Editing History of Islam (section)

===Middle Baghdad Abbasids===
''Early High Middle Ages''

<timeline>
ImageSize = width:800 height:75
PlotArea = width:720 height:55 left:65 bottom:20
AlignBars = justify

Colors =
    id:time value:rgb(0.7,0.7,1) #
    id:period value:rgb(1,0.7,0.5) #
    id:span value:rgb(0.9,0.8,0.5) #
    id:age value:rgb(0.95,0.85,0.5) #
    id:era value:rgb(1,0.85,0.5) #
    id:eon value:rgb(1,0.85,0.7) #
    id:filler value:gray(0.8) # background bar
    id:black value:black

Period     = from:940 till:1094
TimeAxis   = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:940
ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:940

PlotData =
  align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line, black) width:10 shift:(0,-3)

  from:940  till:944 color:era shift:(0,9) text:[[Al-Muttaqi|Muttaqi]]
  from:944  till:946 color:age shift:(0,-15) text:[[Al-Mustakfi|Mustakfi]]
  from:946  till:974 color:era text:[[Al-Muti|Muti]]
  from:974  till:991 color:age text:[[At-Ta'i|Ta'i]]
  from:991  till:1031 color:era text:[[Al-Qadir|Qadir]]
  from:1031 till:1075 color:age text:[[Al-Qa'im (Abbasid caliph at Baghdad)|Qa'im]]
  from:1075 till:1094 color:era text:[[Al-Muqtadi|Muqtadi]]
</timeline>

[[File:Dirham of al-Muttaqi.jpg|thumb|Dirham of Al-Muttaqi]]
At the beginning of the Middle Baghdad Abbasids, the Caliphate had become of little importance. The ''amir al-umara'' [[Bajkam]] contented himself with dispatching his secretary to Baghdad to assemble local dignitaries to elect a successor. The choice fell on [[Al-Muttaqi]]. Bajkam was killed on a hunting party by marauding Kurds. In the ensuing anarchy in Baghdad, Ibn Raik persuaded the Caliph to flee to Mosul where he was welcomed by the Hamdanids. They assassinated Ibn Raik. Hamdanid [[Nasir al-Dawla]] advanced on Baghdad, where mercenaries and well-organised Turks repelled them. Turkish general [[Tuzun (amir al-umara)|Tuzun]] became ''amir al-umara''. The Turks were staunch Sunnis. A fresh conspiracy placed the Caliph in danger. Hamdanid troops helped ad-Daula escape to Mosul and then to Nasibin. Tuzun and the Hamdanid were stalemated. Al-Muttaqi was at [[Raqqa]], moving to Tuzun where he was deposed. Tuzun installed the blinded Caliph's cousin as successor, with the title of [[Al-Mustakfi]]. With the new Caliph, Tuzun attacked the [[Buwayhid dynasty]] and the [[Hamdanids]]. Soon after, Tuzun died, and was succeeded by one of his generals, Abu Ja'far. The Buwayhids then attacked Baghdad, and Abu Ja'far fled into hiding with the Caliph. Buwayhid Sultan Muiz ud-Daula assumed command forcing the Caliph into abject submission to the Amir. Eventually, Al-Mustakfi was blinded and deposed. The city fell into chaos, and the Caliph's palace was looted.<ref>{{cite book|first=Harold|last=Bowen|title=The Life and Times of ʿAlí Ibn ʿÍsà: The Good Vizier|year=1928|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TZM3AAAAIAAJ|page=385}}</ref>
{|class="wikitable" style="float:left; clear:left; width: 250px; margin-right:1em;"
|-
!style="background-color: #f8eaba;" |Significant Middle Abbasid Muslims
|-
|
* [[Ibn Rushd]] ([[Averroes]]), philosopher;
* [[al-Farabi]], Persian (Soghdian) philosopher;
* [[Al-Mutanebbi]], Arabic poet;
* [[Ibn Sīnā|Abu Ali Husain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina]] ([[Avicenna]]), physician, philosopher, and scientist
|}
Once the Buwayhids controlled Baghdad, [[Al-Muti]] became caliph. The office was shorn of real power and Shi'a observances were established. The Buwayhids held on Baghdad for over a century. Throughout the Buwayhid reign the Caliphate was at its lowest ebb, but was recognized religiously, except in [[Iberia]]. Buwayhid Sultan [[Mu'izz al-Dawla]] was prevented from raising a Shi'a Caliph to the throne by fear for his own safety, and fear of rebellion, in the capital and beyond.<ref>R. N. Frye (1975). The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume Four: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. {{ISBN|0-521-20093-8}}</ref>

The next Caliph, [[Al-Ta'i]], reigned over factional strife in Syria among the Fatimids, Turks, and Carmathians. The Hideaway dynasty also fractured. The Abbasid borders were the defended only by small border states. [[Baha' al-Dawla]], the Buyid amir of Iraq, deposed al-Ta'i in 991 and proclaimed [[al-Qadir]] the new caliph.<ref name=Hanne>{{cite book|last=Hanne|first=Eric, J.|title=Putting the Caliph in His Place: Power, Authority, and the Late Abbasid Caliphate|year=2007|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press|isbn=978-0-8386-4113-2|pages=55}}</ref>

During al-Qadir's Caliphate, [[Mahmud of Ghazni]] looked after the empire. Mahmud of Ghazni, of Eastern fame, was friendly towards the Caliphs, and his victories in the Indian Empire were accordingly announced from the pulpits of Baghdad in grateful and glowing terms. Al-Qadir fostered the Sunni struggle against Shiʿism and outlawed heresies such as the [[Baghdad Manifesto]] and the doctrine that the Quran was created. He outlawed the [[Muʿtazila]], bringing an end to the development of rationalist Muslim philosophy. During this and the next period, [[Islamic literature]], especially [[Persian literature]], flourished under the patronage of the Buwayhids.<ref name = muir>{{cite book|author-link=William Muir|first=William|last=Muir|title=The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall|date=2000|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-20901-4}}</ref> By 1000, the global Muslim population had climbed to about 4 percent of the world, compared to the Christian population of 10 percent.

During [[Al-Qa'im (Abbasid caliph at Baghdad)|Al-Qa'im]]'s reign, the Buwayhid ruler often fled the capital and the Seljuq dynasty gained power. [[Toghrül]] overran Syria and Armenia. He then made his way into the Capital, where he was well-received both by chiefs and people. In [[Bahrain]], the Qarmatian state collapsed in [[Al-Ahsa Oasis|Al-Hasa]]. Arabia recovered from the Fatimids and again acknowledged the spiritual jurisdiction of the Abbasids. [[Al-Muqtadi]] was honoured by the Seljuq Sultan [[Malik-Shah I]], during whose reign the Caliphate was recognized throughout the extending range of Seljuq conquest. The Sultan was critical of the Caliph's interference in affairs of state, but died before deposing the last of the Middle Baghdad Abbasids.<ref>Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Oxford History of the Crusades, (Oxford University Press, 2002), 213.</ref>