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C h a p te r s ( h tt p s : //co l o r s t a te .g r l co n te n t .co m /we s te r n c i v p re m o d e r n /pa g e /c h a p te r s ) C h a p te r 9 : I s l a m a n d t h e L a t i n We s t I I ( h tt p s : //co l o r s t a te .g r l co n te n t .co m /we s te r n c i v p re m o d e r n /pa g e /c h9 ) C h a p te r 9 : R i s e o f I s l a m ( h tt p s : //co l o r s t a te .g r l co n te n t .co m /we s te r n c i v p re m o d e r n /pa g e /c h9 p g 3 )

Rise of Islam

In the sixth century, the Arabian Peninsula was mainly inhabited by Bedouins, nomadic

people who traveled with their flocks of sheep, goats and cattle seeking pasture and

trading meat, cheese, wool, and livestock for weapons, tools, and other goods. Family

and kinship networks were the foundation of Bedouin society; tribal leaders could form

alliances and settle disputes, but there were no kings or government officials. Bedouin

tribes also raided and attacked each other, using warfare to win plunder, claim social

prestige, and defend collective honor. Along with the many trade routes used by

caravans to cross the peninsula, there were some cities: Mecca was an important

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commercial and religious center which attracted traders and visitors to the Ka'ba, a

shrine containing the Black Stone regarded as holy by many Arab tribes. The Arabian

Peninsula had never been conquered by Alexander the Great, Rome, or Persia, and

although Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism were known to Arab peoples in the

region, many worshipped tribal or local deities, such as those associated with the Ka’ba.

Map of th e Arabian Peninsula.

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Muhammad (570–632) was born into this diverse and turbulent society. A member of

the Quraysh tribe in Mecca, he became a merchant and business manager for a wealthy

widow named Khadijah, whom he later married. Muhammad often took walks among

the hills and caves outside Mecca, and on one of these journeys he had a vision that led

him to begin preaching the tenets of a new religion, Islam. Like Judaism and Christianity,

Islam was a monotheistic faith: Muhammad believed that he received revelations from

Allah (the Arabic word for God in the Abrahamic traditions), a single, all-powerful deity.

The written record of those revelations, the Qur'an, thus represented the words of Allah

—a sacred text transmitted by Muhammad, who was simply a messenger and prophet. In

this context, Muhammad’s followers and biographers portrayed him as the last in a long

line of prophets in the Jewish and Christian traditions, but he also preached that Islam

was the one true faith which superseded all others. After his revelations began in 610,

Muhammad won some followers among his family. Yet his preaching also stirred

hostility among Mecca’s elites, who feared that his actions would undermine the

religious and economic importance of their city. In 622, Muhammad left Mecca and

traveled northward to Medina, whose inhabitants invited him to settle there; his

migration, known as the hijra, marks the first year in the Islamic calendar and the start of

Islam’s expansion in the region. Over the next several years, Muhammad established

political and religious control of Medina and led his followers on raids against caravans

from Mecca. At the Battle of Badr (624), Muhammad’s forces were successful in winning

plunder and prisoners despite being outnumbered. Such victories convinced many to

accept both Islam and Muhammad’s political leadership, including the people of Mecca.

By the time of his death in 632, Muhammad had transformed the Ka’ba into a holy site

for Islam, unified many of the region’s tribes, and launched a new religion that was

poised to win converts throughout the Mediterranean world.

What were the principal elements of Islam, and how did it spread so rapidly? The “five

pillars of Islam” were fundamental requirements for all those who converted to this

religion, beginning with a declaration of faith that there is no god but Allah, and that

Muhammad is his messenger (the shahada). The other pillars included prayers

performed five times daily (salat), the giving of alms (zakat), and fasting (sawm) during

Ramadan, the ninth month in the I s l a m i c l u n a r c a l e n d a r

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Th e Qur ’an. Image © Thinkstock.

. Finally, all faithful, able-bodied Muslims were

expected to undertake a pilgrimage to Mecca (the hajj) at least once during their

lifetime. Muslim scholars and jurists developed interpretations of these practices for

several centuries after Muhammad’s death, and they remain at the core of Islamic belief

and practice to this day. Similarly, the Qur’an remained the central sacred text of Islam,

although hadith—statements made by and about Muhammad—were also later collected,

recorded, and studied. Islam also offered a compelling vision of an afterlife filled with

rewards for believers and terrifying judgment for others. In Muhammad’s day, adopting

and spreading Islam was also linked to traditional practices of warfare and plunder. Arab

tribes which had previously raided each other were now united by religion and poised to

expand their conquests beyond the Arabian Peninsula.

Muhammad’s death was followed by the rapid spread of Islam around the

Mediterranean world, as well as a crisis over the leadership of Islam which would have

important consequences. Muhammad’s father-in-law, Abu Bakr, was chosen to be caliph

and thus become the new leader of the Arab Muslim tribes. Armies led by Abu Bakr

(ruled 632–634) and the caliphs who succeeded him—Umar (ruled 634–644) and

Uthman (ruled 644–656)—swept across the eastern Mediterranean and into Persia,

conquering Antioch, Jerusalem, and Isfahan. Turning to the west, they extended their

rule into North Africa, capturing Egypt with its agricultural riches and the city of

Alexandria. Although they failed to capture Constantinople, their attacks left the

( / w e s t e r n c i v p r e m o d e r n /p a g e /c h 1 )

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Umayya d Mosque, Damascus, Syria. Image © Shutterstock, Inc.

Byzantine Empire and Persia weakened. At the same time, these conquerors from the

Arabian Peninsula’s deserts gradually became a maritime power, as they conducted sea

raids against Cyprus, Crete, and Sicily.

Sprea d of Islam f rom Muhamma d through th e Umayya d Caliphs, 622–750.

Some of Muhammad’s followers,

however, had rejected Uthman’s

legitimacy as caliph, arguing that

Muhammad’s true successor was Ali

ibn Abi Talib, who had married

Muhammad’s daughter Fatima. When

Uthman died in 656, Ali’s supporters

and relatives declared him to be the

next caliph. Ali ruled for only five

years before he was murdered in 661,

at which time Uthman’s family, the Umayyads, reasserted their power. The Umayyads’

legitimacy rested in part on their claim to be able to lead the entire Muslim community

and to uphold the sunna, customary religious practices that were widely adopted under

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Dom e of th e Rock , Jerusalem. Image © Thinkstock.

the first two caliphs. In contrast, Ali’s supporters claimed that Islam’s true leaders must

be descendants of Muhammad’s family, and that the sunna were not valid. The modern

division between the Sunnis and the Shi’ites (the shi’a or faction of Ali) is rooted in this

seventh-century dispute over how to determine legitimate leadership in Islam. Although

Sunnis are a majority among today’s Muslims worldwide, Shi’ites are predominant in

some regions and often view themselves as the true defenders of Islam.

The Umayyad caliphate lasted from 661 until 750, as members of the Umayyad dynasty

dominated the Islamic world from their capital city, Damascus.

The Umayyads’ armies conquered

much of Visigothic Spain, which they

invaded in 711, but their advance

northward into Frankish lands was

halted by Charles Martel at the

. The Umayyads worked

to make Arabic the language of government administration, regulated the regime’s

currency, and constructed important religious sites to honor Islam, such as the Dome of

the Rock in Jerusalem.

B a t t l e o f To u r s i n 7 3 2

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Governing the diverse lands and peoples of their empire, however, proved challenging

for the Umayyad caliphs. Their non-Muslim subjects were not required to convert,

though they were typically excluded from full participation in Muslim government and

society. Jews and Christians in particular were treated as members of protected

religious communities (dhimmi) who paid a special tax to their Muslim overlords. The

dhimmi were expected to accept subordinate status and other restrictions in return for

limited protection of their property, social organization, and religious practices—though

such protections were not always enforced or upheld. More problematic were the non-

Arab Muslims who demanded a greater share of wealth and power from the Umayyad

elite. After several years of internal conflict, the Umayyads were overthrown in 750 and

replaced by a new dynasty, the Abbasids, whose caliphate officially lasted until 1258.

Map of Abbasid Caliphate an d Empire, 750–c .900.

Islamic civilization’s “Golden Age” occurred during the Abbasid caliphate. The new rulers

made Baghdad their capital, and the city’s markets, mosques, fountains, palaces, and

gardens impressed travelers and visitors. According to one account:

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Yakut, Geographical Encyclopedia: Baghdad under the Abbasids, c. 1000 (https: //sourcebooks.f ordham.edu/halsall/so urce/1000baghdad.as p)

Baghdad was a veritable City of Palaces . . . Both sides of the river

[the Tigris River] were for miles f ronted by the palaces, kiosks,

gardens, and parks of the grandees and nobles, marble steps led

down to the water’s edge, and the scene on the river was

animated by thousands of gondolas, decked with little flags,

dancing like sunbeams on the water . . ..

Abbasid caliphs also made Baghdad a center of

learning by establishing the House of Wisdom (Bayt

al-Hikma), where scholars gathered to study ancient

manuscripts about medicine, mathematics,

astronomy, philosophy, and other fields of

knowledge. While some Muslim scholars translated

these works from their original languages into Arabic,

others used them as a basis for original research and

discovery. Much of the scholarship produced during this era influenced Western

Civilization to this day. For example, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (c. 780–c. 850)

developed algebra and incorporated the concept of zero into mathematical calculations.

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Left: Sch olars at an Abbasid Librar y ( 13th- centur y manuscript). Right: Muhamma d ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi Monum ent in Khiva, Uzbekistan. Image ©

Shutterstock, Inc.

Physicians such as Al-Razi (854–925), whose name was Latinized as Rhazes, and Ibn

Sina (980–1037), known in the West as Avicenna, drew upon treatises written by

Hippocrates and Galen, medical knowledge from India, and their own work to analyze a

wide array of illnesses. Rhazes’ treatise on smallpox and measles, as well as Avicenna’s

Canon of Medicine, remained authoritative for centuries. Studying in the Islamic empire’s

major cities—Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Córdoba—many Muslim scholars

preserved ancient works in Greek and Latin by translating them into Arabic. In

philosophy, Al-Kindi (c. 801–c.866) and later Ibn Rushd (1126–1198) wrote extensively

about classical thinkers, Islamic theology, and connections between the two. Ibn Rushd’s

commentaries on Aristotle were widely studied in the West, where he was known as

Averroës [ ].

L i n k t o C h a p t e r 1 0 ( / w e s t e r n c i v p r e m o d e r n /p a g e /c h 1 0 p g 4 )

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Left: Woodcut f rom an Early 15th- centur y Medical Book in L atin, Sh owin g th e Three Great An cient Tea ch ers of Medicin e: Galen, Avicenna, an d Hippocrates.

Image © Shutterstock, Inc. Right: European Depic tion of th e Persian Physician Al- Razi, f rom Gerardus Crem on ensis, Recueil des traits de m edicin e, 1250–1260. Th e

surgeon (left) h olds th e matula, a vessel for collec tin g urin e.

At the center of Muslim-controlled Spain (called al-Andalus, “the land of the Vandals”),

Córdoba rivaled Baghdad as a center of wealth and culture: its markets drew traders in

silks, gold, spices, and other luxury goods, while its mosque was among the most

impressive in the Islamic world.

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Reynolds-Finley Historical Library, Avicenna Manuscript on Medicine (https: //www.uab.edu/reynolds/histfi gs/avicenna-)

Left: Th e Great Mosque in Cordoba. Right: Statue of Averroes (Ibn Rush d) in Cordoba, Spain. Images © Shutterstock, Inc.

Although the Abbasid caliphate’s

cultural and intellectual achievements

continued to the mid-thirteenth

century, its political unity began to

disintegrate during the tenth century.

The Umayyads had remained powerful

in al-Andalus (Spain), and during the

period 929–1031, Córdoba was

governed an independent caliphate.

Although Christians, Jews, and

Muslims were often able to coexist in

relative peace at the local level, their

lives were often disrupted by

intermittent periods of violence and

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Pope Urban II auth orizes th e depar ture of knights for th e First Crusa de, 1095.

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persecution. Beginning in the eleventh

century, Christian leaders in northern

Spain attempted to reclaim the rest of

the Iberian peninsula from Muslim

control in an effort known as the

Reconquista, which would last until

the

. In 909, a group of Shi’ites proclaimed

themselves the Fatimid dynasty (from the name of Muhammad’s daughter, Fatima) and

ruled Egypt and North Africa for about two centuries. The Seljuk Turks, who initially

fought in the Abbasids’ armies, conquered Baghdad in 1055 and then began to win

control over Iran, Syria, and the eastern Mediterranean at the Abbasids’ expense. Their

victory over the Byzantine Empire’s forces at the Battle of Manzikert (1071) and their

seizure of Jerusalem two years later set the stage for the events that would bring the

three “heirs of Rome” directly into conflict with each other: the Crusades.

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