By Sasha Alex Lessin, Ph.D. (Anthropology, UCLA) The Abbasids, descended from Mohammad’s uncle al-Abbas, won the Islamic Caliphate. They shifted the Muslim Caliphate’s center of power eastward toward their capital in Iraq and Persia (Iran). The Abbasids, like all the Muslim rulers since, claim to follow the precepts and direct orders of a so-called god, …








