THE ARAB EMPIRE AND ITS SUCCESSORS
The successors to Muhammad were known as caliphs, rulers who became the
secular and spiritual leaders of the Islamic community. As the empire grew, caliphs
became more like kings or emperors who wore expensive and elaborate clothes and
jewels. This finery was an indication of the strength and power of the growing Arab
Empire.
Creation of an Arab Empire
Muhammad had been accepted as both the political and religious leader of the
Islamic community. The death of Muhammad left his followers with a problem:
Muhammad had never named a successor. Although he had several daughters, he
had left no son. In a male-oriented society, who would lead the community of the
faithful? Shortly after Muhammad’s death, some of his closest followers chose Abuˉ
Bakr (uh•BOO BA•kuhr), a wealthy merchant and Muhammad’s father-in-law, to be
their leader. Abuˉ Bakr had been Muhammad’s companion on the journey to Madinah
in 622. There Abuˉ Bakr had functioned as Muhammad’s chief adviser and also led
the public prayers during Muhammad’s final illness. In 632 Abuˉ Bakr was named
caliph (KAY•luhf), or successor to Muhammad.
Arab Conquest
Under Abuˉ Bakr’s leadership, the Islamic movement began to grow. He was able
to suppress tribal political and religious uprisings, thereby uniting the Muslim world. As
the Romans had slowly conquered Italy, so also the Muslims expanded over Arabia,
and beyond. Muhammad had overcome military efforts by the early Makkans to defeat
his movement. The Quran permitted fair, defensive warfare as jihad (jih•HAHD), or
“struggle in the way of God.” Muhammad’s successors expanded their territory. Unified
under Abuˉ Bakr, the Arabs began to turn the energy they had once directed toward
each other against neighboring peoples. At Yarmuˉk in 636, the Arab army defeated
the Byzantine army in the midst of a dust storm that enabled the Arabs to take their
enemy by surprise. Four years later, they took control of the Byzantine province of
Syria. By 642, Egypt and other areas of northern Africa had been added to the new
Arab Empire. To the east, the Arabs had conquered the entire Persian Empire by 650.
The Arabs, led by a series of brilliant generals, had put together a large, dedicated
army. The courage of the Arab soldiers was enhanced by the belief that Muslim
warriors were assured a place in paradise if they died in battle.
Arab Rule
Early caliphs ruled their far-flung empire from Madinah. After Abuˉ Bakr died,
problems arose over who should become the next caliph. There were no clear
successors to Abuˉ Bakr, and the first two caliphs to rule after his death were
assassinated. In 656, Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law and one of the first converts to
Islam, was chosen to be caliph, but he too was assassinated after ruling for five years.
In the conquered territories, life went on much as it had done before. Arab
administrators were tolerant, sometimes even allowing local officials to continue to
govern. The conquered people were not forced to convert to Islam, though some
conversions occurred. Some Christians experienced better treatment than they had
under Byzantine rule. Those who chose not to convert were required only to be loyal
to Muslim rule and to pay taxes.
The Umayyads
In 661, the general Mu‘aˉwiyah (moo• UH•wee•uh), the governor of Syria and
one of Ali’s chief rivals, became caliph. He was known for one outstanding virtue: he
used force only when absolutely necessary. As he said, “I never use my sword when
my whip will do, nor my whip when my tongue will do.” Mu‘aˉwiyah moved quickly to
make the office of caliph, called the caliphate, hereditary in his own family. In doing
this, he established the Umayyad (oo•MY•uhd) dynasty. He then moved the capital of
the Arab Empire from Madinah to Damascus, in Syria.
Umayyad Conquests
At the beginning of the eighth century, the Arabs carried out new attacks at both
the eastern and western ends of the Mediterranean world. Arab armies moved across
North Africa and conquered and converted the Berbers, a pastoral people living along
the Mediterranean coast. Around 710, combined Berber and Arab forces crossed the
Strait of Gibraltar and occupied southern Spain. By 725, most of Spain had become a
Muslim state with its center at Córdoba. In 732, however, Arab forces were defeated
at the Battle of Tours in Gaul (now France). Arab expansion in Europe came to a halt.
In 717, another Muslim force had launched an attack on Constantinople with the hope
of defeating the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines survived, however, by destroying
the Muslim fleet. This created an uneasy frontier in southern Asia Minor between the
Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world. By 750, the Arab advance had finally come
to an end, but not before the south ern and eastern Mediterranean parts of the old
Roman Empire had been conquered. Arab power also extended to the east in
Mesopotamia and Persia and northward into central Asia. The Umayyad dynasty at
Damascus now ruled an enormous empire. Expansion had brought not only great
wealth and new ethnic groups into the fold of Islam, but also contact with other
civilizations. As a result, the new Arab Empire would be influenced by Byzantine
culture, as well as that of the Persians.
A Split in Islam
In spite of Umayyad successes, internal struggles threatened the empire’s
stability. Many Muslims of non-Arab background, such as Persians and Byzantines,
did not like the way local administrators favored the Arabs. Financial troubles further
weakened the Umayyad dynasty. Also, since the empire was so vast, it was difficult to
rule from a capital so far from the frontiers. These distant regions began to develop
their own power, hostile to the caliphate. An especially important revolt took place in
present-day Iraq early in the Umayyad period. It was led by Hussein (hoo•SAYN),
second son of Ali—the son-in-law of Muhammad.
Hussein encouraged his followers to rise up against Umayyad rule in 680. He set
off to do battle, but his soldiers defected, leaving him with an army of 72 warriors
against 10,000 Umayyad soldiers. Hussein’s tiny force fought courageously, but all
died. This struggle led to a split of Islam into two groups. The Shia (SHEE•AH) Muslims
accept only the descendants of Ali as the true rulers of Islam. The Sunni (SU•NEE)
Muslims did not all agree with Umayyad rule but accepted the Umayyads as rulers, or
caliphs. This political split led to the development of two branches of Muslims that
persist to the present. The Sunnis are a majority in the Muslim world, but most of the
people in Iraq and neighboring Iran consider themselves to be Shia.
The Abbasid Dynasty
Resentment against Umayyad rule grew among non-Arab Muslims who resented
the favoritism shown to Arabs. The Umayyads also helped to bring about their end by
corrupt behavior. Abuˉ al-‘Abbaˉs, a descendant of Muhammad’s uncle, overthrew the
Umayyad dynasty in 750 and set up the Abbasid (uh•BA•suhd) dynasty, which lasted
until 1258.
Abbasid Rule
In 762, the Abbasids built a new capital city at Baghdad, on the Tigris River, far
to the east of the Umayyad capital at Damascus. Baghdad’s location took advantage
of river traffic in the Persian Gulf and the caravan route from the Mediterranean to
central Asia. The move eastward increased Persian influence and encouraged a new
cultural outlook. Under the Umayyads, warriors had been seen as the ideal citizens.
Under the Abbasids, judges, merchants, and government officials were the new
heroes. The Abbasid rulers tried to break down the distinctions between Arab and non-
Arab Muslims. This change opened Islamic culture to the influence of the civilizations
they had conquered. All Muslims, regardless of ethnic background, could now hold
both civil and military offices. Many Arabs began to intermarry with conquered peoples.
The best known of the caliphs of the time was Haˉruˉn a-Rashıˉd (ha•ROON
ahr•rah•SHEED), whose reign is often described as the golden age of the Abbasid
caliphate. Haˉruˉn a-Rashıˉd was known for his charity, and he also lavished support
on artists and writers. His son al-Ma’muˉn (ahl•mah•MOON) was a great patron of
learning. He supported the study of astronomy and created a foundation for translating
classical Greek works. This was a period of growing prosperity. The Arabs had
conquered many of the richest provinces of the Roman Empire, and they now
controlled the trade routes to the East. Baghdad became the center of an enormous
trade empire that extended into Asia, Africa, and Europe, adding to the riches of the
Islamic world. Under the Abbasids, the caliph began to act more regally. The
bureaucracy assisting the caliph in administering the empire grew more complex. A
council headed by a prime minister, known as a vizier, advised the caliph. During
council meetings, the caliph sat behind a screen listening to the council’s discussions
and then whispered his orders to the vizier.
Decline and Division
Despite its prosperity, all was not well in the empire of the Abbasids. There was
much fighting over the succession to the caliphate. When Haˉruˉn a-Rashıˉd died, his
two sons fought to succeed him, almost destroying the city of Baghdad. Vast wealth
gave rise to financial corruption. Members of Haˉruˉn a-Rashıˉd’s clan were given
large sums of money from the state treasury. His wife was reported to have spent vast
amounts on a pilgrimage to Makkah. The shortage of qualified Arabs for key positions
in the army and the civil service also contributed to the decline of the Abbasids. Caliphs
began to recruit officials from among the non-Arab peoples within the empire, such as
Persians and Turks. These people were trained to serve the caliphs, but gradually they
began to dominate the army and the bureaucracy.
Eventually, rulers of the provinces of the Abbasid Empire began to break away
from the central authority and establish independent dynasties. Spain had established
its own caliphate when a prince of the Umayyad dynasty fled there in 750. Morocco
became independent, and a new dynasty under the Fatimids was established in Egypt,
with its capital at Cairo, in 973. The Muslim Empire was now politically divided.
Seljuk Turks and The Crusades
The Fatimid dynasty in Egypt soon became the dynamic center of Islamic
civilization. From their position in the heart of the Nile delta, the Fatimids played a
major role in trade from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. They created a strong army
by hiring nonnative soldiers. One such group was the Seljuk (SEHL•JOOK) Turks.
The Seljuk Turks
The Seljuk Turks were a nomadic people from central Asia. They had converted
to Islam and prospered as soldiers for the Abbasid caliphate. As the Abbasids grew
weaker, the Seljuk Turks grew stronger, moving gradually into Iran and Armenia. By
the eleventh century, they had taken over the eastern provinces of the Abbasid Empire.
In 1055, a Turkish leader captured Baghdad and took command of the empire. His title
was sultan—or “holder of power.” The Abbasid caliph was still the chief religious
authority, but, after they captured Baghdad, the Seljuk Turks held the real military and
political power of the state. By the second half of the eleventh century, the Seljuks
were putting military pressure on the Byzantine Empire. In 1071, the Byzantines
foolishly challenged the Turks, and the Byzantine army was routed at Manzikert in
modern-day eastern Turkey. The Turks now took over most of the Anatolian Peninsula.
In desperation, the Byzantine Empire turned to the West for help.
The Crusades
The Byzantine emperor Alexius I asked the Christian states of Europe for help
against the Turks. Because the Christian states and the Islamic world feared and
disliked each other, many Europeans agreed, beginning a series of crusades in 1096.
At first, Muslim rulers lost to the invading crusaders, who conquered areas and
established crusader states. In 1169, however, Saladin, a new Muslim ruler, took
control of Egypt and made himself sultan, thus ending the Fatimid dynasty. He also
established control over Syria and took the offensive against the Christian states in
the area. In 1187, Saladin’s army invaded the kingdom of Jerusalem and destroyed
the Christian forces there. The Christians were left with only a handful of fortresses
along the coast of Palestine. Saladin did not allow a massacre of the population. He
even allowed Christian religious services to continue. The Crusades had little lasting
impact on Southwest Asia, except to breed centuries of mistrust between Muslims and
Christians. Far more important was the threat posed by new invaders—the Mongols.
The Mongols
The Mongols were a pastoral, horse-riding people who swept out of the Gobi in
the early thirteenth century to seize control over much of the known world (see Chapter
8). Unlike the Seljuk Turks, the Mongols were not Muslims. As nomadic peoples, they
often found it difficult to adapt to the settled conditions they found in major cities in the
region. These invaders were destructive in their conquests. They burned cities to the
ground, destroyed dams, and reduced farming villages to the point of mass starvation.
Their goal was to create such terror that people would not fight back.
Beginning with the advances led by Genghis Khan in North China, Mongol armies
spread across central Asia. By the time of Genghis Khan’s death in 1227, the Mongol
Empire covered land from the Caspian Sea to the Sea of Japan. In 1258, under the
leadership of Hülegü (hoo•LAY•GOO), brother of the more famous Kublai Khan
(KOO•BLUH•KAHN), the Mongols seized Persia and Mesopotamia. The Abbasid
caliphate at Baghdad was brought to an end. Hülegü had a strong hatred of Islam.
After his forces captured Baghdad in 1258, he decided to destroy the city. Schools,
libraries, mosques (Muslim houses of worship), and palaces were burned to the
ground. Possibly a million Muslims were killed, along with members of the Abbasid
dynasty. The Mongols advanced as far as the Red Sea. Their attempt to seize Egypt
failed, however, in part because of resistance from the Mamluks. The Mamluks were
enslaved Turkish soldiers who had overthrown the administration set up by Saladin
and seized power for themselves. Like the Arabs, Berbers, and Turks, the Mongols
became involved in city life through the caravan trade. Over time, the Mongol rulers
converted to Islam and began to intermarry with local peoples. Where once they had
aggressively destroyed the cities, they now began to rebuild them. By the fourteenth
century, the Mongol Empire had begun to split into separate kingdoms. The old Islamic
Empire established by the Arabs in the seventh and eighth centuries had come to an
end. As a result of the Mongol destruction of Baghdad, the new center of Islamic
civilization became Cairo, in Egypt.
