His was the time that Byzantium attempted to recover Arab-conquered territory in Asia Minor. The Abbasid Caliphate in the person of al-Mahdi sent an army under his son Harun to resist that attempt. Harun drove the Greeks back to Constantinople, and so threatened that capitol that the Empress Irene made peace on terms that pledged a yearly payment of 70,000 dinars to the caliphs. From that time onward al-Mahdi called the youth Harun al-Rashid - Aaron the Upright.

As monarch of Sind (northwest India), Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Turkestan, Persia, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Syria, Palestine, Cyprus, Crete, Egype, and North Africa, Harun, continuing the words of Durant, was a poet, a scholar, an impetuous and eloquent orator, and to that time, no Court in history had a more brilliant constellation of intellects. Contemporary with the Empress Irene and with Charlemagne, Harun excelled them all in wealth, power, splendor, and the cultural advancement that adorns a rule.

An unusually effective monarch - sharing in direct administration, developing high repute as a judge, leading his army personally in the field, maintaining all frontiers intact, and - despite unprecedented liberality and display- left 48,000,000 dinars in the treasury at his death.

We are told that toward the end of Harun's life, Necephorus I, Byzantine Emperor, refused to continue payments pledged by Irene. Harun took to the field immediately and led an army into Asia Minor, always attacking in numerous expeditions - to the end that Necephorus agreed in 806 to resume the tributes.

In that same year, a rebellion broke out in Khurasan. Harun led his troops once again although "he was suffering from severe abdominal pains..." He was dying when at last the rebel leader was captured & executed. The next day Harun the Upright died (809) at age 45.

All of the above information is taken from

History of the Arab Peoples

The Age of Faith by Will Durant, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1950