Abbasid Caliphate

The Abbasid CaliphateAbbasid (, transcription al-‘Abbāsīyūn) is the dynastic name generally given to the caliph of Baghdad was the third Arab Islamic caliphate. 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, surviving the Zanj Rebellion (869-883). 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  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.

The tenth caliph, Al-Mutawakkil, is the person who oversaw the introduction of hadiths.History of al-Tabari Vol. 34, The: Incipient Decline, page 149

Related pages
 Sunni Islam
 Islamic Golden Age

 Notes 

 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 

Category:Caliphates
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Category:Former monarchies of Africa
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