Most Prominent Caliphs

1. Abul ‘Abbas al-Saffah

 He was the first caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate(750 – 754 CE) and an uncle to Prophet

Muhammad.

 The Abbasid was given after his name.

 He gained support from the Shiites since he was the descendent of the Prophet

Muhammad although he was not the person that the Shiites idolize, Ali, for them he

was much better than the previous ruler of the Umayyad Caliphate.

 He first entered Kufa, a city dominated by the Shiites people in 748 by Abu Muslim’s

permission. Abu Muslim was a Persian general, he was one of the rebellious against the

Umayyad Caliphate so, after his victories in leading the armies and he allowed Abul

‘Abbas to enter Kufa.

 In 750 CE, both of them, Abu Muslim and al-Saffah with all their armies went to fight

in Battle of the Zab and in this battle they had killed many people living in the Umayyad

Caliphate under Caliph Marwan II. Al-Saffah was a title given for him means

slaughterer or shedder of blood, it was getting clearer the meaning of the title given

when he won this battle.

 He was announced as the first caliph, after 4 years in power, he was then succeeded by

his brother al-Mansur.

2. al- Mansur

 Abu Jafar ibn Muhammad al-Mansur was the second caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate.

 He was in power from 754 till 775 CE, later died in October, 775 CE while doing his

pilgrimage to Mecca.
 Al-Mansur continued to adopt some popular policies implemented previously in the

era of the Umayyad Caliphate such as the hereditary control.

 There were few revolutions happened during his time such as The Muslimiya group

consisted of the Persians under Abu Muslim where they marched against him and Abu

Muslim later was executed by the caliph, the fanatic Rawandis demanded to release

their imprisoned leader, the Alids and Shiites demonstration in 758 and the Hasanite

Muhammad claimed that he was the caliph in Madinah around 762 CE as to oppose the

caliph al-Mansur but later being defeated.

 He injected Sunni orthodoxy during his time which is not in favour for the Shiites.

 Anyhow, he allowed Persians civilization to be practiced in the Abbasid caliphate.

Many Persian cultures and customs adopted, even the administration, advisers and

courts were hold by the Persian Barmakid family. Persian Barmakid family was a

family who achieved a status to legally participate in the administrations and court

affairs of the Abbasid Caliphate. Among the things they did were, they reorganized the

administration, having an efficient and centralized bureaucracy.

 He also introduced Vizier or wazir in the administration of the Abbasid Caliphate which

act as the high officials as well as to help and advice the Caliph in administering the

nation but when the caliph is weak, they could be more powerful than the caliph.

 The most essential event during the Abbasid Caliphate happened during Caliph al-

Mansur period when he changed the capital city from Damascus to Baghdad in 762. He

found out that Baghdad could be the most significant place because of its geographical

pattern, economically strategic and there were majority Muslims living there. It was

called as the “City of Peace” because of its specialties.