Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 8 - The waning of empire, 861–945

  • from PART II - UNIVERSALISM AND IMPERIALISM
  • Edited by Chase F. Robinson
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge History of Islam
    Published online:
    28 March 2011
    Print publication:
    04 November 2010, pp 305-359

  • Summary

    On a winter night in Samarra in 247/861, the caliph Jaqfar al-Mutawakkil held a carousing session with some companions and courtiers. With Samarra and Baghdad absorbed by inner conflict in the 860s and trying to recover from it during the following decades, most of the empire fell apart. Having acted as chief commander for al-Muqtazz's side during the civil war of 865, he enjoyed the respect of the soldiers. Brett sees ninth-century Ismailism as part of a larger brew of oppositional trends, the 'sectarian milieu' which John Wansbrough described as the religious and doctrinal environment of early Islam. Al-Mutadid achieved a reputation and popularity that went beyond the army, and his reign constituted the high point of what is known as the 'Abbasid restoration'. The decline of Abbasid power was felt throughout the Islamic world. A powerless Abbasid caliphate was still indispensable to the Buyids for several reasons, including their need for formal legitimacy.