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The Abbasids
Published on 17
March, 2008 at 9:55 pm 750-1258 In 750, the Ummayad caliphate was replaced
by the Abassid caliphate. They came to power by carefully presenting themselves
in a Shii light, but they quickly abandoned this stance once they came to
power. In 762, they moved their capital from Damascus to Baghdad. The move
signified the move away from the old tribal model and the Abassids ruled their
empire in an egalitarian manner. However, from 786 to 809, Caliph Harun
al-Rashid ruled like an old-style absolute monarch. Courtiers now kissed the
ground when they came into his presence and he was styled the ‘Shadow of God on
Earth’. The caliph no longer supervised ummah affairs himself and the
army was no longer open to any Muslim, but reserved for Persians only. Despite
this, a great cultural renaissance happened during al-Rashid’s caliphate. Many
philosophical and medical texts of classical Hellenism from Greek and Syriac
into Arabic, and many Muslim scholars made scientific discoveries during this
time. Under the Abassids, the jurists were
pressed to develop a more unified system of law. A more streamlined system and
recognized religious institution was required to regulate Islamic life for the
masses. A new class of ulama (religious scholars) began to emerge and
two outstanding scholars made outstanding contributions. In Medina, Malik ibn.
Anas (d.795) produced his masterpiece, al-Mutawattah, The Beaten Path,
which was a comprehensive account of the customal law and religious practice of
Medina and Malik’s disciples developed his theories into the Maliki madhab. The
Maliki school believed that present-day Medina could be a guide to pristine
Islam. Muhammad Idris ibn al-Shafii (d.820),
however, argued that it was dangerous to emulate any one Islamic city. Shafii
taught four ‘roots’ of sacred law: the Quran, the sunnah of the Prophet,
qiyas (analogy) and ijmah, the ‘consensus’ of the community.
Shafii’s theories soon developed into the Shafii school. Political disintegration within the
Abassid empire from 800 onwards also resulted in the consolidation of what
would become known as Sunni Islam. By observing the sunnah of the
Prophet in every aspect of their lives, Muslims now identified themselves with
Muhammad and not any other individual. To the Sunnis, the unity of the ummah
was a sacred value and it was far more important than any sectarian division.
The consolidation of Sunni Islam significantly resulted in lesser Muslim
communities embracing Shiah Islam, and up till today, majority of Muslims,
including those in Southeast Asia are followers of Sunni Islam. The success of the Crusade in 1096 in
taking over Jerusalem and establishing Crusade states in Syria., Palestine and
Anatolia emphasised the gradual decline of the Abassid empire. Due to constant
fighting amongst the rulers of the politically autonomous provinces, the rulers
were unable to cooperate against an external foe. The event that triggered the
First Crusade was the Seljuks’ advance into Byzantine. This first crusade
marked the beginnings of open conflict and tense relations between the Muslim
world and the European-Christian world, and European attitudes towards Muslims
and also Muslim dominance of world trade up till the 16th century
soured further. http://sejarahnusantara.wordpress.com/the-abassids/ |
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