Islamic Age of Scientific Learning: Caliphs and the Arts

When looking at the Abbasid caliphate, the mere thought of an Islamic age of scientific learning characterizes the time period with several caliphs endorsing the arts passionately. These caliphs, specifically Al Mansur and Haroun Al-Rashid, all looked at the arts with an intense, burning awareness in that their values, priorities, and personality traits that distinguish their reigns differ quite significantly. Despite Haroun Al Rashid’s brief glimpses of rage that changes the view of the audience of the great caliph, the reign of Al Mansur was only slightly more brutal and hated; but its important to note that that the two caliphs did in fact usher in a new age of rulers who had an extraordinary amount of appreciation for the arts.

The best place to start when looking at how each of these rulers situated themselves with regard to the arts would be to begin with the rule of Al Mansur who succeeded his brother Es-Saffah. Being the third Caliph of the house of Abbas, Al Mansur “was a prince of great prudence, integrity, and discretion; but these good qualities were sullied by his extraordinary covetousness and occasional cruelty” (Masoudi 2). Although these personality traits describe the great Caliph as someone who would be looked upon as a monster towards all kinds of people, the fact that Al Mansur was very fond of the arts (poetry and music) shows that he took a great amount of care to make sure that the most eloquent poets were rewarded handsomely. These personality traits that describe Al Mansur can directly relate to the priorities that the caliph wished to accomplish throughout his reign, and the caliph spared no expense in showing his true colors in terms of his personality to do whatever it took to carry out these priorit...

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... the recital, and let him go; also giving general permission to the poets to bewail the tragic end of the Barmecides” (Masoudi 16), thus showing that Haroun is the better man out of the two caliphs.

Therefore, it can be summarized that the caliph Abu Mansur was more cruel and ruthless in terms of appreciation towards the arts when compared to Haroun Al Rashid under the Abbasid Caliphate. While there are notable similarities in that the duo were both tremendously generous in offering rewards for the poets who made the greatest impact on the caliphs, the differences were more significant in that Al Mansur was less sympathetic to common poets in his court rather than Haroun Al Rashid. Because of these clear distinctions between the two caliphs’ reign, the rule of Haroun Al Rashid can be seen as more beneficial towards the arts and Islam as a whole.