The great fitna
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Haroon al Rashid divided his realm among his children, and the young men were quickly goaded into conflict with one another by their advisors. The unexperienced princes found the underlying tensions simply too powerful to overcome. But the predictability of war was upended by its unpredictable outcome. Fortune swung violently from one party to the other, leaving the caliphate forever changed.
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Considering the absurd levels of official mismanagement, it’s astounding how long the caliphate survived during al Muqtadir’s inept administration. Although it never collapsed, over the course of two dozen years the state’s power steadily declined in meaningful ways. It collected less taxes, had...
Published 06/16/24
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