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Islam Expands
Muhammad’s Death
632 – Begins the split within the Muslim
community
• Muslims elect Abu-Bakr (a friend of
Muhammad) as the “successor” or CALIPH
Rightly Guided Caliphs
• 4 “elected caliphs”
– Abu-Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali
– Their rule was called a CALIPHATE
– They used the Qur’an and Muhammad’s actions to
guide their leadership
Problems
• Soon after Muhammad’s death some Muslims
in the Arabian peninsula abandoned Islam,
some stopped paying taxes, and some even
called themselves prophets.
• What did Abu-Bakr do??
Jihad
• “Jihad” means “striving”
• There are two forms of “jihad”
– The inner struggle against evil OR
– An armed struggle against unbelievers
Expansion
• The Four Rightly Guided Caliphs used “jihad”
to spread Islam throughout the M.E., Europe,
and parts of Asia.
Why was Islam able to spread??
• Empires surrounding the Muslim
empire were weak
(Byzantine and Sassanid Empires)
• People in these empires were sick
of being mistreated
• People were attracted to the economic
benefit for Muslims not having to pay a poll tax
Treatment of Conquered People
• Muslims allowed people to follow their own
religion as long as they paid taxes
• Christians and Jews did not have to perform
military duties
• Christians and Jews were not able to spread
their religion w/i the Muslim Empire
Assassinations
• The assassination of Uthman in 656 and Ali
(Muhammad’s cousin) in 661 was a huge
turning pt.
• A family known as the Umayyads take power
and the idea of electing caliphs is over.
Umayyads
• They did two things that
angered many Muslims
– Moved capital from Mecca
to Damascus
– Began surrounding
themselves
with wealth and ceremonies
**Split within Islam**
• Sunni – Shi’a Split
– Sunni – group of Muslims (majority) who accept
Umayyads’ rule to preserve peace
• They claimed that people just needed to follow
Muhammad’s example
– Shi’a – group of Muslims that resisted Umayyads’
rule
• They claimed that the caliph needed to be a
descendant of Muhammad
• Meaning the “party” of Ali
• Members are known as “Shi’ites”
Abbasids
• 750 – Abbasid family takes control of Muslim
Empire and kill almost every Umayyad
• Moved capital to Baghdad
Abbasids
• Rule from 750 – 1258
– They create a large and prosperous empire
– It gets too large to control and local leaders began
taking control
Fatimid – a caliphate formed by Shi’a Muslims (N.
Africa) who claimed descent from Muhammad’s
daughter Fatima
Muslim Trade
• Merchants spoke one lang. – Arabic
-Created banks throughout the empire
-Banks offered letters of credit to merchants
called “sakks”
-Europeans called these letters “checks”
Muslim Empire
• By the 10 Century Baghdad had a pop. of
almost 1 million when Paris had a pop. of only
38,000!!
• At this time the Muslim Empire was extremely
prosperous and advanced compared to the
rest of the world!