Abbasid Empire, Rise and Decline

The Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled the Islamic world, oversaw the golden age of Islamic culture. The dynasty ruled the Islamic Caliphate from 750 to 1250 AD, making it one of the longest and most influential Islamic dynasties. For most of its early history, it was the largest empire in the world and this meant that it had contact with distant neighbors such as Chinese and Indians in the east and Byzantines in the west, allowing it to adopt and synthesize ideas from these cultures. A Persian general, Abu Muslim, who supported Abbasid claimed power, led the Abbasid armies. His victory allowed Abbasid leader Abu Abbas al-Shafa to enter the Shiite-dominated city of Kufa in 748 and declare himself Caliph. In 750, the army of Abu Muslim and al-Shafa faced the Umayyad Caliph Marwan II at the Battle of Zab near the Tigris River. Marwan II was defeated, fled, and was killed, as al-Shafa captured Damascus and slaughtered the remaining members of the Umayyad family, except for one, Abba al-Raham, who escaped to Spain and continued to rule. The Abbasids had led a revolution against the unpopular policies of the Umayyads, but those who expected major change were disappointed. Under the second Abbasid Caliph, al-Mansur, who ruled from 754 to 775, it became clear that much of the Umayyad past would be continued. The Abbasids maintained their hereditary control of the Caliphate, forming a new dynasty. The alliance with the Shiites was short-lived, and the Abbasids became champions of Sunni orthodoxy, upholding the authority of their family over that of Ali, and continuing the subjugation of the Shiites. Even Abu Muslim, the brilliant Persian general who engineered the rise of the Abbasids, was deemed a threat and executed. However, the Abbasids did prove loyal to their Persian-Mawalli allies. In fact, Abbasid culture would come to be dominated by the legacy of Persian civilization. The Abbasid court was heavily influenced by Persian customs, and members of the powerful Persian Dharmakir acted as the advisors of the Caliphs and rivaled them in wealth and power. One of the earliest and most important changes the Abbasids made was to move the capital of the Islamic Empire from the old Umayyad power base of Damascus to a new city, Baghdad. Baghdad was founded in 762 by al-Mansur on the banks of the Tigris River. The city was round in shape and designed from the beginning to be a great capital in the center of the Islamic world. It was built not far from the old Persian capital of Ctesiphon, and its location revealed the desire of the dynasty to connect itself to Persian culture. Baghdad grew quickly with encouragement from the Abbasid state, and it was soon the largest city in the world. At Baghdad, the Persian culture that the Umayyads had attempted to suppress was now allowed to thrive. Art, poetry, and science flourished. The Abbasids learned from the art of making paper. Cheap and durable paper became an important material for spreading literature and knowledge. The fifth Caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, Harun al-Rashid, 786-809, is remembered as one of history's greatest patrons of the arts and sciences. Under his rule, Baghdad became the world's most important center for science, philosophy, medicine, and education. The massive size of the Caliphate meant that he had to contract and share borders with many distant empires, so scholars at Baghdad could collect, translate, and expand upon the knowledge of other civilizations such as Egyptians, Persians, Indians, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines. The successors of Harun al-Rashid, especially his son al-Mamun, 813-833, continued his policies of supporting artists, scientists, and scholars. Al-Mamun founded the Bayat al-Hakimah, the House of Wisdom, in Baghdad, a library and institute for translators, and in many ways, an early form of university. The House of Wisdom hosted Muslims and non-Muslim scholars who sought to translate and gather the cumulative knowledge of human history in one place, and one language, Arabic. The House of Wisdom, important ideas from around the world came together. The introduction of Indian numerals, which have become standard in Islamic and Western worlds, greatly aided in mathematics and scientific discovery. Scholars such as al-Qa'indi revolutionized mathematics and synthesized Greek philosophy with Islamic thought. Al-Biruni and al-Abu Nasr al-Mansur, among many other scholars, made important contributions to geometry and astronomy. Al-Khwazirmi expanded upon Greek and mathematical concepts, developing algebra. The word algorithm is a corruption of his name. Ibn al-Hathamun made important contributions in the field of optics and is generally held to have developed the concept of the scientific method. A number of very practical innovations took place, especially in the field of agriculture. Improved methods of irrigation allowed more land to be cultivated, and new types of mills and turbines were used to reduce the need for labor. Though slavery was still common in both countries and countrysides, crops and farming techniques were adopted from far-flung neighboring cultures. Rice, cotton, and sugar were taken from India. Citrus fruits from China and sorghum from Africa. Thanks to Islamic farmers, these crops eventually made their way to the West. Such Islamic innovations would continue, even as the Abbasid government fell into chaos. A long, slow decline. Due to several very capable caliphs and advisors, the Abbasid caliphate thrived through the early 9th century, despite the major challenges of ruling a massive and multi-ethnic empire. Besides being a great patron of the arts and sciences, Harun al-Rashid also brought the Abbasid caliphate to its high point. Still, he had to deal with revolts in Persia and North Africa, and he removed power from the Persian Barmakid family, the source of many great advisors. Al-Rashid's son, Caliph al-Mamun, not only continued his patronage by establishing the House of Wisdom, but he made a number of important independent innovations. Al-Mamun adopted the radical Mutazili theology, which was influenced by Greek philosophy and held that God could be understood through rational inquiry, and that belief and practice should be subject to reason. He established the Mina, an inquisition in which the adherence of scholars and officials to Mutazili theology was tested, and they could be imprisoned or even killed if they would not follow the theology. As a result, Al-Mamun's reign saw a growing division between the Islamic sovereign and the Islamic people. This division was exacerbated by his creation of an army of Central Asian soldiers loyal only to him. During the Al-Mamun reign, the provincial governors, called emirs, became increasingly independent. The governor of Persia set up his own dynasty and ruled as a king, though he continued to recognize the Abbasid Caliph. This trend of independent governments would continue, causing major problems for the Caliphate. After the Caliphate al-Mamun, Abbasid power began to noticeably decline. The cost of running a massive empire and maintaining a large bureaucracy required steady revenues, and as the authority of the Caliphate diminished, it was less able to collect taxes. In order to stabilize the state finances, the Caliph granted tax arms to governors and military commanders. These governors, with their own troops and revenue bases, soon proved independent-minded and disloyal. The Caliph al-Mutasim, 833-842, furthered the gap between the Caliph and his people. Expanding on al-Mamun's new army, he created his own military force of slaves called Gilman, also later known as Malamut. As the elite guard of the Caliph, these slaves began acting superior to the people of Baghdad, which inspired anger and led to riots. Instead of trying to defuse the situation, al-Mutasim simply moved the capital away from Baghdad and settled in Samarra, 60 miles to the north, away from the bulk of their subjects who lived in Baghdad. The Caliph began insulating himself from problems and from the empire. Increasingly, the Caliph's soldiers controlled Samaria, turning the Caliph into little more than a puppet. When a Caliph was not pliant, they simply killed him. Al-Muwafqa, the brother of the Caliph al-Mutasim, 870-892, tried to change this, acting as his brother's regent. He had the Caliph move the capital back to Baghdad, and from there, al-Muwafqa guided the Caliph to a new prosperity and defeated the Zanjan Rebellion, an uprising of African slaves that posed a major threat to the Caliphate. Thanks to al-Muwafqa, Abbasid power gained a new lease on life. However, decline began anew under the reign of al-Muqdir, who was raised to the throne at the age of 13 by members of the court who knew they could control him. For al-Muqdir's long 25-year reign, he was too weak to do anything but act as a tool of various court factions. Under his Caliphate, territory and territory broke free of Abbasid rule. By the end, Abbasid authority extended hardly beyond Baghdad. Al-Muqdir was eventually killed by city guards after he bankrupted the state to the point where he could not even pay their salaries. Al-Muqdir's son al-Radi, 934-940, is often considered the last Caliphate to exercise any real authority. He tried to raise a powerful governor of Iraq who would hold power over all other independent emirs. Thus, al-Radi created the title Amir al-Umar, Amir of Emirates, for the governor of Iraq. The plan backfired, however, because the title effectively invested supreme authority in its holder, leaving the Caliphate simply as a figurehead. The Shiite Buyids soon took the title and held it as a hereditary position, becoming the de facto rulers of Iraq. From this point on, the Abbasid Caliphs became little more than religious figureheads. In the mid-11th century, Buyids were outside of the Sunni Seljuk Turks who conquered Iran, Iraq, Syria, and most of Asia Minor, forming a new and vibrant Islamic empire. The Seljuks continued to keep the Abbasid Caliphate as the tutelar, or basically de facto ruler, while exercising true authority over the empire as sultans. The End of the Abbasids When the Seljuk Sultanate collapsed in the 12th century, an opportunity presented itself for Caliph al-Nusayr, 1180-1225. To attempt to restore Abbasid power in Iraq, his long reign of 47 years allowed him ample time to reconquer Mesopotamia and further develop Baghdad as a center of learning. His chief rival was Sultanate of Khwarazmi, which ruled Persia. Supposedly, al-Nusayr appealed to the Mongols, an expanding Central Asian nomad empire, for help against Khwarazmi. Under al-Nusayr's less competent successors, this backfired disastrously. The Mongols completely overran Khwarazmi, and then turned their attention to Baghdad. The Mongols seemed to have wanted to rule as the Buyids or the Seljuks before them, by holding real military power but allowing the Abbasid Caliphate symbolic authority. Caliph al-Mu'tasim, 1242-1258, however, refused to acknowledge their authority, and offered these non-Muslims only insults and threats. Faced with Mongol invasion, the he did little to prepare, and the Mongols' hordes soon surrounded Baghdad. They captured the city in 1258 and sacked it. They trampled the Caliph to death and completely destroyed the city. They killed somewhere between 100,000 and a million people, destroyed all the books and huffs of the House of Wisdom and other libraries, burned down all the great monuments of the city, and left Baghdad a smoldering ruin. This marks the end of the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad, and the abrupt end to an Islamic Golden Age. The Abbasid line was re-established in 1261 in Egypt. The Sultans of Egypt appointed an Abbasid Caliph in Cairo, but these Egyptian Caliphs were even more symbolic than the late Caliphs had been in Baghdad, and were simply used to legitimize the power of the Sultans. The authority of these Caliphs extended strictly to religious matters. Still, the Egypt-based period of the Abbasid dynasty lasted over 250 years. In 1517, the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt.