Abbasid Dynasty: Reference Articles

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Abbasid Dynasty
Reference Articles
The Abbasid dynasty was the second Islamic caliphate. It was under the Abbasids that premodern
Muslim society and culture came into bloom. The Abbasids took their name and claimed descent from
the uncle of the prophet Muhammad, a man named Abu al-Abbas.
The Abbasid dynasty seized power from the Umayyad dynasty in 750 CE. It did so by capitalizing on the
simmering discontent of two marginalized groups within Umayyad society. The rst of those were
supporters of the house of the murdered caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, a group that would eventually become the Shiite community. The
second group was made up of the many Persian Muslims who were essentially assigned second-class status within the Umayyad
world. Those two groups were galvanized by an extremely effective Abbasid propaganda machine and by the efforts of a man
named Abu Muslim, a very talented and energetic Persian of low social origins.
Golden Age in Baghdad
Having seized power, the Abbasids moved the center of the Muslim world from Damascus to modern-day Iraq, locating it in a city
founded especially as the Abbasid capital, Baghdad. The focus of the Abbasid Empire shifted with the location of the capital, and
the caliphs after the second caliph, al-Mansur, looked increasingly to Persia, Iraq, and points east rather than to the Mediterranean
and North Africa. That geographic movement was accompanied by a cultural and social reorientation as Persian Muslims held
greater power within the Muslim world and accordingly wielded more cultural in uence. It was also with the move to Baghdad that
Sassanian Persian traditions of rule began to in ect the style of governance practiced by Muslim caliphs.
Under the Abbasids, a speci cally Islamic culture was nurtured and began a long and brilliant orescence. In the ninth and 10th
centuries, Baghdad became a global center of culture and learning. The caliph al-Mamun was an important gure in that process,
founding a massive library and center of learning called the bayt al-hikma, or "House of Wisdom," in 830. He also encouraged the
translation of Greek, Syriac, Sanskrit, and Pahlavi texts into Arabic and patronized the study of Greek philosophical traditions,
astronomy, medical science, and Islamic literature.
Decline in Power
After the reign of Harun al-Rashid, Abbasid power began to wane, and smaller, local Muslim principalities became effectively
independent of the Abbasids. Later, the caliph al-Mutasim introduced Turkish, Slavic, and other slave soldiers to bolster his power.
That led to the domination of some caliphs by their personal guards, who became inordinately powerful within the state.
In the 10th century, the Persian Buyid dynasty effectively bullied the Abbasids into recognizing them as the rightful rulers of the
territories they had seized. Thus, Abbasid temporal power was greatly reduced, although the symbolic power of the dynasty
remained important within Islamic politics. In the middle of the next century, the rise of the Seljuk Turks saw a further diminution of
Abbasid power, and in the 13th century, the dynasty was extinguished amid the horri c excesses of the Mongol invasion of the Near
East.
Tom Sizgorich
Further Reading
Bennison, Amira K. The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the Abbasid Empire. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014; Berkey,
Jonathan P. The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600–1800. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003;
Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2004; Wiet, Gaston. Baghdad: Metropolis
of the Abbasid Caliphate. Translated by Seymour Feiler. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971.

MLA Citation
Sizgorich, Tom. "Abbasid Dynasty." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras, ABC-CLIO, 2020, ancienthistory.abc-
clio.com/Search/Display/600804. Accessed 24 Aug. 2020.

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Golden Age in Baghdad

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