Download Islamic Conquests

Islamic Conquests
And civil war: the Sunni/Shiite division
Conquest paradox
"Early Islamic conquests were not
accompanied by some fanatical desire to
convert the world. The Muslim conquests
have to be understood in terms of
religious motivation but not in terms of a
determination to wipe out Judaism and
Christianity." – Paul Freedman
 Rapid Islamic expansion not accompanied
by mandatory conversions.
 Motivation to conquer not equitable to
desire to spread religion.

650-750, more on the paradox
Internal division manifest
 Nature of religion not decided
 Conquest not equal to conversion

Successor to Mohammed?
Seal of the prophets
 Military, religious, civil
 Abu Bakr elected Caliph
 Ali, husband of Fatima, disputes
 Ridea/apostasy – rejection of Abu Bakr

◦ Will become Shiite
Systematic conquest of apostasy turns to
conquest of outsiders
 Military energy turns from internal to
external

Factors for quick conquest
Romans and Persians worn out
 Razzi turn into territorial gains
 Vikings of the desert?
 Minority religions: Monophysites and
Zoroastrians
 Jihad, struggle, against other religions or
internecine. Religious motivation but not
justification.

Conquests
Conquest of Persia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt
under Omar
 Fall of Damascus, 634
 Invasion of Spain, 711

Administration of Arab Conquests

No rule on how this works
◦ Alexandria surrenders, people allowed to
keep things as they were
◦ Plunder readily available from the state and
church, so populations left alone
◦ Taxes assessed double to non-Muslims
◦ Land tax
◦ Imperial bureaucracies maintained, official
languages
◦ Daily life maintains basically the same
Tolerance
No interest in conversion to Islam, keep
higher tax bracket
 Respect for people of the book
 Confidence in Islam itself
 Until 750, no mass conversions to Islam in
conquered territories

Umayyad Dynasty, Shiite Division



644, Murder of
Omar
Ali defeated again
in election, by
Uthman
Meccan
establishment
returns to power
to the great
chagrin of Ali
Uthman continues conquests
Battle of the Masts, islands fall
 Armenia
 Dislike for Uthman, monarch rather than
caliph
 Murder of Uthman, 656

Ali proclaimed Caliph
By the assassins of Uthman
 Umayyads oppose Ali
 First civil war started by the Umayyad
Mu'awiya the governor of Damascus
 Gives rise to third party against both
groups. Messy civil war
 Capital from Medina to Damascus

Mu'awiya
Moves capital to Damascus
 Cosmopolitan move away from Arabia
 Transforms caliphate into monarchy
 Ummayad

Shiites emerge
Minority emerge against Sunni and
Umayyads
 Permanent dissidents

◦ Reject caliph, because of dynastic question
also because he is monarchical, shiites call it
tyranny
◦ Egalitarian yet violent opposition emerges
◦ Shiites call for imam, a spiritual savior who is
inspired.
◦ 11 imams are all there
12th imam
Period of occultation
 Idea he will come and set things right
 Shia tends towards Arabian values, purity,
apocalypse, etc discontents
 Sunnis towards established authority,
more cosmopolitian
 Mawali (mawal singular) are non-Arab
Muslims and not the Shia preference
