750-54 Reign of al-Saffah 754-75 Reign of al-Mansur 762 Start of construction of Baghdad
Abu Nuwas (poet, d. c. 813) Harun al-Rashid (caliph, 786-809) Sibawayh (grammarian, d. c. 793) Ibn Ishaq (biographer, d. 767) al-Jahiz (prose essayist, d. 869) al-Tabari (historian, d. 923)
802 Harun al-Rashid splits inheritance 809-13 Reign of al-Amin 811-13 Civil war 813-33 Reign of al-Ma’mun 833-42 Reign of al-Mu‘tasim 836 Al-Mu‘tasim moves capital to Samarra Khurasan mamluks (“owned ones”) i.e. slave- soldiers
861 Al-Mutawakkil killed by Turkish soldiers 869-83 Revolt of the zanj in southern Iraq 892 Al-Mu‘tadid (r. 892-902) moves capital back to Baghdad 936 Al-Radi (r. 934-40) hands power over to deputy Ibn Ra’iq
932 ‘Ali ibn Buya takes Fars, makes capital at Shiraz 945 Ahmad ibn Buya takes Baghdad, becomes caliphal deputy (amir al-umara’) of al-Mustakfi (r. 944-46) 946 Al-Hasan ibn Buya takes much of Persia 991-1031 Reign of caliph al-Qadir, who tried to codify Sunni ritual and doctrine