Describe and Explain the Decline of the Abbasid Caliphate

The decline of the Abbasids was not a steady of rapid series of events. There were numerous revivals of the Caliphate in which certain strong Caliphs gained more control and influence over the Islamic world than their predecessors had had. However at no point after the death of Harun al-Rahid (reigned 786-809) was the Caliphate ever as powerful. This period is regarded as the Golden Age of the Abbasid Caliphate and was followed immediately by civil war between his sons. Harun’s two sons were called Al-Amin and Al-Mamun. Al-Amin was the elder and was nominated as the heir to the Caliphate. However Al-Mamun, who was the effective governor of the eastern provinces was ambitious. He was spurred towards seizing the Caliphate for himself by his prominent advisor Al-Fadl. In 810 he declared himself an Iman causing his brother to disinherit and dispatch a great army to snuff out his ever increasing dominance of the Caliphate east of Baghdad. It seemed likely that Al-Mamun would be defeated, his army numbered around 4,000 men but faced 40,000. However he was fortunate in his commander, called Tahir bin Husain, who won him a spectacular victory at Rayy in 811. Tahir proceeded to siege Baghdad in 812. In that year Al-Amin was captured and forced to hand over the office of Caliph to al-Mamun. Al-Amin was executed after trying to escape Baghdad after it had been captured.

This war tore the Caliphate into factions and cost a great deal to the treasuries of both sides. As with most other occasions in which a man usurps a throne there a long term repercussions and conflicts. Al-Mamun was plagued for a great part of his reign by rebellions. He struggled for five years against an Alid rebellion which tried to install ‘Al-Rida’, or t...

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...ne of the Caliphate was the general economic downturn. This had two main causes, firstly, the series of civil wars which engulfed the Caliphate, and secondly, the devastation done to the agricultural heartland of Mesopotamia on which the Abbasid’s depended on, as did much of the Islamic world. The demise of Iraqi agriculture was due both to the ravishes of war and the chronic lack of state investment over the later decades. My final reason is the diversification of Islam. The Umayyad Caliphate remained strong for 200 years because Islam was confined to the elite. As Islam spread through the entirety of the Caliphate’s population there was increasing disenchantment within the old elites, and ever increasing numbers of religious groups, sects and factions who quarrelled amongst themselves extensively. Such disunity meant a single Islamic nation could no longer exist.