, Abu ’l-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh b. Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd , seventh ʿAbbāsid caliph. Born on 15 Rabīʿ I 170/14 September 786, “the night of the three caliphs” (death of al-Hādī, accession of al-Ras̲h̲īd, birth of the future al-Maʾmūn), he was the eldest of the eleven sons of al-Ras̲h̲īd. His mother, Marād̲j̲il, a concubine originally from Bād̲h̲g̲h̲īs, died soon after his birth and he was brought up by Zubayda, the grand-daughter of al-Manṣūr, wife of al-Ras̲h̲īd and mother of Muḥammad (the future al-Amīn) who w…