Hitit İlahiyat Dergisi

Öz

States rise on the foundations provided by the geographies on which they are founded. These foundations not only provide a state with the economic conditions to sustain itself but also have the characteristics that determine its existence. In determining their borders and building their roads and fortresses with the awareness of this situation, the rulers aim both to develop their economic conditions and to protect themselves against their enemies. As a natural consequence of these propositions, it is possible to claim that every state may have a geographical consciousness. This consciousness, which establishes the relationship between geography and political power, can be seen in the example of the Caliphate administration and especially the Abbasid state in the first centuries of Islamic history. According to some scholars, the power-geography relationship that determines the form of geographical writing in the classical period gains different dimensions when it comes to the Abbasids. The activities of the caliphs and their approach to their geographies during the Abbasid period, when the earliest examples of Muslim geographical writing can be seen, reveal how the power-geography relationship was shaped in the context of security and economics. Based on this approach, this study will review the power-geography relationship in the Abbasids, the last political link of the early period of Islam, within the framework of the caliphs' construction activities and the steps they took in shaping their state. For this purpose, first of all, the process of centring the state in Iraq and the construction of Baghdad as the capital will be discussed. Then, the policy of the caliphs during the first two centuries of the Abbasids in the cities of Rey and Raqqa, which will be described as bridgehead cities, will be reviewed. Finally, the recovery process of the Abbasid central power after the Sāmarrā period will be evaluated.
The study is based on the idea that the Abbasids formed their politics with a strong geographical thought. This idea is derived from a doctoral thesis titled Power, Economy, and Geography in the Abbasids (132-292/751-908): A Study in the Context of Ibn Khaldūn's Approach. Examples from the Abbasid world of situations such as the shaping of power with geographical knowledge and positioning itself on the earth are examined with this idea. For this purpose, priority will be given to the sources that reveal the views of the caliphs, who were the main actors of the Abbasid politics, on their geography and the approaches of authors such as Ibn al-Muqaffa', Belāzurī, Ya'qūbī, Tabari, Ibn Hurdazbih, Ibn al-Faqih and Qudāma b. Ja'far, a significant number of whom held state positions during the Abbasid period. Thus, an "Abbasid perspective" will be tried to be determined with the approaches of the caliphs and Abbasid scribes. While Ibn Khaldūn, with his analysis of the main impact of geography as an issue on the Abbasid power, will be a source that determines the basic approach of the study, the evaluations of Ibn al-Ṭtakā, who analyses the caliphate as a whole, will also have an important place. In addition, studies on the foundation of Baghdad, the economic history of the cities of Rey and Raqqa, and the reforms during the reign of Caliph Mu'tazid will be consulted. The works of Paul Heck and Abbasid scribes/bureaucrats such as Hayrettin Yücesoy will also be included for basic determinations on Muslim geography.
In the study, it was seen that the Abbasids established their direct administration in the most ideal region for human life as seen in the works written in their era, and handed over the administration of the parts of the caliphate geography that were out of their hands. It was evaluated that the process of choosing Iraq as the centre and the location of Baghdad was a reflection of a perspective that prioritised security and economy. When the interest of the Abbasid caliphs in the cities of Rey and Raqqa was examined, it was seen that the caliphs wanted to control the roads leading to the east and west as a complementary issue to the determination of the geography of the administration and the determination of the location of the centre and the capital. As seen in the last issue examined, the reforms of the Caliph Mu'tazid period and the reconstruction of the central power of the state reaffirmed the geographical concept formed until this period