The center of the world

Around 1000 CE, Baghdad was at the center of the world. That’s what its writers would tell you anyway. People like al-Khatib al-Baghdadi and Ibn al-Jawzi, writing from Baghdad, felt they were at the heart of the known world. That’s not surprising. At the time, Baghdad was one of the greatest cities on the planet, boasting around a million residents, which in proportion to today’s population would look like 26 million. It was wealthy and home to many kinds of people, with thriving trade, sciences, and arts. Baghdad was a dazzling city rivaled only by Hangzhou in Song China.

The city rose to these heights as the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate. It was a powerful and massive Muslim empire that lasted from 750 CE to 1258 CE. Starting around the eighth century, Muslim empires spread out across Afro-Eurasia. It all started in the middle of the seventh century with a new political structure called the caliphate.

The institution of the caliphate

After the death of the Muslim prophet Muhammad in 632 CE, the Muslim community of Arabia was led by a caliph.¹ The caliph was to be a spiritual and political leader, elected by his fellow Muslims. The Rashidun Caliphate lasted from 632 to 661. During this time, the Muslim community elected caliphs who were close associates and extended family members of Muhammad.

Under the Rashidun, the state expanded rapidly out of Arabia. The neighboring Byzantines and Persians were at risk. Plague, wars, and encroaching Central Asian groups made them weak, and these empires weren’t able to put up much of a fight. Many Arab soldiers once fought in the Byzantine and Persian armies. They knew their weaknesses so they could conquer them quickly.

However, the state itself was still a loose alliance of Arab tribes settled in garrison cities.² Then came the Umayyads, who ruled from 661 to 750. Under the Umayyads, the caliphate developed a more advanced state structure to rule over its vast land. With the empire now stretching from Spain to Central Asia, state officials were busy translating. Persian sources on how to manage a state were being translated into Arabic, as were sources from the Byzantine Empire.

Partly because of these efforts, Persian and Byzantine political structures influenced the emerging caliphates. Muslim rulers created an administrative system and appointed governors (emirs) in the provinces. This was similar to the Byzantine system. The caliph became an absolute monarch whose power was passed down to his children. The caliph ruled over subjects, much like a Persian king, and less like an elected deputy leading a community of fellow Muslims. Caliphs used religious ideas to show that they deserved to rule, but they were often challenged by deeply religious Muslims and religious scholars, called ulema.

From an Arab empire to a Muslim empire

Soon, the caliphs were focused more on ruling than on safeguarding the religion. We often think of the political spread of the Islamic state and the spread of the Islamic religion as the same thing. In fact, caliphs usually didn’t encourage conquered people to convert to Islam. Non-Muslims could often retain their own religions. They were required to pay a special tax, called a jizya, a source of income for the state.

Arabs were not willing to share their power, though, and they remained the ruling class. Many resented the Umayyads and questioned their authority. After all, they were neither elected nor members of Muhammad’s family. To make matters worse, people thought they acted unjustly and broke from Islamic ideals, including equal treatment for all Muslims, Arab or not.

One revolution later, and the Umayyads were out. They were replaced by the Abbasids, who ruled from 750 to 1258. They were related to Muhammad through his uncle. Though the Abbasids were Arab, the empire became a lot less Arab-centered under their rule.

The Abbasids were powerful monarchs, just as the Umayyads were. They weren’t fairer or more Islamic, either. They did, however, create more space for non-Arabs, and many Turks and Persians held sway at the Abbasid court. Also, many Central Asian boys were captured and brought into the area by the Abbasids, who raised them and used them as enslaved soldiers, called mamluks, to ensure a loyal military.

Society under the caliphate

With all this talk of caliphates, it’s easy to forget that most people living in the empires were not actually Muslims, at least not right away. People were generally not forced to become Muslims, and for the most part, people converted individually for different reasons. The included sincere belief, avoiding the jizya tax, or gaining rights and privileges.

Muslims ruled over many Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Hindus. They were generally permitted to practice their religions in exchange for the jizya, although they were occasionally exposed to violence and discrimination. Many non-Muslim people moved into the empire as enslaved people, often as prisoners of war or through trade. Enslaved men were likely to become soldiers. Enslaved women were often concubines,³ a practice that became more common during Abbasid rule and which affected the structure of family and the status of women. Slavery was not passed down to children, and people could gain freedom and eventually gain considerable power.

Women’s lives were as different as the many societies Islam reached. Islam gave women rights, such as property, divorce, inheritance rights, and the choice to marry. These rights were put into practice differently depending on region and social class, though. Over time, Islamic sources were often interpreted to give men more control, especially as they blended with different cultures. In former Byzantine and Persian areas, women covered their bodies in loose outer garments when in public.

Women had their own social and economic networks within their private spheres. Women could direct the building of mosques, monasteries, and schools using their own money. Though they didn’t attend public schools and universities, they had their own educational communities with other women, especially in Qur’anic and Islamic studies. They also could buy and sell products and services in their homes.

We know women indeed spent time in public places such as markets, because there are countless sources condemning them for it. In other places, such as coastal East Africa or Southeast Asia, Muslim women were less restricted.

From one empire to many

On paper the Abbasids lasted until the thirteenth century when the Mongols sacked Baghdad. However, the truth is that their power declined around the tenth century for a number of reasons. For one, while more people becoming Muslim was good for the religious community, it wasn’t so good for the empire’s finances. There were a lot fewer people paying the jizya. The empire also became so big that it was hard to control. Governors on the margins started taking taxes and revenues for themselves.

And remember those mamluks? It turns out that enslaved soldiers aren’t all that loyal. They eventually gained the power to influence who became caliph. Mamluks became “kingmakers” and, eventually, they started their own dynasties in various regions of the caliphate, in particular Egypt.

Over time, much of the Abbasid land was actually controlled by a number of independent Muslim dynasties, including mamluk-ruled ones. Many of these were devastated by Mongol invasions, while others survived. The Mongol invasions didn’t end the era of Muslim empires, though. In fact, some Mongols converted to Islam and started their own Muslim dynasties.

With so many different dynasties, you’d think the era of a unified Muslim community was entirely over, but that wasn’t really true. Several things united Muslims across fragmented political communities. Trade networks crisscrossed the Muslim world, pulling areas into shared systems of production and distribution. Whether in west Africa, north India, or Baghdad, many Muslims in this era lived in wealthy, advanced societies and continued to feel they were at the center of the world.

1 A caliph was the leader of the caliphate. The word comes from the Arabic word khalifa, basically meaning a deputy or successor to the Prophet Muhammad.

2 A garrison city is one that is protected by troops.

3 A concubine is a live-in companion, usually sexual, in a polygamous relationship. Concubines are treated as having lower status than wives.