The Middle East A History

SEVENTH EDITION

William Ochsenwald Professor of History (Emeritus)

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Sydney Nettleton Fisher Late Professor of History The Ohio State University

Mc Graw Hill

NConnect \ Learn 1 Succeed"

CHAPTER 6

The Flowering of the Muslim World under the

Early Abbasids T - t h e destruction of the Umayyads marked the opening of a new age in the history of the Muslim community in the Middle East—the rule of the Abbasid dynasty in its early phase, which lasted until the middle of the tenth century. The Abbasids were Arabs whose relationship to the prophet Muhammad provided their chief claim to legitimacy. During the early Abbasid empire the state witnessed a variety of trends: the continuing importance of pre-Islamic imperial traditions and their adaptation to Islamic values; a cultural, economic, and religious flowering; the moderately successful organization of government institutions; and a growing decentralization of power, ultimately resulting in the ruling dynasty's loss of control.

The political center of Islam shifted eastward to the Tigris-Euphrates valley, since Arabia proper had become less significant in power and wealth and Damascus, in spite of its interior lines of communication and transport, no longer held an advantage as the capital of such an empire. Iraq was more productive than Syria and profited from ex­tensive trade with India, China, and central Asia, whereas commerce languished in the Mediterranean and Europe. The markets of India and China were fabulous and their pro­duction was varied; the economy of the west, except for Spain and Constantinople, was yielding rapidly to the demands of a self-subsistent agricultural life.

As has been pointed out, the Abbasids had shrewdly capitalized on the many griev­ances that various factions held against the Umayyads and, in an adroit propaganda cam­paign among the Muslim ummah, posed as the champions of each disgruntled group. However, hardly was Abu al-Abbas, the first of the line, seated on the throne than he openly showed the insincerity of Abbasid promises. Though he surrounded himself with theologians and pretended to take their advice, positions of authority and power were filled by Abbasids or by trusted family agents. The chief executioner, who was a new governmental official, always stood near the caliph's throne. The Alids, who were the leaders of the Shiis, were sometimes honored but powerless; Kharijis, who had generally opposed the Umayyads, received little consideration; viceroys, generals, and ministers who became too wealthy or too popular were executed. Indeed, many of the very leaders who had engineered the Abbasid revolution were liquidated in the first years of the new

63

64 Part One The Rise and Spread of Islam

regime by Abu al-Abbas, who was known as al-Saffah ("the bloodletter"). Abbasid rulers governed more imperiously than their predecessors.

It was at the end of Abu al-Abbas's reign that the true installation of the new em­pire occurred, with the ascension to the caliphate in 754 of Abu al-Abbas's brother, Abu Jafar. This ancestor of the next thirty-five caliphs took the name al-Mansur (meaning "rendered victorious").

Like many of the Abbasids who followed, al-Mansur faced a struggle over the ques­tion of succession to the throne inside the royal family. Often the heir apparent was sent to Khurasan or Syria as governor, to learn how to be an able administrator. Succession did not necessarily go from father to eldest son; instead, rule might be transferred to any among the able male relatives. This was an issue that increasingly served as a vehicle by which social and governmental groups could strive for power. To obtain recognition for his son al-Mahdi, al-Mansur gave prodigious bribes to his cousin, who had been named to the line of succession by al-Saffah. Nonetheless, al-Mahdi's elder son and designated heir, Musa al-Hadi, was almost passed over by the generals and court ministers in favor of his more popular younger brother, Harun al-Rashid. The court intrigues involving the accession of later caliphs grew even more heated as time passed. By the close of the ninth century, the question of succession overshadowed every act of the caliph. By the tenth century, caliphs were removed, blinded, and turned out into the streets to beg.

Succession to the caliphate was not, of course, the only internal issue for the Abbasid government. Simultaneously, issues concerning theology and jurisprudence added fuel to the political fires. The religious scholars preached that the life of state and society should be based on the Quran and the practice of the prophet Muhammad, whereas the other main contestants for the caliph's ear, the civil secretaries and governing officials, looked for a political structure tending toward absolutism so that their deci­sions would be enforced. The latter group desired the guidance of an absolute ruler; the pious sought security in the collective wisdom of the community.

Al-Mansur discovered that his personal safety was in question since his residence was so close to hostile Kufah. The danger led him to build, in 762-766, a new capital on the Tigris, only 30 kilometers north of Ctesiphon, where a personal bodyguard of several thousand was on hand at all times. This new circular fortress-palace of al-Mansur grew within a few decades into the fabled luxury-filled city of Baghdad, which has thrilled the imagination of people from that time onward.

THE GLORY OF BAGHDAD During the first century of the Abbasid caliphs Baghdad was the hub of the Middle East, with a population numbering about 1 million. Baghdad was a circular garrison fortress, situated on the west bank of the Tigris near a canal connecting with the Euphrates. The central area had a mosque and a green-domed palace with an audience hall 130 feet (40 m.) in height; it was surrounded by a wall, a deep moat, and two thick outer brick

Chapter 6 The Flowering of the Muslim World under the Early Abbasids 65

Hashim I

Abd al-Muttalib Abd Allah AbuTalib Abbas I I I

MUHAMMAD ALI Abd Allah I I

HASAN HUSAIN Ali I

Muhammad I

al-Saffah (749-754) al-Mansur (754-775) I al-Mahdi (775-785)

al-Hadi (785-786) al-Rashid (786-809) I

al-Amin (809-813) al-Mamun (813-833) al-Mutasim (833-842) I

Muhammad al-Wathiq al-Mutawakkil (847-861) I (842-847) I

I al-Mustain al-Muhtadi al-Muwaffaq al-Muntasir al-Mutazz al-Mutamid (862-866) (869-870) I (861-862) (866-869) (870-892)

al-Mutadid (892-902)

al-Muktafi al-Muqtadir (908-932) al-Qahir (932-934) (902-908)

I al-Mustakfi (944-946) al-Radi (934-940) al-Muttaqi (940-944)

The Early Abbasid Caliphs

walls. Numerous other luxurious palaces for princes and ministers of state were erected, and beyond these rose the busy center of the Muslim world.

The setting of the Abbasids in the lavish fortress capital of Baghdad ensured that their rule would follow the pattern of the monarchies of earlier days. In comparison to the unabashed prodigality of royal life in Baghdad and to the difficulty an ordinary Arab had in approaching the caliph, the rule of the Umayyads seemed the essence of frugal­ity and simplicity.

The wealth and magnificence of the court of al-Rashid (786-809) were renowned in his own day, and through the tales of the Arabian Nights the splendors of his court and life in Baghdad have captured popular fancy in later ages, although, in fact, he often resided elsewhere. The center of display was the palace of the caliph, where Zubaidah, al-Rashid's favorite wife, held sway. She insisted that all dishes be made of gold and that tapestries be studded with precious gems. She outfitted several hundred of her most attractive maidservants as pageboys (a fashion that was soon all the rage in Baghdad),

66 Part One The Rise and Spread of Islam

largely to amuse her son and to divert his affections from a favorite eunuch. At a festival celebrating the marriage of a prince, a thousand matched pearls were showered upon the couple as they sat upon a jewel-encrusted mat of gold.

In Baghdad, the wheel of fortune turned easily. This aspect of Abbasid rule had been exemplified in the life of Khaizuran, a slave from Yemen and the mother of al-Rashid. Given to al-Mahdi, she became his favorite and ultimately his wife, and her sons were recognized at an early age as the heirs to the throne. The intelligent and able Khaizuran exerted considerable influence in the capital: she had her family brought to court; her brother became governor of Yemen; and her sister married a prince whose daughter was the famous Zubaidah. Before Khaizuran died she held vast properties bringing in an annual income of more than 160 million dirhams. The preference of the generals and courtiers for al-Rashid over al-Hadi was stimulated considerably by Khaizuran's acknowledged favor for the former. (Although Khaizuran's fortunes seemed to have steadily improved, wealth, position, and favor in Baghdad were always precarious, as the sudden fall of many favorites and advisers attested.) While Khaizuran's life demon­strated the influence women could exercise, the system of segregating upper-class urban women from men in public places was already being developed, as shown by al-Mansur's construction of a separate bridge across the Euphrates designated for women only.

At the court any word or act of flattery, a song or poem that pleased, or a deed well done was rewarded handsomely: 60,000 dinars tossed to the singer of a pleasant tune with complimentary lines; 100,000 dirhams to a poet who beguiled at the right moment; a landed estate to an entertainer or a dancer! For a sonnet extolling Harun al-Rashid on a trivial occasion a poet was given 5000 gold pieces, a robe of honor, ten Greek slave girls, and a horse from the imperial stables.

From the four corners of the known world came royal embassies bearing gifts and seek­ing the caliph's favor. Most publicized of these, at least in the west, was the mission sent by Charlemagne in 797 to secure greater safety for Frankish pilgrims to Palestine. The tro­phies brought back from the journey, the most fantastic being an elephant, so magnified the incident for the west that Baghdad became a romantic, incredible, and fabulous place.

Intellectual interests of the Abbasids, hand in hand with imperial patronage, pro­duced a great cultural flowering. The learning of the Greco-Romans, the Iranians, and the Hindus was translated into Arabic and assimilated into Muslim culture. Arabic be­came the common language not only for theology and jurisprudence but for philoso­phy, science, and the humanities. History, political treatises, literature, poetry, and etiquette came largely from Iran; astronomy and mathematics, from India; philosophy, medicine, and science, from Greece. Royal patronage set the stage for translations and the expansion and dissemination of knowledge. Many princes, governors, and high offi­cials followed the same course and became, on a lesser scale, patrons of scholars.

ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION The Khurasanian soldiery was the power that had raised the Abbasids to the caliphate, and for several generations a Khurasan bodyguard maintained imperial authority in Baghdad and elsewhere. Even in this time, however, some army units still consisted of

Chapter 6 The Flowering of the Muslim World under the Early Abbasids 67 Arabs from Syria and Iraq. In the first decade of Abbasid rule the army conquered the area south of the Caspian Sea. Harun al-Rashid later launched his army against the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, but two sieges failed to take the walled city on its fortified peninsula. By the 830s, mawali clients formed some units in the Abbasid army, along with free and slave groups recruited originally from non-Muslim peoples, as the army became diverse in its origins.

Iranian influences grew apace at the court. After the building of Baghdad, Iranian dress, manners, and techniques spread quickly throughout the empire, especially in fash­ionable society, although Arabic remained the language of administration and court cul­ture, while the earliest bureaucrats to work for the Abbasid dynasty were often drawn from the same Arab families that had served the Umayyads. Converts to Islam no longer needed to become the clients of Arab Muslims, though freed slaves often continued to affiliate themselves in this way.

The Umayyads had advisers and ministers heading various departments of the gov­ernment. Under the Abbasids, however, there arose the office of chief minister, the vizir, who became the alter ego of the caliph. The vizir's power was almost unlimited, and the office was frequently handed down from father to son. The first family of vizirs was the famous Barmakids of the second half of the eighth century. Khalid ibn Barmak, son of a Buddhist chief priest, held the confidence of al-Saffah and al-Mansur. Khalid served as minister of finance and then as governor, became a general, and acted as guardian of al-Rashid. Khalid amassed a great fortune; on one occasion he was forced to pay 3 million dirhams of taxes which as governor he had not forwarded to Baghdad. His son, Yahya, served al-Mahdi as vizir but fell into disfavor and was imprisoned by al-Hadi.

The apogee of Barmakid fortunes was reached under al-Rashid. Yahya, freed from prison, became the first true grand vizir, issuing orders and managing the empire with great skill and profit. He favored a policy of strict centralization, in both provincial gov­ernment and taxation. He became alienated from the military, who generally preferred decentralization, which advanced their interests in the provincial garrisons. Yahya's sons al-Fadl and Jafar also exercised great power. Al-Fadl followed in his father's footsteps as governor and vizir, while Jafar became al-Rashid's boon companion and confidant. The Barmakids lived in a sumptuous manner, and their generosity to their own favorites and clients became proverbial throughout the Islamic world. Yahya, however, was dis­tressed by Jafar's personal and intimate relationship with al-Rashid, fearing that it would bring disaster. The family could not hope for social, political, or religious equality with the Abbasids. In 803, without warning, Jafar was beheaded because of policy differ­ences in regard to Khurasan and because he had used al-Rashid's friendship to impinge too far upon royal prerogatives; Yahya, al-Fadl, and two others were imprisoned; and the Barmakid fortune—palaces, lands, and some 30 million dinars in cash—was confiscated.

Other families of vizirs rose and fell, and with them rival generals and armies. Under the Abbasids, generals were a significant force in obtaining the throne. Follow­ing al-Rashid's reign, intense rivalry rose between two of his offspring, the sensual al-Amin, son of the famed Zubaidah, and the more serious and steady al-Mamun, son of an Iranian slave girl. Al-Mamun had the better generals, and with the full support of the Khurasanian army he attacked Baghdad and beheaded his caliph brother. Al-Mamun's

68 Part One The Rise and Spread of Islam

twenty-year rule was marred by insurrections that were overcome only very slowly. Egypt was brought to obedience by 827; the Aghlabids in Tunis paid tribute, but most of North Africa was lost to the empire. On the other hand, mountainous Azerbaijan and the Caspian shores were conquered.

By 861, the succession to the throne was to be decided for a time by the leaders of the army. The rulers al-Mamun and al-Mutasim had brought Turks and Persians, mostly slave mamluk soldiers, to Baghdad and Samarra (a city in northern Iraq and the capi­tal from 836 to 892) in such numbers that they dominated the imperial bodyguard, which in turn controlled the caliph.

After the beginning of the tenth century, the Abbasid caliphs receded into the back­ground as puppet rulers. Diverse groups from the geographic margins of the empire began to influence its center. The old elites, including the Arab tribal leaders, the de­scendants of the Khurasanians long settled in Iraq, and the Abbasid family, declined in importance. Arab ancestry was still a source of pride, but more and more often non-Arab Muslims became leaders of society. Powerful captains in the eastern and western provinces, some Arabs and some non-Arabs, seized authority and established autonomous Muslim states. The political unity of Islam, which had already been cracked in the 750s by the establishment of the Umayyad state in Spain, was gradually shattered, starting with the advent of the military groups who controlled the Abbasid caliphate.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL LIFE The bases of Abbasid wealth were agriculture and a century of relatively capable, hon­est, and stable administration of the provinces. Caliph al-Mansur established such a vig­ilant and judicious system of government throughout the empire and enforced such thrift that it took more than a century of spending to dislocate the state budget. In central Iraq the ancient canal system initially was operated so efficiently and extended to such a de­gree that productivity rose. In that same century imperial revenues from Egypt, Syria, and Iran showered great wealth upon the ruling circles.

As a natural corollary to this organized agriculture and governmental stability, there arose flourishing commerce and, for that age, advanced technical production. Most commerce was in the nature of domestic trade. Caravans plied the trade routes from the Indus to the Pyrenees, distributing the goods of each province throughout the empire and exchanging manufactures of Iran for those of Egypt, carpets of Tabaristan for paper of Baghdad. Handsome profits were realized, but great fortunes were as easily lost.

The bulk of foreign trade was with East Asia. From Baghdad and Basrah, Muslim merchants carried their goods by sea via the Persian/Arabian Gulf to China and India, while the main overland route to China went through Samarkand and central Asia. A flourishing trade across the Sahara developed between North African Khariji Muslims and the populations of the Senegal River region. Although trade with western and east­ern Europe was undoubtedly profitable, it seemed so trivial that Muslim traders left it for the most part to Christian and Jewish itinerants. Goods from the Middle East were expensive, and Europe beyond the lands of the Byzantines had little other than furs to

Chapter 6 The Flowering of the Muslim World under the Early Abbasids 69

offer in exchange. A type of banking with letters of credit and double-entry bookkeep­ing arose to facilitate the extensive commerce that stretched across much of the eastern hemisphere.

Concurrent with the rich agriculture and brisk commerce of the Abbasid empire, there developed an active artisanal production in every province. Artisanal traditions of the ancient Middle East revived and expanded. Textiles of linen, cotton, silk, and wool were the most important. Although each area produced high-quality fabrics of many types, every city or province excelled in some particular pattern or technique; carpets from Bukhara, linens from Egypt, damask from Damascus, and brocades from Shiraz gained fame. Special skills were often localized, and families guarded trade secrets, which were passed on as prized possessions through the centuries.

The science of papermaking was acquired from China, and by the tenth century paper mills existed in Iran, Iraq, Arabia, and Egypt. Paper made from flax facilitated the production of books on an enormous scale. Private and public libraries spread widely; paper was even made that was light enough to be transported by carrier pigeon. Fine glass was produced in Egypt, and the glass industry flourished in Syria. The ceramic industry in the Middle East reached back into the most distant past, and the Abbasid era created some of the finest potteries and glazed tile; tin glazing and luster painting were used to create painted ornamentation. Samarkand, Baghdad, and Damascus won fame for their decorated porcelains and their fine shades of blue, green, and turquoise. Middle Eastern artisans were equally skilled in metalwork using iron, steel, copper, brass, silver, and gold; the ewers made at this time were especially famous. Other crafts included making dyes, perfume, jewelry, leather, inlaid and decorated wood, and enam-elwork on wood and metal. Soap manufacture in Syria produced hand soaps and col­ored, perfumed toilet soaps.

The Middle East in the eighth and ninth centuries utilized many of the arts and tech­niques of China, India, Iran, and the Byzantine Empire, and those of the early civiliza­tions of Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. The synthesis of these influences gave great life to Muslim civilization and production, which was regarded in Europe as the mar­vel of the ages. The slow movement of Middle Eastern know-how across the Mediter­ranean and over the Pyrenees gave rise to the development of similar handicrafts in Europe.

The Abbasid championing of non-Arab people within the Muslim Empire ironically took place at the same time as a rapid Arabization of the empire. Iranians, Berbers, Syr­ian Christians, Egyptian Copts, Jews, and others began to speak Arabic in their daily lives. Science, philosophy, literature, and books of knowledge from other cultures and tongues were rendered into Arabic. And an Islamic civilization evolved in which poets, scholars, musicians, merchants, soldiers, vizirs, and concubines were considered cultural Arabs; little heed was given to parentage or birthplace for Muslims, and non-Muslims also contributed substantially to society and culture.

Local rulers followed the common patterns of Abbasid government and adminis­tration, and Muslim civilization continued to prevail. Political loyalties might differ as, more often than not, religious doctrines did; but artists, men of letters, scientists, mer­chants, and travelers were as much at home in Cordoba as in Cairo, Baghdad, or Samarkand. Provincial governors imitated as sumptuously as they could the Baghdad

70 Part One The Rise and Spread of Islam

court. From India to Spain palaces and mosques were built where petty princes lived in the grand manner among poets, scholars, soldiers, dancing slaves, and fawning courtiers.

DECENTRALIZATION UNTIL 945 Although Islamic civilization prevailed in the Abbasid era from the borders of China to the Pyrenees, there was never more than a fleeting political unity. The Shii followers of Ali and his descendants were never completely mollified, and more and more religious sects arose to battle against authority. As more of the subject population became Mus­lim, the cohesion of the Muslim ruling elite and its mutual loyalty declined; instead, local attachments and loyalties grew, while allegiance to the central government and the caliphate relatively decreased. Social and economic ills periodically disturbed the em­pire. The caliphs starting with al-Mutawakkil frequently allocated the right to collect taxes from a given region to army generals. Ambitious soldiers sought to carve out their own principalities, whose armed forces increasingly were based on professional cavalry, often recruited from Turks or Berbers. Centered upon a land area, communications and transportation over most of the Abbasid empire were costly, slow, and tedious. Distant provinces were difficult to control, and, as caliphs grew less and less concerned with the grueling task of governing, even nearer provinces defied the wishes of the Abbasid rulers. Revenues declined by about one-half from 788 to 915. The increasing salinity of the soil in central Iraq sharply reduced agriculture and the taxes derived from it— resources located at the center of the empire and formerly very important. The canals in Iraq were not properly maintained; taxes were raised and collected in a harsh man­ner, often through a system of tax farming; and the insurgencies of the late ninth cen­tury created widespread havoc. When Abbasid caliphs became mere puppets in the hands of bureaucrats in Baghdad and then were dominated by generals, governors and soldiers in the provinces opted for local autonomy.

Shii claimants to the leadership of the community emerged in several places. With the death of the eleventh imam or leader of the chief Shii lineage in 874 and the apparent disappearance of his son shortly thereafter, one source of opposition to Abbasid claims was temporarily removed, but other groups, both Sunnis and Shiis, posed many chal­lenges to the Abbasid caliphs.

In the west—Spain and North Africa—Abd al-Rahman, grandson of the Umayyad caliph Hisham, escaped from Abbasid vengeance, and, making his way in disguise through Syria, Egypt, and North Africa, reestablished the Umayyad dynasty in Spain in 756. First as amirs and then in the tenth century as caliphs, the rulers maintained at Cordoba a court that rivaled the Abbasids in Baghdad. Many distinguished scholars, sci­entists, and literary figures in the Muslim world flourished under their patronage. At its zenith in the tenth century, Cordoba had more than 100,000 inhabitants, 700 mosques, 300 public baths, and a royal palace comprising 400 rooms that ranked second in size and splendor only to those at Baghdad. The Umayyad state in Spain resembled the contemporary Abbasid caliphate in witnessing many conversions to Islam, economic growth but fiscal difficulties, the professionalization of the army, uncertainty about

Chapter 6 The Flowering of the Muslim World under the Early Abbasids 71

succession to the throne, and regional separatism. Abd al-Rahman III (r. 912-961) brought about a political, military, and cultural revival, but Umayyad power began to deteriorate thereafter. Muslim Spain disintegrated into many small states after 1031.

In 788 in Morocco, Idris, a descendant of Ali, established an independent Sunni regime. From their capital at Fez the Idrisids ruled most of Morocco for two centuries, firmly implanting Islam in that corner of Africa and establishing a flourishing trade with sub-Saharan Africa. Arabic became the dominant language in the towns, while Berber was used widely in the countryside. The Idrisids ultimately succumbed to the Umayyads of Cordoba.

Harun al-Rashid appointed Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab governor of Algeria and Tunisia in 800. For a century the Aghlabids ruled as free amirs from Qairawan in Tunisia. Their fleets ravaged the coasts of Italy and France, seizing Malta, Sicily, and Sardinia; by 835 the Aghlabids had learned how to use the 'Greek fire' liquid incendiary, which had first been employed by the Byzantines in 674, in naval warfare. The great mosque of Qairawan was built by the Aghlabids and soon became for western Muslims a vener­ated shrine, next in importance and holiness to Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. But in 909 the Aghlabids were engulfed by a Shii uprising that placed on the throne the Fatimid dynasty.

Meanwhile, beginning with the middle of the ninth century, a succession of gov­ernors and two short-lived Turkish dynasties ruled Egypt in the name of the Abbasids, who received some revenues from that province but exercised no real power there. Con­version to Islam had been slow, and the Muslims remained largely an urban-based mi­nority group. Foreign slave and mercenary armies were recruited by the new dynasties. In the second half of the tenth century, Egypt was conquered by the Shii Fatimids of North Africa, whose claim of descent from Ali and Fatimah persuaded many to accept them as the valid leaders of the Muslim community.

South and east of Baghdad the Abbasid empire was likewise succumbing to the lax­ity of the caliphs' rule and falling into the hands of aggressive soldiers and leaders who founded local dynasties, even though some of these groups acknowledged the nominal overlordship of the Abbasids. The greatest dangers were south of Baghdad and closest to hand: the rebellions of the Zanj and the Qarmatians.

Since early Islamic times the marshlands of southern Iraq, a perfect area for guer­rilla warfare, had been the scene of a kind of slavery, based on large-scale agricultural estates, which was not seen elsewhere in the empire; the slaves, who were harshly treated, were mostly of east African origins. Under the leadership of Ali ibn Muhammad, an Arab from Iran, and with the help of Arab tribal allies, the Zanj rose against their owners in 869, took Basrah, and were a major threat to the Abbasid political and social order as they espoused Kharijism. In 883, the Abbasid caliph finally conquered the Zanj in south­ern Iraq, but the prosperity of that region was ruined.

The Qarmatians were Ismaili Shiis (like the Fatimids in Egypt) who, starting in the ninth century, steadily attempted to overthrow Abbasid power, basing their forces in Kufah, among the nomadic tribes of Syria, and in Bahrain and eastern Arabia gener­ally. In 923, they conquered Basrah, and in 930 the Qarmatians raided Mecca and car­ried off the sacred Black Stone from the Kaba. Internal disputes stopped their expansion, the Black Stone was returned to Mecca, and the Qarmatians became a local force

72 Part One The Rise and Spread of Islam

enjoying peace and prosperity until the late tenth century. Although their enemies ac­cused them of practices contrary to Islamic morality, they were most noteworthy for the existence of an advisory council whose opinions the ruler was obliged to consider, as well as approaches to gender relations based on equal treatment for men and women.

To the east, the Abbasids succeeded in crushing a peasant revolt based in Azerbai­jan, but they lost effective power in their easternmost provinces of Sind and Makran, on the borders of India and Pakistan, after the middle of the ninth century.

In central Asia Turkish-speaking, horse-raising, nomadic tribes who worshiped many gods and spirits had established a loosely organized empire as early as the mid­dle of the sixth century. Independent of both China and the Muslim state in the ninth century, the central Asian Turks served as trade intermediaries with both, dealing es­pecially in silk and slaves, including the military guards sought by the Abbasids. In later times, Turks in central Asia who became Muslims would have a tremendous impact on the core regions of the Middle East when they moved into those areas.

Three local dynasties dominated the eastern part of the empire in the ninth century. The Tahirids, starting in 820, extended their sway from Merv to the frontiers of India. They were a family of local governors who sent extensive taxes to the Abbasid caliphs, and they played a major role in the internal political life of Baghdad. From 867 the Saf-farid dynasty spread outward from Sistan, destroyed the Tahirids, invaded and conquered most of eastern and southern Afghanistan for Islam, and ruled with the investiture of the caliphs until 900, when they were reduced to only a local influence in southeastern Iran. Also in the late ninth century the truly independent Persian Sunni Samanid dynasty was acknowledged by the caliphs as local governors; by the tenth century, they seized all of Khurasan but settled in central Asia, establishing Bukhara as their capital and Samarkand as the leading city of the state. Culture and the economy continued to flour­ish under Samanid rule, and the new forces were quickly assimilated, as illustrated by the Samanid ruler who invited the young Ibn Sina (Avicenna) to Bukhara and gave him free run of the state library. Under the Samanids, Firdawsi wrote his first poetry, mark­ing the rebirth of Persian literature. From the Muslim conquest to the Samanid period, Arabic had been the language used everywhere by scholars; this new era signaled the advent of brilliant works of Muslim Iran, written in Persian as well as Arabic.

In Baghdad itself, the authority of the Abbasid caliph vanished almost completely. Only the title and some of the prestige remained. Turkish captains of the bodyguard de­posed caliphs almost at will; at one time three blind ex-caliphs were beggars on the streets of Baghdad. Taking the title amir al-umara (literally, "commander of com­manders," but better, "prince of princes"), the de facto ruler imprinted his name on coins and insisted that his name be coupled with that of the caliph in the Friday prayers.

In 945 a Shii Iranian, Ahmad ibn Buya, entered Baghdad with a strong army and was recognized by the caliph as the commander of commanders. Making and unmaking caliphs openly, the Buyid control of the Abbasid caliphate publicly and clearly changed the nature of political power and ushered in another new era in the political history of the Islamic Middle East. Before these new political changes took place, the development of Islamic theology, law, and philosophy, along with the creation of a complex and flour­ishing Islamic civilization, had already provided elements of continuity and creativity for the peoples of the Middle East, whose lives had been considerably changed as a result.

Chapter 6 The Flowering of the Muslim World under the Early Abbasids 73

REFERENCES References cited at the end of Chapters 4 and 5 contain material pertinent to this chap­

ter as well. Abbott, Nabia: Two Queens of Baghdad: Mother and Wife of Harun al-Rashid. Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1946. Not only does this volume discuss the lives of Khaizuran and Zubaidah, but it is full of the life of Baghdad in the eighth and ninth centuries.

Abun-Nasr, Jamil M.: A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period. Cambridge: Cam­bridge University Press, 1987. An excellent survey.

Amabe, Fukuzo: The Emergence of the Abbasid Autocracy: The Abbasid Army, Khurasan andAdharbayjan. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 1995. Detailed essays on Abbasid military history and politics.

Asimov, M. S., and C. E. Bosworth, eds.: History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Vol. IV: The Age of Achievement: A.D. 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century. Part One: The Historical, Social and Economic Setting. Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 1998.

Bligh-Abramski, Irit: "Evolution Versus Revolution: Umayyad Elements in the Abbasid Regime 133/750-320/932." Der Islam 65 (1988): 226-243. As the author makes clear, there were some links between Umayyad practices and the new Abbasid state.

Choksy, Jamsheed K.: Conflict and Cooperation: Zoroastrian Subalterns and Muslim Elites in Medieval Iranian Society. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. A sensitive analysis of majority-minority relations, changes, and adaptations includ­ing political, religious, and material culture issues.

Daniel, Elton L.: The Political and Social History of Khurasan under Abbasid Rule, 747-820. Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1979. This book follows the victory of small landowners in a key province and their subsequent fate, with attention to tax policy and regional particularism, as well as rural unrest.

Frye, R. N., ed.: The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. 4: The Period from the Arab In­vasion to the Saljuqs. London: Cambridge University Press, 1975. Seven chapters on Iran's political history, followed by other chapters on social, cultural, religious, and intellectual history.

Gordon, Matthew S.: The Breaking of a Thousand Swords: A History of the Turkish Mil­itary of Samarra (A.H. 200-275/815-889 C.E.). Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. A detailed history of the Turkish military role in the Abbasid state.

Hourani, George F.: Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times. Revised and expanded by John Carswell. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995.

Kennedy, Hugh: Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus. London: Longman, 1996. An excellent account of political and military events.

Lassner, Jacob: The Shaping of Abbasid Rule. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980. Essays cover the topics of crises over the succession to the throne, the clients of the Abbasids, the army, the city of Baghdad, and the royal palace.

Shaban, M. A.: Islamic History: A New Interpretation. Vol. 2: A.D. 750-1055 (A.H. 132-448). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976. This occasionally polemical book centers on the themes of trade, taxes, and regions.

The Middle East A History

SE VENTH EDITION

William Ochsenwald Professor of History (Emeritus)

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Sydney Nettleton Fisher Late Professor of History The Ohio State University

Mc Graw Hill

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