This Religion Is a Science 143civil affairs of the community, while the Ulama guided the believers
on the straight path to God. Certainly there were Caliphs who exer-
cised religious influence over the Ummah. But none had ever dared to
set themselves up as some sort of “Muslim Pope,” demanding
absolute religious obedience from the community. And yet, that is
exactly what al-Ma’mun, who had always thought of himself as a reli-
gious scholar first and a political leader second, was seeking to do.
As a young boy, al-Ma’mun had been formally trained in the reli-
gious sciences and had distinguished himself as an expert in Islamic
law and theology, especially in the Rationalist tradition (about which
more will be said). When he became Caliph, he surrounded himself
with like-minded Ulama, with whom he regularly debated matters
pertaining to the attributes of God, the question of free will, and,
most importantly, the nature of the Quran, which al-Ma’mun consid-
ered a created thing—wholly separate from God’s essence.
Up until this time, al-Ma’mun’s position with regard to the Quran
was the minority opinion of the Ulama; most religious clerics believed
the Quran to be coeternal with God. However, in the last year of his
reign, the Caliph declared that henceforth, all teachers and scholars of
religion had to conform to the doctrine that the Quran was created.
Otherwise, they would no longer be allowed to teach.
Again, while the notion that the Caliph could have influence over
religious issues was not new, this was the first time that a Caliph had
made himself the exclusive arbiter of religious authority. It is impos-
sible to say what would have happened had al-Ma’mun succeeded in
his attempt at what Richard Bulliet has rightly called a “reformulation
of [Caliphal] legitimacy.” Quite likely, Islam would be a completely
different religion today. The Caliphate might have become a Papacy;
religious authority could have been centralized within the state, and
an orthodox Muslim Church would have developed as a result.
But al-Ma’mun did not succeed. In fact, a few years later, under
the Caliphate of al-Mu’tasim’s son, al-Mutawakkil (d. 861), the Inqui-
sition was repealed with the understanding that never again would the
Caliph embroil himself so explicitly in religious affairs. Indeed, al-
Mutawakkil swung the theological pendulum to the side of the Tradi-
tionalists by richly rewarding their Ulama and persecuting the very
same Rationalists who had up until his reign enjoyed the favors of the