Arabic Islamic Empires Other Islamic Empires

							Arabic Islamic Empires
Other Islamic Empires
        Ummayads (Damascus)
          Abbasids (Baghdad)
     Malmuks (former slaves Cario)
        Seljuk Turks (Jerusulem)
(Ghazni & the Timurids) Sultanate at Dehli
           Ottomans (Istanbul)
World 6th – 7th century
                          Muhammad
• Born in Mecca around 570 AD
   – Shepard as a youth
   – Became a merchant
   – Married at 25 to a wealthy widow
• Troubled by idol worship
• At 40 went to a cave to meditate
   – Visited by Gabriel
   – Gabriel told him that he was the messenger of God
   – He was to be the prophet
• Muhammad urged Arabs to give up false gods and follow the
  one true god --- ALLAH
• Wife dies and merchants ask he and followers to leave Mecca
  and they are invited to Medina where Muhammad begins to
  unite the tribes
• Rituals and teachings established such as the Qu’ran and the
  call to pray
          Expansion under the Umayyads
•   After death of Muhammad Abu Bakr (632-34) elected Caliph (deputy or successor)
•   Fought the Ridda wars where other Bedouin were fought off
•   Continued Arab unification and fought with the Byzantine and Persian (Sasanid) Empires and
    began to take some of their territory
     –   Christians and Jews respected (Dhimmis)
     –   Extra taxes to not have to convert (Jizya)
•   Uthman took over (644-654)
     –   Codified the Qu’ran
     –   651 went deep into Sassanian territory
     –   Assassinated 654
•   Ali (son in law to Muhammad)
     –   Named Caliph but rejected by Ummayyad family (dynasty)
     –   Became Mecca vs. Medina clans and tribal tensions
     –   Those who recognize Ali and the blood line are Shiites
•   Those who recognize the 4 Caliphs as legitimate are the Sunnis
     –   Surplus of military energy and religious zeal made you qualified to be a general and these generals
         expanded via the weakness of Byzantine and Persia
•   Final split comes with the rule of Hasan who had retired and later expected to be named Caliph
•   Late 7th century: Islam spread to Asia
•   8th century: Spread to India, N. Africa, Spain
•   Threatened France, but Islamic armies were turned back by Charles Martel at the Battle of
    Tours (also called Poitiers) in 732
     –   Islam dominated the Mediterranean from Spain to central Asia
End of Umayyad rule in Middle East

• Abu al-Abbas wanted to end the
  Umayyad family.
  – Murdered all surviving members at a
    feast of reconciliation
  – One escaped, the grandson of the last
    Umayyad caliph, and fled to Spain
  – He established the Cordoba Caliphate.
  – It lasted until 1492 CE
              Islamic Empires
• Umayyad
  – Huge empire
  – Used local officials to govern
  – Capital – Damascus
• Abbasids
  – Captured Damascus
  – Killed Umayyads at a banquet
  – Capital -- Baghdad
            Arabic Islamic PC
•   570-632 -      Life of Muhammad
•   622-           Hijra
•   632            Muhammad’s hajj
•   661-750        Umayyad dynasty
•   750-1258       Abbasid dynasty (Abu-Abbas)
•   1050           Seljuk control
•   1058-1111      Life of al-Ghazali (philosopher)
•   998 – 1030     Mahmud of Ghazni (Sultan)
•   1226-1198      Life of Ibn Rushd
                      Law and
                      Government
                      • Sharia: laws based
                        on Quran
  Basic Duties:       • Sharia: laws that
  Five Pillars                                   Arabic
                        regulate government,
  • Faith                                        • Language in which
                        family, and community
  • Daily prayer                                   Quran must be read
  • Charity                                      • Language learned by
  • Fasting during                                 converts to Islam
    Ramadan                                      • Unifying force for
  • Pilgrimage to                                  Muslims from many
    Mecca (hajj)             Religion              regions


                             ISLAM

                          Way of Life
Holy Book: Quran                                    Women
• Considered sacred                                 • Men and women
  word of God                                         spiritual equals
• Final authority                                   • Women's rights
  in all matters      Arts                            and role limited
• Complete guide      • Ban against presenting        in worldly affairs
  for life              symbols of God
                      • Elaborate decoration
                        and architecture in
                        mosques
•   Muslim – one who submits                            Terms
•   Ulema – religious council
•
     Salat is the Muslim prayers, performed five times each day by every good Muslim
    Jizya – tax on dhimmis (people of the book) and those who were not Islamic
•   Zakat-Salat al-fajr: dawn, before sunrise
           Tax for charity obligatory for all Muslims
•         Salat al-zuhr: midday, after the noon hour
    Five Pillars of Faith - Shahadah , Salat, Zakat, Sawm,Hajj
•         Salat al-`asr: the late part of the
    Hadeeth Hadith -Teachings of the Propher afternoon
•         Salat al-maghrib:
    Fatwah - Scholars opinionsjust after sunset
•   Jihad=exertion & struggle
          Salat al`isha: between sunset and midnight
     –   Individually: self purification [22:77-78, 29:5-6]
     –   Socially: charity & sharing truth=Jihad [49:15, 25:52]
     –   In the battlefield: defense & liberation [2:190-193, 60:8-9]
•   Suras – Chapters within the Q’ruan
•   Hijrah - Flight to Medina
•   Immams Imams - Shi’ite leaders or guides
•   Dhimmis - Protected people or people of the book (Jews and Christians)
•   Hajib - Covering
•   Mullah - Islamic clergy. Ideally, they should have studied the Qur'an, Islamic traditions (hadith)
•   Political Terms
     – Sultan – Leader of the empire but not a successor to Mohammad
     – Vizer (Wazir) Chief administrative official undr the Abbasids
     – Caliph – successor to Mohammad
•   Mawali- Non-Arab converts to Islam
     – Eventually become very wealthy and a separate social class

•   Malmuks – enslaved peoples who converted and later form their own empire
•   Ayan - Wealthy landed elite in the Islamic empires
 Apex from which to spread the empire
• Harunu r-Rashid is the most famous of the Abbasid
  Caliphs.
• The Abbasid period, is recognized of being the one
  in Muslim history bringing the most elevated
  scientific works.
• The Muslim world continued the achievements of
  classical Europe (especially the 9th and 10th
  centuries), India and former science of the Middle
  East, during a period when Europe was unable
  contribute much to the cultural and scientific fields.
• The Abbasid era is often regarded as the     golden
  age of Muslim civilization.
   Quick Expansion center of control changes DBC
Damascus (Ummayad) –Baghdad (Abbasid)- Cairo –(Malmuks)
At first blocked by Byzantine &
             Sassanid
        Defeat at Byzantium
– 717: Caliph Suleiman wanted to end the Christian
  empire once and for all.
  • Attacked Constantinople with 80,000 troops and a strong
    naval force.
– Emperor Leo III beat off the attack. Besieging
  armies suffer through a cold winter
– 718: Must of the Muslim fleet destroyed by Greek
  Fire. Suleiman fled.
  • Leo III retook Asia Minor. Byzantium will last 500 years
    more.
        Greek Fire - exact composition
                  unknown

      Greek fire (sulphur, quick lime{calcium oxide}, petroleum)




composition include such chemicals as liquid petroleum, naphtha,
burning pitch, sulphur, resin, quicklime and bitumen, along with
some other "secret ingredient"
          Medical advancements
• Rhazes or al Razi – late 9th century
  – Chief physician in the Bagdad hospital
  – Described smallpox and used methods based on
    the Hippocratic Code and questioned Galen
     • Ethics of medicine
     • Reliance on clinical observation
     • Medicine not dependent on the Greek language and
       demonstrated more to the body than the “four humors” of
       Galen
             Umayyad Decline
• Series of weak self-indulgent rulers
• c. 750. The Merv Revolt
  – 50,000 Persian warriors settled in E. Iran
  – converted to Islam, fought in battles, but earned
    little booty
  – resented corrupt rule from Baghdad
  – When Umayyads sent troops to the area, revolt
    broke out!
            The Abbasid Revolt
• Revolt spread through the eastern provinces
• Resented Arab rule: the Mawali
• Marched under the Black Abbasid banner
• Abu al-Abbas, Muhammed’s uncle’s g.g.
  grandson
• Alliance with Shi’ite factions
    – 750: defeat the Umayyad caliph in the Battle of the
      River Zab
     The end of the Umayyads
• Abu al-Abbas wanted to end the Umayyad
  family.
• Murdered all surviving members at a feast of
  reconciliation
• One escaped, the grandson of the last
  Umayyad caliph, and fled to Spain
• He established the Cordoba Caliphate. It
  lasted until 1492 CE
          Abbasid Government
• Caliph ruled with large, complex bureaucracy
• Manned by Persians and Mawali
• Some aspects of universalism
• Diverse people united by Arabic language
  and Islam
• End of wars of expansion and conquest
  which meant less enslaved peoples
          Society Under the Abbasids
• Long Distance Trade with Banking and Letters of Credit along
  the Silk Road trade
• Export of Mesopotamia agriculture, Nile Agriculture, sheep,
  date palm.
• East Asian crops spread westward, including rice, sugar cane.
• Becomes a slave state as many western and north Africans
  captured during conquests work in Southern Iraq salt mines or
  forces into the military.
   – The military slaves are highly trained and later revolt and form a unit
     known as the Malmuks and create their own empire (Cario and
     foundations of what is today Egypt)
   – The Malmuks are the peoples that defeat the Mongolians and stop their
     advance into North Africa in 1260 at the Battle of Ain Jalut
   – This overall system is later adopted by the Persians and Ottomans as
     they train enslaved peoples to serve in their military and as peace
     keepers throughout their empires (called the Ghulam System)
   – Dhimmis are not enslaved
     Industry
• Textile Making
• Rug Weaving
   – High Art Armenia, Bokhara
• Chinese trade. Learned
  paper making
• Perfumes, medicines,
  cosmetics, art in ceramics,
  metals
• Imported Indian “0”
  developed algebra and
  trigonometry
• Glass works (wine bowl and
  glassworks of Arabic
  peoples)
           Intellectual Life
• Translated Greek and Roman classical
  works
• Philosophy, science, astronomy,
  geography, math
• No interest in mythology, drama or poetry
• Preserved and made additional
  contributions
• Worked particularly with Aristotle’s work
             Other Thinkers
• al-Biruni (973-1056)
  – Geography, Travels in India
• al-Kindi (d.870)
  – reconciled Islam with Neoplatonism
• al Farabi (d.950), Ibn Sina (Avicenna d.
  1036), Ibn Rushd (Averroes d. 1198)
  – All Islamic scholars of Aristotle
Map of the Abbasid Caliphate
            Trends Towards
            Decentralization
• Eventually turned against their Shi’ite allies
  and other factions
• Large empire lent itself to regionalism
• Numerous violent harem conspiracies and
  civil wars followed by more stable rulers
• Utilized slave armies of Africans, Slavs and
  Berbers that eventually became a political
  force known as Mamluks
     Weakened role in the region
• In 1055 the Turkish Seljuks conquered Baghdad, but this
  had little influence to the position of the Caliphs, who
  continued to play only his limited symbolical role.
• With the fall of the traditional Caliphate in 1258, when the
  Mongols took over Baghdad, a new line of Abbasid
  Caliphs continued in Cairo.
• In Cairo they played the same type of role as in Baghdad,
  but now even the symbolical role was limited by
  geography
• This, the last branch of Abbasids, stayed in office until
  1517.
   Arabic Language & writing
• calligraphy – beautiful
  writing is different from
  illuminated writing
• Arabic script has been
  used much more
  extensively for decoration
  and as a means of artistic
  expression                   The basmalah ("In the name of God the
• Language identifies and      Merciful the Compassionate" - the opening
                               words of the Quran) is here done in an
  connects “Arabs” more        elaborate thuluth script with the letters
                               joined so that the entire phrase is written
  than Latin connects the      without lifting the pen from the paper.

  “romanesque)
                             Arabesque
•   Quran does not prohibit the representation of humans or animals in
    drawings, or paintings, but as Islam expanded in its early years, it inherited
    some of the prejudices against visual art of this kind that had already taken
    root in the Middle East.
     – early Muslims tended to oppose figural art (and in some cases all art) as
         distracting the community from the worship of God and hostile to the
         strictly unitarian religion preached by Muhammad
     – all four of the schools of Islamic law banned the use of images and,
         declared that the painter of animate figures would be damned on the
         Day of Judgment.
•   Wherever artistic ornamentation and decoration were required, Muslim
    artists, forbidden to depict, human or animal forms, for the most part were
    forced to resort either to what has since come to be known as "arabesque"
     – These are designs based on strictly geometrical forms or patterns of
         leaves and flowers or, very often, to calligraphy.
•   Arabic calligraphy came to be used not only in producing copies of the
    Quran (its first and for many centuries its most important use), but also for
    all kinds of other artistic purposes as well
     – porcelain and metalware,
     – carpets and other textiles
     – Coins
     – architectural ornament (primarily on mosques and tombs but also,
         especially in later years, on other buildings as well).
     Succession: Abu Bakr (632-34)
• 632 Muhammed died without warning
• Abu Bakr elected Caliph (deputy, successor).
  Friend and early convert.
• Ali, son in law to Muhammed was passed over:
  Too young
• Bakr worked and led the movement.
• In the Ridda Wars he fought off Bedouin led by
  other Charismatic leaders.
• Battle of Siffen
  – Battle fought in 657 between Ali and the Umayyad
  – led to negotiations that fragmented Ali’s party
              Islam Spreads
• Bakr continued the Arab unification process
• Recognized the weakness of the
  Persian/Byzantine Empires
• They were at constant war with one another
• Began to take Byzantine territory
  – Christians and Jews respected: people of the
    book
  – Social restrictions, extra taxes
  – Some Christians saw Muslims as liberators
           Uthman (644-54)
• From the old Umayyad family. Former
  Meccan enemies of Muhammed now
  converted!
• Codification of the Qu’ran: Variants
  destroyed
• 651 Expansion deep into Sassanian
  territory (Persia)
• 654 Uthman assassinated.
        Division and Schism
• Ali’s supporters name him Caliph
  – The Ummayyads rejected him
• Ali refuses to prosecutes the assassins
  Ummayads later declare an open vendetta
  against him
  – Mecca vs Medina Clan tensions
  – Syrian and Iraqi factions
  – N/S Arabian tribal tensions
                   Hasan
• Retired for 19 years to enjoy the good life
• When Mu’awiya died, he went to Mecca
  with several followers expecting to be
  named Caliph.
• But the Umayyads appointed a new caliph,
  who surrounded Ali with an army.
• 679 Hasan led a great suicide charge. His
  head was sent to the capital.
• This would result in the Sunni-Shi’ite split
        Major Sects and 1st Schism
• Sunnis
  – 90% of Islam
  – Recognize 4 caliphs as legitimate
  – No Iman
• Shiites
  – 10% of Muslims (mainly in Persia, Lebanon, Yemen,
    Afghanistan)
  – recognize only Ali and blood relatives as successors
  – Imans: infallible, divinely guided, leaders of the faith
  – Green turbans: indicate a blood relative of the Prophet
  – Cult of Martyrdom
   Monks and Travelers and Political Authority
• Arabic Philosophers
   – Ibn Sina (Avicenna) – built on the works of Aristotle and wrote over
     500 works of philosophy and medical studies
   – Ibn-Rushd (Averroes) also built on works of Aristotle
   – Ibn-Khaldun – 14th century historian and recorder as he traveled
     around the Islamic world
   – Ibn Battuta – early 14th century, a ghaddi or Islamic religious
     scholar who traveled and recorded his travels
• Mansu Masa (Mali)
   – When Mansa Musa converted to Islam, he decided to make a
     pilgrimage to Makkah. As a king, however, he brought with him
     thousands of servants and soldiers, and a huge amount of gold.
     Everywhere he went, Mansa Musa lavished gold gifts on his hosts
     and made hundreds of purchases with gold. By putting so much
     gold into circulation in such a short time, he caused the value of
     gold to fall. Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage left people with an image of
     him as a great ruler of a powerful and prosperous kingdom. When
     he returned to Mali, he brought with him Islamic teachers and
     architects.
• Marco Polo – late 14th century traveler from Southern
  Europe through the Middle East to East Asia (not Islamic)
                  Quran – The Table
• Believers, be true to your obligations. It is lawful for you to eat
  the flesh of all beasts other than that which is hereby
  announced to you. Game is forbidden while you are on
  pilgrimage. Allah decrees what He will.
• Believers, do not violate the rites of Allah, or the sacred
  month, or the offerings or their ornaments, or those that repair
  to the Sacred House seeking Allah’s grace and pleasure.
  Once your pilgrimage is ended, you shall be free to go
  hunting.
• Do not allow your hatred for those who would debar you from
  the Holy Mosque to lead you into sin. Help one another in
  what is good and pious, not in what is wicked and sinful. Have
  fear of Allah, for He is stern in retribution.
• You are forbidden the flesh of animals that die a natural death,
  blood, and pig’s meat; also any flesh dedicated to any other
  than Allah.
• You are forbidden the flesh of strangled animals and of those
  beaten or gored to death; of those killed by a fall or mangled
  by beasts of prey (unless you make it clean)
Arabic Islamic Empires
Spread of Timurid (Tamerlane)Empires
             1300 - 1600