Everything about Abbasid totally explained
Abbasid () is the dynastic name generally given to the
caliph of
Baghdad, the second of the two great
Muslim caliphates of the
Arab Empire, that overthrew the
Umayyad caliphs from all but
Al Andalus. It was built by the descendant of
Muhammad's youngest uncle,
Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib. It was created in
Harran in
750 of the
Christian era and shifted its capital in AD 762 from
Harran 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 power across
Persia, they were forced to cede power to local dynastic
amirs who only nominally acknowledged their power, and had to cede
Al Andalus to an escaped
Umayyad royal and the
Maghreb and
Ifriqiya to independent entities such as the
Aghlabids and the
Fatimids. Their rule was ended in 1258, when
Hulagu Khan, the
Mongol conqueror,
sacked Baghdad. While they continued to claim authority in religious matters from their base in
Egypt, the dynasty's secular authority had ended. Descendants of the Abbasids include the
al-Abbasi tribe who live northeast of
Tikrit in modern-day
Iraq.
Rise
The Abbasid caliphs officially based their claim to the
caliphate on their descent from
Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (
566 –
662), one of the youngest uncles of
Muhammad, by virtue of which descent they regarded themselves as the rightful heirs 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.
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 Arab culture and were perceived of 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, Muhammad ibn Ali.
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 successes, 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, with victory on the
Greater Zab River (
750), defeated the Umayyads and was proclaimed
Caliph.
Fall
The Abbasid dynasty fell due to poor leadership, the
Fatimid revolt, and because the
Seljuks captured
Baghdad and launched attacks on the Muslim Empire. Many were so fond of easy living that they ignored their government responsibilities.
Political Situation
Consolidation and schisms
The first change the Abbasids made was to move their 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 eventually 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.
Rift with the Arabs
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.
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.
Rift with the Shia
The Abbasids also found themselves at odds with the
Shias, many of whom had supported their war against the Umayyads, since the Abbasids claimed legitimacy by their familial connection to Muhammed. 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. Shortly thereafter, Berber
Kharijites set up an independent state in North Africa in
801.
Loss of North Africa
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.
Communication with Provinces
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 prodecure, 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.
The Abbasids still maintained a feeble show of authority, confined to religious matters, in
Egypt under the
Mamluks, but the dynasty finally disappeared with
Al-Mutawakkil III, who was carried away as a prisoner of the palace to
Constantinople by
Selim I where he only had a ceremonial role, until his death when the Caliphate title was transferred to
Selim I.
Golden Age
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 scientists is more holy then the blood of martyrs" stressing the value of knowledge. One Abbasid caliph is even quoted as saying:
» "The Persians ruled for a thousand years and didn't need us Arabs even for a day. We have been ruling them for one or two centuries and can't 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 much further by other Islamic scholars, notably by
Al-Biruni, and
Abu Nasr Mansur.
Algebra was also pioneered by
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. The terms
algorism and
algorithm are also derived from the name of al-Khwarizmi, who was responsible for introducing the
Arabic numerals and
Hindu-Arabic numeral system beyond the
Indian subcontinent.
Medicine 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 discovered during this time. Famous 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 is often known as the father of modern medicine for 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 and even later.
Three speculative thinkers,
al-Kindi,
al-Farabi, and
Avicenna, combined
Aristotelianism and
Neoplatonism with other ideas introduced through Islam, and
Avicennism was later established as a result.
Role of the Mamluks
In the 9th century, the Abbasids created an army loyal only to their caliphate, drawn mostly from
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 distintegration 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. In the following years, the
Buwayhids, who were
Shi'ites, seized power over
Baghdad, ruling central
Iraq for more than a century.
List of Abbasid Caliphs
Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad
Abbasid Caliphs in 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 1386-1389
Al-Mutawakkil I (restored) 1389-1406
Al-Musta'in 1406-1414
Al-Mu'tadid II 1414-1441
Al-Mustakfi II 1441-1451
Al-Qa'im 1451-1455
Al-Mustanjid 1455-1479
Al-Mutawakkil II 1479-1497
Al-Mustamsik 1497-1508
Al-Mutawakkil III 1508-1517Further Information
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