Chapter-IV
The Central
IslamicLands
Sources to understand
the History of central Islamic land
1. Semi-historical
works, such as biographies, records of the sayings and doings of the
Prophet (hadith) and commentaries on the Quran (tafsir) are
also available.
2. The
material from which these works were produced was a large collection of
eyewitness reports (akhbar) transmitted over a period of time
either orally or on paper. The authenticity of each report was tested by a
critical method which traced the chain of transmission and established the
reliability of the narrator.
3. Christian chronicles,
written in Syriac are fewer but they throw interesting light on the history of
early Islam. Besides chronicles, we have legal texts, geographies, travelogues
and literary works, such as stories and poems.
The Rise of Islam in
Arabia:
1. The Prophet Muhammadwas an Arab by
language and culture and a merchant by profession. The Arabs were divided into
tribes each led by a chief whowas chosen partly on the basis of his
family connections but more forhis personal courage, wisdom and generosity.
2. Each tribehad its own god or
goddess, who was worshipped as an idol ina shrine. Many Arab tribes were
nomadic (Bedouins), movingfrom dry to green areas (oases) of the desert in
search of food and fodder for their camels.
3. Muhammad’s own tribe, Quraysh, lived in Meccaand controlled the main shrine there, a
cube-like structure called Kaba,in which idols were placed.
4. Even tribes outside Mecca considered theKaba
holy and installed their own idols at this shrine, making
annualpilgrimages to the shrine. Mecca was located on the crossroads
5. Around 612, Muhammad declared himself
to be the messenger of God who had been commanded to preach that Allah
aloneshould be worshipped. The worship involved simple rituals, such asdaily
prayers, and moral principles, such as distributing alms and abstaining from
theft.
Islamic Calendar
1. The Hijri era was established during the caliphate of
Umar, with the first year falling in 622 CE. A date in the Hijri
calendar is followed by the letters AH.
2. The Hijri year is a lunar year of 354
days, 12 months (Muharram to DhulHijja) of 29 or 30 days. Each day begins
at sunset and each month with thesighting of the crescent moon.
3. The Hijri year is about 11 days
shorter than the solar year. Therefore, none of the Islamic religious
festivals, including theRamazan fast, Id and hajj, corresponds in
any way to seasons.
4. There is no easy way to match the
dates in the Hijri calendar with the dates in the Gregoriancalendar
(established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 CE).
5. One can calculate therough equivalents between
the Islamic (H) and Gregorian Christian (C) yearswith the following formulae:(H
× 32 / 33) + 622 = C OR (C – 622) × 33 / 32 = H.
The Caliphate and
their contributions
1. After Muhammad’s death in 632, no
one could legitimately claim to bethe next prophet of Islam. As a result, his
political authority wastransferred to the (close friends of Ph.
Muhammad)elder Muslimswith no established principle of succession.
2. This created opportunity for innovations .The
biggest innovation was the creation of the institution of caliphate,
in which the leader of the community became the deputy or khalifaof
the Prophet.
3. The first fourcaliphs Abu Bakr, Umar,
Uthman and Ali justified their powers on the basis of their
closeassociation with the Prophet and continued his work under the
generalguidelines he had provided.
4. The twin objectives of the caliphate were
a) to retain control over the tribes constituting
the community.
5. To raise resources for the state.
Abu Bakr
1. Following Muhammad’s death, many tribes broke
away from theIslamic state. The first caliph, Abu Bakr, suppressed the
revolts by a series of campaigns.
Umar
1. The second caliph,Umar, shaped the Muslim’s policy
of expansion of power.
2. He realised that rich booty could be obtained
from expeditionary raids, the caliph andhis military commanders mustered
their tribal strength to conquered lands belonging to the Byzantine
Empire in the west and the SasanianEmpire in the east.
3. Inthree successful campaigns Umar
brought Syria, Iraq, Iran and Egypt under the control of Arabs.
Military strategy, religiousfervour and the weakness of the opposition
contributed to the successof the Arabs.
Uthman
1. The third caliph,Uthman, to extend the control
to Central Asia. Within a decade of thedeath of Muhammad, the
Arab-Islamic state controlled the vastterritory between the Egypt and
Afghanistan.
2. The third caliph, Uthman also a
Quraysh by birth. He packed his administration with his own men to secure
greatercontrol. This further intensified the Meccan character of the state
andthe conflict with the other tribesmen.
3. Opposition in Iraq and Egypt, combined with
opposition in Medina, led to the
assassination ofUthman.
Ali
1. With Uthman’s death, Ali became the fourth
caliph.The rifts among the Muslims deepened after Ali (656-61) fought
two wars against those who represented the Meccan aristocracy.
2. Ali’ssupporters and enemies later came to
form the two main sects of Islam: Shias and Sunnis.
3. Ali established himself at Kufa and
defeated an army led by Muhammad’s wifein the Battle of the Camel.
4. He wasnot able to suppress the faction
led by Muawiya, a kinsman of Uthman and the governor of Syria.
5. Soon after, Ali was assassinated by a
Kharji in a mosque at Kufa. After his death, his followers paidallegiance
to his son, Hussain, and his descendants.
6. Muawiya madehimself the next caliph in 661,
founding the Umayyad dynasty whichlasted till 750.
Administrative changes
introduced by the Caliphs in the newly conqured territories
1. In all the conquered provinces, the caliphs
imposed a newadministrative structure headed by governors and tribal
chieftains.
2. The central treasury obtained
itsrevenue from taxes paid by Muslims as well as its share of the bootyfrom
raids.
3. The caliph’s soldiers, mostly Bedouins,
settled in camp cities at the edge of the desert, such as Kufa and Basra,
to remainwithin reach of their natural habitat as well as the caliph’s command.
4. The ruling class and soldiers received
shares of the booty and monthly payments.
5. The non-Muslim population retained their
rights toproperty and religious practices on payment of taxes
The Umayyads and the
changes introduced by Umayyads in Politics or Administration
1. The first Umayyad caliph, Muawiya, moved
his capital from Medina to Damascus.
2. Headopted the court ceremonies and
administrative institutions of the Byzantine Empire.
3. He also introducedhereditary succession
(family succession) and persuaded the leading Muslims to accepthis son
as his heir.
4. The Umayyad state was now an imperial power,
no longer baseddirectly on Islam but on statecraft and the loyalty of
Syrian troops.
5. There were Christian advisers in
the administration, as well asZoroastrian scribes and bureaucrats. However,
Islam continued toprovide legitimacy to their rule. The Umayyads always
appealed forunity and suppressed rebellionsin the name of Islam.
Changes introduced by
Abdal-Malik
a. Abd al-Malik adopted Arabic as the language of
administration.
b. He introduced an Islamiccoinage. The
gold dinar andsilver dirham that had
beencirculating in the caliphate werecopies of Byzantine and Iraniancoins
c. Abdal-Malik also made a highly visible
contribution to the development of anArab-Islamic identity, by building the
Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
The Abbasid
Revolution and changes introduced by Abbasids
1. The Abbasids, descendants of Abbas, the
Prophet’s uncle. The Abbasids portrayed the Umayyad regime as evil and
promised a restoration of the original Islam of the Prophet.
2. The Abbasid uprising broke out in the
distant region of Khurasan which had a mixed Arab-Iranian
population which could be mobilised for various reasons
3. The Arab soldiers in Khurasan were mostlyfrom
Iraq and resented the dominance of the Syrians.The civilian Arabs of Khurasandisliked
the Umayyad regime for having made promises of tax concessions and privileges
which were never fulfilled.
4. A well-organised movement, called dawa,
brought down the Umayyads and replaced them with another family of Meccan
origin, the Abbasids, in 750.
5. Their army was led by an Iranian
slave, Abu Muslim, who defeated the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan, in a
battle at the river Zab.
Administrative changes
introduced by Abbasids
1. Under Abbasid rule, Arab influence
declined,while the importance of Iranian culture increased.
2. The Abbasids changed their capital
from Damascus to Baghdad.
3. The army and bureaucracy were
reorganised on a non-tribal basis to ensuregreater participation by
people of Iraq and Khurasan.
4. TheAbbasid rulers strengthened the
religious status and functions of the caliphate andpatronised Islamic
institutions andscholars.
5. They maintained the magnificent
imperial architecture and elaborate court ceremonials of the Umayyads.
Causes for the Break-up
of the Caliphate
1. In 810, a civil war broke out
between supporters of Aminand Mamun, sons of the caliph Harun
al-Rashid, which deepened thefactionalism and created a new power bloc of
Turkish slave officers.
2. A number of minor dynasties arose,
such as the Tahirids and Samanids in Khurasan and Transoxiana andthe Tulunids
in Egypt and Syria. Abbasid power was soon limited tocentral Iraq and western
Iran.
3. In 945 theBuyids, a Shiite clan from
the Caspian region of Iran capturedBaghdad. Theykept the Abbasid caliph as the
symbolic head of their Sunni subjects.
4. The Fatimids, the descendantsof Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter claimed that
they are the sole rightful rulers of Islam. From their base in North
Africa,they conquered Egypt in 969 and established the Fatimid caliphate.
5. TheTurks were nomadic tribes from
the Central Asian steppes who gradually converted to Islam. They were
skilledriders and warriors and entered the Abbasid, Samanid and
Buyidadministrations as slaves and soldiers, rising to high positions onaccount
of their loyalty and military abilities
.
The Rise of Sultanates
1. The Ghaznavid sultanatewas
established by Alptegin (961) and it was consolidated by
Mahmud ofGhazni. Ghaznavids were a militarydynasty with a professional army of
Turks and Indians.
2. The Abbasidcaliphs were not rivals but a
source of legitimacy for Ghaznavids.Mahmudof Ghazniwasconscious of being
the son of a slave and was especially eager to receivethe title of Sultan from
the caliph.
3. The caliph was willing to supportthe
Sunni Ghaznavid as a counterweight to Shiite power.The Saljuq Turks
entered Turan as soldiers in the armies of theSamanids and Qarakhanids. They
later established themselves as a powerful group under theleadership of two
brothers, Tughril and Chaghri Beg.
4. Takingadvantage of the chaos following
the death of Mahmud of Ghazni,the Saljuq Turks conquered
Khurasan in 1037 and made Nishapur theirfirst capital. The Saljuqs next turned
their attention to westernPersia and Iraq (ruled by the Buyids) and in 1055,
restored Baghdadto Sunni rule.
5. The caliph, al-Qaim, conferred on
Tughril Beg thetitle of Sultan in a move that marked the separation of
religious andpolitical authority. The two Saljuq brothers ruled together
inaccordance with the tribal notion of rule by the family as a whole.
Causes for the Crusade
Wars
1. Jerusalem was conquered by the Arabs in 638 but it
was ever-presentin the Christian imagination as the place of Jesus’ crucifixion
andresurrection. Christians wanted to recover Jerusalem and this was an
important factor for the Crusade wars.
2. Normans, Hungarians and Slavs (People of
Eastern Europe) hadbeen converted to Christianity, and the Muslims
alone remained as the main enemy of Christians.
3. There was also a change in the social
and economicorganisation of the Western Europe in the eleventh century
whichcontributed to the hostility between Christian and the Islamicworlds.
Christians established political stability through economic growth based on
agriculture and trade. But Muslims tried the same through violence and
plunder.
4. The deathof MalikShah in 1092 (the
sultan ofBaghdad) was followed by thedisintegration of his empire.This offered the
Byzantineemperor, Alexius I, a chanceto regain Jerusalem, Asia Minor
andnorthern Syria.
5. For PopeUrban II, this was
anopportunity to revive the spiritof Christianity. In 1095, thePope joined the
Byzantineemperor in calling for a war inthe name of God to liberate theHoly
Land.
What are Crusade Wars?
Between 1095 and1291,
EuropeanChristians foughtwars against Muslim of the eastern Mediterranean to
recapture Jerusalem. These wars were later designated as Crusades. According to
some sources Pope Urban II gifted cross to all the Christian soldiers to fight
in the war that is why the war was named so.
I, II and III Crusade
wars
1. In the first crusade (1098-99), soldiers from France and
Italycaptured Antioch in Syria, and claimed Jerusalem. Their victorywas
accompanied by the slaughter of Muslims and Jews in the city,
settled by both Christians and Muslims.
2. The Franks quickly established four
crusader states inthe region of Syria-Palestine. Collectively, these
territories wereknown as Outremer(crusader states).
3. When the Turkscaptured Edessa in 1144, an
appeal was made by the Pope for asecond crusade (1145-49). A
combined German and French armymade an attempt to capture Damascus but
they were defeated andforced to return home.
4. After this, there was a gradual erosion of
thestrength of crusader states. Salah al-Din (Saladin) created an Egypto-Syrian
empire and gave the call forjihad or holy war against the
Christians, and defeated them in 1187.He regained Jerusalem, nearly a
century after the first crusade.
5. The loss of the city Jerusalem prompted a
third crusade in 1189, but thecrusaders gained little victory in
Palestineand got free access to Jerusalem for Christian pilgrims. The
Mamluks,the rulers of Egypt, finally drove the crusading Christians from allof
Palestine in 1291. Europe gradually lost military interest in Islamand focused
on its internal political and cultural development.
Impacts of Crusade
wars
1. The Crusades left a lasting impact on two
aspects of Christian-Muslim relations. One was the harsher attitude of
the Muslim statetowards its Christian subjects which resulted from the
bittermemories of the conflict as well as the needs for security in areas
ofmixed populations.
2. The other was the greater influence of Italianmercantile
in the tradebetween the East and the West even after the restoration
ofMuslim power.
Agricultural
Development in Arabia
1. Agriculture was the principal
occupation of the settled populations inthe newly conquered
territories. Land was owned by big and small peasants and, in some cases,by the
state. The estate owners collected taxes on behalf of the state. Land which was
conquered by the Muslims was handed over mainly to the members of the caliph’s family.
2. The state had overall control of agricultural
lands, deriving the bulkof its income from land revenue once the conquests were
over. Thelands conquered by the Arabs that remained in the hands of the
ownerswere subject to a tax, whichvaried from half to a fifth of
theproduce, according to the conditionsof cultivation.
3. On land cultivated by Muslims,
the tax leviedwas one-tenth (ushr) of the produce. On land
cultivated by non-Muslims, the tax levied was half of the total produce.
4. When non-Muslims started to convertto Islam to
pay lower taxes, thisreduced the
income of the state. ToControl this, the caliphs firstdiscouraged conversions
and lateradopted a uniform policy of taxation.
5. From the tenth century onwards, thestate authorised
its officials to claimtheir salaries from agriculturalrevenues from
territories, called iqtas.Agricultural prosperity went
handin hand with political stability.
6. Inmany areas, the state supported the
construction of dams and canals, and the digging of wells etc.
Islamic law gave tax concessions to people who brought waste land under
cultivation. Through peasant initiatives and state support,cultivable land
expanded and productivity rose, even in the absence ofmajor technological
changes.
7. Many new crops such as cotton,
oranges,bananas, watermelons, spinach and brinjals (badinjan)
were grownand even exported to Europe.
Urbanisationin Arabia
1. Islamic civilisation flourished as the
number of cities grew and many new cities such as Kufa and Basra in Iraq,
Fustat and Cairo in Egypt were founded, mainly to settle Arabsoldiers
who formed the backbone of the local administration. The population of Baghdad
had reached around 1 million.
2. The older towns such as Damascus,
Isfahan and Samarqand received a new lease of life. Their size
andpopulation increased, supported by an expansion in the production
offoodgrains and raw materials such as cotton and sugar for urbanmanufactures.
A vast urban network developed, linking one town withanother and forming a
circuit.
3. At the heart of the city were two building
complexes radiating culturaland economic power: the mosque,
bigenough to be seen from a distance, and the central marketplace with
shops in a row, merchants’ lodgings and the office of themoney-changer.
4. The cities were homes to
administrators, scholars and merchants who lived close to thecentre.
Ordinary citizens and soldiers had their living quarters in theouter circle,
each fitted with its own mosque, church or synagogue, subsidiary market and
public bath.
5. At the outskirts were the houses
of the urbanpoor, a market for green vegetables and fruits brought
from thecountryside, caravan stations and ‘unclean’ shops, such as those
dealingin tanning or butchering. Beyond the city walls were inns for people
torest when the city gates were shut and cemeteries.
Commerce in
Arabia
1. Political unification and urbandemand for
foodstuffs and luxuriesenlarged the circuit of exchange.Geography favoured the
Muslimempire, which spread between thetrading zones of the Indian Ocean andthe
Mediterranean.
2. High-value goodssuitable for long-distance
trade, such asspices, textile, porcelain and gunpowder,were shipped from India
and China tothe Red Sea ports of Aden and Aydhaband the Gulf ports of Siraf and
Basra.From here, thegoods were carried overland in camel caravans to the
warehouses of Baghdad, Damascus and Aleppo forlocal consumption or onward
transmission.
3. The caravans passingthrough Mecca got bigger
whenever the hajj coincided with the sailingseasons in the
Indian Ocean.At the Mediterranean end of these trade routes, exports to
Europefrom the port of Alexandria were handled by Jewish merchants, someof whom
traded directly with India.
4. From the tenth century,the Red Sea route
gained greater importance due to the rise of Cairo asa centre of commerce and
power and growing demand for easterngoods from the trading cities of Italy.
5. Towards the eastern end, caravans of Iranian
merchants set outfrom Baghdad along the Silk Route to China, via the oasis
cities of Bukhara and Samarqand, to bring Central Asian andChinese goods,
including paper. Islamic coins were used for the payment of these goods.
6. The fiscal system and marketexchange increased
the importance of money in the central Islamiclands. Coins of gold, silver and
copper were minted andcirculated, often in bags sealed by money-changers, to
pay for goodsand services.
7. Gold came from Africa and silver from
CentralAsia. Precious metals and coins also came fromEurope, which
used these to pay for its trade with the East. The greatest contribution of the
Muslimworld to medieval economic life was the development of superiormethods of
payment and business organisation. Letters of credit(cheque) and bills
of exchange (draft) wereused by merchants and bankers to
transfer money from one placeor individual to another.
8. Although it was customary for merchants to set
up familybusinesses or employ slaves to run their affairs, formal
businessarrangements were also common in which sleepingpartners entrusted
capital to travelling merchants and shared profitsand losses in an agreed
proportion.
9. Islam did not stop people frommaking
money so long as certain prohibitions were respected. Forinstance,
interest-bearing transactions were unlawful, althoughpeople circumvented usury
in ingenious ways such asborrowing money in one type of coin and paying in
another whiledisguising the interest as a commission on currency exchange.
10. Many tales from the Thousand and One Nights give
us a picture of medieval Islamic society, featuring characterssuch as sailors,
slaves, merchants and money-changers.
Learning in
Arabia(Religious)
1. For religious scholars of
Islam knowledge is derived from theQuran and the model behaviour of
the Prophet was the onlyway to know the will of God and provide guidance in
this world.
2. Theulamas,religious scholars of
Islamin medieval times devoted themselves to writing interpretation
for Quran anddocumenting Muhammad’s authentic hadith. Some went on
toprepare a body of laws or sharia to govern therelationship of
Muslims with God through rituals and withthe rest of the humanity through
social affairs.
3. When life had becomeincreasingly complex
with urbanisation which led tothe formation of four schools of law in the
eighth and ninthcenturies. These were the Maliki, Hanafi, Shafii and
Hanbalischools,each named after a leading jurist.
4. The sharia provided guidance
on all possible legal issueswithin Sunni society, though it was more precise on
questions ofpersonal status such as marriage, divorce and inheritance than
oncommercial matters or penal and constitutional issues.
5. A group of religious-minded people in medieval
Islam, known asSufis, sought a deeper and more personal knowledge of God
throughasceticism and mysticism. The more society gave importance to material
pursuits and pleasures, the more the Sufis sought torenounce the world and rely
on God alone.
Learning in
Arabia(Secular)
1. An alternative vision of God and
theuniverse was developed by Islamicphilosophers and scientists under
theinfluence of Greek philosophy andscience. In the schools of Alexandria,
Syria and Iraq, Greek philosophy,mathematics and medicine were taught along
with other subjects.
2. The study of new subjects promoted
critical inquiry and had aprofound influence on Islamic intellectual
life. Scholars and Philosophers posed wider questions on Islam and provided
freshanswers.
3. IbnSina a doctor by profession and a
Philosopherdid not believe in the resurrection of the body on the Day of
Judgement.IbnSina’s
medicalwritings were widely read. The most influential book was Canon
of Medicine, a million-word manuscript that lists 760 drugssold
by the pharmacists of his day and includes notes on his ownexperiments
conducted in hospitals.
4. In medieval Islamic societies, fine language
and a creative imaginationwere among the most appreciated qualities in a
person. Adabforms of expressions included poetry and prose
which were meant to be memorised and used whenthe occasion arose.
5. Abu Nuwas, who was of Persian origin,broke new ground by composing
classical poetry on new themes suchas wine and male love with the intention of
celebrating pleasuresforbidden by Islam.
6. By the time the Arabs conquered Iran, Pahlavi,
was in decay. A version of Pahlavi, knownas New Persian, with a
huge Arabic vocabulary, soon developed. Rudaki wasconsidered
the father of New Persian poetry, which included new formssuch as the short
lyrical poem (ghazal) and the quatrain (rubai). The rubaiis
a four-line stanza in which the first two linesset the stage, the third is
finely poised, and the fourth delivers thepoint. The subject matter of
the rubaiis unrestricted.
7. Ghazni became the centre of Persian
literarylife. Mahmud of Ghazni gathered around him agroup of poets who composed
anthologies and epic poetry. Themost outstanding was Firdausi,who took 30 years
to complete theShahnama (Book of Kings), an epic of
50,000couplets which has become a masterpiece ofIslamic literature. The Shahnamais
acollection of traditions and legends whichpoetically depicts Iran from
Creation to the Arab conquest.
8. The catalogue of IbnNadimdescribes
a large number of works written in prose for themoral education and amusement
of readers. The oldest of these is acollection of animal fables called KalilawaDimnawhich
is the Arabictranslation of the Panchtantra. The most
widespreadand lasting literary works are the stories of hero-adventurers such
asAlexander and Sindbad, or those of unhappy lovers known as Majnun or
the Madman.
9. These have developedover the centuries
into oral and written traditions. The Thousand andOne Nightsis
another collection of stories told by a single narrator,Shahrzad, to her
husband night after night. The collection was originallyin Indo-Persian and was
translated into Arabic in Baghdad in theeighth century.
10. From the ninth century onwards, the scope of writing
bookswas expandedto include biographies, manuals of ethics, history and
geography.For rulers and officials, history provideda good record of the
glories and achievements of a dynasty as well asexamples of the techniques of
administration. Alberuni’s famous Tahqiq ma lil-Hind (History of
India) wasthe greatest attempt by an eleventh-century Muslim
writer to lookbeyond the world of Islam.
Art and Architecture
in central Islamic land
1. Religiousbuildings were the greatest
externalsymbols of Islamic world. Mosques, shrinesand tombs from
Spain to Central Asiashowed the same basic design – arches,domes,
minarets and open courtyards –and expressed the spiritual and
practicalneeds of Muslims.
2. In the first Islamiccentury, the mosque
acquired a distinctarchitectural form which transcended regionalvariations. The
mosque had an opencourtyard where a fountain orpond was placed, leading to a
vaultedhall which could accommodate long linesof worshippers and the
prayer leader. Two special features were
locatedinside the hall: a niche in the wall indicating the
direction ofMeccaand a pulpit from wheresermons were delivered
during noon prayers on Friday.
3. The same pattern of construction – of buildings
built around acentral courtyard appeared not only in mosques andmausoleums but
also in caravanserais, hospitals and palaces. TheUmayyads built
‘desert palaces’ in oases modeled on Roman and Sasanian architecture, were
lavishly decorated withsculptures, mosaics and paintings of people.
4. The rejection of representing living beings in
the religious art ofIslam promoted two art forms: calligraphy (the art
of beautifulwriting) and arabesque (geometric and vegetal designs). Small
and biginscriptions, usually of religious quotations, were used to
decoratearchitecture.
5. Calligraphic art has been best preserved in
manuscriptsof the Quran dating from the eighth and ninth centuries. Literary
workswere illustrated with miniature paintings. Inaddition, a wide variety
of illumination techniques were introduced toenhance the beauty of a book.
Plant and floral designs, based on theidea of the garden, were used in
buildings and book illustrations.
