Abbassides (dynasty)

The Abbassides, also Abbasids, were the second great dynasty of the Moslem Empire, which based its claim to rule on descent from Abbas, uncle of Mohammed. In 750 AD, largely as a result of Persian reaction against Arab control, the Abbassids succeeded in overthrowing the Ommiad caliphs. Al-Mansure transferred the seat of empire from Damascus to Baghdad, a new city which he built on the Tigris. Here, many non-Arabs rose to positions of power, and native cultures revived and flourished.

The dynasty reached its height during the reigns of Harun al-Rashid (786-809) and Mamum (813-833), whose courts were centres of a luxurious and brilliant Mohammedan culture far removed from the strict rules of the Koran. But corruption and stagnation followed, and resulted in the decay of the empire. The Turks, originally slaves introduced as bodyguards by the Caliph Motassem, who ruled from 833 to 842, reduced the caliphs to the position of puppets by the middle of the 10th century. Various provinces threw off their allegiance, and the empire rapidly disintegrated. After the destruction of Baghdad by the Tatars in 1258, the Abbassides retained only a religious authority in Egypt under the Mamelukes until 1517. In that year the Sultan Selim I took the title of caliph for himself, having carried off Matawikhil III to imprisonment in Constantinople.

See Dark Ages