The Expansive Realm of Islam

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The Expansive Realm of Islam
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Muhammad and His Message

• Born 570 to merchant family in Mecca
• Orphaned as a child
• Marries wealthy widow c. 595, works as merchant
• Familiarity with paganism, Christianity and
  Judaism as practiced in Arabian peninsula

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Muhammads Spiritual Transformation

• Visions c. 610 CE
• Archangel Gabriel
• Monotheism
• Attracts followers to Mecca

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The Qur'an

• Record of revelations received during visions
• Committed to writing c. 650 CE (Muhammad dies
  632)
• Tradition of Muhammads life hadith

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Conflict at Mecca

• Muhammads monotheistic teachings offensive to
  polytheistic pagans
• Economic threat to existing religious industry
• Denunciation of greed affront to local aristocracy

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The Hijra

• Muhammad flees to Yathrib (Medina) 622 CE
• Year 0 in Muslim calendar
• Organizes followers into communal society (the
  umma)
• Legal, spiritual code
• Commerce, raids on Meccan caravans for sake of
  umma

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The Seal of the Prophets

• Islam as culmination and correction of Judaism,
  Christianity
• Inheritor of both Jewish and Christian texts

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Muhammads Return to Mecca

• Attack on Mecca, 630
• Conversion of Mecca to Islam
• Destruction of pagan sites, replaced with mosques
• Ka'ba preserved in honor of importance of Mecca
• Approved as pilgrimage site

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The Ka'ba
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The Five Pillars of Islam

• No god but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet

• Say Allah is God alone! God the eternal! He
  begets not and is not begotten! Nor is there like
  unto Him anyone!... - The Quran 2344

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The Five Pillars of Islam

• Pray 5 Times Daily Facing Mecca

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The Five Pillars of Islam

• Fasting during Ramadan

• Abstain from food and drink from dawn to sunset.
• Obedience, humility and self-control
• Eat a few dates and drink either water or milk
  before eating their real meal.

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The Five Pillars of Islam

• Charity (Zakat)
• Giving money to Mosque and the church leaders are
  to distribute the money to the poor.

• Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj)
• At least once in a lifetime.

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The Five Pillars of Islam

• No god but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet
• Daily prayer
• Fasting during Ramadan
• Charity (Zakat)
• Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj)

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Jihad

• struggle
• Against vice
• Against ignorance of Islam
• holy war

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Islamic Law The Sharia

• Codification of Islamic law
• Based on Qur'an, hadith, logical schools of
  analysis
• Extends beyond ritual law to all areas of human
  activity

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The Caliph Successor to the Prophet

• No clear to successor to Muhammad identified
• Abu Bakr chosen to lead as Caliph
• Led war against villagers who abandoned Islam
  after death of Muhammad

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The Expansion of Islam

• The Three Main Ways Islam Spread
• Trade
• Conquering
• Missionaries- Sufi

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The Expansion of Islam

• Highly successful attacks on Byzantine, Sassanid
  territories
• Difficulties governing rapidly expanding territory

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The expansion of Islam, 632-733 C.E.
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The Shi'a vs. the Sunni

• Disagreements over selection of caliphs
• Ali passed over for Abu Bakr
• Served as caliph 656-661 CE, then assassinated
  along with most of his followers

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The Shi'a vs. the Sunni

• Shia (Shiite)
• Caliph must come from a descendent of Ali
• More Militant

• Sunni
• Believed that anyone could become Caliph if they
  deserved to do so.

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Shi'ite Pilgrims at Karbala
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The Umayyad Dynasty (661-750 CE)

• From Meccan merchant class
• Capital Damascus, Syria
• Associated with Arab military aristocracy

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The Umayyad Dynasty Policy toward Conquered
Peoples

• Favoritism of Arab military rulers causes
  discontent
• Limited social mobility for non-Arab Muslims
• Head tax (jizya) on non-Muslims
• Umayyad luxurious living causes further decline
  in moral authority

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The Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258 CE)

• Abu al-Abbas Sunni Arab, allied with Shia,
  non-Arab Muslims
• Seizes control of Persia and Mesopotamia
• Defeats Umayyad army in 750
• Invited Umayyads to banquet, then massacred them

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Nature of the Abbasid Dynasty

• Diverse nature of administration (i.e. not
  exclusively Arab)
• Militarily competent, but not bent on imperial
  expansion
• Dar al-Islam
• Growth through military activity of autonomous
  Islamic forces

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Abbasid Administration

• Persian influence
• Court at Baghdad
• Influence of Islamic scholars (ulama, qadi)

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Caliph Harun al-Rashid (786-809 CE)

• High point of Abbasid dynasty
• Baghdad center of commerce
• Great cultural activity

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Abbasid Decline

• Civil war between sons of Harun al-Rashid
• Provincial governors assert regional independence
• Dissenting sects, heretical movements
• Abbasid caliphs become puppets of Persian
  nobility
• Later, Saljuq Turks influence, Sultan real power
  behind the throne

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Economy of the Early Islamic World

• Spread of food and industrial crops
• Trade routes from India to Spain
• Western diet adapts to wide variety
• New crops adapted to different growing seasons
• Agricultural sciences develop
• Cotton, paper industries develop
• Major cities emerge

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Formation of a Hemispheric Trading Zone

• Historical precedent of Arabic trade
• Dar al-Islam encompasses silk routes
• ice exported from Syria to Egypt in summer, 10th
  century
• Camel caravans
• Maritime trade

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Banking and Trade

• Scale of trade causes banks to develop
• Sakk (check)
• Uniformity of Islamic law throughout dar al-Islam
  promotes trade
• Joint ventures common

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Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain)

• Muslim Berber conquerors from North Africa take
  Spain, early 8th c.
• Allied to Umayyads, refused to recognize Abbasid
  dynasty
• Formed own caliphate
• Tensions, but interrelationship

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Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain)

• Expands to Tours in Modern Day France
• Defeated by Charles Martel
• Driven back across the Pyrenees Mountains
• Muslims never regain territory and Western Europe

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Changing Status of Women

• Quran improves status of women
• Outlawed female infanticide
• Brides, not husbands, claim dowries
• Yet male dominance preserved
• Patrilineal descent
• Polygamy permitted, Polyandry forbidden
• Veil adopted from ancient Mesopotamian practice

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Formation of an Islamic Cultural Tradition

• Islamic values
• Uniformity of Islamic law in dar al-Islam
• Establishment of madrasas- Muslim religious
  schools
• Importance of the Hajj
• Sufi missionaries
• Asceticism, mysticism
• Some tension with orthodox Islamic theologians
• Wide popularity

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Al-Ghazali (1058-1111)

• Major Sufi thinker from Persia
• Impossibility of intellectual apprehension of
  Allah, devotion, mystical ecstasy instead

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Cultural influences on Islam

• Persia
• Administration and governance
• literature
• India
• Mathematics, science, medicine
• Hindi numbers
• Greece
• Philosophy, esp. Aristotle
• Ibn Rushd/Averroes (1126-1198)