A Short History of the Middle Ages Fourth Edition

support the Abbasid family. This was an extended kin group with deep-rooted claims

to the caliphate, tracing its lineage back to the very uncle who had cared for the

orphaned Muhammad. With militant supporters, considerable money, and the backing

of a powerful propaganda organization, the Abbasids organized an army in Khurasan

and, marching it undefeated into Iraq, picked up more support there. In 749 they

defeated the Umayyad governor at Kufa. Less than a year later the last Umayyad

caliph, abandoned by almost everyone and on the run in Egypt, was killed in a short

battle. In 750 al-Saffah was solemnly named the first Abbasid caliph.

Map 3.2: The Islamic World, c.800

The new dynasty seemed to signal a revolution. (See list of Caliphs: The

Abbasids on p. 342.) Most importantly, the Abbasids recognized the crucial centrality

of Iraq and built their capital cities there: Baghdad became the capital in 762, Samarra

in the 830s in the aftermath of a bitter civil war. The Abbasids took the title of imam

and even, at one point, wore the green color of the Shi‘ites.

Yet as they became entrenched, the Abbasids in turn created their own elite,

under whom other groups chafed. In the eighth century most of their provincial

governors, for example, came from the Abbasid family itself. When building