Islam. 55style absolute monarch, not like the rashidun. He was isolated
from his subjects; the old informality that had characterized
life under the first caliphs was replaced by elaborate pomp.
Courtiers kissed the ground when they came into his pres-
ence, in a way that would have been unimaginable in the days
when Arabs prostrated themselves only before God. Where
the Prophet had always been addressed informally by his given
name, like any other mortal, the caliph was styled the "Shadow
of God on earth." The executioner stood behind him, to show
that the caliph had the power of life and death. The caliph no
longer supervised the affairs of the ummah himself, but left
government to his vizier. His role was to be a court of ultimate
appeal, beyond the reach of factions and politicking. He led
the prayers on Friday afternoons and led his army into major
battles. The army itself had changed, however. It was no longer
a people's army, open to any Muslim, but a corps of Persians,
who had helped the Abbasids into power and were seen as the
caliph's personal troops.
This was, of course, abhorrent to the religious movement,
whose members had had high hopes of the Abbasids when
they first came to power. But however un-Islamic it was, the
new caliphate was a political and economic success in these
early days. The caliph's role was to provide his subjects with
security, and under Harun al-Rashid, when the caliphate was
at its peak, the empire enjoyed an unprecedented peace. Up-
risings had been ruthlessly quashed, and the populace could
see that opposition to this regime was pointless, but the upside
was that people were able to live more normal, undisturbed
lives. Harun al-Rashid was a patron of the arts and scholarship,
and inspired a great cultural renaissance. Literary criticism,
philosophy, poetry, medicine, mathematics and astronomy
flourished not only in Baghdad but in Kufah, Basrah, Jun-
dayvebar and Harran. Dhimmis participated in the florescence
by translating the philosophical and medical texts of classical