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CHAPTER IV.

THE KORANIC CONTROVERSY.

A.D. 819-952.

MAMOUN was now sole khalif of Asiatic Islam. Like all Oriental despots, he had sacrificed friends and convictions with equal indifference, for the sake of acquiring power. "A king," was one of his sayings, " may pardon everything, except an attack upon his authority, the revealing of his secrets, and an outrage done to his harem." Consistently with this principle, he had, without compunction, put to death his chivalrous general, Hartama, treacherously murdered his minister, and poisoned a man to whom he was so deeply indebted as the Alide Ali ibn Mousa. To conciliate the unruly Arabs of Irak, he had feigned to break with his Persian supporters, and affected a zeal for orthodoxy which he was far from feeling. But he was no sooner firmly established in Baghdad, than he threw off the mask, and revealed the true bent of his character. Hasan ibn Sahl was released from durance and installed in the office of vizier. The provinces of the empire were handed over to the care of Persian satraps. Persians, Christians and Jews filled the subordinate posts in the administration; and, as it were to commemorate the commencement of

a new epoch with becoming emphasis, the marriage of the khalif with Buran, the daughter of the vizier Hasan ibn Sahl, was solemnized with extraordinary magnificence.

The expenses were defrayed by the father of the bride. The festivities and rejoicings extended over a period of nineteen days; and nothing approaching to them had been witnessed for ages before. The whole vast retinue of the khalif, down even to the camel-drivers, the boatmen, and the animals, were the guests of the vizier. Balls of musk were showered down upon the Abbasides, the commanders of the troops, the khatibs, and those who held eminent rank at court. Each of these balls contained a ticket, on which was inscribed the name of a landed property, or of a slave girl, or of a set of horses, or some other valuable thing. The persons into whose hands they fell proceeded to an agent specially appointed for the purpose, from whom they received the gifts specified upon their tickets. Balls of musk, gold and silver coins, and eggs of amber, were thrown in showers among the rest of the people. At the marriage ceremony, a mat interwoven with gold was spread out for the khalif, who stood on it, whilst pearls in abundance were showered down at his feet. Watching them as they fell and dancing before him, Mamoun said, "God be merciful to Abou Nuwas! One would think that he had seen this, when he described the bubbles which cover the surface of wine when mixed with water."

"Bubbles, the small and the great--Behold!

A gravel of pearls on a ground of gold."

The nuptial chamber was illuminated by a candle of ambergris, weighing eighty pounds, and standing in a candlestick of pure gold; and when the khalif seated himself beside his bride, a thousand pearls were showered upon them from a golden tray.

This magnificent marriage ceremony, which took place six years after Mamoun's entry into Baghdad, marked the complete establishment of Persian ascendancy in Irak. Mamoun's religious convictions are apparent from a significant anecdote that is recorded of him. Among the embassies which arrived at Baghdad, was one from Kabul, which brought, with other costly presents, a book written in the old Persian language, and entitled, "The Eternal Reason." The title denotes

the character of the book. It was an endeavour to build up a religious creed having its foundation in the human reason and conscience. These, according to the writer, were eternal and the same in all men, and no religion, therefore, could pretend to universality which depended upon any other testimony. The vizier affirmed it to be the best work ever written in the old Persian tongue, and, under his supervision, it was partly translated into Arabic. When the khalif read it he was deeply moved. "Here," he exclaimed, "is the true wisdom; that with which we Moslems busy ourselves is only a wagging of the tongue in the mouth." To inquire into and develop this "religion of the reason, became henceforth one great aim of his life. Conferences of learned men were held in the presence of the khalif, at which the freest discussion was permitted and practised. These conferences are

thus described by an amazed and scandalized believer :

"At the first meeting I attended, not only were there present Moslems of every sect, orthodox and heterodox, but misbelievers, fireworshippers, materialists, atheists, Jews, Christians; in a word, sceptics of every kind. Each sect had its own chief charged to defend the opinions it professed; and every time that one of these chiefs entered the hall, all present arose in sign of respect, and not a man resumed his seat until the new-comer had taken his. The ball was soon filled, and when the assembly was complete, one of the unbelievers spoke as follows:-'We are,' said he, 'assembled here together for the purpose of discussion. You all understand the conditions; you Moslems are not to meet us with reasons taken from your Book, or founded on the authority of your Prophet; as we believe neither in the one nor in the other. Everyone is to limit himself to arguments based upon that reason which is the same in all.' Every one applauded these words. You can imagine," adds the teller of this story, "that having heard such things, I did not remain in that assembly."

There can be little doubt that the khalif and his most intimate friends desired a complete subversion of Islam, in favour of this "religion of the reason." The difficulty was to know where and how to begin. Islam, as I have already observed, being both a religious creed and a political system, involved in its subversion nothing less than a complete remodelling of the social system. This was manifestly impossible. The change must be effected gradually if it was to be effected at all. The Moslem must be detached by imperceptible gradations from his traditional beliefs; any attempt to tear them forcibly asunder would bring ruin upon those who were rash enough to try. Success was possible only by planting in the minds of the Faithful the germ of a conviction, which, as it grew and

strengthened, would cause them spontaneously to reject the fundamental tenet of Muhammad's creed. That tenet, as I have repeatedly pointed out, is that man, as man, neither possesses any capacity for the discovery of truth, nor any inner light whereby to separate truth from falsehood. In this tenet is émbodied both the strength and the weakness of Islam. It crushes thought, speculation, and inquiry, and so kills scepticism; but it also effectually bars all progress by the conversion of unreasoning bigotry into a second nature.

The task which the khalif and his friends set themselves to do, was to remove this hard, insensible crust, and give light and air to the living mind beneath it. The leader of this enterprise was the kadi Ahmed ibn Abi Douad. He had, when young, been a pupil and disciple of Wasil ibn Ata, the first of the Rationalists; and himself, a poet, orator, metaphysician, and theologian, he was also a warm advocate of free thought. He was a generous patron of men of letters, taking a great number of them under his care, treating them as members of his family, and providing for all their wants. His conversation, his manners and appearance were so admirable an expression of the mind within, that it was said of him that he was "all soul;" and the khalif Mamoun deemed none of his intellectual gatherings to be complete or enjoyable where the kadi was not present. Acting under his advice, the khalif resolved to lay siege to the fortress of orthodoxy by attacking the orthodox belief regarding the nature of the Koran. That belief was, that the Koran was the