The Decline of the Abbasid Dynasty and the Spread of Islam

By the late 11th century, the Caliphs of the Abbasid Dynasty ruling from Baghdad had become largely figureheads with very little political power. Real power came from splinter groups and caliphates that had all but formerly split from the central power of Baghdad. Persian groups then later Turkish nomadic groups would finally bring an end to the Abbasid dynasty in the 14th century. The religion of Islam, though now politically fractured, would continue to spread and influence south and southeast Asia where its effect can still be widely seen today.

Abbasid Decline and the Spread of Islamic Civilizations to South and Southeast Asia

By the mid-ninth century, the Abbasids were losing control over their vast Muslim Empire. Distance hampered efforts to move armies and control local administrators. Most subjects retained local loyalties. Shi'a dissenters were particularly troublesome, while slave and peasant risings sapped empire strength. Mongol invasions in the thirteenth century ended the very weakened state. Despite the political decline, Islamic civilization reached new cultural heights, and Islam expanded widely in the Afro-Asian world through conquest and peaceful conversion.

The Islamic Heartlands in the Middle and Late Abbasid Era

The Abbasid Empire disintegrated between the ninth and thirteenth centuries. Peasant revolts and slavery increased. Despite the artistic and intellectual creativity of the age, the position of women eroded. Signs of decline were present during the reign of Caliph al-Mahdi (775-785). He failed to reconcile moderate Shi'a to Abbasid rule. Al-Mahdi abandoned the frugal ways of his predecessor and surrounded his court with luxury. He failed to establish a succession system resolving disputes among his many sons, leaving a lasting problem to future rulers.

Fragmentation Abbasid Caliphate Image

Imperial Extravagance and Succession Disputes

One son, Harun al-Rashid, became one of the most famous Abbasid caliphs. The luxury and intrigues of his court were immortalized in The Thousand and One Nights. The young ruler became dependent on Persian advisors, a trend followed during later reigns as rulers became pawns in factional court struggles. Al-Rashid's death led to the first of many civil wars over the succession. The sons of the winner, al-Ma'mun, built personal retainer armies, some including Turkic nomads, to safeguard their futures. The armies became power centers, removing and selecting caliphs; their uncontrolled excesses developed into a general focus for societal unrest.

Imperial Breakdown and Agrarian Disorder

The continual civil violence drained the imperial treasury. Caliphs increased the strain by constructing costly new imperial centers. Peasants had imposing tax burdens, often collected by oppressive tax farmers, forced upon them. Agricultural villages were abandoned and irrigation works fell into disrepair. Bandits and vagabonds were everywhere; they participated in peasant rebellions often instigated by dissident religious groups.

The Declining Position of Women in the Family and Society

The freedom and influence during the first centuries of Islam severely declined. Male-dominated Abbasid society imagined that women possessed incurable lust, and therefore men needed to be segregated from all but the women of their family. The harem and the veil symbolized subjugation to men. The seclusion of elite women, wives and concubines, continued, and the practice of veiling spread to all. Abbasid wealth generated large demand for concubines and male slaves. Most came from non-Muslim neighboring lands. Poor women remained economically active, but the rich were kept at home. They married at puberty and spent their lives in domestic management and childbearing. At higher political levels, women intrigued for advancement of their sons' careers.

Nomadic Incursions and the Eclipse of Caliphal Power

By the mid-tenth century, breakaway former provinces began to challenge Abbasid rule. The Buyids of Persia captured Baghdad in 945. The caliphs henceforth became powerless puppets controlled by sultans, the actual rulers. The Seljuk Turks defeated the Buyids in 1055 and ruled the remnants of the Abbasid Empire for two centuries. The Seljuks were staunch Sunni who purged the Shi'a. For a time, Seljuk military power restored the diminished caliphate. Egyptians and Byzantines were defeated, the latter success opening Anatolia, the nucleus of the later Ottoman Empire, to settlement by Turkic nomads.

The Effect of the Christiaan Crusades

West European Christian knights in 1096 invaded Muslim territory to capture the biblical Holy Land. They established small, rival kingdoms that were not a threat to the more powerful surrounding Muslim leaders. Most were recaptured near the close of the twelfth century by Muslims reunited under Saladin. The last fell in 1291. The Crusades had an important effect on the Christian world through intensifying the existing European borrowing from the more sophisticated technology, architecture, medicine, mathematics, science, and general culture of Muslim civilization. Europeans recovered much Greek learning lost after the fall of Rome. Italian merchants remained in Islamic centers after the Crusader defeat and were far more important carriers of Islamic advanced knowledge than the Christian warriors were. Muslim peoples were little interested in European civilization.

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