Page "Merv" Paragraph 6

Throughout the Abbasid era, Merv remained the capital and most important city of Khurasan.

During this time, the Arab historian Al-Muqaddasi called Merv “ delightful, fine, elegant, brilliant, extensive, and pleasant .” Merv's architecture perhaps provided the inspiration for the Abbasid re-planning of Baghdad.

The city was notable for being a home for immigrants from the Arab lands as well as from Sogdia and elsewhere in Central Asia ( Herrmann 1999 ).

Merv's importance to the Abbasids was highlighted in the period from 813 to 818 when the temporary residency of the caliph al-Ma ' mun effectively made Merv the capital of the Muslim world.

Merv was also the center of a major 8th-century Neo-Mazdakite movement led by al-Muqanna, the “ Veiled Prophet ”, who gained many followers by claiming to be an incarnation of God and heir to Abu Muslim ; the Khurramiyya inspired by him persisted in Merv until the 12th century.