AP World History Unit 1 - Lesson 1.2

Developments in Dar al-Islam

The Abbasid’s Competition

• Mamluks were slaves from Central Asia purchased by Arabs to serve as soldiers and bureaucrats.
• The Mamluks seized the Egyptian government and formed the Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517), that prospered from sugar and cotton trade.
• The Seljuk Turks conquered land from the Middle East to Western China led by a sultan which reduced the power of the Abbasid Caliph to only a religious leader.
• As the Seljuk Turks limited travel of Christians to holy sites of Jerusalem, Europe’s Christians formed armies to regain access, known as crusaders.
• The Mongols from Central Asia conquered the rest of the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258, ended Seljuk rule, but were stopped by the Mamluks in the west.
• Under the Abbasids, goods and ideas flowed from regions on their trade routes, centered around the city of trade, Baghdad. But the city decayed when trade patterns shifted north.

Cultural and Social Life

• Although the Abbasid leadership consisted of Arabs and Persians, later Islamic states were shaped by Turkic peoples, including the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empire.
• Islamic scholars shared intellectual innovations and worked on past knowledge in their universities.
  • Translated Greek books into Arabic, saving Greek thinkers works.
  • Transferred and developed mathematical texts from India, and spread to Europe.
  • Adapted Chinese paper making and spread it to Europe.
• The golden age of Baghdad made innovations in medicine, math, poetry, and education.

• Merchants had higher social status and opportunity in the Islamic world.
• Discrimination of non-Arabs faded in the 9th century.
• Muslims were not allowed to enslave people of the book, but did get slaves from Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, who many of converted to Islam and were freed.
• Female slaves had more freedoms and were able to make enough money to free themselves.

Women in Islam

• Muhammad raised the status of women as he treated his wives with respect and forbade female infanticide.
  • Muhammad’s first wife was a business owner, setting a trend for women is Islamic society.
• Islamic women had many more rights than those in Judaism and Christianity.
  • More marriage freedoms, economic rights, and could practice birth control.
• Rise of towns and cities limited rights of women like other societies faced.

Islamic Rule in Spain

• Muslim armies were very strong during the 700s, as they defeated Byzantine Armies in North Africa and invaded Spain.
• Battle of Tours: Rare loss for the Muslim armies, against the Frankish forces in 732, their expansion into Western Europe was limted.
• The Muslim government of Spain tolerated other religions and boosted trade and technology as they allowed Chinese merchants to trade at the capital.
• Cordoba had the largest library in the world with Islamic and European scholars sharing ideas. They brought revolutionary technology and thinking into Europe.

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