Transcript The Abbasid Era: PowerPoint

From Umayyad to Abbasid Empires
ARAB
ISLAMIC
Rise of Abbasid Party
• The party traced its descent from Muhammad’s
uncle, al-Abbas.
• Al-Abbas’ great great grandson, Abu al-Abbas
led his forces against the Umayyads.
• Shi’a were his allies.
• Mawali (Islamic converts) also supported him to
gain acceptance in the community of believers.
• Captured Umayyad capital in Syria (Battle of
River Zab).
• At “Reconciliation Banquet” al-Abbas
slaughtered remaining Umayyad family.
Early Abbasid Era
• Began to reject Shi’a and Malawi allies…and
defended Sunni Islam.
• Built a centralized, absolutist imperial order.
• New capital: Baghdad “The Round City” (2km in
diameter) on Tigris River
• Baghdad became the richest city in the world (only
Constantinople came close)
• Sat on jeweled thrones. Had palaces and harems!
Image of elitism was important.
• For more than a century, able to collect revenue and
preserve law over much of the empire.
Islamic Conversion and Mawali
Acceptance
• Mass conversions to Islam were
encouraged throughout the empire.
• Most converts were won over peacefully
because of appeal of Islamic beliefs and
advantages they enjoyed:
- didn’t have to pay head tax
- educational opportunities
- jobs as traders, administrators, judges
• What kind of CONVERSION is this?
(think Bentley Reading!)
Town & Country: Commercial
Boom and Agrarian Expansion
• Abbasid Era was a great time of urban
expansion and growth of merchant and
landlord classes.
• Tang & Song Dynasties in China were
also reviving middle merchant class.
(results of falls of Rome/Han)
• Arab DHOWS - trading vessels with
triangular (lateen) sails were used from
Mediterranean to S. China Sea. This style
later influenced European ship design.
Town & Country: Commercial Boom
and Agrarian Expansion, cont..
• Muslim merchants formed joint ventures with
Christian and Jewish traders.
• Because each merchant had a different Sabbath,
they could work 7 days/week.
• Merchants grew rich supplying cities with goods
throughout the empire.
• Much wealth went to charity (required by Qur’an).
• Hospitals and medical care of the Abbasid Empire
surpassed those of any other civilization of that time.
Town & Country: Commercial Boom
and Agrarian Expansion, cont..
• Much unskilled labor was left to slaves.
• Some slaves were able rise to positions of
power and gain freedom (like what other empire?)
• Huge estates might have slaves,
indentured servants or sharecroppers.
The First Flowering of Islamic Learning
• Early contributions from Abbasid were great
mosques and palaces. Ex: Dome of the Rock
• Advances in religious, legal and philosophical
discourse.
• Science and Math! Abbasid scholars preserved
Greek works of medicine, algebra, geometry,
astronomy, anatomy, and ethics.
• Arabic traders in India carried the Indian number
system across Mediter. and into Northern Europe.
These number systems became ESSENTIAL to
Scientific Revolution in W. Europe.
Global Connections:
Early Islam & the World
• Abbasid Empire was the “go-between” for
the ancient civilizations of the Eastern
Hemisphere…this role grew as Arab trade
networks expanded.
• Islam pioneered patterns of organization
and thinking that would affect human
societies in major ways for centuries.
• 5 Centuries = Spread of Islam played a
dominant role in the Afro-Eurasian World.
Global Connections:
Early Islam & the World…cont.
• In the midst of achievement, Muslims were
people had some growing disadvantages,
especially to Europeans.
• Muslim divisions would leave openings for
political problems.
Growing intolerance and orthodoxy led to the belief
that the vast Islamic world contained all
requirements for civilized life, which caused Muslim
people to grow less receptive to outside influence
and innovations…led to isolation at a time when
Christian rivals were in a period of experimentation
and exploration.