It is 803 AD in Baghdad in the closing years of the glorious reign of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid best known in the western world as the caliph whose court is described in the Arabian Nights. His reign represented the peak of ‘Abbasid power in a caliphate full of pomp, splendor and learning that is often seen as the golden age of Islamic civilization. Harun al-Rashid was a popular ruler who relied on the Barmakis, the Persian administrators to run the ‘Abbasid…