Abbasids

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Muwali Muslims:
- numbers constantly growing; discontent with the Umayyads
- Abbassids attempted to remove the causes of discontent conscious of
the need to unify the Muslims regardless of race;
- Positions of Muwali Muslims in the state
Imperial structure:
- capital moved from Damascus to Baghdad in 762 by second caliph alMansur
- Caliphate remained Arab, but administration was increasingly
persianised
- Vizier was an important official
- More decentralization than Umayyad
- Al-Mahdi reorganized the army and appointed secular judges
- This dynasty witness a dramatic political structural shift
Opposition movements:
- Shia discontent; overlooking the right of the Prophets family to rule
750-945
- Rebellions from all sides [Iraq; Arab supporters in Syria, the Alids,
Khawarij]
- Only members of the Abbasid family were appointed to the highest
positions during this period
- Further splintering of the community
- Continued push for power from Abbasids in attempt to retain power
- Barmakids described as Persians but different from Khurasanian rebels.
Persian influences became stronger as time progressed away from Arab
structures and a more Persian approach to governance
- Abbasids attempted to bring about an orthodoxy to retain unity within
the empire
Abbasid Persianisation of Islam:
- Influence of urban design
- Caliph sat on jewel encrusted throne and donned the shadow of God
Highpoint:
- Harun al-Rasheed: 5th Abbassid Caliph; successful military campaigns against
the Byzantines; distribution of power between his sons

Science and technology

- surpassed all other civilisations at the time
- classification of animal, vegetable, mineral
- calculations of exact weghts of 18 major minerals
- astronomical instruments, especially
Impact of the Christian Crusades:
- occur over nearly 200 years between 1095 and 1291, to capture the Holy
Land
- Small kingdoms established were threat to Muslim hegemony and were
all recaptured for Islam
Impact on Christian world:
- new technology, architecture, medicine, mathematics, science
- recovery of Greek learning
- impact on Muslim world: new trade connections introduction to Western
culture
Facturing of the Empire:
- within 200 years of gaining power, the Abbasids had to cede power to
local rulers and rival dynasties
- economics
- Rival dynasties from the 10th century:
1. Fatimids (Ismailis)
2. Umayyads in Spain
3. Buyids: Persian dynasty that effectively took control of Baghdad in
945, Iraq, Persian and Azebaijan but recognized the Abbasid Caliph
Further decline from 11th century:
1. seljuks: overthrew last of the Buyid rulers but kept the Abbasid Caliph as
the titular ruer
2. Mongals: in 1258, Hulagu, a grandson of Genghis Khan, encouraged by the
kings of Europe, led his armies across the Zagros mountains of Iran and
destroyed Baghdad
- according..
Mongols as non-Muslims:
- Mongals eventually became Muslim
- Ibn Taymiyya deemed them muslim but the rulers as apostates when they
failed to uphold the Sharia
Rise of Turkish influence:
- Al-Mutasim (833-8450 succeeded his brother al-Mamoon
- Dismantled his brothers military base at Tyana and sended his forces
against the Khurramiyah revolt; suppression was successful
- Creation of Turkish cavalry growing

Rise of intolerance:
- conflicts depleted the treasury and dynastys resources
- Caliph al-Mutawakkil involved himself in public works, projects and in the
religious sphere, resulting in a reopening of the rift between Shia and
Sunni
- Special clothing for People of the Book
- Next three caliphs were virtual puppets of the Turkish army and various
factions
Resumption of the Decline:
- resurgence of Abbasids was short lived
- caliphs who succeeded al-Muqtadir were ineffective
- the civil war which broke out between the buyids and the Turkish
elements of the army. Caliphs served the Buyids and vizers until the early
11th cent.
- Seljuks took over Baghdad in 1055
- Mongol invasion
- Buyids Zaydi
Summing up:
- Abbasids rose with help from the Shia but soon turned on them
- Empire prospered under centralized control and an intellectual
flourishing for roughly 2 centuries
- Islamic world was divided by 10th cen into competing major dynasties,
and crusaders with the west start the end of the 11th century
- Mongol invasions in 13th centuries bring the empire to a formal end
- The `Abbasid period is memorisalised today particularly by Arab
nationalists as the heigh of Arab power and influence
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