The Abbasid Caliphate · An Interactive History (text version)
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The Revolution (747–762)
Black banners rise in the east and the house of Abbas seizes the caliphate.
The Black Banners Rise (747 CE)
Khurasan, the eastern frontier
A secret movement explodes into open revolt against the ruling Umayyads, rallying behind black flags and the promise of a just ruler from the Prophet’s family.
al-Saffah, the First Caliph (749–754)
Proclaimed in Kufa
Abū al-‘Abbās is proclaimed caliph in the mosque of Kufa: the first of a line that will rule, in some form, for nearly 800 years.
The Battle of the Zab (750 CE)
On the Great Zab River, Iraq
The last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, is crushed on the banks of the Zab. The Damascus dynasty falls and the Abbasid age begins.
The Battle of Talas (751 CE)
Central Asia, against Tang China
Abbasid armies defeat the Tang dynasty at the Talas River, the high-water mark of the caliphate in the east, and (by legend) the route by which papermaking reached the Islamic world.
The Golden Age (762–833)
Baghdad is built and becomes the richest, most learned city on earth.
The Round City of Baghdad (762 CE)
Founded by al-Mansur
The caliph al-Manṣūr lays out a perfectly circular capital on the Tigris, Madīnat al-Salām, the "City of Peace."
Harun al-Rashid (786–809)
The caliph of the Thousand and One Nights
Under Hārūn al-Rashīd the empire reaches its glittering peak in wealth and prestige, the Baghdad later mythologised in the Arabian Nights.
The Brothers’ War (811–813)
al-Amin vs al-Ma’mun
Hārūn’s sons turn on each other. A brutal civil war ends with the year-long siege of Baghdad and the death of the caliph al-Amīn.
al-Ma’mun & the House of Wisdom (813–833)
The translation movement
The scholar-caliph al-Ma’mūn pours patronage into the House of Wisdom, where Greek, Persian and Indian science is translated into Arabic and pushed far beyond.
Soldiers & Samarra (833–892)
Slave-soldiers and a new capital. The caliphs grow rich, then captive.
al-Mu‘tasim Builds an Army of Slaves (836 CE)
And a new capital at Samarra
al-Mu‘taṣim raises a private army of Turkish slave-soldiers and, when Baghdad chafes at them, builds a brand-new capital upriver at Samarra.
The Anarchy at Samarra (861–870)
The soldiers seize control
In nine chaotic years the Turkish guard murders one caliph after another, raising and toppling four rulers and gutting the dynasty’s authority.
The Zanj Rebellion (869–883)
Slave revolt in southern Iraq
Tens of thousands of enslaved East Africans, worked to death draining the salt marshes near Basra, rise in a revolt that nearly breaks the state.
The Fragmentation (892–1055)
Province after province breaks away; rival caliphs appear; warlords rule Baghdad.
A Rival Caliph in the West (909 CE)
The Fatimids proclaim themselves
A Shia dynasty, the Fatimids, proclaims its own caliphate in North Africa, openly denying that the Abbasids are the rightful leaders of Islam.
The Buyids Take Baghdad (945 CE)
The caliph becomes a puppet
A Shia dynasty from the Caspian, the Buyids, marches into Baghdad. They keep the Sunni caliph on his throne, but only as a powerless figurehead.
Sultans & Twilight (1055–1242)
The Seljuk Turks become the real power; the caliph becomes a sacred symbol.
The Seljuk Turks & the Sultan (1055 CE)
A new bargain of power
The Seljuk Turks under Toghrïl Beg drive out the Buyids. The caliph crowns him sultan, sealing a split between sacred and worldly authority.
al-Nasir’s Last Revival (1180–1225)
A caliph rules again
As the Seljuks fade, the able caliph al-Nāṣir spends 45 years rebuilding real Abbasid power in Iraq, the dynasty’s final flourish.
The Fall & the Shadow (1242–1517)
The Mongols sack Baghdad. A shadow caliphate flickers on in Cairo.
The Sack of Baghdad (1258 CE)
Hülegü and the Mongols
The Mongol prince Hülegü storms Baghdad. The last caliph, al-Musta‘ṣim, is killed and the 500-year-old caliphate of Baghdad is extinguished.
The Shadow Caliphate of Cairo (1261 CE)
A symbol kept alive
Three years later the Mamluk sultans of Egypt install an Abbasid survivor as caliph in Cairo, a purely ceremonial figure who lends them legitimacy.
The Final Curtain (1517 CE)
The Ottomans conquer Egypt
When the Ottoman sultan Selim I conquers Egypt, the last Cairo Abbasid is taken to Istanbul. The line that began with the black banners finally ends.
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