1. Reign of al-Saffah
Reign of al-Mansur
762 Start of construction of Baghdad

2. Abu Nuwas (poet, d. c. 813)
Harun al-Rashid (caliph, )
Sibawayh (grammarian, d. c. 793)
Ibn Ishaq (biographer, d. 767)
al-Jahiz (prose essayist, d. 869)
al-Tabari (historian, d. 923)

3. 802 Harun al-Rashid splits
inheritance
Reign of al-Amin
Civil war
Reign of al-Ma’mun
Reign of al-Mu‘tasim
836 Al-Mu‘tasim moves capital to Samarra
Khurasan
mamluks
(“owned
ones”) i.e.
slave-
soldiers

4. 861 Al-Mutawakkil killed by Turkish soldiers
Revolt of the zanj in southern Iraq
892 Al-Mu‘tadid (r ) moves
capital back to Baghdad
936 Al-Radi (r ) hands power over
to deputy Ibn Ra’iq

5. 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 )
946 Al-Hasan ibn Buya takes much of Persia
Reign of caliph al-Qadir, who tried
to codify Sunni ritual and doctrine