Chapter 7: Abbasid Decline and the Spread of Islam

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Chapter 7 Abbasid Decline and the Spread of
Islam

• AP World History I

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Spread of Islam Early History
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Spread of Islam Abbasid Dynasty
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The Late Abbasid Era

• As early as the third Abbasid Caliph, al-Mahdi
  (775-785), issues related to the decline of the
  Abbasid Caliphate were apparent.
• Somewhat typical pattern
• Caliph abandons frugal ways of predecessors
• Caliph does NOT establish clear pattern of
  succession
• In many cases, wives/concubines became involved
  in the various palace intrigues associated with
  the succession crises.

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The Late Abbasid Era

• Harun al-Rashid (786-809) ascended to the throne
  after the death of al-Mahdi (and the poisoning of
  his eldest son)
• Harun al-Rashid enjoyed the sumptuous palace
  living
• Emissaries sent in the 9th century were dazzled
  with the splendor of Baghdad

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Harun al-Rashid

• Power of Royal Advisors grew throughout the rule
  of Harun al-Rashid.
• Caliphs became pawns in the factional royal court
  battles
• Upon al-Rashids death, full-scale civil war
  broke out amongst those vying for power.
• While al-Mamum (813-833) was the victorwhat he
  did next truly changed the nature of the
  Caliphate

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Slave Armies

• Al-Mamum was convinced to conscript thousands of
  mostly Turkic-speaking slaves as his personal
  bodyguards.
• As the number eclipsed 70,000 the slave regiment
  became a power center, in its own right.
• By 846, they had murdered the reigning caliph,
  and in the coming decades would murder at least
  four more

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Abbasid Decline

• Caliphs struggle to control the Slave Regiments
• Some Caliphs want to move capital away from
  Baghdad turmoil
• Increased spending
• New irrigation
• Old irrigation and public works fall into
  disrepair
• Spiraling taxation/pillaging, etc
• Abandonment of some of the earlier provinces of
  the empire.

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Late Abbasid Declinewomen

• The Harem and the Veil are the twin emblems of
  womens increasing subjugation to men and
  confinement.
• The Abbasid court created the concept of the
  Harem for the Caliphate.

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Further Abbasid Decline

• The Abbasids were losing territory quickly
• Egypt and Syria break away from Abbasid rule
• In once-provincial areas of the Islamic
  Caliphate, independent kingdoms had arose to
  challenge the Abbasids

• In 945, the Buyids of Persia invade and capture
  Baghdad.
• Caliphs became puppets controlled by families,
  like the Buyids.
• Buyid leaders took the title of sultan meaning
  victorious in Arabic, which will designate
  Muslim rulers.

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The Seljuks

• By 1055, the Buyid control over the Caliphate was
  broken
• In 1055, Central Asian Nomadic warriors known as
  the Seljuk Turks ruled over the Abbasid lands.
• Staunch Sunniskick Shias out of governmental
  positions
• Resisted the Byzantines who were taking advantage
  of Muslim disunity

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Seljuk Turks

• Defeat of the Byzantines led to the settlement of
  Asia Minor which would eventually become the seat
  of the Ottoman Empire

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The Crusades
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The Crusades

• Knights from Western Europe launched crusades to
  capture portions of the Islamic world that made
  up the Holy Land of Biblical times.
• Muslim divisions and the element of surprise made
  the first Crusade a Christian success.
• 1099 Christian knights took Jerusalem.
• Muslim and Jewish inhabitants were massacred

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First Crusade
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First Crusade
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The Crusades

• For the next two centuries, Europeans would mount
  in excess of 8 crusades.
• Varying degrees of success
• When Muslim were united under powerful rule like
  Salah-ud-Din (Saladin) they re-conquer most of
  the lands they lost.
• The last crusader kingdom fell in Acre in 1291

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Third Crusade gets Acre, but then the Europeans
lose it!
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Impact of Crusades

• The Crusaders experiences in the Eastern
  Mediterranean intensified European borrowing
  from the Muslim world.
• Through increased cultural contacts, Europeans
  began to recover much of the Greek learning lost
  during the waves of nomadic invasions after the
  fall of the Roman Empire

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Age of Muslim Learning and Refinement

• Even though the caliphate was steeped in
  political turmoil, the Muslim Empire still
  experienced growth and prosperity until late in
  the Abbasid era.
• Declining Revenue
• Deteriorating conditions in the countryside/town
  life
• Expansion of the professional classes
• Muslim/Jewish/Christian entrepreneurs amass great
  fortunes supplying cities with staples
  (grain/barley), essentials (cotton, woolen
  textiles for clothing), and luxury items.
• Long-Distance trade flourishes

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Age of Muslim Learning and Refinement

• Artists and Artisans benefit
• Mosques and palaces became more ornate.
• Tapestries and rugs from Persia were in great
  demand from Europe to China.
• Persian becomes the language of high culture.
• Arabic remains language of religion, law, and
  natural sciences
• Persian was language of literary expression,
  administration, and scholarship.

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Age of Muslim Learning and Refinement

• Persian writers in the Abbasid era write on many
  subjects from love affairs, to statecraft, to
  incidents from everyday life.
• Blend of mystical and commonplace.
• Not only did Muslims revive Greco-Roman
  scientific traditionsthey developed their own
  theories as well!
• Major corrections to algebraic and geometric
  theories
• Advances in trigonometry

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Age of Muslim Learning and Refinement

• Great advances in chemistry and astronomy.
• Cairo best hospitals in the world
• Muslim traders introduce techniques like
  papermaking and silk-weaving that was developed
  in China.
• Development of cartography

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Age of Muslim Learning and Refinement

• Contradictory trends in Islamic Civilization
• Social strife and political divisions
• Vs
• Expanded trading links and intellectual creativity

• This was felt in the religious world, as well
• A resurgence of mysticism
• Vs
• Orthodox religious scholars become wary of
  non-Islamic ideas and scientific thinking
  (crusades)

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Religious contradictions

• Orthodox religious scholars felt that the revival
  of Greco-Roman philosophical traditions would
  erode the absolute authority of the Quran
• Sufi movement
• Sufis are wandering mystics who sought a personal
  union with Allah
• A reaction against the abstract divinity of the
  Quran
• Sufis gain reputations as healers and miracle
  workersgain sizeable followings
• Some led militant bands that spread Islam to
  nonbelievers

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The End of the Caliphate

• By the 10th and 11th centuries, the Abbasid
  Caliphate was compromised by many different
  factions
• In the early 13th century, the Mongols, united
  under Chinggis Khan became a powerful force in
  Asia, smashing through Turko-Persian kingdoms to
  the east of Baghdad by 1220 CE.

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The End of the Caliphate

• Genghis dies before conquest of the Islamic
  Heartlands, but his grandson, Hulegu renewed the
  assault on the Islamic lands in the 1250s.
• By 1258, the Abbasid capital of Baghdad was taken
  by the Mongols

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The End of the Caliphate

• The 37th and last Abbasid Caliph was put to death
  by the Mongols.
• The Mongol advance was stopped by the Mamluks, or
  Turkic Slaves who ruled Egypt.

• In 1401, Baghdad suffers from another capture and
  round of pillaging by the forces of Tamerlane.
• Baghdads glory becomes supplanted by Cairo to
  the west and Istanbul to the North

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The Spread of Islam
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Islams arrival in South Asia

• India through the Gupta Empire had been a
  crossroads of migration for Central Asian nomads
  seeking refuge
• Generally, those people were accepted, and
  assimilated into Indian Society.
• The arrival of the Muslims in the 7th Century CE,
  will alter that.

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The Hindu/Islam mix

• IndiaHinduism

• IndiaIslam

• Open, tolerant, and inclusive of varying forms of
  religious devotion.
• Search of union with spiritual source of all
  creation.
• Social system structured on the caste system

• Based on doctrines, practices (specific) and
  exclusive worship of a single god.
• Highly egalitarian in the sight of god.
• Religious practices are mandatory and obvious

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The Hindu/Islam mix

• Early centuries were characterized by violent
  conflict.
• However, a good deal of trade and religious
  interchange.
• In time, peaceful interactions became the norm
• There were contacts via traders in the Indian
  Ocean Trade network as early as 711 CE
• Indian overlords who took over land in South Asia
  brought little change to most inhabitants of the
  Indian Subcontinent.
• Many people welcomed the Arabs because they
  promised lighter taxation and religious tolerance

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Early Muslim encounters in India

• Muslim leaders decided to treat Hindus and
  Buddhists as the dhimmi, or people of the book
  even though they had no connection to the Bible.
• This meant that Hindus and Buddhists had to pay
  the tax on non-believers, they enjoyed the
  freedom to worship as they pleased.
• Little effort was put towards conversion, so most
  people remained Hindu or Buddhist.

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Indian/Muslim cultural diffusion

• Muslims inherit the Indian scientific learning,
  which rivaled the Greeks as the most advanced in
  the world.
• Arabic numerals originated in India
• Indian learning was transferred to Baghdad in the
  age of the Abbasids.
• Indian doctors, scientists, etc.
• Muslims adopt Indian styles of dress, food, and
  ride on elephants as the Hindu rajas (kings) did.
• Muslims also adopt and infuse Indian
  architectural styles

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Move towards Empire

• Early interactions did little to add territory to
  the Muslim Empire, and in some cases, lost
  territory
• BUT, in 962 CE, a Turkish slave dynasty seized
  power in Afghanistan.
• Their third ruler, Mahmud of Ghazni, began two
  CENTURIES of Muslim raiding and conquest in
  Northern India
• Throughout the 11th century, Mahmud defeated one
  confederation of Hindu princes after another in
  the name of Islam.

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• The efforts of Mahmud of Ghazni were continued by
  Muhammad of Ghur
• Assassinated in 1206
• A slave lieutenant seizes powerQutb-ud-din Aibak

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The Delhi Sultanate

• A new Muslim empire was proclaimed with the
  capital at Delhi, along the Jumna river on the
  Gengetic Plain.
• For the next 300 years, a succession of dynasties
  known as the Delhi Sultante (literally, princes
  of the heartland) ruled North and Central India

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The Delhi Sultanate

• This was a period of clashing control between the
  sultanate princes themselves, as well as Mongol
  and Turkic invaders.
• MAPS OF DELHI SULTANATE OVER TIME

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Conversion

• Carriers of the new faith on the subcontinent
  were often merchants and Sufi mystics
• Sufis shared many characteristics with Indian
  gurus and wandering ascetics.
• Belief in magical healing powers
• Accepted lower-caste and outcaste groups into
  Islamic faith
• Most Muslims were NOT from the Indo-Gangetic
  centers of the Delhi Sultanate, indicating low
  forced conversions

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Conversion

• Most conversions came from low-caste or Buddhist
  groups.
• Buddhism became largely debased as a result of
  corrupt practices
• Buddhist temples and monasteries became lucrative
  targets for raids, etc.
• Many lower-caste, untouchables, animistic tribes,
  and Buddhists were attracted to the egalitarian
  nature of Islam

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Accommodation

• Hindus were convinced that Muslims would soon be
  absorbed by the superior religions and more
  sophisticated cultures of India
• Many things pointed that way!
• Muslim princes adopted regal styles
• Muslim rulers claim divine descent
• Muslim rulers mint coins with Hindu images
• Muslim communities also became socially divided
  along Caste lines
• Violation of the original tenets of Islam!

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Islam in South Asia at the end of the Sultanate

• Attempts to fuse Hinduism and Islam soon were
  recognized as impossible.
• Brahmans soon denounce Muslim leaders, etc.
• Muslims respond by strengthening their unity
  within the Indian Muslim community
• After centuries of political domination though,
  South Asia remained one of the least converted
  and integrated of all the areas Islam reached.

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Southeast Asia
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Importance

• Southeast Asia was CRITICAL to the connection of
  trade from Chinese ports to Indian vessels along
  the Indian Ocean Trade network

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Southeast Asian contribution

• Aromatic woods from rainforests of Borneo and
  Sumatra
• Spices cloves, nutmeg from Indonesia
• From 8th Century onward, coastal trade in India
  became dominated by Muslims

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SE ASIA

• As a result, elements of Islam began to filter
  into the southeast Asian region
• The collapse of the Shrivijaya trading empire
  (Buddhist) in the 13th century opened the door
  for the widespread introduction of Islam

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SE ASIA

• Trading contacts paved the way for conversion
• NOT conquest and force
• Muslim ships also carry Sufis to the various
  parts of SE Asia
• Conversion begins in Sumatra, then across the
  Strait of Malacca to Malaya

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SE ASIA

• Muslims impressed SE Asians by telling them how
  much of the world had already been converted

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Malacca

• Mainland conversion was centered on Malacca, a
  powerful trading city
• Spreads to east Sumatra and to DEMAK on the north
  coast of Java
• From there, spread to the Celebes and then the
  Spice Islands, then to Mindanao and Southern
  Philippines

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The Spice Island(s)
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Conversion

• Trading was the key to conversion.
• Regulation of commonality in Muslim laws was good
  to regulate business.
• Conversion linked centers culturally, and
  economically to Indian merchants and ports in
  India, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean

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SE Asian Islam

• Some areas (like Central Java) saw conversion
  take longer than others
• Hindu-Buddhist dynasties contested its spread
• Mainland Southeast Asia did NOT see wholesale
  conversion, and remained largely Buddhist

• Because it was spread primarily by Sufis, SE
  Asian Islam was more dynamic than orthodox Islam
• Infused with mythical strains
• Tolerated animist, Hindu, and Buddhist beliefs
  and rituals.
• Magical powers

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Women in SE Asian Islamic Society

• Women retained a strong position in the family
  and the community
• Trading in local and regional markets was
  dominated by small-scale female merchants
• As in Western Sumatra, lineage and inheritance
  was traced through female lines
• Many cultural elements were blended from SE Asian
  Culture with Muslim Culture.