Abbasid Caliphate: A Visual History

The Abbasid Caliphate overthrew the Umayyads in 750 and ruled the Islamic world from its new capital Baghdad, founded in 762. Under Harun al-Rashid and al-Mamun in the early ninth century it was the richest and most learned state on earth, translating Greek philosophy, advancing mathematics and medicine and trading from Spain to China. Political power drained away to Turkish soldiers and provincial dynasties from the 860s, but the caliphs remained the spiritual heads of Sunni Islam until the Mongols sacked Baghdad and killed the last caliph in 1258.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Abbasid Caliphate. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Territory under effective Abbasid control

Nominal allegiance was wider; this shows land actually governed from Baghdad or Samarra.

Timeline of the Abbasid Caliphate

1. 750
   Battle of the ZabThe Umayyads overthrown.
2. 762
   Baghdad foundedAl-Mansur's Round City.
3. 786
   Harun al-RashidThe court of the Arabian Nights.
4. 813
   Al-MamunThe translation movement and House of Wisdom.
5. 836
   Capital moved to SamarraThe Turkish guard takes control.
6. 869
   Zanj rebellionFourteen years of slave revolt in southern Iraq.
7. 945
   Buyids take BaghdadThe caliph becomes a figurehead.
8. 1055
   Seljuks take Baghdad
9. 1258
   Mongols sack BaghdadThe last Abbasid caliph of Baghdad is killed.

The revolution

The Abbasids, descendants of the Prophet's uncle al-Abbas, led a revolt from Khurasan under black banners in 747 and destroyed the Umayyad army at the Zab in 750, then massacred the Umayyad family at a banquet. Al-Mansur founded a round city on the Tigris in 762 that became Baghdad, deliberately shifting the caliphate's centre east towards Persia.

The new regime relied on Persian administrators (the Barmakid family ran the government for decades) and non-Arab converts, making Islam a universal rather than an Arab empire.

The golden age

Baghdad grew to perhaps half a million people. Al-Mamun (813-833) founded the House of Wisdom, and Greek, Persian and Indian works were translated into Arabic. Al-Khwarizmi wrote the book from which 'algebra' takes its name; hospitals, observatories and paper mills spread; the One Thousand and One Nights took shape at Harun's court.

But the empire was already fraying: Spain had been lost to the Umayyads in 756, Morocco and Tunisia went their own way, and by the 820s hereditary governors ruled Khurasan.

Long decline and the Mongol end

Al-Mutasim created a Turkish slave army and moved to Samarra in 836; within decades those soldiers were making and murdering caliphs. The Zanj slave revolt (869-883) devastated Iraq. From 945 the Shia Buyids and from 1055 the Seljuk Turks controlled Baghdad, leaving the caliph a figurehead. The Fatimids of Egypt claimed a rival caliphate.

A late revival under al-Nasir (1180-1225) restored real power in Iraq, but in 1258 Hulagu's Mongols besieged Baghdad, killed hundreds of thousands and executed the caliph al-Mustasim, reportedly by rolling him in a carpet and trampling him. A cousin was installed in Cairo as a puppet caliph by the Mamluks until 1517.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Umayyad Caliphate (661 to 750)
• Rashidun Caliphate (632 to 661)
• Fatimid Caliphate (909 to 1171)
• Great Seljuk Empire (1037 to 1194)
• Buyid dynasty (934 to 1062)
• Ilkhanate (1256 to 1335)
• Samanid Empire (819 to 999)
• Byzantine Empire (395 to 1453)

Wars of the same era and region

• Mongol invasions and conquests (1206 to 1368)
• Reconquista (718 to 1492)
• Crusades (1096 to 1291)

8 surprising things about the Abbasid Caliphate

1. The Abbasids invited the surviving Umayyads to a reconciliation dinner in 750 and killed them at the table; one prince, Abd al-Rahman, escaped and founded a dynasty in Spain.
2. Baghdad's original design was a perfect circle about 2 km across with the caliph's palace at the centre.
3. Harun al-Rashid sent Charlemagne an elephant named Abul-Abbas, which lived in Aachen for eight years.
4. The word 'algorithm' comes from al-Khwarizmi, who worked in Baghdad in the ninth century, and 'algebra' from the title of his book.
5. The Abbasids captured Chinese papermakers after the Battle of Talas in 751; Baghdad had paper mills by the 790s.
6. The Zanj rebellion of East African slaves in Iraq lasted 14 years and at its height held Basra.
7. The last caliph was reportedly wrapped in a carpet and trampled by horses because Mongol custom forbade shedding royal blood on the ground.
8. The Abbasid Cairo puppet caliphs lasted until 1517, when the Ottomans claimed to have taken over the title.

Sources

• Abbasid caliphate Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Abbasid Caliphate Wikipedia
• Abbasid Dynasty World History Encyclopedia
• Hugh Kennedy, The Court of the Caliphs (2004) Weidenfeld and Nicolson

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