Islamic Empires and the Muslim Synthesis
Chronology of the Islamic Empires

570-632
Life of Muhammad

661-750
Umayyad Dynasty

750-1258
Abbasid Dynasty
 1096-1204

1258
Crusades from Europe
Mongol capture of Baghdad
The Islamic Empires
How?

Muhammad transforms Arabia – jihad
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against Arab polytheists
creates a confederation centered on Medina,
Muhammad, Islam
“Pax Islamica” – Muslim brotherhood
New raids to “expand and survive”
Expansion beyond Arabia
Convert Arab pagans living in Persia and
Byzantine Empires
 How to treat Christians and Jews-dhimmis

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conquest not for conversion but for loot
could keep their religion, homes, churches,
businesses
sometimes welcomed Arabs as liberators
had to pay poll tax to Muslim rulers
Age of the Orthodox Caliphs
632-661ce-capital at Medina
Crisis over succession-consensus vs.
inheritance
 Shia (“party”) vs. Sunni
 Conquests under Umar (See RGH #54)

-encourage expansion and loot
-discourage assimilation-don’t encourage conversion, only happens
gradually
-don’t cause opposition by locals
-don’t’ settle on the land (garrison towns)
-emphasize loyalty to Islam
-don’t lose “masculine virtues”
EARLY EXPANSION OF MUSLIM RULE
Umayyad Dynasty
661-750 – capital at Damascus
Arab military aristocracy
 Masters of the seas
 More interested in conquest than
conversion
 Growth of criticism

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Mawali – non-Arab Muslims
Shi’ites
Rebellion in 750ce
Abbasid Dynasty
750-1258-capital at Baghdad
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The “golden age” of Islam
Cosmopolitan and multiethnic
Time of the “Muslim
synthesis”
Nomadic traditions fade
Jihad dead
Sufi mystics and merchants
spread Islam
Harun al Rashid
The “Muslim Synthesis”-First World
Civilization?

Trade and commerce-Islam friendly to
business (control trade routes)

An educational community -they
preserved Greek philosophy at a time
that Europe was a “cultural backwater”

Islam as a unifier-Islamic brotherhood

The Muslim Empire becomes the
Intercommunicating Zone and agents of
Southernization-Muslim Synthesis (See
RGH #55)
ARABS DOING BUSINESS WITH MEDIEVAL MERCHANTS TRADE
dar-al-Islam (world of Islam)
ARTERIES OF TRADE AND TRAVEL IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD, TO 1500
“First World Civilization”
Confrontation with Europe
al-Andalus – Islamic Spain
Spain easily conquered
Rule for 700 years
Arabs revolutionize the economy
Liberal, tolerant regime
Great cultural achievements
Toledo and Cordoba
Great Mosque at Cordoba, 786
When the Abbasids attempted to massacre 800 family members of the Umayyad
dynasty at a dinner of peace, a few of them escaped, fled to Spain, and established
Cordoba as their capital. The Great Mosque of Cordoba, begun in 786, contains all of
the usual features of a mosque, but it is best known for its interior double set of
horseshoe-shaped arches, one above the other, which are mounted on the capitals of
Map of the Crusades and the Reconquest of Spain
The Crusades

Crusade = “holy war”

Series of military campaigns
undertaken by European
Christendom against the
Abbasid empire

Five military campaigns
between 1095-1300

Offensive or defensive wars?
Reasons for the Crusades

To “recapture”
Jerusalem

To end wars among
Europe’s knights

Desire for wealth and
information from the
more advanced Islamic
civilization
Important turning points…

First crusade conquered Jerusalem 1099;
recaptured by Saladin 1187

Fourth crusade targeted Constantinople,
weakening Byzantine empire against the
rising power of the Turks
Long-term effects of the Crusades

The Crusades were never a mortal threat to the Abbasids
but they eroded their long-held culture of religious
toleration

Weakened the Byzantine empire against the rising power of
the Turks

The Crusades stimulated Europe’s economy and
“reintegrat[ed] Western Europe into the larger economy of
the Eastern hemisphere” TE

Helped unify Europe vis a vis the “East”
After the Arab conquests, the Byzantine Empire will be
on the front lines of Christianity
Seige of Constantinople
Conquest by Ottomans,
1453
End of the Byzantine Empire
Map of Constantinople
Hagia Sophia
From church
to mosque
INTERIOR OF AYASOFYA MOSQUE, FORMERLY THE CHURCH OF HAGIA
SOPHIA, ISTANBUL
MUSLIM EMPIRES IN THE SIXTEENTH AND
SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES
The Crusades

Crusade = “holy war”

Series of military campaigns
undertaken by European
Christendom against the
Abbasid empire

Five military campaigns
between 1095-1300

Offensive or defensive wars?
Reasons for the Crusades

To “recapture”
Jerusalem

To end wars among
Europe’s knights

Desire for wealth and
information from the
more advanced Islamic
civilization
Important turning points…

First crusade conquered Jerusalem 1099;
recaptured by Saladin 1187

Fourth crusade targeted Constantinople,
weakening Byzantine empire against the
rising power of the Turks
Long-term effects of the Crusades

The Crusades were never a mortal threat to the Abbasids
but they eroded their long-held culture of religious
toleration

Weakened the Byzantine empire against the rising power of
the Turks

The Crusades stimulated Europe’s economy and
“reintegrat[ed] Western Europe into the larger economy of
the Eastern hemisphere” TE

Helped unify Europe vis a vis the “East”