he qualities of his father and his brother. When the
latter asked him to renounce his right of succession, he was willing to
consent, saying that a quiet life with his beloved wife, the princess
Zobaida, was his highest wish, but he obeyed his mother and Yahya b.
Khalid. As long as the Barmecides were in office, he acted only on their
direction. After their disgrace he was led into many impolitic actions
by his violent and often cruel propensities. But the empire was,
especially in the earlier part of his reign, in a very prosperous state,
and was respected widely by foreign powers. Embassies passed between
Charlemagne and Harun in the years 180 (A.D. 797) and 184 (A.D. 801), by
which the former obtained facilities for the pilgrims to the Holy Land,
the latter probably concessions for the trade on the Mediterranean
ports. The ambassadors brought presents with them; on one of these
occasions the first elephant reached the land of the Franks.

Under the reign of Harun, Ibrahim b. al-Aghlab, the governor of Africa,
succeeded in making himself independent of the central government, on
condition of paying a fixed annual tribute to his suzerain the caliph.
This was, if we do not take Spain into the account, the first instance
of dismemberment, later to be followed by many others.

In the days of this caliph the first paper factories were founded in
Bagdad.

6. _Reign of Amin_.--On the death of Harun his minister, Fadl b. Rabi',
with the view of gaining the new caliph's confidence, hastened to call
together all the troops of the late caliph and to lead them back to
Bagdad, in order to place them in the hands of the new sovereign, Amin.
He even, in direct violation of Harun's will, led back the corps which
was intended to occupy Khorasan under the authority of Mamun. Aware,
however, that in thus acting he was making Mamun his irreconcilable
enemy, he persuaded Amin to exclude Mamun from the succession. Mamun, on
receiving his brother's invitation to go to Bagdad, was greatly
perplexed; but his tutor and later vizier, Fadl b. Sahl, a Zoroastrian
of great influence, who in 806 had adopted Islam, reanimated his
courage, and pointed out to him that certain death awaited him at
Bagdad. Mamun resolved to hold out, and found pretexts for remaining in
Khorasan. Amin, in anger, caused the will of his father, which, as we
have seen, was preserved in the Ka'ba, to be destroyed, declared on his
own authority that Mamun's rights of succes