Post-Islamic Arabia

    Arabia after Islam gained ground became very important under Muhammad and even for a while under the Abbasid rule. However, it was soon hugely influenced by Baghdad. This ended with the coming of the Ottomans. However, Arabia grew to dislike Ottoman rule and pulled away during the time of World War I.

 I. Post-Islamic

A.       632- Muhammad died- Arabia taken over by Umayyad who built vast empire

B.       Arab was united during Ridda War

C.       Were dissent in who should be caliph- started Sunni and Shi’ite

D.       Conquered other civilizations

1.        People in Mesopotamia, Africa, and Persia

2.        Iraq, Syria, and Egypt

3.        Byzantium and Persian Empires fell when their weakness became apparent

E.        Improved lifestyle

1.        Mosques, religious schools, baths, hospitals and medical care

2.        Carpets, furniture, glassware, tapestries, and jewelry produced by guild-like groups

3.        Arabs illiterate but then when conquering, became great scholars and brought us stuff like Indian numbers and Greek ideas

F.        Were given rules and moral values (no female infanticide)

G.       Countryside

1.        Were given to elites and Arab soldiers or merchants who bought land

2.        Sometimes, slaves called zanj were use

H.       Umayyad Empire

1.                              The Umayyad Empire was made up of Mesopotamia, northern Africa, and Persia. All of these countries had weak empires that the warriors of Islam easily overtook. The leader of the empire was called a caliph. The caliph was the political and religious successor to Muhammad. There was a fight between Ali, Abu Bakr, and others over who would be Muhammad’s successor. Ali was not considered a candidate, because he was too young. The winner of this battle was Abu Bakr, who was formerly a merchant and was familiar with Bedouin tribes?histories.

2.                              During the time when the Ummayads were the main empire of the region, the center of political communication shifted to Damascus, Syria. This resulting in a lessened importance in Arabia, where the previous center of Medina had been located. Mecca was still considered Islam’s holy city, but the main flow of discussions and other important events were centered around the city of Damascus.

3.                              During all of this, the status of women gained power. Women’s right of divorce was acknowledged, and they did not tend to wear veils as much. Women also had more economic opportunities. They were commonly the authors of hadiths and so they gained recognition through these writings. Another idea that changed when Islam came about was the view on female infanticide. It is thought that in pre-Islamic Arabia, this was common. After Islam was introduced, there were strong feelings against this, and it was abolished.

4.                              The fall of the Umayyad Empire came about by two main events. The first was the occurrences of jihad, or holy wars, which spread Islam through the west. The second and more important event was the Battle on the River Zab. The Abbasids defeated the Umayyads in this battle, and then the Abbasid leaders ordered the slaughter of all the Umayyad royals.

B.                 Abbasid Empire

1.                              The Abbasid Empire, after defeating the Umayyads and taking over their lands, the Abbasids had a hard time of controlling those lands. There was a further decline in Arabia’s importance as the capital moved even farther away and Arabia simply became another providence under the Abbasid. Their capital was in Baghdad, Iraq, and all the leaders and upper-class people were very wealthy. They considered themselves supreme to everyone. They did not have to abide by Islamic laws, because the laws were beneath them. It was an open invitation for uprisings and revolts, although different aspects caused their demise. One of these was depleting resources. They did not have enough resources to sustain the economy. Another would be the fact that such a large empire was hard to maintain from only one central area.

2.                              As for the women in this empire, they were more closed off than they were before (isolated, almost). They had to wear veils to signify that men were their leaders and they could not show affection for the opposite sex in public. Many of the women’s freedoms and rights were taken away, and they were quiet creatures now. They hid behind their veils and did as their husbands bade them.

3.                              Although the Abbasid Empire had expansion of cities and flourished in science and mathematics, they lacked two things. The first is the know-how of ruling a large empire. The second is the ability to run an empire that large. They had economic growth and were overall a successful empire, but it did not last because they could not rule their entire empire from only the capital city.

C.                 After the Abbasids came rule by a new Muslim sect, the Qarmatians during 10^th century

D.                Then Mongols took over Baghdad in 1258 and Baghdad’s influence over Arabia was broken

E.                 Ottomans took over Al Ḩijāz and also Mecca area, gaining power in Arabia in 1517

F.                  1802-1804, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhabfounded religious sect of Wahhab and roused anti-Ottoman feeling, capturing Ottoman land from Medina and Mecca to Yemen and Oman

Elizabeth and Sherry

II.      Primary Sources that might be useful

A.       Autobiography of an Islamic Scholar by Avicenna (980-1037)

1.        He learned many subjects and read many book including Indian arithmetic, Euclid’s ideas, Aristotle’s Metaphysica, and so on

2.        Went to heal Sultan of Bukhara and found books of every kind in the Sultan’s library

B.       Memoirs: Cultural Interactions by Usamah Ibn-Munqidh (11^th century)

1.        Franks from Europe were considered very unusual

2.        They found idea of giving children to live with others to learn ideas very stupid

3.        Franks believed to be courageous, but not really bright

4.        Found idea of depicting God as a child insulting to Allah

5.        Found the lack of jealousy for a wife’s association alone with a women’s lack of isolation very unusual

C.       Turks and Arabs by al-Jahiz (776-869)

1.        Said that Arabs were thinkers, not workers

2.        Said that the Arabs lived in plains and sneer at the desert

3.        Pride was very important to Arabs and were apathetic wealth-wise

Sherry