Abbasids

The Abbasid Caliphate was the third Islamic caliphate, ruled by a dynasty descended from Abbas, an uncle of the Prophet Muhammad. The Abbasids took power by overthrowing the Umayyads in a revolution in 750, and they moved the capital from Damascus to the new city of Baghdad. Under caliphs such as Harun al-Rashid and al-Ma'mun it became the centre of an immense scientific, literary and cultural flowering, often called the Islamic Golden Age. From the ninth and tenth centuries, however, regional dynasties took control of the provinces, and the caliphs lost real political power. Baghdad was sacked by the Mongols in 1258, but a branch of the family continued as figurehead caliphs in Cairo under the Mamluks until the Ottoman conquest.

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