It is easy to think that the Abbasid caliphate was an “Arab” empire. The emperors themselves were proud to trace their lineage back to Abbas, uncle of Prophet Muhammad. Yet within 150 years of its founding, Arab genes made up 2% of the genetic makeup of the emperors, and this remained so until the very end.
The first significant emperor with Indo-European genes was the half-Persian al-Ma’mun, who had his capital at the Persian city of Merv in Central Asia for ten years before moving to Baghdad. During his reign a trend started for preferring Greek and Persian concubines for producing the next generation of emperors, so that the amount of Arab genes declined to insignificant amounts. Al-Muqtadir, who reigned from 908 – 929 CE was nearly 98% Indo-European.
It can be seen from the table below that the Abbasid caliphate was an Arab empire at its beginning, transformed into an Indo-European empire (with four successive emperors having 97%+ Indo-European genes!) during its Golden Age, then started to increasingly mix with Turkic genes during its decline.
| Reign | Name | Father | Mother | Race | Indo-European Percentage* |
| 750 – 754 | Al-Saffah | Muhammad (Arab) | Raita (Arab) | 100% Arab | 0% |
| 754 – 775 | Al-Mansur | Muhammad b. Ali (Arab) | Sallamah (Berber slave) | 50% Arab, 50% Berber | 0% |
| 775 – 785 | Al-Mahdi | Al-Mansur | Arwi (Yemeni Arab) | 75% Arab, 25% Berber | 0% |
| 786 – 809 | Harun al-Rashid | Al-Mahdi | Al-Khayzuran (Arab slave) | 87.5% Arab, 12.5 Berber | 0% |
| 813 – 833 | Al-Ma’mun | Harun al-Rashid | Marajil (Persian slave) | 50% Persian, 43.75% Arab, 6.25% Berber | 50% |
| 833 – 842 | Al-Mu’tasim | Harun al-Rashid | Marida (Turkic slave) | 50% Turkic, 25% Persian, 21.875% Arab, 3.125 Berber | 25% |
| 842 – 847 | Al-Wathiq | Al-Mu’tasim | Qaratis (Byzantine Greek slave) | 50% Greek, 12.5% Persian, 10.9375% Arab, 1.5625% Berber | 62.5% |
| 847 – 861 | Al-Mutawakkil | Al-Mu’tasim | Shuja (Persian slave) | 56.25% Persian, 25% Greek, 5.46875% Arab, 0.78125% Berber | 81.25% |
| 870 – 892 | Al-Mu’tamid | Al-Mutawakkil | Fityan (Persian slave) | 78.125% Persian, 12.5 Greek, 2.734375% Arab, 0.390625% Berber | 90.625% |
| 892 – 902 | Al-Mu’tadid | al-Muwaffaq, son of Al-Mutawakkil and Umm Ishaq, a Greek slave. Race: 56.25% Greek, 39.0625% Persian, 1.3671875% Arab, 0.1953125% Berber) | Dirar (Greek slave) | 78.125 Greek, 19.53125% Persian, 0.68359375% Arab, 0.09765625% Berber | 97.655% |
| 902-908 | Al-Muktafi | Al-Mu’tadid | Jijak (Greek slave) | 89% Greek, 9.7% Persian, 0.34% Arab, 0.04% Berber | 98% |
| 908 – 929 | Al-Muqtadir | Al-Mu’tadid | Shaghab (Greek slave) | 94.5% Greek, 4.88% Persian, 0.17% Arab, 0.02% Berber | 98% |
| 946 – 974 | Al-Muti | Al-Muqtadir | Slavic slave | 50% Slavic, 47.26% Greek, 2.44% Persian, 0.08% Arab, 0.01% Berber | 98% |
| 974 – 991 | Al-Ta’i | Al-Muti’ | Unknown | 50% Unknown, 25% Slavic, 23.6% Greek, 1.22% Persian | 49.82% |
| 991 – 1031 | Al-Qadir | Al-Muttaqi, son of al-Muqtadir. Race: 50% Unknown, 47.2% Greek, 2.44% Persian, 0.08% Arab | Slave of uknown origin | 75% Unknown, 23.6% Greek, 1.2% Persian (Al-Qadir is described as being “white” in history books, therefore it is likely that his mother was Greek or Persian) | 24.8% |
| 1031 – 1075 | Al-Qa’im | Al-Qadir | Badr al-Daji (Armenian slave) | 50% Armenian, 37.5% Unknown, 11.8% Greek, 0.6% Persian | 62.4% |
| 1075 – 1094 | Al-Muqtadi | Al-Qa’im | Urjuman (Armenian slave) | 75% Armenian, 18.75% Unknown, 5.9% Greek | 80.9% |
| 1094 – 1118 | Al-Mustazhir | Al-Muqtadi | Altun Khatun (Turkic woman, prob. Seljuk princess) | 50% Turkic, 37.5 Armenian, 9% Unknown, 2.95% Greek | 40.45% |
| 1118 – 1135 | Al-Mustarshid | Al-Mustazhir | Kumush Khatun (Turkic woman, probably Seljuk princess) | 75% Turkic, 18.75% Armenian, 4.8% Unknown, 1.47% Greek | 20.22% |
| 1136 – 1159 | Al-Muqtafi | Al-Mustazhir | Fatima Khatun (Turkic woman, probably Seljuk princess) | 87.5% Turkic, 9.375% Armenian, 2.34% Unknown, 0.73% Greek | 10.1% |
| 1160 – 1170 | Al-Mustanjid | Al-Muqtafi | Tawus (“Thawus”) al-Karaji, slave (Most likely Persian, al-Karaji refers to the city of Karaj in Iran in Medieval last names) | 50.019% Persian, 43.75% Turkic, 4.68% Armenian, 1.1% Unknown, 0.3% Greek | 55% |
| 1170 – 1180 | Al-Mustadi | Al-Mustanjid | Ghaddah (Armenian slave) | 52.3% Armenian, 25% Persian, 21.8% Turkic | 77.3% |
| 1180 – 1225 | Al-Nasir | Al-Mustadi | Zumurrud (Turkic slave) | 60.9% Turkic, 26.1% Armenian, 12.5% Persian | 38.6% |
| 1226 – 1242 | Al-Mustansir | Az-Zahir, son of al-Nasir and unknown mother. Race: 50.14% Unknown, 30.4% Turkic, 13.08% Armenian, 6.25% Persian) | Turk Khatun (Turkic slave) | 65.2% Turkic, 25% Unknown, 6.5% Armenian, 3.1% Persian | 9.6% |
| 1242 – 1258 | Al-Mustasim | Al-Mustansir | Concubine of unknown origin | 62.5% Unknown, 32.6% Turkic, 3.2% Armenian, 1.5% Persian | 4.7% |
Sources: Wikipedia, The Slave Girls of Baghdad by F. Matthew Caswell, Islam in History by Bernard Lewis, Islamic Culture, Volume 2 (1928), various Arabic-language sources.
The table omits emperors who ruled for very short periods of time and/or who did not contribute to the genes of succeeding emperors.
* The values in this column are capped to 98%: Due to the fact that the Y-chromosome can only be inherited from one’s male relatives, and due to the fact that it makes up 2% of the genome, the Y-chromosome of the emperors would have been necessarily Arab, and therefore their percentage “Arab-ness” couldn’t have fallen below 2%, so that the most Indo-European that an Abbasid emperor could be would have been 98% realistically.