The Abbasids (750-1258)

One of the first steps taken by the Abbasids (uh-BAHS-idz) was to move the capital from Damascus to Baghdad in Iraq, many miles to the east. The Abbasids would flourish for about 150 years, then rapidly lose power; yet they formally held control for half a millennium. During that time, Islamic civilization had its brightest flowering, producing achievements

Aladdin watches the genie emerge from the lamp in an illustration from The Thousand and

One Nights. Reproduced by permission of the Corbis Corporation.

The Thousand and One Nights

The Thousand and One Nights, better known as The Arabian Nights, contains some of the world's favorite tales: Aladdin and his magic lamp, Ali Baba and the forty thieves, and Sinbad the Sailor. From these stories come such familiar concepts as "Open sesame" (the phrase used by Ali Baba to enter a cave filled with treasure), magic carpets, and the genie in the bottle. The collection's 264 tales, first assembled in the 900s, originated from a variety of Persian, Arabian, and Indian sources. From Persia came the "frame story" that ties all the tales together.

It seems that Sultan Shahriyar (SHAR-ee-yar) had decided all women were unfaithful, so he resolved to marry a new wife each evening, then put her to death the next morning. But his bride Shahrazad (SHAR-uh-zahd), or Sheherazade (shuh-HAIR-uh-zahd), managed to stay alive by beginning a new story each night and finishing it the next night—at which time she would begin a new tale, and buy herself another night. After 1,001 nights, during which she produced three sons, the sultan gave up his plans to kill off his wives.

Beyond the imagination of most Western Europeans.

During this time, a number of great rulers, most notably Harun al-Rashid (hah-ROON al-rah-SHEED; ruled 786-809), led the caliphate. Harun was the subject of legend and is believed to be the model for the sultan in the Thousand and One Nights (see box); likewise the empire he ruled became legendary throughout the world. At a time when the primitive buildings of the Merovingians constituted Western Europe's greatest architectural achievements, the Abbasids built great mosques noted for the intricacy of their design. While superstition took the place of medicine in Europe, the Arabs founded a school for doctors in Baghdad; and just as European monks were starting to use parchment, the

Arabs were learning paper-making from captured Chinese prisoners.