Rise of the Abbasid Empire (c. 750 CE)
The Umayyad dynasty was overthrown
by another family of Meccan origin, the
Abbasids, in 750 CE. The Abbasids
distinguished themselves from the
Umayyads by attacking their moral
character and administration. In
particular, they appealed to non-Arab
Muslims, known as mawali, who
remained outside the kinship-based
society of the Arabs and were
perceived as a lower class within the
Umayyad empire. The Abbasid dynasty
descended from Muhammad ‘s
youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-
Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the
dynasty takes its name. Muhammad
ibn ‘Ali, a great-grandson of Abbas,
began to campaign for the return of
power to the family of Muhammad, the
Hashimites, in Persia during the reign
of Umar II, an Umayyad caliph who
ruled from 717–720 CE.
Iraq, 765 CE
Power in Baghdad
The Abbasids moved the empire’s
capital from Damascus, in modern-day
Syria, to Baghdad, in modern-day Iraq,
in 762 CE. The Abbasids had depended
heavily on the support of Persians in
their overthrow of the Umayyads, and
the geographic power shift appeased
the Persian mawali support base. Abu
al-‘Abbas’s successor, Al-Mansur,
welcomed non-Arab Muslims to his
court. While this helped integrate Arab
and Persian cultures, it alienated the
Arabs who had supported the
Abbasids in their battles against the
Umayyads. The Abbasids established
the new position of vizier to delegate
central authority, and delegated even
greater authority to local emirs. As the
viziers exerted greater influence, many
Abbasid caliphs were relegated to a
more ceremonial role as Persian
bureaucracy slowly replaced the old
Arab aristocracy.
The Abbasids, who ruled from
Baghdad, had an unbroken line of
caliphs for over three centuries,
consolidating Islamic rule and
cultivating great intellectual and
cultural developments in the Middle
East in the Golden Age of Islam. By 940
CE, however, the power of the
caliphate under the Abbasids began
waning as non-Arabs gained influence
and the various subordinate sultans
and emirs became increasingly
independent.