Abbasid Empire

Islamic Abbasid Caliphate/Abbasid Empire الخلافة العباسية الاسلامية
← 750–1258 →   →
Abbasid Caliphate at its greatest extent
Capital	Baghdad
Language(s)	Arabic (official), Aramaic, Armenian, Berber languages, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Middle Persian
Religion	Islam
Government	Monarchy
Amir al-Mu'minin¹
- 721–754	As-Saffah
- 786–809	Harun al-Rashid
- 1261–1262	Al-Mustansir
- 1242–1258	Al-Musta'sim
History
- Established	750
- Disestablished	1258
Area	10,000,000 km2 (3,861,022 sq mi)
Population
-  est.	50,000,000
Density	5 /km2  (12.9 /sq mi)
Currency	Abbasid Dinar
¹ Amir al-Mu'minin (أمير المؤمنين), Caliph (خليف)

The Abbasid Empire was the tenth of the ten great Muslim caliphates of the Arab Empire. It overthrew the Umayyad caliphs from all but Al-Andalus. It was built by the descendant of Muhammad's youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib. It was created in Harran in 750 of the Christian era and shifted its capital in AD 762 from Harran to Baghdad. It flourished for two centuries. Abbasid rule was ended in 1258, when Hulagu Khan, the Mongol conqueror, sacked Baghdad. But they continued to claim authority in religious matters from their base in Egypt.

During the period of the Abassid dynasty, Abassid claims to the caliphate did not go unchallenged. The Shiˤa Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi Billah of the Fatimid dynasty, which claimed descendency of Muhammad through his daughter, claimed the title of Caliph in 909 and created a separate line of caliphs in North Africa. Initially it covered only Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, but then the Fatimid caliphs extended their rule for the next 150 years, taking Egypt and Palestine and even ancient Pakistan, before the Abbassid dynasty was able to turn the tide, limiting Fatimid rule to Egypt. The Fatimid dynasty finally ended in 1171. The Umayyad dynasty, which had survived and come to rule over the Muslim provinces of Spain, reclaimed the title of Caliph in 929, lasting until it was overthrown in 1031.

Related pages

• Sunni Islam
• Islamic Golden Age

Other websites

• Abbasids (750-1517)
• Abbasids the 2nd dynasty of caliphs
• Abbasid Caliphs (In Our Time, Radio 4), in Streaming RealAudio
• An On-Going Detailed Account of the History of the Abbasids from an Islamic perspective. Most of the narrations have been sifted through to avoid "biased" theories regardless if the historians as mentioned are Shiite or Sunni.
• Abbasid Caliphate entry in Encyclopaedia Iranica