Download 10.2

Islam Expands
Muhammad’s Successors
Spread Islam
 Muhammad dies in 634
 4 “Rightly Guided Caliphs
 Abu Bakr
 Umar
 Uthman
 Ali
Expansion
 By 634 with Abu Bakr’s death Muslim armies
conquered Syria and Lower Egypt.
 Umar and Uthman continue to expand and by 750
Islamic Empire reachs 6,000 miles from Atlantic
Ocean to Indus River.
Reasons for Success
 Muslims see the military success as a sign from God
to continue to expand.
 Byzantine and Sassanid empire had been fights and
were exhausted militarily.
 Persecuted people under the Byzantine and Sassanid
rule welcomed the invaders and chose to accept Islam.
Treatment of Conquered
Peoples
 Qur’an bans forced conversion and allowed “People
of the Book to follow their own religion.
 Christians and Jews could not spread their religion but
they could live peacefully and work as scholars,
officials and bureaucrats.
Internal Conflict Creates
a Crisis
 656 Uthman is murdered and this starts a civil war.
 Ali becomes Caliph but Muawiya challenges him and
Ali was assassinated.
 Ummayads come to power and move the capital to
Damascus.
 Easier to control empire from Damascus.
Sunni-Shi’a Split
 Shi’a resist the rule of the Ummayads.
 Shi’a called for a descendant of the Prophet
Muhammad to be Caliph.
 Sunni did not resist the rule of the Ummayads.
 Sufi reject the luxury of life and pursue a life of
poverty and devotion to a spiritual life.
 Ummayads overthrown in 750 and the Abbasids take
over.
Control Extends Over
Three Continents
 Abbasids tried to wipe out the Ummayads, but one
fled to Spain and set up an Ummayad Caliphate.
 North African Muslims (Berbers) had settled in Spain
in the early 700s.
 Abbasids move their capital to Baghdad.
Rival Groups Divide
Muslim Lands
 Abbasids last from 750 to 1258
 Independent Muslim states started, like the Fatimid
 Fatimid Empire formed by Shi’a Muslims descended
from Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatima.
 Spread across North Africa into W. Arabia and Syria.
Muslim Trade Network
 Two trade networks
 Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean.
 Engages in sea trade with the rest of the world.
 Connects the Silk Roads of China and India with
Europe and Africa.
Muslim Trade
 Muslim’s set up banks throughout their empire.
 Offered sakks (checks) to merchants.
 Cordoba in Spain had over 200,000 people and
became a leading city for poets, philosophers and
scientists.
 Leaders in the arts and sciences.