- Karen Armstrong
protest movement that would, before long, bring it into con-
flict with the caliphate.
By the end of the reign of Harun al-Rashid, it was clear
that the caliphate had passed its peak. No single government
could control such vast territory indefinitely, before the ad-
vent of modern communications and modern means of coer-
cion. Some of the peripheral provinces, such as Spain (where
an escaping Umayyad had set up a rival dynasty in 756),were
beginning to break away. The economy was in decline. Harun
al-Rashid had tried to solve the problem by dividing the em-
pire between his two sons, but this only resulted in a civil war
(809-1 3) between the brothers after his death. It was a mark of
the secular spirit of the court at this date that unlike the fitnah
wars of the past, there was no ideological or religious motiva-
tion in this struggle, which was simply a clash of personal am-
bition. When al-Mamun emerged as the victor and began his
reign (813-33), it was clear that there were two main power
blocs in the empire. One was the aristocratic circle of the
court; the other, egalitarian and "constitutionalist," bloc was
based on the Shariah.
Al-Mamun was aware of the fragility of his rule. His reign
had started with a civil war, with a Shii rebellion in Kufah and
Basrah (814- 15) and a Kharajite revolt in Khurasan. He tried to
woo these disparate groups and reduce the religious tension,
but his policies only made matters worse. An intellectual him-
self, he felt naturally drawn to the rationalism of the Mu-
tazilites and brought them back into favour. He could also see
that the populist movement of the ahl al-hadith, which insisted
that the divine law was directly accessible to every single Mus-
lim, was not compatible with absolute monarchy. Once back in
power, however, the Mutazilites turned upon the ahl al-hadith,
who had persecuted them for so long. An "inquisition" (mihnah)
ensued, in which leading Hadith People, notably the popular
Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 833), were imprisoned. Ibn Hanbal be-