The Abbasids established the caliphate in 750 with support from a coalition opposing Umayyad rule. Khurasani troops, provincial supporters and court officials helped build the new order. Government moved toward Mesopotamia, and Baghdad placed the court near farming, river transport and Iranian resources. Rulers maintained military payments, appointments and revenues while expressing legitimacy through family claims, ceremonies and scholarly relationships.
Ministers, scribes and fiscal officials handled documents, taxation and expenditure within an expanding court system. Personnel of different origins brought administrative experience from earlier traditions. Markets, crafts and long-distance trade supplied the capital. Scholars, physicians and translators found royal or elite patrons, while religious teachers acquired authority through law and education and could cooperate with or criticize the court.
From the ninth century, military power, provincial rulers and fiscal difficulties repeatedly altered central authority. Regional dynasties governed more independently, while Baghdad’s caliphs retained status but often faced military overlords. Samarra temporarily became a court and army center before the court returned to Baghdad. Mongol forces captured the city in 1258, ending Abbasid rule there while scholarly networks and administrative traditions continued elsewhere.
Hugh Kennedy · The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: The Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century · 2016 · Routledge, third edition; political administration and society
Jonathan P. Berkey · The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600–1800 · 2003 · Cambridge University Press; late antiquity, early Islam and medieval institutions
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