Decline and Fall of the Abbasids | Middle East And North Africa

CHALLENGES FOR THE ABBASIDS

Samarra mosque

The Abbasids had difficulty governing such a large empire and were weakened by tensions between Shiites and Sunnis. The economy had begun to decline under Harun. After Harun’s death, civil war broke out as his two sons—Amin and Al Mamun—vied for power. Al-Mamun (Caliph from 813 to 833) eventually won out. His rule was marked by Shiite uprisings.

Amin was backed by the Iraqis, while Al Mamun had the support of the Iranians. Al Mamun also had the support of the garrison at Khorasan and thus was able to take Baghdad in 813. Although Sunni Muslims, the Abbasids had hoped that by astute and stern rule they would be able to contain Shia resentment at yet another Sunni dynasty. The Iranians, many of whom were Shias, had hoped that Al Mamun would make his capital in their own country, possibly at Merv. Al Mamun, however, eventually realized that the Iraqi Shias would never countenance the loss of prestige and economic power if they no longer had the capital. He decided to center his rule in Baghdad.

Al-Mu'tasim (Caliph from 833-42) moved the capital to Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, where he surrounded himself by Turkish mercenaries that had relatively recently converted to Islam. At one point had 70,000 Turks were under his command. As time went on the Abbasid caliphate became isolated and relied on his Turkish security forces for support. Later these Turks began taking power and evolved into the Seljuk Turks

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

Decline of the Abbasids

Over time, the caliph’s position weakened through internal strife. In the late 9th and 10th centuries there were a number of armed revolts involving Shiite militants and local dynasties began breaking away or setting up semi-independent states that collected taxes for themselves and setup their own armies. They deprived the Abbasid caliphate of revenues and gained more power for themselves. By the 11th century the important agricultural region of the Sawad, near Baghdad, the basis of the economy, was in irreversible decline.

By the 10th century the Abbasid caliphs were virtual prisoners of their Turkish guards, , and by the middle of the 11th century, power was held by the army, dominated by Turks and Central Asian warriors. Two dynasties with figurehead caliphs rose up and claimed power: the Buyids (932-1062), who moved the Abbasid capital to Shiraz, Iran, and the Seljuk Turks (1038-1194), who brought the capital back to Baghdad, while extending the empire throughout Persia, Central Asia and Afghanistan.

Break Up of the Abbasid Empire

Disappointed about the Abbasid capitals remaining in Iraq, the Iranians began to break away from Abbasid control. A series of local dynasties appeared: the Tahirids (821- 873), the Suffarids (867-ca. 1495), and the Samanids (819-1005). The same process was repeated in the West: Spain broke away in 756, Morocco in 788, Tunisia in 800, and Egypt in 868. In Iraq there was trouble in the south. In 869, Ali ibn Muhammad (Ali the Abominable) founded a state of black slaves known as Zanj. The Zanj brought a large part of southern Iraq and southwestern Iran under their control and in the process enslaved many of their former masters. The Zanj Rebellion was finally put down in 883, but not before it had caused great suffering. [Source: Library of Congress *]

Zanj Rebellion

The Sunni-Shia split had weakened the effectiveness of Islam as a single unifying force and as a sanction for a single political authority. Although the intermingling of various linguistic and cultural groups contributed greatly to the enrichment of Islamic civilization, it also was a source of great tension and contributed to the decay of Abbasid power. *

In addition to the cleavages between Arabs and Iranians and between Sunnis and Shias, the growing prominence of Turks in military and in political affairs gave cause for discontent and rivalry at court. Nomadic, Turkic-speaking warriors had been moving out of Central Asia into Transoxiana (i.e., across the Oxus River) for more than a millennium. The Abbasid caliphs began importing Turks as slave-warriors (Mamluks) early in the ninth century. The imperial palace guards of the Abbasids were Mamluks who were originally commanded by free Iraqi officers. By 833, however, Mamluks themselves were officers and gradually, because of their greater military proficiency and dedication, they began to occupy high positions at court. The mother of Caliph Mutasim (who came to power in 833) had been a Turkish slave, and her influence was substantial. By the tenth century, the Turkish commanders, no longer checked by their Iranian and Arab rivals at court, were able to appoint and depose caliphs. For the first time, the political power of the caliphate was fully separated from its religious function. The Mamluks continued to permit caliphs to come to power because of the importance of the office as a symbol for legitimizing claims to authority.

Abbasids Under the Buyids and Seljuks

In 945, after subjugating western Iran, a military family known as the Buyids (Buwayhids) occupied Baghdad. Shias from the Iranian province of Daylam south of the Caspian Sea, the Buyids continued to permit Sunni Abbasid caliphs to ascend to the throne. The humiliation of the caliphate at being manipulated by Shias, and by Iranian ones at that, was immense. [Source: Library of Congress *]

The Buyids were ousted in 1055 by another group of Turkic speakers, the Seljuks. The Seljuks were the ruling clan of the Kinik group of the Oghuz (or Ghuzz) Turks, who lived north of the Oxus River. Their leader, Tughril Beg, turned his warriors first against the local ruler in Khorasan. He moved south and then west, conquering but not destroying the cities in his path. In 1055 the caliph in Baghdad gave Tughril Beg robes, gifts, and the title, "King of the East." Because the Seljuks were Sunnis, their rule was welcomed in Baghdad. They treated the caliphs with respect, but the latter continued to be only figureheads. *

Buyid Dynasty in AD 950

There were several lines of Seljuks. The main line, ruling from Baghdad, controlled the area from the Bosporus to Chinese Turkestan until approximately 1155. The Seljuks continued to expand their territories, but they were content to let Iraqis and Iranians simply pay tribute while administering and ruling their own lands. One Seljuk, Malek Shah, extended Turkish rule to the countries of the eastern Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and to parts of Arabia. During his rule, Iraq and Iran enjoyed a cultural and scientific renaissance. This success is largely attributed to Malek Shah's brilliant Iranian vizier, Nizam al Mulk, one of the most skillful administrators in history. An astronomical observatory was established in which Umar (Omar) Khayyam did much of his experimentation for a new calendar, and religious schools were built in all the major towns. Abu Hamid al Ghazali, one of the greatest Islamic theologians, and other eminent scholars were brought to the Seljuk capital at Baghdad and were encouraged and supported in their work. *

End of the Abbasids

The Abbasids took over under the guise of piety but in the end they exceeded the Umayyads in terms of corruption. Caliph Muqtadir (908-932) had a tree made from silver and gold, decorated with precious stones shaped like fruit and animals, built in his palace. And Caliph Mustansir (1035-1094) had a ceremonial tent decorated with all the world's known animals that took 150 workmen nine years to finish.µ

After the death of Malek Shah in 1092, Seljuk power disintegrated. Petty dynasties appeared throughout Iraq and Iran, and rival claimants to Seljuk rule dispatched each other. Between 1118 and 1194, nine Seljuk sultans ruled Baghdad; only one died a natural death. The atabegs who initially had been majordomos for the Seljuks, began to assert themselves. Several founded local dynasties. An atabeg originated the Zangid Dynasty (1127-1222), with its seat at Mosul. The Zangids were instrumental in encouraging Muslims to oppose the invasions of the Christian Crusaders. Tughril (1177-94), the last Seljuk sultan of Iraq, was killed by the leader of a Turkish dynasty, the Khwarizm shahs, who lived south of the Aral Sea. Before his successor could establish Khwarizm rule in Iraq, however, Baghdad was overrun by the Mongol horde. [Source: Library of Congress]

The Abbasids withstood numerous attacks by Persians, Turks, and other invaders but was weakened by internal divisions. Abbasid rule came to an end in 1258 when the Mongols captured Baghdad. The Mongols not only destroyed cities and towns they also destroyed the Abbasid irrigation systems. Thousands were killed including the last Abbasid caliph. The Arab economy never recovered from the destruction.

Mongol Siege of Baghdad

In 1258, with token support from Shiites, the Mongols advanced on Baghdad in several columns that were able to overwhelm anything thrown at them because of their superior mobility and firepower and easily reached the outskirts of the city. Once there, they besieged Baghdad with palm stumps hurled from catapults (carts with stone missiles were late in arriving) and were able to breach the walls and take the city after seven days.

The Mongols sacked Baghdad, destroyed irrigation works and built pyramids of skulls. All the inhabitants of the city except for the Christians were slaughtered (Hualga's mother was a convert to the Nestorian Christian faith). One Persian writer said two million people were killed. Others said 800,000 people were slaughtered. Both of these are is probably wild exaggerations. A Chinese envoy wrote that "many tens of thousands were killed." The slaughter was particularly nasty because Christian Georgians and Armenians in the Mongol army sought revenge against the Muslims who had brought so much suffering to their homelands.

The last Abbasid caliph and his sons were rolled into a carpet and trampled to death with horses. Their other relatives retreated to Cairo. The great Baghdad library, the House of Wisdom, was destroyed.

The sacking of Baghdad brought an end to a Muslim dynasty that endured for 500 years and ended Baghdad’s run as being the largest and most powerful city in the Arab world. .The Mongols then captured Syria, sparing the life of the elderly Turan Sha, a Muslim leader that held out for month in the citadel of Aleppo after the rest of the city had fallen.

Siege of Baghdad by Mongols in AD 1258

After the Fall of the Abbasid Dynasty

The Abbasid dynasty came to an end after the Mongol Siege of Baghdad. The Abbasid rulers retreated to Cairo and the last Abbasid caliph was murdered. The Mongols held together a Turkish-Persian empire for around 100 years. During that time many Mongols converted to Islam. Today many Arabs theologians blame the Mongols for weakening Islam after it tried to embrace pluralism and Western values.

This invasion, together with the supplanting of the Silk Road by maritime trading routes, marked the end of Baghdad’s role as the center of Islamic civilization. After 1335, when the last strong Mongol khan, Abu Said, died, there was a period of instability, and then a local dynasty, the Jalayirids, came to power. They ruled until a second destructive wave of invasion came under Tamerlane, who led an invasion of Iraq from the east in the late 14th century and took Baghdad in 1401. [Source: Library of Congress Law Library, Legal Reports]

According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”Although the fall of Baghdad seemed to be a fatal blow to Muslim power, by the fifteenth century Muslim fortunes had been reversed. The central caliphate was replaced by a chain of dynamic states, each ruled by a sultan, stretching from Africa to Southeast Asia, from Timbuktu to Mindanao. They included three imperial sultanates: the Turkish Ottoman Empire (1322–1924), which encompassed major portions of North Africa, the Arab world, and eastern Europe; the Persian Safavid Empire (1501–1722); and the Mughal Empire (1520–1857), which included much of the Indian subcontinent (modern-day Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh). [Source: John L. Esposito “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]

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, Encyclopedia.com, 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