The Change of the Abbasid Empire

The Change of the Abbasid Empire

Throughout its history, the Abbasid Empire's government, economy, and society changed. The Abbasid's government went from being a centralized caliphate to a decentralized and weak caliphate controlled by overpowering outside cultures. The economy of the Abbasid Empire refocused from being heavily dependent on merchants to being more dependent on slaves and peasantry for income. Finally, as for its society, the Abbasid Empire became more patriarchal and less free, especially for women.

Much of the early Abbasid government was a centralized, absolutist imperial order, but as centuries past, the power shifted to a weak, outside-influenced, decentralized government. In the early Abbasid Empire, the imperial order was mainly a bureaucracy. As the leaders, the caliphs, or successors of Muhammad, were in control of all the land ranging from North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and some land located east of the Fertile Crescent. Under the caliph was the wazir. The wazir was the true bureaucratization of the Abbasid Empire. The wazir, or chief administrator and head of the caliph's inner council, oversaw the building of governmental infrastructure in the Abbasid Empire. This allowed the Abbasids to demand tribute from people all over the Empire. Because the Abbasid Empire was able to control the revenue, the Abbasid Empire was also effective in preserving law all throughout distant provinces, thus creating the strong central order in the early Abbasid Empire. As time passed, conflicts arose over the succession of caliphs. After the death of Harun al-Rashid, civil wars erupted. Eventually, once a caliph had been established, the caliph created a massive mercenary force to act as his bodyguard. These mercenary forces assassinated the caliph and ultimately destroyed the power of the caliphs. These forces became the real power behind Abbasid control for a period of time. Finally, the Buyids of Persia took control of the Abbasid Empire and the caliphs lost all power. Not long after, the Seljuk Turks overthrew the Buyids. The Seljuk Turks ruled for two centuries under a Persian caliphate. All this outside corruption and loss of power of the true caliphate resulted in loss of a lot of territory. Therefore, the caliphs were unable to strictly control these territories like they used too. Thus, the outside influences and change of power led to a weak caliphate and ultimately led to decentralized, independent governments all throughout the once united Abbasid Empire.

Because of the changing of power throughout the history Abbasid Empire, the economy of the Empire was once trade dependent and later relied heavily on slaves for profit. Because of the early political stability of the Abbasid Empire, the Empire was able to trade all throughout the world. The trade the merchants partook in allowed for new commercial enterprises, the purchase of land, and construction