Due to his father al Mahdis arrangement, Haroon al Rashid endured a traumatic year during which his brother tried to have him removed from the line of succession. Having barely survived the experienc

Royal advisors, court attendants, and other officials began to hold some real political power in the Abbasid caliphate, a development which progressed with every caliph who came after the micromanagin

Now that weve covered Haroon al Rashids foreign wars, we can get started with the messy conflicts which took place within the umma, and within his administration itself. The caliphates distant west

Haroon al Rashid is commonly portrayed as a martial caliph, one who menaced the Byzantine empire and led a tireless crusade against them. He is praised in Arab sources for defeating the Greeks time an

From our vantage point in the 21st century, it is clear that Haroon al Rashid is by far the most famous Arab caliph. His renown is not some modern phenomenon either: he may occasionally pop up as a cu

The sudden passing of Mohammad al Mahdi led his son Musa al Hadi to become the ummas next leader sooner than anyone would have expected. With a wild disposition and little actual experience in admini

Al Mansurs long reign transformed the caliphate in countless ways, most of them for the better. It provided a kind of stability the umma desperately needed to absorb the tumult of the Abbasid revolut

Perhaps most significant among al Mansurs many triumphs was his founding of a new capital for his administration, a glorious new city which would come to be known as Baghdad. It was a decision that h

The chaos of the Abbasid revolution gave foreign powers a rare opportunity to strike at the caliphate while it was paralyzed by internal strife. Things could have gone very badly for the Arabs but the

The Abbasids based their legitimacy on the fact that they were part of the prophet’s clan. This was not contested during the upheaval of their revolution, and in the following years al Saffah inflicte