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Islam in World Civilization:
Gunpowder Empires and Revival and
Reform
Themes
Three Great Gunpowder Empires –
Acme of Muslim political power (15001700)
map
• Notion of Universal Empire
• Subjugation of Clergy to State
• Late Sunni Tradition in full
efflorescence
• Acceptance of religious syncretism
• Ottoman/Safavid War  Sunni/Shiite
split set in relief
The Ottoman Empire
Originally a band of raiders, the Ottomans
become ‘Caesars’ and masters of an Islamicate
world empire; caliphs, ghazis, Caesar, Family of
Osman…
• Pinnacle with Sulayman the Magnificent (r. 1520-66)
• Territorial peak in 1638; 1529 and 1683 sieges of Vienna
Ottoman Religious Life: Bureaucratization and Sufism
• Ulama are state employees, serving in positions in
mosques madrasas and as bureaucrats
• Syncretic Sufi movements:
– Ex. Bektashis with eucharist like service, trinity
– Ibn ‘Arabi’s writings become standard works of study
Pictures
Tour 2 Tours 1
Safavid Iran
• Sufi Tariqa become Alid messianic
movement and military
– Safavid tariqa originally Sunni; founded by
Shaykh Safi al-Din Founded by Safi al-Din (d.
1334)
– At some point it becomes militaristic and
extremist Shiite… culminating with Shah
Ismail (d. 1524)… the mahdi and God
incarnate
– Conversion of Iran to 12er Shiism
• Pinnacle with Shah ‘Abbas (r. 1587-1629)
– Transition to orthodox 12er Shi’ism
– Shah and Ulama’ / state and religion
pictures
Mughal Empire
• General history: ‘The Indian Timurids’
– Akbar (d. 1556-1605)
– Muslim overlords ruling with cooperation of
Hindu princes and population
• Muslim/Hindu Accretion
– Sulh-e kul: ‘universal reconciliation’
– Rural Sufi tariqas basically Hindu, Hindi writings
– Akbar becomes vegetarian and prohibits
slaughter of animals on certain days to please
Hindus and Jains; din ilahi = ‘religion of God’–
universal religion with Akbar as head
– Aurangzeb (d. 1707) and breaking the peace
• 1679 starts levying jizya (poll tax) on Hindus
Jami’ Mosque built by Shah Jahan in 1648
Badshahi Mosque built by Aurangzeb in 1670’s
Taj Mahal, built by Shah
Jahan
The new emperor Aurangzeb
Babur’s court
Movements of Revival and Reform
17th century sees series of (Salafi?)
movements in peripheral areas:
• Notion that community had gone astray
• Questioning Late Sunni Tradition in
order to regain primordial purity of
Islam
• Shirk had led people from tawhid
• Taqlid not acceptable
• Political/Military vs. other Muslims
Ex. Wahhabi movement in Arabia,
Sokoto Caliphate in Hausaland, Futa
Jallan (d. 1751) in Senegal
Wahhabi Movement - Emergence
Arabia on the Eve of the movement:
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Alois Musil: non-Islamic religion
prevelant; Bedouins sacrifice camels at
graves of ancestors, area around the
grave of Zayd b. al-Khattab exempt from
taxes
Dates are really only crop, with some
wheat and millet… all depends on
irrigation … drought is catastrophic
Settled – Sown continuum
Hierarchy of tribes, with Sulubba at the
bottom (crafts, repairs)
Mecca and Medina are centers of
Ottoman Late Sunni Tradition
Muhammad b. Abd al-Wahhab
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b. 1703-4 in Uyayna to family of Hanbalis scholars
Married at age 12, had over 20 wives  form
alliances
His father had written a treatise against the
veneration of saints… inspired by Ibn Taymiyya
Travels to Mecca Medina and Basra, where he
studies with scholars who (like Muhammad b. Hayat
al-Sindi d. 1165/1751) inspire him with idea of
returning to Tawhid and using hadith to do so
In 1740 becomes judge in Uyayna; where the amir of
the city sees the shaykh’s teachings as a basis for
political power, amir has some sacred trees chopped
down, but angers peoples and has to flee the city;
angers Shiite in al-Hisa’
In Dir’iyya he meets Muhammad b. Saud in 1744….
Alliance formed between the Shaykh the Imam
Wahhabi Ideology
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Jahiliyya vs. Tawhid (no saints or idolatry) / Sunna
vs. Taqlid (go back to Hadiths)
Manifestations of Pure Tawhid:
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Moral revival: Condemns greed and usury, encourages
morals and kindness
Sunna:
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Practice and rejection of cultural accretion: Anti saints, cults
and dhikr, but not against Sufism per se
Intention: Anti- riya’
Social: Abolishes hierachical practices such as handkissing
rejection of loyalty to a school of law  ijtihad
rejection of foreign sciences in Islamic thought
Anti Shiite (ex. refutations written by his son Abdallah)
Political link to Sauds: linked to and loyal to amir, who
is responsible for caring for community and setting up
proper Islamic society, Saudi amir is called “imām”
It is interesting that he is rejecting staples of Ottoman
nobility (booze, tabacoo, zikr, silk)
History of Wahhabi Movement
After Ibn Abd al-Wahhab:
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1801 Wahhabi troops attack Kerbala
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1803 Wahhabis capture Mecca and Medina
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1812 Ibrahim Pasha sent to crush Wahhabis in Nejd, 1818 he captures
Diriyya and has grandsons of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab imprisoned or killed
Saudi/Wahhabi State… Round Two!
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1902 Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud (d. 1952) takes Riyadh
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Creation of Ikhwan and Hijras c. 1912
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1924 Ikhwan attack Mecca and Medina, massacre at Taif, Ibn Saud
enters Mecca as a pilgrim upon its surrender
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1932 kingdom of Najd and Hijaz declared
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1933 Aramco formed, first serious oil pumped in 1948… in early 50’s
Saudis get 50% of revenue
Making Peace with the World vs. Auto-Immune Disorder of Fundamentalism:
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1920 Ikhwan attack Kuwait, Brits drive them back with bombs
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1929 Ibn Saud fights war with Ikhwan at Battle of Sibla, Ibn Saud
crushes the Ikhwan and destroys their camps… Ikhwan at an end
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Problem of settling Bedouins and paying them stipends to prevent
further attacks and raiding, this of course gets easier in the 1940’s
when real oil revenue starts coming in.
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But it’s not gone! Haram takeover in 1979 by Juhaiman al-Utayba
Usman don Fodia and the Sokoto Caliphate
• Rejects of elitism of Muslim scholars
• Rejects pantheistic worship: trees etc.
• 1804-08 ‘Jihad’ against those who
refuse to purify their Islam… book
“Revival of the Sunna and
Extinguishing Bid’a”
• Establishes Sokoto State: has total of
13 wives… anti-racism and tribalism
• Makes ‘Islam’ a widely practiced
religion amongst the Hausa and Fulani
Slide 1
Sa’d, the
brother of
Ibn Saud,
killed in
battle
Ikhwan Troops on the March
back
Ibn Saud’s Close family