Abbasid Caliphate Timeline

From the ninth century onward, the Abbasids found they could no longer keep together a centralized polity from Baghdad, which had grown larger than that of Rome.

The 9th century also saw many provinces becoming increasingly autonomous, giving rise to local dynasties that controlled different regions of the empire, such as the Aghlabids, Tahirids, Samanids, Saffarids, and Tulunids.

After several years of peace between the Byzantine Empire and the Abbasids, Nikephoros I broke the treaty, then fended off multiple incursions during the first decade of the 9th century.

Image source: Nikephoros I

By the end of the century, the Fatimids were one of the main political and ideological challenges to Sunni Islam and the Abbasids, contesting the Abbasids for the titular authority of the Islamic ummah. The challenge only ended with their downfall in the 12th century.

Image source: Fatimid Caliphate

During the 10th century, the caliphs were reduced to mere figureheads, with real political and military power resting in the hands of the Iranian Buyids, who took control of Baghdad in 945.

Image source: Buyid dynasty

In the 11th century, the loss of respect for the caliphs continued, as some Islamic rulers no longer mentioned the caliph's name in the Friday khutba, or struck it off their coinage.

By 1055, the Seljuqs had wrested control from the Buyids and Abbasids, and took temporal power, reducing the caliphs further while real power rested with the Seljuk Turks.

Image source: Seljuk Empire

When the amir and former slave Basasiri took up the Shia Fatimid banner in Baghdad in 1056–57, the caliph al-Qa'im was unable to defeat him without outside help.

Image source: Al-Basasiri

There was a brief Abbasid political and military revival at the end of the 9th century, especially under the policies of caliphs al-Mu'tadid (r. 892–902) and al-Muktafi (r. 902–908).

Image source: Al-Mu'tadid

When the dynasty began to weaken in the 12th century, the Abbasids gained greater independence once again. Caliph al-Mustarshid (r. 1118–1135) was the first caliph to build an army and to lead it in battle since the 10th century. His first concern was not the Seljuks but the Mazyadids of Hilla, whom he met in battle in 1123.

Image source: Al-Mustarshid

His bid for independence was ultimately unsuccessful, as he was defeated by a Seljuk army in 1135 and assassinated soon after.

Under al-Muqtafi (r. 1136–1160), a new caliphal state began to emerge with the help of his vizier Ibn Hubayra, and the Abbasids eventually regained control of Iraq during his reign.

The Abbasids successfully defended Baghdad against the Seljuqs in the siege of 1157 and then conquered their Mazyadid enemies in Hilla in 1162.

Image source: Siege of Baghdad (1157)

After over two hundred years of Abbasid subjection to foreign dynasties, Caliph al-Mustanjid (r. 1160–1170) formally declared independence from the Seljuk sultans in 1165, when he dropped their names from Abbasid coinage.

Image source: Al-Mustanjid

Initially the caliphs were still vulnerable to the power of the viziers, but al-Mustadi (r. 1170–1180) was able to rally some support from the Baghdad public as well as symbolic support abroad from the Ayyubid sultan Saladin and the Rum Seljuk sultan Kilij Arslan II.

Image source: Al-Mustadi

The long reign of Caliph al-Nasir (r. 1180–1225) marked a definitive shift in late Abbasid power, and the Abbasids extended their rule into Iran during his reign.

Image source: Al-Nasir Muhammad

In 1206, Genghis Khan established a powerful dynasty among the Mongols of Central Asia. During the 13th century, this Mongol Empire conquered most of the Eurasian land mass, including both China in the east and much of the old Islamic caliphate and the Kievan Rus' in the west.

Image source: Genghis Khan

In 1252, Hulagu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan and brother of the new Mongol ruler Möngke Khan, was placed in charge of a new western campaign to the Middle East that would culminate in the conquest of Baghdad in 1258.

Image source: Hulegu Khan

In 1257, after destroying the Assassins in Iran, Hulagu wrote to the Abbasid caliph, al-Musta'sim, demanding his submission.

Image source: Siege of Baghdad (1258)

The Mongols began their siege of the city on 29 January 1258. The sack of Baghdad marked the effective end of the Abbasid Caliphate in its original form.

Fearing rumours that a supernatural disaster would strike if the blood of al-Musta'sim was spilled, and in accordance with a Mongol taboo against spilling royal blood, Hulagu had him wrapped in a carpet and trampled to death by horses on 20 February 1258, marking the effective end of the Abbasid Caliphate.

Image source: Al-Musta'sim

Mongol expansion further west was eventually halted by the Mamluks of Egypt at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, followed by conflict between the Ilkhanids and their Golden Horde rivals, which diverted Mongol attention.

Image source: Battle of Ain Jalut

Following the devastation of Baghdad in 1258 and in an effort to secure political legitimacy for the new regime in Egypt, the Mamluk ruler Baybars invited a surviving member of the Abbasid family to establish himself in Cairo in 1260–1261, formally reinstating the caliphate there without any political power.

Image source: Baybars

In 1262, he disappeared while leading a small army in an attempt to recapture Baghdad from the Mongols.

The caliphate continued to be relevant even to other Muslim rulers until the 14th century; for example, the sultans of Delhi, the Muzaffarid sultan Muhammad, the Jalayirid sultan Ahmad, and the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I all sought diplomas of investiture from the caliph or declared nominal allegiance to him.

Caliph al-Musta'in even managed to reign as sultan in Cairo for a brief six months in 1412. During the 15th century, however, the institution of the caliph declined in significance.

Image source: Al-Musta'in

The last Abbasid caliph in Cairo was al-Mutawakkil III, who was in place when the Ottoman sultan Selim I defeated the Mamluks in 1516 and conquered Egypt in 1517, ending the Mamluk Sultanate and ending the Abbasid caliphate definitively.

Image source: Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–1517)

Selim I met with al-Mutawakkil III in Aleppo in 1516, prior to marching into Egypt, and the caliph was then sent to the Ottoman capital of Constantinople, ending the Abbasid caliphate definitively.