Charlemagne and the Gifts from the Abbasid Caliphate: A Clock Beyond European Imagination

The Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad was a world superpower in the 9th century. It had no rival in power. However, some regional powers were definitely there, and the important power of Europe was one of them. On the western side of Germany is the beautiful city of Aachen. Here in the 9th century, a Frankish emperor, Charlemagne, was in power. Charlemagne's Empire had much of today's France, Italy, Croatia, and Germany, and up to the boundaries of many European countries. Charlemagne was originally King of the Franks, but over the years he had expanded his empire by conquests; after that, he titled his kingdom the Holy Roman Empire and himself the Holy Roman Emperor. After the Abbasid Caliphate, he was also the most powerful ruler in the world. In the 803 CE Common Era, a delegation came to Emperor Charlemagne. The people in the delegation came from Baghdad and brought some gifts from the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid. The gifts included gold vessels, a white Asiatic elephant called Abu al-Abbas, a beautifully carved large piece of ivory, some expensive perfumes, and an emperor's magnificent robes. This long stole is displayed in Arabic: "No other but one Allah is to be worshipped." Meaning there is no god but Allah. The writing was to send a message to the Christian emperor that you are and we are one on the first part of the "Kalma Tayyaba." It means we both hold the Divine Book and believe in the same One God. It was actually a message of brotherhood and friendship from one ruler to another. All these and other such gifts were not so surprising, as some time ago such gifts were sent to Caliph Harun al-Rashid in Baghdad by Emperor Charlemagne. A large painting of this historic event is still preserved in a German museum. But you don't have to worry about the fantasy of this painting, as in the 19th century German painter Julius Kokert made it in a rather romanticized way wherein Charlemagne's entourage has been much highlighted in a fantasy genre.

Well, these were the routine gifts, but among all of them was an amazing gift for the emperor and the courtiers, which dazzled them all. It was a big clock. A clock the Europeans had never seen anything like before. It was an oversized water-powered clock that would not only tell the time but also chime every hour and make a sound. Twelve small doors for 12 hours were built on it. Every hour, when the clock rang, one of the 12 doors would open, and a horse rider would come out of it. As many doors would open as was the time, and it was the time actually. Emperor Charlemagne's courtiers looked skeptical about this strange clock. They said it was nothing but some Arab magic only, and that they should protect themselves against it. Some flatterers asked the Emperor to protect his power against this ominous Arabic magical device, so it should be destroyed. Though the courtiers were naive, however, Charlemagne was not stupid. Instead of his courtiers, he followed his advisers, who suggested dismantling the clock to see how its mechanics work and on what engineering principles it had been built. Charlemagne preferred rational advice and opened it to view. After that, a simple but genius mechanism of the clock came to their mind. That is, how the downward movement of the water turns its various gears, moves the balls and model horses, and everything reverses with the return of the water. And all this is accomplished with such finesse that time always completes two perfect cycles of 12 hours. This clock of Baghdad is so famous in history that French philosopher Voltaire and the known Muslim scholar Imam Ghazali, among others, repeatedly mentioned it in their writings. It was a difficult task to maintain this wonderful clock. Its mechanics had come along from Baghdad, and they would keep this clock in good working order. Once this clock, for some reason, failed and was no longer active, and on the order of the ruler, it was dumped in the treasury of France. After many years, these and other gifts were transferred to a museum in France. Here, time has lost this rare clock, or maybe thirteen centuries have eaten away at its material. The clock's drawings with other memorabilia still exist in museums in France and England. Charlemagne's court historian also recorded the details of this clock and the rest of the gifts in a royal book. These details can still be found in the Royal Frankish Annals, which are preserved in the French Museum. This clock, the gifts, and this engineering are examples of what is called the Golden Age of Islamic history, or the Golden Age of Islam. How did this golden age come and Muslims end it with their own hands? These vlogs aim to unveil this mystery.

The Muslim Golden Age: Baghdad as a Center of Knowledge and Culture

The period from the mid-eighth century to the beginning of the 12th century, i.e., the Mongol invasion, is generally referred to as the Muslim Golden Age. Although this is not a history or a story in black and white, it is by and large considered the golden period of Muslim history. The 9th century CE for the Muslim Caliphate in Baghdad was a time when Muslims were achieving greatly in research and rational thought, in the discovery of knowledge in logic. Achievements in the years to come gave birth to people who migrated to Muslim states from around the world who had free thinking, who thought without confining the thought. These people also made inventions and gave theories, and historians, philosophers, and intellectuals were also born in that golden era. So Baghdad remained a global example of progress and enlightenment for centuries. By the way, Baghdad is a strange city. Here, Muslims burned thousands of historical rare books and then wrote many more than that, and then someone else came and burned those books again in Baghdad. How did it come? Thirty-five kilometers southeast of Baghdad today on the bank of the Tigris River is Salman Pak. This modern town has ruins of the ancient city of Ctesiphon, the Arabic name for Madain. Ctesiphon's ruins strikingly feature a huge arched, semi-circular, domed ceiling. It is called Taq Kasra or Aiwane Kasra. Kasra actually used to be the title of an Iranian emperor. This building was part of the royal palace of the emperor of Iran, Kasra. It meant his door, his power center, and was a gateway to it.

These pictures show a person passing under a 121-foot-high grand arch that would hardly sustain the glory of the Iranian emperor. It is so high even today that a person standing under it appears as a point. Imagine the world of 1500 years ago, when such buildings alone, rather than mud houses, were seen from far away. To be honest, even today this arch is so huge that no other brick arch has been made that is bigger and higher in the world. This shows how advanced the architecture of the Prussian Empire was at that time. This historical heritage is so valuable that the Iraqi and Iranian governments claim this historical city and its ruins as their heritage. The Iranian Museum is designed after the arch of the ancient Persian capital. Since it is located in Iraq, therefore Iraqis also include it in their history and also use the signs of Taq Kasra on their tickets and currency notes. Despite being Muslim states, they never break their link with pre-Islamic history.

Ctesiphon and the Lost Persian Library

During the reign of the second Caliph of Islam, Hazrat Umar Farooq (RA), the Arab army besieged the same city of Ctesiphon. At that time, the Iranian emperor was a 13-year-old boy, Yazdgerd III. It was the year 637 CE, and winter days; it was somewhat early in January. This campaign was led by Saad bin Abi Waqqas and Saeed bin Amir. The 400-year-old Iranian empire, the Sassanid Empire, was reeling, and countering a powerful Muslim army was beyond its reach. One by one it lost the battles, and three months later in March, Muslims captured the advanced city of their time. With this, the power of the Persian Empire shattered. This was the first major victory of the Caliphate.

An important part of the ancient city of Ctesiphon was across the Tigris River. After conquering the first part, commander Saad bin Waqqas with his army crossed the river and entered the second part of the city. Here, people did not put up any resistance. They surrendered without any fight. Saad bin Abi Waqqas also gave peace to the citizens who did not take up arms. But he was constantly looking for the Iranian emperor Yazdgerd. That Taq Kasra, the palace whose ruins we just showed you, searched for him but to no avail. The teenage emperor Yazdgerd III disappeared with his guards and a large part of the royal wealth. A detachment from the Muslim army chased Yazdgerd III, and his companions moved ahead, leaving their wealth on the way. The Muslim army returned to Ctesiphon with mounds of wealth. When the army returned, the city was also being searched for hidden treasures. Meanwhile, the Arab commander Saad bin Waqqas learned about a huge library. The huge library stocked thousands of books on history, philosophy, geography, and literature piled to the ceiling. Then there were tens of thousands of manuscripts written on hides and scrolls. Engineers who built buildings such as Taq Kasra also wrote much, which was preserved in the library in mathematical and geometrical forms. Books and scrolls the Iranian emperor had brought from around the world for translations were also kept in this knowledge center. The translation into Middle Persian, the official language called the Pahlavi, had been completed, while others had yet to be translated. Texts written in many languages of the world were preserved here. However, there was a problem with the Arab fighters and their commanders. They wanted to divide into three the proceeds that came into their hands, and the commander was also authorized for it. But what to do with scrolls filled to the ceiling, papers, books, and maps? Whether or not this junk and scrap are of any use to them? The Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun writes Commander Saad bin Abi Waqqas wrote a letter to Caliph Hazrat Umar Farooq. In the letter, he asked for permission: should the library books, etc., be distributed in the army like booty? The Caliph replied, "Throw these books and papers into the Tigris water if they had good things written; God has already guided us with better than that. And if wrongs are written in them, be sure God has saved us from the evil." So this historical library was completely abolished in a few years. It goes that some of those books remained safe, and they were translated into Arabic during the Abbasid period. It may be, but where are those books today? We don't know. So we lost the link with this library, the treasure of books and history.

The Fall of the Persian and Roman Empires

The Muslims completely conquered the Persian Empire in 637 CE. A few years later, during the reign of the third Caliph Hazrat Usman bin Affan (RA), the last Persian king, Yazdgerd III, who survived the Battle of Ctesiphon, was also killed at the age of 37. Now the Persian Empire, the Sassanid Empire, and their dynasty had ended. It was the year 651, and the Muslims had entered a period of rapid conquests. A few years before this incident, commanded by Khalid bin Walid, the Muslims had captured the Roman vassal state of al-Ghassana. Where Syria and Jordan are today, there that kingdom existed that was part of the Eastern Roman Empire, i.e., the Byzantine Empire.

In a nutshell, an important part of the Roman Empire, al-Ghassana, and the Persian Empire had completely fallen to the Muslims during the time of the Rashidun Caliphate. These conquests had brought mounds of treasures to the court of the Caliphate. They had also come by huge power. But along with these conquests, the rule of the Arab Muslims over these highly developed civilizations had another element deeply felt. The Arab conquerors were in a fix as to how these advanced civilizations, which had a rich multi-faceted culture contrary to the Arabs, could be defeated. In other words, they had won against them in swords or in muscle power, but now the question was defeating them culturally—how could they? The Romans and Iranians were ahead of the Arabs intellectually and culturally. You learned in our series on Khalid Bin Walid that when the Arabs defeated an Iranian army in The Battle of Ulysses, the Iranians fled, leaving behind their prepared food. On the order of Khalid bin Walid, the Muslim army started eating this food. In the fourth chapter of the first volume of Tarikh al-Tabari, it is written that many Arab soldiers had not seen white bread and such a sumptuous dining before as the Iranians put up during the war. They saw the bread and asked in surprise, What are these pieces of white cloth? So was a cultural challenge the Arabs had come across.

The Challenge of Greek Philosophy and the Rise of Rational Debate

With it, the Muslims had to face another and relatively bigger challenge. Particularly where the Muslims conquered a large part of the Roman Empire, here ideological rifts appeared between two Muslim factions, which intensified. The number of literate people in the al-Ghassana state of the Romans was very high. Especially the Nestorian Christians were settled here in large numbers. It was also the official religion of the Eastern Roman Empire. The educated people here were religious and well-versed in disciplines. They were experts in logic, medicine, astrology, astronomy, alchemy, natural sciences and engineering, and the geometry needed to build bridges and roads, and erudite Greek philosophers. The Arab leaders who came to these areas as governors found astronomy, medicine, and engineering beneficial for themselves and for their state, but they did not pay much attention to other disciplines of learning. Rather, they did not acknowledge them as knowledge at all. They believed philosophy and logic were unnecessary branches of knowledge because they did not relate to practical life. The Arab rulers and influential ones had this mind, but all Muslims were not so. Among them were great scholars and intellectuals. These Arab Muslims would debate with the philosophers and Christian scholars of the Roman conquered territories.

So for the first time, Muslims were asked about their ideologies, faith, and religion in a philosophical context. And they were to address them rationally and logically. They could not satisfy questions by simply saying it is true since it is written in our books. They faced questions from seasoned scholars of Greek philosophy; therefore, they were in a serious situation out of all this. Here, those who converted to Islam from Christianity in al-Ghassana proved handy. They were familiar with philosophers' reasoning and how to answer queries. So they explained Islamic ideologies and their understanding and interpretation in a rational and logical way. From them, the Arab Muslims also learned the art of discussing religious questions in a philosophical, logical, and argumentative manner. So, in the newly conquered Muslim areas, different discussions began to be held. Many important questions came before the Muslim scholars as a challenge. For instance, is man free according to Islam? Can he do whatever he wants, or can he only do what is approved by God? Can Islamic beliefs be proven by reason? Does the God of Muslims make rational and logical decisions, or is whatever He commands inherently rational and logical?

Is God bound to do justice, or whatever God says is justice? Will the intellect be used to understand the Islamic injunctions, or will the words written in the Divine Book be acted upon precisely? If any Islamic command seems against reason, will human intelligence decide it, or will the written one be conceded to without going deep into its meaning? Is it permissible to ask such questions in Islam? Is it the truth what Islam commands, or whatever the truth is, is Islam? If at any time a clash between the two takes place, which will decide: Wisdom or revealed words? Such hard philosophical questions were never faced by Arab Muslims before from their rivals in such an organized manner. This complex philosophical debate forced Muslim scholars to answer them. When they started to respond, the Muslims split into two major groups. One went to the side of intellect, logic, reason, and thinking rationally. This group valued human intelligence and intellectual freedom. It held that man is completely free in his actions. God has not predestined everything in the destiny of man. That is why he is accountable for his good and bad deeds on the day of judgment. If he is not free, then on the Day of Judgment, why should he be accounted for his deeds? In this way, the purpose of putting him to a test will be dead? The views of rational Muslim thinkers gave command to human actions and thoughts. Therefore, this group is historically called "Qadariya" (rationalists). Their opponents would call them Mankar Taqdeer (denialists). In contrast to the Qadiriya, "Jabria" (bound) was another Muslim group, which held that man is bound by destiny and is not free. It said not a single leaf in the universe waves without the command of God. The sun needs God's permission to rise and set every day. Daily it rises when permitted and sets when permitted.

For this group, man's freedom would mean calling God in compulsion. They would refer to the name of God Al-Jabbar as mentioned in the Holy Quran. It meant that we were all in the grip of God's bounds and confines every moment. For example, in the words of a rationalist religious scholar, Jaiham bin Safwan, a man is beforehand bound to act in the same way as a tree to bear fruit, a river to flow, a stone to roll, or the sun to rise and set with God's permission. These two groups, Qadiriya and Jabriya, had been set up at the end of the 7th century, when the Umayyad Caliphate was in rule. In Damascus, the area once occupied by the Romans witnessed heated debates between these two groups as a daily routine.

These arguments led to fights and even killings. The Jabriya people would cite from the Qur'an and Hadith in favor of their views. The Qadariyas would also prove their views from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Both also received strong arguments in favor of their respective points of view. Let's take up Jabariyas, which said man is bound by destiny and is not free. These people used to quote the 125th verse of Surah Al-An'am, which reads the person whom God's wills to guide, He opens his chest to Islam, and whoever He wants to mislead, He makes his chest narrow and closed. Similarly, they also cited the 7th verse of Surah al-Baqarah, which explains in Urdu that Allah has sealed the hearts and ears of the disbelievers. Their eyes are veiled.

Jabariya also brought hadiths in their support, like Sahih Muslim, that the hearts of all human beings are between two fingers of God. He turns them in whatever direction he wants to. Then this hadith of Sahih Muslim was also in favor of Jabriya that when the baby is just 40 days old in the mother's womb two angels come to see it by God's command. They ask God about the baby and write whether it will be a righteous person or a misguided one. Will it be male or female? They close the book of destiny, writing down its habits, wealth, and death. After that, nothing more can be written or cut in this book. These are some references, but Jabriya would bring thousands of such arguments in their favor from Islamic sources and prove that man is not free; he is bound by fate. Whatever he does, he does it by the will of God, according to his pre-written destiny. Against it, the Qadriya scholars also brought arguments from Islamic sources and proved that it is God's decision that man is free. They would quote the 29th verse of Surah Al-Kahf of the Holy Quran, which reads, "The truth from your Lord. Let him who will believe and let him who will reject it." In the same way, the third verse of Surah Al-Dhar also reads, "We showed the way." Whether he be grateful or ungrateful (rests on his will)." The Qadriya group also used hadiths to support them, and they used themiya people brought arguments in their favor from the Quran and Hadith.  to prove that man is not bound but is free. God has given him freedom. Jabriya people brought arguments in their favor from the Quran and Hadith. So both of them considered themselves right in every case. Some verses enabled Jabriya and Qadriya to prove their cases simultaneously. Like the 93rd verse of Surah Al-Nahl. The first part of it was used by Jabriya to say that "If Allah so willed, He could make you all one people, but He leaves straying whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases." Al-Qadriyah would use the last part of the same verse to say that God says, "But you shall certainly be called to account for all your actions." For Qadriaya, a person will be questioned about his willful deeds. Qadriya considered this part in his favor with this explanation.

Religious Debates and Ideological Division

After the conquest of the East and the West, Jabriya and Qadriya had the first ideological clash that divided the Muslims badly. It was so bad that the state strongly stood with one group and crushed the other. Because this debate was also connected with the power game of Muslims. How it was? Which ideology suited the Umayyad Caliphate, and why? What ideology did they want to eradicate and why? Then what was the relationship of the golden age of Muslims to all this? How did the caliphate of the Umayyads end and the caliphate of the Abbasid dynasty begin to rejuvenate the Golden Age? Where did the Mu'tazila come from during the Abbasid Caliphate? Who patronized them? We will show you all this in the part 2. Friends, this story that we are presenting is a history that will tell you what made the Muslims emerge amid the great historical empires that, in sciences, philosophy, medicine, and geometry, they were a beacon in the world. And then what caused the idea that led the Muslims to the golden age was defeated. And those won who were antagonists of wisdom and wisdom. You may not have heard about the rise and fall of the Muslim Golden Age before. And yes, there is a thumbs-up at the bottom of this video. If you touch or click on it, it will change color. Do it if you want to be sure of it. Sometimes an absurd way to solve a problem further complicates the problem.