Umayyads and Abbasids

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Umayyads and Abbasids
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Sunni v. Shia

• At issue Who should lead the Muslim Umma?
• First 4 Caliphs The Rightly Guided Caliphs
• Ali, 4th caliph, killed by Umayyads
• Husayn (Alis son) killed in 680 by Umayyads
  (10,000 soldiers v. 72 of Husayns followers)
  all killed
• Killing of Husayn the final split.
• Shia Party of Ali Sunni The Majority

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Umayyads

• Expansion (central Asia, N.W. India, N. Africa,
  Spain)
• Capital Damascus (modern Syria)
• Arab conquest state
• Bureaucracy Arab elite ruled over non-Arab,
  non-Muslim populations
• Segregated into garrison towns to prevent mixing

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Damascus Umayyad Capital
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People of the Book

• Christians and Jews
• paid extra taxes, but tolerated
• non-Arab converts still had extra taxes
• few conversions

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Family Gender Roles

• Womens status high, at first
• Active in commerce
• Pastoralist background!
• More patriarchal over time

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Umayyad Decline Fall

• REVOLT led by Abbasid family
• Non-Arab converts Shiites joined Abbasids

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Abbasid Caliphate

• Centralized
• Capital Baghdad. Imitated Persian culture
• Vizir chief advisor

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From Arab to Islamic Empire Abbasids

• non-Arab Converts fully integrated
• Opportunities for education/govt positions
• LOTS of conversions

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Abbasid Economy Culture

• Urban
• Madrassa schools
• Trade Hajj constant and quick ideas
  exchange
• Ancient authors translated (especially Greek!!!)

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Abbasid Decline

• Overexpansion
• Caliphs hired personal armies of Turkic Central
  Asian nomads (slave soldiers)
• Centralization breaks down
• Mamluk Seljuk Turkic slave soldiers really
  run the govt (caliph figurehead)
• Mongols kill the last caliph in 1258