Born from revolution, the Abbasids didn’t just seize power—they reshaped the Islamic world and sparked a golden age of science, culture, and conquest.

Though little remembered in the west today, the Abbasids reigned for five centuries. They oversaw an era of Islamic military dominance... city-building… brilliant scholarship, and technological ...

Van Berkel who specialises in the Abbasids’ Empire, recalls that paper was introduced in Baghdad from China in the 8 th century. “The state maintained an extensive administrative system.