The Abassid Caliphs

Saffah (750-754)
He built a new capital at Hashimiya on the east bank of the Euphrates to house his family and guards. Later he moved the capital to Anbar. He is also responsible for setting the Abassid pattern of government by slaughtering the remaining Omayyad princes.

His power rested mainly on the Khurasani Arab and Persian gentry and their peasant troops, who wanted him to play 'Absolute Ruler' like the Iranian kings of old. Previoius caliphs had based their power on Iraqi and Syrian garrison town Arabs.

Mansur (754-775)
He is considered by many to be the first real Abassid caliph. Mansur was the brother of Saffah. Saffah had been ruler only because he happened to be head of the clan when the revolution succeeded, but he changed little in the government, religion, or economy of the government. It was al-Mansur that relocated the capital to Iraq, greatly altering the economy of the state. The center of government was now in a rich, irrigated valley at the intersection of many prominent trade routes. Under Mansur, the office of caliph became that of an autocrat claiming divine origin of his authority, rather than a tribal sheikh governing against the will of the ruling class.

Mansur had many of the Shi'is who had put his family into power murdered, and forced the 'ulama to choose between submission to him or hopeless opposition when he put down the Shi'i revolt of al-Nafs al-Zakiyab at Mecca. The monarchy became freed from the limitations of any group under them. However, it was this lack of a supportive and powerful priesthood that made him fall short of fully restoring the absolutism of the Sassanids.

al-Mahdi (775-785)
Mansur's son and successor continued his policies, but less actively. He was extremely pious, and pushed the raids against the Byzantines, though had little success. Mahdi was known for persecuting the Manichean religion more fiercely than any other ruler. It was during his reign that Khurasan was plunged into chaos by Mukanna, the "Veiled Prophet". He claimed to be the manifestation of god, and burnt himself to avoid fallng into the caliph's hands.

Harun al-Rashid (768-809)
His reign has been described as the 'Golden Age' of the empire. Politically, there were fewer revolts during his reign, allowing the absolute power of the monarch to come to fruition. Government was mostly in the hands of the vizier, an office usually controlled by the Barmakid clan. The caliph was not expected to become personally involved in government matters, but he did perform two significant tasks: he led the Friday salat worship in the capital, and led the armies on jihad raids into the Byzantine empire.

Government had no concern with social ordering, or improving the living conditions for the commoner. If the caliphate did build roads or wells, it was looked upon as personal benevolence rather than an obligation of the caliphate. Leaving the people to themselves was an attempt to answer the old Arab individualism.

Socially, the arts flourished under Haroun. The arts of luxury and learning were encouraged with rewards of large, expensive gifts, often whole towns for a pleasing poem. Rashid's wife, Zubaydah, although famous for her charity, also lived in extravagant luxury and splendor. The Barmakid viziers gave as many lavish gifts as the royal family, and these gifts encouraged many artists, poets, and philosophers to come to Baghdad. Arabic grammar was systematized at this time by Sibawayhi.

In his will, Haroun divided the empire between his two sons. He wanted Marmun to inherit the throne, being far mroe capable than Amin, but he had a slave mother, whereas Zubaydah was Amin's mother and she of course preferred him. So Haroun willed that Mamun be governor of the eastern empire, while Amin was to be caliph, with the provision that Mamun would be Amin's successor. When Amin later nominated his own son as successor, against Haroun's will, Marmun declared war and the civil war raged for two years (811-813).

Mamun (813-833)
After the civil war, Mamun emerged victorious as the new caliph. He was known as a patron of the arts, and established the bayt al-hikmah, the "House of Wisdom" in 830 at Baghdad. It was a place for the study of medicine, science, metaphysics, and translation of Greek, Sanskrit, and Syriac works.

The rule of Mamun contributed greatly to the breakup of the caliphate in a number of ways:

• Internal revolts. These resumed again under Mamun's rule, for example in 817 at Babbak when the prophet of Khuram sect in Azerbaijan terrorized the countryside until he was caught and executed in 838. There were of course also numerous Shi'i and Kharijite uprisings.
• Religious Piety. Al -Mamun supported the mutzalites, who favoured the idea of a created Quran as opposed to an eternal, uncreated Quran. This view was largely influenced by Hellenistic Greek philosophy, which Ma'mun had a great interest in. However, the masses of Muslims distrusted Greek ideas, and al-Mamun furthered his rift with them by enforcing this doctrine with the death penalty imposed on officeholders who did not swear to it. Mamun also showed sympathy to Shi'iites, and attempted reconciliation by nominating the eighth Imam as his successor, but his decision was not accepted.
• Foreign policy. The army was no longer made up of Bedouin tribesmen, and instead of fighting against several nations, almost all efforts were now directed at the Byzantine empire. In 821-23, he also had to deal with the revolt of Thomas the Slav. He had encouraged this revolt inside the Byzantine empire in hopes that it would weaken the central government but it produced some unexpected results:
  1. The revolt partially paralyzed the central government to the point where the Mediterranean troops had to be withdrawn, ceding dominand of the trade routes to Islam
  2. Crete and Sicily were thus taken over by independent Muslim dynasties, increasing the power of the caliph's rivals.
• Persianization. This is an aspect of all the Abassid caliphs.
• Absence from Baghdad, mainly due to the constant revolting; this allowed the Persians to increase their influence, and only when they tried to place another caliph on the throne (Ibrahim, in 817-19) did he return to depose the challenger.
• Turkish influence. Uncontrollable Turks were slowly moving into the ranks of the army and Baghdad since the time of Haroun, w hich would eventually lead to much trouble later.
• Provincial dyansties:
  1. Omayyads established themselves in Spain under Abd al-Rahman in 756
  2. an Alid dynasty under Idris, great grandson of Hasan, established itself in Morocco in 788
  3. In 800, Harun al-Rashid had granted Ifrikiya to Ibrahim al-Aghlab as a hereditary fief
  4. General Tahin was given Khurasan and all the land east of Iraq as hereditary fief in 800.
• Persian disloyalty, largely as a result of the fall of the Barmakids after Jafar's execution in 803.

Next Page