Abdullah Al Saffah, the first Abbasid Caliph, had to establish his power against the threats from the remaining Umayyad enclaves in Syria and North Africa, as well as the Chinese Tang Empire who were encroaching on Central Asia. His itinerant rule was nominally centered in Kufa, in Mesopotamia, thus taking the capital of the Islamic Empire back to the Sasanian territories, after almost 100 years of rule from Damascus. Al-Saffah’s short rule ended in 754 when he died in Iraq and was replaced by his brother, the energetic Caliph Al-Mansur. Ruling until 775, Abu Jafar al-Mansur al-Dawaniqi ushered in the Golden Age of Abbasid rule and Islam, founding the great city of Baghdad, named Dar ul-Salam (“House of Peace”), in 762, establishing it as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, and the world of Islam, for the next 500 years (Source: Iranologie.com).
Impact of Mesopotamia and Assyria on Persia
