The project Early ’Abbāsid Use of Graeco-Roman Traditions to Project Imperial Authority and Power: A Reassessment of the material Culture and Written Sources will use an interdisciplinary approach to analyse the many ways the ’Abbāsid caliphs, from 754-861 CE, deliberately and dynamically used "Graeco-Roman" traditions to assert their political and religious authority, redressing the scholarship imbalance towards Persian traditions. It will challenge ideas of derivative cultures and urban declines in late antiquity and early Islam and rebalance our current understanding of where and with whom classical heritage lies by demonstrating the ownership of Graeco-Roman traditions that the ’Abbāsids felt and the use they made of those influences to create their own identity.
