Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan 5some 60 miles away. At the same time their religious
authority over what was becoming Sunni Islam grew.
After the military takeovers of 945 the Abbasid
caliphates were kept as figureheads for the regimes of the
BUYIDS, and later of the SELJUKTurks, who had initially
entered the caliphate as soldiers. In 1258 the Mongols
ended this system and sacked Baghdad, killing the
Abbasid caliph in the process. A few years later the new
Mamluk sultan in Egypt, BAYBARSI, appointed a similar
puppet Abbasid caliph in Cairo.
See alsoABD AL-RAHMAN I; AGHLABIDS;ASSASSINS;
HARUN AL-RASHID;HULEGU;IDRISIDS;IMAM;MAMLUKS;
SALADIN;SAMANIDS;SUFISM.
Further reading:Michael David Bonner, Aristocratic
Violence and Holy War: Studies in the Jihad and the
Arab–Byzantine Frontier(New Haven, Conn.: American
Oriental Society, 1996); Hugh Kennedy, The Early Abbasid
Caliphate(London: Croom Helm, 1981); Jacob Lassner,
The Shaping of ‘Abbasid Rule(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1980); Bernard Lewis, “‘Abba ̄ sids,”
Encyclopedia of Islam,1.15–23; Roy Mottahedeh, “The
‘Abba ̄ sid Caliphate in Iran,” in The Cambridge History of
Iran, Vol. 4, The Period from the Arab Invasion to the
Saljuks,ed. R. N. Frye (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1975), 57–89; Moshe Sharon, Black Banners
from the East: The Establishment of the ‘Abbasid State, Incu-
bation of a Revolt(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1983).
Abbo of Fleury, Saint(Abbon, Floriacensis)(ca.
945–1004)scholar, political theologist
Abbo was born in the Orléanais, in north central France,
in about 945. As a boy Abbo was offered by his parents to
the monastery of Fleury, where he was educated. After
studying at Paris and Rheims, Abbo returned in about
965 to Fleury as a teacher. Between 985 and 987 he lived
at the monastery of Ramsey in England, where he became
associated with Saint Dunstan (ca. 909–988), archbishop
of Canterbury, at whose request he wrote the Passion of
Saint Edmund, an account of the martyrdom of Saint
Edmund of East Anglia by the Danes in 869. In 988, as a
supporter of the reforms of CLUNY, Abbo became abbot of
Fleury, but he was murdered in 1004 at La Réole, a
dependency of Fleury. His disciple Aimoin wrote the Life
of Abbo,which launched his cult as a model reforming
abbot and martyr.
CONTRIBUTIONSAbbo produced a collection of grammatical questions,
two treatises on syllogisms, a short history of the papacy,
and a series of scientific treatises on astronomy and the
calculation of dates. His political ideas addressed the
clash between the monks and bishops of central France
over the question of whether the papacy should prevail in
conciliar or governing matters and determine the status
of monks within the church. Abbo was a champion of
monastic freedom and of the primacy of papal power. He
wrote letters, compiled a canonical collection, and cre-
ated a synthesis of various ideas on political theology,
especially in his Apologia to Kings Hugh and Robert.Abbo
advocated a hierarchical society of monastic authority in
which monks, since they were pure and detached from
the world, should guide the laity. In his Apologeticusand
other writings, he attacked SIMONY, or the purchase of
ecclesiastical office; his works had immense influence on
the 11th-century GREGORIANREFORM. Abbo espoused the
concept of one spiritual and material church. With regard
to ecclesiastical property, all material goods and spiritual
goods were just as inseparable as the body and the spirit.
This meant that any possession of ecclesiastical property
by the laity was a form of heresy and an attack on the
unity of the temporal and spiritual body of Christ in his
human and divine natures.
Further reading:Marco Mostert, The Political Theol-
ogy of Abbo of Fleury: A Study of the Ideas about Society
and Law of the Tenth-Century Monastic Reform Movement
(Hilversum: Verloren, 1987).abbreviations SeePALEOGRAPHY.Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan(646/647–705) fifth
Umayyad caliph
Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan was born about 646 in MED-
INA, the son of the Marwan I ibn al-Hakam, who was
caliph for a short period in 684–685. Abd al-Malik grew
up in Medina, where he received a religious education
and served in minor administrative posts for the
Umayyad caliphs who were making DAMASCUSthe center
of their power rather than the more purely Arabic cities
of MECCAand Medina.ISLAMIC CIVIL WAR
A civil war started when Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr, based in
Mecca and the surrounding Hejaz, refused to give alle-
giance to the new Umayyad caliph, YAZIDI BINMUAWIYA,
in 680. In addition there was a serious rebellion in al-
Kufa, and the KHARIJITESwere already in charge of an
unrecognized separate state centered in AL-BASRA
between Iraq and Iran. With his father, Marwan I, Abd al-
Malik was driven out of Medina in 683 and forced to flee
to Damascus. The caliph Yazid made considerable
progress in restoring Umayyad rule against the Kharijites
and the SHIITESbut had little success against the rebellion
in Mecca. In 683 the overwhelmingly Syrian Umayyad
army retook Medina and was laying siege to Mecca when
Yazid I died. His son, Muawiya II, an infant, succeeded
him but soon died. Abd al-Malik’s father, cousin to an
earlier caliph, Muawiya I (r. 661–680), was proclaimed
the fourth Umayyad caliph in 684. Marwan I launched a
campaign against Mecca but failed to take the city. Unfor-
tunately during the attack, a stray arrow burned down