respect the 9th century personality of Jahiz dominated the scene. A "prolific writer with a vast field of interest," he "pushed sarcasm to the point of mocking irreverence toward Divinity, more in the style of Lucian than of Voltaire. It is due to the tremendous talent of this prodigious artist that Arabic prose became more important than poetry."

Khali the inventor of Arabic prosody and the first author of a dictionary, Sibawaih with the distinction of codifying grammar, Mubarrad who wrote a didactic work, Abu Hanifa and ibn Hanbal as the founders of jurisprudence, Hunain ibn Ishaq to whom Arab science owes so much, al-Kindi the Philosopher of the Arabs lived in Baghdad in this richly intellectual milieu. His successor al-Farabi with his more scientific mind was the true creator of Arab peripateticism. "This 'second master' after Aristotle continued along al-Kindi's path in affirming the similarity of Aristotle's and Plato's views. In addition, he adopted the Platonic theory of emanation. His Model City is an adaptation from Greek philosophy in which he describes his conception of the perfect city. This scholar, who was also an excellent music theorist, contributed to the evolution of philosophical language. This master of logic also created a harmonious system that was a credit to his merit, his rigour, and his knowledge." Thabit ibn Qurrah, a money-changer, was also a scholar in Syriac, Greek and Arabic and authored some "seventy original works in ethics, music, astrology, mathematics, astronomy, mechanics, medicine, physics, philosophy." He was associated with the construction of scientific instruments. Al-Magest is a significant Arab work and proved to be the basis for cosmology for the next 500 years.

"Baghdad's first great school of religious law was founded in 1067. Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali, earlier a professor at the Madrasa al-Nizamiya, abandoned his post to become a wandering mystic. In his writings we find the synthesis of mystical and orthodox points of view. He is regarded as the greatest reformer of Islam." Perhaps their most significant single achievement was the establishment of medicine as a science based on observation and experiment. Islamic scientists developed the rudiments of what would later be called the scientific method. The most well known Islamic mathematician was al-Khwarizimi, who pioneered the study of algebra. His textbook on the subject became a standard in European universities for centuries.

The Abbasids imported the technologically advanced "ondanique" steel from India and processed it at their centers of weapons' manufacture at Damascus and Toledo, both of which cities won fame for their blades. A wide variety of products such as pearls, livestock, paper, sugar and luxurious cloth were exchanged for their necessities. The cloth trades also included export of gold and silver thread for embroidery, gum for glazing, and needles, looms, and dyestuffs. Important advances in agriculture were also made in the Golden Age. Muslim engineers perfected the waterwheel and constructed elaborate underground water channels called qanats. Important books were written on soil analysis, water, and what kinds of crops were suited to what soil. Indeed, its agricultural exports "transformed the diet of medieval Europe by introducing such plants as plums, artichokes, apricots, cauliflower, celery, fennel, squash, pumpkins, and eggplant, as well as rice, sorghum, new strains of wheat, the date palm, and sugarcane." The introduction of numerous varieties of fruits and vegetables and other plants to the West was becoming a new phenomenon to shape things and events in a different manner. "Nothing in Europe could hold a candle to what was going on in the Islamic world until about 1600," said Jamil Ragep, a professor of the History of Science at the University of Oklahoma. The Muslim courage regrets that the spirit of Tariq that crossed the strait of Gibraltar and the Pyrenees ended with the martyrdom of Musa towards the end of the 15th century. Soon on 17 April 1492 at Santa Fe the Catholic sovereigns granted permission to Columbus to set his sails for the discovery of new routes to the fabulous India.

We may briefly put the contributions of Islam to the world of history in the words written about a hundred years ago by Sri Aurobindo:

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N.B. The present article forms a chapter in my unpublished book Islam's Contribution to Science.