Abbasid Culture

743 – Civil War amongst Umayyads

• Non-Arab Muslims (in Persia) feel egalitarian promises are unfulfilled?

• Sunni and Shia divisions manifest• 750, Umayyads deposed• Caliph Abu'l Abbas• Early followers of Mohammed• Took few risks• Shiite support for 'salvationist' promise• Return to holier Islam

Abbasid• Move capital from Damascus• Splendor of Baghdad

• 30 miles from Persian capital of Ctesiphon• Persianisation of the

Caliphate• Orients Caliphate, locus of

authority to the east

Unites empires, cultures• India, Persia, Rome• Doesn't break from Umayyad tradition as thought,

metropolitan empire, less Mediterranean emphasis• Begins as Shia victory, monarchy stamps out egalitarianism

• No more great conquests• 717, Siege of Constantinople broken• 733, Tours and Charles Martel

Spanish Umayyad• Umayyad massacre and the leather tablecloth• Abdar Raman to Spain following banquet• First Islamic ruler to defy Caliph

• Independent Islamic Province, Emir• 929, Córdova

Al Andalus• Umayyad dynasty in Córdova• Almohad Dynasty, Berbers• Las Navas de Tolosa, 1212• Critical Victory in the Reconquista• 722, Battle of Covadonga

• Nasrid Dynasty and construction of Granada

Abbasid Administration• Wealth from taxation, central army• Nobility not local potentates or warlords• Complex administration with civilian bureaucracy

• Taxes still assess at double rates for non-Muslims • Baghdad wealthiest and most important city in the world• Governorship entrusted to bureaucrats

Cultural Programme• Planned and centrally funded• Translations of science, geography, math, philosophy and

medicine from Greek and Persian• 830, House of Wisdom• Conducted research• Greek scientific works• Treaty with Constantinople, lend Ptolemy Almagest

Classical Science, Philosophy• Persian and Arabian poetic tradition• Interest in Euclid, Dioscourides• Aristotle, all of it…and he wrote on everything• Comprehensive understanding of encyclopedic philosophy,

understanding of material world/nature• Rationality – all things can be understood…even God – prime

mover theory. Root of deists. • Influence to Islam, Judaism, and Christianity• Averroes, Maimonides, Aquinas – all Aristotelian• Arabic translated into Latin for Aquinas

Assimilation of Conquered Cultures• Great success in Abbasid Caliphate• Expansion of science, too• Quick conquest and painless• Not religious war• Elimination of old frontiers – Persian and Greek astronomy,

Arabic numerals (which are from India). Chess, from India also.

• Elimination of linguistic boundaries – Arabic the language of science (Maimonides and Mozarabic Spain)

• Attitude of conquerors and conquered• 'Garden protected by our spears'• Confidence in Islam, no need to convert people, also to accept

new ideas• Islamic conquest seemed beneficial to locals. Martyrs of Córdoba

Mathematics• Arabic numbers (India) and the concept of 0• Trigonometry and sine function (India)• All the others developed by Arabs

• House of Wisdom, The Book of Addition and Subtraction According to the Hindu Calculation• Decimals, square roots, pi, algebra (al jabr -

balance), star tables, time and navigation.• Omar Kyayaam – non-Euclidian geometry, poetry,

astronomy, medicine.

Geography• Fascination for travel, navigation, anthropologies• Circumference of the world, interest in the scope of water• Ptolmey's Almagest highly valued• Al-Idrisi, Geography for the King of Sicily• Ibn Khaldun 1332-1406• Tunis to Indonesia and China

Medicine• Primary authority is Galen• Transmission of the four humors• Four essential fluids to determine health and

attitude• Correspond to the four elements, climates• Earth, air, fire, water• Bile yellow – fire, blood – air, phlegm – water,

black bile - earth• Sickness comes when something out of whack

• Avicenna 980-1037, Persian physician Cannon • Based on observation