Abbasid Caliphate

The Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads in 750 and moved the center of the Islamic world eastward to Baghdad. Because power shifted away from Syria and the Land of Israel, the region became less politically central. Jewish communities continued to live in the land, but many of the greatest Jewish centers of learning at this time were in Babylonia under Abbasid rule, where the Geonim led the academies of Sura and Pumbedita. From a Jewish perspective, this period is important because Babylonian Jewish scholarship became extremely influential while the Land of Israel remained under Muslim administration.