The Abbasid fall from grace was long and messy. Its been a while since the dynasty produced a powerful caliph, the last one being the almighty restorer al Mutadid who reigned until the opening years

The creation of the role of amir al umara transformed the political landscape in Baghdad. It attracted men of influence to court, and they did not come seeking to serve the caliph, but to dominate hi

Weve reached the end of the road as far as Abbasid authority is concerned. Although it had waxed and waned before, there would be no recovering from the lows it had fell to this time. The caliph had

A chaotic period followed al Muqtadirs death in battle. Although officials quickly reached a consensus on the elevation of his successor, the very fact that the last caliph had been killed meant that

Considering the absurd levels of official mismanagement, its astounding how long the caliphate survived during al Muqtadirs inept administration. Although it never collapsed, over the course of two

Having discussed the disorder in the caliphates civil bureaucracy well turn our attention to the state of its military. The sharp contrast between the state of the two is in large part thanks to the

My personal experiences and opinions on a subject close to my heart and fate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xottY-7m3k At first, I found YouTube's needless tag about the Holocaust on th

For the very first time in Arab history, a child became the ummas caliph. The 13 year old had not yet left his royal harem and was totally under his mothers control. She used her influence over al M

After all our recent foreshadowing, weve finally arrived at the period of Abbasid collapse. Its a relatively long period, stretching from the start of al Muqtadirs reign in 908 until around the mid

Cataloguing the tapestry of Islamic traditions is a task that lies well beyond our scope, but every now and again the topic overlaps with the subjects we are interested in. Its important to understan