This research paper explains how conflicts between rural and urban interests were expressed in Western Asia from the 12th to the 17th centuries. Tensions between those groups increased during the latter period of the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258) because of the disruption in rural areas caused by the decline of the central power of that dynasty, increasingly onerous taxing policies, a decline in agriculture and the social and economic disruption which occurred due to war and other causes. The Ottoman Empire restored peace and stability to these regions for many centuries, but its rule was sporadically interrupted by provincial, pastoral and rural unrest which assumed serious proportions as the power of the central Ottoman Empire began to decline during the 17th century.