A Caliphate, Essay Example

A caliphate is a type of government which is a representation of leadership and political unity in the Muslim world. The position held by a caliph is based on Muhammad’s ideals of political authority. Abbasid caliphate and Umayyad caliphate are Islamic empire caliphates that were established after the death of Mohamed. Abbasid succeeded Umayyad which was overthrown by the Abbasid dynasty (Hawting, 45). The dynasty further ruled the Abbasid caliphate. The decline of these two caliphates had various similarities and dissimilarities despite having occurred in different eras.

Contrast Between the Collapses of the Two Caliphates

The Umayyad caliphate of collapsed mainly due to the activities of revolutionary Shiites who wanted a close relative of Mohamed to rule the Muslim world. The dissatisfaction of the non Muslim Arabs, Christians, Jews and other people in the region in the leadership provided a good ground for the dethronement of the Umayyad (The beginning of Islam to 1300). The members of the ruling dynasty were massacred or persecuted by Abu al-Abbas, a relative of Mohamed who went a head to form the Abbasid caliphate.

As Hawting (40) note, the Umayyad caliphate expansion campaign is probably a major cause for its collapse. Evidence suggests that at the time of the massacre of the royal family, the empires solders were far away in Spain fight for more territory. The had had therefore left the city vulnerable after the caliphs had perceived the threat posed by the shi’as and the Sunnis as a minor threat. However, the opponents lead by Abu al-Abbas capitalized on this to overthrow the Umayyad (Kennedy, 156).

Unlike the Umayyad’s collapse, the decline of Abbasid began by the defiance of the Caliphial authority by the subsidiary empires under the caliph. For instance Ghazani’s Mahmud changed his title to sultan from ‘amir’ which had been used commonly and frequently within the caliphates. This signified that his territory was independent. The respect for the caliphs then began to wane as many Islamic rulers stopped mentioning them in their Khutba. In addition to this, some of the leaders struck of the caliph’s name from their coins. Others begun to openly contest for territorial power against the Abbasids and subsequently captured a lot of land from the Abbasids (Brauer, 8). The Abbasids were relegated to figureheads (Hooker). After the decline of this dynasty the Islam world   lost its unity and split into various independent cultures as well as independent political units. The Islamic cultural units were mostly divided along lines of ethnicity though there was expansion of cultural and intellectual richness in the region.

Also, the Umayyad caliphate the Abbasid caliphate collapse was also largely brought by internal wrangles. Long time religious dispute between the Shiites and the Sunnis played a large role when they took a political turn in 909 CE. The Shiites broke away and formed their own dynasty-Fatmaid.

Another difference between the declines of the two caliphates is that external the latter was temporarily forced to out part of its territory and thus weakened by Christian soldier who traveled from Europe to recapture for Christian lands that were under Islamic rule.  The caliphate was also brought to its knees by the conquests of the Mongols who captured its capital crushing its existence.

Comparisons Between the Collapses of the Two Caliphates

The collapse of both caliphates was characterized by massacre or persecution of the ruling dynasties to pave way for the entrance new dynasties and empires. For instance, Al-Mutsa’sim of the Abbasid dynasty was wrapped in a carpet and then trampled to death by horses. Other members of the dynasty and leaders were taken as slave or imprisoned. The imprisonment of Al-Matawakki III in 1543 marked the end of the dynasty and the caliphate as well

The Shiites also played crucial roles in the collapse of both caliphates. In the former caliphate they were dissatisfied by the rule of the Umayyad and wanted a close relative of Muhammad to rule while in the Abbasid caliphate their religious dereferences with the Sunni took he best of them when they turned political

Clearly, the collapse of these two empires just like many other empires share similarities in terms of causes, process of collapse and the effects of collapse. The empires collapses were historical landmarks in the Islamic leadership. They lead to various changes whose effects have survived several centuries to date.

Works Cited

Brauer, Ralph. “Boundaries and Frontiers in Medieval Muslim Geography.” Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1995. Print.

Hooker, Richard. Islam: the Abbasid dynasty. June 6, 1999.Dec 2, 2009 <http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/ISLAM/ABASSID.HTM>

Kennedy, Hugh. The armies of the caliphs: military and society in the early Islamic state. Milton Park: Routledge, 2001. Print.

The beginning of Islam to 1300. The Arab Empire of the Umayyad.2000. Dec 2, 2009. < http://history-world.org/islam11.htm>