(750–1258) The second of the two great Sunnite dynasties of the Islamic Caliphate. The 'Abbasids took their name from an uncle of the Prophet
Muhammad
, al-'Abbas, whose descendants formed one of several groups agitating for change under the
Umayyad dynasty
. The Umayyad enforcement of a brand of Arab chauvinism, wherein non-Arab Muslims were relegated to a lower status, led to a revolution in which the 'Abbasids claimed the Caliphate and enforced a more universal community of believers. This was symbolized by their movement of the caliphal capital from
Damascus
to
Baghdad
, an area closer to the geographic centre of the empire and ...