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Unit 2: The Post-Classical Age, 600-1450
Part II – Reconstruction of Society
The Median Caliphate
 The Problem of Succession
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Abu Bakr (leader of prayers- companion and fourth convert) and
Companions
Ali (cousin and adopted son of Muhammad, husband of Fatima,
second convert) and Abbas (uncle of Ali and the Prophet)
 The Median Caliphate (successor/representative)
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Abu Bakr (r. 632-634)
‘Umar (Omar ibn al-Khattab) (r. 634-644)
‘Uthman (Ummayyad clan) (r. 644-656)
Ali (r. 656-661)
 The Sunni-Shiite split
Succession: Abu Bakr (632-34)
 632 Muhammed died without warning
 Abu Bakr elected Caliph (deputy, successor). Friend
and early convert.
 Ali, son in law to Muhammed was passed over: Too
young
 Bakr worked and led the movement.
 Success: Ridda Wars: fought off Bedouin led by other
Charismatic leaders.
Islam Spreads
 Bakr continued the Arab unification process
 Recognized the weakness of the Persian/Byzantine
Empires
 They were at constant war with one another
 Began to take Byzantine territory
 Christians and Jews respected: people of the book
 Social restrictions, extra taxes
 Some Christians saw Muslims as liberators
Uthman (644-54)
 From the old Umayyad family. Former Meccan
enemies of Muhammed now converted!
 Codification of the Qu’ran: Variants destroyed
 651 Expansion deep into Sassanian territory (Persia)
 654 Uthman assassinated.
Division and Schism
 Ali’s supporters name him Caliph
 The Ummayyads rejected him
 Ali refuses to prosecutes the assassins Ummayads later
declare an open vendetta against him
 Mecca vs Medina Clan tensions
 Syrian and Iraqi factions
 N/S Arabian tribal tensions
Hasan
 Retired for 19 years to enjoy the good life
 When Mu’awiya died, he went to Mecca with several
followers expecting to be named Caliph.
 But the Umayyads appointed a new caliph, who
surrounded Ali with an army.
 679 Hasan led a great suicide charge. His head was
sent to the capital.
 This would result in the Sunni-Shi’ite split
But expansion continued....
 674: Besieged Constantinople
 700: Umayyads ruled from N. Africa almost to China:
An empire! Why?
 Surplus of military energy and religious zeal and well
qualified generals
 Weakness of the Byzantium and Persian states, and
their poor rule over provinces.
Sunnis vs. Shias
 Sunnis
90% of Islam
Recognize 4 caliphs as legitimate
No Iman
 Shiites
10% of Muslims (mainly in Persia, Lebanon, Yemen,
Afghanistan)
recognize only Ali and blood relatives as successors
Imans: infallible, divinely guided, leaders of the faith
Green turbans: indicate a blood relative of the Prophet
Cult of Martyrdom
Expansion under the
Umayyads
 Late 7th century: Islam spread to Asia
 8th century: Spread to India, N. Africa, Spain
 Threatened France, but Islamic armies were turned
back by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours (also
called Poitiers) in 732
 Islam dominated the Mediterranean from Spain to
central Asia
Growth of Islam, 1200
The Spread of Islam
Umayyad Rule
Arab conquest state, ruled by an Arab elite
 Army comprised of slave soldiers. Often not
allowed to convert.
 Muslim/Arab warrior elite ruled provinces
 Rejected assimilation of converts
 Kept governments intact, but staffed them with
Muslims
 Capital now Damascus

At first blocked by Byzantine &
Sassanid
Defeat at Byzantium
 717: Caliph Suleiman wanted to end the Christian
empire once and for all.
 Attacked Constantinople with 80,000 troops and a
strong naval force.
 Emperor Leo III beat off the attack. Besieging armies
suffer through a cold winter
 718: Must of the Muslim fleet destroyed by Greek Fire.
Suleiman fled.
 Leo III retook Asia Minor. Byzantium will last 500 years
more.
Greek Fire - exact composition
unknown
composition include such chemicals as liquid petroleum, naphtha,
burning pitch, sulphur, resin, quicklimeand bitumen, along with some
other "secret ingredient".
Umayyad Decline
 Series of weak self-indulgent rulers
 c. 750. The Merv Revolt
 50,000 Persian warriors settled in E. Iran
 converted to Islam, fought in battles, but earned little booty
 resented corrupt rule from Baghdad
 When Umayyads sent troops to the area, revolt broke out!
Islam Under the Umayyads
The Abbasid Revolt
 Revolt spread through the eastern provinces
 Resented Arab rule: the Mawali
 Marched under the Black Abbasid banner
 Abu al-Abbas, Muhammed’s uncle’s g.g. grandson
 Alliance with Shi’ite factions
 750: defeat the Umayyad caliph in the Battle of the River Zab
The End of the Umayyads
 Abu al-Abbas wanted to end the Umayyad
family.
 Murdered all surviving members at a feast of
reconciliation
 One escaped, the grandson of the last
Umayyad caliph, and fled to Spain
 He established the Cordoba Caliphate. It
lasted until 1492 CE
The World and the Abbasids Map
The Early Abbasids
 Capital: Baghdad: Arabic court language
 Influenced by the Near East idea of divine
kingship: “Shadow of God on Earth”
 Lots of court pomp and ritual
 When the caliph appeared in public, his
executioners were with him!
 Bound by Shari’a : Islamic law but not enforced
Abbasid Wine Bowl
Abbasid Glass Work
Abbasid Government
 Caliph ruled with large, complex bureaucracy
 Manned by Persians and Mawali
 Some aspects of universalism
 Diverse people united by Arabic language and Islam
 End of wars of expansion
Society Under the Abbasids
 Long Distance Trade with Banking and Letters of Credit
along the Silk Road trade
 Key: Export of Mesopotamia agriculture, Nile
Agriculture, sheep, date palm.
 East Asian crops spread westward, including rice, sugar
cane.
 Slave state: Many Africans working S. Iraq salt mines, or
in military
Industry
 Textile Making
 Rug Weaving: High Art Armenia, Bokhara
 Chinese trade. Learned paper making
 Perfumes, medicines, cosmetics, art in ceramics, metals
 Imported Indian “0” developed algebra and trigonometry
Intellectual Life
 Translated Greek and Roman classical works
 Philosophy, science, astronomy, geography, math
 No interest in mythology, drama or poetry
 Preserved and made additional contributions
 Worked particularly with Aristotle’s work
Abbasid
Mosque in
Nayin
Medicine
 al Razi (865-925) (Rhazes)
 20 volume medical encyclopedia
 Translated into Latin 1270
 Printed in Europe 1486 onwards
 “On the Fact that even Skilled Physicians Cannot Heal
All Diseases”
 “Why Frightened Patients Easily Forsake even the
Skilled Physician”
Other Thinkers
 al-Biruni (973-1056)
 Geography, Travels in India
 al-Kindi (d.870)
platonism
 reconciled Islam with Neo
 al Farabi (d.950), Ibn Sina (Avicenna d. 1036), Ibn
Rushd (Averroes d. 1198)
 All Islamic scholars of Aristotle
Abbasid Caliphate
The Islamic Empire
Trends Towards Decentralization
 Eventually turned against their Shi’ite allies and other
factions
 Large empire lent itself to regionalism
 Numerous violent harem conspiracies and civil wars
followed by more stable rulers
 Utilized slave armies of Africans, Slavs and Berbers that
eventually became a political force known as Mamluks