Abbasid Caliphate

:For the Caliphate of Córdoba (Al-Andalus) dynasty see Abbadids; for the south-west Arabia Muslim sect, see Abādites.

Native name	الخلافة العباسية
Conventional long name	Abbasid Caliphate
Common name	Abbasid Caliphate
Continent	Afroasia
Region	Middle East
Status	Empire
Government type	Caliphate
Life span	750–1258/1261–1513
Year start	750
Year end	1258
P1	Umayyad Caliphate
Flag p1	Umayyad Flag.svg
S1	Mongol Empire
Flag s1	White Sulde of the Mongol Empire.jpg
S2	Fatimid Caliphate
Flag s2	Fatimid_flag.svg
S3	Ottoman Empire
Flag s3	Ottoman_Flag.svg
Image map caption	Abbasid Caliphate (light and dark green) at its greatest extent, c. 850. Territories in dark green were lost early on.
Capital	Baghdad
Common languages	Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Berber languages, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Middle Persian, Oghuz Turkic, Kurdish
Religion	Sunni Islam
Currency	Abbasid Dinar
Leader1	As-Saffah
Year leader1	721–754
Leader2	Harun al-Rashid
Year leader2	786–809
Leader3	Al-Mustansir
Year leader3	1261–1262
Leader4	Al-Musta'sim
Year leader4	1242–1258
Title leader	Amir al-Mu'minin¹
Stat area1	10000000
Stat pop1	50000000
Footnotes	¹ Amir al-Mu'minin (أمير المؤمنين), Caliph (خليفة)
Today

The Abbasid Caliphate or, more simply, the Abbasids ( / ISO 233: ), was the third of the Islamic caliphates. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but the Al Andalus region.

The Abbasid caliphate was founded by the descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad's youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, in Harran in 750 CE and shifted its capital in 762 to Baghdad. It flourished for two centuries, but slowly went into decline with the rise to power of the Turkish army it had created, the Mamluks. Within 150 years of gaining control of Persia, the caliphs were forced to cede power to local dynastic emirs who only nominally acknowledged their authority. The caliphate also lost the Western provinces of Al Andalus, Maghreb and Ifriqiya to an Umayyad prince, the Aghlabids and the Fatimids, respectively.

The Abbasids' rule was briefly ended for three years in 1258, when Hulagu Khan, the Mongol khan, sacked Baghdad, resuming in Mamluk Egypt in 1261, from where they continued to claim authority in religious matters until 1519, when power was formally transferred to the Ottomans and the capital relocated to Constantinople.

Rise

The Abbasid caliphs descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566 – 662), one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad, because of which they considered themselves the true successor of Muhammad as opposed to the Umayyads. The Umayyads were descended from Umayya, and were a clan separate from Muhammad's in the Quraish tribe. They won the backing of Shiites (i.e., the Hashimiyya sub-sect of the Kaysanites Shia) against the Umayyads by temporarily converting to Shia Islam and joining their fight against Umayyad rule.

, Iraq, 765.]] The Abbasids also distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character and administration in general. According to Ira Lapidus, "The Abbasid revolt was supported largely by Arabs, mainly the aggrieved settlers of Marw with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali". The Abbasids also appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali, who remained outside the kinship-based society of the Arabs and were perceived as a lower class within the Umayyad empire. Muhammad ibn 'Ali, a great-grandson of Abbas, began to campaign for the return of power to the family of Muhammad, the Hashimites, in Persia during the reign of Umar II.

During the reign of Marwan II, this opposition culminated in the rebellion of Ibrahim the Imam, the fourth in descent from Abbas. Supported by the province of Khorasan, Iran, he achieved considerable success, but was captured in the year 747 and died in prison; some hold that he was assassinated. The quarrel was taken up by his brother Abdallah, known by the name of Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah, who defeated the Umayyads in 750 in the Battle of the Zab near the Great Zab and was subsequently proclaimed caliph.

Immediately after their victory, Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah sent his forces to North Africa and Central Asia, where his forces fought against Tang expansion during the Battle of Talas (the Abbasids were known to their opponents as the: "Black robed Tazi" ("Tazi", Chinese: 大食 is borrowed from Persian.) ). Barmakids, who were instrumental in building Baghdad; introduced the world's first recorded paper mill in Baghdad, thus beginning a new era of intellectual rebirth in the Abbasid domain. Within 10 years, the Abbasids built another renowned paper mill in the Umayyad capital of Córdoba in Spain.

Power

The first change the Abbasids made was to move the empire's capital from Damascus, in Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq. This was to both appease as well to be closer to the Persian mawali support base that existed in this region more influenced by Persian history and culture, and part of the Persian mawali demand for less Arab dominance in the empire. Baghdad was established on the Tigris River in 762. A new position, that of the vizier, was also established to delegate central authority, and even greater authority was delegated to local emirs. Eventually, this meant that many Abbasid caliphs were relegated to a more ceremonial role than under the Umayyads, as the viziers began to exert greater influence, and the role of the old Arab aristocracy was slowly replaced by a Persian bureaucracy.

The Abbasids had depended heavily on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads. Abu al-'Abbas' successor, Al-Mansur, moved their capital from Damascus to the new city of Baghdad and welcomed non-Arab Muslims to their court. While this helped integrate Arab and Persian cultures, it alienated many of their Arab supporters, particularly the Khorasanian Arabs who had supported them in their battles against the Umayyads. 's reign]] These fissures in their support led to immediate problems. The Umayyads, while out of power, were not destroyed. The only surviving member of the Umayyad royal family, which had been all but annihilated, ultimately made his way to Spain where he established himself as an independent Emir (Abd ar-Rahman I, 756). In 929, Abd ar-Rahman III assumed the title of Caliph, establishing Al Andalus from Córdoba as a rival to Baghdad as the legitimate capital of the Islamic Empire.

Golden Age

The Islamic Golden Age was inaugurated by the middle of the 8th century by the ascension of the Abbasid Caliphate and the transfer of the capital from Damascus to Baghdad. The Abbassids were influenced by the Qur'anic injunctions and hadith such as "the ink of a scholar is more holy than the blood of a martyr" stressing the value of knowledge. Harun al-Rashid's son, Al-Ma'mun (whose mother was Persian), is even quoted as saying:

:"The Persians ruled for a thousand years and did not need us Arabs even for a day. We have been ruling them for one or two centuries and cannot do without them for an hour."

A number of medieval thinkers and scientists living under Islamic rule played a role in transmitting Islamic science to the Christian West. They contributed to making Aristotle known in Christian Europe. In addition, the period saw the recovery of much of the Alexandrian mathematical, geometric and astronomical knowledge, such as that of Euclid and Claudius Ptolemy. These recovered mathematical methods were later enhanced and developed by other Islamic scholars, notably by Persian scientists Al-Biruni and Abu Nasr Mansur.

Algebra was significantly developed by Persian Scientist Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī during this time in his landmark text, Kitab al-Jabr wa-l-Muqabala, from which the term algebra is derived. He is thus considered to be the father of algebra by some, although the Greek mathematician Diophantus has also been given this title. The terms algorism and algorithm are derived from the name of al-Khwarizmi, who was also responsible for introducing the Arabic numerals and Hindu-Arabic numeral system beyond the Indian subcontinent.

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) developed an early scientific method in his Book of Optics (1021). The most important development of the scientific method was the use of experiments to distinguish between competing scientific theories set within a generally empirical orientation, which began among Muslim scientists. Ibn al-Haytham's empirical proof of the intromission theory of light (that is, that light rays entered the eyes rather than being emitted by them) was particularly important. Bradley Steffens described Ibn al-Haytham as the "first scientist" for his development of scientific method.

Medicine in medieval Islam was an area of science that advanced particularly during the Abbasids' reign. During the ninth century, Baghdad contained over 800 doctors, and great discoveries in the understanding of anatomy and diseases were made. The clinical distinction between measles and smallpox was described during this time. Famous Persian scientist Ibn Sina (known to the West as Avicenna) produced treatises and works that summarized the vast amount of knowledge that scientists had accumulated, and was very influential through his encyclopedias, The Canon of Medicine and The Book of Healing. The work of him and many others directly influenced the research of European scientists during the Renaissance.

Astronomy in medieval Islam was advanced by Al-Battani, who improved the precision of the measurement of the precession of the Earth's axis. The corrections made to the geocentric model by al-Battani, Averroes, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Mo'ayyeduddin Urdi and Ibn al-Shatir were later incorporated into the Copernican heliocentric model. The astrolabe, though originally developed by the Greeks, was developed further by Islamic astronomers and engineers, and subsequently brought to medieval Europe.

Muslim alchemists influenced medieval European alchemists, particularly the writings attributed to Jābir ibn Hayyān (Geber). A number of chemical processes such as distillation techniques were developed in the Muslim world and then spread to Europe.

Literature

" by Maxfield Parrish.]]

The most well known fiction from the Islamic world was The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights). The original concept is derived from pre-Islamic Iranian (Persian) prototype with reliance on Indian elements. It also includes stories from the rest of the Middle-Eastern and North African nations. The epic took form in the 10th century and reached its final form by the 14th century; the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another. All Arabian fantasy tales were often called "Arabian Nights" when translated into English, regardless of whether they appeared in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. Many imitations were written, especially in France. Various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad and Ali Baba.

A famous example of Persian poetry on romance is Layla and Majnun, dating back to the Umayyad era in the 7th century. It is a tragic story of undying love much like the later Romeo and Juliet.

Arabic poetry reached its greatest heights in the Abbasid era, especially before the loss of central authority and the rise of the Persianate dynasties. Writers like Abu Tammam and Abu Nuwas were closely connected to the caliphal court in Baghdad during the early 9th century, while others such as al-Mutanabbi received their patronage from regional courts.

Philosophy

One of the common definitions for "Islamic philosophy" is "the style of philosophy produced within the framework of Islamic culture." Islamic philosophy, in this definition is neither necessarily concerned with religious issues, nor is exclusively produced by Muslims.

Advances were made in irrigation and farming, using new technology such as the windmill. Crops such as almonds and citrus fruit were brought to Europe through al-Andalus, and sugar cultivation was gradually adopted by the Europeans. Arab merchants dominated trade in the Indian Ocean until the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century. Hormuz was an important center for this trade. There was also a dense network of trade routes in the Mediterranean, along which Muslim countries traded with each other and with European powers such as Venice, Genoa and Catalonia. The Silk Road crossing Central Asia passed through Muslim states between China and Europe.

Muslim engineers in the Islamic world made a number of innovative industrial uses of hydropower, and early industrial uses of tidal power, wind power, and petroleum (notably by distillation into kerosene). The industrial uses of watermills in the Islamic world date back to the 7th century, while horizontal-wheeled and vertical-wheeled water mills were both in widespread use since at least the 9th century. By the time of the Crusades, every province throughout the Islamic world had mills in operation, from al-Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia. These mills performed a variety of agricultural and industrial tasks. Muslim engineers also developed machines (such as pumps) incorporating crankshafts, employed gears in mills and water-raising machines, and used dams to provide additional power to watermills and water-raising machines. Such advances made it possible for many industrial tasks that were previously driven by manual labour in ancient times to be mechanized and driven by machinery instead in the medieval Islamic world. It has been argued that the industrial use of waterpower had spread from Islamic to Christian Spain, where fulling mills, paper mills, and forge mills were recorded for the first time in Catalonia.

A number of industries were generated during the Arab Agricultural Revolution, including early industries for textiles, sugar, rope-making, matting, silk, and paper. Latin translations of the 12th century passed on knowledge of chemistry and instrument making in particular. The agricultural and handicraft industries also experienced high levels of growth during this period.

Fracture and Revival of Central Authority

Causes

Rift with the Shia

Abbasids found themselves at odds with the Shia Muslims, most of whom had supported their war against the Umayyads, since the Abbasids and the Shias claimed legitimacy by their familial connection to Muhammad. Once in power, the Abbasids embraced Sunni Islam and disavowed any support for Shi'a beliefs. That led to numerous conflicts, culminating in an uprising in Mecca in 786, followed by widespread bloodshed and the flight of many Shi'a to the Maghreb, where the survivors established the Idrisid kingdom. The Abbasids also executed the direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad who were also the Shia Imams, which includes Imam Jafar Sadiq and other respected nobles. Shortly thereafter, Berber Kharijites set up an independent state in North Africa in 801. Within 50 years the Idrisids in the Maghreb and Aghlabids of Ifriqiya and a little later the Tulunids and Ikshidids of Misr were effectively independent in Africa.

Conflict of Army Generals

The direct reason for the sudden deterioration of the Abbasid authority was: the conflicts which provoked between their Turkic Army generals during the reign of al-Radi, a thing that put the power of the Caliphate into decay, those dynasties that were already de-facto independent now quit paying the Caliphate, even provinces close to Baghdad began to seek local dynastic rule.

Fracture to Autonomous Dynasties

The Abbasid leadership had to work hard in the last half of the eighth century (750–800), under several competent caliphs and their viziers to overcome the political challenges created by the far flung nature of the empire, and the limited communication across it and usher in the administrative changes to keep order. While the Byzantine Empire was fighting Abbasid rule in Syria and Anatolia, military operations during this period were minimal, as the caliphate focused on internal matters as local governors, who, as a matter of procedure, operated mostly independently of central authority. The problem that the caliphs faced was that these governors had begun to exert greater autonomy, using their increasing power to make their positions hereditary. During the same period, several factions began either to leave the empire for other lands or to take control of distant parts of the empire away from the Abbasids.

of Khorasan Isma'il ibn Ahmad on the Tajikistani somoni who exercised independent authority from the Abassids]] Even by 820, the Samanids had begun the process of exercising independent authority in Transoxiana and Greater Khorasan, as had the Shia Hamdanids in Northern Syria, and the succeeding Tahirid and Saffarid dynasties of Iran. By the early 10th century, the Abbasids almost lost control of Iraq to various amirs, and the caliph al-Radi was forced to acknowledge their power by creating the position of "Prince of Princes" (amir al-umara). Shortly thereafter, the Persian faction known as the Buwayhids from Daylam swept into power and assumed control over the bureaucracy in Baghdad. According to the history of Miskawayh, they began distributing iqtas (fiefs in the form of tax farms) to their supporters.

Outside Iraq, all the autonomous provinces slowly took on the characteristic of de facto states with hereditary rulers, armies, and revenues and operated under only nominal caliph suzerainty, which may not necessarily be reflected by any contribution to the treasury, such as the Soomro Emirs that had gained control of Sindh and ruled the entire province from their capital of Mansura. and the last reigning Abbasid caliph in Baghdad, was spilled. The Learned Shiites of Persia stated that no such calamity had happened after the deaths of the Shiite Imam (leader) Hussein; nevertheless, as a precaution and in accordance with a Mongol taboo which forbade spilling royal blood, Hulagu had Al-Musta'sim wrapped in a carpet and trampled to death by horses on 20 February 1258. The Al-Musta'sim family was also executed, with the lone exceptions of his youngest son who was sent to Mongolia, and a daughter who became a slave in the harem of Hulagu. According to Mongolian historians, the surviving son married and fathered children.

The Abbasid in Bastak

Later in the 1280s, the surviving son of Al-Musta'sim, moved to Bastak, South Persia, where Bastak and many other small Sunni villages pledged loyalty to the Abbasid. The rulers of Shiraz at the time, the Atabak, gave him protection to pass through their lands as he escaped from the Moghols. Later on the Abbasids took permission from Atabak to establish a state of their own and rule Bastak and the surrounding villages and islands. It was said that a few Hashimites (descendants of Prophet Mohammed) moved to Bastak from Khonj where they had settled after leaving Iraq towards Persia. The Abbasids carried on the expansion of Bastak's rule until it included more than 60 villages and many islands in the Persian Gulf. Many alliances were formed between the Bastaki rulers and the Arab rulers The title Abbasid was changed to Khan (title) (Persian: خان , Arabic: الحاكم), a Persian translation for a sovereign or military ruler, and also has equivalent meanings such as commander or leader. Al Khan are also called Bastakis, from Bastak.

Under the Mamluks

In the 9th century, the Abbasids created an army loyal only to their caliphate, drawn mostly from Arab and Turkish slaves, known as Mamluks, with some Slavs and Berbers participating as well. This force, created in the reign of al-Ma'mun (813 – 833), and his brother and successor al-Mu'tasim (833 – 842), prevented the further disintegration of the empire.

The Mamluk army, though often viewed negatively, both helped and hurt the caliphate. Early on, it provided the government with a stable force to address domestic and foreign problems. However, creation of this foreign army and al-Mu'tasim's transfer of the capital from Baghdad to Samarra created a division between the caliphate and the peoples they claimed to rule. In addition, the power of the Mamluks steadily grew until al-Radi (934 – 941) was constrained to hand over most of the royal functions to Mahommed bin Raik.

The Abbasids continued to maintain the presence of authority, yet it was confined to religious matters in Egypt, under the Mamluks.

End of Dynasty

The dynasty finally ended with Al-Mutawakkil III, who was taken away as a prisoner, by Selim I, to Constantinople where he had a ceremonial role until his death in 1543.

List of Abbasid Caliphs

Ruler	Reign
align="center"	Caliphs of Baghdad
Abu'l Abbas As-Saffah	750 – 754
Al-Mansur	754 – 775
Al-Mahdi	775 – 785
Al-Hadi	785 – 786
Harun al-Rashid	786 – 809
Al-Amin	809 – 813
Al-Ma'mun	813 – 833
Al-Mu'tasim	833 – 842
Al-Wathiq	842 – 847
Al-Mutawakkil	847 – 861
Al-Muntasir	861 – 862
Al-Musta'in	862 – 866
Al-Mu'tazz	866 – 869
Al-Muhtadi	869 – 870
Al-Mu'tamid	870 – 892
Al-Mu'tadid	892 – 902
Al-Muktafi	902 – 908
Al-Muqtadir	908 – 932
Al-Qahir	932 – 934
Ar-Radi	934 – 940
Al-Muttaqi	940 – 944
Al-Mustakfi	944 – 946
Al-Muti	946 – 974
At-Ta'i	974 – 991
Al-Qadir	991 – 1031
Al-Qa'im (caliph)	Al-Qa'im	1031–1075
Al-Muqtadi	1075–1094
Al-Mustazhir	1094–1118
Al-Mustarshid	1118–1135
Harun al-Rashid (1135)	Ar-Rashid	1135–1136
Al-Muqtafi (Abbasid Caliph)	Al-Muqtafi	1136–1160
Al-Mustanjid	1160–1170
Al-Mustadi	1170–1180
An-Nasir	1180–1225
Az-Zahir (caliph)	Az-Zahir	1225–1226
Al-Mustansir	1226–1242
Al-Musta'sim	1242–1258
align="center"	Caliphs of Cairo
Al-Mustansir II of Cairo	Al-Mustansir	1261–1262
Al-Hakim I (Cairo)	1262–1302
Al-Mustakfi I of Cairo	1303–1340
Al-Wathiq I	1340–1341
Al-Hakim II	1341–1352
Al-Mu'tadid I	1352–1362
Al-Mutawakkil I	1362–1383
Al-Wathiq II	1383–1386
Al-Mu'tasim (Cairo)	Al-Mu'tasim	1386–1389
Al-Mutawakkil I (restored)	1389–1406
Al-Musta'in (Cairo)	Al-Musta'in	1406–1414
Al-Mu'tadid II	1414–1441
Al-Mustakfi II	1441–1451
Al-Qa'im (Cairo)	Al-Qa'im	1451–1455
Al-Mustanjid (Cairo)	Al-Mustanjid	1455–1479
Al-Mutawakkil II	1479–1497
Al-Mustamsik	1497–1508
Al-Mutawakkil III	1508–1517

See also

List of Sunni Muslim dynasties

Iranian Intermezzo

Notes

References

External links

Abbasids (750-1517)

Abbasids the 2nd dynasty of caliphs

Abbasid Caliphs (In Our Time, Radio 4), in Streaming RealAudio

Abbasid Caliphate entry in Encyclopaedia Iranica

ABBASIDS

The Abassid Caliphate (758-1258)

Category:History of Iran Category:States and territories established in 750 Category:Arab dynasties Category:Muslim dynasties * Category:History of Iraq Category:States in medieval Anatolia