With the
Buyid dynasty on the wane, a vacuum was created that was eventually filled by the dynasty of
Oghuz Turks known as the
Seljuqs. By 1055, the
Seljuqs had wrested control from the
Buyids and Abbasids, and took any remaining temporal power. When the amir and former slave
Basasiri took up the
Shia Fatimid banner in
Baghdad in, the caliph
al-Qa'im was unable to defeat him without outside help.
Toghril Beg, the
Seljuq sultan, restored
Baghdad to
Sunni rule and took
Iraq for his dynasty.
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| Al-Azhar Mosque, Cairo, Egypt |
Once again, the
Abbasids were forced to deal with a military power that they could not match, though the
Abbasid caliph remained the titular head of the
Islamic community. The succeeding
Seljuq sultans
Alp Arslan and
Malikshah, as well as their vizier
Nizam al-Mulk, took up residence in
Persia, but held power over the
Abbasids in
Baghdad. When the dynasty began to weaken in the 12th century, the
Abbasids gained greater independence once again.
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| Nizam al-Mulk, vizier of Seljuq |
Al-Mustarshid Billah (1092 – 29 August 1135) became the 29th
Abbasid Caliph in
Baghdad from 1118 to 1135.
Al-Mustarshid achieved more independence as a ruler while the
Seljuq Sultan Mahmud II was engaged in war in the East. In 1122,
al-Mustarshid deposed and imprisoned his vizier
Amid al-dawla Jalal al-Din Hasan ibn Ali. Mahmud II then imposed
Ahmad ibn Nizam al-Mulk as his vizier. He sent an army to take
Wasit but was defeated near
Baghdad and imprisoned in his palace (1126).
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| Modern Day Baghdad |
While the Abbasid Caliph
al-Mustarshid was the first caliph to build an army capable of meeting a
Seljuk army in battle, he was nonetheless defeated in 1135 and assassinated. He was succeeded by his son
Al-Rashid. To avenge his father's death, he insulted the
Sultan Mas'ud's envoy who came to demand a heavy largess.
Mas'ud hastened to the rebellious capital and laid siege to it.
Baghdad, resisted the attack; but in the end the caliph, hopeless of success, escaped to
Mosul.
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| Mustansiriya University, Baghdad, Iraq |
In 1136, the
Abbasid sultan's power restored, a council was held, the caliph
Al-Rashid deposed, and his uncle
Al-Muqtafi, appointed as the new caliph. He was the first
Abbasid Caliph to regain the full military independence of the
Caliphate, with the help of his vizier
Ibn Hubayra. After nearly 250 years of subjection to foreign dynasties, he successfully defended
Baghdad against the
Seljuqs in the
siege of Baghdad (1157), thus securing
Iraq for the
Abbasids.
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| Zumurrud Khatun Tomb, an Abbasid era mosque, Baghdad |
The reign of
al-Nasir (r. 1180 CE - 1225 CE), 34th
Abbasid Caliph brought the caliphate back into power throughout
Iraq, based in large part on the
Sufi futuwwa organizations that the caliph headed.
Al-Mustansir built the
Mustansiriya School, in an attempt to eclipse the
Seljuq-era Nizamiyya built by
Nizam al-Mulk. Besides his occasional conquests, he consistently held
Iraq from
Tikrit to the
Persian Gulf without interruption.
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| Bandar Abbas, Iran, Persian Gulf |
In 1206,
Genghis Khan established a powerful
Mongol Empire of central
Asia. During the 13th century, this Empire conquered most of the
Eurasian land mass, including both
China in the east and much of the old
Islamic caliphate (as well as Kievan Rus') in the west.
Hulagu Khan's destruction of
Baghdad in 1258 is traditionally seen as the approximate end of the
Golden Age.
 |
| Hulagu Khan |
In the 1258 siege of
Baghdad, Mongols feared that a supernatural disaster would strike if the blood of
Al-Musta'sim, a direct descendant of
Muhammad's uncle
Al-‘Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, and the last reigning
Abbasid caliph in
Baghdad, was spilled. So,
Hulagu had
Al-Musta'sim wrapped in a carpet and trampled to death by horses on 20 February 1258. The Caliph's immediate family was also executed, with the lone exceptions of his youngest son who was sent to Mongolia, and a daughter who became a slave in the harem of
Hulagu.
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| Mongol siege of Baghdad, 1258 |
