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Index
Acknowledgements
List oflllustrations vii-viii
List of Maps
Genealogy
Timeline xvi-xvii
Foreword
i. Revolution
2. Mansur and his Legacy
3. Harun al-Rashid: the Golden Prime Si
4. The War between the Brothers
5. Poetry and Power at the Early Abbasid Court
6. Landscape with Palaces
7. The Harem 16o
8. Ma'mun to Mutawwakil
9. Abbasid Court Culture
io. High Noon in Samarra
Notes
Bibliography
Index
From the revolution of 75o that brought the dynasty to power until its collapse in the 93os and 940s
We have no painted portraits of Mansur, or of any other figures from this period, but we have severa
He was a systematic, even obsessive, administrator. His day'° began well before dawn, when he would
to take his place for the morning audience, which was the most important and public part of the da
But it was his meanness which really passed down into history and legend. Probably in his own lifeti
Under Mansur the Abbasid caliphate rapidly developed an impressive bureaucracy. Unlike any contempor
The history of the administration and much of the court life of the early Abbasid period is dominate
While nothing survives of Mansur's work, a more or less contemporary Abbasid palace still exists in
There are few indications of the numbers of women who might be found in a harem, or the numbers of t
Women also entered the harem because of their talents as musicians or singers. The eighth and ninth
period. The image of the singing girl in literature, such as the Book of Songs, is a lively and attr
The queen mother's revenues were hers to dispose of as she wished. As the unfortunate caliph Muctazz
The anti-caliph, Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi, talented poet but failed politician, had gone into hiding whe
Of all the caliphs of the period, Wathiq is probably the one who has left least impression on the hi
The young prince explained, but the vizier simply turned to the others in the room and said, `Look a
A thing which they, the first in Islamic time, brought from theory into practice was the measurement
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