أضواء على أسباب سقوط الخلافة العباسية سنة (656 هـ 1258 م)‎

Abstract EN

Some modern historians are of the opinion that the main reason for the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate in 656 A.H.

(1258 C.E.) was the general weakness of the late Abbasid Caliphs themselves, particularly the the Caliph Musta'sim bi-Allah.

But critical research will reveal that these historians fail to realize certain other internal dimensions that worked behind it.

In my analysis, I reached the conclusion that a section of foreign elements, particularly the Turkish, Buwayhid and Seljuq military leadership, which dominated the administration of the caliphate, gradually weakened the military and administrative institutions during their dominance in the power structure.

One particular reason that weakened the late Abbasid caliphs was the fact that they almost exhausted their resources while getting rid of the dominace of Seljuqs.

In their final period, whatever state resources that were left in their hands were fully diverted to free the caliphate from the encroaching influence of the Khawarizm state resulting in warlike state of affairs.

The blow, of course, that terminated the caliphate for ever came from the Mongols in 656/1258.

It came in a time when the army of the caliphate consisted mainly of foreign mercenaries who barely had any true loyalty, towards the continuity of the caliphate.

The same can be said about the Abbasid governors in the faraway provinces on the borders, many of whom, in fact, sided with the Mongols either openly or secretly causing the rapid fall of the Abbasid Caliphate.