The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

CHAPTER LX
THE 'ABBASID
DYNASTY
132-656 A.H. 750-1258 A.D.
New features
in the
'Abbas id
Caliphate.
The Caliphate
no
longer
co-ordinate
with Islam.
Remainder of
this work.
In passing from the Umeiyad to the 'Abbasid Caliphate,
we reach in many respects a fresh departure which justifies a
pause and some words in explanation of the change.
The first new feature is, that while the Umeiyad Caliphate,
from first to last, was co-ordinate with the limits of Islam,
this is no longer true of the 'Abbasid. The authority of
the new dynasty was never acknowledged in Spain ; and
throughout Africa, excepting Egypt, it was but intermittent
and for the most part nominal ; while in the East, as time
rolled on, independent dynasties arose. Islam was thus
any way
broken up into many fragments, not necessarily in
dependent on the Caliphate, each with its own separate
history. But with all this, the 'Abbasid remained the only
dynasty that truly represented the proper Caliphate.
Monarchs reigning in Cordova could only be recognised as
"Caliphs," in so far as every supreme ruler of Islam holds
in his hand the spiritual as well as the secular authority, and
may thus in some sense claim to be the Caliph or Successflr
of the Prophet. The 'Abbasids alone had any colour of
pretension to the name by virtue of legitimate succession.^
It being, then, my sole object to trace the Caliphate,
properly so called, to its close, the rest of this work will
be restricted to a narrative of the dynasty of the 'Abbasids as
they rose first to the crest of glory, then sank gradually under
the sway of Sultans and Grand WazTrs, and at last ended a
1
The Spanish dynasty, though sprung from the line of Umeiyad
Caliphs, did not at first venture to assume the title. 'Abd ar-Rahmfm
III. (Abderaine, 300-350 a.h.) was the first who did so.
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