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PART III
The Post-Classical Era
Summary. The post-classical period extends between the 5th and 15th centuries
C.E. A new international framework emerged to produce a genuine world
historical dynamic. Explicit exchange became a standard part of world history.
The Chronology of the Postclassical Period. The world civilization map was
altered greatly by the decline or collapse of the classical civilizations and by
nomadic invasions. The postclassical era closed as new central Asian invasions
once again changed patterns. Another phase of world development opened as
new empires formed and Europeans explored the wider world.
The Postclassical Millennium and the World Network. Four developments
define postclassical centuries: [1] Islamic civilization spread politically and
culturally into Asia, Europe, and Africa; [2] civilization expanded into new world
regions; [3] the great world religions gained adherents from peoples once following
local belief structures; and [4] the creation of a world network linking many of the
individual civilizations.
The Rise of Islam. Islam created a new empire encompassing Asian, African,
and European territories. In the classical period the three civilizations were
roughly in balance; with Islam there was a world leader. Islam's decline marked
the end of this phase of world history.
The Expansion of Civilization. Civilization spread into many new regions in
Africa and Europe; it became more established in Japan. Both American and
Polynesian societies expanded their reach. Seven diverse areas were important in
the postclassical era: the Middle East and North Africa, India, China and East
Asia, eastern and western Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia and the
Americas.
The World Religions. In the postclassical era major religions spread into much of
Asia, Africa, and Europe. Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism brought a new
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focus on issues of spirituality and an afterlife. They were able to
extend beyond local cultures and draw together diverse peoples, many of whom
were living in very confused political times. Growth in international commerce
also assisted change.
The World Network. The most important characteristic of the postclassical
world was the development of a world network. International trade and
military contacts allowed all types of intellectual and material exchanges.
Diseases also spread. Once established the network steadily intensified and
expanded. Individual civilizations still maintained their essential values, but many
were operating in a genuinely international framework. The major limitation was
that the Americas, Polynesia, Australia, and a few other places were not yet
included.
World History Themes. Although agriculture expanded during the postclassical
period, there was not, except in central America, a period of massive
environmental problems. Since few new fundamental technological innovations
occurred, environmental change mainly reflected population growth. Basic
structures of social and gender inequality persisted. The nomadic impact on
history peaked with the achievements of the Mongols. Expanding civilizations
and new religions provided opportunities for indivduals to influence societal
developments.
Exchange and Imitation in the Postclassical World. Three characteristics
highlighted the importance of imitating established centers. Expanding
commercial contacts and missionary activity connected peripheral regions to
established civilizations. The expansion of civilization built on the possibility
of explicit imitation. The best established civilizations were in roughly the
same centers where key classical developments occurred. They were
surrounded by areas where there were newer and less strongly organized
civilizations. They participated in the world exchange at a disadvantage and
attempted to imitate features of the major centers.
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Chapter 6
The First Global Civilization: The Rise and Spread of Islam
CHAPTER SUMMARY
In the 7th century C.E. the Arab followers of Muhammad created the first global
civilization. They the classical civilizations of Greece, Egypt, and Persia. Islamic
merchants, mystics, and warriors expanded to Europe, Asia, and Africa. This
process linked the world as never before. While Muhammad’s message united the
Islamic world, it was soon culturally and politically divided. Deep disputes
undermined the strength of Muslim civilization but not until the 14th century.
PRE--ISLAM
The Arabian World and the Birth of Islam. The arid Arabian peninsula was
populated Bedouin societies. These desert-dwellers herded camels and goats.
Some practiced agriculture in oasis towns. Important agricultural and commercial
centers flourished in southern coastal regions (Yemen). The towns were ruled by
Bedouin clans.
Clan Identity and the Cycle of Vengeance. Society was organized through kinrelated clans. Clans clustered into larger tribal units that functioned during crises.
Survival depended upon clan loyalty. Wealth varied within clans. Leaders (
shaykhs), although elected by councils, were often wealthy men. Free warriors
enforced their Shaykh decisions. Slave families served the clans. Clan unity was
reinforced by interclan rivalry over water and pasture. Feuds were a way of life
lasting centuries. This strife weakened bedouin society against outside rivals.
Towns and Long-Distance Trade. Arab cities linked the Mediterranean to East
Asia. The city Mecca, in western Arabia, had been founded by the Umayyad
clan of the Quraysh tribe. The city held the Ka'ba, a holy bedouin religious
shrine that attracted pilgrims during clan truces. The city Medina, an agricultural
and commercial center was to the northeast. CAUSE > Quarrels among
Medina's two Arab bedouin and three Jewish clans hampered its development
which later opened a place for Muhammad’s message.
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Family in Pre-Islamic Arabia. Women likely enjoyed more freedom
than in the Byzantine and Sassanian empires. They had key clan economic roles.
Descent was traced through the female line (matrilineal) , and husbands paid a
bride-price to the wife’s family. Women did not wear veils and were not
secluded. Both sexes had multiple marriage partners. Still, warrior made most
decisions. Property control, inheritance, and divorce favored men. Women did
drudge labor. Female status was more restricted in urban centers.
Poets and Neglected Gods. Arab culture, due to desert isolation, was not highly
developed. Orally transmitted poetry was central. Bedouin religion blended
animism and polytheism. Some tribes recognized a supreme deity, Allah, but
paid him little attention. They focused on nature spirits. Bedouin did not use
religion as a moral guide.
Muhammad and Islam. In the 6th century C.E. camel nomads dominated Arabia.
Cities depended on alliances with surrounding tribes. CAUSE >Pressures for
change came from the Byzantine and Sassanid empires, and from Judaisim and
Christianity in Arabia. Muhammad, a member of the Banu Hasim clan of the
Quraysh tribe, was born about 570 CE?. Orphaned, he was raised by his father's
family and became a merchant. Muhammad lived in Mecca where he married a
wealthy widow, Khadijah. Merchant travels allowed Muhammad to observe what
was undermining clan unity and to witness the unity brought by monotheistic
faiths. Muhammad abandoned material gain and went to meditate in the hills. In
610 CE he experienced revelations transmitted from god by the angel Gabriel.
Later, collected in Arabic in the Quran, they formed the basis for Islam.
Flight, and Victory. As Muhammad's tiny following grew, he became a threat to
Mecca's rulers. Islam threatened the old gods of the Ka'ba. In danger,
Muhammad went to Medina and successfully mediated clan quarrels. In 622 CE
Muhammad returned from Mecca to Medina gathering thousands of new followers.
The Quraysh tribe (Muhammad’s own attacked them in Medina, but Muhammad
triumphed. A treaty of 628 allowed his followers to visit the Ka'ba. He returned to
Mecca in 629 CE and converted most of the city to Islam.
Arabs and Islam. Initially Islam was adopted by town dwellers and bedouins
where Muhammad lived. But because of the unity Islam offered through the
umma, (the community of the faithful) , it replaced old beliefs and old tribal and
clan rivalries. Islam also offered a moral system that healed rifts in Arab society.
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Believers were equal under Allah; the wealthy were responsible for the
poor. Muhammad’s teachings and the Quran became the basis for law. All faced a
final judgment by Allah.
Universalistic Islam Islam appealed to individuals from many different world
cultures. It was monotheism, based in law, egalitarianism, a world community.
Islam, while beleiving Muhammad's message was a divine revelation, accepted
components of Judaism and Christianity (people of the book). Islam's five pillars
provide unity: (1) acceptance of Islam; (2) prayer five times daily; (3) the fast
month of Ramadan; (4) payment of a tithe (zakat) for charity; and (5) the hajj,
or pilgrimage to Mecca.
Kaaba
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Hajj
The Umayyad Empire. Muhammad's victory in Mecca united many bedouin
tribes, but the unity was threatened when he died in 632 CE. Tribes broke away,
followers quarreled about the succession.. The umma (community) select new
leaders who reunited Islam by 633 and began campaigns beyond Arabia. Arab
religious zeal and the weaknesses of opponents resulted in victories in
Mesopotamia, North Africa, and Persia. The new empire was governed by a
warrior elite under the Umayyad clan that had little interest in conversion.
Division in the Islamic Community- The Sunni-Shi'i Split over Succession
Muhammad, the last of the prophets, had not established a procedure for selecting
a new leader. After much quarreling Abu Bakr was chosen as 1st caliph, the
leader of the Islamic community. Rebellious tribes with rival prophets were
defeated during the Ridda Wars which restored Islamic unity. Umar succeeded
Abu Bakr as the 2nd caliph and spread the empire into Persia and the Byzantine
Empire but he was assassinated. Uthman became the third caliph and gave many
high positions to members of his Umayyad clan but he was accused of nepotism
and murdered in Egypt. Following Uthman the Medina Muslims (original Muslim
families) chose Ali as the caliph but the Umayyads did not recognize Ali. Civil war
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broke out. Ali was winning until at the Battle of Siffin in 657 he accepted
a plea for mediation. Ali lost the support of his most radical adherents. The
Umayyad leader, Mu'awiya, was proclaimed caliph in 660 and Ali was
assassinated in 661; his son, Husayn, was killed at Karbala (Iraq) in 680. The
dispute left permanent division within Islam. The Shi’i, continued to uphold Ali's
bloodline for caliphs from Iran. The Sunnis accepted Umayyad caliphs
Arab armies invaded the weak Byzantine and Sassanid empire where they were
joined by bedouins who had migrated earlier.
Motives for Arab Conquest. Islam provided the Arabs with a common cause and
a releasing martial energies against neighboring opponents. However, rich booty
and tribute was more of a motivation than spreading Islam since converts were
exempted from taxes and got a share of the spoils of victory.
Weaknesses of the Adversary The weak Sassanian empire was ruled by a weak
emperor who let the landed- aristocratic classes exploited the agricultural masses.
Zoroastrianism lacked popular roots and the popular creed of Mazdak had been
brutally suppressed. The Arabs defeated the poorly prepared Sassanid military and
ended the dynasty in 651 CE. The Byzantines were more resilient adversaries.
The empire had been weakened by the defection of frontier Arabs and
persecuted Christian sects, and by long wars with the Sassanids. The Arabs
quickly seized western Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt from the Byzantine
Empire. From the 640s Arabs had gained naval supremacy in the eastern
Mediterranean and conquered westward into North Africa and southern Europe.
The weakened Byzantines held off attacks in their core Asia Minor and Balkan
territories.
The Umayyad Empire Grows The majority Umayyad Muslims, during the 7th
and 8th, centuries pushed forward into central Asia, northwest India, and
southwestern Europe. The Franks stopped their European advance at Poitiers
(Battle of Tours) in 732, but Muslims ruled much of Iberia (Spain/Portugal) for
centuries. By the 9h century they dominated the Mediterranean. The Umayyad
political capital was at Damascus (Syria). The caliphs built an administration with
both bureaucracy and military dominated by a Muslim Arab elite. The warriors
remained garrisoned to prevent assimilation by the conquered.
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Umayyad Empire (Caliphate)
People of the Book. Umayyad policy allowed intermarriage and conversion
between Arabs and their subjects. Muslim converts, malawi, still paid taxes and
did not receive booty; they were blocked from important positions in the army or
bureaucracy. Most of the conquered peoples were dhimmis, or people of the book.
The first were Jews and Christians; later the term also included Zoroastrians and
Hindus. The dhimmis paid higher taxes, but were allowed to retain their own
religious and social organization.
Gender Roles in the Umayyad Age. Initially the more favorable status of women
among the Arabs prevailed as Muhammad and the Quran stressed the moral and
ethical dimensions of marriage. Adultery of both partners was denounced; female
infanticide was forbidden. But now, women could have only one husband, men
were allowed four wives of equal status. Muhammad strengthened women's legal
rights in inheritance and divorce. Both sexes were equal before Allah. The
stronger position gained by women did not endure. Long-established Middle
Eastern and Mediterranean male-dominated traditions of the conquered societies
eventually prevailed. The historical record in China, India, Greece, and the
Middle East appears to make a connection between political centralization,
urbanization and decline in the position of women. But in the Islamic world
religion and law left women of all classes in better conditions than in other
civilized cultures.
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Umayyad Decline and Fall. CAUSE >The luxurious living styles of
Umayyad caliphs and their court led to a decline of military talents. Most
Muslims considered such conduct against Islamic virtues. Revolts occurred
throughout the empire. The most important occurred among frontier warriors
settled near the Iranian borderland town of Merv. Many men had married locally
and developed regional loyalties. Angry at not receiving their share of booty, they
revolted when new troops were introduced. The rebels were led by the Abbasid
clan. Allied with Shi'ite and mawali, Abu al-Abbas defeated the Umayyads in
750 CE, later assassinating most of their clan leaders and creating the Abbasid
Empire
THE ABBASID CALIPHATE
From Arab to Islamic Empire: The Early Abbasid Era. Because of the huge
size of the new empire, regional identities and made it difficult to hold the empire
together. The Abbasid victory led to increased bureaucratic expansion,
absolutism, and luxurious living. The Abbasids championed conversion (unlike
the Arab Ummayads) and transformed the character of the previous Arabdominated Islamic community. Once in power the Abbasids turned against the
Shi'ites and other allies to support a less tolerant Sunni Islam. At their new capital,
Baghdad, the rulers accepted Persian ruling concepts, elevating themselves to a
different status than the earlier Muslim leaders. A growing bureaucracy worked
under the direction of the wazir, or chief administrator. The great extent of the
empire hindered efficiency, but the regime worked well for more than a century.
The constant presence of the royal executioner symbolized the absolute power of
the rulers over their subjects.
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Abbasid Caliphate (Empire)
Islamic Conversion and Mawali Experience. Under the Abbasids new converts,
both Arabs and Mawalis (newly converted), were fully integrated into the
Muslim community. The old distinction between mawali and older believers
disappeared. Most conversions occurred peacefully. Many individuals sincerely
accepted appealing ethical Islamic beliefs. Others perhaps reacted to the
advantages of avoiding special taxes, and to the opportunities for advancement
open to believers in education, administration, and commerce. Persians, for
example, soon became the real source of power in the imperial system.
Commercial Boom and Urban Growth. The rise of the mawali was
accompanied by the growth in wealth and status of merchant and landlord
classes. Urban expansion was liked to a revival of the Afro-Eurasian trading
network declining with the fall of the Han and Roman empires. Muslim merchants
rnoved goods from the western Mediterranean to the South China Sea.
Town and Country. Urban prosperity led to increased artisan handicraft
production in both government and private workshops. The most skilled
artisans formed guild-like organizations to negotiate wages and working
conditions, and to provide support services. Slaves performed unskilled labor and
served caliphs and high officials. Some slaves held powerful positions and gained
freedom. Most unskilled slaves, many of them Africans, worked under terrible
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conditions. A rural, landed elite, the ayan, emerged. The majority of
peasants occupied land as tenants and had to give most of their harvest to the
owners.
The First Flowering of Islamic Learning. The Arabs before Islam were without
writing and knew little of the outside world. They were very receptive to the
accomplishments of the many civilizations falling to Muslim armies. Under the
Abbasids Islamic artistic contribution first lay in mosque and palace
construction. Islamic learning flourished in religious, legal, and philosophical
discourse, with special focus on the sciences and mathematics. Scholars
recovered and preserved the works of earlier civilizations. Greek writings
were saved and later passed on to the Christian world. Muslims also
introduced Indian numbers into the Mediterranean world.
Conclusion: The Measure of Islamic Achievement. By the 9th century
Abbasid power had waned before the rise of regional states and the incursions of
non-Muslim peoples. The Turks converted to Islam and became a major
component of the Muslim world. The Arabs had created a basis for the first
global civilization, incorporating many linguistic and ethnic groups into one
culture. They created Islam, one of the great universal religions. Religion and
politics initially had been joined, but the Umayyads and Abbasids used religious
legitimacy to govern their vast empires. In both religion and politics they absorbed
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precedents from earlier civilizations. Muslims did the same in the arts
and sciences, later fashioning their own innovative thinking which influenced other
societies in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
AP WORLD – BROWN -KEY TERMS CHAPTER 6
bedouin: nomadic pastoralists of the
Arabian peninsula with a culture based
on herding camels and goats.
shaykhs: leaders of tribes and clans
within bedouin society; usually
possessed large herds, several wives,
and many children.
Mecca: Arabian commercial center;
dominated by the Quraysh; the home of
Muhammad and the future center of
Islam.
Medina: town northeast of Mecca;
asked Muhammad to resolve its
intergroup differences; Muhammad's
flight to Medina, the hijra, in 622
began the Muslim calendar.
Umayyad: clan of the Quraysh that
dominated Mecca; later an Islamic
dynasty.
Ka’ba: revered pre-Islamic shrine in
Mecca; incorporated into Muslim
worship.
Quran: the word of god as revealed
through Muhammad; made into the
holy book of Islam.
umma: community of the faithful
within Islam.
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zakat: tax for charity obligatory for all
Muslims.
five pillars: the obligatory religious
duties for all Muslims: confession of
faith, prayer, fasting during Ramadan,
zakat, and hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).
Caliph: the successor to Muhammad as
head of the Islamic community.
Sunnis: followers of the
majority interpretation within Islam;
included the Umayyads.
Shi’i: followers of Ali's interpretation
of Islam.
Karbala: site of the defeat and death
of Husayn, the son of Ali.
mawali: non-Arab converts to Islam.
Ali: cousin and son-in-law of
Muhammad; one of the orthodox
caliphs; focus for the development of
shi'ism.
jizya: head tax paid by all nonMuslims in Islamic lands.
Abu Bakr: succeeded Muhammad as
the first caliph.
dhimmis: "the people of the book",
Jews, Christians;, later extended to
Zoroastrians and Hindus.
Ridda: wars following Muhammad's
death; the defeat of rival prophets and
opponents restored the unity of Islam.
Abbasids: dynasty that succeeded the
Umayyads in 750; their capital was at
Baghdad.
jihad: Islamic holy war.
wazir: chief administrative official
under the Abbasids.
Uthman: third caliph; his assassination
set off a civil war within Islam between
the Umayyads and Ali.
Siffin: battle fought in 657 between Ali
and the Umayyads; led to negotiations
that
fragmented Ali's party.
Mu'awiya: first Umayyad caliph; his
capital was Damascus.
ayan: the wealthy landed elite that
emerged under the Abbasids.
|CLASS DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS
1. What was the nature of bedouin
society before Muhammad received
his revelations?
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2. How did Islam address the
fundamental problems in Arabian
society?
3. How was the succession dispute over
the office of caliph finally settled?
4. What was the nature and extent of the
Umayyad Empire?
5. What events led to the fall of the
Umayyads?
6. How did the Abbasid Empire differ
from the Umayyad Empire?
7. What were the achievements of the
Arab phase of Islamic development
ending in 750?
8. Did women in the Islamic world
have more or less freedom than
women in other
contemporary societies?
Sample Essay Questions:
1. Discuss how a nomadic pastoral society produced a religion capable of
achieving global dominance.
2. Discuss why the disputes over authority after the death of Muhammad
served to hinder future Muslim unity.