ABSTRACT
WITH the rise of the Abbassides, the aspect of Western Asia alters. The seat of government is removed from Syria to Irak; the Syrians lose the monopoly of influence and power they had hitherto possessed; and the tide of progress is diverted from the west to the east. But the unity of the Caliphate was gone for ever. Spain from the first never acknowledged the authority of the Abbassides, and was easily reduced by the fugitive Abdur Rahman, who founded a dynasty which rivalled in magnificence the House of Abbas. Over 'Western Africa the early Abbassides exercised substantial dominion, but in time it dwindled into nominal suzerainty. The shrinking of the empire was not without its advantage, as it helped the founders of the Abb:tsside Caliphate to consolidate their power, to organise its resources, and to promote the material and intellectual development of their subjects. The first nine sovereigns of this house, with one exception, were men of extraordinary ability
REIGN OF SAFF AH and politicians of a superior type, devoted to the 132-158 advancement of the public weal. All of them combined A:H. warlike qualities with high intellectual attainments. And though the reigns of some were stained by deeds of cruelty, that was the characteristic of the age throughout the known world, and the outcome of dynastic policy.
