Chapter 7: Abbasid Decline and the Spread of
Islamic Civilization to South & Southeast Asia
The Abbasid Empire at its
Peak
Middle and Late Abbasid Era
•Abbasid disintegrated between 9th
and 13th centuries
•Harun al-Rashid: Most famous of
the Abbasid caliphs (786-809 CE) –
renowned for sumptuous and costly
living recounted in The Thousand
and One Nights
•Rulers became dependent on Persians advisors; continual civil
violence drained the imperial treasury.
•Costly new imperial centers, heavy tax burdens, bandits
Seljuk Turks – nomadic invaders; a Sunni Muslim dynasty
that ruled in the name of the Abbasids; ruled parts of Central
Asia & Middle East from the 11th-14th centuries
Declining Position of Women
•The harem and the veil became
the twin emblems of women’s
subjugation to men
•Seclusion of elite women, wives,
and concubines
•The Islamic culture retained much
of its male dominated nature
despite the Quran’s teaching on the
equality of women
•Women intrigued for advancement of their sons
•Abbasid wealth generated demand for concubines and male
slaves in non-Muslim neighboring lands.
Buyids – Persian invaders of the 10th c.; captured Baghdad
and acted as sultans through Abbasid figureheads.
Sultan: Word meaning “victorious”; came to designate Muslim
rulers.
•Crusades: invasions of western
Christians into Muslim lands,
especially Palestine; captured
Jerusalem and established Christian
kingdoms enduring until 1291.
•Saladin: 13th c. Muslim ruler; reconquered most of the crusader
kingdoms
Impact of the Crusades:
•Christian knights invaded Muslim
territory 1096
•Established small, rival kingdoms
•The last fell 1291 and reunited
under Saladin
•Europeans borrowed
sophisticated technology,
architecture, medicine,
mathematics, science and general
culture from Muslim lands
Age of Learning:
•Great ages of human
creativity
•Rapid urban growth
•Artists and artisans created
mosques, palaces, tapestries,
rugs, bronzes and ceramics
•Persian replaced Arabic as primary written language of the
Abbasid courts
•Persian became language of “high culture”
•Rubaiyat: Epic poem of Omar Khayyam; seeks to find meaning
in life and a path to union with the divine
•Ulama: Islamic religious scholars;
pressed for a more conservative and
restrictive theology; opposed to nonIslamic thinking
•Sufis: Islamic mystics; spread Islam to
many Afro-Asian regions.
•Mongols: Central Asian nomadic
peoples; captured Baghdad in 1258 and
killed the last Abbasid caliph
•Chinggis Khan: Born in 1170, elected leader of all Mongol tribes
in 1206; responsible for the conquest of northern kingdoms of
China territories as far west as the Abbasid regions; died in 1227,
prior to the conquest of most of the Islamic world
Arrows = routes by which Islam spread to South & Southeast Asia
Chinggis Khan
•Early 13th c. - Chinggis Khan destroyed the Turkic Persian
kingdoms east of Baghdad. His grandson, Hulegu, continued the
assault. The last Abbasid ruler was killed when Baghdad fell in
1258. The once-great Abbasid capital became an unimportant
backwater in the Muslin World.
Islam Comes to South Asia (India)
•Hindu religion –
dominated by caste system
•Muslims rulers governed
Hindu subjects
•Muhammad ibn Qasim:
Arab general who
conquered Sind and made
it part of the Umayyad
Empire
Muhammad of Ghur: Persian ruler, invaded and conquered
Northern India
•Rajas: term used for
Hindu Kings
•Sultans of Delhi: Title of
the Islamic imperial
houses of India, which
means princes of the
heartland. military states;
ruled north-central India
for the next 300 years
•Sati: Hindu ritual for
burning windows with their
deceased husbands
•Malacca: Flourishing
trading city in Malaya;
established a trading
empire after the fall of
Shrivijaya
Latten sails: Large
triangular sails that are
attached to the masts
by long booms or yard
arms which extend
diagonally high across
both the fore and aft
portions of the ship
•Eunuchs: A castrated man in charge of a harem or high officer of
a court of emperor.
•Mamelukes: Turkic
slave-warriors who
ruled Egypt and
defeated the Mongols
to prevents their entry
into northern Africa
•Mameluke was a
slave soldier who
converted to Islam
and served the
Muslim caliphs during
the Middle Ages
(1250-15170
Mameluke Empire
•They became a powerful military caste and on more that one
occasion seized power for themselves, example (Egypt)
•The Mamluk system
gave rulers troops who
had no link to any
established power
structure. The local
warriors were often more
loyal to their tribal sheiks,
their families or nobles
other than the sultan or
caliph.
•The slave-troops were strangers of the lowest possible status
who could not conspire against the ruler and who could easily be
punished if they caused trouble, making them a great military
asset. Mamluks were frequently used as mercenaries.
•Muslim Presence in India – The greatest majority of the
population remained Hindu
•By the close of he sultanate period there were two distinct
religious communities.
•South Asia remained the least converted and integrated of all
areas receiving the message of Islam.
•Southeast Asia had been a middle ground where the Chinese
part of the Eurasian trading complex met the Indian Ocean zone.
•By the 8th c. Muslims gained control of Indian commerce,
Islamic culture reached southeast Asia
•Peaceful contacts and voluntary conversion were more
important to the spread of Islam than were conquest and force.
•Trading prepared the way for conversion, with the process
carried forward by Sufis.
•Islam spread From
Malacca to Malaya,
Sumatra and Java.
•Coastal cities were the
most receptive to Islam.
•Buddhist dynasties were
present in many regions,
but since Buddhist
conversions were limited
to the elite, the mass of
population was open to
the message of the Sufis.
•The Island of Bali and mainland southeast Asia, where
Buddhism had gained popular support, remained impervious to
Islam
•Religions have a core belief that allow adherents to maintain a
sense of common identity and flexible enough to allow retention of
important aspects of local culture.
•Sufi Mystics – were
tolerant of the
indigenous peoples’
Buddhist and Hindu
beliefs.
•Many pre-Muslim
beliefs were
incorporated into Islamic
ceremonies
•Women held a stronger
familial and societal
position than they had in
the Middle East or India
Global Connections: Islam – A Bridge Between Worlds
•Expanding Muslim world linked ancient civilizations through
conquest and commercial (trade) networks.
•Its cultural contributions diffused widely from great cities and
universities.
•Political divisions caused exploitable weaknesses in many
regions.
•The increasing intellectual rigidity of the Ulama caused Muslims
to become less receptive to outside influences at a time when
the European world was transforming.
Conclusion
Chapter Summary:
• 9th c. Abbasids losing control – Empire too vast
to move armies
• Seljuk Turk invasions in 11th century
• Mongol invasions in the 13th century
• Islamic civilization reached new cultural heights
and Islam expanded widely in the Afro- Asian
world through conquest and peaceful conversion