The Abbasid Empire

The Islamic Empires like many other empires rose to become and influence on future societies. The Islamic Empire expanded far beyond its Arabian homeland, bringing Sasanid Persia and parts of the Byzantine Empire into its society. Muslim conquerors adapted Persian methods of government and ways to control their land. In the later centuries Muslims drew methods from Greek and Indian traditions as well. They transformed the cultural traditions that they took in into their own. While being influenced by other societies the Islamic Empire ultimately formed a political structure for trade and diplomacy over a vast amount of land. Furthermore many lands of various cultural backgrounds became part of a large society which was the lands under Islamic rule. The Abbasid Empire was established after the fall of the Umayyad. The main reason for the Abbasids wealth and power came from trade. This helped establish political, cultural, and economic characteristics.

The Abbasids differed from many empires in its political view because it was not a conquering dynasty. Only slightly the Abbasids expanded their empire by conquest. Instead of conquering new lands the Abbasids were focusing on creating a government that would be able to rule ethnic and cultural groups. The caliphs built a new city called Baghdad were all central authority came from. The Islamic culture had a formal education that stresses the study of the Quran and the Sharia. The caliphs maintained a standing army, and they established bureaucratic ministries in order to keep in charge of taxation, finance, coinage, and postal services. In addition they also maintained a system of roads which helped trade and uphold the connection between the bureaucrats and the caliphs. During the time of rule by Harun al-Rashid the empire flourished with wealth. Baghdad became a center of banking, commerce, crafts, bad industrial production. Furthermore he provided support for writers and artists. In the 1220s...