Download Slides Lecture 6

Lecture 6:
The Umayyad Caliphate and
tensions of empire
Review: history history history
• Regional context of Asia, Arabia and Mecca
• Story of Muhammad and revelation
• The political implications of Muhammad’s
message
Broad aim of today’s lecture:
To discuss transition in Islam from
provincial religious ideology to
cosmopolitan imperial project
Why more history?
• Creation of Islamic civilisation as significant to
Islam as teachings of Muhammad
• Development of Catholic and Protestant Church in
Europe as significant as teachings of Jesus
• Cannot understand Islam without understanding
Caliphate
Islam’s historical geography
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Islamic empire Islam’s centre of gravity
A world religion with a specific geography
Like Rome for South American Catholics
Like Jerusalem for American Jews
The Caliphate
• Office of rightful succession.
• From the root Khalafa - to follow
• Caliph translated as successor or representative
Who has the right to succeed a
prophet?
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Many tensions surround this issue
Islam has few divisions in terms of doctrine
Issue of succession a source of deep division
Reason: inherent tension between the political
and religious dimensions of Muhammad’s
message
Specific aim of today’s lecture:
Draw out the implications of this
tension on the development of the
Islamic civilisation.
Four Phases of the Caliphate
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The Rashidun (632-661)
The Umayyad Caliphate (661-750)
The Abbasid Caliphate (750-833)
The late Abbasid period (833-945)
This lecture:
The Rashidun and the Umayyad’s
Can see tensions of Islam expressed in two ways:
• Tensions 1: who has the right to lead the umma?
• Tensions 2: how should the umma be defined?
Tension 1:
Who has the right to lead the umma?
• A religious question: what qualities does one
need to be Caliph?
• Echoed long-standing divisions
• Divide between original Muslims and Qurayshi
aristocracy
Tension exacerbated by unique
political context
• Community no longer Muslim tribes of Arabia
• Included expanding political empire.
• Tension between ‘original’ vs. ‘later’ converts
reflects deeper tension
• One invested in spiritual vision (‘original’)
• One with more practical/political outlook (‘later’)
• Both world views within Islam
Arabian invaders all agreed new
empire should be Muslim and should
be lead by Caliph
But
what a Muslim empire is and who has
the authority to lead it
a fraught and open question.
Rashidun
Period characterised by leadership of the four
‘rightly guided’ caliphs
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Abu Bakr
Umar
Uthman
Ali
Abu-Bakr
• Positions himself as successor
• Not rightful heir of prophecy
• No prophetic insight himself
“I have been given the authority over you, and I
am not the best of you. If I do well, help me; and
if I do wrong, set me right. Obey me so long as I
obey God and His Messenger But if I disobey God
and His Messenger, you owe me no obedience”
Umar
• Abu-Bakr favoured early Muslims, Medinans
and descendents
• Umar similar: Islamic conception of Caliphate
• Bestowed political favour on early companions
• Patronised those perceived to have fidelity to
Muhammad and Muslim values
Uthman
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Meccan aristocrat
Favoured those in his clan (Umayyads)
Reassertion of traditional Arabian aristocracy
Commissioned standard edition of Quran
Angered early Muslims: rightful custodians of
religious matters
Assassination and crisis
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Uthman assissinated 656
Challenged by coalition of forces around Ali
Muawiya refuses to acknowledge Ali as Caliph
Battles between followers of Ali and Muawiya
Ali assassinated
Muawiya rises to Caliphate
Umayyad Caliphate established with capital in
Damascus
Significance of crisis
• Ali’s followers: Islamic view of Caliphate
• Favoured direct lineage
• Ali rightful Caliph and descendents should
succeed him
• Reject traditional forms of election
• Rationale: would reinstate Quraysh aristocracy
• Mantle of Muhammad usurped by Quraysh
• Followers of Ali come to be known as ‘Alids’
• Tradition eventually known as ‘Shia’ or Shi’ite
Kharajites
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Hard-line Islamic view of Caliphate
Caliph should be elected by umma
Should be a sinless
Shia and Kharajis understood Caliph to be
spiritual leader
• Should not be compromised by politics or
political expedience
• Should model and promote the teachings of the
prophet
Followers of Muawiya
• Accept idea that religious leadership has political
dimension
• It is right and proper for religious authorities to
be involved in political matters
• Followers eventually come to be called ‘Sunnis’
Significance of early struggles
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Tension over who has right to lead umma
What qualities must a Caliph embody?
Must Caliph be purely religious?
Can they involve themselves in political matters?
To what extent are religious and politics
entwined?
• To what extent are ‘original’ Muslims more
faithful to Islam than later converts?
Tension 2:
How should the Umma be defined?
• Tension 1: who has the right to lead the
Muslim community?
• Tension 2: what is the ‘Muslim community’
anyway?
• How does one create an imperial state whose
defining characteristic is that it is Islamic?
• Examine this question through the Ummayad
Caliphate
The Umayyads and their subjects
• Invasions a shock to the region
• Old imperial cultures that defined region gone
• Nomadic pastoralists in change
Principles of Umar
Muslim Arabs would:
• Not damage the agricultural society they had
just conquered
• Cooperate with local nobles and chiefs
• Principles defined the nature of Ummayad
rule
Significance and implications
• Kept local economy in tact and productive.
• No major disruption to local power systems
• Local notables, landowners and chiefs remain
in control
Garrison Towns
• Communal
barracks
• Sited on the
edge of
settlements
• Armies
quickly
mobilised
• Threatening
presence
Remains of Fustat outside Cairo
High cast military elites
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Garrison towns maintained Arab elite status
Arabs kept themselves separate from locals
Not involved with day-to-day politics
Appropriated surplus
Also re-distributed
Myth of forced conversion
• Arabs ambivalent if not hostile to conversion
• Arabs ruling military elite
• Did not want formal association between ruler
and ruled
• Muslims also not taxed
• Division illustrates tension over who
constitutes the umma
Power and patronage
• Local nobles,
military elites
and imperial
administrators
mostly nonArab
• Non-Arabs
responsible
for running
and servicing
empire
Non-Arab warriors and nobles (muwali)
Muwali
• How to absorb political class into tribal structures
of loyalty
• Become Arab ‘clients’ (muwali)
• Traditional tribal system for incorporating
outsiders
• Tribal protection in exchange for loyalty
• Muwali considered Inferior
• Many muwali convert to Islam
• Muwali high-standing roles but no political status
Muwali Arab division highlights
tension of umma
• Ummayad empire essentially Arab in character
• Defined itself in Arab rather than Muslim terms
• If muwali allowed status then nothing to
maintain Arabs as privileged class
Umayyad decline
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Death of Muawiya (680): more civil wars
Shia and Khajari challenges
Caliphate re-established by Abdel Malik
Umayyad focus on consolidating empire
Attempt to create stronger political and
cultural solidarity
• Did this in two ways:
Disarmed garrison towns
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Changed nature of towns
No longer have military function
Soldiers incorporate other forms of income
Commerce: open shops, become merchants,
inter-marry
• Distinctions between Arab and non-Arab breaks
down
• Creates seedbed for integrated cosmopolitan
political community
Patronised court culture
• Used court to develop Islamic high culture
• Purpose: to foster political solidarity
• Borrowed symbols from Persian, Byzantine,
Greek, Egyptian and Turkish traditions
• Reinterpreted them with Islamic sensibility
• Poetry, Literature, Dress, Coins
• New form of Islamic architecture
Dome of the Rock
Reflects Roman/Byzantine
temple structure
Church of St. George, Anatolia
Sketch of Byzantine chapel
Mosques architecture
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Integrate symbols from past imperial traditions
Architecture Byzantine and Roman
Decorations and mosaics Persian tradition
Given Islamic sensibility
Carefully chosen Quranic inscriptions
Key motif: Islam binds all traditions together
Dome of Rock Inscriptions
Grand mosque Damascus
Greek influences
Greek Influences
Also
molding
distinctive
Islamic
form
Success of Caliphate
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Begins forging unique Islamic identity
Integrates Islamic ideals into political system
Establishes institutions of social welfare
Hospitals and support for needy and poor
World’s first welfare state (Crone, 2005)
Not an oppressive regime
Created authoritative version of the Quran
Failure of Caliphate
• Attachment to elite status
• Abdel Malik and successors unable to
undermine entrenched status of Arabs
• Would require social and political revolution
Umayyad empire essentially Arab
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Umayyad entrenched in traditional tribal systems
Instrumental in establishment of Islamic empire
But rule characterised by:
Social and political aloofness
Commitment to Arab identity
Would prove to be the dynasty’s downfall
Umayyad outlook exemplified in royal palaces
Qasr Amra (present day Jordan)
Built on edge
of desert
• Extensive baths
• Trappings of
luxury
• Few indoor
kitchens
• Small
bedrooms
• Monuments of
imperial power
• But steeped in
Bedouin taste
Roman Bath in Qasr Amar
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