Messianic Beliefs and Imperial Politics in Medieval Islam: The 'Abbasid Caliphate in the Early Ninth Century.

• Author: Madelung, Wilferd
• Position: Book review

Messianic Beliefs and Imperial Politics in Medieval Islam: The 'Abbasid Caliphate in the Early Ninth Century. By Hayrettin Yucesoy. Columbia, South Carolina: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA PRESS, 2009. Pp. xvi + 212. $39.95.

'Abd Allah b. Harun al-Ma'mun, the seventh 'Abbasid caliph (198-218/813-833), has ever attracted special interest among historians of the caliphate on account of his unconventional and controversial political initiatives. The present book presents a fresh interpretation of his motivation and imperial politics based largely on a broad study of contemporary messianic hopes and fears as expressed in prophecies, apocalypses, and poetry besides the more ordinary historical sources. The availability of a large collection of apocalyptic prophecies in the Kitab al-Fitan of the contemporary Sunni traditionist Nu'aym b. Hammad (d. 228/843) obviously invited such an approach, and there is ample evidence that the end of the second century of the Hijra greatly heightened messianic and apocalyptic expectations among Muslims. The book's focus, however, is wider and includes apocalyptic expectations among non-Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians inside the Muslim world as well as in the rival Byzantine and Western empires.

The introduction and first three chapters of the book discuss the significance and function of messianic beliefs and prophecies in medieval political history in general, the growth of a messianic (Mandist) discourse in early Islam from the Qur'an to the early 'Abbasid caliphate, and the contents of the extant prophecies concerning the "Fourth Civil War," i.e., the conflict between the two sons of Harun al-Rashid--Muhammad al-Amin and al-Ma'mun--which ended with the overthrow of the caliphate of al-Amin in 198/813. The final three chapters and conclusion deal with al-Ma'mun's career and caliphate in the light of these Mahdist expectations, which evidently could not have failed to influence his political conduct. In particular, al-Ma'man's motives and aspirations are examined in his early proclamation of a "second summons" (da'wa) replicating the original first summons of the cAbbasid revolutionary movement and in his designation of the Shi.i imam CA1I al-Rida as successor to the caliphate, while still residing in Marw. After his return to the capital Baghdad, al-Ma'mun's efforts to reconcile his former enemies and his aggressive pursuit of warfare against the Byzantine empire are discussed. In the final chapter...