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Abbasid Caliphate
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Persia, which, after the downfall of the Abbasid Caliphate formed the nerve centre of Islamic learning, produced some of the greatest intellectuals of mediaeval times. Great advances were made in almost all branches of knowledge. One of the most outstanding intellectuals of Islam was Abu Rehan Beruni (973--1048 A.D.) who graced the literary meetings of Mahmud Ghaznaui. "Few know physics and metaphysics" says J. N. Sircar, the celebrated Indian historian, "amongst those few the greatest in Asia was Al-Beruni, at once a philosopher and a scientist and preeminent in both of these two seemingly incompatible fields".' Al-Beruni was a distinguished and original scholar of astronomy and other sciences. His Al-Qanun al-Masudi written for his patron Sultan Masud of Ghazni in 1030 A.D. is an astronomical encyclopaedia. A short catechism of geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and astrology ... written in 1030 A.D. and entitled Al-Tahfin li-awail sinaat al-l\rajum deals chiefly with the calenders and eras of ancient peoples.
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After a little more than 500 years, people in the Abbasid Caliphate began to use paper. There was a big battle in 751 AD in Samarkand, where the Chinese and the Arabs were fighting for control. The Arabs captured some Chinese men. Some of these Chinese men knew how to make paper, and they explained it to the Arabs as the price of their freedom.
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In AH 132 the Abbasid Caliphate was established when the Omayyads were overthrown by the descendants of Al Abbas (an uncle of the Prophet). Abbasid rule was quickly established over much of the Islamic world but after AH 172 their power began to decline as one province after another asserted it's independence until AH 334 when Abbasid rule finally came to an end.
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When, towards the end of the Abbasid Caliphate, the purity of the Arab language was threatened with dilution by foreign influences, the Muslim scholars of Hail took upon themselves responsibility for protecting and promulgating Arabic in its purest form. As a result the city became an important center of scholarship and learning.
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Before the reform, except for very brief caliphates, every Umayyad and Abbasid caliph from Mu`awiya to al-Ma'mun chose one or two or more successors, who received the oath of the Muslim community as the next caliph or caliphs in succession. Al-Ma'mun had two wali al-`ahds, one which he inherited and then deposed, and another that he chose, the Alid `Ali al-Rida, who subsequently died. After that, al-Ma'mun departed from the practice of his predecessors: he did not have the oath sworn to any successor. He was the first caliph since `Ali to die without leaving a designated successor who had received the oath of allegiance in advance. His successors al-Mu`tasim and al-Wathiq followed his practice.
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Mashallah and Ahmad bin Muhammad alNahavandi were the earliest Arab astronomers who flourished during the reign of Mansur, the second Abbasid Caliph. Mash Allah was called the Phoenix of his age by Abul Faraj. He is distinguished for writing several valuable treatises on 'Astrolabe' the armillary sphere and the movements of heavenly bodies which have been acclaimed by later scientists. Ahmad compiled from his observations an astronomical table known as Al-Mustamal which registered an advance over earlier notions of the Greeks and Hindus.
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Abbasid Caliphate