Download Week 7: Chapter 7

Week 7: Chapter 7: Part 1: Terms
Al-Mahdi – Abbasids, dynasty of caliphs who ruled the caliphate of Islam from 750 until
1258. All of these caliphs were descended from Abbas, a member of the tribe of Quraysh
of Mecca who was an uncle of the prophet Muhammad. The Abbasids seized the
caliphate following the overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty of caliphs, and held it until
the Mongols sacked Baghdad and killed the last caliph of the line. For most of this time
their court was in Baghdad, a town founded at the command of the second Abbasid
caliph, al-Mansur (754-775) in 762. The third Abbasid caliph. (Wikipedia)
Harun al-Rashid - The 8th- and 9th-century caliphs Harun al-Rashid and his son
Abdullah al-Mamun are especially renowned for their encouragement of intellectual
pursuits and for the splendor of their courts. During their reigns scholars were invited to
the court to debate various topics, and translations were made from Greek, Persian, and
Syriac works. Embassies also were exchanged with Charlemagne, emperor of the West.
Harun was a generous patron of learning, poetry, and music, and his court was visited by
the most eminent Muslims of the age. He was celebrated in countless songs and stories,
and is perhaps best known to the Western world as the caliph whose court is described in
the Arabian Nights. . (Wikipedia)
The Thousand and One Nights – Arabian Nights, or The Thousand and One Nights,
collection of stories from Persia, Arabia, India, and Egypt, compiled over hundreds of
years. Most of the stories originated as folk tales, anecdotes, or fables that were passed on
orally. They include the stories of Ali Baba, Aladdin, and Sindbad the Sailor, which have
become particularly popular in Western countries.
The earliest record of Arabian Nights is a fragment of the collection that dates from the
800s. The collection grew during the following centuries until it reached its present form,
written in Arabic, in the late 1400s or the 1500s. (Wikipedia)
Buyids of Persia - The Buyids, also known as Buwayhids, Buwaihids, Buyyids, or Āl-i
Būya, was a Persian Shi'a dynastic confederation from Daylaman, a region in north of
Iran, on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea.
In pre-Islamic times they had served as mercenaries for the Sasanian kings of Iran, but
were independent from their rule. They were considered a formidable military force,
especially because of their ability as foot soldiers. Succession of power was hereditary,
with fathers dividing their land among their sons. During the time of Harun al-Rashid, the
Alid people sought refuge among them. (Encarta)
Seljuk Turks – Turkish dynasty prominent in the Middle East during the 11th and 12th
centuries. Originally a clan belonging to the Oghuz, a Turkmen tribe of Central Asia,
they were converted to Islam in the 10th century and established themselves in the
Iranian province of Khorāsān in the early 11th century. In the period between 1040 and
1055, their chief, Togrul Beg, conquered most of Iran and Iraq and made himself
protector of the caliph of Baghdād, spiritual leader of the Sunni (orthodox) Muslims.
Togrul was given the title sultan by the caliph and made war on the Shia Muslims, who
rejected the caliph's authority. (Encarta)
Crusades – series of wars by Western European Christians to recapture the Holy Land
from the Muslims (see Palestine). The Crusades were first undertaken in 1096 and ended
in the late 13th century. The term Crusade was originally applied solely to European
efforts to retake from the Muslims the city of Jerusalem, which was sacred to Christians
as the site of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It was later used to designate any military
effort by Europeans against non-Christians. (Wikipedia)
Saladin - Muslim leader, who recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders. Born in Tikrīt,
Iraq, Saladin, as he is known in the West, was a Kurd Saladin repelled the Crusaders and
took the offensive against them. In September 1171 he suppressed the dissident Fatimid
regime, reuniting Egypt with the orthodox Abbasid caliphate, but his reluctance to
cooperate with Nur ad-Din against the Crusaders brought him to the brink of war with his
former master. (Wikipedia)
Ibn Khaldun – full name Abu Zayd Abd-Ar-Rahman Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), the
greatest of the medieval Islamic historians.
Born on May 27, 1332, in Tunis (now in Tunisia), of a Spanish-Arab family, Ibn Khaldun
held court positions in what are today Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, and in Granada,
Spain, and was twice imprisoned. In 1375 he went into seclusion near modern Frenda,
Algeria, taking four years to compose his monumental Muqaddamah, the introductory
volume to his Kitab al-Ibar (Universal History). In 1382, on pilgrimage to Mecca, he was
offered a chair at the famous Islamic university of Al Azhar by the sultan of Cairo, who
also appointed him judge (qadi) of the Maliki rite of Islam. In 1400 he accompanied the
sultan's successor to Damascus in an expedition to resist the invasion of the Turkic ruler
Tamerlane. Ibn Khaldun spent several weeks as Tamerlane's honored guest before
returning to Cairo, where he died on March 17, 1406. (Wikipedia)
“high culture” – is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic
discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the
arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture. In this case, it is noted that Persian replaced
Arabic as the official language of the “high culture” the language of polite exchanges
between courtiers as well as of history, poetic musings, and mystical revelations.
(Wikipedia)
Shah-Nama - Shāhnāmé, or Shāhnāma "The Book of Kings”, is an enormous poetic opus
written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi around 1000 AD and is the national epic of Iran.
The Shāhnāmeh tells the mythical and historical past of Greater Iran from the creation of
the world up until the Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century. (Wikipedia)
Sa’di - pseudonym of Muslih al-Din (1213?-1292?), Persian poet, admired for his blend
of cynical wisdom and kindness, and for the elegance of his verse. Born in Shīrāz, Iran,
Sa'di studied in Baghdād and later traveled widely in North Africa, Iraq, and perhaps
India. He also made several pilgrimages to Mecca, the most sacred of the Islamic holy
cities. After returning to Shīrāz in the 1250s, Sa'di wrote his most famous works: the
Bustan (The Orchard, 1257), a verse collection of fables, maxims, and histories
illustrating Islamic virtues; and the Gulistan (The Rose Garden, 1258), a book of prose
stories and anecdotes interspersed with short poems and maxims. Sa'di is also renowned
for his lyric poetry and his panegyrics (written works of praise), composed in both
Persian and Arabic. His tomb in Shīrāz remains one of the prominent sights of the
city.(Wikipedia)
Al-Ghanzali - Al-Ghazâlî (c.1055–1111) was one of the most prominent and influential
philosophers, theologians, jurists, and mystics of Sunni Islam. He was active at a time
when Sunni theology had just passed through its consolidation and entered a period of
intense challenges from Shiite Ismâ’îlite theology and the Arabic tradition of Aristotelian
philosophy (falsafa). Al-Ghazâlî understood the importance of falsafa and developed a
complex response that rejected and condemned some of its teachings, while it also
allowed him to accept and apply others. (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-ghazali/)
Sufism/Sufis – Islamic mysticism that began to develop in the 7th century, the first
century of Islam. The term sufi (Arabic, “man of wool”) was coined in the early 9th
century as a name for mystics whose ascetic practices included wearing coarse woolen
garments, or sufu; soon the term referred to all mystics, whether or not they followed
ascetic practices. Sufism arose out of various influences, among them a mystical overtone
in some of the teachings of Muhammad, the founder of Islam; a desire to escape the
hardships due to the social and political upheavals of the time; and a tendency toward
quietism in reaction to the worldliness and extravagance of the early caliphs. (Encarta)
Mongols – pastoral people now found predominantly in East Asia, as well as parts of
eastern Russia, who speak one of the Altaic languages. Their written language,
Mongolian, dates from at least as early as the 11th century.
The Mongols are thought to have been a loose confederation of tribes until the Mongol
conqueror Genghis Khan united them into one formidable nation in the early 13th
century. Under his leadership, they developed a powerful army that swept west into
Europe and east into China, eventually forming a widespread Eurasian empire. The
descendants of Genghis Khan ruled large areas of China, East Asia, Russia, Iran, and
Turkey for long periods of time. The Mongols were subsequently overcome, and they
returned to relative political obscurity.
The Mongols now number approximately 6 million, with most of the population
practicing Buddhism and the remainder embracing shamanism. The Mongols are still
largely a nomadic people, and their wealth consists of sheep, horses, cattle, camels, and
goats. (Wikipedia)
Chinggis Khan – was the founder, Khan (ruler) and Khagan (emperor) of the Mongol
Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history.
He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia. After
founding the Mongol Empire and being proclaimed "Genghis Khan", he started the
Mongol invasions and raids of the Kara-Khitan Khanate, Caucasus, Khwarezmid Empire,
Western Xia and Jin dynasties. During his life, the Mongol Empire eventually occupied a
substantial portion of Central Asia.
Before Genghis Khan died, he assigned Ogedei Khan as his successor and split his
empire into khanates among his sons and grandsons. He died in 1227 after defeating the
Tanguts. He was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Mongolia at a location
unknown. His descendants went on to stretch the Mongol Empire across most of Eurasia
by conquering and/or creating vassal states out of all of modern-day China, Korea, the
Caucasus, Central Asian countries, and substantial portions of modern Eastern Europe
and the Middle East.
In 1206 Genghis Khan assumed the title Great Khan of the Mongols, and the title was
used by his successors in every country from Europe to China. (Wikipedia)
Mameluks – a warrior caste dominant in Egypt and influential in the Middle East for
over 700 years. Islamic rulers created this warrior caste by collecting non-Muslim slave
boys and training them as cavalry soldiers especially loyal to their owner and each other.
They converted to Islam in the course of their training.
The Mamluks were first used in Muslim armies in Baghdad by the Abbasid caliphs in the
9th cent. and quickly spread throughout the Muslim world. They served the Ayyubid
sultans from the 12th cent. onward and grew powerful enough to challenge the existence
of the rulers who were theoretically their masters. Aybak, the first Mamluk to actually
rule, persuaded (1250) the mother of the last Ayyubid sultan to marry him after she had
murdered her son. For more than 250 years thereafter, Egypt and Syria were ruled by
Mamluk sultans supported by a caste of warrior slaves, from which the sultans were
chosen. The Mamluks took advantage of their power to become the principal landholders
in Egypt.(Wikipedia)
Harsha – (590?-647), also called Harshavardhana or Siladitya, the last important Hindu
monarch of India, who ruled (606-647) a vast empire in northern India. He used his
power to defeat Bengal and all the other kingdoms of northern India, thus becoming the
ruler of an alliance of subordinate realms. (Wikipedia)
Kannauj – town, central Uttar Pradesh state, northern India. Kannauj is situated near the
Ganges (Ganga) River northwest of Kanpur, with which it has road and rail connections.
Its name probably has more popular spellings than any other place-name in India.
Kannauj has existed since ancient times and contains numerous ruins and artifacts. It was
important during the Gupta empire, and in the early 7th century it became the capital of
Harsha’s empire, which included much of northern India. The town entered a period of
great splendour during the 9th and 10th centuries, at which time a large number of Hindu
temples and Buddhist monasteries were built. In 1018, however, it was razed by Maḥmūd
of Ghazna. It was plundered again in 1194, by which time it was almost totally destroyed.
Since then, Kannauj has been of minor importance, though it is renowned for perfumes
and tobacco. Pop. (2001) 71,727.
(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/311203/Kannauj)
Hajjaj – Arab governor in India: the governor of the eastern provinces of India during
the Arab Umayyad dynasty. (Encarta)
Muhammad ibn Qasim – (c. 31 December, 695–18 July, 715), born Muhammad bin
Qasim bin Ukail Sakifi, was a Syrian general who conquered the Sindh and Punjab
regions along the Indus river (now a part of Pakistan). The conquest of Sindh and Punjab
began the Islamic era in South Asia. (Wikipedia)
Mahmud of Ghazni – Ghaznavids, Turkish Muslim dynasty that ruled Afghanistan and
neighboring Punjab for more than 200 years. The greatest of the Ghaznavids was Sultan
Mahmud of Ghaznī (971-1030), Alptigin's grandson, who led numerous raids into the
Punjab, looting Indian cities of enormous wealth that he used to convert Ghaznī into one
of the great centers of Islamic culture. Before his death Mahmud annexed the Punjab to
his kingdom, and in 1160 the Ghaznavid capital was moved to Lahore. (Wikipedia)
Muhammad of Ghur – (died 1206), Muslim conqueror of northern India. In 1173
Muhammad rose to control the Turkish Ghurid Empire, centered in what is now west
central Afghanistan. Finding his ambitions to control Central Asia blocked by other
Turkish-influenced states, he embarked on yearly raids into northern India, which was
then largely Hindu. Between 1175 and 1186 he overran the regions of Sind and Punjab,
although he was defeated in an attempt to subdue Gujarāt. In 1191 he was dealt a major
defeat by a confederation of Indian princes in present-day Haryāna State. However,
Muhammad fought the princes again at the same site the next year and won a convincing
victory. In 1193 his armies pushed as far as Bihār in northeastern India (on the presentday border with Nepal), thus making Muhammad the dominant power in northern India.
(Wikipedia)
Quth-ud-din Aibak – Lieutenant of Muhammad of Guhr; established kingdom in India
with capital at Delphi; proclaimed himself Sultan of India. (Encarta)
Delhi – The capital of the new Muslim empire. Delhi’s location is in the very center of
northern India. (Encarta)
Dehli Sultanate – principal Muslim state in India before the advent of the Mughal
Empire. It was founded in 1206 by Qutubuddin Aybak, a lieutenant of Muhammad of
Ghur, the Muslim conqueror of north India. It remained confined to the north under
Qutubuddin Aybak's Slave dynasty (so called because he was once a slave of
Muhammad). Under the Khalji dynasty (1290-1320) its control was extended over most
of the subcontinent. Alauddin, the second Khalji sultan, repelled an attempted invasion
by the Mongols, but in 1398, following a period of internal strife, the territory of the
sultanate was overrun by the armies of the Turkic conqueror Tamerlane. Under the
Sayyid (1414-1451) and Lodi (1451-1526) dynasties the sultanate's power was greatly
reduced and was finally destroyed by the Mughal emperor Humayun in 1555-1556.
(Wikipedia)
Bhakti – a Sanskrit term derived from the verb bhaj, meaning “to love, adore, enjoy, eat,
or make love to”; it denotes passionate devotion to a Hindu god, primarily Krishna,
Rama, Shiva, or Devi. In this sense the word appears in the Bhagavad-Gita, where
Krishna teaches bhakti as the third religious path, after the paths of works and
knowledge. Under the influence of vernacular sectarian movements, particularly in
southern India and Bengal, the word assumed connotations of intensity and self-abandon.
(Wikipedia)
Kabir – (1440?-1518), Indian poet and mystic, whose teachings blend elements of Islam
and Sufism with the ideas of the bhakti (passionate devotion) movement of Hinduism.
(Wikipedia)
Empire of Shrivijaya – former trading empire in SE Asia: an Indonesian kingdom
centered in Palembang, Sumatra, that dominated the maritime trade of Southeast Asia
between the 7th and 14th centuries.(Encarta)
Malacca - historic Southeast Asian state on the southern coast of the Malay Peninsula (in
modern Malaysia), on the Strait of Malacca. Parameswara, a prince from Palembang on
the island of Sumatra, founded Malacca about 1400. He converted to Islam, which Indian
traders had previously brought to the region, and the kingdom quickly flourished as
Southeast Asia’s regional trade center and as a center for the Muslim faith. The size of
Malacca’s trade is evidenced by the fact that as many as 2000 boats were routinely
anchored in its harbor. Malacca’s reputation for security, well-ordered government, and
unrivaled commercial facilities contributed to its economic success. The kingdom’s
prosperity enabled it to sustain a rapidly expanding population, which by the beginning of
the 16th century had reached 100,000. (Encarta)
Demak - was Muslim state located on Java's north coast in Indonesia, at the site of the
present day city of Demak. A port fief thought to have been founded in the last quarter of
the fifteenth century, it was influenced by Islam brought by Arab and Gujarat traders. The
sultanate played an important role in the establishment of Islam in Indonesia; the new
religion's influence manifest by the Great Demak Mosque reportedly built by the Wali
Songo. (Wikipedia)
Week 7: Chapter 7: Part 2: Questions
1. What were the causes for the weaknesses of the later Abbasid Empire?
Large distances caused issues in transporting armies as well as monitoring local
administrators. Many were loyal to local rulers rather than the empire as a whole. Slave
and peasant uprisings as well as Mongol invasions weakened and eventually destroyed
the state. An unsuccessful succession policy also encouraged decline at the end of AlMahdi’s reign.
2. What was the position of women in the Abbasid Empire?
Males dominated society, segregating women in all aspects, with the exception of family.
Harems and veils appeared and became representative of the females’ subjugation to
males. The elite were separated and kept in the home, lower class still were economically
viable. Marriage occurred early for women with the goal of childbearing. Elite women
found a voice only in pressing fro advancement of their son’s careers.
3. Describe the economy of the later Abbasid Empire.
Heavy tax burdens for peasants, agricultural villages saw abandonment thus causing
irrigation works to fall into disrepair. Rulers often overspent
4. Discuss theological developments within Islam during the Abbasid Empire.
Mysticism is developed by the Sufis, however religious scholars often became more
conservative. The Ulama became increasingly suspicious of non-Muslim influence, in
particular Greek rationalism. The theologian, al-Ghazali, in turn attempted to fuse Greek
and Quranic traditions.
The Sufis push for a more personal relationship with Allah, by asceticism, songs,
meditation and dance.
5. Discuss the stages of Islamic incursion into India.
The 7th century saw the first invasion, initially demonstrating conflict, yet eventually
circumventing tensions to establish peaceful commercial and religious exchange.
Invasions in the North were often welcomed as many Indians saw the invasion resulting
in religious tolerance and lighter taxes. The Brahmin castes were respected by the
invaders and many officials kept their positions. After initial conquests, much of India
was retaken until the 10th century. A new state was formed, with its capital at Delhi on
the Ganges plain. Following dynasties became military states though their authority was
often limited.
6. To what extent were Muslims successful in converting Indians to Islam?
In most regions Islam initially had little impact as high-caste Hindus did not accept the
invaders as their equals. There was greater success in the lower castes as lower and
“”untouchables” were welcomed into mosques and schools. Buddhists were among the
most highly converted as ongoing spiritual decline paved the way for greater interest in
Islam. Others converted not out of spiritual reasons, but for practical ones – hoping to
escape taxes or via intermarriage.
7. Describe how Islam spread to Southeast Asia.
In the 8th century, Muslim traders began to dominate the seas by taking control of Indian
Commerce. A 13th century collapse of a major Buddhist trading port on the Straits of
Malacca allowed them to gain a foothold in Southeast Asia. Islam quickly spread through
trade routes connecting converts to Indian Ocean ports. Toleration for existing religious
beliefs allowed for converts to embrace the new religion, but for traditional laws to still
dictate social interactions.