History Of The Abbasid Caliphate

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• published: 03 Feb 2014
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The Abbasid Caliphate (Arabic: الخلافة العباسية‎ / ALA-LC: al-Khilāfah al-'Abbāsīyyah), was the second of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Prophet Muhammad. The Abbasid dynasty descended from the Prophet's youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566--653 CE). They ruled as caliphs from their capital in Baghdad, in modern Iraq, after taking over authority of the Muslim empire from the Umayyads in 750 CE (132 AH). The Abbasid caliphate first centered their government in Kufa, but in 762 the caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad, north of the Persian city of Ctesiphon. The choice of a capital so close to Persia proper reflects a growing reliance on Persian bureaucrats, most notably of the Barmakid family, to govern the territories conquered by Arab Muslims, as well as an increasing inclusion of non-Arab Muslims in the ummah. Despite this cooperation, the Abbasids of the 9th century were forced to cede authority over the Persian provinces to local dynastic emirs who only nominally acknowledged their suzerainty. This marked the beginning of a wider breakdown of Abbasid authority, with the loss of Al-Andalus and Maghreb to the Umayyads, Ifriqiya to the Aghlabids, and Egypt to the Shi'ite Caliphate of the Fatimids. The political power of the caliphs largely ended with the rise of the Buyids and the Seljuq Turks. Although Abbasid leadership over the vast Islamic empire was gradually reduced to a ceremonial religious function, the dynasty retained control over its Mesopotamian demesne. The capital city of Baghdad became a center of science, culture, philosophy and invention during the Golden Age of Islam. This period of cultural fruition ended in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. The Abbasid caliphate, and Muslim culture in general, recentered itself in the Mamluk capital of Cairo in 1261. The dynasty continued to claim authority in religious matters until after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt, when the position of caliph was formally surrendered to the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. The Abbasid caliphs were Arabs descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad and of the same Banu Hashim clan. The Abbasids claimed to be the true successors of Muhammad in replacing the Umayyad descendants of Banu Umayya by virtue of their closer relationship to the Prophet. Coin of the Abbasids, Baghdad, 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 and the Shi'i Arabs, 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 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" (黑衣大食: hēiyī Dàshí), "Tazi" being a Tang dynasty borrowing from Persian to denote 'Arabs'. 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.