The day the Abbasids, the capital of the Islamic State, were transferred from Damascus to Iraq

The weakness of the Umayyad dynasty due to political turmoil, armed revolutions, and successive defeats led to the disintegration of that great empire and the rise of the Abbasids.

About 3 months after the Umayyads were defeated by the Abbasids in the Battle of Zab in northern Iraq, the Abbasids managed, on April 26, 750 CE, to storm the walls of the Umayyad capital, Damascus, and announce the end of nearly 90 years of Umayyad rule.

After the great victory of the Abbasids, they decided to move the capital to Iraq, where Kufa and then Anbar, before the construction of Baghdad as their permanent capital.

Mamdouh attributes the reason for the weakness of the Umayyad Caliphate to several reasons, most notably internal conflicts (Al-Jazeera Net)

The rise of the Abbasids

The fall of the Umayyad state was consistent with the Sunnah of history and a result of the accumulation of various factors of weakness that it was suffering from. Reading history indicates that the state that loses the components of survival is on the path of collapse that cannot be stopped, according to the professor of Islamic history, Dr. Amer Mamdouh.

In his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, Mamdouh attributes the reason for the weakness of the Umayyad state to several factors, including the disintegration that took place in the body of the state, internal conflicts of a political or tribal character, and the cessation of the conquest movement, which brought the Umayyad caliphate into a state of stagnation.

He points out that the reality of the Umayyads gradually created the environment that stimulated their overthrow, and gave their opponents - regardless of their affiliations - the opportunity to exploit these titles, which was what was achieved by the Abbasid da'wa.

It shows that the slogan of the Abbasids in calling for equality, kinship with the Prophet Muhammad - may God bless him and grant him peace - and reform attracted many groups that the slogan appealed to, and addressed a need within them, especially the non-Arab peoples, and exploiting the state of tribal conflict that existed, and reviving the ancient heritage. Lakhurasan, and the choice of Abu Muslim al-Khorasani, which constituted a qualitative shift in the course of the Abbasid da'wa, so the auxiliary conditions, influential leaders and the appropriate environment combined to form this event with its various parties.

The fall of Damascus

Mamdouh talks about an articulated battle that took place on 11 Jumada al-Thani 132 AH, corresponding to January 25, 750, between the Abbasids and the Umayyads near the Great Zab River, which is one of the tributaries of the Tigris River, and is located in northern Iraq between Mosul and Erbil.

He adds that this battle ended with a resounding defeat for the Umayyads, led by the last Umayyad background, Marwan bin Muhammad, who fled afterwards to Egypt, where he was killed there, and that battle was the actual end of the rule of the Umayyads and the beginning of the era of the Abbasid caliphate.

He adds that after the defeat of the Zab, developments were accelerating, so the cities of the Levant began to lose their obedience to the Umayyads and were subject to the control of the Abbasids, such as the cities of Qusreen, Homs and Baalbek, and only Damascus was refrained for a month and a half after it was besieged and tightened and was no longer able to withstand until the Abbasids entered it.

Al-Ghariri believes that the establishment of the Abbasid state is a comprehensive revolution in Islamic history (Al-Jazeera Net)

The role of the clicker

The establishment of the Abbasid Caliphate state is considered a comprehensive revolution in Islamic history, and historians have tried to uncover the components of this transformation and explain it based on different concepts, as some of them saw in it the Persians ’revolution against Arab rule, while some of them justified it as a mere revolution against the Umayyads to remove them from power, as they say. Professor of Islamic History, Dr. Ahmed Naji Al-Ghariri.

Al-Ghariri explained to Al-Jazeera Net that the Umayyad state policy that deprived the Persian loyalists of all their material privileges caused unrest that led to the demise of their king, and the economic discontent of the mawali continued everywhere, and the followers of Khurasan were the most complaining.

And he indicates that the Abbasids took advantage of the resentment of the Persians, so they directed Abu Muslim al-Khurasani to show the Abbasid call in Khurasan, and he managed to enter the city of Merv and seized Persia, then his armies headed towards Iraq, and managed to defeat the Umayyad armies and entered Basra and Kufa in (132 AH / 749 CE), At this time, Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah went to Kufa and addressed the people, announcing the establishment of the Abbasid Caliphate state.

Al-Ghariri confirms that the Persians obtained many gains as a result of the contribution to the fall of the Umayyad rule. When the Abbasid state was established, it adopted the ruling system from the Persians, so the first minister of the Abbasids was Abu Salamah al-Khalal al-Farisi, and the ruling became similar to what was in the era of the Sasan family. They guarded their high confidence of their devotion to the Abbasids, along with the tyranny of Persian fashion in the Abbasid court.

It is noteworthy that most of the ministers of the first Abbasid era were from Persian families, such as the Baramkeh family, which became famous in the horizons and the influence of its men overwhelmed the position of the Caliph, along with the Bani Suhail family.

Ibrahim attributes the reason for choosing Kufa as the capital of the Abbasids at its inception to the concentration of their supporters there (Al-Jazeera Net)

Alternative capital

The Abbasids did not remain the capital of the caliphate in Damascus after it was taken from the Umayyads, because all of Damascus and the Levant were the center of the Umayyads and their supporters from the Arab tribes, according to historian and academic Badi Muhammad Ibrahim.

In his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, Ibrahim attributes the reason for choosing Kufa as the capital of the Abbasid caliphate at its inception because it had their supporters on whom the Abbasid da'wa was established, before their tendencies towards the Alawites changed, and there were no loyalists to the Umayyads, as it is far from the Umayyad Levant by its loyalty, and far from the dangers of the Byzantines And their raids, in addition to their need for the wealth and resources that Iraq enjoys.

It is noteworthy that the lack of confidence of the Caliph Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah in the sincerity of the people of Kufa and his lack of assurance of their loyalty to the Abbasids prompted him to turn to Anbar, so he established a city near it, located near the Euphrates River, and named it "Hashemite" after his grandfather Hashem.

Ibrahim points out that the taking of Anbar as the capital of the Abbasid caliphate did not last long. After Abu Jaafar al-Mansur assumed the caliphate in the year (136 AH / 754 CE), he did not like its location and moved to a city between Kufa and al-Hirah and named it al-Hashemiyya as well, but he left it after a while because it was not suitable to be the capital of the caliphate, so he chose A new location until he finished choosing the location of Baghdad and established it as the capital of the caliphate.

Raouf: There was a feeling and awareness of the young Abbasid state's need for a new capital (communication sites)

The capital is Baghdad

There was a feeling and awareness of the young Abbasid state's need for a new capital, as they first thought of Kufa and then Anbar, and many attempts were made to search for a location for a capital with special specifications that fit this country, which they expected would be large, according to historian Imad Abdul Salam Raouf.

Raouf reveals to Al-Jazeera Net that Abu Jaafar Al-Mansour consulted a lot of advisors, ministers and experts, and it is believed that he consulted the people, and he asked many people from the regions in which he was wandering and everyone was giving his opinion, and this is remarkable as he did not dominate his opinion and listened to people's opinions from different Religions and professions.

He adds that Al-Mansour was traveling by himself from one place to another in search of a suitable place for the capital, and he even reached the outskirts of Tikrit and Mosul despite the effort and time spent on those distances at the time, until he ended up choosing Baghdad.

Raouf indicates that the Abbasid rule had a role in the prosperity of Mesopotamia. On the political side, Baghdad became an important and major city to which all state institutions moved, and scholars, scholars, intellectuals, and poets flourished, and everything flourished.

And he expresses his belief that Baghdad, which Al-Mansour founded, is not the same as it is today. Rather, Baghdad was passing through stages, and in every stage there were reasons for its rise and reasons for its decline.