Anatomy of Institutional Decline: Late Abbasid Islamic Political Model and the Fragmentation of Global South Civilization

This paper analyzes the historical correlation between the adoption of the late Abbasid Islamic political model (post-11th century) and the institutional decline experienced by almost all Global South regions that adopted it. Through a historical institutionalism approach and comparative analysis, this research demonstrates that structural transformations occurring in the late Abbasid era—characterized by the orthodoxification of educa- tion (Nizamiyya system, 1067), the victory of Ash’arism over philosophical rationalism (Al-Ghazali, 1095), and the transition from an imperial bureaucracy to a patrimonial sultanate—created an institutionally systemically flawed blueprint. This model was subsequently disseminated to the Archipelago (Nusantara), India, Central Asia, Africa, and was even adopted by the Mongols post-Islamic conversion, with consistent results: politi- cal fragmentation, economic stagnation, endemic corruption, and the inability to build a stable modern state. These findings suggest that the decline was not caused by Islamic theology (evidenced by the success of the Muhammad–Umayyad era), but rather by institutional path dependency that began in the 11th century and con- tinues into the 21st century [1, 4].