The seventh of the 'Abbasids and the millennium: A study of the fourth Civil War and the reign of Al -Ma'mun (193--218 AH/808--833 CE)

This dissertation examines the impacts of apocalyptic expectations and movements through a historical study of the fourth Civil War and the Reign of al-Ma'mun from 193 AH/808 CE to 218 AH/833 CE. Most studies of this period have looked at religiosity and apocalypticism as peripheral phenomena or ideological superstructures under the premise of a standard Real- Politik. Little attention has been paid to the specifics of apocalyptic expectations with regard to their informative and motivational force in the development of the early ninth century 'Abbasid history and politics. This dissertation challenges the argument that apocalyptic expectations were inconsequential and that political pragmatism was the driving force for political and institutional change. By examining this historically and intellectually significant period through an analysis of Muslim and non-Muslim literature of apocalyptic predictions, historiography and the available numismatic and architectural evidence, I demonstrate how millenarianism helped redefine and restructure the 'Abbasid caliphate. Apocalyptic expectations and movements in the early ninth century attempted to forge not only a society free of inequities and injustices, but also a world in which monotheistic messianism attained its final and universal manifestation. By setting in motion change in an array of policies in the life long efforts of al-Ma'mun, apocalyptic expectations had a profound impact on early 'Abbasid history. I suggest that al-Ma'mun drew from a vast reservoir of monotheistic traditions, cultivating a policy ultimately aimed at founding a world-empire. The dissertation argues that the caliphate and the caliph acted in response to and compliance with the apocalyptic fervor at the turn of the third AH/ninth century AD. The policy choices of al-Ma'mun were intended to fulfill the ideological and moral requirements of early ninth century messianism.