My Article on the Abbasids

Origins (566-750)

The story of the Abbasid caliphate originally traces its roots back to Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (where the etymology of the word Abbasid is based on); one of the younger uncles of the prophet Mohammed and member of the tribe of the Prophet Mohammed; the Quraish. It was this heritage that enabled them to have a suitable pretext for their eventual domination of much of the Islamic world by around 950 and rulers of Mecca as opposed to the Umayyads. As a result, the Abbasids were to become a major player in Islamic politics for many hundreds of years, and fundamentally, one of the key civilizations in shaping our world today.

Around 712, a man named Muhammad ibn 'Ali (A great grandson of Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib) began to protest against the current state of power in the Middle East, and demand that sovereignty over Mecca and the Middle East be returned to Mohammed�s family. Intensive propaganda began around 718 in Iraq and Khurasan, and Muhammad was succeeded to his claims by his son Ibrahim the imam, who decided to concentrate his efforts on Khurasan. The protest gradually began to gain momentum, from the time of Umayyad Caliph, Umar II (682-720) to the reign of the Caliph Marwan II (688-750) where finally, a full scale revolt was organized against Umayyad power. Lead by Ibrahim the Imam, the revolutionaries found considerable success and was supported by the province of Khurasan after sending an embassy there in 745 lead by his friend Abu Muslim.    

In this conflict for power against the Umayyads, the Abbasids were largely successful, one of the reasons being their appealing to non-Muslim Arabs known as the Mawali who made up much of the lower classes of the Umayyad caliphate. It was the minorities like these who would eventually help cause the fall of the Umayyad caliphate. Other such examples of Abbasid minority support amongst the Umayyad Caliphate was their emphasis on the fact that Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, the uncle of Mohammed, was also an uncle to Abu Talib, a man holy to Shia Muslims and the Alid arabs (from whom they were descended). The decadent policies of the late Umayyad caliphs had failed to keep these minorities under control and thus, more liberal (by comparison at the time) and stronger caliphates such as the rising Abbasids would have been attractive to them. This propaganda was in the long run, very subversive to the Umayyad state and aided in the crumbling of their society, much to the Abbasids� benefit. In 747, these events reached a climax that would eventually lead to the unravelling of Umayyad hegemony and ultimately the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate.

Ibrahim the Imam, however, died after being captured by the Umayyad authorities in 747, but this could not stop of the inevitable course of fate. His brother, Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah (later to become the first caliph of the Abbasid caliphate) soon took up his late brothers� work and proceeded to march (now with a considerable force) to Iraq in 749 and on January 25^th 750, met the Umayyad forces in a final pitched battle at the river Zab which would prove the ultimate destruction of the Umayyad sultanate.

Despite the numerical advantage for the Umayyad Caliph Marwan II; the battle was not decisive, as an already weakened Umayyad army (despite containing veterans in earlier campaigns against the Byzantine Empire) was demoralized and their support for their Caliph was waning. The Abbasid army, on the other hand, under the command of future Caliph Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah (although not as large) contained many fresh recruits, and the air of victory was still present after their recent victories against other Umayyad forces. Not to mention that their size had also been increased with fresh numbers of Mawali, Persians and Abbasids who supported the rebellion.

The battle itself was a quick and bloody affair- the Abbasid army took the defensive by forming a fortified phalanx locked in tight formation. The Umayyad cavalry and later infantry simply hurled wave after wave of attackers at the near impregnable wall of spears and (not surprisingly) getting cut down in swathes in the process. It is possible that, due to the veteran nature of the Umayyad army, they believed that they could break the wall by fighting experience alone, but this proved to be ineffective- the Umayyad army retreated; leaving the battlefield completely demoralized and attempted to retreat across the river Zab where they were either drowned or butchered by the Abbasid army in pursuit.

All was not lost for the Umayyad state however; the caliph Marwan II and fled to Bursir- a small town in Lower Egypt, where he finally died in a small skirmish with the remainder of his army. The Umayyad caliphate was now officially dead in the Middle East, and Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah was instated the new ruler of Damascus (then the seat of Umayyad power) and Caliph.

The recent civil war was thought by many prominent Islamic scholars to be a great conflict between good and evil. These feelings could have been justified by the Umayyads use of the black flag in battle, and the Abbasids the White. Many Islamic scholars also prophesized that Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah was the Mahdi- a holy leader or saint of Islam.

Although the Umayyad state as a political entity had been well and truly destroyed in the Middle East, there were still some influences from surviving members of the Umayyad dynasty that, if allowed to continue, would have been subversive to the newly rising Abbasid caliphate. What was As-Saffah�s solution to this? Elimination- the entire remainder of the Umayyad dynasty were invited to a royal banquet where they were subsequently clubbed to death. It was events like these that gave the first Abbasid Caliph the title of As-Saffah, or �The blood thirsty & ruthless killer�. The Abbasids thus inherited the vast empire that the Umayyads had forged over hundreds of years that stretched from the Pyrenees to Armenia. The only notable noble survivor of the Umayyad dynasty was one Abd ar-Rahman (731-788) escaped to Spain where he subsequently continued the Umayyad caliphate for roughly another three centuries. Islamic Spain remained a rival to the Abbasid state for many centuries, as the Umayyads there set up their state as the legitimate alternative to the Abbasid state.

Rise and Golden age (750-883)

With the largest source of resistance eliminated (The Umayyads), most of the Middle East was now firmly under Abbasid control. This must have been due to their preservation of the bureaucracies and mechanics that kept the vast Umayyad Empire in check, as there were no large scale resistances from local leaders or external sources against the new dynasty instated in Iraq. Thus we must assume that the Abbasid Empire left many of these institutions and organizations in place to maintain their new empire.

Almost immediately after the Abbasid Caliphate had been instated, new trouble brewed in the east. In the Abbasid territories that are today Kyrgyzstan, a power struggle was soon emerging between forces of the Chinese tang Dynasty and those of the newly formed Abbasid Caliphate. In 751, an Abbasid army under the command Ziyad ibn Salih numbering roughly 50�000 to 150�000 troops and a Tang army under the command of Gao Xianzhi, Li Siye and Duan Xiushi met on the banks of the river Talas to fight one of the most decisive battles concerning the control of Central Asia. The Chinese army were eventually defeated following the general rout of their infantry after a heavy attack by Abbasid heavy cavalry. The defeat was mainly, however, the result of the defection of Qarluq mercenaries who were hired to fight by the Tang. The Qarluq cut a large proportion of the Chinese forces off from the main body of the army. This enabled the Abbasid pockets to deal with the Chinese in small pockets of resistance rather than one single engagement. This battle was instrumental for aiding the eventual spread of the Muslim religion throughout central Asia and parts of China. The general commander of the Tang forces, Gao Xianzhi, was able to escape with a small number of troops, but the majority of the Tang forces were butchered. Although the Tang managed to raise another army fairly quickly, they never did return to this area in large numbers, at least not to engage in further military operations with the Abbasids again.

This battle did not only allow the Abbasids to extend their influence deeper into central Asia, but interestingly enough, it also brought the technology of paper making into the Middle East as a result by Chinese prisoners captured from the battle.

After two successive wars, first against the Umayyads, and then against the Tang, Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah began to embark on the building of his new caliphate. His supporters were heavily represented in the new caliphate as a reward for aiding him in his successful revolution. He found it hard, however, to gain the support of many of the peoples who had aided him in his struggle, partially with the Shia Muslims, as the Abbasids claimed legitimacy by their heritage to the prophet Mohammed. Once in power, the Abbasid state declared Sunni Islam the official state religion, and withdrew all support for any other form of Islam. Abu al-�Abbas as-Saffah had turned his back on his promises he made to the Shia community, and this would have severe repercussions for many Abbasid caliphs later in the days of the Caliphate.   

With the exceptions of the Shias, Abu al-`Abbas's attempted to reward most of the peoples who had taken part in his revolution, and invoked a general reform of the army. Asides from the rank and file, he also made large changes to the officer class, selecting Abu Muslim (an intelligent man with a talent for soldiering who would serve in the army until 755) to head this new army. This reform came to incorporate non-Muslims and non-Arabs in an attempt to contrast with the Umayyad army, who had refused any soldiers that were of either background.

Abu al-�Abbas as-Saffah, �The blood thirsty & ruthless killer� (750-755), died on 755 and was replaced by Abu Ja'far Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Mansur, or Al-Mansur (754-775). It was only until this Caliph�s rule that the changes that were made under the revolution were seen to have a large affect. Despite the Abbasids� Arab routes, many more pro-Persian changes were made to the Caliphate, such as the introduction of Sassanid governmental and count structures in some areas. In order to reign supreme, however, he had to deal with several contenders, the most prestigious of these being Abu Muslim, the commander of the army recently instated under Abu al-�Abbas as-Saffah. Abu Muslim was now the much liked, and much respected governor of Iran and Transoxiana. Al-Mansur�s authority now reigned supreme.

The first major change that Al-Mansur made to the organization to his new state was the movement of the capital from Damascus to Iraq in 762. The main reason for this may perhaps be to locate the seat of Abbasid power closer to the Persian and Arab support base that that had helped Ibrahim the Imam�s rebellion succeed. The new Baghdad was built on the Tigris near Ctestiphon and was also conveniently closer to Mecca, which must have been an added advantage, as this would have allowed the new Caliphate to exercise its new authority over the holy city of Islam.

The new Baghdad was an ingenious affair, and consisted of a series of rings around a central plaza. First was a circular wall, then an outer suburbs, arranged in a ring, surrounded by its own wall, then, further in, there were more central areas of the city and then, further still was a circular plaza containing the palace, treasury, barracks and mosque. This ideas was indeed a highly advanced feat of architecture but there was one thing that the Caliph and his architects had perhaps not taken into consideration. This was population demographics and the gradual change of class size and prestige. As a result, the strictly oriented rings containing certain suburbs for certain classes soon broke down and smaller districts began to spill over the city walls. The idea simply did not allow enough leniency for population and social growth unlike cities like early Rome, which were very much dependent on their populations, and not architectural concept like Baghdad was.

A new internal structure for the court of the caliph was devised. New positions, such as that of grand vizier were instated, and more power was given to local leaders which would eventually result in a decentralization of the empire and a gradual reduction of power from the Caliph, resulting in a decrease of his powers and more depictions of him being a figurehead rather than a head of state. The new Abbasid court under Al-Mansur also placed many Persians and Arabs in positions of authority as compensation for their help in the revolution. These advantages, however, were not offered to Shia Muslims after the first Caliph, Abu al-�Abbas as-Saffah actively promoted Sunni orthodoxy. The main mechanics of state and the court were placed in the hands of the Persian Barmakid family. This is a typical example of the Abbasid Empire�s adoption of both Persian and Arabian systems of state. The Abbasids saw themselves not only as the descendants of Mohammed�s uncle, but also as descendants of the Parthian and Sassanid states in Persia. This mix of culture can be seen in many aspects of Abbasid culture and art, as well as distinct Hellenistic and pre-Islamic Mesopotamian influences taking place. This was aided by the blooming paper industry that had recently arrived in the Middle East from captured Tang Chinamen in the battle of Talas in 751.

Al-Mansur�s reign also saw a large percentage of the citizens of the Caliphate convert to Islam. In 750, roughly 8% of the citizens were Muslims, but this would almost double to around 15% after Al-Mansur�s reign.