Abbasids (A.D. 750 to 1258): Rise, History, Wealth | Middle East And North Africa

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ABBASIDS

Abbasid-era manuscript painted by Yahyâ ibn Mahmûd al-Wâsitî

The Abbasids (A.D. 750 to 1258) were an Arab-Muslim dynasty with a distinctly Asian flavor that ruled a large Muslim empire that extended from Spain to Central Asia for over five centuries. They shifted the center of Muslim power eastwards away from the Mediterranean into the heart of Mesopotamia and made Islam a permanent fixture of Persia and Central Asia.

The Abbasids established a new capital on the Tigris in Iraq: Baghdad. The eastern half of the empire was centered in Bagdad and later Cairo (founded in 969) and the western part was centered in Cordoba, Spain. By the year 1000, the Abbasid Caliphate ruled over an empire with 60 million people that included most of present-day Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

Under the Abbasids, trade, industry, a strong central bureaucracy, law, theology, literature, culture and science developed and were nurtured. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art : “Under the Abbasid caliphate (750–1258), which succeeded the Umayyads (661–750) in 750, the focal point of Islamic political and cultural life shifted eastward from Syria to Iraq, where, in 762, Baghdad, the circular City of Peace (madinat al-salam), was founded as the new capital. The Abbasids later also established another city north of Baghdad, called Samarra’ (an abbreviation of the sentence "He who sees it rejoices"), which replaced the capital for a brief period (836–83). The first three centuries of Abbasid rule were a golden age in which Baghdad and Samarra’ functioned as the cultural and commercial capitals of the Islamic world.” [Source: Yalman, Suzan. Based on original work by Linda Komaroff. "The Art of the Abbasid Period (750–1258)" Metropolitan Museum of Art \^/]

Websites on Islamic History: History of Islam: An encyclopedia of Islamic history historyofislam.com ; Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World oxfordislamicstudies.com ; Sacred Footsetps sacredfootsteps.com ; Islamic History Resources uga.edu/islam/history ; Internet Islamic History Sourcebook fordham.edu/halsall/islam/islamsbook ; Islamic History friesian.com/islam ; Muslim Heritage muslimheritage.com ; Chronological history of Islam barkati.net

Rise of the Abbasids

After the death of Muhammad, his four immediate successors, remembered in Sunni Islam as the Rightly Guided Caliphs (reigned 632–61), oversaw the consolidation of Muslim rule in Arabia and the broader Middle East (Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, and Syria), overrunning the Byzantine and Sasanid empires. A period of great central empires was followed with the establishment of the Umayyad (661–750) and then the Abbasid (750–1258) empires. Within a hundred years of the death of Muhammad, Muslim rule extended from North Africa to South Asia, an empire greater than Rome at its zenith. [Source: John L. Esposito “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]

Ali ibn Abi Talib , or simply Ali, (A.D. 601-661) was among the first Muslims. A cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad., he reigned as the fourth Caliph of Islam from 656 CE to 661 CE, when he was murdered. During his caliphate, Ali had made Al Kufah his capital. The transfer of power to Syria and to its capital at Damascus aroused envy among Iraqis. The desire to regain preeminence prompted numerous rebellions in Iraq against Umayyad rule. Consequently, only men of unusual ability were sent to be governors of Al Basrah and Al Kufah.

Baghdad-based Abbasid Empire

One of the most able was Ziyad ibn Abihi, who was initially governor of Al Basrah and later also of Al Kufah. Ziyad divided the residents of Al Kufah into four groups (not based on tribal affiliation) and appointed a leader for each one. He also sent 50,000 beduins to Khorasan (in northeastern Iran), the easternmost province of the empire, which was within the jurisdiction of Al Basrah and Al Kufah. [Source: Library of Congress *]

The Iraqis once again became restive when rival claimants for the Umayyad caliphate waged civil war between 687 and 692. Ibn Yasuf ath Thaqafi al Hajjaj was sent as provincial governor to restore order in Iraq in 694. He pacified Iraq and encouraged both agriculture and education.Many unsuccessful Iraqi and Iranian insurrectionists had fled to Khorasan, in addition to the 50,000 bedouins who had been sent there by Ziyad.

There, at the city of Merv (present-day Mary in Turkmenistan), a faction that supported Abd al Abbas (a descendant of the Prophet's uncle), was able to organize the rebels under the battle cry, "the House of Hashim." Hashim, the Prophet Muhammad's grandfather, was an ancestor of both the Shia line and the Abbas line, and the Shias therefore actively supported the Hashimite leader, Abu Muslim.

Decline and Fall of the Umayyads

The Umayyad dynasty was greatly weakened by the expensive and ultimately unsuccessful effort to capture Constantinople from the Byzantines in 717 and a campaign to win new Muslim coverts that resulted in a dramatic loss of tax revenue. In the mid 8th century tribes from northern Oman swept across the Arabian peninsula and briefly held the holy city of Medina before they were driven out by Umayyads. The revolt highlighted weaknesses of the Umayyads and contributed to their overthrow by the Abbasids.

The Umayyad dynasty collapsed suddenly when their rivals and successors, the Abbasids, took advantage of their decadence and united a number of movements with different goals to oust them. The Abbasids were considered more devout and conservative that the Umayyads.

As many new converts were attracted to Islamic and the number of Muslims grew, many new Muslims began to resent Umayyad control and their unfair taxes. The Abbasids, named after Muhammad's uncle, Abbas, began as a rebel group that opposed the Umayyads.

Abbasids Come to Power

Umayyad Calipahte at the beginning of the Abbasid revolt

The Abbasids took advantage of an 8th century revolt against the rule of the Umayyad caliphs in Damascus, that took place in part to resentment of the superior attitude of the Arab caliphs and in part to rallying the support of the Shiites, who joined with dissatisfied Sunni Muslims in the rebellion.

To win support among Shiites and supporters of Ali, Abbasids made the point they were blood relatives of the prophet and the Umayyads weren’t to gain legitimacy and undermine their rivals. They rose up in Iran in 743 fighting under the black banner of Shiite Islam and later occupied Kufah in Iraq. Abu Muslim, a freed slave believed to have been of Iranian descent, accused the Umayyads of impiety and rallied the Shiites and Abbasids to fight.

In 747, Abu Muslim's army attacked the Umayyads and occupied Iraq. The Umayyads were toppled after a series of battles in 749 and 750 and the last Umayyad caliph was chased to Egypt and killed there. The Abbasids captured the Umayyad capital of Damascus and massacred most of the Umayyad caliph's family. One Umayyad, abd-er-Rahman, escaped to Spain, where he kept the Umayyad dynasty alive and established a rival caliphate at Córdoba. The Abbasids desecrated Umayyad tombs and moved the capital to Baghdad in Iraq, where they ruled until 1258. [Source: Encyclopedia.com]

In 750, Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah (750-54) , who was not a Shiite, was established in Baghdad as the first caliph of the Abbasid Dynasty. The Abbasids, whose line was called "the blessed dynasty" by it supporters, presented themselves to the people as divine-right rulers who would initiate a new era of justice and prosperity. Their political policies were, however, remarkably similar to those of the Umayyads. But the first order of business of the new caliph al-Saffah was massacring all the Umayyads the Abbasids could get their hands on. He and his successors also set about eliminated Shiite rivals. Abu Muslim was among those killed. Even family members that posed a threat were killed.

Abbasid Dynasty Rulers

The Abbasids claimed to be descendants of Abbas (hence their name), an uncle of Muhammad, and his son Abdallah, a renowned Qur’an reciter. The Abbasids were the last dynasty to rule the entire Muslim world, but even at the height of their power their rule was limited mainly to cities and the areas around them. Within the empire a number of local dynasties arose such as the Saffarids (867-1495) in eastern Iran, the Saminids (819-1005) in Central Asia, the Tulunids (868-905) in Egypt and the Aghabids (800-909) in Tunisia.

So as not to put off the Shiites, The Abbasids didn’t reveal who their leader was or which relative of the Prophet they were related to until they had taken power. In Kufa, the first Abbasid caliph, Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah, announced he was taking power and said he was related to Abbas not Ali as many of the supporters had been led to believe. Once the Abbasids came to power they shed their religious pretensions and went about transforming the caliphate into an traditional absolute monarchy.

Abbasid rulers built a capital city in Baghdad and made it the center of a flourishing civilization, with extensive trading links throughout the Mediterranean and east via the Silk Road to China and India. During their five centuries in control, the Abbasid rulers, patronized science, literature, architecture, and calligraphy. They established schools, libraries, hospitals, and asylums for the mentally ill and were reported to have had a system of support for the indigent and a well- run police force. The study of law was considered a n important part of the field of theology and greatly developed during the Abbasid period. One of the four major schools of legal theory in the Sunni tradition, the Hanafi school, was founded in the Baghdad in the early part of this era of Iraq’s history. [Source: Library of Congress Law Library, Legal Reports]

Caliph Al-Mansur and Baghdad

Al-Mansur

Caliph Al-Mansur (754-75) was the second caliph of the Abbasid dynasty. Under the authorization of “special help” from God he murdered all the Shiite leaders he considered a threat. He decided to build a new capital, surrounded by round walls, near the site of the Sassanid village of Baghdad. His son called himself the “Guided One,” the Shiite equivalent of the Messiah.

Caliph Al-Mansur ended the practice of giving Arabs special privileges. Regional leaders were selected from among local ethnic groups. This was done not so much to create a more equal society but to win the support of landowners so as to establish a feudal style monarchy.

Al-Mansur moved the capital of the Arab Muslim kingdom from Damascus in Syria to Kufah and then to Baghdad in Iraq. He selected Baghdad because it lay on major trade routes and Al-Mansur wanted to get as far away from Umayyad influence as possible and to create some distance between them and the Byzantines. The city he built on the west side of the Tigris was called Medinat as-Salam (“City of Peace”).

Baghdad was founded in A.D. 762. Caliph Al-Mansur is said to have brought in over 100,000 architects, craftsman and laborers to build the city from scratch on the Tigris River about 20 miles from Ctesiphin, the Sassanid and Parthian capital, and 60 miles from the ruins of Babylon. It became the famous “round city” with the royal family, the court and administration in the center. Bazaars, markets and craftsmen were relegated to the fringes of the city.

By the reign of Mansur's grandson, Harun ar Rashid (786-806), Baghdad was second in size only to Constantinople. Baghdad was able to feed its enormous population and to export large quantities of grain because the political administration had realized the importance of controlling the flows of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. The Abbasids reconstructed the city's canals, dikes, and reservoirs , and drained the swamps around Baghdad, freeing the city of malaria.

Abbasids and Arab Golden Age

The Abbasids presided over the Golden Age of Islamic culture, art and science. While Europe was in its Dark Ages, the Islamic world was the most advanced civilization in the world. Spanning the globe from northwest Africa to the islands of Indonesia, it was light years ahead of Europe. Its main rivals—India and China—were powerful and rich but they were limited to one ethnic group and one geographical area and their influence on others was restricted mostly to their group and area.

During the reign of its first seven Abbasid caliphs, Baghdad became a center of power where Arab and Iranian cultures mingled to produce a blaze of philosophical, scientific, and literary glory. This era is remembered throughout the Arab world, and by Iraqis in particular, as the pinnacle of the Islamic past.

At its peak in the 9th through 13th centuries, the Islamic-Arab world, Princeton historian Bernard Lewis, wrote: “represented the greatest military power on earth—its armies were at the same time invading Europe and Africa, India and China. It was the foremost economic power in the world..It had achieved the highest level so far in human history in the arts and sciences of civilization.”

In the 8th and 9th century, under Abbasid caliphs, Baghdad became one of the great cities of the world and the focal point of a vast empire. During that time Baghdad grew into a circular city, nearly three kilometers in diameter, ringed by three concentric walls. At the center was the caliph's green-domed place. From the four gates were highways that extended to the fringes of the Abbasid empire. A bridges of boats was built across the Tigris River.

Under the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, Baghdad becomes the richest city in the world and the center of he Islamic golden age. It grew to encompass with over a million people. Immortalized in the tales from “Arabian Nights”, it was situated at the crossroads of major Silk Road trade routes, was filled with great scholars, poets, scientists, gardens and magnificent buildings and gave the world Arabic numbers, decimal pints, algebra and medical advances.

Abbasid Wealth and the Spread of Islam

The modest life of the first caliphs was ignored by the Abbasids. Muslim historians recorded a reception for envoys from Byzantium which included 700 chamberlains, 7,000 eunuchs, 160,000 cavalrymen and foot soldiers, and a parade with 100 lions and elephants caparisoned in peacock silk brocade. The palace was draped in gilded curtains and 22,000 rugs and a artificial tree with gold silver branches, leaves of different colors and gold and silver singing mechanical birds. “The leaves of the tree move as the wind blow, while birds pipe and sing.”

When the caliph appeared one historian wrote: “He was arrayed in clothes...embroidered in gold being seated on an ebony throne...To the right of the throne hung nine collars of gems...and to the left were the like, all of famous jewels...Before the caliph stood five of his sons, three to the right and two to the left.”

By the end of 10th century the Abbasid empire was greatly divided yet at the same time an Islamic world, united by religion and culture, had become firmly entrenched. The conversion of the population to Islam took place steadily over time. Based on studies of family names it is believed that no more than 10 percent of the population in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia and Spain were Muslim at the beginning of the 8th century but by the end of the 10th century a large portion of their populations were Muslim Not much is known on how Islam was spread through the Muslim empire.

Caliph Harun al-Rashid

Harun al-Rashid (ruled 786-809) is the most famous of the Abbasid Caliphs. A contemporary of Charlemagne and perhaps the greatest ruler of the Arab world, he oversaw the Golden Age of Islamic culture as the Muslims made progress militarily against the Byzantines and nearly captured Constantinople. Harun al-Rashid helped established a unified Muslim law for the entire Muslim world. He ruthlessly crushed any opposition groups and this helped usher in a period of peace.

Harun al-Rashid was a far cry from the first caliphs, who lived humbly in rather modest homes and required that Muslim only prostrate themselves before God. Harun al-Rashid ruled like a classic grand monarch. He made his home in huge palaces and required courtiers to kiss the ground when they were in his presence. He was called the “Shadow of God on Earth” and was often accompanied by an executioner to show that he had the power of life and death. Much of the day to day duties of running the empire was left to his vizier. The military was dominated by Persians.

Abbasid Baghdad

Under Harun the arts and music flourished; the “Arabian Nights” stories were collected and written down; mathematics, sciences and medicine were pursued; and the eliet at least enjoyed themselves and the arts. Abu Nuwas, a poet friend of Harun al-Rashid, wrote: "”How can you but enjoy yourself/ When the world is in blossom,/ And wine is at hand?”"

Harun was a poet, scholar and patron of literature. He also liked traveling among his subjects in a disguise. When the stories of “Arabian Nights” were introduced to the court many storytellers flattered him by making him a central character of many of the stories, often as a ruler traveling in disguises among his subjects.

Harun's son and main successor Al-Ma'mun founded the "House of Wisdom," an academy dedicated to translating Roman and Greek texts and works of science and philosophy into Arabic.

Economics and Trade in the Abbasid Period

Wealth was accumulated mainly through agricultural surpluses and trade. Agriculture land was controlled by large landowners who appear to have had a sharecropping arrangement in which taxes were paid to the caliphate or local ruler and crops were divided among the landowner and those who worked the land. Where irrigation was used there were complicated water sharing arrangements.

Industry and manufacturing tended to be small and centered around craft workshops. Many of the goods that were produced were not all that different from those found in Middle Eastern souks and bazaars today: carpets, leather goods, metalwork. Fine textiles found the largest market outside the Middle East. Large industries were comprised largely of weapons-making factories and royal textile workshops. Prestigious crafts included gold and silversmithing, and paper and perfume making. Tanning, dyeing and butchering were among the “unclean” crafts.

The Arabs controlled trading empire that embraced the Silk Road, the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. Abbasid gold dinars were the most widely used coin in international commerce. They have been found as forth north as Scandinavia and as far west as Oxford, England.

Harun al-Rashid receiving the messangers of Charlemagne

Arabs traded pearls from the Persian Gulf, ostrich feathers from Ethiopia, spices from India, silk and porcelain from China, furs from Russia, coral from the Red Sea and textiles, silver, copper, horses from the Middle East and teak, coconuts and spices from the East Indies. They introduced Europeans to rice, sugar cane, cotton, eggplant, hemp, artichokes, asparagus, mulberry, oranges, lemons, melons, pistachios, wheat, and apricots and developed syrups, sweetmeats, essences and perfumes.

Most merchants venture were: 1) partnerships, often involving family members in different places, in which two or more partners shared the risks and profits; and 2) the “commenda”, (“murdaba”), an arrangement by which an investor entrusted goods or capital to a merchant in return for repayments of the goods or capital, plus a share of the profits.

Sea Trade and Caravans in the Abbasid Period

Trade was much cheaper and efficient by sea and waterways than overland. Much of the trade with the east was carried on Arab ships by Persian, Jewish and Arab merchants based in Basra, where goods were moved by river to Baghdad and by caravan throughout the Middle East. In the early Muslim era ships went as far as China. By the 10th century, they rarely traveled further east than Southeast Asia.

Muslim ships dominated the southern Mediterranean. Trade was carried out between Spain and the Maghreb in the west and Egypt and Syria in the east with Tunisia and Muslim-controlled Sicily acting as way stations in the middle. The Byzantines and later Amalfi, Venice and Genoa controlled much of the trade in the northern Mediterranean.

Overland trade was done mostly by camels. By the early Muslim era, Roman roads had long since fallen into disrepair, Arabs liked camels and found it easier to move goods on them than by cart. Much of the gold in Europe and the Middle East arrived from Ethiopia by the Nile and caravan and from Ghana by caravan. The Abbasid Arabs grew rich from Silk Road trade. Europeans during the Middle Ages paid exorbitant prices for spices and medicines in markets monopolized by Arab traders. The Silk Road also helped spread the Muslim faith. But even though every Muslim was regarded as a missionary, Muslims were unable to spread their religion with the same effectiveness as missionary Christian friars.

Chinese taken by prisoners by the Arabs after the conquest of Samarkand introduced the art of papermaking in A.D. 800 to the Muslims caliphs of Baghdad and from them the process flowed to Europe via Byzantium and Spain. They also carried the first gunpowder from China to Europe. When Europeans colonized North and South America, European trade with the Arab world virtually stopped and did not resume until the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Islamic History Sourcebook: sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Arab News, Jeddah; “Islam, a Short History” by Karen Armstrong; “A History of the Arab Peoples” by Albert Hourani (Faber and Faber, 1991); Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The New Yorker, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Library of Congress and various books and other publications.

Last updated April 2024