Dear Santa...
So, I decided my Sindbad game for the 2010 season, and decided to make it more Hollywood Arabian Nights fantasy. So I needed this and that, and the caliphate is in danger, and the enemy should be--?
Hmm. So I started looking for just who Harun's big enemies were. The biggest threat to his tenure of the throne was his nephew, Ja'far ibn Musa al-Hadi, son of his elder brother. Their father, al-Mahdi, had decided to fiddle with the succession long after he was dead though (arguably to get Harun's mother off his back.) So, his will said that al-Hadi got the throne, and when he died Harun got the throne--even if al-Hadi had a son, which he did.
Well, when al-Hadi conveniently expired, the Barmicid viziers and the imperial bureaucracy favored Harun, and the army favored Ja'far.
And to find the real story, I need to get v. 30 of SUNY's translation of Tabari's history. Gah!
So now you know what I want for Christmas :-)
Hmm. So I started looking for just who Harun's big enemies were. The biggest threat to his tenure of the throne was his nephew, Ja'far ibn Musa al-Hadi, son of his elder brother. Their father, al-Mahdi, had decided to fiddle with the succession long after he was dead though (arguably to get Harun's mother off his back.) So, his will said that al-Hadi got the throne, and when he died Harun got the throne--even if al-Hadi had a son, which he did.
Well, when al-Hadi conveniently expired, the Barmicid viziers and the imperial bureaucracy favored Harun, and the army favored Ja'far.
And to find the real story, I need to get v. 30 of SUNY's translation of Tabari's history. Gah!
So now you know what I want for Christmas :-)