Database: The Abbasids ... and their Rivals
As caliphs, the Abbasids (r. 750-1258) claimed political and religious leadership over every Muslim. But despite their assertions, their effective power varied considerably across time and space. Even at the height of their power in the first half of the ninth century, territories under Muslim rule like al-Andalus (Iberian Peninsula) and the Maghrib eluded their grasp.
Their main challengers were the Umayyads and the Fatimids. Members of the Umayyads had ruled the empire as caliphs from 661 to 750. After the Abbasids overthrew and killed most of them, one of the surviving Umayyads, Abd al-Rahman I (r. 756-788), escaped to the Iberian Peninsula and managed to establish autonomous rule there. Claiming the title of emir (prince), he never submitted, paid tribute, or sent gifts to Baghdad. One of his successors, Abd al-Rahman III (r. 912-961) founded a rival caliphate in their dynastic capital of Cordoba. In the Maghrib, these Andalusi Umayyads vied for control and influence with their Abbasid rivals, courting and competing with the local dynasties that ruled there. Their rivalry extended to art, including luxury objects like the Cordoban ivory box shown here, made for a prince.
Foremost amongst these North African dynasties were the Fatimids. Claiming direct descent from Prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima, they established a powerful kingdom in North Africa and Sicily in the 10th century. In 909 they were the first to issue a direct challenge to Abbasid authority by establishing a rival caliphate in the new capital they founded, Cairo.
In time, the Abbasids lost effective control of the rest of their empire to governors and local elites, starting with Egypt in 868. By 945, the Abbasid caliphs still claimed to be the leaders of the entire Muslim community, but their real power encompassed little more than their Baghdadi palace.