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Power concedes nothing without a demand.
Name:
Date:
Mr. Carey/Mr. Clarke
Spread of Islamic Empires
Spread of Islamic Empires
I. Overview
By the time the Prophet Muhammad died in 632,
most of the Arabian peninsula had come under the
control of the Islamic state, and many Arabs had
taken up Islam as a faith. In analyzing history the of
Islamic civilization, one must understand that
Islam does not only refer to a religion, but also to a
complex culture that united Muslims throughout
Eurasia and gave rise to a number of political,
economic, and technological achievements
(remember “Southernization?”). Indeed, the young
Islamic community was not only a community of
believers, but also a community of people who had
at first organized themselves into a strong state—
and soon into a huge empire—quickly after
Muhammad had introduced his teachings to the
peoples of the Middle East. Muhammad was not
only a religious figure but also, unlike Jesus or the
Buddha, a political and military leader who created a society itself. In keeping with this pattern, Islam did not separate its
religion from its government, like Europeans did with Christianity. No difference between religious law and government
law existed within the world of Islam. One law, known as the sharia, controlled every aspect of life. Faith and
government, in Islamic civilization, were one.
It did not take long for the big transformations that accompanied the rise of Islam in the Arabian peninsula to have an
impact beyond the peninsula. In the centuries that followed the death of Muhammad, the energy of Islam transformed
much of the Afro-Eurasian world. The new Islamic state became a huge empire, consisting of all or part of Egyptian,
Roman/Byzantine, Persian, Mesopotamian, and Indian civilizations. The Islamic faith, in turn, spread widely within and
outside of this empire. So too did the culture and language of Arabia, as many Arabs migrated far beyond their oriignal
homeland of the Arabian peninsula and many others found it helpful to learn the Arabic language. From the mixing and
blending of these many peoples emeged the new and distinctive third-wave civilization of Islam, held together by the ties
of a common faith but divided by differences of culture, class, politics, gender, and religious understanding. These
significant processes of change—the making of a new religion, a new empire, and a new civilization—were central to
world history during the postclassical period (600-1450).
Directions: Actively read and annotate the following text on the development and spread of early Islamic empires. While
you read, keep in mind the questions below. When you finish, respond to these questions in the “Homework” section of
your AP World History notebooks.
1.
Identify and explain the factors that allowed the early Islamic empire to spread. Your response should include
at least three factors, as well as at least three pieces of evidence.
II. The Making of an Arab Empire
War, Conquest, and Tolerance
Within a few years of Muhammad’s death in 632, Arab armies engaged the Byzantine and Persian
Sassanid empires, the great powers of the Middle East at the time. It was the beginning of a
process that rapidly gave rise to an Arab empire that stretched from Spain to India, penetrating
both Europe and China and governing most of the lands between them. In creating that empire,
Power concedes nothing without a demand.
Arabs were continuing a long pattern of raids into surrounding civilizations, but now these
Arabs were newly organized in a state of their own with an central government able to use the
military potential of the entire population. The Byzantine and Sassanid empires, who had grown
weak from constant warfare and disease, became easy targets. By 644, the Sassanid Empire had
been defeated by Arab forces, while the Byzantine Empire lost its eastern regions of Europe and
the southern half of its territories. Beyond these victories, Muslim forces, operating on both land
and sea, swept westward across North Africa, conquered Spain in the early 700s, and attacked
southern France. To the east, Arab armies reached the Indus River and seized some of the major
towns of Central Asia. In 751, they inflicted a crushing defeat on Chinese forces in the Battle of
the Talas River. (1)
While many Muslims viewed the creation of an Islamic empire as bringing Islamic culture to the
people they conquered, this did not mean forcing conquered peoples to accept Islam as a
religion. Arabic rulers were remarkably tolerant of Jewish and Christian faiths. Formal
agreements or treaties recognized Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians as “people of the book,”
giving them the status of dhimmis, or protected subjects. Such people were permitted to freely
practice their own religion, so long as they paid a special tax known as the jizya. In practice, may
dhimmis served in the highest offices within Muslim kingdoms and in their armies as well. (2)
Conversion
In the first four centuries or so after the death of Muhammad, millions of individuals and many
whole societies within the Islamic empire converted to Islam. They had become Muslims. In
some ways, perhaps, this change was not so dramatic. The major elements of Islam—
monotheism, prayer, fasting, the ideas of Heaven, Hell, and final judgment—were very familiar
to Jews and Christians, and therefore Islam was not that different for them. Converts to Islam
could also avoid the jizya, the tax placed on non-Muslims. People aspiring to government
positions in the Islamic empire found that converting to Islam helped their chances. As a
religion, finally, Islam looked positively upon merchants. Muhammad himself had been a trader.
As a result, people who wanted to grow wealthy from trade and commerce found a friend in
Islam. (3)