A L M 



by this m'lnifter, Al Ainin proctedcd to avow his en- 

 mity againll Jiis brother hy ads of open hollility, and at 

 Ic igth iiivadtd Khorafaii with an army of 6o,coo men. As 

 he waa advancing to the frontiers of the province, Almamon 

 prepared to receive him, and appointed Thahtr tbn Hofein, 

 one of the grer-.tcll generals of the age, to the command of 

 his army. The cahph's invading arn-.y was foon difpcrfcd. 

 Almamon alTumed the title of caliph, and determined to 

 maintain it. Thaher purfued the war with vigour and fuc- 

 cefs ; and fnch was the rapidity of his conquelts, that the 

 provinces of T-gypt, Syria, Hcja/. and Yemen, abandoned 

 the intcrell of Al Amin, whofc tharadler was generally de- 

 tailed ; and Almamon was proclaimed caliph in his room. 

 The dcfertion of thefe provinces was foon followed by a 

 complete revohition. Al Amin was formally dcpt^fcd at 

 Bagdad, and afterwards afTafTinated ; and his brother fnc- 

 ceeded to the caliphate without any farther oppofition, A. D. 

 8 I J. The coiymcr.ct.:r.tnt of his reign, however, was at- 

 tended with commotions ; and as he favoured the feci of Ali, 

 lii'i enemies multiplied, and it was with difficulty that the 

 d!fafici5lion, wl;ich began to mauifell itfelf, was prevented 

 from breaking out into a civil war. Whilft the agitation 

 continued, Thaher, tlie cali])h's general, availed hinifelf of 

 the opportunity of Almamon's abfeiice to acquire the fove- 

 reignty of Khorafan, wl.erc he formed a dyiiafty, which fub- 

 fifted for 60 years. As foon as tranquillity was reftoied, 

 Almamon presented the plans he had formed for introducing 

 literature and fcience into his dominions, and for thus laying 

 the foundation of that dillinguiflied honour with which his 

 name has defcended to poilerity. Whilft he refided in Kho- 

 rafan he had alTcmbled a number of learned m.en from va- 

 rious countries, and formed them into a focitty or college, 

 over which he appointed, as prefident, Mefue of Damafcus, 

 a famous Chriflian phyfician. When his father remonllrated 

 againft. this appointment, becaufe Mefue was a Chriftian, 

 he repUcd, that he had chofen him, not as a teacher of re- 

 ligion, but for the inilruftion of his fubjeifts in fcience and 

 uleful arts, and that his father well knew, that the moil 

 learned men and llcilful artiils in his dominions were Jews 

 and Cluiilians. Upon his acceffion to the caliphate, he 

 made Bagdad the feat of learning, by forming in it an aca- 

 demy, and inviting thither eminent men from all quarters. 

 lie likewife caufed tranfiationsto be made into Arabic from 

 many valuable books in the Greek, Perfian, Chaldean and 

 Coptic languages, among which were the works of Ariftotle 

 and Galen. He vifitedthe fchools which he had eftablilhed, 

 treated the profeflbrs with refpeft, and thus encouraged by 

 his example and patronage, ever)' fpecies of mental cultiva- 

 tion. In vanous parts of knowledge, and particularly in 

 mathematics, aftronomy and philofophy, he himfelf was a 

 confiderable proficient. He caufed Ptolemy's Ahnagejl to 

 be tranflated in 827, either by Ifaac ben Honain, according 

 to Herbelot, or according to OfJicrs, by Alhazen ben Jofeph 

 and Sergius. He alfo employed the moft fliilful aftrono- 

 mers to compofe a body of alironomical fcience, which ftill 

 fubfifts amongft oriental manufcripts, entitled, " Aftronomia 

 claborata "a compluribus, D.D. jufTu regis Maimon." Hif- 

 tory records two obfervations of the obhquity of the ecliptic, 

 which were made either by Almamon himfelf, or under his 

 immediate aufpices, one at Bagdad, and the other at Damas. 

 In the former, condufted by Jahia ben Abilmanfor, Sened 

 ben Alis, and Abbas ben Said, the greateil declination of 

 the ecliptic \vas found to be 23° 33', according to the report 

 of Iba Jounis; but according to Alfragan, 23° 35'. The 

 other obferi'ation was made in the year 233 of the Hegira, 

 at Damas, by Chalid ben Abdolme'lic, Abultib, Sened ben 

 Alis, and Ahs ben Ifa, and the refult of it was 23° 33' 52". 



A L M 



This Caliph alfo einployed able mathematicians to meafure a 

 degree ofthe meridian, upon an extcnfive plain in Mefopota- 

 mia, called Singiar or Sandjiar; and they found it to con- 

 tain 56|. miles, each mile being 4000 coudees or cubits. 

 But of the precife length of the cubit there have been dif- 

 ferent opinions. Abulftda fays that this cubit contained 

 37 inclie.", each inch being determined by fix grains of bailey 

 placed fideways ; but Tlievenot fays, that 144 grains of b;T- 

 Icy placed in this manner, would give a length equal to ij 

 Paris foot, and therefore four cubits would be equal to one 

 toife and 9 inches, and therefore 4000 cubits, i.e. 56^ miles, 

 would give 63,750 toifes. But if the ordinary or royal cu- 

 bit of 24 inches was the meafure to which this calculation is 

 to be referred, the degree in this eftimate of it would con- 

 tain 56,666 toifes. But according to Maffoudi's valuation 

 of a cubit, this meafure would conliit of 53,123 French toifes. 



In c<iufequence of the encouragement affoidcd to fcience 

 by Almamon, the Saracens began to acquire a degree of ci- 

 vilization and refinement, which diilinguiilicd them at a period 

 of very general ignorance and barbarity. But the Mahome- 

 tan zeal;;ts were alarmed ; and the fcientific Almamon 'lias 

 been reproached by the Sonnitcs, or ortliodox Muffulmen, 

 as little better than an infidel. It mull be acknowledged 

 that he manifefled an undifguifed inclination towards the 

 party of the Moatazalites, who denied the eternity of the 

 Koran, and maintained the dodlrine of the free-will of man. 

 Some have faid, that in order to quiet the murmurs which 

 prevailed againft him on this account, he once determined to 

 evince his zeal for religion by eftablifhing a kind of inqui- 

 fition, which Ihould compel all his lubjeits to profcfs illain- 

 ifm ; but if this were the cafe, his compulfive plan did not 

 comprehend his Chriilian fubjedls, and the itfue of his expe- 

 riment was the introduction of univerfal toleration. 



In the progrefs of his reiga he afiifted Thomas, a Greek, 

 who, in 822, made war againll Michael the Stammerer, 

 emperor of Conftantinople, and befieged his capital ; but 

 the expedition was on his part unjull, and terminated in the 

 imprifonment and death of Thomas. In his war againft the 

 Greeks, in 829 and 830, he was more fuccefsful, took feve- 

 ral places, and widely ravaged their temtories. In 831 he 

 made an expedition into Egypt, and there fuppreiled a re- 

 bellion. Here he difcovered a great treafure which had been, 

 buried under two columns by Merwan, the lail caliph of the 

 houfe of Ommijah. He difplayed his love of fcience by 

 erettmg a new mikias or nilornt r, for meafuring the increafe 

 of the Nile, and repairing one that was decayed. In his 

 return from Egypt, in 833, he penetrated into the territories 

 of the Greek emperor, as far as Tarfus in Cilicia ; and in 

 his way towards Bagdad, he encamped on the banks of a ri- 

 ver Badandun, and quenched his thirll by drinking freely of 

 its cool waters ; and he alfo partook plentifully of fomc dates, 

 to which he Lad accefs. This repaft brought on a fever 

 which endangered his life. In the profpeft of diffolution, 

 he wrote letters to the provinces, declaring his brother Mo- 

 taflem his fucceffor, and then waited the event which he ap- 

 prehended. After a long ftruggle, he exclaimed, " O thou 

 who never dieft, have mercy on me, a dying man!" and 

 then expired at the age of 48 or 49 years, after a reign 

 of twenty years and fome months. His body was buried 

 at Tarfus, and this circumllance fome zealots interpreted as a 

 token of reprobation. 



Science humanized the temper of this Saracen caliph ; 

 and in contemplating his charafter, we cannot do lefs than 

 admire his liberality and beneficence. As an inftance of his 

 clemency and magnanimity, his condudl towards liis uncle 

 and rival, Ibrahim, deferves to be recorded. When he was 

 difcovered, after having been concealed for fome years, and 



brought 



