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The Rise of Islam 570-1350 A.D. In the early seventh century a vital new religion, Islam, burst out of the Arabian Peninsula and onto the stage of world history. Islam united the nomadic tribes of Arabia and inspired the development of a vibrant civilization. By the 700s the followers of Islam had spread their religion and culture throughout much of Southwest Asia, Africa, and parts of Europe. [Timeline] Birth of Muhammad c.570 ; 622 the hijra, migration to Mecca, marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar; 632 Muhammad's death and the beginning of the Caliphate; 661the Umayyad dynasty begins with new capital at Damascus; 711-716 Muslim Arabs and Berbers conquer Spain; 732 defeat in the battle of Tours marked the end of the Arab advance into northern Europe; 750 "revolution" ushers in Abbasid dynasty which moves the capital to newly built Baghdad; 786809 reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid the height of Abbasid empire; 1253 Mongol invasion destroys Baghdad and puts an end to the Caliphate. God is great! God is great! Come to salvation, come to prayer! There is no God but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God! Five times a day in countries throughout the world, these words ring out, summoning people to pray. An estimated 950 million people1 answer the call, including more than 4 million in the United States.2 These are the followers of the Prophet Muhammad, an Arab merchant who began to preach a message of religious renewal to the people of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century. He called it Islam, which means "submission" to the Will of God. Muhammad taught his followers to worship the one true God, or Allah in Arabic, and to treat each other as brothers and sisters in a new community of believers. Muhammad converted many Arabs to Islam before his death in 632. After his death, his followers, known as Muslims, carried Islam with them out of Arabia as they created a new world empire. In less than 200 years, Islamic civilization stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the borders of China, and from southern Europe to the middle of Africa. Throughout this vast expanse of territory, Islam brought together the cultural achievements of all its diverse peoples in a burst of creativity. Under the inspiration of Islam, a brilliant new civilization flourished for over a thousand years. 1 Statistical Abstract of the United States 1992 (p. 60) lists 950,726,000 Muslims around the world in 1991. However, it gives a figure of 2,642,000 for the number of Muslims in "Northern America." See next footnote. (It lists its source as 1992 Brittanica Yearbook, which is the source for the next fact.) 2 1992 Brittanica Book of the Year (p. 725) lists Muslims as 1.9% of the U.S. population in 1990. Statistical Abstracts (p. 8) lists the 1990 U.S. population as 248,709,873. (248,709,873)(.019) = 4,725,487. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 1 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM Section 1 The Development of Islam In 610 A.D. the prophet Muhammad began to receive a series of revelations that would become the foundation of the faith of Islam. Renowned for his piety and wisdom, for the remainder of his life Muhammad spread his message to the Arabs. By the time of his death in 632, virtually every tribe in the Arabian Peninsula had enlisted under the banners of Islam and given their allegiance to its prophet. GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY The Arabian Peninsula—a vast plain of deserts and small mountains—lies across the Red Sea from the northeastern coast of Africa. It stretches about 1,400 miles from the Syrian Desert in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south and about 1,200 miles from the Red Sea on the west to the Persian Gulf on the east. While the majority of the peninsula is desert, the southwest corner, known as Yemen, has fertile mountain lands and good ports. Agriculture and trade in the southwest. As early as the twelfth century B.C. people in Yemen created wealthy kingdoms based on agriculture and trade. They built great dams and irrigation networks to grow wheat and other crops. The Yemeni also extracted tree sap to get frankincense and myrrh, resins used for incense. Traders grew wealthy exporting myrrh, frankincense, and spices such as cinnamon, which were valued in Africa, Southwest Asia, and Europe. Over time, the merchants and rulers of Yemen also came to control the trade in spices and silks between Asia, India, and the Mediterranean. This trade made them fabulously wealthy. Such wealth attracted the attention of other kingdoms. The country was invaded at various times by Ethiopians, Romans, Persians, and Byzantines. Both trade and conquest exposed Yemen to many new ideas and cultures. It became home to many religions, each with its own temples and priests. These influences made Yemen a center of great cultural diversity from which new ideas spread along the trade routes. Oases, towns, and deserts. In much of the rest of the peninsula, the merciless glare of the desert sun and the lack of water prevented people from growing crops. In this harsh environment, most people survived by herding animals. Called Bedouin, they lived in tents and moved from place to place, herding sheep, goats, and camels. Since struggle over water rights and livestock was a way of life in the harsh conditions of the desert, the Bedouin were mobile, armed, and used to fighting. Some Bedouin settled in oases, shady areas with water sources, where they could grow crops such as grain and dates. In some oases, especially along trade routes, towns sprang up. The northwestern Arabian town of Yathrib, for example, was located in an oasis with fertile soil that produced large date crops. Within the oasis lived farmers and herders. In the town lived merchants and craftsmen serving the caravan trade between Yemen and the Mediterranean. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 2 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM Some Bedouin came to depend entirely on the caravan trade for their living. South of Yathrib, in a rocky valley about 30 miles from the Red Sea, local Bedouins and immigrants from Yemen turned the town of Mecca into a major caravan center. Although Mecca had not been built in a fertile oasis, it was located near the intersection of two trade routes and controlled the well of Zamzam. It was also the site of an area that many surrounding peoples believed to be sacred. Meccans lived by supplying the caravan trade and the pilgrims who came to pray at the sacred site. 1 Relations between the nomadic Bedouin and the people of the towns and oases could be uneasy-- the nomads were likely to raid both. Often, however, merchants and Bedouin would reach an agreement. Merchants would pay for "protection" and market the Bedouin’s fine leather goods, rugs, and woven cloth. ARAB SOCIETY AND CULTURE Bedouin culture influenced the political and social organization of Arabia. Like the Bedouin, all Arabs organized themselves into clans and tribes. They cherished family relationships because people depended on families for survival. "Take for thy brother whom thou wilt in the days of peace," went one Arab verse, "But know that when fighting comes thy kinsman alone is near."2 Arab society was also paternalistic. Fathers made important decisions within the family and took part in politics. Male clan leaders advised the shaykh, the leader of the tribe, but all the men of the tribe often made major decisions in a kind of tribal democracy. Women rarely took part in politics although their advice was often sought on important community issues. Women's primary role was that of mother. They also contributed to the group through such activities as spinning and weaving. Although Arab society was paternalistic, women had considerable freedom. In towns they could own property and businesses. In the desert, some tribes allowed women to have more than one husband, just as men could have more than one wife. Arab values reflected their struggle for survival in a harsh environment. They prized above all loyalty, honor, courage and generosity. Arab leaders displayed loyalty and generosity by giving feasts and presents to their followers. For poorer members of society, such generosity in times of want could mean the difference between life and death. Hospitality to guests was also a matter of honor and sacred obligation. As Arabs settled down in the relative security of towns and oases, tightly knit tribal organization became less essential for survival. Tribal loyalties began to give way to those of immediate family and clan. Growing wealth and the accumulation of private property that was part of merchant life also caused 1 On pre-Islamic Mecca see Mahmood Ibrahim, "Social and Economic Conditions in Pre-Islamic Mecca," International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES), vol. 14 no. 3, August 1982, pp. 343-358. Also see article in Gibb and KJramers, eds., Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, and E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1965. 2R.A. Nicholson, A Literary History of the Arabs, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 84. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 3 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM changes. Inheritance disputes could cause conflict within families. As clans vied for power, tribal loyalties were often forgotten. In Mecca, for example, strife among the different clans of the ruling Quraish tribe became particularly intense in the last half of the sixth century. The Umayyad clan displaced others as its members sought to control trade and town government. Such rivalry, however, increased people's sense of insecurity. As they struggled to recover a sense of personal security, new ideas began to circulate. THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD In 613, Muhammad, a member of a relatively poor clan of the ruling tribe, began to preach an especially powerful set of new ideas in Mecca. Muhammad had been born in Mecca around 570. His early life was not easy. His merchant father died before he was born, and his mother died when he was six. His grandfather, and an uncle, Abu Talib, raised him. As a young man, Muhammad became the manager of a caravan business owned by Khadija, a wealthy widow. At the age of 25, he married Khadija, who was 15 years older. They had three sons and four daughters, but experienced tragedy as all but one daughter, Fatima, died young. In his early years, Muhammad may have practiced the religious traditions of his city. Although some wandering Arab holy men had already begun to preach the existence of only one god, most people in Arabia were polytheists. They worshipped their gods and goddesses at special shrines. One of the most important shrines, the Kaaba, was in Mecca. Many people journeyed there every year, even setting aside blood feuds to trade and worship. As a caravan manager traveling the trade routes, Muhammad also probably became familiar with Jewish and Christian ideas. Perhaps around the campfires at night, with the stars shining brilliantly above in the desert sky, Muhammad heard Jewish and Christian merchants telling stories from the Torah and the Gospels. From the time he was young, Muhammad often escaped the crowded life of Mecca by going to the nearby hills to pray and meditate. One day, when he was about 40, he went to meditate in a cave among the hills. Suddenly, in the silence of the cave, according to the Muslim tradition, he heard a voice commanding him, "Recite! Recite!" Startled, Muhammad asked what he was to recite. The voice answered: "Recite: in the name of thy Lord who created, created man of a blood-clot. Recite: and thy Lord is the most bountiful, who taught by the pen, taught man what he knew not."3 After arguing a bit with the voice, which identified itself as the angel Gabriel, Muhammad agreed to carry the message to others. Over the next twenty-two 3 Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples. Warner Books, New York, 1991. From the Qur'an, 96: 1-8. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 4 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM years, he received many more revelations, which became the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam. Muhammad's message. Muhammad's earliest revelations contained two simple messages. First, there was only one God: "Say God is One; God the Eternal: He did not beget and is not begotten, and no one is equal to Him." Second, those who accepted God's message must obey his will. In doing so they formed a special community, the umma, in which all believers were equals. They must look out for each other, especially the weak or needy. To the Arabs who worshipped many gods, Muhammad's message was radical. Although called Allah, the name of one of the Arabs' most important gods, Muhammad 's God was the God of the Christians and Jews. Muhammad believed that just as God had sent his divine message to humanity through prophets, including Abraham and Jesus, God was sending new revelations through him. The flight from Mecca. As Muhammad preached these revolutionary ideas of social equality and monotheism, the merchant rulers of Mecca became alarmed. Muhammad’s claim that all the faithful belonged to a single Islamic community seemed to threaten tribal and clan authority. His rejection of polytheism also seemed to a threat to those who profited from the annual pilgrimages to the Ka`ba. The rulers of Mecca soon began to harass the prophet and his small band of followers. Meanwhile, however, Muhammad's reputation for both piety and justice spread beyond Mecca. Nearly 10 years after he had begun preaching in Mecca, a delegation of tribesmen from Yathrib asked him to settle in their city and serve as a kind of arbitrator or referee among the feuding tribes of the oasis. With the Meccan leaders growing increasingly hostile to the umma, in 622, Muhammad accepted the offer and traveled to Yathrib with many of his followers. This journey became known in Islamic history as the hijra, the flight, or migration. Muhammad's arrival in Yathrib marked an important milestone in Islamic history. In Yathrib, he governed as both a spiritual and a political leader. Yathrib itself was renamed Medina, or Medinat al-Nabi, the City of the Prophet. Later, Muslims marked the year of the hijra as the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In Mecca, Muhammad had emphasized that he was continuing the tradition of Jewish and Christian prophecy. When Jewish tribes in Medina refused to acknowledge him as a prophet, however, he moved away from Jewish and Christian practices. Instead of facing their holy city of Jerusalem while praying, for example, in Medina a new revelation commanded the Muslims to face Mecca and the Kaaba instead. From Medina, Muhammad began to convert the desert tribes. With their help, the Muslims also began to raid the Meccans’ caravans. In 630, after several years of warfare, Mecca gave in and opened its gates to the prophet. The Meccans too now accepted the new faith. Muhammad destroyed the pagan idols in the Kaaba so that Muslims could make the pilgrimage to worship God there as commanded by the revelations. After this victory, most of the Arabian tribes acknowledged Muhammad's leadership and the power of Islam. By the time of his World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 5 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM death, in 632 at his home in Medina, the Prophet had laid the groundwork for a new religion that would soon spread from Arabia to the rest of the world. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 6 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM Section 2 The Expansion of Islam United under the banner of the prophet Muhammad and his message of religious renewal, the Muslims spread out from their Arabian homeland into surrounding regions. Byzantium, Persia, parts of Europe and India all felt the effects of the sword of Islam. By the early eighth century, the Islamic empire stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indus River and from Central Asia to the Arabian Sea. THE CALIPHATE Muhammad's death created a crisis. In addition to the question of choosing a successor, his followers in Medina had to deal with the potential collapse of the fledgling Islamic state. Many of the desert tribes had converted to Islam only out of a personal sense of loyalty to Muhammad. Such arrangements made sense under the Bedouin code of honor. His death, they believed, released them from their allegiance. As the tribes fell away from Islam, the Faithful in Medina had to decide what to do. The search for Muhammad's successor caused rifts among his followers. In keeping with traditional Arab views on hereditary leadership, some preferred his cousin, Ali, Muhammad’s closest male heir who had also married the Prophet’s daughter Fatima. Ali was still relatively young, however, and some older leaders feared he was too hot-headed and impetuous to lead the community wisely. Many also argued that the egalitarian nature of Islam and the umma did not support the concept of a dynastic leadership. In the end, they chose Abu Bakr, Muhammad's oldest friend and one of his first converts. Since the Qur’an had said that Muhammad would be the last prophet, Abu Bakr could not rule as Muhammad had by receiving divine revelations. He and all subsequent leaders of the umma were not prophets, but caliphs, or "deputies" of the Prophet. They ruled according to the Qur’an and Muhammad’s example. Spiritual and secular authority, though no longer identical as they had been under Muhammad, remained close, as this Muslim saying demonstrates: Islam, the government, and the people are like the tent, the pole, the ropes, and the pegs. The tent is Islam; the pole is the government; the ropes and pegs are the people. None will do without the others. As caliph, Abu Bakr moved quickly to force the wayward bedouin tribes back to Islam. In a series of campaigns over the next year, he brought all of Arabia back under the Prophet's standard. In the process he forged several strong new armies under experienced amirs, or military commanders. As the tribes returned to Islam, Abu Bakr needed some way to channel them away from their traditional habits of fighting one another. Muslims were not supposed to fight fellow Muslims. He also needed to give them something to do before they revolted against Medina's rule again. A remedy lay close at hand. As the rebellions in Arabia came to an end, the caliph sent his armies, which now included the reconverted tribesmen, north into Iraq and Syria against the Persians and Byzantines. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 7 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM ISLAMIC EXPANSION Weakness in the Persian and Byzantine empires aided Muslim expansion. Both empires were exhausted from years of fighting one other. In addition, people in Syria and Iraq were culturally and ethnically related to the Arabs themselves. Although mostly Christian, they had more in common with the invading Muslims than with their own rulers. In fact, the Byzantine emperors considered most Syrians to be heretics. The imperial government had recently raised taxes in Syria and abolished an old tax exemption for southern border tribes protecting the frontier. These tribes promptly joined the Muslims. Umar. By Abu Bakr's death in 634, his armies had conquered most of Syria, Iraq, and southern Persia. On his deathbed Abu Bakr chose Umar, another of Muhammad's closest companions, to succeed him. According to Islamic tradition, Umar was the perfect example of what a caliph should be, devout and personally modest. Visitors to his capital were sometimes astonished at the state in which they found the caliph of all Islam at the height of his power: "a man clad only in a loin-cloth and a short cloak, in which he had wrapped his head, driving the camels into the enclosure." 3 Umar continued Abu Bakr's policy of military expansion. In doing so he laid the foundations for the new state. Signifying his military intent, he assumed the title Amir al-Mu'minin, or Commander of the Faithful. He established a national register, listing every man, woman, and child of Arabia. Each person was assigned a specified share in the wealth of the umma as they or members of their families enlisted in the armies and joined the conquests. Thousands of Arabs flocked to the armies to qualify for the new military allowances. Military conquests and government. Umar's policies led to the rapid expansion of the Islamic empire. After an initial setback, in 636 an Arab army defeated Persian forces at Kadisiya in southern Iraq. Shortly thereafter the Arabs captured the winter capital of the Persian Empire and with it all of Iraq. After a further series of battles, in 642 the armies of Islam achieved a devastating blow, which the Arabs called the Victory of Victories, against the Persian army. Soon all Persia had been overrun. To the west the story was the same. The great imperial armies of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius proved no match for the highly mobile Bedouin forces. In 635 the Byzantines surrendered Damascus, the capital of Syria, to the victorious warriors of Islam. In 638 the Arabs took Jerusalem, the third holy city of Islam, after Mecca and Medina. In 639 another Arab army invaded the Byzantine province of Egypt. By 642 Islam had added the Nile Valley to its list of conquests. In little more than a decade, the Arab warriors had carved out a new empire for themselves and their new religion.4 3 al-Tabari, quoted by Nicholson, Literary History of the Arabs, Cambridge university Press, Cambridge, 1969, p. 185. For the 4 Ibid, passim. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 8 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM Throughout the conquered lands the Arabs became a new warrior elite. To keep themselves separate from their new subjects, they built huge military camps. Eventually these camps became the foundations for new Islamic cities. The most famous were Kufa and Basra in Iraq and Cairo in Egypt. Booty and taxes from the conquered peoples were sent back to Medina. All Muslims should have shared equally in the wealth, but Umar decreed that the earlier a family had converted, the greater their share should be. Those who had migrated with Muhammad from Mecca to Medina and the prophet’s own family and descendants got the most. A new Islamic aristocracy thus began to emerge. The conquests of Islam represented a mass movement of the newly united Arabs out of the relative poverty of Arabia into the wealthier surrounding civilizations. In these early years of expansion, religious conversion was not a major priority. In fact, both religious and administrative factors may actually have discouraged the conversion of conquered peoples. The Qur'an had given special recognition to Jews, Christians, and other peoples with a written scripture, calling them ahl al-kitab, or “People of the Book.” Once conquered, they were to be "protected peoples," called dhimmis. They paid for this protection, however. Where Muslims paid the zakat, or alms for the poor, dhimmis paid a larger tax called the jizya. Dhimmis also had to continue paying the old Byzantine and Persian taxes, which Umar had redirected into the Islamic treasury. As converts they would have to pay only the zakat, thus reducing the umma's revenues. Consequently, conversion was not encouraged.5 DIVISIONS WITHIN ISLAM In 644, a Persian slave stabbed Umar to settle a vendetta. As he lay dying, the caliph appointed a small group of men to choose his successor. Bypassing Ali once again, they decided on another of Muhammad's earliest converts, Uthman. Known for his piety, Uthman was also a member of the powerful Umayyad clan of the Meccan ruling tribe of Quraish. The Umayyads had been among Muhammad's worst enemies in Mecca. They had converted to Islam, but only under pressure. Uthman, an old man, became a tool in the hands of his more ambitious clan members. Soon the old ruling elite of Mecca had reasserted themselves in the new Islamic empire. After Uthman's election as caliph tensions began to build among the Muslims. Many accused Uthman of favoring his own family and clan members. The Umayyads themselves began to act like the pre-Islamic Arab aristocracy, emphasizing old bedouin values of personal and family honor. As dissatisfaction grew, rebellious forces from the army in Egypt marched against Medina and assassinated Uthman in 656. In reaction against the Umayyads, Ali was at last chosen as caliph. 5 For the status of people of the book and dhimmis see articles in H.A.R.Gibb and J.H.Kramers, eds., Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1965. For Umar's role in e4stablishing the foundations of the new system see any of the above texts dealing with the caliphate. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 9 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM The Umayyads did not give up power easily. On Uthman's death, his cousin Mu'awiyah, the governor of Syria, became head of the clan. Mu'awiyah claimed that Ali had taken part in the plot to assassinate Uthman and was therefore unfit to guide the umma. Supported by Syrian Arab tribes, Mu'awiyah claimed the caliphate for himself. Civil war engulfed Islam. By 657 the tide of battle had turned in Ali's favor. Mu'awiyah called for a negotiated peace. Ali agreed, but many of his own followers turned against him for failing to finish off the rebels. The war dragged on until 661 when Ali was assassinated by one of his own former supporters. Mu'awiyah assumed sole power. Although most Muslims accepted Mu’awiyah and remained Sunni, meaning followers of the Sunna, or way of the Prophet, Ali's supporters did not. They became known as Shi'ites, from the term Shi'at Ali, or Party of Ali. Shi’ites believed that Ali's descendants were specially blessed by God because they were the true heirs of the Prophet Muhammad. The Shi'ites called Ali's successors imams, a term that had been used to mean the leader of the Friday prayers. For Shi'ites, the imams were the only ones who could interpret the Qur'an. Although they never ruled, for Shi'ites they remained the legitimate authority in Islam. Some extreme Shi'ites even believed that the imams received divine revelations that overrode the Qur'an. THE UMAYYAD DYNASTY Mu'awiya's reign as caliph marked the beginning of the Umayyad dynasty and the resurgence of the older Arab society over the new Islamic society. Early Umayyad caliphs ruled more like desert chieftains than religious leaders. Because power meant more to the Umayyads than piety, they moved their capital from Medina to Damascus, which was closer to their supporters among the Syrian Arab tribes. Damascus was also a more convenient location from which to rule their expanding empire. Despite their power, however, in Damascus many Umayyads at first longed for the freedom of life in Arabia. One of Mu'awiya's wives, a bedouin named Maysun, lamented the change in verse: "A tent with rustling breezes cool Delights me more than palaces high, And more the cloak of simple wool Than robes in which I learned to sigh. The crust I ate beside my tent Was more than this fine bread to me; The wind's voice where the hill-path went Was more than tambourine can be."6 Over time, however, the Umayyads could not escape being influenced by Byzantine civilization in Syria, particularly as they adopted the old Byzantine bureaucracy to rule their empire. 6 Quoted in Nicholson, Literary History of the Arabs, p. 195. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 10 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM Umayyad expansion. With power and wealth as their primary goal, the Umayyads continued to expand the empire. In the east their armies reached deep into central Asia. They conquered many Turkish tribes and eventually came into contact with the T'ang Empire of China. They also conquered the kingdoms of northwestern India. From Syria the Umayyads took to the sea and soon dominated the eastern Mediterranean with its important trade routes. Sicily became a major Islamic center, as did most of the other islands of the Mediterranean. Umayyad forces even besieged Constantinople, though without success. However, they also sent armies west, conquering the Byzantine provinces in North Africa. Beyond Tunisia they were temporarily halted by the Berbers, a North African people much like the pre-Islamic Bedouin. In 682, however, Muslim forces reached the Atlantic Ocean. Eventually the Berbers converted to Islam, and in 711 a combined Arab and Berber army began the rapid conquest of Spain. By 732 they had swept across the Pyrenees into France, where Frankish forces near the city of Tours stopped a small Muslim raiding force. Although later European accounts would mark this as a major defeat for the Muslims, in fact it was only a minor engagement from their perspective. Islamic forces remained in southern France for many years. However, the Muslims were used to the deserts and high plains of the Middle East, Africa, and Spain. They found central and northern France too cold, wet, and dark. The landscape did not favor their methods of warfare, which depended on the use of light cavalry. Camels died from the cold and the light, wiry horses of Arabia were not bred for the muddy fields or forests of northern Europe. Nor did these regions favor the agricultural techniques and crops with which the Muslim world was familiar. Eventually the Muslims withdrew behind the Pyrenees into the friendlier sunlit plains of Spain. The fall of the Umayyads. As Umayyad power grew, many of the newly conquered peoples began to see advantages in converting to Islam. The Umayyads, however, were determined to maintain the separate status of the Arabs themselves as a ruling elite. So they insisted that non-Arab converts must become clients, or mawalis, of Arab tribes. Soon, Islamic society consisted of two classes: Arab conquerors and second-class mawalis. Below both Arabs and mawalis were Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Zoroastrians who had chosen not to convert. The mawalis resented their second-class status. They expected to be treated equally according to the teachings of the Qur'an. Arab opponents of the Umayyads used this discontent and that of the Shi'ites to foster a revolution. In 750 a new dynasty came to power: the Abbasids, who claimed descent from the prophet's uncle Abbas. THE ABBASID CALIPHATE To overthrow the Umayyads, the Abbasids had relied upon the discontented mawalis and the Shi'ites. The main source of power for both groups lay in southern Iraq and in Persia, especially the province of Khorasan in northeastern Iran. The Shi'ites had expected a descendant of Ali to assume the caliphate. But soon the Abbasids turned on their Shi'ite supporters and drove them into World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 11 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM opposition again. To be close to their supporters and keep an eye on their new enemies, the Abbasids moved the capital. On the banks of the Tigris River they built a great new imperial city, Baghdad. The move to Baghdad marked the end of Arab dominance of the Islamic empire and the beginning of Persian influence. The caliphs no longer sat in tribal council as they had done even under the early Umayyads. Instead, they adopted the Persian style and ruled as semi-divine leaders. They were enthroned in majesty, generally behind a magnificently carved screen or embroidered curtain so that their subjects could not see them. Nearby stood the official executioner with sword and a circle of leather for those condemned by the caliph to kneel on. A new official title proclaimed the caliph's status as the "Shadow of God on Earth". Distrusting the Arab tribes, the Abbasids resurrected the old Persian bureaucracy and relied increasingly on non-Arabs and even non-Muslims. Specialized government departments headed by viziers, or “deputies”, oversaw affairs of state. To keep in touch with the empire, the Abbasids repaired the major roads. Rejecting the Umayyad emphasis on the Arab nature of Islam, the Abbasids appealed to all members of the umma for support. From an elite religion of the Arabian conquerors, they now worked to make Islam truly universal, the basis of their rule as caliphs. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 12 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM Section 3 The Development of Islamic Civilization The rule of the Abbasids marked a high point of Islamic learning and culture. Beginning in 750, the Abbasids turned Islam into a truly universal creed. NonArabs began to be treated as full members of the umma. During these years Muslim philosophy, science, and mathematics outshone the scholarship of other empires. Inspired by Islam and funded by the empire's wealth, architecture, the arts, and literature reached new heights. Although the Abbasids were unable to maintain the political unity of the Islamic world Islamic culture continued to flourish and to spread through trade and commerce. DEVELOPMENTS IN ISLAM As early as Umar's reign as caliph, the Muslim community had struggled to understand what exactly their religious duties should be. Although Muhammad had received revelations, he had not made any effort to codify them or to develop a systematic religious practice for all Muslims to follow. In fact, many revelations were received as answers to particular problems that arose in the umma. Consequently, during Muhammad's lifetime Islamic practices remained fairly fluid. With the prophet's death, however, revelation ceased. His successors therefore tried to codify existing Islamic practices and make them more uniform. Five pillars of Islam. The most important duties expected of Muslims had been laid down in the Quran and were practiced by the prophet himself. They became known as the Five Pillars of Islam. They commanded Muslims: (1) to say the shahadah, the confession of faith, "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God"; (2) to pray five times a day; (3) to pay a special tax, the zakat, to support poor members of the umma; (4) to fast during the holy month of Ramadan; and (5) to make the hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca at least once if possible. There were other requirements as well. For example, Muslims were forbidden to eat certain kinds of food, like pork. They could not drink wine or other alcoholic beverages. They were encouraged to free their slaves, and required to treat them humanely if they did not. No Muslim could be enslaved, and the children of slaves who had converted to Islam were therefore free. Islam also established a new ethical and moral standard for relations between men and women. Men could have no more than four wives, but only on the condition that they treated each one exactly equally with the others. Women on the other hand were restricted to one husband. Reinforcing the stability of the extended family, the Qur'an laid down specific rules of inheritance, as well as women's right to own property. One important requirement, sometimes called the sixth pillar of Islam, was jihad. Europeans who were threatened by the advancing Islamic armies later translated this term as "holy war", but a more correct translation might be "struggle for the faith." This could mean fighting and dying for Islam, in which case the Muslim warrior would achieve immediate salvation. However, it could also mean the constant inner struggle people experienced in their efforts to obey World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 13 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM God's will. Some early Muslim scholars distinguished between the two ideas, calling the physical struggle the lesser jihad and the inner struggle the greater jihad. Other scholars, however, disputed such an inner emphasis and insisted that jihad referred to the fight to continually extend the area under Islamic rule. The object of obeying God's will was to attain eternal salvation. Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam saw the history of humanity and the world as having a definite beginning and a definite end. Muhammad had preached his message as a warning that the end was close at hand. On that final day, God would judge all human beings. Those who had faithfully tried to obey his commandments would be bodily resurrected and granted eternal life in paradise. The Qur'an described paradise as a beautiful garden full of earthly delights such as fine food and drink. Those who did not obey God, however, would suffer in a place of eternal fire. The ulama and Islamic law. With eternal salvation at stake, it was extremely important for Muslims to understand exactly what God wanted them to do. Often, however, neither the Qur'an nor Muhammad's own actions and sayings covered all the situations in which people found themselves. After Muhammad's death, Muslims naturally looked to the caliphs to instruct them in the faith. Under the Umayyads, however, many devout Muslims came to distrust the caliphs' motives and religious sincerity. As distrust of the spiritual authority of the caliphs grew, a body of experts gradually emerged to whom people looked instead for guidance in religious matters. These men, known as the ulama, were not priests but religious scholars. They specialized in studying and interpreting the Qur'an and the sayings and deeds of the prophet. Under their guidance Islamic theology and religious practice began to take definite shape. After the overthrow of the Umayyads, the Abbasids patronized the ulama in an effort to make the empire more truly Islamic. At the heart of the ulama's work was the codification of Islamic law, which was seen as the embodiment of God's will for human beings. Where the Umayyads had relied heavily on local and customary law to rule their empire, the Abbasids endorsed the ulama's efforts to establish a comprehensive and truly Islamic law code. Drawing on the Qur'an and the hadith, a collection of sayings and actions attributed to Muhammad, the ulama developed a full Islamic legal system, called shari'ah, to rule all Muslims. Adherence to shari'ah soon became one of the most important elements of the Muslims' sense of identity. Shari'ah guided every aspect of life for Muslims. It included laws governing religious observances, marriage, divorce, business, inheritance, and slavery. It also defined the role and legitimacy of the state itself. Muhammad had been both a religious and a political leader – consequently, following his example, the Muslim community made no distinction between religion and state. Indeed, the whole reason for the state to exist, according to the ulama, was the enforcement of shari’ah, the holy law. Lands where it was applied became known as Dar al-Islam, or the Abode of Islam. All other lands were known as Dar alHarb, or the Abode of War. Enforcing shari'ah thus became the hallmark of legitimate government: for pious Muslims, any state that did not enforce shari’ah World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 14 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM had to be considered illegitimate and must eventually be transformed or overthrown. Al-Shafi'i and the Islamic worldview. While developing the shari'ah, Muslim scholars dealt with both theological and philosophical questions. They debated many of the same questions that had affected Christianity. For example, scholars disagreed over the status of the Qur'an. Eventually, most accepted it as being the literal, divine Word of God that had existed as long as He had. One of the greatest controversies concerned the question of free will. If God were all-knowing and all-powerful, some scholars asked, then how could human beings do anything that he had not already ordained? As in Christianity, such debates led to many different conclusions. Like Christianity too, Greek philosophy influenced the search for answers. Muslim theologians tried to reconcile the teachings of Plato and Aristotle with the Qur'an. The major question that arose out of these efforts was how much weight Muslims should give to human reason to solve problems that the Qur'an and traditions did not cover. In the early days of Islamic development, scholars allowed for a considerable amount of human reason and interpretation. As the Islamic world splintered, however, and political unity under a single caliph disappeared, people found themselves uneasy about relying on their own reason to answer major questions of life, death, and salvation. By the 10th century, a rising sense of insecurity led many scholars to rely primarily on a literal interpretation of the Qur'an to guide them. In cases not covered directly by the scripture, they tried to draw analogies with cases that were. Still, many continued to disagree on how much weight should be given to the Qur'an, the traditions, or human reason. Eventually, most of the disputes were resolved by the scholar al-Shafi'i. Under al-Shafi'i, Islamic theology and law took on a distinctive shape. Above all, he emphasized the importance of modelling human activity on the example of the Prophet Muhammad. Human reason was allowed, but limited. The precedents set by Muhammad, as recorded in the hadith, and the rules established by the Qur'an thus came to dominate all Islamic thought. Not all Muslims accepted al-Shafi'i’s practical compromise between divine revelation and human reason, but most accepted his basic description of the elements on which Islamic law must be founded: the Qur'an and the hadith were the most important, followed by analogy, the consensus of the community, and only lastly human reason. As different scholars gave a different emphasis to each of these sources of law, four major schools of law emerged. No longer looking forward for answers, most Muslim scholars began to look back to an imagined golden era of early Islam. Sufism. Where al-Shafi’i had been influenced by Greek rationalism, some Muslims were more heavily influenced by Hindu philosophy, especially ideas concerning meditation and contemplation of the divine. These Muslims tended to be concerned about the growing materialism of Islamic civilization. Many of them sought refuge in a life of simplicity and devotion to God. Greek and JudeaoChristian mystical traditions that emphasized spiritual rather than earthly World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 15 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM attainment also appealed to them. All these traditions contributed to a new movement in Islam, sufism. Early sufism resembled the monasticism of early Christianity. Many sufis pursued an ascetic life. Under Greek and Indian influences they soon developed a whole new vocabulary for Islam. Many declared that their goal was union with God. They emphasized loving God, calling him their Beloved. Some wrote beautiful poems of devotion. BIO One of the most famous of the early sufis was Rabi'a al-Adawiyya. Rabi'a was born in Basra between 719 and 724. She was stolen from her parents while still an infant and sold into slavery. According to tradition she was so saintly and devout even as a child that her master soon freed her. She then retired to a life of seclusion and contemplation, but her reputation caused many disciples to seek her out. She died in Basra in 801. Rabi'a expressed her love for God in magnificent devotional verses. 7 "In two ways have I loved Thee, selfishly, And with a love that is worthy of Thee. In selfish love my joy in Thee I find, Whilst to all else, and others, I am blind. But in that love which seeks Thee worthily, The veil is raised that I may look on Thee. Yet is the praise in that or this not mine, In this and that the praise is wholly Thine." Like other sufis, Rabi'a sought union with God: "My hope is for union with Thee, for that is the goal of my desire....I have ceased to exist and have passed out of self. I have become one with God and am altogether His." At first Sufis were persecuted by more orthodox muslims. As time went on, however, Sufism itself underwent changes. Islamic society too became ever more diversified and consequently less hostile to the personal emphasis that Sufism placed on religion. Finally, in the 11th century the scholar al-Ghazzali achieved a synthesis between Sufism and Sunni Islam comparable to al-Shafi'i's achievement in the law. Thereafter, many Sunni muslims felt free to practice Sufism as a private and personal expression of their faith. Organized around Sufi saints, or shaykhs, numerous sects, or tariqas, sprang up that functioned rather like modern social or religious clubs. SCIENCE AND LEARNING In the ninth century, as Islamic philosophers tried to reconcile the works of Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek philosophers with the teachings of the Qur'an, they also became fascinated by Greek scientific works. In 830, the caliph al-Ma'mun established a great library, known as the "House of Wisdom." The library also 7 On Rabi'a see Margaret Smith, Rabi'a the Mystic and her Fellow-saints in Islam, Cambridge, 1928. Also see entry in Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam, Cornell University Press. Quotations are taken from the latter, pp. 462-463. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 16 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM housed a school and a bureau of translation. Here the works of Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Galen, and others were systematically translated from Greek into Arabic. Indian works were also translated, though less methodically. 8 Islamic scholars combined ideas from both Greek and Indian science, as well as making their own contributions. In the 8th century they introduced the Indian number system, including the concept of zero, into the Greek science of mathematics. Later, they also imported the decimal system from India. The Muslim mathematician, al-Khwarizmi, used these new tools to write a textbook on arithmetic and what he called al-jabr, or algebra. This book became the standard mathematics text in Europe until the 16th century. Europeans called the new numbers it introduced "Arabic" numerals. Muslim scientists also made great advances in astronomy. They rediscovered the astrolabe, an instrument invented by the Greeks that allowed observers to chart the positions of the stars, and thereby calculate their own position on earth. Al-Ma'mun established permanent observatories outside Baghdad and Damascus. As they learned to navigate by the stars, Muslim merchants and explorers traveled more widely than ever. To aid them Muslim geographers made new maps and developed more accurate ways of calculating distances. Perhaps the greatest Islamic contributions came in medicine. As early as the 9th century, Muslim doctors in Baghdad had to pass rigorous medical examinations in order to practice. They established the first school of pharmacy and the first pharmacopoeia, a list and description of known drugs and their effects. The caliph Harun al-Rashid founded the first public hospital in Islam, on an old Persian model. The physician al-Razi, who became head of the Baghdad hospital, discovered how to diagnose and treat smallpox. Another doctor, ibn-Sina (known as Avicenna in Europe), wrote a medical encyclopedia that became the standard text in Europe until the 17th century. LITERATURE AND THE ARTS Islamic rulers became great patrons of the arts, as each court tried to outdo its rivals. Poets composed elegant poetry in both Arabic and Persian. Short stories were also a favorite. Set in the court of Harun ar-Rashid, for example, the folktales told by the fabled Scheherezade about Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves were brought together under the title The Thousand and One Nights. The introduction of paper manufacturing from China allowed such literary masterpieces to be published for a growing audience. By the 9th century, a new body of literature had appeared in the form of history. Earlier histories had chronicled events from the Prophet's life, or listed the genealogies of the Arab tribes. The History of India, written by al-Biruni sometime around 1000, marked a new approach. He explained his purpose in the preface: This is not a book of controversy and debate, putting forward the arguments of an opponent and distinguishing what is false in them from 8 This section is drawn primarily from Hitti, The Arabs . World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 17 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM what is true. It is a straightforward account, giving the statements of Hindus and adding to them what the Greeks have said on similar subjects, so as to make a comparison between them.9 While secular literature and poetry flourished, the Qur'an influenced other forms of Islamic art. To prevent idol worship, the Qur'an had forbidden the creation of images of either human beings or animals. Consequently, calligraphy, the art of decorative writing, became a high art form. Verses from the Qur'an itself were written down and transformed into magnificent works of art. Muslim artists created special scripts to decorate mosques and other buildings. Qur'anic verses were carved in stunning calligraphy on glazed tiles that shone like jewels, woven into intricately designed carpets, and hammered into finely decorated steel blades. Most other Islamic art avoided depicting animals or people by using only geometric shapes or complex floral patterns. Apart from some painting and sculpture found in the palaces of the early Umayyads, who had paid little attention to Islamic prohibitions, the only exceptions appeared in Persia. There the preIslamic tradition of miniature paintings remained strong. Persian artists painted legendary beasts, hunters, warriors, and historical figures in such delicate detail that often the vibrant colors could only be applied with a single hair. One of the most important Islamic art forms was architecture. From the days of the Umayyads, Muslim rulers began to express their power, and their devotion to Islam, in stone. The most important buildings at first were mosques, places where the Muslim community gathered to pray. Soon, however, Muslim architects were building palaces, market places, libraries, and a host of other buildings for secular purposes. The first mosques resembled the courtyard of Muhammad's house in Medina, where he had led the umma in prayer. In Syria, the Umayyads had built more elaborate structures. Perhaps the most famous, and one of the most beautiful, is the Dome of the Rock, which they built on the sight of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. The Abbasids adopted their own style, even more elaborate than the Umayyads. They also built great palaces, set in magnificent Persian-style gardens. ANDALUSIA: ISLAMIC SPAIN 10 While the Abbasids were creating a great Islamic civilization from Syria to India and Central Asia on a Persian model, to the west another pattern emerged. Spain, or al-Andalus as the Muslims called it, had never acknowledged the rule of Baghdad. Under a survivor of the Umayyad family, a new empire developed that rivalled that of the Abbasids. From their capital at Cordova, the Spanish Umayyads ruled an elegant and courtly domain. Cordova itself had piped water, and at night the city was lit with a public lighting system. 9 Quoted in Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, the Belknap Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1991, p. 54. 10 For Islamic Spain see Hitti, The Arabs, pp. 136 to 161; and especially W. Montgomery Watt, A History of Islamic Spain, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1965. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 18 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM Umayyad Spain reached its height under the eighth amir, Abd al-Rahman III, in the middle of the 10th century. His reign was so brilliant that he eventually assumed the title of caliph, something his predecessors had not done since the revolution of 750. In the first 20 years of his reign, Abd al-Rahman established a unified and centralized government. Religious tolerance was his watchword. Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived together in peace and harmony under his rule. With Spain largely unified and at peace, Abd al-Rahman presided over a flowering of Islamic culture. A strong economy supported Islamic civilization in Spain. The Arabs had brought with them many of the techniques and skills they had learned in Iran and Iraq. In southern Spain, for example, they built irrigation systems, even using the underground canals they had seen in Iran. They also introduced new crops, such as oranges, rice, sugarcane, and cotton, all of which had been brought from India, China, and Southeast Asia. Spain once again produced fine steel, as well as magnificent textiles of silk, cotton, and wool. Umayyad Spain became a center of great learning. As in other Islamic countries, education, based on learning to read and write the Qur'an, began at an early age. The University of Cordova attracted scholars from throughout the Islamic world, as well as from Europe. Muslim, Christian, and Jewish scholars translated the Greek classics. They also studied, debated, and translated the new works on mathematics, medicine, astronomy, geography, and history being produced in the Islamic world. From Spain these works reached the rest of Europe. Students at the university took courses in all these subjects as well as theology and law. Women were included in such studies in Spain, and some even possessed their own extensive libraries. EXPANSION THROUGH TRADE The basis for Islamic cultural development was the growing wealth of the Islamic world. While the Umayyads had expanded the empire by military conquest, during the Abbasid period expansion by trade and commerce became more common. To a considerable extent, this development was a function of geography. Islam had emerged into the heart of a great world trade network linking three continents. Baghdad itself set the pace. Located at the hub of both overland and sea routes between east and west and north and south, it became a major meeting place, or entrepot, for trade from China, India, Africa, and Europe. While Arab ships set sail for eastern ports, Chinese ships docked at wharves along the Tigris River, unloading shimmering silks, spices, and jewelled treasures from India and Asia. Following both overland trade routes through central Asia and sea routes through the Indian Ocean and the waters of Southeast Asia, Muslim merchants established trading colonies as far away as China. They brought ivory, slaves, rhinoceros horn, tortoise-shell, and gold from Africa and southern Arabia. In exchange they carried silks and porcelains back to Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and the Mediterranean world. Drawn by the message of Islam carried by these merchants, in some places, like Malaya, local rulers adopted the new faith. In India, where Islam initially made little headway beyond the province of Sind, Muslim traders were also a primary means of spreading both the religion World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 19 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM and culture of Islam. Although the interior kingdoms remained Hindu, coastal cities and trading centers soon had large Muslim communities. From these bases and the Islamic lands of southern Arabia, Muslim merchants dominated the Indian Ocean trade. In East Africa, Islamic trading communities set up business next to African market towns. Gold, ivory, and slaves were the primary goods sought from Africa, and later on cloves grown on the coastal islands of Zanzibar and Pemba. In return merchants brought porcelain from China, cloth goods from India, and iron from the Middle East and Europe. Soon a kind of hybrid society emerged that displayed both African and Islamic influences. Arabic combined with local African languages to produce a new language that gave its name, Swahili, to the new culture of the east African coast. In West Africa, too, merchants proved the most effective transmitters of Islamic culture and civilization. Muslim merchants traveled south across the Sahara desert in search of gold from the African empire of Ghana. In exchange, they carried salt, which was scarce south of the desert. With the salt, Muslim merchants also spread the word of Islam. As in Southeast Asia, many of the rulers of the African grasslands below the Sahara became Muslims. While merchants spread Islam along with their wares, they brought back to the Islamic heartland enormous wealth. This new prosperity caused a tremendous expansion of the Islamic economy. With the gold of Africa, the Abbasids minted their own coins. Coinage in turn allowed the expansion of an economy based on money rather than barter and trade. The Abbasid dinar became a standard for other currencies from Spain to China. As Muslim merchants traveled and traded in many lands, they also needed some means of exchanging the different kinds of money with which they were paid for their goods. They began to set up money exchanges. These exchanges soon became banks, which issued letters of credit to those who deposited their cash. The letters of credit could be exchanged almost anywhere in the Islamic world, even across political boundaries like those between the Abbasids and the Spanish Umayyads. Thus began the first checking system. DECLINE OF THE ABBASIDS The Abbasid Empire reached its height under the caliph Harun al-Rashid. Harun had come to the throne largely through the intrigues of his Persian mother and his father's grand vizier. As caliph, Harun followed a policy of trying to unite the Arab and Persian peoples within the empire into a single Islamic identity. When Harun died, however, two of his sons, one representing the Persian faction and the other the Arab faction, plunged the empire into civil war. The Persian side triumphed, but the conflict heralded the beginning of Abbasid decline. By the late 800s the Abbasid caliphs had begun to lose political control of their empire. Viziers, responsible for the daily tasks of government, began to use their positions to their own advantage. Some used imperial revenues to build palaces that rivaled those of the caliphs they served. Often, they interfered in the succession. The vast size of the empire also made it difficult to govern. Sultans, local military rulers of outlying provinces, began to run their territories as they liked. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 20 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM Under Harun's son, al-Ma'mun, the empire began to fragment. One of alMa'mun's generals established his own dynasty in Khorasan, the former seat of Abbasid strength. Deprived of their best warriors, al-Ma'mun's successors began to recruit their bodyguards from Turkish tribesmen brought as military slaves, or mamluks, from Central Asia. Soon, like the Praetorian Guard in Rome, the Turkish bodyguard held the real power in Baghdad. Perhaps the greatest threat to the empire, however, was continuing opposition from Shi'ites. In the 9th century the Abbasids lost their western provinces to a Shi’ite dynasty, which claimed descent from Ali and Fatima. Eventually these Fatimids, as they came to be known, captured Egypt. Establishing Cairo as their new capital, they directly challenged Abbasid legitimacy and proclaimed themselves the true caliphs of Islam. While Fatimid armies soon attacked Syria, Fatimid agents and missionaries also secretly infiltrated Abbasid territory to win converts for their cause. Shi'ites also launched rebellions in Persia. In 945 a Shi'ite dynasty from Persia, the Buwayhids, took control of Baghdad and "rescued" the caliph from his mamluks. Instead of deposing the Abbasids, the Buwayhids too used them as figureheads. With such Shi'ite "protectors," Abbasid prestige plummeted. Meanwhile, nomadic groups from central Asia, newly converted to Islam, began to encroach on the empire's frontiers. These were the Turks. In 1055 a Turkish dynasty, the Saljuqs, overthrew the Shi'ite Buwayhids and "liberated" the Abbasid caliph. Although Sunni Muslims like the Abbasids, the Saljuqs too ruled the empire while using the caliphs only as figureheads. The Abbasids never fully regained their former power or authority. By 1258, when new invaders swept out of Asia and finally destroyed Baghdad, the Abbasid Empire was long past its days of glory. The civilization it had done so much to create and foster, however, continued to flourish and grow. COMMENTARY It used to be fashionable among western historians to describe the early Abbasid caliphate as the Golden Age of Islam, the height of Islamic civilization. After this, they argued, Islamic civilization went into a period of permanent decline. In adopting this interpretation, western scholars largely reflected their sources, the Muslim historians and political theorists of the 8th-11th centuries. These Muslim scholars worried about the decline of the power of the caliphs in their own times, and the rise of independent sultans. Such a division between political power and spiritual authority seemed to them incompatible with Muhammad's example; they equated political disunity with spiritual decline. Modern scholars, however, have begun to broaden their perspective beyond the political sphere, and to rely on more varied sources. Using non-Islamic accounts that were contemporary with Islamic expansion, such as those of Nestorian Christians in 7th century Iraq and non-literary sources such as tax rolls and census records, modern scholars have begun to re-examine the whole pattern of Islamic civilization. From this new perspective, Islamic civilization after the early Abbasids seems to have been more fruitful and creative than ever. As it spread, Islamic civilization brought all the regions of Eurasia into direct contact with each other for the first time in world history. Moreover, Islam World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 21 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM acted as a kind of translator between cultures. The English language stands as testimony. Words like algebra, alchemy, sofa, and many others were derived from Arabic to describe ideas or products that Muslims picked up in other parts of the world, then developed and carried into Europe. Not least, Islamic dominance of the central Eurasian trade routes caused Europeans to go out in search of cheaper access to goods carried by Muslim traders. Islamic civilization thus acted as a great catalyst for material and cultural development. In short, the decline of political unity in Islam only seems to have released an even greater vitality and creativity in Islamic civilization, which in turn stimulated developments in other civilizations. In the process, the world became smaller than ever before. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 22 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM Section 4 The Coming of the Turks By the year 1000, substantial numbers of Turkish speaking peoples, often nomads who had converted to Islam and were known as Turkomans, had begun to move from Central Asia into the Middle East. Their military power soon enabled them to found their own dynasties. The rulers of these dynasties, usually called sultans, tended to follow policies aimed at legitimizing their right to govern Muslim societies. These included support for religious wars to expand Muslim territory, encouragement of the social institutions and high culture previously developed in Islamic Persia, promotion of the Abbasid caliphate and the Shari’a oriented civilization of Sunni Islam, and patronage of Sufism. These policies had many farreaching consequences in expanding the political boundaries of the Islamic world and laying the foundations for a mature Turko-Persian civilization that would dominate the central Islamic lands for centuries. The First Turkish Dynasties The conversion of Turks to Islam and their movement into the Middle East led to a renewed surge of energy and creativity in Islamic civilization. One significant change that resulted was simply demographic, namely the diffusion of Turkish speaking peoples over a broad area. At the same time, new territories came to be incorporated into the Muslim domain, new political structures were formed, new social institutions spread throughout the region, the Persian language and Persian culture acquired greater importance among the Muslim elites, and new attitudes towards religion and religious practice began to develop. This important chapter in the development of Islamic civilization ended with the outbreak of the Crusades and the Mongol invasions. Turks and the Islamic World The Muslim encounter with Turks began as the wars of expansion moved into the Caucasus and Central Asia. Many Turkic tribes had been dispersed across this area as a result of the rise and fall of the two Turkish kaghanates. At first, there were mere skirmishes between the Turks and the Muslims. The campaigns of Qutayba b. Muslim across the Oxus (705-715), the Turkish counterattack, and the decisive victories of the Abbasid forces in Central Asia under Abu Muslim, Abu Dawud, and Ziyad b. Salih (notably the Battle of Talas in 751) all led to more extensive contacts. In their battles with the Turks, the Muslims came to appreciate the valor and skillful horsemanship of their opponents and soon began to find ways to incorporate Turks into their own military forces. The early Abbasid caliphs began to acquire Turkish slaves in considerable numbers, and al-Mu‘tasim (833-842) used them to form the backbone of his army. It was not long before these Turkish mamluks, or “slave-soldiers,” became the true masters. They made and unmade caliphs and some, such as Ahmad b. Tulun in Egypt (868-884), established themselves as the de facto rulers of provinces they were sent to govern. Although the Turkish mamluks in the Arab world were thus of considerable military importance, they were too few in number and too isolated in World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 23 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM society to produce much more than limited political change. The rise of Turkish dynasties in eastern Iran and Central Asia, however, did lead to more dramatic changes in the character of Islamic civilization. This process also started with the use of Turks as slave soldiers. One of the most important sources of Turkish slaves was from the northeastern Iranian province of Khorasan, which was then governed by the Samanid dynasty (819-1005). The Samanids successfully attacked the Turkish steppe nomads on their frontiers and captured or acquired many Turks in the process. Since the Turks were not yet Muslims, they could legally be enslaved. The Samanids controlled and regulated the lucrative trade in such slaves to meet the demand from purchasers such as the Abbasid caliphs. Eventually, the Samanids began to use the Turks in their own court and military service. They also devised a system for the year-by-year training of their Turkish ghulams or “pages” to prepare them for military command and administration of a province. As was the case with the Abbasids, some of the Samanid Turkish commanders, or amirs, soon began to take personal control of areas to which they were sent. One of these was the general Alptigin, who used his own contingent of slave-soldiers to conquer Ghazna, in the eastern part of what is now Afghanistan, around 961. The Turkish garrison at Ghazna, although technically still servants of the Samanids, continued to choose its own commanders and was largely self-governing. Eventually, one of the commanders founded a truly independent dynasty of rulers known as the Ghaznavids (9771186). Meanwhile, many of the free Turkish tribesmen in Inner Asia had converted to Islam11 and began to found their own states. (Scholars generally refer to these Muslim Turkish converts as Turkomans, to distinguish them from other Turks.) The first of these Turkoman states was ruled by the Qarakhanid dynasty (992-1211). The Qarakhanids brought an end to the Samanid dynasty and partitioned its territory with the Ghaznavids. They thus came to rule an area reaching from Bukhara to Kashgar. Although the Qarakhanids were Muslims and regarded themselves as legitimate Islamic rulers, their society and culture remained essentially Turkish and rather isolated from the rest of the Muslim world. The Saljuqs (1038-1194) were by far the most important of the new Turkish dynasties. Saljuq, the clan chief from whom the dynasty took its name, apparently broke away from the Khazar Turkish confederation and established himself in the area of a market town named Jand, near where the Syr Darya flows into the Aral Sea. Having converted to Islam, Saljuq and the followers he attracted became ghazis, or warriors for the faith, fighting against the pagan Turks and offering their assistance as volunteer soldiers at various times to the Samanids, Qarakhanids, and Ghaznavids. At the same time, they cultivated good relations with the populace, and especially the religious leaders, of the cities in the region. As the numbers of their confederation grew, and under pressure from rival groups, The Turkish tribes which converted to Islam are often referred to as Turkomans (Türkmen) to distinguish them from the non-Muslim Turks. 11 World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 24 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM the Saljuqs sought to move into Khurasan and even Azerbayjan; this eventually brought them into conflict with the Ghaznavids. Under the leadership of two brothers, Chagri and Tughril, the Saljuqs occupied Nishapur and proclaimed an independent sultanate, or principality, in 1038. They then attacked and destroyed the Ghaznavid army at the Battle of Dandanqan (1040). Chagri took control of the territory in eastern Iran, and Tughril began to annex new areas to the west. In 1055, Tughril reached and occupied Baghdad. His very capable successors, Alp Arslan (1063-72) and Malik Shah (1072-92), both guided by the exceptionally gifted Persian vizier, Nizam al-Mulk, made the Saljuq sultanate one of the most powerful states in the region, dominating an area from Syria to Central Asia. Characteristics of Turkish Rule Turkish dynasties such as the Ghaznavids and especially the Saljuqs had to deal with a number of problems and challenges. They were the ruling elite, but they were still an ethnic minority in the lands they governed. Although they were Muslims, many of their Muslim subjects would have regarded them as crude barbarians. They were sensitive about their own servile or humble origins and quite conscious of the more sophisticated culture and civilization of the people over whom they now ruled. One of their greatest concerns, therefore, was to legitimize their power and win acceptance as good Muslim rulers from the subject population. The interests of the sedentary inhabitants of the cities and countryside, however, were not identical with those of the Turkoman warriors, particularly the nomadic and tribal elements on whom the Saljuqs depended for their power. The Ghaznavids or Saljuqs thus needed to pursue policies that would produce accommodation with the subject population while maintaining control over their military retainers. This would have far-reaching consequences. One of the most obvious ways to pursue these dual goals was for the Turkish rulers to encourage warfare aimed at expanding the amount of territory under Muslim rule. Loosely connected to the Islamic concept of jihad, or striving for the faith, this typically took the form of what was known as ghazw, or raids against the infidels, and those who participated in them were known as ghazis, or warriors for Islam. Initially, this had been a rather haphazard activity by bands of individuals motivated as much by mercenary as religious concerns. The Ghaznavids and Saljuqs transformed ghazw into a large scale and relatively organized, disciplined and systematic enterprise aimed at the permanent acquisition of non-Muslim territory as well as spoils and booty for the ghazis. The Ghaznavids directed their raids towards the Punjab and Ganges plain, carrying out at least 17 expeditions into India. Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna (9981030) was particularly famous for his wars in India, but he was more interesting in filling his treasury than annexing territory. During his raids, his armies demolished many Buddhist and Hindu religious sites and carried off vast quantities of slaves, jewels, and precious metals as spoils of war. The Saljuqs also undertook raids against Christians in the Caucasus and Asia Minor. In 1071, Alp Arslan inflicted a major defeat on the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert. Although the Saljuq sultans were not interested in following up on this victory themselves, they did encourage tribal groups of ghazis, which World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 25 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM might otherwise have proved troublesome, to move into Anatolia. Led by junior members of the Saljuq family, these ghazis eventually established a separate branch of the dynasty in Anatolia, the Saljuq sultanate of Rum (1077-1307). When they first came to power and built up large empires, the Turkish dynasties had to confront the problem of how to govern and administer the territories they acquired. Not surprisingly, they elected to model their government after that of the Persian dynasties they replaced, the Samanids in particular. Of necessity, they relied heavily on the existing Persian bureaucracy for their officials, administrators, and advisors. Under the influence of the Persian statesmen, the greatest of whom was the Saljuq vizier Nizam al-Mulk (1019-92), they adopted the concepts and values of traditional Persian theories of kingship and justice. They expanded and professionalized their military, and introduced the practice of policing major cities by a garrison of the standing army under a commander known as the shihna. Probably following the example of the Buyids, they also began to finance their regular army and other government posts through the institution of iqta’ (grants of land or its tax revenue to soldiers and officials in lieu of salary). These and other social institutions would spread from Persia to other areas under Turkish control. At the same time, the Turkish rulers became enthusiastic supporters of the Perso-Islamic culture of eastern Iran and eventually carried it throughout the region from India to Anatolia. Arts, literature and the sciences all flourished under their patronage. Mahmud of Ghazna was notoriously determined to project the image of an enlightened ruler, even going so far as to kidnap scholars he could not otherwise persuade to come to his capital. The scientist al-Biruni, who used knowledge gained during the Ghaznavid operations in India to write famous books about India and Indian civilization, was perhaps the greatest of the men of learning patronized by the Ghaznavid court. In literature, the Turkish rulers especially encouraged the production of Persian poetry. A galaxy of talented Persian poets thrived during the Ghaznavid period, including Farrukhi, Manuchehri, Anvari, Mu’izzi and above all Firdausi, author of the magnificent epic poem of Iran, the Shahnameh. The greatest poet of Saljuq times was undoubtedly Jalal al-Din al-Rumi, author of a masterpiece of Sufi poetical literature, the Masnavi. Ghaznavid and Saljuq Religious Policies In addition to administrative and cultural policies, the influence of the Persian ministers from eastern Iran can also be detected in the religious policies followed by the Ghaznavids and Saljuqs. While proving themselves as warriors for Islam, the Turkish rulers also positioned themselves as champions of the Abbasid caliphate, defenders of Sunni Islam, and patrons of the Sufis. The ramifications of these policies make them very important to understand. The Ghaznavids quickly realized that recognition of their position by the Abbasid caliph would help camouflage what was really their usurpation of power and would provide a useful weapon against potential rivals. Rulers like Mahmud were careful to have the caliph blessed in the Friday sermons, to put his name on coins, and to persecute or destroy the pro-Fatimid Ismai’ilis who were his World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 26 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM enemies. In return, the caliph confirmed the Ghaznavid ruler as the caliph’s “deputy,” as the “right hand of the state,” and “protector of God’s religion.” Very early in their history, the Saljuqs had also claimed to be servants of the caliph, and the ostensible reason for Tughril’s advance to Baghdad was to liberate the Caliph al-Qa’im (1031-75) from the oppression of the Buyid amirs. Once that had been done, the Saljuqs also made the defeat of the Fatimid caliphs and suppression of all forms of Batini (“esoteric”) Shi’ism one of their prime objectives. In return, the caliph was more or less obliged to confirm Tughril’s legitimate authority as sultan and have him mentioned in public sermons. Tughril was thus in a position to style himself as “Emperor of Emperors, King of the East and the West, Reviver of Islam, Lieutenant of the Imam, and Right Hand of the Caliph of God.”12 In the new political theory that developed during the Saljuq era, the notion that the caliph was the ruler of the entire Muslim world (which had long been a fiction) was finally abandoned. Now authority was recognized as being divided between caliph and sultan, with the caliph being essentially a symbolic religious leader and the sultan in charge of secular affairs. Despite the ritual profession of loyalty to the caliphs, there was little doubt as to who was really in control—when Tughril wanted to marry al-Qa’im’s daughter, for example, he did not hesitate to coerce the reluctant caliph by threatening to withhold his income. It was not just to receive recognition from the caliphs that the Ghaznavids or Saljuqs adopted their publicly pro-Abbasid and anti-Shi’ite stance; the larger objective was to win the support of the Sunni legal establishment and the Sunni religious scholars, the ulama, and through them the allegiance of the urban population to which they were so closely linked. Consequently, the Turkish sultans also put their full support behind the revival of traditionalist religious scholarship and orthodox Sunni jurisprudence, which had been developing in reaction to the rise of Fatimid power and the influence of Isma’ili Shi’ite missionaries. At much the same time that the Fatimids were establishing al-Azhar, a large mosque and official center for the study of Isma’ili law in Cairo, a similar Sunni institution was appearing in the east, particularly at Nishapur. This was the madrasa, a kind of college devoted specifically to the advanced formal study of Sunni law. The Saljuqs encouraged the establishment of madrasas throughout their empire. The madrasas were supported financially by charitable endowments of real property, known as waqf, the revenue from which was used to maintain the buildings, pay teachers, and accommodate the students. The madrasas would come to dominate higher education in the Sunni world, being the institution of learning responsible not only for training the members of the ulama but also the judges and bureaucrats on whom the governments depended. A third important element in the religious policies of the Turkish rulers was the promotion of Sufism. It is fairly clear that wandering Sufi missionaries Recorded by Ibn al-Jawzi in the Muntazam fi tarikh al-muluk as translated in J. A. Boyle (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 5, The Saljuk and Mongol Period (Cambridge, 1968), p. 48. 12 World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 27 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM had played a significant role in the conversion of Turks in Central Asia to Islam. Sufi mysticism had some similarities to the shamanistic religion of the pagan Turks, and the Sufi holy men were not radically different from the shamans with whom the Turks were familiar. Historically speaking, the affinities of Sufism and Turkish culture have always been deep and strong. On a more pragmatic level, the Sufi “friends of God” no less than the ulama enjoyed tremendous popularity and respect among the Muslim masses. Patronizing them was another way in which the Turkish rulers could cultivate the support and loyalty of their subjects. Finally, Sufism and Shi’ism were bitter enemies and rivals during this period, so encouraging Sufism was a weapon the Saljuqs could use in their assault on the Fatimids and their supporters. Sufism clearly flourished during the early Turkish period, but it also underwent two fundamental changes: It was integrated more closely into conventional Sunni Islam, and it was institutionalized. Early Sufism had been a highly personalized and emotional form of religion which would often manifest itself in ways far removed from the norms of behavior envisaged in the Shari’a— singing, dancing, or celebration of drunkenness or erotic love as symbols of mystical experience at one extreme and excessive fasting, devotional exercises, asceticism and celibacy at the other. This had aroused the suspicion and sometimes the hostility of the more conservative religious scholars. By Saljuq times, however, either many members of the ulama had become Sufis or many Sufis had become members of the ulama. The man most often cited as a leading example of the reconciliation of Sunnism and Sufism was al-Ghazzali (10581111). Al-Ghazzali was a respected scholar of Shafi’i law who became a Sufi. He was highly critical of Shi’ism, philosophy, and speculative theology. In the interest of social order, he also argued for acceptance of the authority of the sultanate. Most importantly, he championed the cause of a liberalized and spiritualized approach to the law that would tolerate many Sufi practices and of a “sober” Sufism, which would keep its practitioners within the general boundaries of the Shari’ah. This synthesis of ideas would be characteristic of the new SunniSufi mainstream of Islam. About the same time, Sufism ceased being a highly individualistic activity and took on a collective and institutional form. Students of Sufism attracted to a charismatic Sufi master (the shaykh or pir) began to group together in an association known as a tariqa (“path” or “way”). These tariqa orders had their own particular initiation rites, and the members followed the rules of behavior, rituals, and spiritual exercises established by the master. They typically maintained monasteries or hospices in which the followers could reside during spiritual retreats; these would often be built around the tomb of the founder of the order or the tombs of prominent disciples of the order. The first of these orders was probably the Qadiriyya, founded in Baghdad by the Hanbali scholar and Sufi ’Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (d. 1166). Dozens of others soon followed, and they spread throughout the Muslim world. The End of the Saljuq Era World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 28 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM In 1092, the powerful vizier Nizam al-Mulk was murdered, supposedly by one of the Nizari Isma’ili Assassins. Malik Shah died the same year, and the Saljuq Empire began to disintegrate. One reason for this was internal disputes over the succession that sometimes amounted to virtual civil war. In addition, young Saljuq princes were sent out to act as nominal governors of the provinces. Each was assigned an atabeg or guardian chosen from the commanders of the slave soldiers in the Saljuq army. Some of the atabegs in fact took over the provinces for themselves and founded their own petty dynasties. Another element of instability came from a new influx of nomadic Turkomans into Saljuq territory. They were very difficult to control, and wrought considerable havoc in the countryside. In 1157, they killed Sanjar, the Saljuq sultan, and proceeded to overrun much of the Saljuq Empire. It was external forces, however, that really put an end to this period of Islamic history and civilization. In 1097, the Crusaders defeated the Saljuqs of Rum and went on to capture Antioch, Edessa, and Jerusalem (1099). Although the Crusader states occupied only a small portion of the Islamic world for a relatively short time, they did produce some important changes. One of the most important was the fall of the ineffective Fatimid caliphate and thus the further decline of the Isma’ili Shi’ite cause. Syria and Egypt emerged as the new center of Sunni power under the Ayyubid dynasty (1169-1250) and subsequently a dynasty of mostly Turkish slave soldiers, the Mamluk Dynasty (1250-1517). The Crusades The rise of the Saljuq Turks seriously threatened the Byzantine Empire. When the Byzantine emperor appealed to Pope Urban II for help in recovering his lost provinces from the Turks in the 1090s, Urban urged men of all ranks to wage a great war, or Crusade, to recover the Holy Land for Christ. Throughout Europe people heeded the call. Some were inspired by faith and the hope of being cleansed of sin. Many knights sought more earthly rewards like land13 or plundered wealth. Merchants saw a chance to improve their profitable trade with Byzantium.14 Some simply wanted the adventure. The Early Crusades On November 27, 109515, Pope Urban II assembled a group of church leaders and nobles at Clermont, France. In an impassioned speech he described how the Turks had "seized more and more of the lands of the Christians . . . killed or captured many people, destroyed churches, and devastated the kingdom of God."16 Urban's pleas fired his listeners with enthusiasm, and they spread the 13Maurice Keen, The Penguin History of Medieval Europe (London: Penguin Books, 1968): 123. 14Keen, 123. 15Keen, p. 117. 16Patrick J. Geary, Readings in Medieval History. Vloume Two: The Later Middle Ages (Broadview, NY: Broadview Press, 1992): 72. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 29 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM word throughout France. Those that joined the cause sewed a cross on their clothes and thus became crusaders, from the Latin word cruciata, "marked with a cross." The first crusaders—bands of undisciplined and untrained peasants—left for the Holy Land in 1096. As they traveled, they attacked all whom they considered enemies of Christ. They ravaged many Jewish communities. Solomon Bar Simson, a Jewish chronicler, described one attack: “The steppe-wolves . . . pillaged men, women, and infants, children and old people. They pulled down the stairways and destroyed the houses, looting and plundering; and they took the Torah Scroll, trampled it in the mud, and tore and burned it.”17 Thousands of Jews died at the hands of these peasant crusaders.18 As destructive as the peasants were, however, they were no match for trained warriors. Most died quickly in battle against the Turks.19 The forces led by French and Norman nobles had better luck. In three organized armies, they marched across Europe to Constantinople. Fearing the strength of the crusader armies, the Byzantine emperor, Alexius I, at first refused to admit them. “He dreaded their arrival,” wrote his daughter Anna Comnena, “knowing as he did their uncontrollable passion, their erratic character and . . . their greed for money.”20 Eventually, however, Alexius let them pass through the city on their way to the Holy Land. The journey was strenuous. Wearing wool and leather and heavy armor, the crusaders suffered severely from the heat. Food and water ran short. As Fulcher of Chartres, an eyewitness, recorded: “The people for the love of God endured cold, heat, and torrents of rain. Their tents became old and torn and rotten from the continuous rains. . . . Many people had no cover but the sky. . . . The elect were tried by the Lord and by such suffering were cleansed of their sins. . . . When they struggled against the pagans they labored for God. . . . I feel that at the cost of suffering to the Christians He wills that the pagans shall be destroyed, they who have so many times foully trod underfoot all which belongs to God.”21 17Patrick J. Geary, ed. Readings in Medieval History, Volume Two: The Later MIddle Ages. (Lewiston, NY: Broadview Press), 1992, p. 82. 18Robert S. Hoyt and Stanley Chodorow, Europe in the Middle Ages, 3e (San Diego, CA: HBJ, 1976): 320. 19Hoyt/Chodorow, 320. 20Geary, Readings in Medieval History, Vol. II, p. 93 21Geary, Readings in Medieval History, Vol. II, pp. 76-77 World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 30 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM Despite the crusaders’ suffering, they took the city of Antioch, then marched on Jerusalem, which they quickly captured.22 The inhabitants paid a fearful price in blood. One Muslim chronicler recorded that the crusaders killed more than 70,000 people.23 The victorious crusaders set up four small states in the newly captured Holy Land: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.24 They subdivided the land into fiefs controlled by lords and vassals.25 A steady stream of pilgrims came to the Holy Land. European trade, with goods carried mostly in Italian ships, was brisk.26 Catholicism was the official religion, but because Europeans were a minority, other religions were tolerated.27 The crusader states ruled the Holy Land for almost a century. The First Crusade had succeeded only because the Turks were disunited. As the Muslims recovered from their initial defeat, they counterattacked, recapturing the city of Edessa in 1144. A new call for troops went out in Christendom.28 The Second Crusade, however, which began in 1147, was a miserable failure. After only two years, the armies of King Louis VII of France and the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III returned home having achieved nothing but the loss of thousands of lives. Then, word reached Europe that the Muslims had recaptured Jerusalem in 1187. Across Europe knights sharpened their swords and spearpoints, and polished their chain mail shirts. Richard the Lion Heart of England, Philip Augustus of France, and the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa each commanded an army headed to the Holy Land. Once again the crusaders failed. Barbarossa drowned on his way to the Holy Land.29 Philip and Richard quarreled,30 and Philip took his army home to seize English lands in France.31 Richard and his army fought on, but were unable to capture Jerusalem. In the end, Richard had to settle for a truce that gave him control of a few coastal towns and the right for Europeans to travel to Jerusalem.32 Thus the Third Crusade left the crusaders only a small foothold in the Holy Land. Later Crusades. 22Keen, 124. vol 2, page 91 24Davis, 272. 25Keen, 127. 26RHC Davis, A History of Medieval Europe From Constnatine to Saint Louis, 2e (London: Longman, 1988): 271. 27Davis, 275. 28Davis, 276. 29Davis, 280. 30Davis, 280. 31Davis, 280. 32Hayes, 188. 23Geary, World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 31 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM Despite these failures, the crusading spirit died slowly. In 1202, for example, Pope Innocent III persuaded a group of French knights to embark on the Fourth Crusade to reestablish the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The crusaders did not have the money to pay for their travel, however. When merchants from Venice persuaded them to attack the Christian city of Zara, a commercial rival, as partial payment for their transportation,33 the outraged pope excommunicated the entire army for attacking a Christian city. He soon lifted the ban, however, and the undeterred Venetians and the crusaders turned their attention to Constantinople. The Venetians hoped to take control of the entire eastern Mediterranean, which the Byzantines still dominated. In 1204 the crusaders breached the great walls of Constantinople. Savagely, they looted the city. Gold and treasure, even sacred icons and holy relics, flooded back into Western Europe. The Fourth Crusade so intensified the distrust of Orthodox and Catholic Christians for one another that they never again joined forces to fight the Muslims. Later crusades in the Holy Land were also ineffective. The Children's Crusade of 1212 resulted only in many children being sold into slavery. By 1291 Muslims had recaptured the last Christian stronghold at Acre. The Mongol Invasions While the Crusaders brought havoc to the western parts of the Islamic world, the eastern areas were devastated by the Mongol invasions, which began with the campaigns of Genghis Khan against Khwarizm in 1219. In 1243, the Mongols destroyed the armies of the Saljuqs of Rum at the Battle of Kose Dag. From 12551260, Mongol armies under Genghis Khan’s grandson Hulegu swept across Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Hulegu exterminated the Isma’ili Shi’ite enclaves in Iran and then went on to capture and sack Baghdad in 1258, killing the Abbasid caliph and bringing that most important of Muslim offices, the caliphate, to an effective end. The Mongol dynasty established in Iran by Hulegu, the Ilkhanate (1256-1353), was openly hostile to Islam for much of its history. The Il-Khanids of Persia Hulagu Khan and his successors, the Il-Khans, ruthlessly conquered the old Abbasid and Saljuq territories. The extent of the Mongol terror was vividly described by a Muslim historian of the day: “The luck-forsaken land lay desolate. . . . In heaps on every side the corpses lay, Alike on lonely path and broad high-way. Uncounted bodies cumbered every street: Scarce might one find a place to set one’s feet.”34 In 1258, Hulagu’s forces sacked Baghdad, killing the last Abbasid caliph and as many of the family as they could find. Pressing on into Syria they also captured Damascus. As they moved further south, however, the Mongols 33Hayes. 34Quoted 189. in Browne, Literary History of Persia, p. 98. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 32 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM encountered a hastily gathered Islamic force led by the Mamluks of Egypt. At Ayn Jalut, the Mamluks defeated Hulagu’s army. Ayn Jalut might have proved little more than a setback had it not been for an event far off in Asia—the death of the Grand Khan Mongke. Indeed, the Mongol defeat may have been due to Hulagu’s absence from the army—he had been summoned back to Mongolia for the election of a new Grand Khan. By the time he returned to Iran, the Mamluks had learned Mongol battle tactics and were too formidable to defeat. An uneasy border emerged between the two powers in Syria and Iraq. Although Hulagu himself apparently despised the Islamic religion, and did his best to destroy Islamic culture in his domains, eventually his successors converted to Islam. In addition, the Mongols relied on local Persian officials of the old bureaucracy to rule their new domains. Such officials, however, often died violent deaths at the hands of their suspicious masters. For a time in the late 1200s, the Il-Khan Argun relied heavily on Jewish advisors and officials. When he fell ill sometime in early 1291, however, his enemies instigated a major massacre of Jews throughout the empire. In 1295, the Il-Khan Ghazan assumed the throne. A convinced believer, Ghazan restored Islam as the official religion of the state and did his best to rule as a legitimate Islamic ruler. It was Ghazan, for example, who finally repudiated the allegiance of the Il-Khanids to the Grand Khan in China. By the 1340s, however, internal struggle among Mongol princes had so weakened Il-Khanid rule that it finally collapsed and the empire fell into the hands of local dynasties. The calamities of the Crusades and the Mongol invasions thus had the effect of remaking the political map of the Muslim world, shifting its centers of power, badly damaging or destroying some of its major cultural centers in the east, and driving still larger numbers of Turks further to the west. In combination with the political, social, cultural, and religious transformation brought about by the early Turks this would set the stage for radically new developments within Islamic civilization. World History Chapter 10 Islam Page 33 April 29, 2017 12:19 PM