The Abbasid caliphs were the holders of the Islamic title of caliph who were members of the Abbasid dynasty, a branch of the Quraysh tribe descended from the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib.
The family came to power in the Abbasid Revolution in 748–750, supplanting the Umayyad Caliphate. They were the rulers of the Abbasid Caliphate, as well as the generally recognized ecumenical heads of Islam, until the 10th century, when the Shi'a Fatimid Caliphate (established in 909) and the Caliphate of Córdoba (established in 929) challenged their primacy. The political decline of the Abbasids had begun earlier, during the Anarchy at Samarra (861–870), which accelerated the fragmentation of the Muslim world into autonomous dynasties. The caliphs lost their temporal power in 936–946, first to a series of military strongmen and then to the Shi'a Buyid Emirs that seized control of Baghdad; the Buyids were in turn replaced by the Sunni Seljuk Turks in the mid-11th century, and Turkish rulers assumed the title of "Sultan" to denote their temporal authority. The Abbasid caliphs remained the generally recognized suzerains of Sunni Islam, however. In the mid-12th century, the Abbasids regained their independence from the Seljuks, but the revival of Abbasid power ended with the Sack of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258.
Most Abbasid caliphs were born to a concubine mother, known as umm al-walad (Arabic: أم الولد, lit. 'mother of the child'). The term refers to a slave woman who had a child from her owner; those women were renowned for their beauty and intelligence, in that the owner might recognize the legitimacy of his children from them to be legally free and with full rights of inheritance, and refrain from trading the mothers afterwards.[1] Those concubines where from non-Muslim lands and brought to slavery in the Abbasid Caliphate via a number of different slave trade routes. The slave concubines mostly were Abyssinians, Armenians, Berbers, Byzantine Greeks, Turkish or even from Sicily.[2][3][4]
This is the list of Abbasid Caliphs.[5][6]
No. | Reign | Regnal Name | Personal Name | Parents | Notable Events |
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1 | 750 – 8 June 754 | al-Saffāḥ | Abū’l-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh |
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2 | 10 June 754 – 775 | al-Manṣūr | Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh |
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3 | 775 – 4 August 785 | al-Mahdī bi-'llāh | Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad |
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4 | August 785 – 14 September 786 | al-Hādī | Abū Muḥammad Mūsā |
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5 | 14 September 786 – 24 March 809 | al-Rashīd | Hārūn |
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6 | March 809 – 24/25 September 813 | al-Amīn | Abū Mūsā Muḥammad |
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7 | September 813 – 9 August 833 | al-Maʾmūn | Abū'l-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh |
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8 | 9 August 833 – 5 January 842 | al-Muʿtaṣim bi-’llāh | Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad |
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9 | 5 January 842 – 10 August 847 | al-Wāthiq bi-'llāh | Abū Jaʿfar Hārūn |
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10 | 10 August 847 – 11 December 861 | al-Mutawakkil ʿalā 'llāh | Jaʿfar |
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11 | 861 – 7 or 8 June 862 | al-Muntaṣir bi-'llāh | Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad |
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12 | 862 – 866 | al-Mustaʿīn bi-ʾllāh | Aḥmad |
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13 | 866 – 869 | al-Muʿtazz bi-ʾllāh | Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad |
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14 | 869 – 21 June 870 | al-Muhtadī bi-'llāh | Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad |
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15 | 21 June 870 – 15 October 892 | al-Muʿtamid ʿalā ’llāh | Abū'l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad |
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16 | October 892 – 5 April 902 | al-Muʿtaḍid bi-'llāh | Abū'l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad |
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17 | 5 April 902 – 13 August 908 | al-Muktafī bi-'llāh | Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī |
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18 | 13 August 908 – 929 | al-Muqtadir bi-'llāh | Abū'l-Faḍl Jaʿfar |
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19 | 929 | al-Qāhir bi-'llāh | Abū al-Manṣūr Muḥammad |
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(18) | 929 – 31 October 932 | al-Muqtadir bi-'llāh | Abū'l-Faḍl Jaʿfar |
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(19) | 31 October 932 – 934 | al-Qāhir bi-'llāh | Abū al-Manṣūr Muḥammad |
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20 | 934 – 23 December 940 | al-Rāḍī bi-'llāh | Abū'l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad/Muḥammad |
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21 | 940 – 944 | al-Muttaqī li-'llāh | Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm |
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22 | September 944 – 29 January 946 | al-Mustakfī bi-ʾllāh | ʿAbd Allāh |
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23 | 29 January 946 – 974 | al-Muṭīʿ li-ʾllāh | Abū'l-Qāsim al-Faḍl |
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24 | 974 – 991 | al-Ṭāʾiʿ li-amri ʿllāh | Abd al-Karīm |
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25 | 1 November 991 – 29 November 1031 | al-Qādir bi-'llāh | Aḥmad |
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26 | 29 November 1031 – 2 April 1075 | al-Qāʾim bi-amri 'llāh | Abu Ja'far Abdallah |
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27 | 2 April 1075 – February 1094 | al-Muqtadī bi-amri ’llāh | Abū'l-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh |
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28 | February 1094 – 6 August 1118 | al-Mustaẓhir bi-'llāh | Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad |
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29 | 6 August 1118 – 29 August 1135 | al-Mustarshid bi-'llāh | Abū'l-Manṣūr al-Faḍl |
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30 | 29 August 1135 – 1136 | al-Rāshid bi-'llāh | Abu Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr |
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31 | 1136 – 12 March 1160 | al-Muqtafī li-ʾamri ’llāh | Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad |
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32 | 12 March 1160 – 20 December 1170 | al-Mustanjid bi-'llāh | Abū'l-Muẓaffar Yūsuf |
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33 | 20 December 1170 – 30 March 1180 | al-Mustaḍīʾ bi-amri ʾllāh | al-Ḥasan |
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34 | 2 March 1180 – 4 October 1225 | al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh | Abu'l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad |
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35 | 5 October 1225 – 11 July 1226 | al-Ẓāhir bi-amri’llāh | Abu Nasr Muḥammad |
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36 | 11 July 1226 – 2 December 1242 | al-Mustanṣir bi-'llāh | Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr | ||
37 | 2 December 1242 – 20 February 1258 | al-Mustaʿṣim bi-'llāh | ʿAbd Allāh |
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In 1261, the Abbasid dynasty was re-established by a cadet branch of the dynasty at Cairo under the auspices of the local Mamluk sultans, but these caliphs were purely religious and symbolic figures, while temporal power rested with the Mamluks. The revived caliphate in Cairo lasted until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, after which the caliphal title passed to the Ottoman dynasty.
The Cairo Abbasids were largely ceremonial caliphs under the patronage of the Mamluk Sultanate that existed after the takeover of the Ayyubid dynasty.[20][21]
No. | Reign | Regnal Name | Personal Name | Parents | Notable Events |
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1 | 13 June 1261 – 28 November 1261 | al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh | Abū'l-Qāsim Aḥmad |
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2 | 16 November 1262 – 19 January 1302 | al-Ḥākim bi-Amri'llāh I | Abū'l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad |
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3 | 20 January 1302 – February 1340 | al-Mustakfī bi-llāh I | Abū ar-Rabīʾ Sulaymān |
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4 | February 1340 – 17 June 1341 | al-Wāthiq bi-'llāh I | Abū ʾIsḥāq ʾIbrāhīm |
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5 | 1341 – 1352 | al-Ḥākim bi-Amri'llāh II | Abū'l-ʿAbbas ʾAḥmad |
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6 | 1352 – 1362 | al-Muʿtaḍid bi-'llāh I | Abū al-Fatḥ Abū Bakr |
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7 | 1362 – 1377 | al-Mutawakkil ʿalā'llāh I | Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad |
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8 | 1377 | al-Mustaʿṣim bi-'llāh | Abū Yaḥya Zakarīyāʾ |
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(7) | 1377 – 1383 | al-Mutawakkil ʿalā'llāh I | Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad |
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9 | September 1383 – 13 November 1386 | al-Wāthiq bi-'llāh II | Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar |
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(8) | 1386 – 1389 | al-Mustaʿṣim bi-'llāh | Abū Yaḥya Zakarīyāʾ |
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(7) | 1389 – 9 January 1406 | al-Mutawakkil ʿalā'llāh I | Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad |
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10 | 22 January 1406 – 9 March 1414 | al-Mustaʿīn bi-'llāh | Abū al-Faḍl al-ʿAbbas |
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11 | 1414 – 1441 | al-Muʿtaḍid bi-'llāh II | Abū al-Fatḥ Dāwud |
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12 | 1441 – 29 January 1451 | al-Mustakfī bi-llāh II | Abū al-Rabīʿ Sulaymān |
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13 | 1451 – 1455 | al-Qāʾim bi-ʾamr Allāh | Abū al-Baqāʾ Ḥamza |
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14 | 1455 – 7 April 1479 | al-Mustanjid bi-'llāh | Abū al-Maḥāsin Yūsuf |
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15 | 5 April 1479 – 27 September 1497 | al-Mutawakkil ʿalā'llāh II | Abū al-ʿIzz ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz |
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16 | 1497 – 1508 | al-Mustamsik bi-'llāh | Abū al-Ṣabr Yaqūb |
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17 | 1508 – 1516 | al-Mutawakkil ʿalā'llāh III | Muḥammad |
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(16) | 1516 – 1517 | al-Mustamsik bi-'llāh | Abū al-Ṣabr Yaqūb |
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(17) | 1517 | al-Mutawakkil ʿalā'llāh III | Muḥammad |
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