The Formation of Islam Religion and Society in the Near East, 600–1800

The master narrative of the two and a half centuries which followed the cAbbasid Revolution might be characterized as one that took the institution of the caliphate from revolution to autocracy, and thence to disintegration and the concomitant fragmentation of the umma – that, at least, was the political framework within which radical transformations in the society and religious identity of Muslims transpired. What follows is a very brief sketch of some of the political highlights of the period, from the accession of al-Saffah, the first cAbbasid caliph, to the end of the tenth century.

In 762, al-Mansur, the second cAbbasid caliph, established a new capital for the empire in Iraq. The foundation of Baghdad, which al-Mansur actually called the “City of Peace,” reflected the growing tensions between the cAbbasids and the supporters of cAli's family, who were especially strong in Kufa, the principal Muslim settlement in Iraq which had served as the cAbbasid caliphs’ first capital. In many ways the city can stand as a metaphor for the character of the Islamic empire in this period, and for its greatness. The city, like the state of which it was the capital, was an ambitious enterprise. Much of it was occupied by and organized around explicitly imperial structures – palaces, gardens, vast reception halls – with a domed room housing the caliph's throne at the very center.