Golden Age of Islam

Islamic Golden Age

                                                                         

The Abbasid dynasty rose to power in 750, consolidating the gains of the earlier Caliphates. Initially, they conquered Mediterranean islands including the Balearics and Sicily. The ruling party had come to power on the wave of dissatisfaction with the Ummayads, cultivated by the Abbasid revolutionary Abu Muslim. Under the Abbasids Islamic civilization flourished. Most notable was the development of Arabic prose and poetry, termed by The Cambridge History of Islam as its "golden age". Commerce and industry (considered a Muslim Agricultural Revolution) and the arts and sciences (considered a Muslim Scientific Revolution) also prospered under Abbasid caliphs al-Mansur (ruled 754 — 775), Harun al-Rashid (ruled 786 — 809), al-Ma'mun (ruled 809 — 813) and their immediate successors.

Universal Golden period

Eastern hemisphere's States and Empires (820) Abbasid Caliphate
Aghlabids
Idrisid dynasty Multan
Sultans of Sindh
Iberian Umayyads

Decentralized territory
Umayyads (Córdoba)
Idrisids (Berbers)
Rustamid (Ibādiyya of Tahirid)
Aghlabids (Emirate of Ifriqiya)
Tulunids/Irshkids
Qarmatians (Carmathians) Buyjids (Tahirids)
Alijds (Ziyarids)
Hamdanid (Marwanid/Uqaylid)
Samanids (Greater Khorasan)
Saffrids (Baloch)
Sajids (Shirvanshah)

Regions are approximate, consult particular article for details.


The capital was moved from Damascus to Baghdad, due to the importance placed by the Abbasids upon eastern affairs in Persia and Transoxania. At this time the caliphate showed signs of fracture amid the rise of regional dynasties. Although the Ummayad family had been killed by the revolting Abbasids, one family member, Abd ar-Rahman I, escaped to Spain and established an independent caliphate there in 756. In the Maghreb, Harun al-Rashid appointed the Arab Aghlabids as virtually autonomous rulers, although they continued to recognise central authority. Aghlabid rule was short-lived, and they were deposed by the Shiite Fatimid dynasty in 909. By around 960, the Fatimids had conquered Abbasid Egypt, building a capital there in 973 called "al-Qahirah" (meaning "the planet of victory", known today as Cairo). In Persia the Turkic Ghaznavids snatched power from the Abbasids. Abbasid influence had been consumed by the Great Seljuq Empire (a Muslim Turkish clan which had migrated into mainland Persia) by 1055.