Editing Abbasid Caliphate (section)

===Buyid and Seljuq control (945–1118)===
{{Further|Buyid dynasty|Seljuk Empire}}
{{More citations needed|section|date=February 2025}}
[[File:Buyids within the Middle East, ca. 970.png|thumb|upright=1.3|The Middle East {{Circa|970}}, after the Abbasids came under the control of the [[Buyid dynasty]]]]
Despite the power of the Buyid amirs, the Abbasids retained a highly ritualized court in Baghdad, as described by the Buyid bureaucrat [[Hilal al-Sabi']], and they retained a certain influence over Baghdad as well as religious life. As Buyid power waned with the rule of [[Baha' al-Daula]], the caliphate was able to regain some measure of strength. The caliph [[al-Qadir]], for example, led the ideological struggle against the Shia with writings such as the ''[[Baghdad Manifesto]]''. The caliphs kept order in Baghdad itself, attempting to prevent the outbreak of [[fitna (word)|''fitna''s]] in the capital, often contending with the ''[[ayyarun]]''.

With the Buyid dynasty on the wane, a vacuum was created that was eventually filled by the dynasty of [[Oghuz Turks]] known as the [[Seljuqs]]. By 1055, the Seljuqs had wrested control from the Buyids and Abbasids, and took temporal power.<ref name=":11" /> When the amir and former slave [[Basasiri]] took up the Shia Fatimid banner in Baghdad in 1056–57, the caliph [[Al-Qa'im (Abbasid caliph at Baghdad)|al-Qa'im]] was unable to defeat him without outside help. [[Toghril Beg]], the Seljuq sultan, restored Baghdad to Sunni rule and took Iraq for his dynasty.

Once again, the Abbasids were forced to deal with a military power that they could not match, though the Abbasid caliph remained the titular head of the Islamic community. The succeeding sultans [[Alp Arslan]] and [[Malikshah]], as well as their vizier [[Nizam al-Mulk]], took up residence in Persia, but held power over the Abbasids in Baghdad. When the dynasty began to weaken in the 12th century, the Abbasids gained greater independence once again.