Transcript World History

World History:
The Earth and its Peoples
Chapter 8
The Sasanid Empire and the Rise of
Islam,
200 - 1200 C.E.
Objectives
• Determine how the social and political
developments under the Sasanid Empire paved
the way for the spread of Islam.
• Illustrate how the Arab conquests grew out of the
career of Muhammad.
• Identify the reasons for the breakup of the
caliphate.
• Discuss the relationship between urbanization
and the development of Islamic culture.
Sasanid Empire, 224-651 CE
Sasanid Empire
– Present-day Iran
– Rivalry with E. Roman Empire
• trade and incursion
• Ctesiphon
– cosmopolitan capital on Tigris
• Arab pastoralists
– merchants and mercenaries
• caravaneers; military saddle
• Silk Road
– cotton, sugarcane, rice
Sasanid Empire, 224-651 CE
Religion
– Zoroastrianism
• state religion of Sasanid
– Christianity
• state religion of Byzantium
• Armenian Nestorians
– Jesus: human and divine
– Heretics
– The Nicene Creed
• political pawns in Sasanid
• penetration into Arabian peninsula
•
both religions were intolerant
– religion as politics
– religion key identifier
– Manichaean
• battle between good and evil
•
sets stage for rise of Islam
The Origins of Islam
Location
– Arabian interior; out of ‘sight’
– S. Arabia as inhabitable; urban
– contact via caravan trade
Mecca
– Isolated caravan city
– Ka’ba pilgrimage site
• Abraham as builder
– Ishmael ‘sacrifice’
• Idols
– 570 CE orphan birth
• Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad
– caravan interests
– only son died in childhood
•
Meditation
– revelations from Gabriel – 610 CE
• “Night of Power and Excellence”
• Khadija, Ali, Abu Bakr
– preaching
• One creator god (Allah)
• judgment day
– Christianity and Judaism
• Islam – surrender to will of God
• Muslim – one who submits
– more perfect message
• No editing process
•
Threat to Meccan leaders
3:32
Formation of the Umma
Medina
– 215 mile north of Mecca -622 CE
– hijra
• Beginning of Muslim calendar
• Umma
– Islamic community
• Muhammad as God’s
messenger
• Expulsion of Jews
• Surrender of Mecca – 630 CE
– God on Muhammad’s side
• New Arab state based on a
common religious faith
Islamic Succession
Muhammad’s Death – 632 CE
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–
•
no son as successor
only prophet has revelations
Abu Bakr
– khalifa – successor
1. Maintain Five Pillars of Islam
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–
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one god / prophet
prayer
Ramadan fasting
alms
Mecca pilgrimage - hajj
2. Muslim authority
–
caliphate
Islamic Succession
Quran – 650 CE
– book of Muhammad’s revelations
– unalterable word of god
Trouble in the ranks
– Caliph assassins
– 4th caliph
• Ali
– Battle of the Camel – 656 CE
» Ali’s legitimacy
• Umayyad Caliphate
– Mu’awiya
• Son Yazid as successor
– Husayn
• Ali’s son assassinated – 680 CE
• Beginning of Shite religious sect
Islamic Succession
Shite
– Ali as rightful successor
• descendents as Imams
– secular, not religious
Sunnis
– 1st 3 caliphs properly chosen
– chosen caliphs as Imams
4:47
Islamic Conquests, 634-711 CE
2nd Caliph (Umar)
– Syria, Egypt, Tunisia (634-644)
– Spain and Sind (711 CE)
• Reasons for success
– political and economical
– sophistication
• authority of Medina
– no forced religious conversion
Umayyad Caliphate - 661-750
– Arab rather than religious empire
– adapted Byzantine / Sasanid
administration
• Decline
– unrest among non-Arab Muslims
demanding political power
Abbasid Caliphate
Abbasid Caliphate - 750-1258
– “Golden Age”
– cosmopolitan culture in Baghdad
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•
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translations to Arabic
adopted ways of Sasanids
conversion of non-Arabs
abundance of literary works
– The Arabian Nights
Decline
– too big to rule effectively
– local principalities withheld taxes
• mamluks
– standing army of Turkic slaves
– Buyids family
• northern Iran
Political Fragmentation
Samanids
– Iranians at Bukhara
– Persian literary influence
Fatimids
– Egyptians at Cairo
– Mediterranean economic power
Umayyad
– al-Andalus, Spain
– blended Roman, Germanic, Jew
with Arab and Berber
– title of caliph (929 CE)
• response to Fatimid claim
– Jewish thinkers and writers
• contributions to cultural growth
• ulama - religious scholars
Nomadic Upsurge
Seljuk Turks - 1030
– nomads from steppes north of
Black, Caspian, Aral Seas
– Tughril Beg
• shah
• 1st Turkish Muslim state
– Battle of Manzikert - 1071
• Byzantine Anatolia
• Effects
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–
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cities shrank (food supply)
irrigation suffered; taxes short
aloof to religious infighting
withering of Baghdad
Muslim Unification
Saladin
– ends Fatimid Caliphate - 1171
– Egypt and Syria
– captures Jerusalem - 1187
• defeats Crusaders
– fight off future Crusades
Turkish Mamluks
– seize power in 1250
• result of Crusades
– defeat Mongols in 1260
Islamic Civilization
Sharia
– Islamic law
• no legal legal system in place
• sunna
– Muhammad’s example
– hadith
• reports of Muhammad’s words
and deeds
• second only to the Qur’an
• incorporated by legal scholars
• Vision
– common moral values
– minimize ethnic and political
divisions
Islamic Hadiths
Islamic Civilization
Conversion
– gradual learning about Islam
• death and taxes
• learn for themselves
– no priests
– simple process
• Arabic profession of faith
– literacy
– major cause of urbanization
• religion as identity
• economic opportunity in cities
• cities as centers of Islam
– growth of market economy
• advances in math and sciences
Islamic Society
Women
– status deduced from men
– no public role in society
• own property, initiate divorce
• public veiling
– fear of sexual infidelity and
meddling in politics
• Ex: A’isha
Slavery
– forbade enslaving ‘People of the
Book”
Education
– madrasas
– Sufism
• direct union with God through
rituals and training