Umayyads and Abbasids

The Umayyad PeriodThe Rise of the Abbasids

Expansion under the Umayyads

• Late 7th century: Islam spread to Asia• 8th century: Spread to India, N. Africa,

Spain• Threatened France, but Islamic armies

were turned back by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours (also called Poitiers) in 732– Islam dominated the Mediterranean from

Spain to central Asia

Quick Expansion center of control changes DBC

The Spread of Islam

Umayyad Rule• Arab conquest state, ruled by an Arab elite• Army comprised of slave soldiers. Often not

allowed to convert. • Muslim/Arab warrior elite ruled provinces• Rejected assimilation of converts• Kept governments intact, but staffed them with

Muslims• Capital now Damascus

At first blocked by Byzantine & Sassanid

Defeat at Byzantium– 717: Caliph Suleiman wanted to end the Christian

empire once and for all.• Attacked Constantinople with 80,000 troops and a strong

naval force.– Emperor Leo III beat off the attack. Besieging

armies suffer through a cold winter– 718: Must of the Muslim fleet destroyed by Greek

Fire. Suleiman fled.• Leo III retook Asia Minor. Byzantium will last 500 years

more.

Greek Fire - exact composition unknown

composition include such chemicals as liquid petroleum, naphtha, burning pitch, sulphur, resin, quicklimeand bitumen, along with some other "secret ingredient".

Umayyad Decline

• Series of weak self-indulgent rulers• c. 750. The Merv Revolt

– 50,000 Persian warriors settled in E. Iran– converted to Islam, fought in battles, but earned

little booty– resented corrupt rule from Baghdad– When Umayyads sent troops to the area, revolt

broke out!

The Abbasid Revolt

• Revolt spread through the eastern provinces• Resented Arab rule: the Mawali• Marched under the Black Abbasid banner• Abu al-Abbas, Muhammed’s uncle’s g.g.

grandson• Alliance with Shi’ite factions

– 750: defeat the Umayyad caliph in the Battle of the River Zab

The end of the Umayyads

• Abu al-Abbas wanted to end the Umayyad family.

• Murdered all surviving members at a feast of reconciliation

• One escaped, the grandson of the last Umayyad caliph, and fled to Spain

• He established the Cordoba Caliphate. It lasted until 1492 CE

The World and the Abbasids Map

The Early Abbasids

• Capital: Baghdad: Arabic court language• Influenced by the Near East idea of divine

kingship: “Shadow of God on Earth”• Lots of court pomp and ritual• When the caliph appeared in public, his

executioners were with him!• Bound by Shari’a : Islamic law but not

enforced

Abbasid Wine Bowl

Abbasid Glass Work

Abbasid Government

• Caliph ruled with large, complex bureaucracy

• Manned by Persians and Mawali• Some aspects of universalism• Diverse people united by Arabic language

and Islam• End of wars of expansion

Society Under the Abbasids

• Long Distance Trade with Banking and Letters of Credit along the Silk Road trade

• Key: Export of Mesopotamia agriculture, Nile Agriculture, sheep, date palm.

• East Asian crops spread westward, including rice, sugar cane.

• Slave state: Many Africans working S. Iraq salt mines, or in military

Industry

• Textile Making• Rug Weaving: High Art Armenia, Bokhara• Chinese trade. Learned paper making• Perfumes, medicines, cosmetics, art in

ceramics, metals• Imported Indian “0” developed algebra and

trigonometry

Intellectual Life

• Translated Greek and Roman classical works

• Philosophy, science, astronomy, geography, math

• No interest in mythology, drama or poetry• Preserved and made additional

contributions• Worked particularly with Aristotle’s work

Abbasid Mosque in Nayin

Medicine

• al Razi (865-925) (Rhazes)• 20 volume medical encyclopedia• Translated into Latin 1270• Printed in Europe 1486 onwards• “On the Fact that even Skilled Physicians

Cannot Heal All Diseases”• “Why Frightened Patients Easily Forsake

even the Skilled Physician”

Other Thinkers

• al-Biruni (973-1056) – Geography, Travels in India

• al-Kindi (d.870)– reconciled Islam with Neoplatonism

• al Farabi (d.950), Ibn Sina (Avicenna d. 1036), Ibn Rushd (Averroes d. 1198) – All Islamic scholars of Aristotle

Map of the Abbasid Caliphate

The Islamic Empire

Trends Towards Decentralization

• Eventually turned against their Shi’ite allies and other factions

• Large empire lent itself to regionalism• Numerous violent harem conspiracies and

civil wars followed by more stable rulers• Utilized slave armies of Africans, Slavs and

Berbers that eventually became a political force known as Mamluks

Apex from which to spread the empire

• Harunu r-Rashid is the most famous of the Abbasid Caliphs.

• The Abbasid period, is recognized of being the one in Muslim history bringing the most elevated scientific works.

• The Muslim world continued the achievements of classical Europe (especially the 9th and 10th centuries), India and former science of the Middle East, during a period when Europe was unable contribute much to the cultural and scientific fields.

• The Abbasid era is often regarded as the golden age of Muslim civilization.

Weakened role in the region• In 1055 the Turkish Seljuks conquered Baghdad, but this

had little influence to the position of the Caliphs, who continued to play only his limited symbolical role.

• With the fall of the traditional Caliphate in 1258, when the Mongols took over Baghdad, a new line of Abbasid Caliphs continued in Cairo.

• In Cairo they played the same type of role as in Baghdad, but now even the symbolical role was limited by geography.

• This, the last branch of Abbasids, stayed in office until 1517.

Arabic Language & writing

• calligraphy – beautiful writing is different from illuminated writing

• Arabic script has been used much more extensively for decoration and as a means of artistic expression

• Language identifies and connects “Arabs” more than Latin connects the “romanesque)

The basmalah ("In the name of God the Merciful the Compassionate" - the opening words of the Quran) is here done in an elaborate thuluth script with the letters joined so that the entire phrase is written without lifting the pen from the paper.

Arabesque• Quran does not prohibit the representation of humans or animals in

drawings, or paintings, but as Islam expanded in its early years, it inherited some of the prejudices against visual art of this kind that had already taken root in the Middle East. – early Muslims tended to oppose figural art (and in some cases all art) as

distracting the community from the worship of God and hostile to the strictly unitarian religion preached by Muhammad

– all four of the schools of Islamic law banned the use of images and, declared that the painter of animate figures would be damned on the Day of Judgment.

• Wherever artistic ornamentation and decoration were required, Muslim artists, forbidden to depict, human or animal forms, for the most part were forced to resort either to what has since come to be known as "arabesque" – These are designs based on strictly geometrical forms or patterns of

leaves and flowers or, very often, to calligraphy. • Arabic calligraphy came to be used not only in producing copies of the

Quran (its first and for many centuries its most important use), but also for all kinds of other artistic purposes as well – porcelain and metalware, – carpets and other textiles– Coins– architectural ornament (primarily on mosques and tombs but also,

especially in later years, on other buildings as well).

Arabic language – the great legacy

• Of those people who embraced Islam but did not adopt Arabic as their everyday language, many millions have taken the Arabic alphabet for their own, so that today one sees the Arabic script used to write languages that have no basic etymological connection with Arabic.

• The languages of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are all written in the Arabic alphabet, as was the language of Turkey until some fifty years ago.

• It is also used in Kashmir and in some places in the Malay Peninsula and the East Indies, and in Africa it is used in Somalia and down the east coast as far south as Tanzania.

Influence of Islam up to the creation of the Arabic Empires

• Centered in Mecca• Conflict between Mecca and Medina• Hasan and the schism

Concepts and terms from Ch. 6

• Bedouin• Shaykhs• Mecca• Medina• Ka’ba• Umma• Zakat• Dhimmis• Wazir

• Caliph• Abu Baker• Ridda• Jihad• Battle of Siffin• Karbala• Mawali• Jizya• Ayan

Concepts and terms from Ch. 7

• Harun al-Rashid• Buyids• Seljuk Turks• Saladin• Ibn Khaldun• Rubiyat• Shah-Nama• Sa’di• Bhaktic cults• Shrivijaya• Maleluks

• al-Razi• Ulama• al-Gh• azali• Sufis• Harsha• Mahmud of Ghazni• Mahmud of Ghur• Sati• Demak• Malacca

Succession: Abu Bakr (632-34)

• 632 Muhammed died without warning• Abu Bakr elected Caliph (deputy,

successor). Friend and early convert.• Ali, son in law to Muhammed was passed

over: Too young• Bakr worked and led the movement. • Success: Ridda Wars: fought off Bedouin

led by other Charismatic leaders.

Islam Spreads• Bakr continued the Arab unification process• Recognized the weakness of the

Persian/Byzantine Empires• They were at constant war with one another• Began to take Byzantine territory

– Christians and Jews respected: people of the book

– Social restrictions, extra taxes– Some Christians saw Muslims as liberators

Uthman (644-54)

• From the old Umayyad family. Former Meccan enemies of Muhammed now converted!

• Codification of the Qu’ran: Variants destroyed

• 651 Expansion deep into Sassanian territory (Persia)

• 654 Uthman assassinated.

Division and Schism

• Ali’s supporters name him Caliph– The Ummayyads rejected him

• Ali refuses to prosecutes the assassins Ummayads later declare an open vendetta against him– Mecca vs Medina Clan tensions– Syrian and Iraqi factions– N/S Arabian tribal tensions

Hasan

• Retired for 19 years to enjoy the good life• When Mu’awiya died, he went to Mecca

with several followers expecting to be named Caliph.

• But the Umayyads appointed a new caliph, who surrounded Ali with an army.

• 679 Hasan led a great suicide charge. His head was sent to the capital.

• This would result in the Sunni-Shi’ite split

But expansion continued....

• 674: Besieged Constantinople• 700: Umayyads ruled from N. Africa

almost to China: An empire! Why?• Surplus of military energy and religious

zeal and well qualified generals• Weakness of the Byzantium and Persian

states, and their poor rule over provinces.

Sunnis

• Sunnis90% of IslamRecognize 4 caliphs as legitimateNo Iman

Shiites

• Shiites10% of Muslims (mainly in Persia, Lebanon, Yemen, Afghanistan)recognize only Ali and blood relatives as successorsImans: infallible, divinely guided, leaders of the faithGreen turbans: indicate a blood relative of the ProphetCult of Martyrdom

Quiz

• What was the fictional account of life at the court of the Caliph al-Rashi?

• Give one 3 causes of the disruption of agricultural economy of the Abbasid Empire.

• What two practices that began in the Abbasid Empire are indications of the changing role of women?

• What was the religious splinter dynasty that captured Baghdad in 945?

• Who was the Muslim leader responsible for the reconquest of most of the territories belonging to the Christian Crusaders?

Quiz• What was the fictional account of life at the court of the Claliph

al-Rashi? -The Thousand and One Nights• Give one 3 causes of the disruption of agricultural economy of

the Abbasid Empire.– Spiraling taxation– Destruction of the irrigation works– Pillaging by mercenary armies which led to the abandonment of many

villages• What two practices that began in the Abbasid Empire are

indications of the changing role of women?– Seclusion– veiling

• What was the religious splinter dynasty that captured Baghdad in945?– Buyids

• Who was the Muslim leader responsible for the reconquest of most of the territories belonging to the Christian Crusaders?– Saladin