Abbasid Caliphate (Principia Moderni IV Map Game)

The Abbasid Caliphate (Arabic, الخلافة العباسية‎‎ al-Khilāfah al-‘Abbāsīyah) is theocratic nation located in North Africa and parts of the Middle East. The Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad ruled the entire Middle East and most of North Africa during the Islamic Golden Age in the 8th-10th centuries. After initial Turkish invasions, however, the Caliph quickly lost all temporal power while retaining religious domination over Sunni Islam. After the destruction of Baghdad in 1258, the Abbasids in Cairo claimed the title of Caliph, until the eventually subverted the rule of the Mamluk Sultanate to re-establish the theocracy in 1412. After the Gurkani collapse in the Cloaked Jihad, the seat of the Caliphate was moved to Damascus

Administration
The Caliph is the executive and arbitrator of both secular and religious sectors in the state. This authority is strictly hereditary, and passed in patriarchal succession (meaning the eldest male of the family always inherits). The Caliph is also patriarch of the House of Abbas, a dynasty decedent from Abbas ibn Abd Al-Muttalib (568-653 AD), an uncle of Muhammad. For much of the Caliphate's history after the Mamluks were overthrown, the Caliphs acted more as monarchs with direct control over all matters judicial, military and religious, up until the adoption of the Tables of Government in 1550s. The Abbasid royal family holds a special place in the government by blood, and often favored to many public offices.

The Ulema, or more properly the "Council of Senior Scholars" is the second highest authority, acting as a legislative body under the Caliph. Originally organized as a group of reciters (those who had memorized the Qur'an) under the Old Rashidun Caliphate, the office was recreated by Al-M'utadid in 1413 as an official administration. However, for many years after that it mostly functioned as giving advice or theological insight to the Caliph, and individual offices were haphazardly appointed at the Caliph's pleasure. After the Tables of Government were adopted in 1556, the Ulema gained both independence from the Caliph's control, and authority to legislate over the federal government.

The Grand Vizier is an office created after the Tables of Government, and was designed to be the leader or Prime Minister over the Ulema. As the Abbasid dynasty went through more incapable rulers in the late 16th century, the Grand Vizier rose in prominence to be a second executive after the Caliph, and by the 1590s had taken full responsibility over the military and domestic affairs. Al-Mansur II attempted to regain more power to the Abbasids later in that decade, but the resulting Sixth Fitna between Mansur and the Ulema ultimately destroyed the dynasty and led to the rise of the Rashidun Caliphate.

The Caliph, royal family, Ulema, and Vizier all reside in the capital city. The Beyt Talut is the public building where the Ulema and Vizier would convene, while Caliph and his family dwell in a private residence. Originally, the government was based in the Citidel of Cairo which M'utadid retained from the Mamluk dynasty. During Al-Najm's campaigns in the Middle East, he found the city of Damascus a much more suitable residence and more centrally-located among the Arab population, and it was there he moved the capital after the Cloaked Jihad. The citadel was upgraded to a modern palace with the construction of the Qaser Al-Rahim.

It is fairly clear how much the Abbasid Caliphate adopted elements of government from the Mamluks, particularly in terms of administration. The system of Emirs, Sheikhs and deputy Sultans remained as local administration, but with much less authority and rarely with the ability to raise their own military. Although Al-Mu'tadid abolsihed the Sultanate of Egypt, he retained the title and it remained a permanent fixture of the Abbasid authority. Although the office of Caliph was passed in patriarchal succession, in some instances the Caliph was elected by the Ulema from among the Abbasid family similar to the Mamluk system.

After the conquests of Al-Najm the Great, much more population were concentrated around the Middle East than Egypt. As a result, an extra layer of administration known as Viceroys were established: the Viceroy of Mosul (the northern Middle East), the Viceroy of Basra (the southern Middle East), and the Viceroy of Egypt (all of Africa). The Viceroys retained greater responsibility in government, and could raise a sizable military in times of crisis.

Another means of dealing with the rising population was adopting the Ottoman Millet system. This system of government administrates over individual communities in local townships, giving almost autonomous authority to ethnic groups divided by religion, language and race. This assured each group felt satisfied by their own administration, but it also prevented different groups collaborating together against the government.

Laws and system of justice was largely unchanged from previous Egyptian dynasties, which were imposed in the Middle East after the Gurkani were forced back to Iran. Different forms of Sharia law that were adopted were up to the discretion of the Ulema, which depended on which theology was growing in prominence. Starting in the 1420s, a very harsh system of laws based on Hanbali theology was the source of some tragedy, and contributed to the Coptic revolt in 1430. By the time of Al-Najm the Great, this mostly fell out of use and was replaced with the more liberal Mutazila theology.

Administration outside of the Caliphate's core territory was never systematic. After the Hafsids were overthrown in 1416, the Sultanate of Maghreb that replaced it was a nominally autonomous Sultanate under and in union with the Abbasid dynasty. However, it wasn't until 1534 when Morocco was conquered that Maghreb was released as a full vassal, and the largest vassal the Abbasids had at that time. In the 1570s, after numerous wars with Bulgaria and Russia pushed the Ottoman Empire to near collapse, they asked to become a vassal of the Caliphate. Although the Abbasids fixed the Ottoman economy and modernized its military, very little was ever done to integrate them under Arab rule. Anti-Turkish sentiment was still high after the Mamluk collapse, and it was much more convenient to keep Anatolia as a source of resources and a buffer from Europe.

After Majapihut collapsed in the 1570s, the Caliphate saw an opportunity to create a modest colonial empire by vassalizing Sumatra and Sunda. However, due to the importance of East Asian trade these vassals consumed more money than given as tributary, as the Indonesian vassals were placed under a generous salary system designed by Mehmed Hassan.

Secular
As previous Caliphates had always been theocratic institutions, there was very little room for a truly secular office. Even the Ulema were composed entirely of prominent clerics and theologians. In 1414, in the process of Al-M'utadid removing power from the nobility, he created a federal council for secular administration, known as the Shay Al-Nass (literally, "thing of the people"). The Shay Al-Nass were in charge of enforcing legislation and justice as directed by the Caliph and Ulema, as well as managing the treasury that was not personally owned by the Abbasids.

The Shay Al-Nass were known to take their job very seriously, and meticulously worked at all the logistics of the Caliphate through the conquests of Al-Najm the Great. However, during the reign of his successor, Al-Rahim, the Ulema assume more and more direct control over secular matters outside of the Shay Al-Nass. The first known instance of this was how the Ulema took direct command over the Oman-Swahili war in 1550.

Ecclesiastical
At the same time Al-M'utadid created Shay Al-Nass to oversee secular matters, a second ecclesiastical office was also created, known as the Maktab Al-Qudds. While the Ulema was seen as a federal office over both secular and religious matters, the Maktab Al-Qudds was designed to be the highest office for religious appeal. In addition, it is responsible for managing religious hierarchy and appointments of lower clerical offices. A secondary responsibility of the Maktab Al-Qudds was enforcing piety and rooting out heresy from the state. As such, the most prominent time for the Maktab Al-Qudds was the early-mid 15th century, as the ongoing Jihad against the Mamluk Turks justified their mass expulsion, and similar heresies later on such as the Druze resurgence in the 1550s.

Similar to the Shay Al-Nass, the Ulema later assumed more direct control over religious administration. In fact, the Tables of Government in 1556 nominally gave the Ulema more authority over religion than the Caliph, although this wasn't enforced until the rise of the Rashidun. This was said to be the design of Caliph Rahim, who sought the value of diverse theological opinions over a unilateral decision.

The Ulema also saw new restrictions with the Tables of Government. They were limited to a total of 72 individuals. Elected for life, each member is selected based on scholarly merit from the most prominant scholars in Syria and surrouding Mesopotamia. The preference to Asiatics in the Ulema contributed to the cultural rift between Egypt and Syria.

Under the Maktab Al-Qudds, Al-Mu'tadid designed a system of religious hierarchy to oversee Muslim communities across the entire Muslim world. The system was based in part on the Catholic church, placing an Ayatollah as leader of a large metropolitan area and a Kazir over a more local group of Mosques. These offices existed before the Abbasids, but until the 15th century they had no authority outside of pious respect. Although this was meant to apply to the whole House of Islam, until the Cloaked Jihad it was used mainly in Egypt and North Africa. After the Treaty of Batman in 1529, the ecclesiastical hierarchy extended to almost all Muslim nations except west Africa, which wasn't incorporated until the Rashidun Caliphate. These offices of Kazir and Ayatollah would report sequentially up to the Maktab Al-Qudds, who in tern report to the Ulema and the Caliph.

Individual enclaves of Muslim immigrants were also given religious administration, which was most notable in the sporatic Muslim communities in East Asia. In 1578, the Treaty of Inncheon established a permenant enclave of Arab merchants in the city of Busan in Korea.

Military
Because the Mamluk government were so closely tied to their military, once they were overthrown the Abbasids had to recreate the military of Egypt from the ground up. While the Mamluks still existed, Abbasid allies in Syria organized a formidable land military under Ahmed Ibn Harb, which formed the basis of the later army. The Caliphate military was concentrated on land, and for its whole history the army was the most significant part of the military.

When the army was first organized in 1412, it was separated into three divisions: cavalry, infantry, and archery. Much of the specific units of the military were based initially on the Ottoman military, until the Abbasids surpassed their development. Hussars are used as light cavalry, known for their firecness and determination in battle, as well as their proficiancy wtih sabars. Sipahi are alternative heavier cavalry, wearing plate armor and more trained in lances and composite archery. As gunpowder was more introduced in the 16th century, both of these forms of cavalry evolved their styles of combat to utilize muskets and wheelock pistols, while the armor of the Sipahi were cocentrated on the chest to be bullet proof.

Infantry consists primarily of Yaya, or skirmishers, who are primarily recruited from nomadic peoples in Arabia. The main infantry, or Nefer, use armor and swords, and later on hand cannons, as methods of confrontation. Pikemen were also added in the late 15th century as anti-cavalry measures. At that same time, Dragoons were introduced as infantry trained in horsemanship, thus enabling quick travel from one battlefield to another before dismounting to fight.

The introduction of gunpowder was a gradual process that ultimately reshaped the military. The first truly western hand cannons were introduced in the 1420s after the Treaty of Tunis, when the Caliphate opened up mutual trade of technology with France. Al-Mustansir continued this policy of creating larger cannons and morters during his African campaigns, which he collectively placed under the archery division as relevant to sieges. However, this proved inneffective at first as such larger aparatus was slow and could not keep up with the cavarly of before. In the 1440s, Al-Najm the Great introduced the first fully independent division of the artilary, and in general Al-Najm is credited as a genius of gunpowder technology. The largest of these cannons was the Great Bombard, first invented in the early 16th century and added to the military late in Al-Najm's reign.

Kilab Arub
The Kilab Arub (translated "the Lord's Hounds") are the most elite class of warriors in the Caliphate military. Originally, they were a tribe of Ismaili Assassins living in Egypt since the Fatimid Caliphate. In the last days of the Mamluk Sultanate, Al-M'utadid organized them into a secret military to spy and secure posts around the Mamluk nobility, under the pretense of extra security. Starting in 1411, the Kilab Arub were used by the Caliph to hunt down and purge Egypt of any Turkish trace, even as far as invading private homes of Turkish immigrants.

After the purge was mostly complete in 1414, Al-M'utadid made sure to quickly transition their post from assassins to guardians of the roads to Mecca and Medina. This was an important step to ensure the now very powerful military force could not turn around and overthrow the new government. A generation later, in 1436, Al-Mustansir reorganized that class of the military to fully integrate them as a new warrior class.

The Kilab Arub are selected at a young age from the children of nobility, usually preferred to be a long line of prevoius Kilabs. The trainee is then put through a rigorous training course of not only strength and agility, but also piety and loyalty as well. Kilabs were legendary as expert sabar duelists, and were equipped with the most advanced firearms in the Caliphate's posession. With such a high standard of both skill and honor, there are only a few hundred Kilabs in the Caliphate at any one time. Before the rise of the Rashidun Caliphate, who restructured the Kilab Arub agian, the last major update to their equipment came in the reign of Al-Mahdi II.

Navy
In general, the Abbasid navy is a lesser priority than the army, and frequently it was downsized in order to accomodate the rest of the military. During defensive naval conflicts in the Mediterranean, most notably the Conquest of Naxos and the Barbary War, the Caliphate would rarely implement their own ships but rely mostly on the ships of their Mediterranean vassals, namely Cyprus and Maghreb.

Al-M'utadid expanded the Mediterranean navy from the Mamluk ships under Nasir Muhammad, reaching over 114 ships during the conquest of Cyprus in 1418. After the Reclamation of North Africa and subsequent loss in the Ionian Crusade, the Mediterranean navy was largely cannibalized in favor of a much stronger pressense in the Red Sea. Al-Mustansir's creation of the Red Sea fleet focused primarily on copying the Ottoman ships, and for the rest of the Abbasid history the navy would follow this same model. By the early 16th century, the Abbasid navy was on par with Turkey.

After the Cloaked Jihad in 1530, the Caliphate acquired all the modern ships used by the Gurkani Sultanate. Seeing the immediate potential to become on par with European navies, Al-Najm cannibalized the Red Sea fleet to construct a full Mediterranean for the second time, this time wtih fully modern ships similar to the Iberian Caravels. This was very successful for Al-Najm's conquests of Morocco, Rhodes and Krete, but it ultimately did not outlive him. In 1549, his sucessor Al-Rahim gave up almost the entire Mediterranean fleet to Morocco, which was instrumental in helping them found their own colonial empire in the Altantic. Instead, Al-Rahim focused on recreating the Red Sea fleet to trade across the Indian Ocean, which ultimately led to the colonial posessions in Indonesia in the 1570s.

To compensate for the periodic lack of navy, the Calipahte would specialize on anti-naval defenses. As early as 1423 the castles at Tunis, Damietta, and Haifa were massively rennovated to function more as fortresses than the medieval castles, mainly defending against naval cannons. Cannons and morters along the coast were also added as these were incorporated to the military.

Ships in the navy come in three classes: Frigates, Galleys, and smaller vessels. Frigates were the largest ships, taken directly from the technology of Caravels, although not many were used at one time. Galleys were medium ships, taking a middle road between speed, durability and fire power. Smaller vessels mainly consisted of transport bardges, for quick access to infantry divisions.

Economy
Just like the previous dynasties of Egypt, the Abbasid economy was agriculturally-based, and the heart of the Caliphate's source of income was tied to the agriculturally stability of Upper Egypt, Levant, and Syria. The 'Iqta semi-feudal system was also carried over, and implemented across the local secular administrations. As the Renaissance started to take off in the 1540s, many advancements to agriculture and industry were applied to the Middle East as well, most notably the Three-Field system and selective breeding.

Unlike the Mamluk system of economy, however, the Abbasids did not make attempts to control the economy or manage it directly. Instead, local economies based on private mercantilism was encouraged, and this only increased as the Millet system was implemented for local administration. Since the Mamluk economy had completely collapsed since the invasions of Tamerlane, Al-M'utadid recreated the economic system from the ground up, abolishing previous attempts at command economy. The silver dinar and gold fils were reset to their original values before inflation, and remains the basic currency of the Caliphate ever since.

After the Treaty of Batman in 1528, the Caliphate absorbed a massive amount of revenue from the treasurey siezed from Persia. Al-Najm originally intended this money to be used as the "African Fund", a reserve of the treasury to be used in attempt to purchase Morocco from Iberia. With the outbreak of the Franco-Iberian war, this plan was abandoned and instead the funds were used to create the Bank of Cairo. Used as a central hub of the Caliphate's internal economy, the Bank of Cairo was originally an administration under the federal government, until it became a private company in 1533. The status of banking in the Caliphate was very tenuative process, however, as usury was not legalized until the day of Al-Najm's death in 1546.

Slavary is a large part of the Abbasid economy, and much of their exports revolved around the use of slaves. Previous Arab dynasties had two forms of slaves: Mamluks, or owned slaves of Turkish origin (commonly called white slaves), and Ghulam, or servants of African origin (commonly called black slaves). In 1415, after expelling the last Mamluk nobility from Egypt, Al-M'utadid placed a ban on all imports or use of Turkish slaves. This was not a form of emancipation, but rather a way of preventing any Turkic influence to affect Egypt in the future. Generations of anti-Turkic sentiment would keep this ban enforced. However, the market of black slaves continued throughout most of the dynasty, reaping large profits abroad in Persia, Turkey, and ultimately Korea.

As the religious elite gained more power in the 16th century, the early 1570s saw a movement among the nobility to ban slavary altogether, mostly following the charisma of Abduallah Ibn Rahim, the future Caliph Al-Mahdi II. This quickly ran into heavy friction against the mercantile elite, mostly in soutern Arabia, and so the plan was abandoned after Al-Mahdi's assassination. However, the general sentiment in Syria and Mesopotamia against slavary continued to gain popularity all through the Rashidun Caliphate.

During this same time period, the economic system of Levelism began spreading from Persia to many scholars in Iraq, which emphasized on the abolishment of poverty using liberal social policies. This grew in popularity until Levelism was fully implemented by the Ulema in 1586, but was immediately followed by the Great Abbasid Famine that devastated the nation. With so much of the economic system dependent on one location, a sudden drought of the Nile in 1587 caused massive shortages of food that ultimately killed almost 2 million people. After the famine subsided in 1589, the philosophy of Levelism dissapeared from the public sphere.

Piracy had been a fixture of the Barbary economy since the Hafsid dynasty in the early 15th century. After Maghreb was made a vassal of the Caliphate, this did not change. While Morocco and Sicily were the largest rivals for control of the Mediterranean in the 16th century, Barbary pirates would frequently harass Italian ships near the coast of Rome. The most famous of this time period being the career of Abdullah Barbarossa (1551-1555).

Although most of the Abbasid economy is done through trade and agriculture, a lot is also devleoped domestically as well. Particularly after the conquest of Ethiopia, coffee and gold became major exports along with perfumes and finer goods.

Silk Road
The early Abbasid Caliphs sought to establish the same international respect they had retained in the Old Abbasid Dynasty, and the main way that was implemented was overland trade. The Old Abbasids were famous for running the silk road through Transoxiana to support their greatest ally in the far east, the Tang Dynasty. During the Mongol Empire, the pax Mongolica established regular trans-asiatic contact between Europe and China, but more at the expense of the Muslim world during the Il-Khanate and Crusades. This all came to a complete interruption with the wars of Tamerlane cutting off the Silk Road trade at the end of the 14th century.

In 1416, the renowned explorer and statesman Mahmud Ibn Tulun traveled from the Caliphate as a Muslim Marco Polo, carefully documenting the lands of Central Asia from the nearby Gurkani Sultanate all the way to the court of Ming China. Once trade and alliance was established there, Tulun journeyed back by sea through the Bahamanid and Mogadishu Sultanates. This nominally re-established the Silk Road trade, but it was made official by the Caliphate joining the Compact of Iskenderun in 1421, which had been in use since 1410.

This process continued until Gurkani collapsed in the Cloaked Jihad. At that point, with the Middle East and Iran under Arab economic influence, the Compact of Iskenderun was abandoned in 1529 and replaced with the Compact of Beyrut. The Compact of Beyrut presented itself as a continuation of the Silk Road trade under the Compact of Iskenderun. However, every single article form the old compact was abandoned in the new version, seeing them as too restrictive to trade and too centralized around the Persian state. This revision was particularly important, as in the 16th century overland trade started to compete with the oversee trade reaching Asia by way of the Cape of Storms.

In the Compact of Beyrut, each member nation from either direction promises to agree to the terms of the compact, in addition to some extra tribute in exchange for higher privilege in the Silk Road trade. As the Caliphate declined in the late 16th century, so too did the use of the Compact as Indian Ocean trade surpassed it.

Mediterranean
Similar to the overland Silk Road trade with China, the Abbasids also worked towards rebuilding trade relations with European nations. In the Old Abbasid Caliphate, the Muslim world enjoyed a close alliance with the Carolingian Dynasty of the Frankish Empire. In light of this, King Louis XI of France opened trade with the Caliphate in 1426 by signing the Treaty of Tunis, which also ensured a close political and military alliance in exchange for selling the city of Collo in Algiers. John de Valois came to live in the Caliphate starting in 1430, building closer relations.

The growing economy of the Caliphate and Maghreb in the Mediterranean saw closer trade deals with other merchant powers. Investments were made in the Bank of Saint George in Genoa starting in 1421, and more were made in the Bank of Barcelona in Aragon starting in 1438. However, after the early failure of colonialism in the Reclamation of North Africa, and seeing the success of France to purchase Collo, many nations in Western Europe began coming to Cairo to offer buying large or resourceful tracks of land. In response to all these demands, Caliph Al-Mustansir dismissed all the foreign ministers from Egypt in 1433, except for the French, which lasted until his death in 1438.

After the collapse of Persia in the Cloaked Jihad, the major nations in Eastern Europe began seeing the Caliphate as equals in power. For this reason, Tsar Boris of Bulgaria signed a special trade agreement with Al-Najm the Great in 1529, which also included a military and political truce that lasted a surprisingly long time. This was not only instrumental to establish the main Mediterranean trade for both Bulgaria and the Caliphate, but also extended their European partners to other Orthodox nations, such as Russia and Georgia.

Altantic Ocean
As it was during the Mamluk Sultanate, the Abbasids capitalized on the Trans-Saharan caravan route that connected the Middle East to sources of trade in West Africa. This would import additional sources of gold and ivory to the Caliphate in exchange for revenue and technology, before the Abbasids had the naval capacity to explore the Atlantic directly.

In the 1410s, during Al-M'utadid's economic reforms, the explorer Khalid As-Sagheer traversed the route to establish relations with Mali and Songhai, but the crux of his mission was in Benin. The Benin Empire had recently been reaching out to expand its knowledge from neighboring civilizations, and the Caliphate saw this as an opportunity to also expand the House of Islam. When this mission failed to establish relations with Benin, however, the Caliphate focused their trade more exclusively with Songhai and Mali. In the 1550s, as Al-Rahim was turning the focus of the Caliphate from Europe into Africa, the caravan trade was revived again.

After Morocco was conquered in the Franco-Iberian War, the Atlantic ports in North Africa were expanded to accomodate its own trade fleet. From 1533-1535, the Admirals Abu Rass and Ibn Tulun set out a series of explorations around the Atlantic Ocean. The most famous product of these explorations was the Abu Rass map, the first map of the Atlantic Ocean in recorded history.

Since the full formation of the Morroccan navy in 1549, it continues to create a local colonial empire for itself across the Atlantic Ocean. The most prosperous result of this exploration was establishing trade with the Kingdom of Kongo, which was named as Zayiyr by Berber merchants after it converted to Islam.

Indian Ocean
As very few Muslim dynasties had implemented a substantial navy, trade in the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea was largely unprecedented. However, the gradual expansion of navy and economy not only brought Abbasid trade to its apex, but also paved the way for the colonial empire of the Rashidun Caliphate.

Trade with Mogadishu was inherited from the Mamluks, and for a long time the trade state in the horn of Africa was the Caliphate's main conduit to the Indian Ocean. The Swahili explorer Ali Al-Aswed helped establish this relation when he personally visited the Caliph in 1418.

After the Coptic Revolt in 1430, Caliph Al-Mustansir took upon himself the ultimate goal of dominating African and Indian trade through the Red Sea. The subsequent conquests of the future Caliph Malik Al-Najm succeeded to subjugate all nations on the Red Sea short of Ethiopia, thus completely controling that region. In 1547, these regions were completely annexed by Al-Rahim, in preparation for conquering Ethiopia and monopolizing the whole sea. Both Al-Najm and Al-Rahim worked to reconstruct the Fatha Al-Farun (Canal of the Pharaohs), as a way of more easily moving navies between the White and Red Seas starting in 1537. However, this wasn't ultimately completed until the beginning of the Rashidun.

The Arab-Indian Company was founded in 1548, and has since been the juristction of the Bank of Cairo. The earlier Gurkani Sultanate worked well to establish international alliances with the most powerful Muslim nations of South Asia, namely the Sultanates of Delhi, Bahamani, Bengal, Swahili, and Oman. After Persia collapsed in the Cloaked Jihad, all of these former allies switched over to establish both trade and diplomacy with the Abbasids, which collectively was organized under the Arab-Indian Company. By the 1570s, this created almost a monopoly of trade across the Indian Ocean in general. Obligations to maintain this trade in the rise of the Hindu-Bengal Wars, however, was taxing. The conquest of Aryavarta over both Delhi and Bengal contirbuted to the rapid decline of the Abbasid economy and infrastucture.

In the 1550s, as trade in the Indian Ocean was being fully established, Mehmed Ibn Tulun explored by sea as far as China and Korea, extending Abbasid trade there as well. China had long accepted trade with the Caliphate by way of the Silk Road, and the sea route through the Arab-Indian company kept the same relationship. As Islam was spreading fast in southern China leading up to the creation of the Kingdom of Tali, influence in the region was very key to the Abbasids.

In addition, the spread of Catholocism and Iberian influence in Japan forced Korea to draw closer in relation to the Arabs, counteracting the influence of Europe with the Middle East. The Caliphate used this dependency to create very strong ties with Korea, and during their many wars with Japan managed to establish the pemenant merchantile enclave of Busan in 1578. Late in his reign, Al-Rahim was known to keep a large harem of east Asian women imported from Korea and China.

Literature
One of the first policies Al-M'utadid ever established was to reconstruct the Library of Alexandria. It is unknown exaclty how or when the original library was destroyed, but that loss nonetheless had left an enourmous gap in literary tradition for centuries. As soon as the new library was constructed, it became a secondary goal for most Caliphs after him to cherish and expand the collected knowledge at Alexandria. The peak of Alexandria's influence of literature was around the 1430s. After the Cloaked Jihad reposessed the region of Meopotamia, the city of Baghdad and the House of Wisdom was fully restored to its glory from the Old Abbasid Dynasty. Since then, Baghdad and Alexandria remain as chief rivals for literary innovations and popularity. In some diplomacies such as the Treaty of Batman and the Compact of Beyrut, participating nations were required to donate books for the Libraries of Baghdad and Alexandria.

In spite of its theocratic roots, the Caliphate encouraged diverse philosophical opnions within Sunni Islam, and gradually took more liberal approaches to art, science, and history as they apply to Sharia law. Al-Najm started this policy by the establishment of western-style universities, namely in Beyrut, Aleppo, and Alexandria. This would ultimately prove to be their undoing, as it was from this pool of progressive thinking that created the representative government in the form of the Rashidun Caliphate.

Al-M'utadid encouraged the copying of Greek and Latin works, but it wasn't until 1536 that the printing press was introduced to the Middle East. This was cause of theologic controversy at first, as many scholars feared the rapid spread of literature could easily spread lies as well as truth. However, by 1540 these fears had mostly died out. The introduction of the printing press, along with the flood of literature acquired from Persia in the cloaked Jihad, caused a massive surge of Renaissance literature to appear in the Middle East. The first form of these were epic works of prose poetry and sonnets. These were shortly followed by works of drama and cycle plays, leading to the addition of a theater in the House of Wisdom. The final form of this literary surge was the introduction of proto-novels, mostly due to the writings of Ibn Yakub. The literary tradition of the Caliphate started out as propoganda for the new regime, but over time shifted towards a philosophy of moralism and humanism. Al-M'utadid encouraged many different Sunni theologies when the Ulema was first formed, but in the late 15th century many of them eventually phased out in favor of the Mu'tazila theology, one of the Neo-Platonic traditions of the Old Abbasid Dynasty. By the end of the Cloaked Jihad, the Ulema was entirely composed of Mu'tazila, but shortly after that it split between liberal and conservative factions. In the 1530s the liberal Mu'tazila, originally derived from Persian philosophy, merged into the Humanist philosophy imported from Europe.

This Arab Humanism was primarily led by the scholar Yahya Ibn Yakub, and was most popular among the younger generation. Arab Humanism holds to a belief that ultimate truth comes from God, but some levels of wisdom can be found in other religions with partial revelation, such as Judaism, Christainity, and Shia. It also holds an emphasis of theology being derived from collective faith of the common population, rather than handed down from an elite. Ibn Yakub continued to adhere to this philosophy even at the risk of his life until his execution in 1544.

After the Arab-Ethiopian War, the sudden rise of Humanists under the leadership of Mehmed Hassan eventually led to the Tables of Government reforming the Caliphate in 1556, as Caliph Al-Rahim was a proponant of Humanism himself. In the latter years of the Caliphate, the philosopher Abd Al-Rahman expanded this philosophy to create a more literal political ideology, forming the basis for the creation of the Rashidun Caliphate. The three philosophers of Ibn Yakub, Mehmed Hassan, and Abd Al-Rahman are seen as the three founding fathers of modern Arab Humanism.

One result of this emphasis on rational observance caused a persecution of ideas shrowded in superstition. In 1543, the Ulema voted to ban all divination and other forms of astrology, forcing mass persecution of Zoroastrians in the process.

A short list of great works of literature typical of the Abbasid Caliphate:
 * The Itinerary of Ibn Tulun by Mehmed Ibn Tulun As-Sagheer (1422)
 * La Makan by Yahya Ibn Yaqub (1537)
 * Al-Najm Al-Mashriq by anonymous (1538)
 * Romance of Al-Nu'uman and His Sons by Salman Al-Abbas (1540)
 * The Katrynia Cycle by Marko Herekropoli (1541)
 * The Al-Najm Authorized Qu'ran edited by the Council of Senior Scholars (1545)
 * The Life and Adventures of Al-Ankabut by Maryam Al-Harb (1546)
 * Hassanian Theses by Mehmed Hassan (1553)
 * Tides of Blood by Ayyob Al-Rajul (1554)
 * Darker Africa by Salah Ibn Tulun (1565)
 * The Mahdiya Sonnets by anonymous (1572)
 * The Book of Incheon by Dawud Ubaid (1578)
 * Return to Lamakan by Abd Al-Rahman (1579)
 * The Religions of China and India by Dawud Al-Baghdadi (1585)
 * The Kitab Al-Kabeer by Abdullah Salih (1593)

Antiquarianism
The Abbasids justified their rule through their historical connection to the Old Abbasid Dynasty, and just like the Old Abbasids they held a fascination for the history and origins of older civilizations, mainly in seeing how the flow of history since ancient and medieval times flowed into the modern Caliphate. From the moment Al-M'utadid founded the Library of Alexandria, he commissioned the scholars there to study the history and origins of Egypt. In 1416, they developed a system of dividing Egypt's history in three parts: Pagan Egypt under the Pharaohs (2188 - 31 BC), Christian Egypt under the Copts (31 BC - 644 AD), and Muslim Egypt under the Arabs (644 AD - Present). Even as the Caliphate transitioned from Egypt to the Middle East under Al-Najm the Great, this triad of historical heritage remained a fixture of the Abbasid symbolism.

Initially, this general fascination of history was very abusive to historical sites in Egypt, particularly the Pharaonic tombs that were routinely robbed and sold. However, proper Antiquarianism was formalized in the 1530s, developing proper procedures for preserving, protecting and interpreting ancient relics. This eventually led to the construction of the first modern Museum in Alexandria in 1553, and similar museums were built around Lower Egypt and Mesopotamia in the following decades. These procedures have formed the basis of archaeology and historiagraphy ever since.

The first archaeologic discoveries in Egypt were for the private use of the Abbasid family. As symbolic of the three historical traditions of Egypt, Al-M'utadid acquired three relics to be stored in the Citidel of Cairo as the three traditional treasures of Egypt: the Crown of Pharaoh Sesostris (of Pagan Egypt), the Ring of Saint Catherine (of Christian Egypt), and the Sword of Sultan Saladdin (of Muslim Egypt). When the capital moved to Damascus, Al-Najm ensured that these treasures were carefully moved to the citidel of Damascus, being representative of the seat of the Caliphate by that time. As the Treasures of Egypt remain in the private archives of the Caliphate to this day, modern histography remains uncertain to the authenticity.