Please take out a piece of paper and label your notes with
the following title and date 9/24/15
Notes Title: “Abbasid Dynasty
and Achievements”
Only need to record the title and what is underlined
Umayyad Decline and Fall
• Umayyad Mistakes
▫ Ummayyad caliph’s growing addiction to luxury and
wealth caused alienation
▫ Abandond simple life promoted by Muhammad and
his earliest Caliphs, and now have pleasure gardens
and marble palaces
• Abbasid Response
▫ 50,000 warrior settlers are angered by lack of booty
from previous expansions and defense of frontiers
(angry with Umayyad)
▫ March under the banner of Abbasid party- trace their
descent from Muhammad’s uncle al-Abbas
• Abu-al-Abbas, great grandson of al Abbas leads
forces
Umayyad Fall
• Abbasid forces gain strength due
to the help of the Shi’a, mawali
(non Arab converts to Islam)
• Wanting to eliminate Umayyad
family altogether, Abu al-Abbas
invited many Umayyad leaders
to a “reconciliation banquet”
where he had them killed
• Grandson of a former Caliph
does flee to Spain and founds
“caliphate of Cordoba”
Abbasid Empire
• Islam becomes a universal
religion that spreads across
much of North Africa and
Euro-Asia.
• Abbasid Capital was Baghdad
• Great time of urban expansion
that was linked to a revival of
the Afro-Eurasian trade work
that had declined with the fall
of the Han dynasty and the
slow collapse of the Roman
Empire
• Abbasid domain in West and
Tang and Song in East revive
commercial system
Article Questions
• Science:
▫ 1) Muslim scholars were the only group of individuals to copy and preserve
Greek and Roman scholarly work. Name three fields of study and the names of
two individuals that they preserved.
▫ 2) What was Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmi’s contribution to Algebra?
▫ 3) What was Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen)’s contribution to the scientific method?
▫ 4) What was Al-Battani’s influence on astronomy?
• Literature:
▫
▫
▫
▫
1) What is the best known text from Islam’s Golden Age?
2) When did this work become influential in the West?
3) Summarize the plot to Aladdin in three to four sentences.
4) Name one difference from the original Aladdin plot to others you know.
• Technology
▫ 1) Paper making started in China. How did the scholars in the Golden Age
revolutionize paper making?
▫ 2) How did Muslim advances in sea navigation change how ships traveled the
ocean?
▫ 3) Name four engineering advances created by Muslim engineers.
▫ 4) Name four industries that were generated during the Arab Agricultural
Revolution.
Spread of Islam DBQ
• Analyze each document by answering the
questions
• Pick 2 documents to explain the Point of View of
the author
• Write your introduction and 1 body paragraph
▫ Remember to group the documents into 3
categories (think sprite)
▫ This becomes your thesis and organizer for your
essay
What is Point of View (POV)
• In the simplest of terms, “Point of View” or is
prejudice or influence
▫ “Why” author said what he/she said
▫ “Why” includes factors that influenced author’s
position
• Keys to these factors found:
▫ In the documents themselves
▫ Through knowledge of author or of what is being
said
Exit Slip:
• 1) Why did the Abbasid Empire seize control from
the Umayyads?
• 2) Write one sentence that explains a woman’s role
under the Umayyads.
• 3) What happens to Islam under Abbasid rule?
• 4) Identify the allegiance of the following groups:
▫ Sunni:
▫ Shi’a:
• 5) Give three reasons why the Abbasid Empire was
Islam’s Golden Age.