What peoples inhabited the Arab Caliphate under Harun? Loss of political power of the caliphs

In Old Russian sources it is also known under the names kingdom of Hagaryan And kingdom of Ishmael, which thus included it in the general list of kingdoms (empires) of the world known to book people in Rus' at that time.

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✪ Arab Caliphate (Russian) History of the Middle Ages.

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✪ The Arab Caliphate and its collapse. 6th grade History of the Middle Ages

✪ Islam, Arabs, caliphate

✪ History| Islamic conquests and the Arab Caliphate

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Medina community

The initial core of the caliphate was the Muslim community created by the prophet Muhammad at the beginning of the 7th century in Hijaz (Western Arabia) - the umma. Initially, this community was small and represented a proto-state formation of a super-religious nature, similar to the Mosaic state or the First communities of Christ. As a result of the Muslim conquests, a huge state was created, which included the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Iran, most of Transcaucasia (in particular the Armenian Highlands, the Caspian territories, the Colchis Lowland, as well as the Tbilisi regions), Central Asia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, Sind.

Righteous Caliphate (632-661)

After the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, the Righteous Caliphate was created. It was led by four Righteous Caliphs: Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abu Talib. During their reign, the Caliphate included the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant (Sham), the Caucasus, part of North Africa from Egypt to Tunisia and the Iranian Plateau.

Umayyad Caliphate (661-750)

The situation of the non-Arab peoples of the Caliphate

By paying a land tax (kharaj) in exchange for providing them with protection and immunity from the Muslim state, as well as a head tax (jizya), non-believers had the right to practice their religion. Even the above-mentioned decrees of Umar recognized in principle that the law of Muhammad is armed only against pagan polytheists; “people of the Book” - Christians, Jews - can, by paying a fee, remain in their religion; in comparison with neighboring Byzantium, where all Christian heresy was persecuted, Islamic law, even under Umar, was relatively liberal.

Since the conquerors were not at all prepared for complex forms of state administration, even “Umar was forced to preserve for the newly formed huge state the old, well-established Byzantine and Iranian state mechanism (before Abdul-Malik, even the office was not conducted in Arabic) - and therefore Gentiles were not cut off from access to many management positions. For political reasons, Abd al-Malik considered it necessary to remove non-Muslims from government service, but this order could not be carried out with complete consistency either under him or after him, and even under Abd al himself; -Malik, his close courtiers were Christians (the most famous example is Father John of Damascus. However, among the conquered peoples there was a great tendency to renounce their former faith - Christian and Parsi - and voluntarily convert to Islam, until the Umayyads realized it and from a distance. law of 700, did not pay taxes; on the contrary, according to the law of Omar, he received an annual salary from the government and was completely equal to the victors; Higher government positions were made available to him.

On the other hand, the conquered had to convert to Islam out of inner conviction; - How else can we explain the mass adoption of Islam, for example, by those heretical Christians who, before in the kingdom of Khosrow and in the Byzantine Empire, could not be deviated from the faith of their fathers by any persecution? Obviously, Islam with its simple tenets spoke well to their hearts. Moreover, Islam did not seem to be any dramatic innovation either for Christians or even for Parsis: in many points it was close to both religions. It is known that Europe for a long time saw Islam, which highly reveres Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin, as nothing more than one of the Christian heresies (for example, the Orthodox Arab archimandrite Christopher Zhara argued that the religion of Muhammad is the same as Arianism)

The adoption of Islam by Christians and then by Iranians had extremely important consequences, both religious and state. Islam, instead of the indifferent Arabs, acquired in its new followers such an element for which believing was an essential need of the soul, and since these were educated people, they (the Persians much more than the Christians) began towards the end of this period the scientific treatment of Muslim theology and combined with him of jurisprudence - subjects that had been modestly developed until then only by a small circle of those Muslim Arabs who, without any sympathy from the Umayyad government, remained faithful to the teachings of the prophet.

It was said above that the general spirit that permeated the Caliphate in the first century of its existence was Old Arab (this fact, much more clearly even than in the government Umayyad reaction against Islam, was expressed in the poetry of that time, which continued to brilliantly develop the same pagan-tribal, cheerful themes that were also outlined in Old Arabic poems). As a protest against the return to pre-Islamic traditions, a small group of companions (“sahaba”) of the prophet and their heirs (“tabiin”) was formed, which continued to observe the covenants of Muhammad, led in the quiet of the capital it had abandoned - Medina and in some places in other places of the Caliphate theoretical work on the orthodox interpretation of the Koran and on the creation of the orthodox Sunnah, that is, on the definition of truly Muslim traditions, according to which the wicked life of the contemporary Umayyad X should have been restructured. These traditions, which, among other things, preached the destruction of the tribal principle and the equalizing unification of all Muslims in the bosom of the Muhammadan religion, the newly converted foreigners obviously liked the heart more than the arrogant non-Islamic attitude of the ruling Arab spheres, and therefore the Medina theological school, downtrodden, ignored by pure Arabs and the government, found active support among the new non-Arab Muslims.

There were, perhaps, certain disadvantages for the purity of Islam from these new, believing followers: partly unconsciously, partly even consciously, ideas or tendencies that were alien or unknown to Muhammad began to creep into it. Probably, the influence of Christians (A. Müller, “Ist. Isl.”, II, 81) explains the appearance (at the end of the 7th century) of the Murjiit sect, with its teaching about the immeasurable merciful patience of the Lord, and the Qadarite sect, which taught about free will man was prepared by the triumph of the Mu'tazilites; Probably, mystical monasticism (under the name of Sufism) was borrowed by Muslims at first from Syrian Christians (A. F. Kremer “Gesch. d. herrsch. Ideen”, 57); in the lower In Mesopotamia, Muslim converts from Christians joined the ranks of the republican-democratic sect of the Kharijites, equally opposed to both the unbelieving Umayyad government and the Medinan believers.

The participation of the Persians, which came later but was more active, turned out to be an even more double-edged benefit in the development of Islam. A significant part of them, not being able to get rid of the age-old ancient Persian view that “royal grace” (farrahi kayanik) is transmitted only through heredity, joined the Shia sect (see), which stood behind the dynasty of Ali (husband of Fatima, daughter of the prophet) ; Moreover, to stand for the direct heirs of the prophet meant for foreigners to constitute a purely legal opposition against the Umayyad government, with its unpleasant Arab nationalism. This theoretical opposition acquired a very real meaning when Umar II (717-720), the only Umayyad devoted to Islam, decided to implement the principles of the Koran favorable to non-Arab Muslims and, thus, brought disorganization into the Umayyad system of government.

30 years after him, the Khorasanian Shia Persians overthrew the Umayyad dynasty (the remnants of which fled to Spain; see related article). True, as a result of the cunning of the Abbasids, the throne of X. went (750) not to the Alids, but to the Abbasids, also relatives of the prophet (Abbas is his uncle; see the corresponding article), but, in any case, the expectations of the Persians were justified: under the Abbasids they gained an advantage in state and breathed into it new life. Even the capital of X. was moved to the borders of Iran: first - to Anbar, and from the time of Al-Mansur - even closer, to Baghdad, almost to the same places where the capital of the Sassanids was; and members of the vizier family of the Barmakids, descended from Persian priests, became hereditary advisers to the caliphs for half a century.

Abbasid Caliphate (750-945, 1124-1258)

First Abbasids

The boundaries of the caliphate narrowed somewhat: the escaped Umayyad Abd-ar-Rahman I laid the first foundation in Spain () for the independent Emirate of Cordoba, which since 929 has been officially titled “caliphate” (929-). 30 years later, Idris, the great-grandson of Caliph Ali and therefore equally hostile to both the Abbasids and the Umayyads, founded the Alid Idrisid dynasty (-) in Morocco, whose capital was the city of Toudgah; the rest of the northern coast of Africa (Tunisia, etc.) was actually lost to the Abbasid caliphate when the governor of Aghlab, appointed by Harun al-Rashid, became the founder of the Aghlabid dynasty in Kairouan (-). The Abbasids did not consider it necessary to resume their foreign policy of conquest against Christian or other countries, and although from time to time military clashes arose both on the eastern and northern borders (like Mamun’s two unsuccessful campaigns against Constantinople), however, in general, the caliphate lived peacefully.

Such a feature of the first Abbasids is noted as their despotic, heartless and, moreover, often insidious cruelty. Sometimes, like the founder of a dynasty, it was open item Caliphic pride (the nickname “Bloodbringer” was chosen by Abul Abbas himself). Some of the caliphs, at least the cunning al-Mansur, who loved to dress up before the people in the hypocritical clothes of piety and justice, preferred to act with treachery where possible and executed dangerous people on the sly, first lulling their caution with oaths of promises and favors. Among al-Mahdi and Harun ar-Rashid, cruelty was obscured by their generosity, however, the treacherous and ferocious overthrow of the vizier family of the Barmakids, which was extremely useful for the state, but imposed a certain bridle on the ruler, constitutes for Harun one of the most disgusting acts of eastern despotism. It should be added that under the Abbasids, a system of torture was introduced into legal proceedings. Even the tolerant philosopher Mamun and his two successors are not free from the reproach of tyranny and cruelty towards people unpleasant to them. Kremer finds (“Culturgesch. d. Or.”, II, 61; cf. Müller: “Ist. Isl.”, II, 170) that the very first Abbasids showed signs of hereditary Caesarian madness, which became even more intensified in their descendants.

Even the scientific and philosophical movement in the caliphate dates back to the same cruel and treacherous Mansur (Masudi: “Golden Meadows”), who, despite his notorious stinginess, treated science with encouragement (meaning, first of all, practical, medical goals) . But, on the other hand, it remains undeniable that the flourishing of the caliphate would hardly have been possible if Saffah, Mansur and their successors had ruled the state directly, and not through the talented vizier family of the Persian Barmakids. Until this family was overthrown () by the unreasonable Harun ar-Rashid, burdened by its tutelage, some of its members were first ministers or close advisers to the caliph in Baghdad (Khalid, Yahya, Jafar), others were in important government positions in the provinces (like Fadl ), and all together managed, on the one hand, to maintain for 50 years the necessary balance between the Persians and Arabs, which gave the caliphate its political fortress, and on the other hand, to restore the ancient Sasanian life, with its social structure, with its culture, with its mental movement.

"Golden Age" of Arab culture

This culture is usually called Arabic, because the Arabic language became the organ of mental life for all the peoples of the caliphate, and therefore they say: "Arabic art", "Arab science”, etc.; but in essence these were most of all the remnants of the Sasanian and generally Old Persian culture (which, as is known, also absorbed much from India, Assyria, Babylon and, indirectly, from Greece). In the Western Asian and Egyptian parts of the caliphate, we observe the development of the remnants of Byzantine culture, just as in North Africa, Sicily and Spain - Roman and Roman-Spanish culture - and the homogeneity in them is imperceptible, if we exclude the link that connects them - the Arabic language. It cannot be said that the foreign culture inherited by the caliphate rose qualitatively under the Arabs: Iranian-Muslim architectural buildings are inferior to the old Parsi ones, and similarly, Muslim products made of silk and wool, household utensils and jewelry, despite their charm, are inferior to ancient products. [ ]

The merchant and the industrialist are the main characters of Arabian tales; various high-ranking officials, military leaders, scientists, etc. were not ashamed to add to their titles the nickname Attar (“mosque maker”), Heyyat (“tailor”), Jawhariy (“jeweler”), etc. However, the nature of Muslim-Iranian industry is not so much the satisfaction of practical needs as of luxury. The main items of production are silk fabrics (muslin-muslin, satin, moire, brocade), weapons (sabers, daggers, chain mail), embroidery on canvas and leather, gauze work, carpets, shawls, embossed, engraved, carved ivory and metals. mosaic works, earthenware and glass products; less often, purely practical products - materials made of paper, cloth and camel hair.

The well-being of the agricultural class (for reasons, however, of taxation, and not of democracy) was increased by the restoration of irrigation canals and dams, which were neglected under the last Sassanids. But even according to the consciousness of the Arab writers themselves, the caliphs failed to bring the people's taxability to such a height as was achieved by the tax system of Khosrow I Anushirvan, although the caliphs ordered specifically for this purpose to translate the Sasanian cadastral books into Arabic.

Moreover, Mansur (Masudi: “Golden Meadows”) takes care of translating Greek medical works into Arabic, and at the same time mathematical and philosophical works. Harun gives the manuscripts brought from the Asia Minor campaigns for translation to the Jondishapur doctor John ibn Masaveyh (who even practiced vivisection and was then the life physician of Mamun and his two successors), and Mamun established, especially for abstract philosophical purposes, a special translation board in Baghdad and attracted philosophers (Kindi). Under the influence of Greco-Syro-Persian philosophy, commentary work on the interpretation of the Koran turns into scientific Arabic philology (Basrian Khalil, Basrian Persian Sibawayhi; Mamun’s teacher, Kufi Kisaiy) and the creation of Arabic grammar, philological collection of works of pre-Islamic and Umayyad folk literature (Muallaqi, Hamasa, Khozailite poems, etc.).

The age of the first Abbasids is also known as a period of highest tension in the religious thought of Islam, as a period of strong sectarian movement: the Persians, who were now converting to Islam en masse, took Muslim theology almost completely into their own hands and aroused a lively dogmatic struggle, among which heretical sects, which emerged under the Umayyads, received their development, and orthodox theology and jurisprudence was defined in the form of 4 schools, or interpretations: under Mansur - the more progressive Abu Hanifa in Baghdad and the conservative Malik in Medina, under Harun - the relatively progressive al-Shafi'i, under Mamun - Ibn Hanbal. The government's attitude towards these orthodoxies was not always the same. Under Mansur, a supporter of the Mu'tazilites, Malik was flogged to the point of mutilation.

Then, during the next 4 reigns, orthodoxy prevailed, but when Mamun and his two successors raised (from 827) Mutazilism to the degree state religion, followers of orthodox beliefs were subjected to official persecution for “anthropomorphism”, “polytheism”, etc., and under al-Mutasim the holy Imam ibn-Hanbal () was flogged and tortured. Of course, the caliphs could patronize the Mu'tazili sect without fear, because its rationalistic teaching about the free will of man and the creation of the Koran and its inclination towards philosophy could not seem politically dangerous. To sects of a political nature, such as the Kharijites, Mazdakites, extreme Shiites, who sometimes raised very dangerous uprisings (the false prophet of the Persian Mokanna in Khorasan under al-Mahdi, 779, the brave Babek in Azerbaijan under Mamun and al-Mutasim, etc. ), the attitude of the caliphs was repressive and merciless even during the times of the highest power of the caliphate.

Loss of political power of the caliphs

Persecution of free thought

However, the caliphs, with their increasingly declining political power, were not able to actually kill the mental movement, and the most famous Arab philosophers (Basri encyclopedists, Farabi, Ibn Sina) and other scientists lived under the patronage of vassal sovereigns precisely at that time. the era ( - century) when officially in Baghdad, in Islamic dogmatics and in the opinion of the masses, philosophy and non-scholastic sciences were recognized as impiety; and literature, towards the end of the said era, produced the greatest free-thinking Arab poet, Maarri (973-1057); at the same time, Sufism, which was very well grafted onto Islam, turned into complete freethinking among many of its Persian representatives.

Cairo Caliphate

The Shiites (c. 864) also became a powerful political force, especially their branch of the Karmatians (q.v.); when in 890 the Qarmatians built a strong fortress of Dar al-Hijra in Iraq, which became a stronghold for the newly formed predatory state, since then “everyone was afraid of the Ismailis, but they were nobody,” in the words of the Arab historian Noveyriy, and the Qarmatians disposed as they wanted, in Iraq, Arabia and border Syria. In 909, the Qarmatians managed to found a dynasty in northern Africa

Historical background

The initial core of the caliphate was the Muslim community created by the prophet Muhammad at the beginning of the 7th century in Hijaz (Western Arabia) - the umma. As a result of the Muslim conquests, a huge state was created, which included the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Iran, most of Transcaucasia (in particular the Armenian Highlands, the Caspian territories, the Colchis Lowland, as well as the regions of Tbilisi), Central Asia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, Sindh.

From the founding of the caliphate () to the Abbasid dynasty ()

This period includes the era of the first 4 caliphs who “walked the right path” (al-Rashidin) - Abu Bakr (632-634), Umar (634-644), Uthman (644-656) and Ali (656-661) and the dominance of the Umayyads (661-750).

Arab conquests

In terms of size, their empire, which was formed in less than a hundred years, surpassed the Roman one, and this turned out to be all the more amazing because at first, after the death of Muhammad, one could fear that even the small successes of Islam that it had achieved in Arabia would collapse. Muhammad, dying, did not leave an heir, and after his death (632) a dispute arose between the Meccans and Medinans over the issue of his successor. During the discussions, Abu Bakr was chosen as caliph. Meanwhile, with the news of Muhammad's death, almost all of Arabia, except Mecca, Medina and Taif, immediately abandoned Islam. With the help of the believing Medinans and Meccans, Abu Bakr managed to return vast but divided Arabia back to Islam; What helped him most in this was the so-called Saifullah “sword of Allah” - the experienced commander Khalid ibn al-Walid, who only 9 years ago defeated the prophet at Mount Departure; Khalid defeated the 40,000-strong army of followers of the false prophet Musailima in the so-called. “fence of death” at Aqrab (633). Immediately after the Arab uprising was pacified, Abu Bakr, continuing the policy of Muhammad, led them to war against the Byzantine and Iranian possessions.

The boundaries of the caliphate narrowed somewhat: the escaped Umayyad Abd ar-Rahman I laid the first foundation in Spain () for the independent Emirate of Cordoba, which since 929 has been officially titled “caliphate” (929-). 30 years later, Idris, the great-grandson of Caliph Ali and therefore equally hostile to both the Abbasids and the Umayyads, founded the Alid Idrisid dynasty (-) in Morocco, whose capital was the city of Toudgah; the rest of the northern coast of Africa (Tunisia, etc.) was actually lost to the Abbasid caliphate when the governor of Aghlab, appointed by Harun al-Rashid, became the founder of the Aghlabid dynasty in Kairouan (-). The Abbasids did not consider it necessary to resume their foreign policy of conquest against Christian or other countries, and although from time to time military clashes arose both on the eastern and northern borders (like Mamun’s two unsuccessful campaigns against Constantinople), however, in general, the caliphate lived peacefully.

Such a feature of the first Abbasids is noted as their despotic, heartless and, moreover, often insidious cruelty. Sometimes, as the founder of the dynasty, it was an open source of caliphic pride (the nickname “Bloodbringer” was chosen by Abul Abbas himself). Some of the caliphs, at least the cunning al-Mansur, who loved to dress up before the people in the hypocritical clothes of piety and justice, preferred to act with treachery where possible and executed dangerous people on the sly, first lulling their caution with oaths of promises and favors. Among al-Mahdi and Harun ar-Rashid, cruelty was obscured by their generosity, however, the treacherous and ferocious overthrow of the vizier family of the Barmakids, which was extremely useful for the state, but imposed a certain bridle on the ruler, constitutes for Harun one of the most disgusting acts of eastern despotism. It should be added that under the Abbasids, a system of torture was introduced into legal proceedings. Even the tolerant philosopher Mamun and his two successors are not free from the reproach of tyranny and cruelty towards people unpleasant to them. Kremer finds (“Culturgesch. d. Or.”, II, 61; cf. Müller: “Ist. Isl.”, II, 170) that the very first Abbasids showed signs of hereditary Caesarian madness, which became even more intensified in their descendants.

In justification, one could only say that in order to suppress the chaotic anarchy in which the countries of Islam found themselves during the establishment of the Abbasid dynasty, agitated by the adherents of the overthrown Umayyads, bypassed Alids, predatory Kharijites and various Persian sectarians of radical persuasions who never ceased to rebel on the northern outskirts of the state, the , terrorist measures were perhaps a simple necessity. Apparently, Abul Abbas understood the meaning of his nickname “Bloodbringer.” Thanks to the formidable centralization that the heartless man, but the brilliant politician al-Mansur, managed to introduce, the subjects were able to enjoy internal peace, and public finances were managed in a brilliant manner. Even the scientific and philosophical movement in the caliphate dates back to the same cruel and treacherous Mansur (Masudi: “Golden Meadows”), who, despite his notorious stinginess, treated science with encouragement (meaning, first of all, practical, medical goals) . But, on the other hand, it remains undeniable that the flourishing of the caliphate would hardly have been possible if Saffah, Mansur and their successors had ruled the state directly, and not through the talented vizier family of the Persian Barmakids. Until this family was overthrown () by the unreasonable Harun ar-Rashid, burdened by its tutelage, some of its members were first ministers or close advisers to the caliph in Baghdad (Khalid, Yahya, Jafar), others were in important government positions in the provinces (like Fadl ), and all together managed, on the one hand, to maintain for 50 years the necessary balance between the Persians and Arabs, which gave the caliphate its political fortress, and on the other hand, to restore the ancient Sasanian life, with its social structure, with its culture, with its mental movement.

"Golden Age" of Arab culture

This culture is usually called Arabic, because the Arabic language became the organ of mental life for all the peoples of the caliphate, and therefore they say: "Arabic art", "Arab science”, etc.; but in essence, these were most of all the remnants of the Sasanian and generally Old Persian culture (which, as is known, also absorbed much from India, Assyria, Babylon and, indirectly, from Greece). In the Western Asian and Egyptian parts of the caliphate, we observe the development of the remnants of Byzantine culture, just as in North Africa, Sicily and Spain - Roman and Roman-Spanish culture - and the homogeneity in them is imperceptible, if we exclude the link that connects them - the Arabic language. It cannot be said that the foreign culture inherited by the caliphate rose qualitatively under the Arabs: Iranian-Muslim architectural buildings are inferior to the old Parsi ones, and similarly, Muslim products made of silk and wool, household utensils and jewelry, despite their charm, are inferior to ancient products.

But in the Muslim, Abbasid period, in a vast united and ordered state with carefully arranged communication routes, the demand for Iranian-made items increased, and the number of consumers increased. Peaceful relations with neighbors made it possible to develop remarkable foreign barter trade: with China through Turkestan and - by sea - through the Indian archipelago, with the Volga Bulgars and Russia through the Khazar kingdom, with the Spanish emirate, with all of Southern Europe (with the possible exception of Byzantium), with the eastern shores of Africa (from where, in turn, ivory and blacks were exported), etc. The main port of the caliphate was Basra. The merchant and the industrialist are the main characters of Arabian tales; various high-ranking officials, military leaders, scientists, etc. were not ashamed to add to their titles the nickname Attar (“mosque maker”), Heyyat (“tailor”), Jawhariy (“jeweler”), etc. However, the nature of Muslim-Iranian industry is not so much the satisfaction of practical needs as of luxury. The main items of production are silk fabrics (muslin-muslin, satin, moiré, brocade), weapons (sabers, daggers, chain mail), embroidery on canvas and leather, gimp works, carpets, shawls, embossed, engraved, carved ivory and metals. mosaic works, earthenware and glass products; less often, purely practical products - materials made of paper, cloth and camel hair.

The Persian spirit also takes over Arabic poetry, which now, instead of Bedouin songs, produces the refined works of the Basri Abu Nuwas (“Arab Heine”) and other court poets Harun al-Rashid. Apparently, not without Persian influence (Brockelmann: “Gesch. d. arab. Litt.”, I, 134) correct historiography emerges, and after the “Life of the Apostle”, compiled by Ibn Ishak for Mansur, a number of secular historians also appear. From Persian, Ibn al-Muqaffa (about 750) translated the Sasanian “Book of Kings”, the Pahlavi treatment of Indian parables about “Kalila and Dimna” and various Greek-Syro-Persian philosophical works, with which Basra, Kufa, and then and Baghdad. The same task is performed by people of a language closer to the Arabs, former Persian subjects, Christian Aramaicians of Jondishapur, Harran, etc. Moreover, Mansur (Masudi: “Golden Meadows”) also takes care of the translation of Greek medical works into Arabic, as well as mathematical and philosophical works. . Harun gives the manuscripts brought from the Asia Minor campaigns for translation to the Jondishapur doctor John ibn Masaveyh (who even practiced vivisection and was then the life physician of Mamun and his two successors), and Mamun established, especially for abstract philosophical purposes, a special translation board in Baghdad and attracted philosophers (Kindi). Under the influence of Greco-Syro-Persian philosophy, commentary work on the interpretation of the Koran turns into scientific Arabic philology (Basrian Khalil, Basrian Persian Sibawayhi; Mamun's teacher, Kufi Kisaiy) and the creation of Arabic grammar, philological collection of works of pre-Islamic and Umayyad folk literature (Muallaqat, Hamasa, Khozailite poems, etc.).

The century of the first Abbasids is also known as a period of highest tension in the religious thought of Islam, as a period of strong sectarian movement: the Persians, who were now converting to Islam en masse, took Muslim theology almost completely into their own hands and aroused a lively dogmatic struggle, among which were heretical sects that had emerged even during The Umayyads received their development, and orthodox theology and jurisprudence was defined in the form of 4 schools, or interpretations: under Mansur - the more progressive Abu Hanifa in Baghdad and the conservative Malik in Medina, under Harun - the relatively progressive al-Shafi'i, under Mamun - ibn Hanbal. The government's attitude towards these orthodoxies was not always the same. Under Mansur, a supporter of the Mu'tazilites, Malik was flogged to the point of mutilation. Then, during the next 4 reigns, orthodoxy prevailed, but when Mamun and his two successors elevated (from 827) Mu'tazilism to the level of state religion, followers of orthodox beliefs were subjected to official persecution for “anthropomorphism”, “polytheism”, etc., and when al-Mu'tasim was flogged and tortured by the holy Imam ibn-Hanbal (). Of course, the caliphs could patronize the Mu'tazili sect without fear, because its rationalistic teaching about the free will of man and the creation of the Koran and its inclination towards philosophy could not seem politically dangerous. To sects of a political nature, such as the Kharijites, Mazdakites, extreme Shiites, who sometimes raised very dangerous uprisings (the false prophet of the Persian Mokanna in Khorasan under al-Mahdi, 779, the brave Babek in Azerbaijan under Mamun and al-Mutasim, etc. ), the attitude of the caliphs was repressive and merciless even during the times of the highest power of the caliphate.

Collapse of the Caliphate

Loss of political power of the caliphs

Witnesses to the gradual collapse of X. were the caliphs: the already mentioned Mutawakkil (847-861), the Arab Nero, much praised by the faithful; his son Muntasir (861-862), who ascended the throne, killing his father with the help of the Turkic guard, Mustain (862-866), Al-Mutazz (866-869), Mukhtadi I (869-870), Mutamid (870-892 ), Mutadid (892-902), Muqtafi I (902-908), Muqtadir (908-932), Al-Qahir (932-934), Al-Radi (934-940), Muttaqi (940-944), Mustakfi (944-946). In their person, the caliph from the ruler of a vast empire turned into the prince of a small Baghdad region, warring and making peace with his sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker neighbors. Within the state, in their capital Baghdad, the caliphs became dependent on the willful Praetorian Turkic Guard, which Mutasim considered it necessary to form (833). Under the Abbasids, the national consciousness of the Persians came to life (Goldzier: “Muh. Stud.”, I, 101-208). Harun's reckless extermination of the Barmakids, who knew how to unite the Persian element with the Arab, led to discord between the two nationalities. Under Mamun, the strong political separatism of Persia was expressed in the founding of the Tahirid dynasty in Khurasan (821-873), which turned out to be the first symptom of the coming apostasy of Iran. After the Tahirids (821-873), independent dynasties were formed: the Saffarids (867-903; see), the Samanids (875-999; see), the Ghaznavids (962-1186; see) - and Persia slipped out of the hands of the caliphs. In the West, Egypt, along with Syria, seceded under the rule of the Tulunids (868-905); True, after the fall of the Tulunids, Syria and Egypt were again governed by Abbasid governors for 30 years; but in 935 Ikhshid founded his dynasty (935-969), and since then not a single region west of the Euphrates (Mecca and Medina also belonged to the Ikhshids) was subject to the temporal power of the Baghdad caliphs, although their rights as spiritual rulers were recognized everywhere (except , of course, Spain and Morocco); A coin was minted with their name and a public prayer (khutbah) was read.

Persecution of free thought

Feeling their weakening, the caliphs (the first - Al-Mutawakkil, 847) decided that they should gain new support for themselves - in the orthodox clergy, and for this - to renounce Mu'tazili freethinking. Thus, since the time of Mutawakkil, along with the progressive weakening of the power of the caliphs, there has been a strengthening of orthodoxy, persecution of heresies, free-thinking and heterodoxy (Christians, Jews, etc.), religious persecution of philosophy, natural and even exact sciences. A new powerful school of theologians, founded by Abul-Hasan al-Ash'ari (874-936), who left Mu'tazilism, conducts scientific polemics with philosophy and secular science and wins victory in public opinion. However, the caliphs, with their increasingly declining political power, were not able to actually kill the mental movement, and the most famous Arab philosophers (Basri encyclopedists, Farabi, Ibn Sina) and other scientists lived under the patronage of vassal sovereigns precisely at that time the era ( - century) when officially in Baghdad, in Islamic dogmatics and in the opinion of the masses, philosophy and non-scholastic sciences were recognized as impiety; and literature, towards the end of the said era, produced the greatest free-thinking Arab poet, Maarri (973-1057); at the same time, Sufism, which was very well grafted onto Islam, turned into complete freethinking among many of its Persian representatives.

Cairo Caliphate

The last caliphs of the Abbasid dynasty

The Abbasid Caliph, that is, essentially a petty Baghdad prince with a title, was a toy in the hands of his Turkic military leaders and Mesopotamian emirs: under Al-Radi (934-941), a special position of majordomo (“emir-al-umara”) was established. Meanwhile, next door, in western Persia, the Shiite dynasty of the Buyids, which broke away from the Samanids in 930, advanced (see). In 945, the Buyids captured Baghdad and ruled it for more than a hundred years, with the title of sultans, and at that time the nominal caliphs there were: Mustakfi (944-946), Al-Muti (946-974), Al-Tai (974-991 ), Al-Qadir (991-1031) and Al-Qaim (1031-1075). Although for political purposes, to counterbalance the Fatimids, the Shiite Buyid sultans called themselves vassals, “emirs of al-Umar” of the Sunni Baghdad Caliphate, but, in essence, they treated the caliphs as captives, with complete disrespect and contempt, patronized philosophers and freethinkers sectarians, and in Baghdad itself Shiism made progress.

Seljuk invasion

A ray of hope for deliverance from the oppressors flashed to the caliphs in the person of the new conqueror, the Turkic Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni (997-1030), who, having created his own huge sultanate instead of the Samanid state that he had overthrown, showed himself to be an ardent Sunni and introduced orthodoxy everywhere; however, he only took away Media and some other possessions from the small Buyids, and avoided clashes with the main Buyids. Culturally, Mahmud’s campaigns turned out to be very disastrous for the countries he conquered, and in 1036 a terrible misfortune struck all of Muslim Asia: the Seljuk Turks began their devastating conquests and dealt the first mortal blow to the Asian-Muslim civilization, already shaken by the Ghaznavid Turks . But things got better for the caliphs: in 1055, the Seljuk leader Toghrul Beg entered Baghdad, freed the caliph from the power of the Buyid heretics and instead of them became the sultan; in 1058 he solemnly accepted investiture from Al-Qaim and surrounded him external signs respect. Al-Qa'im (d. 1075), Muhtadi II (1075-1094) and Al-Mustazhir (1094-1118) lived in material comfort and respect as representatives of the Muslim church, and Al-Mustarshid (1118-1135) Seljukid Mas'ud granted independent secular governance to Baghdad and most of Iraq, which remained to his successors: Ar-Rashid (1135-1136), Al-Muqtafi (1136-1160), Al-Mustanjid (1160-1170) and Al-Mustadi (1170 -1180).

The end of X. Fatimid, so hated by the Abbasids, was put by the faithful Sunni Saladin (1169-1193). The Egyptian-Syrian Ayyubid dynasty (1169-1250) founded by him revered the name of the Baghdad caliph.

Mongol invasion

Taking advantage of the weakness of the collapsed Seljuk dynasty, the energetic Caliph An-Nasir (1180-1225) decided to expand the boundaries of his small Baghdad X. and ventured into a fight with the powerful Khorezmshah Muhammad ibn Tekesh, who advanced instead of the Seljuks. Ibn Tekesh ordered a meeting of theologians to transfer X. from the Abbas clan to the Ali clan and sent troops to Baghdad (1217-1219), and An-Nasir sent an embassy to the Mongols of Genghis Khan, inviting them to invade Khorezm. Neither An-Nasir (d. 1225) nor the caliph Az-Zahir (1220-1226) saw the end of the catastrophe they brought about, which destroyed Islamic countries Asia both culturally, materially, and mentally. The last Baghdad caliphs were Al-Mustansir (1226-1242) and the completely insignificant and mediocre Al-Mustasim (1242-1258), who in 1258 surrendered the capital to the Mongols to Hulagu and 10 days later was executed along with most of the members of his dynasty. One of them fled to Egypt, and there the Mamluk Sultan Baybars (-), in order to have spiritual support for his sultanate, elevated him to the rank of “caliph” under the name Mustansir (). The descendants of this Abbasid remained nominal caliphs under the Sultans of Cairo until the power of the Mamluks was overthrown by the Ottoman conqueror Selim I (1517). In order to have all the official data of spiritual leadership over the entire Islamic world, Selim I forced the last of these caliphs and the last in the Abbasid family, Motawakkil III, to solemnly renounce his caliphic rights and title in favor of

The homeland of the Arabs is Arabia (or rather, the Arabian Peninsula), so called by the Turks and Farsians (Persians). Arabia is located at the junction of Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. The southern part of the peninsula is more suitable for living - there is a lot of water here and it rains. The nomadic Arabs are called “Bedouins” (people of the desert). At the end of the 6th and beginning of the 7th centuries, the Arabs were at the stage of transition from the primitive system to feudalism. The biggest shopping center was Mecca.The nature of the Arab Caliphate and Islamic societies,
which are controlled by the clergy.

The Arabs were originally idolaters. Since 610, the Prophet Muhammad began to preach a new, Islamic religion. In 622, the Prophet moved (hijrat) from Mecca to Medina. Returning to Mecca in 630, Muhammad founded the Arab state. Most Arabs converted to Islam. The fundamental book of Islam, the Koran, consists of 114 suras. A devout Muslim must observe five main conditions: 1) know the formula for testifying to the unity of Allah; 2) pray; 3) fast; 4) give alms; 5) if possible, visit holy places (Hajj) - Mecca. After the Prophet Muhammad, the country began to be ruled by caliphs (successor, deputy). The history of the Arab state is divided into three periods:

630-661. The period of the reign of the Prophet Muhammad and after him four caliphs - Abu Bekr, Omar, Osman, Ali. The capitals of the caliphate were Mecca and Medina.
661-750. The period of the reign of the Umayyad dynasty starting with Muawiyah. The capital of the caliphate was the city of Damascus.
750-1258. The period of Abbasid rule. The capital since 762 has been the city of Baghdad. Under the Abbasids, 120 km from Baghdad, in the city of Samira, the residence of the caliph was built. How did the Arab Caliphate develop throughout history?

The Arabs fell like an avalanche on Byzantium and Iran. The reasons for their successful offensive were: 1) a large army, especially numerous light cavalry; 2) Iran and Byzantium were exhausted by a long war with each other; 3) local residents, exhausted by this war, looked at the Arabs as saviors.

At the beginning of the 8th century, the Arabs captured North Africa and in 711, led by Tarig, crossed Gibraltar (the Arabic name is “Jaballutarig” - in honor of Tarig) and conquered the Iberian Peninsula. In 732, the Arabs lost the Battle of Poitiers and retreated south. Muslim troops conquered the Caucasus and Central Asia, in the east they reached China and the Indus River Valley. At the end of the 7th - first half of the 8th centuries, the boundaries of the caliphate extended from the Atlantic Ocean to India and China. The country was led by a caliph who was the supreme commander during the war.

To manage various sectors of the economy, divans were created: the military affairs divan was responsible for providing the army, the internal affairs divan controlled the collection of taxes. The diwan of the postal service played an important role in the caliphate. Even carrier pigeons were used. All government affairs in the caliphate were conducted on Arabic. Within the caliphate, the gold dinar and silver dirham were in circulation. All conquered lands were the property of the state. To gain a foothold in the conquered territories, the Arabs widely practiced a resettlement policy. In doing so, two goals were pursued:

by creating an ethnic support, to strengthen;
by relocating those who were provided by the state, freeing the treasury from unnecessary payments.

The peoples forcibly included in the caliphate rebelled. In Central Asia under the leadership of Mughanna in 783-785. an uprising broke out. The teachings of Muganna were based on the teachings of Mazdak.

During the reign of Caliph Mohtasim (833-842), the military positions of the Turks were strengthened, and a special army was created, consisting only of Turks. In the fight against Byzantium and in suppressing uprisings, Mokhtasim attracted the Turks.

In government institutions, Turks were given high positions, as they were more knowledgeable in administrative matters.

The Tulun dynasty that ruled Egypt was of Turkic origin. During the time of the Egyptian governor Ahmed ibn Tulun, a strong flotilla was built that reigned in the Mediterranean Sea. Tulun supervised the construction work and took care of the welfare of the people. Egyptian historians call the period of his reign (868-884) the “golden time.”

In the middle of the 8th century, Spain separated from the caliphate and an independent state arose here - the Emirate of Cordoba. In the 9th century Egypt, Central Asia, Iran and Afghanistan also broke away from the caliphate.In the 11th century, all the territories of the caliphate were taken over.