Transcript Chap 13 Pt 2 Islam’s Expansion

Chap 13 Pt 2 Islam’s
Expansion
The Umayyad Dynasty (661-750 CE)
• From Meccan
merchant class
• Brought stability to
the Islamic
community
• Capital: Damascus,
Syria
• Associated with Arab
military aristocracy
Policy toward Conquered
Peoples
• Favoritism of Arab
military rulers causes
discontent
• Limited social mobility
for non-Arab Muslims
• Head tax (jizya) on
non-Muslims
• Umayyad luxurious
living causes further
decline in moral
authority
The Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258 CE)
• Abu al-Abbas Sunni Arab,
allied with Shia, non-Arab
Muslims
• Seizes control of Persia
and Mesopotamia
• Defeats Umayyad army in
750
– Invited Umayyads to
banquet, then massacred
them
• Diverse nature of
administration (i.e. not
exclusively Arab)
• Militarily competent, but
not bent on imperial
expansion
• Content to administer the
empire inherited
• Dar al-Islam – House of
Islam – Muslim lands
• Growth through military
activity of autonomous
Islamic forces
Abbasid Administration (a.k.a.?)
• Persian influence
• Court at Baghdad
• Influence of Islamic
scholars
• Ulama and qadis
sought to develop
policy based on the
Quran and sharia
• Define?
Caliph Harun al-Rashid
(786-809 CE)
• High point of Abbasid
dynasty
• Baghdad center of
commerce
• Great cultural activity
Abbasid Decline (Similar, different
than other empires?)
• Civil war between sons of Harun al-Rashid
• Provincial governors assert regional
independence
• Dissenting sects, heretical movements
• Abbasid caliphs become puppets of
Persian nobility
• Later, Saljuq Turks influence, Sultan real
power behind the throne
Economy of the Early Islamic World
• Spread of food and industrial crops
– Trade routes from India to Spain
• Western diet adapts to wide variety
• New crops adapted to different growing
seasons
– Agricultural sciences develop
– Cotton, paper industries develop
• Major cities emerge
Formation of a Hemispheric
Trading Zone
• Historical precedent
of Arabic trade
• Dar al-Islam
encompasses silk
routes
– ice exported from
Syria to Egypt in
summer, 10th century
• Camel caravans
• Maritime trade
Banking and Trade
• Scale of trade causes
banks to develop
– Sakk (“check”)
• Uniformity of Islamic law
throughout dar al-Islam
promotes OR inhibits
trade?
• Joint ventures common
• WHY?
Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain)
• Muslim Berber
conquerors from
North Africa take
Spain, early 8th c.
• Allied to
Umayyads, refused
to recognize
Abbasid dynasty
– Formed own
caliphate
– Tensions, but
interrelationship
Changing Status of Women
• Quran improves status of women
– Outlawed female infanticide
– Brides, not husbands, claim dowries
• Yet male dominance preserved
– Patrilineal descent
– Polygamy permitted, Polyandry forbidden
– DEFINE?
– Veil adopted from ancient Mesopotamian
practice
Formation of an Islamic Cultural
Tradition
• Islamic values
– Uniformity of Islamic law in dar al-Islam
– Establishment of madrasas
– Importance of the Hajj
• Sufi missionaries
– Asceticism, mysticism
– Some tension with orthodox Islamic
theologians
– Wide popularity
Heading?
Al-Ghazali (10581111)
• Major Sufi thinker
from Persia
• Impossibility of
intellectual
apprehension of
Allah, devotion,
mystical ecstasy
instead
• Cultural influences on Islam
• Persia
– Administration and governance
– literature
• India
– Mathematics, science, medicine
• “Hindi” numbers
• Greece
– Philosophy, esp. Aristotle
– Ibn Rushd/Averroes (1126-1198)