ftgAg*Tgs OF'THA EMP[fig

From: Early Islam by Desmond Stewart,

Time-Life Books, Time, inc. 1967

Fxcerpt ftom Early lslam (Time-Life Books)

As the $pmtine and Persian empires bdtled each other towrd exhaustion and de"ay, baclcwrd
Arabia lying betweenthe adversaries but shielded fu its aridify aud poverf; prepared one oihistoty,*
great explosions. In 633 AD, under the unifying baner ofthe Prophef Arab wariors burst hungrit5r out
oftheir ho! dry homeland and reached for the good tife of their neighbors. Behind the,m was u p*io*tu
one third immurcd in sand dunes, lacking a single ste*m that flowed yea round; ahead was m
inesistible lure: booty for those who lived" Paradise for those who died fighting the unbeliever. Within ,
100 yeas, this zealous, individualistic people had carved out an empire that stretched from Spain to India
and at their peak of power were deep inside France battering vainly at the gates of Poitiers.
*Much booty

lnth G'd pronised pu- And ye sholl

hqye

fl

"

(euran)

In Arabia's land-ofheg m9 hunger - once described as an "iron wilde,rness" to possess dates

md water was all that a Bedouin tribesmm could hope for. In earlier centuries mary Ara6s had fled
*r.fhYqA in major migrations; those who stayed somaimes practiced infanticide to quiet hungry mourhs
md tibal warfare to gain their neighbor's meager goods. Yet only a few days' cmekide
- in
"*ay
riverine lraq, in Syna by the Sea of Galilee, on tree-shaded Lebanese slopes- the grain grew
tall,
oranges ripened in Jmuary, wild flowers bloomed in profusion md therJwere seasons o?menog clouds
and crisp air.
The Muslim's advance into the fertile borderlands was rnade with surprising ease. The
Byzantinesb who had held Sytta fielded ar atmy largely composed of Arme,nian mC erat subjectq
sullenly reluctant to fighq the Persians, in Iraq, were sti[ suffering the effects of four years of anarchy

md civil wm. The Musrims routed both in the sme way. At yarnkuk io syrru, shouiing Bedouins
at&acked out of fie desert through a swirling dust stom, overwhelming the halfrblinded Byzantines. At
Qadasiya in haq, less than a year later, the desfi-dwellrs again materialized out of the biowing smd,
and the decimated Persians fled eastward. Almost ovenright, ragged Arabs passed from a woil? of dusty
black te,lrts to fte mastery of the mcieint cities like Spia's lortesi-crowned A.ppo md Nippur in lraq.
"ihe Believers smote wtd slaughtered till

the going down of the xm.-.And

thefew of

the

Arabsfeil upon al! kings..

(Arab historian)

protectthe newlywon Syria against the vengeful Byzantine *id" fto- the south andwesf an
ambitious Arab commmder, Arnr, Ied 3,500 caval4mren into Egypt, from which the Byzantines imported
most oftheir food. lYithin nine months he had taken a fortress onthe site ofmodem AuV Cui.q
past the py:mids' and accepted the surrends ofthe mighty naval base of Alexandria Then he settled
doyrn to enjoy fte rich tmd- Two decades ldir, to protect the conquest ofEg5pt, Adr's nephew Uqba
rode farther west, adding Tunisia's pastures to Islam, then all the way to the footirifis of thE Allas
Mountairy swgepmg oler farms long fortified against tocat raiders. Stopped by rhe Atlartic in 6gl, he
rode impatie'lrtly into the
to Atlab, "Were I not hinderedby ft* seq I would go forward
to thc unlnownkingdoms o{the West...subduingthose nations who worship othergods rh*n-Thee!-

*lpt

suri

'The Nilefloods havefallen, the spring gazing is god. Ihere is milkfor the lambs and the Hds.
Go outwilh Gd,s
blesstng ud enioy tlu led, iB nilh ialtocfu md its herds. Atd taie
cwe of lotr rwighbors.- (Ar5 to his
victorious troops)

gd

The Persians, a proud people with their own thousmd year history of e,lnpire, proved to be the
Arab's toughest adversary. In 642 Arabs poured onto the Persian plains where hirdsme,n tended cattle,
and * Nehawand won 'a victory ofvictories". But the war contirued as the persim King yezdegerd
{ought stubbornly on, until killed by a haitorous subject. Leaderless, Persia slid into thelrab's #pire.
Brrt it tumed defeat into a kind ofvictory. filling the cuttural vacuum in the pious but brbmic Arab
society, Persian art, Iiteraturg philosophy, and medicine becryre major elemJnts ofMuslim
civilization.

lGd

wws

the Persiwrs how given as the soil of their cormtryl-

- (Arab emissaries)

From Europe, across the strait+ the mist covered villages of Spain beckoned to the Arabs in
Morocco. Conquest began as a gesture; to propitiate his new formd Berber allies, Musa the Arab
governor of North Africa authorized a raid in7rc. But when the raiders handily mastered half of Spain
within ayetr, the temptation to mov on proved inesistible; by 718 almost all of Visigoth Spain had
become an Arab province.
"fn clearness of shy ond beaaty of landscape, [SpainJ resembles Syria...it rivals Egtpt in thefenility olits soil?
The Arab governor Musa to his caliph

At the same time, the prophet's banner was bome eastward into central Asia over fabled
Samarkan4 Bulfima and Kaodahar in Afghanistan. The Arab's expansion had reached its high-water
mak- In'732 the Arabs stood d tte passes ofthe Hindu Kush md gazedover its snowy peaLs into India
Mlitarily their stength was ebbing but now another drearn ofthe Prophet was coming true; Islm had
Iegions of new converts. Tu*ish and other prosetSrtes moved beyond the Kush and brought India under
Muslim rule. In the West, Berber converts carried the faith through Spain and halfiray into France.
People whom Muhammad had neither seen nor known ofwene facing Mecca five tirnes a day and
praying "Thetre is no god but AItalL and Muhammad is His Prophet -

"Gd

lrss brought the fuesn af his Apostle to pasi in very truth." (@ran)

THg SPfiEAD Of'[gtAM

(Excerptl

,T.ot-only di{ the driving amies gain wealtb, they acquired temitory, supplies, and mmpower.
Able-bodied men of the conquered telritories were e,nlisted in the Muslim atmfi. Many of thd conguered
people accepted Islam willingly and were teated well. Those who re,fused to become Mustms weri
forcd to pay higher tanes than Muslims. Those who refirsed to accept Islam or to pay the tar< were put to
death...

--

For the most part the Muslims weie easier on their new subjects than prwious rulers had been.
Tanes were generally less than the conquered people had had to pay to their former nrlers- The Muslims

did not force people offtheir land as many former conquerors had done. Very often local adminisfrators
retained theirjobs, since the Muslims retied heavily on loca! native leadership which was already

ogelating effectively. All non-Muslims were forbiddeir to carry weaponss buittrey were allowed to
adminigsrjustice to their own peoples. They could judge legal cases conce4inghembers oftheir own
sect under their own code of laws. Minority goups who had been persecuted under the nrle of the
Persians or the Byzmtines were treded with much more tolerance by the Muslims. The Muslims were
especially liberal with the Jews and Christians because the Quran repeatedly mentions the prophets and
teachings of both the OId md New Test*rnents
vocabulalv
adversaries; enemies
fleeting: short lived
atidity:
drlmgss
sullenly: gloomily, sombe,rtry
imnnrred: imprisoned, confined
anarchy: disordr; no gove,fitmilt
lure:
something that attracts with the
routed:
drove out
promiSe ofreward
desimated: destroyed
booty:
loot takenr from an enelxty
ve,ngeful: desiring revmge
infanticide:
killing infants
propitiatq to appease, soothe
ilreager:
lacking in $lantity
ebbing:
drrninishing
iverine:
fult ofrivers
prosetrytes: new converts
profuston:
abundance
hbe,ral:
Ioose, generous
$]r=estio=ns

I)

(ansryer the folloving questions

in cornplete and detaited sentences)

Descnibe sorne of the reasons why the Arabs wanted to seek lind outside of the Arabi* p"oi""rrt;
in the Zn cent'ry.
2) Describe some of the ressons the Arab oonquerors wffe so successfiil.
f),In what ways did the Arabs boefit from their comqucsts?
4) In what ways did the peoples living in areas oonquerea ry tne fuabs benfit? In what ways were
thy restricted?

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS

a

Paris

(abotre) bears a remarhable resemblance

The tremendous erteil of the Islamic empire of more than l,Affi years ago
oceon to the southwest Pacific'
Atlantic
tie
stretching-from
predominance
6uetou1,
to the present oreas of klamic

il

imeline : lsla mic civiffsa tions

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