The Abbasid people represent the Abbasid Caliphate, an Exploration Age civilization in Civilization VII.
The Abbasids' civilization ability is Medina, which grants 
Gold for each 
Rural Population whenever a 
Specialist is created. Their associated 
Wonder is the House of Wisdom, and their unique components are as follows:
Unique Units: Mamluk (military), 'Alim (civilian)- Unique Buildings: Madrasa, Mosque
- Unique Quarter: Ulema
- Unique Civics: Round City, Mawla, Al-Jabr
- Traditions: City of Peace, Compendious Book, Sales and Trade
Intro[]
The second of the great Arab caliphates, the Abbasid Dynasty is the heart of wisdom. As the knowledge of the world and the heavens flows inwards to Abbasid libraries, Abbasid scholars are guided by the tenets of their faith, and their devotion to expanding the frontiers of science and commerce. Seek, read, discover - the world is yours.
Tips and hints[]
With the City of Peace Tradition, Buildings around the City Center receive additional Science adjacencies. Put Specialists on those tiles to really make number go up.
Strategy[]
Abbasid's kit focuses on building up large cities, defending them from would-be conquerors, and enhancing specialists, primarily in their unique quarter. They are almost single-mindedly science focused, however their unique quarters buff to specialists rewards them no matter where they put their specialists. Getting the most out of them requires planning your cities territory out ahead of time, so that 2 or more nearby cities can collaborate together to get the most out of their Ulema district.
Civ Ability - Medina[]
There's not much to say about this ability, as it's more of a "cherry on top" rather than a big bonus to play around, however it does push you into making sure as many new pops become specialists as possible. Being rewarded with bursts of cash helps make it easier to buy Medieval Walls and military units in any of your more vulnerable border-towns, or convert more towns into cities without having a massive focus on gold generation.
Military Unit - Mamluk[]
First, the bad stuff - Mamluks have 5 combat strength less than the standard cavalry units they replace. However, they gain +1 combat strength for every urban population in a settlement they're stationed in. This makes them bad for conquering, but powerful on defense - so long as the settlement they're defending has a lot of urban populations. This presents a dilemma - normally you don't want to invest too hard in settlements placed on your border that serve as a buffer between a neighbour and your core territory, as there is a risk of losing it. However your ability to defend these settlements as the Abbasids is worse- unless you invest a lot of resources into rapidly building them up and adding specialists, so that Mamluks get back the power they lost.
Infrastructure - Ulema[]
Rather than give the Madrasa and Mosque their own sections, the quarter functions as one full package - there is almost no situation you will ever prefer to build these separately in a city. The Ulema gives you +1 science to all specialists in the city - reason all by itself why you should want to build this in every city you possibly can. The Madrasa has +1 science adjacency on science buildings, quarters, and wonders. The Mosque has +1 happiness adjacency on culture buildings and wonders, and +1 culture adjacency on happiness buildings and wonders. Ulema's can get up to +3 adjacency from a single tile - if the tile contains a wonder, they have +1 adjacency to science, culture, and happiness. If the tile is a quarter, as long as it contains a mixture of science, happiness or culture buildings, you will get +3 adjacency spread over those 3 yields based on the contents of those quarters (though at least 1 of that 3 adjacency will ALWAYS be to science). Ordinarily, a quarter containing 2 buildings can get at most 2 adjacency from a single tile next to it, making Ulemas the supreme quarter for stacking high adjacency, and thus the highest yield tiles to place your specialists. However, most science/culture/happiness quarters have to be rebuilt each age, so the strength of their specialists temporarily regresses at the start of each new age.
An example formation for how to build your cities is to have 2 cities collaborate to place 2 science quarters and 2 Ulemas next to each other, in a diamond shape, such that each Ulema is next to the other Ulema + both Science Quarters. This formation grants both Ulemas 8 Science adjacency and 1 Culture adjacency (and this only gets higher as you place more culture/happiness quarters and wonders around them). For comparison, a Science quarters needs to be next to 4 resources/wonders to hit 8 science adjacency. Being able to build up your Ulema as the primary science district frees up resource adjacency for your production buildings. It's worth noting that other civ unique buildings count towards the adjacency requirements for Madrasas and Mosques too, and since they are ageless their adjacency persists at the start of each era - this makes, Greece, Maurya and especially the Mayans all very good antiquity age options to pivot into the Abbasids with, as in all cases both of their unique buildings assist the adjacency of Ulemas.
Sometimes, there isn't a lot of good space in a city to place quarters around an Ulema (example, the city is on the coast and doesn't own much territory). In these cases, you will prefer to work specialists in other districts that need less dedicated building space to aid their adjacency. It's still worth building an Ulema in these cases, as you get extra science from those specialists, and some happiness with which to support them.
Finally, the first Mosque you build allows you to found a religion without building a temple. While not a huge bonus, it does allow you to ignore Piety to focus on the Abbasid unique civics straight away, and ensures you get a decent pick of Reliquary belief to make completing the Toshakhana legacy path easier. You should probably research the civic that unlocks Mosques first for better chances of getting the belief you want, as the civic also boosts your production towards buildings in cities with high urban population. Mosques are not a replacement for temples: temples can still provide culture and science adjacency to your Ulema, and you still need them to exhibit your relics and to train missionaries
Great People - 'Alim[]
Theres not that much to be said about the 'Alim. Many of them allow you to get buildings for free and add extra resource to that individual building, making it easier to hit the 40 required tile yield with fewer specialists for Enlightenment. But this is already pretty trivial for the Abbasids anyway, so it's not worth it to worry about maximising them too much. Another way you could use those 'Alim are to rapidly develop a new settlement -either in distant lands, or on a contested settlement, so that Mamluks have more combat power to defend with. Other notable 'Alim are:
- Rabia of Basra and Al-Jāḥiẓ - more happiness in a city allows you to support more specialists.
- Al-Shaybani - extra social policy slot
- Al-Jazari - grows more specialists in your cities (this appears to be bugged at present however).
- Al-Farabi - a free, random technology lets you save this to grab a quick future tech for a wildcard attribute point once the rest of the tree is finished. Try to use them immediately after researching a first future tech, to get the second, more expensive one for 2 wildcard attributes before the age ends.
Associated Wonder - House of Wisdom[]
While a wonder which adds science to great works seems like a fantastic fit for the Abbasids, the reality is that the amount of science you get from this will be very small in comparison to the science you get from the rest of their kit. Still, 3 free relics means you need to sink less production into missionaries to complete Toshakhana, and Wonders allow you to squeeze more adjacency out of Ulema which have run out of Science/culture/happiness buildings to place near them. All in all, not a key benefit to playing the Abbasids, though you will still want to research the Civic that unlocks this building due to it lessening Specialist upkeep.
Civics and Traditions[]
It's imperitive you get Round City, it's associated mastery civic and Mawla first thing, so you can get your religion founded, construct your first Ulema as fast as possible, and get food added to your science buildings so that your cities can grow even faster. The second tier of Abbasid civics can wait a little bit, as you will probably want to progress the normal civics to get access to the ability to enhance your religion, build merchants or increase your settlement cap.
Note that the +4 food on science buildings benefit from Round City mastery applies not only to regular exploration science buildings, but also Golden Age Academies and Civ Unique science buildings, such as the Madrasa or the Mayan K'uh Nah.
Recommended Antiquity Age Civilizations[]
- Egypt unlocks the Abbasids by default, can rush build wonders even in production deprived areas to set up future Ulema sites, and their Mastaba unique building provides Adjacency to Ulemas.
- Greece, the Maya and Maurya all have 2 buildings which both buff Ulema Adjacency. In particular, one of the Mayans unique buildings is a science building and can get +4 food added to it, and Mayan traditions add Science and Culture to happiness buildings, which the Abbasids want a lot of.
- Similar to the previous bullet point, Assyria has a unique science building, which can get +4 food. It also unlocks the Abbasids.
- The Khmer's associated wonder is Angkor Wat, and their unique traditions include +100% food and happiness towards specialist maintenance.
The civilizations in the bottom and second bullet points all require you unlock Abbasids by owning 3 sources of improved Camels tiles or playing as Ibn Battuta, Hatshepsut, Xerxes, Ada Lovelace, Amina, Augustus or Isabella. It can also be unlocked by enabling bypass civilization unlocks.
Recommended Leaders[]
- Ibn Battuta unlocks the Abbasids by default. His extra wildcard attribute points allow you to grab a multitude of buffs to specialists early, including +1/2 science/culture on each specialist, extra food and happiness towards maintaining specialists, and extra specialist cap. He's also Expansionist, so can use Farmers Markets to grow his cities faster.
- Ada Lovelace also unlocks the Abbasids by default and greatly appreciates the strong Science and Culture bonuses offered by the Abbasids.
- Charlemagne gets free Mamluks for defensive purposes every time he enters a celebration, and Happiness adjacency from quarters on science buildings plays into how the Abbasids want to build their cities.
- Confucius grows Abbasid cities faster and adds extra science to their specialists. He also has access to the Farmers Markets Endeavour.
- Friedrich (Oblique) gains free infantry units from building Madrasas, and can use those to front-line offensive attacks while Mamluks defend your territory.
- Himiko, Queen of Wa can get +25% science from her Friend of Wei Endeavour, which scales your already-massive science potential.
Recommended Mementos[]
- Brush and Scroll: +5% Growth Rate in Cities for every Specialist in that city (Max 25%).
- Altar Set: +1 Culture from Specialists.
- The Analects: +1 Science from Specialists
- Golden Seal Stone: +1 Influence per Age on Science buildings.
- Glass Armonica: +10% Science and Happiness when in an Alliance for you and your ally.
Victory Conditions[]
Abbasid is almost single-mindedly focused on pushing your science to obscene levels, and as such they work best pushing towards a Science victory in the modern age. They completely trivialise Enlightenment in Exploration, and have incentives to progress Toshakhana via their associated wonder. They have no bonuses to making Treasure Fleets, and are actively penalised in offensive combat, making them worse at fighting over already-claimed treasure resources in distant lands. Needless to say, they will likely need to settle their own 6 cities in distant lands and have them all converted at once to complete Non-Sufficit Orbis.
Civilopedia entry[]
Before Islam, Arabia was a space divided. Bedouin nomad networks connected and clashed with settled peoples, and many were torn between families and clans. It was a land of deep interconnection, with trade routes linking India and Europe, down through the Red Sea and the east coast of Africa. Religions were diversely arranged; local polytheism coexisted with Judaism and, in time, Christianity. However, the events of the early 600s truly shaped the region – and the world.
Islam grew from a synthesis of Arab polytheism, Judaism, and Christianity, especially in ascetic movements (hanif). Followers attribute Muhammad with divine revelation around 610 CE. As a leader, he sought to unify fractious tribes under the banner of his new, monotheistic religion. Naturally, this brooked opposition from other cities and other tribes, provoking wars of expansion outside of Arabia and into Byzantine and Persian lands.
Upon Muhammad’s death, a question arose: who would succeed him? This query is often faced by empires born from a single person, plaguing the successors of Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, and Alexander the Great. The interplay between Muslim caliphates (and the split between Sunni and Shi’a Islam) continuously revolved around debates over who was closest to the Prophet, in lineage and behavior. Another issue with which early caliphates struggled was the role of non-Arabs and non-Muslims within their ranks.
This diversity grew as the caliphates expanded. Large numbers of Christians were moving into Byzantine territory, and those entering Persian lands found a wealthy and educated Persian elite who were resistant to speaking Arabic. Caliphates wondered: could non-Arabs convert? What about Muslims who did not hold centrist beliefs, a problem that increased as the descendants of Muhammad (the Shi’a) split from the descendants of his appointed rulers (the Sunni)? Under the second great caliphate, the Umayyads, clear hierarchies were established: non-Arabs lived as second-class citizens, and the Shi’a were actively repressed. Discontent grew, especially in the Persian east.
The Abbasid Revolution (750 CE) was a strategic play. Assassins filtered out across the Umayyad empire, disguised as missionaries and agitators. Descendants of Muhammad’s uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, spearheaded the movement, using their familial link to convince the Shi’a of their closer ties. To non-Arabs, they promised equal legitimacy for all Muslims regardless of ethnicity, permitting non-Muslims to live in the empire so long as they paid the jizya, a special tax.
After their defeat, the Umayyads fled west, to Spain, and the focus of the Muslim world turned east, becoming far more Persified, while still heavily Arab.
The Abbasids moved the capital of the Caliphate from Damascus to Baghdad – a city they built, and which imbued added Persian character to the empire. Then the Abbasids expanded, incorporating new non-Arab peoples from the southern Somali coast and eastern Persian lands. At first, the Abbasids clashed with Tang China, but they later established warm relations, fighting alongside Tang dynasty soldiers against rebellions. Even Charlemagne sent delegates to Baghdad, and they were awed by Abbasid technology and culture (a clock they brought back was famously deemed a work of magic, as Frankish scholars could not discern how it worked). Such friendly relations should not be surprising even given Charlemagne’s strong anti-Muslim push – recall that Charlemagne sought to usurp Byzantine claims to the title of Rome and aimed to expel the Umayyad domination of Spain – both key Abbasid enemies.
By the ninth century, continued expansion required deeper thought on how to administer these far-flung provinces. The Abbasids came to rely upon existing Persian bureaucratic systems as a solution. And within Baghdad, prosperity reigned. The golden age of the empire came under Haroun Al-Rashid, a reign that established the Abbasids as the center of the world – a claim that others from Constantinople or Xi’an might contest.
But expansion proved to be the dynasty’s undoing. Given enough autonomy, the distant provinces saw a chance for complete independence. Accordingly, Persian states in the east, mamluks (Turkish mercenaries) in Egypt, and Arab Morocco all broke off to go their separate ways; by 1000 CE, North Africa had been entirely lost to the Fatimids, a Shi’a dynasty based in Egypt. The Abbasids had also inherited the Persians’ perennial war with the Byzantines – Byzantine/Arab battles over Anatolia were a constant back-and-forth that sapped the coffers of both empires and contributed to constant instability.
These factors led to an overall decline as the Abbasids fell to outside powers. The first blow came from the Buyid Emirs, a Persian Shi’a dynasty that slowly rose to power in the east, eventually coming to control Baghdad and holding the Abbasid court under its “protection.” Then the Seljuk Turks invaded in the late 900s, prompting a bitter struggle over control of Baghdad between the Buyids, Abbasid remnants, and Turks. Compared to these events, the European invasions known as the Crusades mattered little – they were seen from Baghdad as another tiresome assault by Byzantine mercenaries (ones that could be opportunistically mobilized against their enemies, the Seljuks).
The Abbasids briefly regained control of Baghdad in the 12th century, a struggling, shuddering period that only really achieved power for a few decades before a calamity from the east arrived. Genghis Khan swept into Baghdad in 1258, ending the Abbasid period. The Mongols were so in awe of Abbasid wealth that they balked at spilling the Caliph’s blood – so they wrapped him in a carpet and had horses trample him to death.
However, the Abbasid Dynasty was not broken. They re-formed under mamluk control in Egypt, where they reigned until the 16th century. Still, their moment at the center of the world had been shattered.
An Abbasid hadith (holy saying) states, “the ink of a scholar is more holy than the blood of a martyr,” and Abbasid society made this aspiration a reality. The Abbasids were consummate inventors. It is an Abbasid legacy that so many mathematic and astronomic terms have Arabic origins (e.g. algebra, algorithm, nadir, zenith, etc.). Works in literature and philosophy, as well as more concrete sciences such as architecture, were perfected in the Abbasid court; Gothic cathedrals in Europe mimic styles developed in the Middle East. The city of Baghdad was a wonder – a round, planned city that awed travelers and other visitors from all regions. Baghdad’s center of knowledge was the pinnacle of its time: the House of Wisdom, a place that welcomed scholars from all religious backgrounds to pursue science, medicine, philosophy, and the like.
The Abbasids occupied the crossroads of the world. As such it imported raw materials from East and West while exporting finished goods; silk, glass, ivory, and jewels flowed in and out of the artisan workshops and markets of Baghdad and Cairo during Abbasid times. While Western discourses on the Renaissance emphasized the discovery of classical Antiquity through Western scholars, Muslims were actively involved in translating and elaborating upon the works of Greek writers, especially Aristotle.
Despite the initial Persian focus, over time the Abbasids moved their conquered lands toward greater Arabization, including a relative decline in the status of women and non-Muslims. Under the Abbasids, Islam also became disassociated from the Caliphate. Whereas in previous caliphates the ruler could claim to rule the entirety of Islam, with the flight of the Umayyads and the expansion of Islam to other realms (including Southeast Asia and Africa), the Abbasids were only one of many Muslim domains.
In short, the legacy of the Abbasids was in the Arabization of the Middle East and beyond; the preservation and elaboration of Classical texts; and massive advancements in science, mathematics, and technology. We continue to see their legacy in our math and astronomy, and their presence formed the world’s heartbeat during their not-too-brief time on it.
Cities[]
Trivia[]
- The Abbasid civilization's symbol is a girih (گره) or knot, a decorative geometric pattern commonly found in Islamic art and architecture, and resembles 8-pointed star knots in the Abbasid Palace of Baghdad.
- The Abbasid civilization ability is the Arabic word (مدينة) for "city", old walled quarters of cities in the Arab world, particularly in Morocco and other countries in the Maghreb. In the case of the Abbasids, the word refers to the citadel or "Round City" of Baghdad.
Soundtrack[]
| Original Track | № | Based on | Credits | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "The Abbasids (Exploration Age)" | 21 | Khorshid Nimeh Shab | Composed by Geoff Knorr Performed by Karim Nagi, Victor Ghannam, Naeif Rafeh, & Niccolo Seligmann |
5:04 |
Gallery[]
.jpg "Abbasid city in-game (Civ7).jpg (1.72 MB)")
.png "Mamluk in-game (Civ7).png (803 KB)")
.png "Ulema in-game (Civ7).png (971 KB)")
.png "House of Wisdom in-game (Civ7).png (3.89 MB)")
.png "Abbasid Background (Civ7).png (1.22 MB)")
Videos[]
See also[]
- Abbasid in other games
External links[]
| Civilization VII Civilizations [edit] | |
|---|---|
| Antiquity | |
| Exploration | |
| Modern | |
| 1 Requires DLC | |