Transcript 14. The Expansive Realm of Islam

Chapter 14
The Expansive Realm of Islam
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Muhammad and His Message
• Born 570 to merchant family in Mecca
• Orphaned as a child
• Marries wealthy widow c. 595, works as
merchant
• Familiarity with paganism, Christianity and
Judaism as practiced in Arabian peninsula
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Muhammad’s Spiritual
Transformation
• Visions c. 610 CE
• Archangel Gabriel
• Monotheism
• Attracts followers to Mecca
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The Quran
• Record of revelations received during
visions
• Committed to writing c. 650 CE
(Muhammad dies 632)
• Tradition of Muhammad’s life: hadith
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Conflict at Mecca
• Muhammad’s monotheistic teachings
offensive to polytheistic pagans
• Economic threat to existing religious
industry
• Denunciation of greed affront to local
aristocracy
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The Hijra
• Muhammad flees to Yathrib (Medina) 622 CE
– Year 0 in Muslim calendar
• Organizes followers into communal society (the
umma)
• Legal, spiritual code
• Commerce, raids on Meccan caravans for sake of
umma
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The “Seal of the Prophets”
• Islam as culmination and
correction of Judaism, Christianity
• Inheritor of both Jewish and
Christian texts
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Muhammad’s Return to Mecca
• Attack on Mecca, 630
• Conversion of Mecca to Islam
• Destruction of pagan sites, replaced with
mosques
– Ka’aba preserved in honor of importance of
Mecca
– Approved as pilgrimage site
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The Ka’aba
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The Five Pillars of Islam
• No god but Allah and Muhammad is
His prophet
• Daily prayer
• Fasting during Ramadan
• Charity
• Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj)
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Muslims at Prayer
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Jihad
• “struggle”
– Against vice
– Against ignorance of Islam
• “holy war”
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Islamic Law: The Sharia
• Codification of Islamic law
• Based on Quran, hadith, logical
schools of analysis
• Extends beyond ritual law to all
areas of human activity
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The Caliph
• No clear to successor to Muhammad
identified
• Abu Bakr chosen to lead as Caliph
• Led war against villagers who
abandoned Islam after death of
Muhammad
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The Expansion of Islam
• Highly successful attacks on
Byzantine, Sassanid territories
• Difficulties governing rapidly
expanding territory
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The expansion of Islam, 632-733 C.E.
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The Shia
• Disagreements over selection of caliphs
• Ali passed over for Abu Bakr
• Served as caliph 656-661 CE, then
assassinated along with most of his followers
• Remaining followers organize separate
party called “Shia”
– Traditionalists: Sunni
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Shi’ite Pilgrims at Karbala
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The Umayyad Dynasty (661750 CE)
• From Meccan merchant class
• Capital: Damascus, Syria
• Associated with Arab military
aristocracy
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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
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The Abbasid Dynasty (7501258 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
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Nature of the Abbasid Dynasty
• Diverse nature of administration (i.e. not
exclusively Arab)
• Militarily competent, but not bent on
imperial expansion
• Dar al-Islam
• Growth through military activity of
autonomous Islamic forces
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Abbasid Administration
• Persian influence
• Court at Baghdad
• Influence of Islamic scholars (ulama,
qadi)
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Caliph Harun al-Rashid
(786-809 CE)
• High point of Abbasid dynasty
• Baghdad center of commerce
• Great cultural activity
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Abbasid Decline
• Civil war between sons of Harun alRashid
• Provincial governers assert regional
independence
• Dissenting sects, heretical movements
• Abbasid caliphs become puppets of
Persian nobility
• Later, Saljuq Turks influence, Sultan real
power behind the throne
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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
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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
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Banking and Trade
• Scale of trade causes banks to develop
– Sakk (“check”)
• Uniformity of Islamic law throughout
dar al-Islam promotes trade
• Joint ventures common
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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
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Changing Status of Women
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Quran improves status of women
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Outlawed female infanticide
Brides, not husbands, claim dowries
Yet male dominance preserved
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Patrilineal descent
Polygamy permitted, Polyandry forbidden
Veil adopted from ancient Mesopotamian practice
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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
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Al-Ghazali (1058-1111)
• Major Sufi thinker from Persia
• Impossibility of intellectual apprehension of
Allah, devotion, mystical ecstasy instead
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Cultural influences on Islam
• Persia
– Adminstration and governance
– literature
• India
– Mathematics, science, medicine
• “Hindi” numbers
• Greece
– Philosophy, esp. Aristotle
– Ibn Rushd/Averroes (1126-1198)
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