Transcript POD 7 The Golden Age of Islam

POD 7
The Golden Age of Islam
The Caliphate
Class Notes & Discussion
Bulliet et. al. – “The Sasanid Empire, 224-651”, pp. 230-232
Bulliet et. al. – “The Rise and Call of the Caliphate, 632-1258”, pp. 236-243
History of the Sasanid Empire
• “The rise in the third century of a new Iranian
state, the Sasanid Empire, continued the old
rivalry between Rome and the Parthians along
the Euphrates frontier. However, behind this
façade of continuity , a social and economic
transformation took place that set the stage for
a new and powerful religiopolitical movement:
Islam.” (Bulliet, p. 230)
Sasanid – Establishing Empire
• Established around 224 C.E. with the defeat of the Parthians
• Confronted the Romans (Byzantines after 330 C.E. on their western
frontier)
• Subsidized nomadic Arab chieftains to along the desert Euphrates
frontier where rival empires launched numerous assaults on the
Sasanid between 340 and 628 C.E.
• During times of peace exchange between these rival empires
flourished courtesy of the Silk Roads
Sasanid Society
• Society centered around a powerful aristocracy that lived on rural
estates and focused on hunting, feasting and war
• Zoroastrianism and Christianity were the official religious faiths of the
empire. The establishment of this religious unity helped pave the way
for the future influence and success of Islam
• Most people living in both the Byzantine and Sasanid Empires
identified themselves as members of a religious community before
that of a political community
• Schools and laws courts were religious based
• Zoroastrianism & Christianity both advocated religious INTOLERANCE
Historical Context – then….and now
• “The Islamic caliphate built on the conquests the Arabs carried out
after Muhammad’s death gave birth to a dynamic and creative
religious society. By the late 800s, however, one piece after another
of this huge realm broke away. Yet the idea of a caliphate, however,
unrealistic, remains today a touchstone of Sunni belief in the unity of
the umma.“ (Bulliet, p. 236)
• “Sunni Islam never gave a single person the power to define true
belief, expel heretics, and discipline clergy. Thus, unlike Christian
popes and patriarchs, the caliphs had little basis for reestablishing
their universal authority once they lost political and military power.”
(Bulliet, p. 236)
Islamic Conquests
• Death of Muhammad 632 C.E.
• Began under the second caliph, Umar
• Taken from the Byzantine Empire - Syria (636 C. E), Egypt (639-642
C.E.)
• Defeated the last Sasanid shah, Yazdigird III
• Tunisa – became the centralized location in 711 C.E. from where the
attack on Spain originated
• Battle of Tours (732 C.E.) the Frankish army halted the Islamic
advance in the Iberian Peninsula
Islamic Military Success
• “The decision made during Umar’s caliphate to prohibit Arabs from
assuming ownership of conquered territory proved important. Umar
tied army service, with its regular pay and windfalls of booty to
residence in military camps – two in Iraq (Kufa and Basara), one in
Egypt (Fustat), and one in Tunisia (Qairawan). East of Africa, Arabs
settled around small garrison towns at strategic locations and in one
large garrison at Marv in present-day Turkmenistan. This policy kept
the armies together and ready for military action and preserved
normal life in the countryside, where some three-fourths of the
population lived. Only a tiny proportion of the Syrian, Egyptian,
Iranian, and Iraqi populations understood the Arabic language.”
(Bulliet, p. 237)
Umayyad Caliphate
• Ruled from Damascus
• Ruled an Arab realm, rather than a religious one
• Gradually replaced non-Muslim secretaries and tax officials with
Muslims and introduced Arabic as the language of government
• coined new gold and silver dirhams with Arabic religious phrases
which became a staple of exchange along the Silk Roads
• 750 defeated by Shi’ites and Kharijites who attacked the Umayyad
legitimacy based upon the secular and irreligious behavior of the
caliphs
Abbasid Caliphate
• “Many Shi’ites supported the rebellion, thinking they were fighting
for the family of Ali. As it turned out, the family of Abbas, one of
Muhammad’s uncles, controlled the secret organization that
coordinated the revolt. Upon victory they established the Abbasid
Caliphate. Some of the Abbasid caliphs who ruled after 750
befriended their relatives in Ali’s family, and one even flirted with
transferring the caliphate to them. The Abbasid family, however, held
on to the caliphate until 1258, when Mongol invaders killed the last of
them in Baghdad.” (Bulliet, p. 237)
Abbasid Rule
• Theology and religious law became the focus of the court - Scholars devoted themselves to
studying the Koran
• Oversaw a period of conversion of conquered populations - Discrimination against non-Arab
converts began to decline
• Built a new shining city at Baghdad
• The empire eventually became too large for one power to hold together easily – news travelled
slowly, military response to crisis even slower
• Turkish Mamluks - slaves who were purchased and used for a standing military service as soldiers
from the outer provinces
• This proved to be an effective but costly military force. When the government could no longer
afford to pay the soldiers, the mamluks revolted and unseated the caliphs
• Mountain warriors from Daylam in northern Iran carved the empire into multiple principalities
• At the decline of the Caliphate Shi’ite teaching held that that 12th Imam had disappeared around
873 and would return as the messiah only at the end of tim
Fatimid Caliphate
• Established in Tunisia in 909
• Founded by Shi’ite Imams who claimed to be descended from Ali (this
claim may have been false)
• Governed from a complex palace outside of the old city of Fustat –
the complex was named Cairo
• Egypt became an Islamic cultural, intellectual, and political center
• Abundant gold coinage from West Africa made the Fatimids an
economic power throughout the Mediterranean basis
Ulama
• Arabic term
• “PEOPLE WITH (RELIGIOUS) KNOWLEDGE”
• Worked to protect the Islamic umma from any permanent division
Other Outside Forces Threatening the Region
• Seljuk Turks – built a Muslim state centered around nomadic power –
would eventually transform into the Ottoman Empire by defeating the
Byzantines in 1453
• Mamluk Period – a succession of slave-soldier sultans ruled Egypt and
Syria until 1517
• Christian Crusaders – “Newly arrived knights eagerly attacked the
Muslim enemy, whom they called “Sacrens”; but veteran crusaders
recognized that practicing diplomacy and seeking partners of
convenience among rival Muslim princes offered a sounder strategy.”
(Bulliet, 242)