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Abbasid Caliphate: Seljuk Turks
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Seljuk Turks from Central Asia, non-Muslim cousins of the Mongols, captured Baghdad and ruled on behalf of the Abbasid caliphate. They converted to Islam and become Sunni Muslims. So began a Sunni revival in Baghdad after a century of Shiite rule. Paradoxically, in one of Islam's darkest political times the Islamic faith itself scored one of its greatest victories (a paradox repeated in the cases of the Mongols of the thirteenth century and the Ottoman Turks of the fourteenth). The Seljuk ruler, Tughril, called himself al-sultan ("the power"). Thus was born the office of the sultanate which lasted until 1924 when it was abolished together with the caliphate by Turkey's first president, Mustapha Kemal (nicknamed "Ataturk," "Father of the Turks.").
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Beyond China these were the last golden years for Bagdad as the capital of the Abbasid caliphate. Seljuk Turks occupied the city in 1055; soon afterward (1071), they defeated Byzantine military in the Battle of Manzikert. That forced the Byzantines back to Constantinople and opened Syria and most of modern Turkey to conquest. The al-Azhar Mosque, one of the Islamic world's most significant religious centers and universities, was built in the city of Cairo. Spain became another center of Islamic learning and cultural expression. Between these two brilliant cultural centers, Berber nomads conquered trade routes and established a new kingdom that extended from Morocco south to Ghana and Mali.
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Al-Mu`tasim Bi Allah : Real name: Muhammad bin Harun Al-Rashid (179-227 A.H./795-841 A.D.), one of the greatest Abbasid Caliphs (ruled: 218-227 A.H./833-841 A.D.) He recruited the Turks in his army. His era witnessed several wars; his commander Al-Afshin conquered Azerbijan. Al-Mu`tasim defeated the Byzantines and seized Amoriah. He built the city of Samarra as a camp for his soldiers. As his predecessor Al-Ma'mun, he supported the Mu`tazilites and afflicted the people with the trial of dogma "The Qur'an is a created object." This episode was called "the Ordeal."
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Tughril-Beg went to the Abbasid caliph, calling him the true leader of Islam. In return the caliph conferred on Tughril-Beg the title of sultan (a Turkish word meaning emperor), showing that he would have complete sovereignty where nonreligious matters were concerned. They sealed the new relationship with a marriage between the caliph and one of the sultan's nieces. Although the Abbasid caliphs would continue to reign in Baghdad for two more centuries, they were now puppets of the Turks. The same could be said about the Fatimids in Egypt, who fell under the domination of their Turkish bodyguards, the Mamelukes. In that sense, 1055 marks the end of the age when Islam was run by its Arab founders.
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Siirt was an especially eminent city at the time of tne Abbasid Caliphate. Among the city's monuments, be sure to visit the 12th century Seljuk Ulu Mosque and the 13th century Asakir Carsi Mosque. At Aydinlar, only 6 km from Siirt, the ibranim Hakki Mausoleum Complex and nearby private ibrahim Hakki Astronomical Museum are worthy of close examination. Siirt produces fine and large pistachio nuts and is known as well for its excellent goat-hair blankets and kilims.
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The Buwayids were Shi'ite Princes who dominated the Abbasid Caliphs for a century. Although they fostered a flourishing of Shi'ite scholarship and theology, they never tried to suppress the Orthodox Caliphs altogether, so the Abbasids continued to exercise their minimal religious authority under the regime. Nevertheless, the Caliphs and the Orthodox were not too happy about this and so, at least initially, welcomed the coming of the Orthodox Seljuks. The appeal of Shi'ism in Irân, evident here, later becomes the basis of Irânian nationalism in the Safavids. This is the nadir of the Abbasid Caliphate, with its secular power and prestige completely eclipsed.
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