Introduction to the Medieval World: Class 6
Class 6: Arab Kingdoms and Islamic Empires: Ummayads, Abbasids,
and Turks
Assigned Reading:
- Hollister, 78-86
- Map: The First 25 Years of Conquest
- Map: The Islamic Empire in 750
- The Pact of Umar, 7th Century
- Anonymous Arab Chronicler: The Battle of Poitiers, 732
- Story from the Thousand and One Nights
[caution: very rude!]
- WWW Extra: Oleg Grabar. Ceremonial and Art at the Umayyad Court.
PhD Dissertation, Princeton Univ 1955. Chap. I. The Umayyad Royal
Idea and its Expression under Mu'awiyah I. pp 18 ff
- WWW Extra: Oleg Grabar. The Formation of Islamic Art, (New
Haven: Yale Univ Press, 19??), pp. 43- 71,.Chap. 3 "The Symbolic
Appropriation of the Land"
- WWW Extra: Gaston Wiet. Baghdad: Metropolis of the Abbasid Caliphate,
(Norman OK: Univ of Oklahoma Press, 19?? ) Chap. 5
- WWW Extra: Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr. A Concise History of the Middle East.
Chap. 8. "Islamic Civilization"
- WWW Extra: Bernard Lewis. Race and Slavery in the Middle East, (New
York: Oxford Univ Press 1994) Chap 1. "Slavery".
- WWW Extra: Fred Donner. The Early Islamic Conquests, (Princeton:
Princeton Univ Press, 1981), pp.251 ff - Chapter VI. "Conclusions:
1. Tribe and State in Arabia: Second Essay"
- WWW Link: Dome of the Rock
I. Introduction
Last class an exercise in macro and micro history
trying to explain both the larger causes and immediate factors
behind the truly explosive growth of Islam.]
The factors - religious background, Persia, Arabness - all
contribute to its development.
The thing to be most born in mind is that from the beginning
Muhammad was the founder of a polity and a religion.
Uniqueness as prophet and statesman.
II. Successors of the Prophet
A. Introduction
Muhammad left no instruction about a successor
Not part of tribal background of the Banu Umma
Other prophets in Arabia a at the time, e.g. Maslama
Caliph - Khalifa asurallah - deputy or successor.
B. The Four Early Caliphs - the rightly guided caliphs
1. Abu Bakr 632-34
-Wars of Riddha - (apostasy.
-General Khalid ibn Walid used
`the taste of blood is pleasant to my mouth'
-Beginning of the Collection of the Qu'ran
2. Umar 634-44
Had been in control during Abu Bekr's reign.
St. Paul type figure
3. Uthman 646-56
Married two of Muhammad's daughters.
Competition with Ali for post, Uthman elected
Led eventually to civil wars - 655
Uthman killed by Ali and others.
End of Muslim unity.
4. Ali 656-661
Opposed from Mecca
+ Uthman's Family, the Ummayads.
Made Kufa the new Capital
Kharajites rejected Caliphs at time -
"decision belongs to God alone"
5. Civil War II
Muawiya - led war - proclaimed Caliph in
Jerusalem, 660
Kharajites tried to kill both Ali and Muawiya,
Killed Ali, but Muawiya survived
Ummayyad Caliphate in Syria
Ali's sons bought off.
III. Growth of Empire
A. Expansion
1. Booty - Diwan system to share it set up by Umar
2. Syria/Palestine 633 onwards
Damascus 635 (oldest city in the World)
Battle of Yarmuk 636 - end of Byzantine Syria
Jerusalem fell 640
3. Iraq
637 Battle of Qadisiyya - opened up Iraq
Ctesiphon went to Arabs
Meant great Persian impact on Islam, as chief
city fell, unlike Constontinople.
4. Iran - opened up by Battle of Nihavend 641
5. Egypt - Invaded 640
6. Onwards - Westwards and Eastwards
B. Muslim Government
Problem - small number of Arabs, Huge empire
1. The Umma
2. Amsar - garrison towns
Basra/Kufa/Fustat
3. Dhimmi - Jizya Tax
4. Conversions
Slow at first - Often from Christians
IV. The Ummayads 661-750
A. Muawiyya 661-680
B. Damascus
Western - Mediterranean orientation
Used Christina advisor, e.g. Sarjan
C. Buildings - Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem
D. Translations - many from Syriac
E. Failure to take over artistic culture
F. Tribalism - more civil wars. Kerbala
G. Mawali/Clients - non Arab Muslims. New problem.
V. The Abbasids
A. Shi'ism
Theory of Al-Mahdi , and Imamate
Hidden successor
Various sects , e.g. Twelvers
12ers/Immami
reject consensus/ijma and support toquiya/dissimulation
B. Khorasan
C. The Black Flag - Rebels in East - vs. Ummayads
D. Baghdad - Eastern Orientation
E. Harun al-Rashid 786-809
F. Elite Culture/Popular life
The Arabian Nights - Sir Richard Burton
VI. Break-Up of Abbasid Empire
A. Ummayyad Spain
-Conquest of Spain 711
-Muslim Rule
-The Ummayyad Emirate
-Cordova
-The Caliphate
Abd-ar-Rahman III
-Poetry
-Tolerance for Jews and Christians
-Collapse
-The Reconquista
B. Fatamid Egypt
-More Shia
-Ismaili Shia - broke from Twelvers after no. 6
-Rival Caliphate
-Cairo
-Conquest of Syria and Palestine
-Faced with Resurgent Byzantium
-Hakim III and the Holy Sepulcher
-The Crusades
C. Loss of Control in Baghdad
1. Persian Nobility
2. Sultans
Phenomenon of two kings
Caliph and Sultan/
Sultan and atabeg/
King and Major Dome/
King and Prime Minister/
Emperor and Shogun
3. Turks - via Khorasan
Troops first of all
4. The Seljuqs 1055
5. Alp Arslan
D. Caliphs Remain in Baghdad until 1258
-Last one kicked to death in a carpet by Mongols
-Restored in Egypt
-Removed to Istanbul
-Last one is last Turkish Sultan/Caliph
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