AP World Chapter 7: The Rise and Spread of Islam

Dhimmis

"the people of the book," Jews, Christians, later extended to Zoroastrians and Hindus

Hadiths

"traditions" of the prophet Muhammad; added to the Qur'an; form the essential writings of Islam

Muhammad

(570-632); prophet of Allah; originally a merchant of the Quraysh

I. Desert and town: The Harsh Environment of the Pre-Islamic Arabian World: Poet and Neglected Gods

-Animism and Polytheism -Allah was included, but seldom prayed to -Poetry transmitted orally -Unclear how seriously bedouins took religion

II. The Life of Muhammad and the Genesis of Islam: Muhammad

-Banu Hasim Clan -Orphaned -Mecca -Khadijah -Revelations in 610 C.E. via Gabriel -Qu'ran

III. From Arab to Islamic Empire: The Early Abbasid Era: The First Flowering of Islamic Learning

-Building -Mosques, palaces -Scholars recovered and preserved works from Greeks

I. Desert and town: The Harsh Environment of the Pre-Islamic Arabian World: Bedouins

-Camel herding -Agriculture

I. Desert and town: The Harsh Environment of the Pre-Islamic Arabian World: Clan Identity, Clan Rivalries, and the Cycle of Vengeance

-Clans(Grouped into tribes) -Shayks(Leaders) -Free warriors -Rivalry

II. The Arab Empire of the Umayyads: Motives for Arab Conquest

-Conversions -Jihads -War Booty

III. From Arab to Islamic Empire: The Early Abbasid Era: Town and Country: Commercial Boom

-Dhows(Sailing vessels) -Trade ventures with Christians and Jews -Different Sabbaths; business all week -Urban expansion -Ayan

I. Desert and town: The Harsh Environment of the Pre-Islamic Arabian World: Towns and Long-Distance trade

-Entrepots -Mecca -Umayyad clan -Quraysh tribe -Ka'ba -Medina

III. From Arab to Islamic Empire: The Early Abbasid Era: Islamic Conversion and Mawali Acceptance

-Full integration of converts into Islamic community -Most converts won over peacefully -Acceptance of non-Arab Muslims as equals

II. The Arab Empire of the Umayyads: Family and Gender Roles in the Umayyad Age

-Islamic ideas prevail at first -Bride-price given directly to wife -Hadiths(Traditions of Muhammad recorded mostly by women) -Women pursue scholarship, law, and commerce; not many veils at this time

II. The Life of Muhammad and the Genesis of Islam: Persecution, Flight, and Victory

-Ka'ba gods threatened -Invited to Medina, 622 C.E. (courage of Ali, Hijra) -Return to Mecca, 629 C.E. -Arabs and Islam -Umma, community of the faithful -Zakat, a tax for charity

II. The Arab Empire of the Umayyads: Converts and "People of the Book"

-Malawi, converts -Still had to pay property taxes -Jizya -Dhimmi, people of the book -Jews, Christians -Later, zoroastrians and Hindus

II. The Arab Empire of the Umayyads: Consolidation and Division in the Islamic Community

-Muhammad's death, 632 -Succession struggle -Abu Bakr -Ridda Wars

Civilization and Gender Relationships

-Pre-Islamic bedouin women had valued roles in society -Islam limitations(veiling in public) -Remaining privileges through Islam -Learning to read(Qur'an) -Inheritance, divorce, remarriage rights -Civilization works against the interests of women

II. The Arab Empire of the Umayyads: The Umayyad Imperium

-Push west -Stopped at Poitiers, 732 -Retain Iberia -Damascus in Syria made capital of Umayyad caliphate -Mecca still holy city of Islam

II. The Arab Empire of the Umayyads: Umayyad Decline and Fall

-Revolts -Merv(Abbasid revolt) -750, Umayyads defeated by Abbasids -Battle of the River Zab

II. The Arab Empire of the Umayyads: Weaknesses of the Adversary Empires

-Sassanian Empire -Zoroastrianism -Dynasty ended, 651 -Byzantium -Copts and Nestorians -Alexandria taken -Loss of provinces in Syria and Egypt

III. From Arab to Islamic Empire: The Early Abbasid Era: Sunni

-Sunni repress Shi'a -Baghdad(New capital) -Wazir

II. The Arab Empire of the Umayyads: The Problem of Succession and the Sunni-Shi'a Split

-Uthman -3rd caliph -murdered -Ali -Rejected by Umayyads -Battle of Siffin, 657 -Loses support -Assassinated, 661 -Son, Hasan, renounces caliphate -Son, Husayn -Killed, Karbala, 680 -Mu'awiya(Caliph, 660, leader of Umayyads) -Sunni-Umayyads -Shi'a-Ali's descendants -Karbala-site of the death of Husayn, son of Ali

II. The Life of Muhammad and the Genesis of Islam: Universal Elements in Islam

-Validity of earlier divine revelations -Acceptance of one God, Allah and Prophet and Muhammad -Prayer -Fasting during Ramadan -Payment of zakat -Hajj

I. Desert and town: The Harsh Environment of the Pre-Islamic Arabian World: Marriage and Family in Pre-Islamic Arabia

-Women had important roles(Bride-price, not secluded or veiled) -Polygany and polyandry -Status of women often dependent on individual clans -Stable family life leads to patriarchy

Battle of the River Zab

750; Abbasid victory over the Umayyads, near the Tigris. Led to Abbasid ascendancy

Baghdad

Abbasid capital, close to the old Persian capital of Ctesiphon

Poets and Neglected Gods

Arab material culture, because of isolation and the environment, was not highly developed. The main focus of creativity was in orally transmitted poetry. Bedouin religion was a blend of animism and polytheism. Some tribes recognized a supreme deity, Allah, but focused instead on spirits associated with nature. Religion and ethics were not connected. In all, the bedouin did not take their religion seriously.

Dhows

Arab sailing vessels; equipped with lateen sails'; used by Arab merchants

The Problem of Succession and the Sunni-Shi'a split

Arab victories for a time covered old tribal, internal divisions. The murder of Uthman, the third caliph, caused a succession struggle. Muhammad's earliest followers supported Ali, but he was rejected by the Umayyads. In the ensuing hostilities, Ali won the advantage, until at Siffin in 657, he accepted a plea for mediation. Ali then lost the support of his most radical adherents, and the Umayyads won the renewed hostilities. The Umayyad leader, Mu'awiya, was proclaimed caliph in 660. Ali was assassinated in 661, and his son, Hasan, renounced claims to the caliphate. Ali's second son, Husayn, was killed at Karbala in 680. The dispute left permanent divisions within Islam. The Sunnis backed the Umayyads, while the Shi'a upheld the rights of Ali's descendants to be caliphs.

Mecca

Arabian commercial center; dominated by the Quraysh: the home of Muhammad and the future center of Islam

Persecution, Flight and Victory

As Muhammad's initially very small following grew, he was seen as a threat by Mecca's rulers. The new faith endangered the gods of the Ka'ba. With his life in danger, Muhammad was invited to come to Medina to mediate its clan quarrels. In 622, Muhammad left Mecca for Medina; the flight, the hijra, became the first year of the Islamic calendar. In Medina, his skilled leadership brought new followers. Hostilities between Mecca and Medina ended with Muhammad's triumph. A treaty of 628 with the Quraysh allowed his followers the permission to visit the Ka'ba. Muhammad returned to Mecca in 629 and converted most of its inhabitants to Islam.

What were the major ways in which the city of Mecca interacted with the bedouin tribes that lived in the desert areas around it?

Before the rise of Islam, Arabia was a peripheral desert wasteland whose once great trading cities had fallen on hard times. The sparse population of the Arabian peninsula was divided into rival tribes and clans that worshiped local gods.

Towns and Long-Distance Trade

Cities had developed as entrepots in the trading system linking the Mediterranean to east Asia. The most important, Mecca, in western Arabia, had been founded by the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh tribe. The city was the site of the Ka'ba, an important religious shrine, that attracted pilgrims and visitors during an obligatory annual truce in interclan feuds. A second important town, Medina, an agricultural oasis and commercial center, lay to the northeast. Quarrels among Medina's two bedouin and three Jewish clans hampered its development and later opened a place for Muhammad.

Family and Gender Roles in the Umayyad Age

Gender relationships altered as the Muslim community expanded. Initially, the more favorable status of women among the Arabs prevailed over the seclusion and male domination common in the Middle East. Muhammad and the Qur'an stressed the moral and ethical dimensions of marriage. The adultery of both partners was denounced; female infanticide was forbidden. Although women could have only one husband, men were allowed four wives, but all had to be treated equally. Muhammad strengthened women's legal rights in inheritance and divorce. Both sexes were equal before Allah.

The Life of Muhammad and the Genesis of Islam

In the 6th century C.E., camel nomads dominated Arabia. Cities were dependent upon alliances with surrounding tribes. Pressures for change came from the Byzantine and Sasanian empires and from the presence of Judaisim and Christianity. Muhammad, a member of the Banu Hasim clan of the Quraysh, was born about 570 C.E. Left an orphan, he was raised by his father's family and became a merchant. Muhammad resided in Mecca, where he married a wealthy widow, Khadijah. Merchant travels allowed Muhammad to observe the forces undermining clan unity and to encounter monotheistic ideas. Muhammad became dissatisfied with a life focused on material gain and went to meditate in the hills. In 610, he began receiving revelations transmitted from god via the angel Gabriel. Later, written in Arabic and collected in the Qur'an, they formed the basis for Islam.

Which aspects of Muhammad's religious message do you think accounted for its powerful appeal to both urban dwellers and nomadic peoples in Arabia and beyond?

In the 7th century the revelations of the prophet Muhammad provided the basis for the emergence of a new religion Islam in the Arabian peninsula. Although initially an Arab religion, in both beliefs and practices, Islam contained a powerful appeal that eventually made it one of the great world religions.

Universal Elements in Islam

Islam by nature contained beliefs appealing to individuals in many cultures: monotheism, legal codes, egalitarianism, and a strong sense of community. Islam, while regarding Muhammad's message as the culmination of divine revelation, accepted the validity of similar components previously incorporated in Judaism and Christianity. Islam's five pillars provide a basis for underlying unity: (1) acceptance of Islam; (2) prayer five times daily; (3) fasting during the month of Ramadan; (4) payment of a tithe (zakat) for charity; and (5) the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.

Motives for Arab Conquest

Islam provided the Arabs with a sense of common cause and a way of releasing martial energies against neighboring opponents. The rich booty and tribute gained often was more of a motivation than spreading Islam since converts were exempt from taxes and shared the spoils of victory.

Clan Identity, Clan Rivalries, and the Cycle of Vengeance summary

Mobile kin-related clans were the basis of social organization. The clans clustered into larger tribal units that functioned only during crises. In the harsh environment, individual survival depended upon clan loyalty. Wealth and status varied within clans. Leaders or Shaykhs, although elected by councils, were usually wealthy men. Free warriors enforced their decisions. Slave families served the leaders or the clan as a whole. Clan cohesion was reinforced by interclass rivalry and by conflicts over water and pasturage. The resulting enmity might inaugurate feuds enduring for centuries. The strife divided bedouin society, making it vulnerable to rivals.

Consolidation and Division in the Islamic Community

Muhammad was the last of the prophets. No successor could claim his attributes, nor had he established a procedure for selecting a new leader. After a troubled process, Abu Bakr was chosen as caliph, the leader of the Islamic community. Breakaway tribes and rival prophets were defeated during the Ridda wars to restore Islamic unity. Arab armies invaded the weak Byzantine and Persian empires, where they were joined by bedouins who had migrated earlier.

The Arab Empire of the Umayyads

Muhammad's defeat of Mecca had won the allegiance of many bedouin tribes, but the unity was threatened when he died in 632. Tribes broke away and his followers quarreled about the succession. The community managed to select new leaders who reunited Islam by 633 and then began campaigns beyond Arabia. Arab religious zeal and the weaknesses of opponents resulted in victories in Mesopotamia, north Africa, and Persia. The new empire was governed by a warrior elite under the Umayyads and other clans; they had little interest in conversion.

Damascus

Syrian city that was capital of Umayyad caliphate

The First Flowering of Islamic Learning

The Arabs before Islam were without writing and knew little of the outside world. They were very receptive to the accomplishments of the many civilizations falling to Muslim armies. Under the Abbasids, Islamic creativity first appeared in mosque and palace construction. Islamic learning flourished in religious, legal, and philosophical discourse, with special focus on the sciences and mathematics. Scholars recovered and preserved the works of earlier civilizations. Greek writings were saved and later passed on to the Christian world. Muslims also introduced Indian numbers into the Mediterranean world.

What were the key factors that made possible the rapid Arab conquests in the Middle East and Central Asia and North Africa?

The chance to glorify their new religion may have been a motive for the Arab conquests.

Desert and Town: The pre-Islamic Arabian World summary

The inhospitable Arabian peninsula was inhabited by bedouin societies. Some desert-dwellers herded camels and goats. Others practiced agriculture in oasis towns. Important agricultural and commercial centers flourished in southern coastal regions. The towns were extensions of bedouin society, sharing its culture and ruled by its clans.

Arabs and Islam

The new religion initially was adopted by town dwellers and bedouins in the region where Muhammad lived. But Islam offered opportunities for uniting Arabs by providing a distinct indigenous monotheism, supplanting clan divisions and allowing an end to clan feuding. The umma, the community of the faithful, transcended old tribal boundaries. Islam also offered an ethical system capable of healing social rifts within Arabian society. All believers were equal before Allah; the strong and wealthy were responsible for the care of the weak and poor. The prophet's teachings and the Qur'an became the basis for laws regulating the Muslim faithful. All faced a last judgment by a stern but compassionate god.

Town and Country: Commercial Boom and Agrarian Expansion

The rise of the mawali was accompanied by the growth in wealth and status of merchant and landlord classes. Urban expansion was linked to a revival of an Afro-Eurasian trading network in decline since the fall of the Han and Roman empires. Muslim merchants moved goods from the western Mediterranean to the South China Sea. The resulting profits stimulated urban development. Mosques, schools, baths, rest houses, and hospitals served the public. Handicraft production increased in both government and private workshops. The most skilled artisans formed guild-like organizations to negotiate wages and working conditions and to provide support services. Slaves performed unskilled labor and served caliphs and high officials. Some slaves held powerful positions and gained freedom, but unskilled slaves, many of them Africans, frequently worked under terrible conditions. A rural, landed elite, the ayan, emerged. The majority of peasants occupied land as tenants and had to give most of their harvest to the owners.

Umayyad Decline and Fall

The spoils of victory brought luxurious living styles and decline of military talents to the Umayyads. Many Muslims considered such conduct a retreat from Islamic virtues, and revolts occurred throughout the empire. The most important occurred in the mid-8th century among frontier warriors settled near the Iranian borderland town of Merv. Many men had married locally and developed regional loyalties. Angry at not receiving adequate shares of booty, they revolted when new troops were introduced. The rebels were led by the Abbasid clan. Allied with Shi'a and mawali, Abu al-Abbas defeated the Umayyads in 750, later assassinating most of their clan leaders.

From Arab to Islamic Empire: The Early Abbasid Era

The triumph of the new dynasty reflected a series of fundamental changes within the Islamic world. The increased size of Muslim civilization brought growing regional identities and made it difficult to hold the empire together. The Abbasid victory led to increased bureaucratic expansion, absolutism, and luxurious living. The Abbasids championed conversion and transformed the character of the previous Arab-dominated Islamic community. Once in power, the Abbasids turned against the Shi'a and other allies to support a less tolerant Sunni Islam. At their new capital, Baghdad, the rulers accepted Persian ruling concepts, elevating themselves to a different status than the earlier Muslim leaders. A growing bureaucracy worked under the direction of the wazir, or chief administrator. The great extent of the empire hindered efficiency, but the regime worked well for more than a century. The constant presence of the royal executioner symbolized the absolute power of the rulers over their subjects.

Weaknesses of the Adversary Empires

The weak Sasanian Empire was ruled by an emperor manipulated by a landed, aristocratic class that exploited the agricultural masses. Official Zoroastrianism lacked popular roots, and the more popular creed of Mazdak had been brutally suppressed. The Arabs defeated the poorly prepared Sasanian military and ended the dynasty in 651. The Byzantines were more resilient adversaries. The empire had been weakened by the defection of frontier Arabs and persecuted Christian sects and by long wars with the Sasanians. The Arabs quickly seized western Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. From the 640s, Arabs had gained naval supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean and extended conquests westward into north Africa and southern Europe. The weakened Byzantines held off attacks in their core Asia Minor and Balkan territories.

Converts and "People of the Book"

Umayyad policy did not prevent interaction—intermarriage and conversion—between Arabs and their subjects. Muslim converts, malawi, still paid taxes and did not receive a share of booty; they were blocked from important positions in the army or bureaucracy. Most of the conquered peoples were dhimmis, or "people of the book." The first were Jews and Christians; later the term also included Zoroastrians and Hindus. The dhimmis had to pay taxes but were allowed to retain their own religious and social organization.

Islamic Conversion and Mawali Acceptance

Under the Abbasids, new converts, both Arabs and others, were fully integrated into the Muslim community. The old distinction between mawali and older believers disappeared. Most conversions occurred peacefully. Many individuals sincerely accepted appealing, ethical Islamic beliefs. Others perhaps reacted to the advantages of avoiding special taxes and to the opportunities for advancement open to believers in education, administration, and commerce. Persians, for example, soon became the real source of power in the imperial system.

The Umayyad Imperium

With internal disputes resolved, Muslims during the 7th and 8th centuries pushed forward into central Asia, northwest India, north Africa, and southwestern Europe. The Franks checked the advance north into Europe at Poitiers in 732, but Muslims retained Iberia for centuries. By the 9th century, they dominated the Mediterranean. The Umayyad political capital was at Damascus. The caliphs built an imperial administration with both bureaucracy and military dominated by a Muslim-Arab elite. The warriors remained concentrated in garrison towns to prevent assimilation by the conquered.

In what ways was the Islamic religion a faith that elevated the status and opportunities of women, and what were the constraints on this process?

Women gained more power such as property ownership. But this was not the case in places such as Africa and Southeast Asia.

Marriage and Family in Pre-Islamic Arabia

Women may have enjoyed more freedom than in the Byzantine and Sasanian empires. They had key economic roles in clan life. Descent was traced through the female line, and males paid a bride-price to the wife's family. Women did not wear veils and were not secluded. Both sexes had multiple marriage partners. Still, males, carrying on the honored warrior tradition, remained superior. Traditional practices of property control, inheritance, and divorce favored men. Women commonly did drudge labor. Female status was even more restricted in urban centers.

Hajj

a Muslim's pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca to worship Allah at the Ka'ba

Battle of Siffin

battle fought in 657 between Ali and the Umayyads; led to negotiations that fragmented Ali's party

Wazir

chief administrative official under the Abbasids

Copts, Nestorians

christian sects of Syria and Egypt; gave their support to the Arabic Muslims

Umayyad

clan of the Quraysh that dominated Mecca; later an Islamic dynasty

Umma

community of the faithful within Islam

Ali

cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad; one of the orthodox caliphs; focus for the development of shi'ism

Abbasid

dynasty that succeeded the Umayyads in 750; their capital was at Baghdad

Mu'awiya

first Umayyad caliph; his capital was Damascus

Shi'a

followers of Ali's interpretation of Islam

Sunnis

followers of the majority interpretation within Islam; included the Umayyads

Jizya

head tax paid by all non-Muslims in Islamic lands

Jihads

islamic holy war

Ramadan

islamic month of religious observance requiring fasting from dawn to sunset

Shaykhs

leaders of tribes and clans within bedouin society; usually possessed large herds, several wives, and many children

Bedouin

nomadic pastoralists of the Arabian peninsula with a culture based on herding camels and goats

Mawali

non-Arab converts to Islam

Ka'ba

revered pre-Islamic shrine in Mecca; incorporated into Muslim worship

Karbala

site of the defeat and death of Husayn, the son of Ali

Zakat

tax for charity obligatory for all Muslims

Five pillars

the obligatory religious duties for all Muslims: confession of faith, prayer, fasting during Ramadan, zakat, and hajj(pilgrimage to Mecca)

Caliph

the successor to Muhammad as head of the Islamic community

Ayan

the wealthy, landed elite that emerged under the Abbasids

Khadijah

the wife of Muhammad

Qur'an

the word of God as revealed through Muhammad; made into the holy book of Islam

Uthman

third caliph; his assassination set off a civil war within Islam between the Umayyads and Ali

Medina

town northeast of Mecca; asked Muhammad to resolve its intergroup differences; Muhammad's fight to Medina, the Hijra, in 622 began the Muslim calendar

Quarysh

tribe of bedouins that controlled Mecca in the 7th century C.E.

Ridda wars

wars following Muhammad's death; the defeat of rival prophets and opponents restored the unity of Islam