1.2 AP history Developments in Dar al-Islam

Muhammad

in 62, Islam spread rapidly outward

from Arabia. Through military actions and the activities of merchants and

missionaries, Islam’s reach extended from India to Spain. As the quotation

suggests, many Islamic leaders showed tolerance to Christians, Jews, and

others who believed in a single god and did good works.

House of Wisdom.

Under the Abbasid

Empire, scholars traveled from far away to Baghdad to study at a renowned

center of learning known as the House of Wisdom.

Abbasids

Wisdom. The Islamic community

helped transfer knowledge throughout Afro-Eurasia when abbasiaids are replaced by other Islamic states

Invasions and Shifts in Trade Routes

In the 1100s and 1200s, the Abbasid Empire confronted many challenges. Like

the Chinese, they had conflicts with nomadic groups in Central Asia. Unlike

the Chinese, they also confronted European invaders.

Egyptian Mamluks or mamluks

Arabs often purchased enslaved people, or Mamluks,

who were frequently ethnic Turks from Central Asia, to serve as soldiers and

later as bureaucrats. Because of their roles, Mamluks had more opportunities

for advancement than did most enslaved people. In Egypt, Mamluks seized

control of the government.

Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517).

prospered by facilitating trade in cotton and sugar between the Islamic

world and Europe. However, when the Portuguese and other Europeans

developed new sea routes for trade, the Mamluks declined in power.

Seljuk Turks

Another challenge to the Abbasids came from the Central

Asian Seljuk Turks, who were also Muslims. Starting in the 11th century, they

began conquering parts of the Middle East, eventually extending their power

almost as far east as Western China.

Sultan

The Seljuk leader called himself sultan,

thereby reducing the role of the highest-ranking Abbasid from caliph to chief

Sunni religious authority.

Crusaders

The Abbasids allowed Christians to travel easily to and

from their holy sites in and around Jerusalem. However, the Seljuk Turks

limited this travel. European Christians organized groups of soldiers, called

Crusaders, to reopen access.

Mongols

The fourth group to attack the Abbasid Empire were among the

most famous conquerors in history: the Mongols. (See Topic 2.2.) Like many

Mamluks and the Seljuk Turks, they came from Central Asia. The Mongols

conquered the remaining Abbasid Empire in 1258 and ended the Seljuk rule.

They continued to push westward but were stopped in Egypt by the Mamluks.

Economic Competition

Since the 8th century, the Abbasids had been an

important link connecting Asia, Europe, and North Africa. Goods and ideas

flowed from one region to another on trade routes controlled by the Abbasid.Many went through Baghdad.

Baghdad reasons

However, trade patterns slowly shifted to

routes farther north. As Baghdad lost its traditional place at the center of trade,

it lost wealth and population. It could not afford to keep its canals repaired.

Farmers could not provide enough food for the urban population. Slowly, the

infrastructure that had made Baghdad a great city fell into decay.

Cultural and Social Life

Over time, the Islamic world fragmented politically. Many of these new states

adopted Abbasid practices, but they were distinct ethnically. The Abbasid

Caliphate was led by Arabs and Persians, but the later Islamic states were

shaped by Turkic peoples who descended from people in Central Asia.

century, three large Islamic states had their roots in Turkic cultures.

the Ottoman Empire in Turkey, the Safavid Empire in Persia, and the Mughal

Empire in India.

Cultural Continuities

Islamic scholars followed the advice of the

prophet Muhammad: “Go in quest of knowledge even unto China.” By

learning from many cultures, they carried on the work of earlier thinkers:

• They translated Greek literary classics into Arabic, saving the works

of Aristotle and other Greek thinkers from oblivion.

• They studied mathematics texts from India and transferred the

knowledge to Europeans.

• They adopted techniques for paper-making from China. Through

them, Europeans learned to make paper.

Cultural innovations

In addition to building on the intellectual

achievements of other cultures, scholars during the “golden age” in Baghdad

made their own achievements.

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

was one

of the most celebrated Islamic scholars. He contributed to astronomy, law,

logic, ethics, mathematics, philosophy, and medicine. An observatory built

under his direction was the most advanced in the world and produced the most

accurate astronomical charts. He studied the relationship between the lengths

of the sides of a triangle and the angles. This laid the groundwork for making

trigonometry a separate subject. Medical advances and hospital care improved

in cities such as Cairo, while doctors and pharmacists studied for examinations

for licenses that would allow them to practice.

Ibn .haldun (1332-1406)

was well known for his historical accounts and

is widely acknowledged as a founder of the fields of historiography

the study

of the methods of historians

and sociology.

‘A’ishah al-Ba’uniyyah (1460–1507)

may be the

most prolific female Muslim writer before the 20th century. Her best-known

work, a long poem honoring Muhammad called “Clear Inspiration, on Praise of

the Trusted One,” refers to many previous poets, reflecting her broad learning.

Many of her works describe her journey toward mystical illumination.

μA’ishah’s poetry

reflects a contrast between most Muslims and Sufis.

Unlike Muslims who focused on intellectual pursuits, such as the study of the

Quran,

Sufis

emphasized introspection to grasp truths that they believed could

not be understood through learning. Sufism may have begun as a mystical

response to the perceived love of luxury by the early Umayyad Caliphate.

Sufi missionaries played an important role in the spread of Islam. They

tended to adapt to local cultures and traditions, sometimes interweaving local

religious elements into Islam, and in this way they won many converts.

Commerce, Class, and Diversity

Helping to power the golden age of

natural and moral philosophy and the arts was commerce. Islamic society

viewed merchants as more prestigious than did other societies in Europe and

Asia at the time. Muhammad himself had been a merchant, as had his first

wife. With the revival of trade on Silk Roads, merchants could grow rich from

their dealings across the Indian Ocean and Central Asia. They were esteemed

as long as they maintained fair dealings and gave to charity in accord with the

pillars of the Islamic faith. Some merchants were even sent out as missionaries.

In the non-Arab areas of Islamic expansion, control by Islamic caliphs led

to discrimination against non-Arabs, though rarely to open persecution. This

discrimination gradually faded in the th century. The caliph’s soldiers were

forbidden to own territory they had conquered. The presence of a permanent

military force that kept order but did not own property allowed life for most

of the inhabitants of the countryside to remain virtually unchanged. However,

people paid tribute to Islamic caliphs rather than to Byzantine rulers.

Slavery

Islam prohibited Muslims from enslaving other Muslims or

monotheists such as Jews, Christians, and zoroastrians. Many enslaved people converted to Islam, after which their owners freed them.

Enslaved women might find themselves serving as concubines to Islamic

men who already had wed their allotment of four wives. They were allowed

more independence2for example, to go to markets and to run errands2than

the legal wives. Only enslaved women were permitted to dance or perform

musically before unrelated men. This opportunity to earn money sometimes

enabled females in slavery to accumulate enough to buy their freedom.

Kievan Rus

present-day Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine and Central Asia

the institution of hereditary slavery had not developed.

Muhammad’s Policies

Muhammad raised the status of women in several

ways. He treated his wives with love and devotion. He insisted that dowries,

the payments prospective husbands made to secure brides, be paid to the

future wife rather than to her father. He forbade female infanticide, the killing

of newborn girls. Muhammad’s first wife was educated and owned her own

business, which set a pattern for the recognition of women’s abilities.

The Status of Women

Overall, Islamic women enjoyed a higher status

than Christian or Jewish women. Islamic women were allowed to inherit

property and retain ownership after marriage. They could remarry if widowed,

and they could receive a cash settlement if divorced. Under some conditions,

a wife could initiate divorce. Moreover, women could practice birth control.

Islamic women who testified in a court under shariah

see Topic .

were to

be protected from retaliation, but their testimony was worth only half that of

a man. One gap in the historical record is written evidence of how women

viewed their position in society: most of the records created before 150 were

written by men.

The rise of towns and cities in Islamic-ruled areas resulted in new

limitations on women’s rights, just as it did in other cultures. The new status

of women might best be symbolized by the veil and the harem, a dwelling set

aside for wives, concubines, and the children of these women.

Battle of Tours

The Islamic military was turned back in 2 when it lost

the Battle of Tours against Frankish forces. This defeat, rare for Islamic armies

during the 00s, marked the limit of rapid Islamic expansion into Western

Europe. Most of the continent remained Christian, but Muslims ruled Spain

for the next seven centuries.

Prosperity Under Islam

Like the Abbasids in Baghdad, the Umayyad

rulers in Cyrdoba created a climate of toleration, with Muslims, Christians,

and Jews coexisting peacefully. They also promoted trade, allowing Chinese

and Southeast Asian products to enter into Spain and thus into the rest of

Europe. Many of the goods in this trade traveled aboard ships called dhows.

These ships, first developed in India or China, had long, thin hulls that made

them excellent for carrying goods, though less useful for conducting warfare.

Cultural and Scholarly Transfers

The Islamic state in Spain, known

as al-Andalus, became a center of learning. Cordoba had the largest library in

the world at the time. Among the famous scholars from Spain was Ibn Rushd,

known in Europe as Averroes

12th century

. He wrote influential works on

law, secular philosophy, and the natural sciences.