Ali al-Rida
Ali ibn Musa al-Rida, also known as Abū al-Ḥasan al-Thānī, was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the eighth imam in Twelver Shia Islam, succeeding his father, Musa al-Kazim in 799 CE. He is also part of the chain of mystical authority in Sunni Sufi orders. He was known for his piety and learning, and a number of works are attributed to him, including Al-Risalah al-Dhahabiah, Sahifah of al-Ridha, and Fiqh al-Rida. Uyoun Akhbar Al-Ridha by Ibn Babawayh is a comprehensive collection that includes his religious debates and sayings, biographical details, and even the miracles which have occurred at his tomb. He is buried in Mashad, Iran, site of a large shrine.
Al-Rida was contemporary with the Abbasid caliphs Harun al-Rashid and his sons, al-Amin and al-Ma'mun. In a sudden departure from the established anti-Shia policy of the Abbasids, possibly to mitigate the frequent Shia revolts, al-Mamun invited al-Rida to Merv in Khorasan, his de facto capital, and designated him as heir apparent, despite the reluctance of the al-Rida who accepted the offer on the condition that he would not interfere in governmental affairs. The appointment of Ali al-Rida by the Abbasid al-Mamun immediately invoked strong opposition, particularly among the Abbasids, who revolted and installed Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi, a half-brother of Harun al-Rashid, as the anti-caliph in Baghdad. Realising the severity of the Iraqi opposition, al-Mamun and his entourage left Khorasan for Baghdad, accompanied by al-Rida. The Imam, however, died mysteriously when the party reached Tus in September 818. His death followed shortly after the assassination of al-Fadl ibn Sahl, the Persian of al-Mamun, who was publicly seen as responsible for his pro-Shia policies. The caliph is often seen as responsible for both deaths, as he made concessions to the Arab party to smooth his return to Baghdad. Tus was later replaced with a new city, called Mashhad, which developed around the grave of al-Rida as the holiest site in Iran, to which millions of Shia Muslims flock annually for pilgrimage.
Life
Birth and early life
Ali was born in Medina in,, or. The first date is said to be based on a prediction ascribed to his grandfather, al-Sadiq, who died in that year, that the successor to his son al-Kazim would be born soon. There are some indications that Ali might have been born as late. In any case, the date often given by Shia authorities is 11 Du al-Qa'da. His father was al-Kazim, the seventh Twelver Shia Imam, who was a descendant of Ali and Fatima, cousin and daughter of the Islamic prophet, respectively. His mother was a freed slave, probably of Berber origin, whose name is recorded differently in various sources, perhaps Najma or Tuktam. It was reputedly Ja'far al-Sadiq, the father of al-Kazim, who chose Najma for him. Momen writes that Ali was thirty-five years old when his father died, whereas Donaldson holds that he was twenty or twenty-five at the time.During Harun's rule
Al-Rida lived with his father Musa al-Kazim in Medina until. When Harun arrested Musa and transferred him to Iraq, he took care of Musa's property and the affairs of the Shias as the attorney of his father. With the death of Musa al-Kazim in Baghdad prison in Rajab, his son Ali al-Rida became his heir and successor, according to his father's will.According to Madelung, al-Kazim had appointed al-Rida as his executor and al-Rida also inherited his father's property near Medina, excluding his brothers. According to Musa al-Kazim will, the custody of his children, wives and property was also entrusted to Ali al-Rida. Ali spent the next ten years of his life - from to - in the reign of Harun.
Civil war and unrest
The Abbasid caliph Harun died during the imamate of al-Rida and the empire was split between his two sons: the reigning caliph, al-Amin, who was born to an Arab mother, and al-Mamun, who was born of a Persian mother and was designated as the successor and the governor of the province of Khorasan in present-day Iran. In effect, according to Momen, al-Amin controlled Iraq and the west with his Arab, al-Fadl ibn Rabi, while al-Mamun controlled Iran and the east with his Persian, al-Fadl ibn Sahl. Al-Amin reportedly violated these arrangements by appointing his son as successor in place of Mamun, and soon a civil war ensued in which al-Amin was killed and Baghdad was occupied by al-Mamun's general, who nevertheless remained in Merv in Khorasan, apparently determined to make there his new capital. Al-Rida, who, according to a tradition narrated by Ibn Babawayh and al-Tabarsi, had informed one of his companions that Ma'mun would kill Amin, kept himself away from the conflicts between the two. The period of Amin's caliphate is said to be the time of peace for al-Rida, during which he found the opportunity to fulfill his mission of spreading the Islamic teachings.Al-Mamun claimed for himself the title of Imam al-Huda, possibly to imply that he was best qualified for the caliphate. Notably, he faced costly revolts in Kufa and Arabia by Alids and Zaydis, who intensified their campaign against the Abbasids around 815 CE, seizing the cities of Mecca, Medina, Wasit, and Basra. In particular, the Shia revolt by Abu'l-Saraya in 815 was difficult to suppress in Iraq, and compelled al-Hasan ibn Sahl, al-Mamun's governor of Iraq, to deploy the troops of the Khorasani general Harthama.
Throughout the years, several of al-Rida's brothers and his uncle Moḥammad ibn Ja'far participated in the Alid revolts in Iraq and Arabia, but al-Rida refused any involvement. In this period, al-Rida's only involvement in politics might have been to mediate between the Abbasid government and his uncle Muḥammad ibn Ja'far, who had revolted in Mecca.
Appointment as heir apparent
Departing from the established anti-Shia policies of his predecessors, al-Mamun invited al-Rida to Khorasan in 816 CE, and designated him as successor in 817. According to Madelung, al-Mamun wrote to al-Rida in, invited him to come to Merv, and also sent Raja ibn Abi'l Zahhak, cousin of his, and a eunuch to accompany al-Rida on this trip. In the same year, al-Rida might have also made the pilgrimage to Mecca with his five-year-old son Muhammad al-Jawad. After some initial resistance, al-Rida set out for Merv in 816. According to a narration that some ancient sources have confirmed, Ma'mun had ordered that the Imam not be taken via Kufa and Qom, as he was worried that the feelings of the Shias of these cities in their friendship with the Imam would create problems for him.Though he did not pass through Qum on his way to Merv, he stayed for some time in Nishapur, where prominent Sunni traditionists visited him, including Ibn Rahuya, Yahya ibn Yahya, Moḥammad ibn Rafe', and Ahmad ibn Ḥarb. Al-Rida continued on to Marv after receiving a new summons from al-Mamun.
A number of Sunni hadith scholars also asked al-Rida to narrate a hadith for them that has become known as the Hadith of Golden Chain.
In Merv, al-Mamun first offered al-Rida the caliphate, though this was turned down by the latter. According to Madelung, al-Rida resisted al-Mamun's proposals for about two months until he reluctantly consented to an appointment as heir to the caliphate. The sources seem to agree that al-Rida was reluctant to accept this nomination, ceding only to the insistence of the caliph, with the condition that he would not interfere in governmental affairs or the appointment or dismissal of government agents. On 2 Ramadan 201 AH by one account, the dignitaries and army leaders in Merv pledged their allegiance to the new heir apparent, who was dressed in green. An official announcement was made in the mosques throughout the empire, coins were minted to commemorate the occasion, and al-Mamun also changed the color of uniforms, official dress, and flags from black, the official Abbasid color, to green. This move possibly signified the reconciliation between the Abbasids and the Alids. To strengthen their relations, al-Mamun also married his daughter to al-Rida and promised another daughter to al-Rida's son in Medina, a minor at the time.
Motives
The motivations of al-Mamun for this appointment are not fully understood. At the time, he justified his decision by maintaining that al-Rida was the most suitable person for the caliphate. The reluctance of al-Rida in accepting this designation, however, might reflect his suspicion that al-Mamun had ulterior motives. With an age gap of more than twenty years, it also seems unlikely that al-Rida would ever have succeeded the much younger al-Mamun. With this appointment, some have suggested that al-Mamun hoped for the support of the Shia and respite from their numerous revolts. Others have suggested that al-Mamun was influenced by his powerful Persian, af-Fadl ibn Sahl, who had Shia tendencies. Madelung, however, finds it more likely that the initiative to appoint al-Rida belonged to al-Mamun and not his. Some authors have not found the appointment surprising, noting the strained or severed relations of the caliph with his Abbasid relatives. Yet others have written that al-Mamun wanted a merit-based caliphate, though he made no mention of rules governing the succession to al-Rida during the ceremony. It has been suggested that al-Mamun might have wanted to heal the Sunni-Shia division, while Lapidus and others hold that al-Mamun wanted to expand his authority by adopting the Shia views about the divine authority of religious leaders, alongside his later religious inquisition. Bayhom-Daou considers it likely that al-Mamun saw this appointment as a means of discrediting the Shia doctrine of Imamate, and Tabatabai writes that al-Mamun might have also hoped to undermine the position of al-Rida as a Shia religious leader by engaging him in politics.Al-Rida's rejection of al-Mamun's initial offer for replacing him as the caliph has been used to argue that al-Rida's ultimate aim was not temporal and political power. Rather, Mavani suggests that such power was merely a means for the Imam to reach the ultimate goal of guiding the community to salvation. When al-Rida was asked why he accepted the successorship, he is reported to have emphasized his unwillingness, responding, "The same thing which forced my grandfather the Commander of the Faithful to join the arbitration council ". To show his dissatisfaction with the trip to Khorasan, as reported by Ibn Babuyyah, al-Rida not only refused to take his family with him but also asked them to cry loudly for him, saying that he would never return to his family's embrace.
It also appears that this appointment did not alienate any of the followers of al-Rida which, according to Bayhom-Daou, might imply that they were convinced that he was a reluctant player who had no choice but to accept his designation as the heir apparent.