Chapter 14 Notes 19/10/2007 10:25:00

In 632CE, Muhammad visited Mecca and set precedent from Muslims. The
hajj draws people from all around the world and the hajj became special.
Islam = submission Muslim = One who has submitted. Created blended
society and thus dar al-Islam “house of islam”
A prophet and his world: Islam arose in Arabia and reflected nomadic
lifestyle of herding and clan leadership. Arabia was also center of trade for
overland as there are lots of ports. As classical society declined trade
declined influenceing Mecca, important place of fairs and trade.
• Muhammad and his message
o Arabian peninsula was mostly desert
 Nomadic Bedouin people organized in family and clan
groups
 Important in long-distance trade networks
between China/India and Persia/Byzantium
o Muhammad's early life
 Muhammad ibn Abdullah born to a Mecca merchant
family, 570 C.E. but lost parents at age 6 and was cared
for by grandfather and uncle.
 Difficult early life, married a wealthy widow, Khadija, in
595 and gained slight prominence in Meccan society
 Became a merchant at age thirty and was exposed to
various faiths
o Muhammad's spiritual transformation at age forty
 There was only one true god, Allah ("the god")
 Allah would soon bring judgment on the world
 The archangel Gabriel delivered these revelations to
Muhammad and Muhammad began to spread faith to
family and close friends. Gradually by about 620BCE,
Mecca had minority of Muslims
o The Quran ("recitation")--holy book of Islam
 Followers compiled Muhammad's revelations
 Work of poetry and definitive authority on Islam
 Other works include hadith (sayings and deeds of
Muhammad)
• Muhammad's migration to Medina
o Conflict at Mecca
  His teachings offended other believers, especially the
ruling elite of Mecca due to monotheistic
 Attacks on greed offended wealthy merchants
 Attacks on idolatry threatened shrines, especially the
black rock at Ka'ba
o The hijra
 Under persecution, Muhammad and followers fled to
Medina (Yathrib), 622 C.E.
 The move, known as hijra, was the starting point of the
Islamic calendar
o The umma: cohesive community of Muslims in Medina due to
need of guidance and provided social and legal codes
o The "seal of the prophets"
 Muhammad called himself the "seal of the prophets"--
the final prophet of Allah
 Held Hebrew scripture and New Testament in high
esteem as they talk about same God
 Determined to spread Allah's wish to all humankind
• The establishment of Islam in Arabia
o Muhammad's return to Mecca: first visit black rock in 629
 He and his followers conquered Mecca, 630
 Imposed a government dedicated to Allah
 Destroyed pagan shrines and built mosques
 By the end of his life in 632, most of Arabia was under
their control
o The Ka'ba was not destroyed; it became site of pilgrimage in
632
o The Five Pillars of Islam, or obligations taught by Muhammad
1. Muslims must acknowledge Allah as only
diety and Muhammad as his prophet
2. Must pray to Allah daily facing Mecca
 3. Must observe fast during daylight hours
of Ramadan
4. Must contribute alms for relief of weak
and poor
5. Those able to must make pilgrimage to
Mecca
o Islamic law: the sharia, inspired by Quran
 Detailed guidance on proper behavior in almost every
aspect of life
 Through the sharia, Islam became more than a religion,
it became a way of life
The expansion of Islam: After Muhammad’s death, Islam might have
fallen apart as no appointed leaders and also towns begun to resist Islam
but Islam came back to conquer a lot more land.
• The early caliphs and the Umayyad dynasty
o The caliph
 Upon Muhammad's death, Abu Bakr served as caliph
("deputy") served as substitute for Muhammad
 Became head of the state, chief judge, religious leader,
military commander
o Dramatic expansion of Islam
 Islamic armies carry religions even into Byzantine and
Sasanid governments
 Attacked with zeal and at the right time of weakness
 633-637: Syria and Palestine and Mesopotamia
 640s: Egypt and N. Africa
 651: Toppled Sasanid and Persia
 711: Hindu kingdom of Sind in NW India
 718: Iberian Peninsula
o The Shia: Selection of caliph but clan loyalty complicated stuff
 The Shia sect originally supported Ali and descendents
as caliph
  Versus the Sunnis ("traditionalists"), the Shias accepted
legitimacy of early caliphs
 Different beliefs: holy days for leaders, Ali infallible
 Ongoing conflict between the two sects
o The Umayyad dynasty (661-750 C.E.)
 The dynasty temporarily solved problem of succession
 One of the prominent merchants of Mecca
 Established capital city at Damascus in Syria
 Ruled the dar al-Islam for the interests of Arabian
military aristocracy; ruled lands as conquerors
o Policy toward conquered peoples: raied morale among Arabs
 Discontent among other groups
 Levied jizya (head tax) on those who did not convert to
Islam
 Even the non-Arab converts were discriminated against
o Umayyad decline, due to discontent of conquered and
resistance of Shia
• The Abbasid dynasty
o Abu al-Abbas, descendant of Muhammad's uncle
 Allied with Shias and non-Arab Muslims
 Won battle against Umayyad in 750 after annihilating
the clan
o The Abbasid dynasty (750-1258 C.E.); much more
metropolitian
 Showed no special favor to Arab military aristocracy
 No longer conquering, but the empire still grew
 Spared with various people
 Autonomous Islamic force in Tunisia mounted
naval expeditions to Mediterranean
o Abbasid administration
 Relied heavily on Persian techniques of statecraft
 Central authority ruled from the court at Baghdad
 Round city with green-domed palace
 Appointed governors to rule provinces
 Ulama ("people with religious knowledge") and qadis
(judges) ruled locally and set moral standards
o Harun al-Rashid (786-809 C.E.), high point of Abassid
dynasty; sent many gifts to people
o Abbasid decline
 Struggle for succession between Harun's sons led to
civil war; succession rights became problem again
 Governors built their own power bases
 Popular uprisings and peasant rebellions weakened the
dynasty
 A Persian noble seized control of Baghdad in 945
 Later, the Saljuq Turks controlled the imperial family;
sultan was true source of power
Economy and society of the early Islamic world: Agricultural society
with lots of trade and exchange
• New crops, agricultural experimentation, and urban growth
o Spread of new foods and industrial crops – useful crop to
areas in need
o Effects of new crops
 Increased varieties and quantities of food
 Industrial crops became the basis for a thriving textile
industry
o Agricultural experimentation – methods of irrigation,
fertilization, crop rotation etc.
  Wrote hundreds of manuals
o Urban growth
 Increasing agricultural production contributed to the
rapid growth of cities
 A new industry: paper manufacture; got from China
• The formation of a hemispheric trading zone: Trade important to
Arabia; Muhammad was a merchant
o Overland trade
 Trade revived silk roads
 Umayyad and Abbasid rulers maintained roads for
military and administration
 Also used by pilgrims
 Egypt received ice from Syria to Cairo even in
summer
o Camels and caravans
 Overland trade traveled mostly by camel caravan
 Can withstand hot weather better; heavier loads
 Caravanserais in Islamic cities
o Maritime trade
 Arab and Persian mariners borrowed the compass from
the Chinese
 Borrowed the lateen sail from southeast Asian and
Indian mariners
 Borrowed astrolabe from the Hellenistic mariners
 Ramisht of Siraf got lots of money just from long
distance trade with China
o Banks
 Operated on large scale and provided extensive services
  Lent money, act as brokers and exchanged
currencies
 Letters of credit, or sakk, functioned as bank checks
o The organization of trade
 Entrepreneurs often pooled their resources in group
investments
 Traders even went to West Africa, Russia, Scandinavia
o Al-Andalus with its capital city Cordoba
 This area was Islamic Spain, conquered by Muslim
Berbers
 Claimed independence from the Abbasid dynasty
 Products of al-Andalus enjoyed a reputation for
excellence
• The changing status of women
o Can inherit property, divorce husband, engage in business
 Khadija, Muhammad’s first wife had a buisness
o The Quran and women
 The Quran enhanced security of women
 Outlawed female infanticide and gave dowry to
wife, not male husband or guardians
 The Quran and sharia also reinforced male domination
 Placed high premium on genealogical purity
• Subjected women to strict control of male
o Veiling of women
 Adopted veiling of women from Mesopotamia and Persia
 Women's rights provided by the Quran were reduced
through later interpretations
 Islamic values and cultural exchanges: Muslims regard Quran as only
reliable scripture and it drew freely from long-established cultural traditions
of Persia, India and Greece
• The formation of an Islamic cultural tradition
o The Quran and sharia were main sources to formulate moral
guidelines
 Body of civil and criminal law embodied in the sharia
provided measure of cultural unity for vastly different
lands
o Promotion of Islamic values
 Ulama, qadis, and missionaries were main agents
 Resolved disputes according to Islamic law and
ordered public observance of Islamic standards
 Education also promoted Islamic values
 By 10th century, Madrasas – higher education
begun to appear.
o Sufis, or Islamic mystics: Don’t like fine points, spiritual; pious
and ascetic lives
 Most effective missionaries
 Encouraged devotion to Allah by passionate singing or
dancing
 Al-Ghazali (1058-1111) believed that human reason
was too frail and confusing – cannot explain mysteries
 Only through Quran – philosophy vain pursuit
 Sufis led ascetic and holy lives, won respect of the
people
 Encouraged followers to revere Allah in their own ways
 Tolerated those who associated Allah with other beliefs
o The hajj: Ka’ba Abbasid saw themselves as supreme leaders
of Arabs
 The Ka'ba became the symbol of Islamic cultural unity
 Pilgrims helped to spread Islamic beliefs and values
• Islam and the cultural traditions of Persia, India, and Greece: Islam
is a large empire with people interacting with all people who
adopted some traditions and vice versa
o Persian influence on Islam: Fell at early date
 Most notable in literary works: Poetry and stories
 Omar Khayyam Rubaiyat (quatrains)
 Arabian Nights and Thousand and one nights
 Administrative techniques borrowed from Sasanids
(Umayyad and Abbasid)
 Ideas of kingship: wise, benevolent, absolute
o Indian influences
 Adopted "Hindi numerals," which Europeans later called
"Arabic numerals"
 Algebra and trigonometry and simplified bookkeeping
for Muslims
o Greek influences
 Muslims philosophers especially liked Plato and Aristotle
 Tried to synthesize Greek and Muslim thoughts
• Encountered resistance in Al-Ghazali who
considered Greek philosophy unreliable
guide to truth
 Ibn Rushd (Averroës) turned to Aristotle in twelfth
century
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