Abbāsid Dynastyʿ

      second of the two great dynasties of the Muslim Empire of the Caliphate. It overthrew the Umayyad caliphate in AD 750 and reigned as the ʿAbbāsid caliphate until destroyed by the Mongol invasion in 1258.

      The name is derived from that of the uncle of the Prophet Muḥammad, al-ʿAbbās (died c. 653), of the Hāshimite clan of the Quraysh tribe in Mecca. From c. 718, members of his family worked to gain control of the empire, and by skillful propaganda won much support, especially from Shīʿī Arabs and Persians in Khorāsān. Open revolt in 747, under the leadership of Abū Muslim, led to the defeat of Marwān II, the last Umayyad caliph, at the Battle of the Great Zāb River (750) in Mesopotamia and to the proclamation of the first ʿAbbāsid caliph, Abū al-ʿAbbās as-Saffāḥ.

      Under the ʿAbbāsids the caliphate entered a new phase. Instead of focussing, as the Umayyads had done, on the West—on North Africa, the Mediterranean, and southern Europe—the caliphate now turned eastward. The capital was moved to the new city of Baghdad, and events in Persia and Transoxania were closely watched. For the first time the caliphate was not coterminous with Islām; in Egypt, North Africa, Spain, and elsewhere, local dynasties claimed caliphal status. With the rise of the ʿAbbāsids the base for influence in the empire became international, emphasizing membership in the community of believers rather than Arab nationality. Since much support for the ʿAbbāsids came from Persian converts, it was natural for the ʿAbbāsids to take over much of the Persian (Sāsānian) tradition of government. Support by pious Muslims likewise led the ʿAbbāsids to acknowledge publicly the embryonic Islāmic law and to profess to base their rule on the religion of Islām. Between 750 and 833 the ʿAbbāsids raised the prestige and power of the empire, promoting commerce, industry, arts, and science, particularly during the reigns of al-Manṣūr, Hārūn ar-Rashīd, and al-Maʾmūn. Their temporal power, however, began to decline when al-Muʿtaṣim (Muʿtaṣim, al-) introduced non-Muslim Berber, Slav, and especially Turkish mercenary forces into his personal army. Although these troops were converted to Islām, the base of imperial unity through religion was gone, and some of the new army officers quickly learned to control the caliphate through assassination of any caliph who would not accede to their demands.

      The power of the army officers had already weakened through internal rivalries when the Iranian Būyids (Būyid Dynasty) entered Baghdad in 945, demanding of al-Mustakfī (944–946) that they be recognized as the sole rulers of the territory they controlled. This event initiated a century-long period in which much of the empire was ruled by local secular dynasties. In 1055 the ʿAbbāsids were overpowered by the Seljuqs (Seljuq), who took what temporal power may have been left to the caliph but respected his position as religious leader, restoring the authority of the caliphate, especially during the reigns of al-Mustarshid (1118–35), al-Muqtafī, and an-Nāṣir. Soon after, in 1258, the dynasty fell during a Mongol siege of Baghdad.

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