292 CHAPTER 8 • THE HEIRS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE600-7SO

Byzantines actually worshiped icons; others,particularly monks, considered icons a nec-essary part of Christian piety. As the monkSt. John of Damascus put it in a vigorous de-fense of holy images, "I do not worship matter,I worship the God of matter, who became mat-ter for my sake, and deigned to inhabit matter,who worked out my salvation through matter."

Other Byzantines abhorred icons. Mostnumerous of these were the soldiers on thefrontiers. Shocked by Arab triumphs, theyfound the cause of their misfortunes in thebiblical injunction against graven images.When they compared their defeats to Muslimsuccesses, they could not help but noticethat Islam prohibited all representations ofthe divine. To these soldiers and others whoshared their view, icons revived pagan idola-try and desecrated Christian divinity. As icon-oclastic (anti-icon or, literally, icon-breaking)feeling grew, some churchmen became out-spoken in their opposition to icons.

Byzantine emperors shared these reli-gious objections, and they also had importantpolitical reasons for opposing icons. In fact,the issue of icons became a test of their au-thority. Icons diffused loyalties, setting up in-termediaries between worshipers and Godthat undermined the emperor's exclusiveplace in the divine and temporal order. In ad-dition, the emphasis on icons in monasticcommunities made the monks potentialthreats to imperial power; the emperorshoped to use this issue to break the power ofthe monasteries. Above all, though, the em-perors opposed icons because the army did,and they wanted to support their troops.

After Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (r.717-741) had defeated the Arabs besiegingConstantinople at the beginning of his reign,he turned his attention to consolidating hispolitical position. Officers of the imperialcourt tore down the great golden icon ofChrist at the gateway of the palace and re-placed it with a cross, while a crowd ofwomen protested by going on a furious ram-page in support of icons. But Leo would notbudge. In 726 he ordered all icons destroyed,a ban that remained in effect, despite muchopposition, until 787. This is known as theperiod of iconoclasm in Byzantine history. Amodified ban would be revived in 815 andlast until 843.

Iconoclasm had an enormous impact ondaily life. At home, where people had theirown portable icons, it forced changes in pri-vate worship: the devout had to destroy theiricons or worship them in secret. The ban onicons meant ferocious attacks on the monas-teries: splendid collections of holy imageswere destroyed; vast properties were confis-cated; and monks, who were staunch de-fenders of icons, were ordered to marry andgive up their vocation. In this way icono-clasm destroyed communities that mightotherwise have served as centers of resis-tance to imperial power. Reorganized andreoriented, the Byzantine rulers were able tomaintain themselves against the onslaught ofthe Arabs, who attacked under the banner ofIslam.

Review: What stresses did the Byzantine Empireendure in the seventh and eighth centuries,and how was Iconoclasm a response to thosestresses?

* Islam: A New Religionand a New EmpireIn the sixth century, Arabia, today SaudiArabia, witnessed the rise of Islam, a religionthat called on all to submit to the will ofone God. Islam, which means "submissionto God," emerged under Muhammad (c. 570-632), a merchant-turned-holy-man from thecity of Mecca. While the great majority ofpeople living in Arabia were polytheists,Muhammad recognized one God, the sameone worshiped by the Jews and the Chris-tians. He saw himself as God's last prophet—and thus he is called the Prophet—the per-son to receive and in turn repeat God's finalwords to humans. Invited by the disunitedand pagan people of the city of Medina tocome and act as a mediator for them,Muhammad exercised the powers of both areligious and a secular leader. This dual rolebecame the model for his successors, knownas caliphs. * Through a combination of per-suasion and force, Muhammad and his co-

» caliph: KAY luhf

600-750

ISLAM: A NEW RELIGION AND A NEW EMPIRE 293

religionists, the Muslims, converted most ofthe Arabian peninsula. By the time Muham-mad died in 632, conquest and conversionhad begun to move northward, into Byzan-tine and Persian territories. In the next gen-eration, the Arabs conquered most of Persiaand all of Egypt and were on their way acrossNorth Africa to Spain. Yet within the territo-ries they conquered, daily life went on muchas before.

The Desert and the CitiesBefore the seventh century, the great desertsof the Arabian peninsula were sparsely pop-ulated by Bedouins.* These were nomadswho lived in tribes—loose confederations ofclans, or kin groups—herding flocks for meatand milk and trading (or raiding) for grain,dates, and slaves. Poor tribes herded sheep,whereas richer ones kept camels—extremelyhardy animals, splendid beasts of burden,and good producers of milk and meat. (Arabwas the name camel nomads called them-selves.)

Tribal makeup shifted as kin groupsjoined or left. Though continually changing,these associations nevertheless saw out-siders as rivals, and tribes constantly foughtwith one another. Yet this very rivalry was it-self an outgrowth of shared values. Bedouinmen prized "manliness," which meant farmore than sexual prowess. They strove to bebrave in battle and feared being shamed.Manliness also entailed an obligation to begenerous, to give away the booty that was thegoal of intertribal warfare. Women were oftenpart of this booty, for Bedouins practicedpolygyny (having more than one wife at thesame time). Bedouin wars rarely involvedmuch bloodshed; their main purpose wasto capture people and take belongings.

Tribal, nomadic existence produced itsown culture, including an Arabic poetry ofstriking delicacy, precision, and beauty. Inthe absence of written language, theBedouins used oral poetry and storytelling totransmit their traditions, simultaneously en-tertaining, reaffirming values, and teachingnew generations.

* Bedouins: BEHD oo ihns

Dotting the Bedouins' desert world werecities that arose around oases—fertile, greenareas. Here more settled forms of life andtrade took place. Mecca, near the Red Sea,was one such commercial center. Meccancaravans crisscrossed the peninsula, sellingslaves and spices. More important, Meccaplayed an important religious role because itcontained a shrine, the Ka'ba. Long beforeMuhammad was born, the Ka'ba, a greatrock surrounded by the images of 360 gods,served as a sacred place within which warand violence were prohibited. The tribe thatdominated Mecca, the Quraysh,* controlledaccess to the shrine and was able to tax thepilgrims who flocked there as well as sellthem food and drink. In turn, plunder wastransformed into trade as the visitors barteredwith one another on the sacred grounds, as-sured of their security.

The Prophet Muhammadand the Faith of IslamMecca, the birthplace of Muhammad, was acenter with two important traditions—one re-ligious, the other commercial. Muhammad'searly years were inauspicious: orphaned atthe age of six, he spent two years with hisgrandfather and then came under the care ofhis uncle, a leader of the Quraysh tribe. Even-tually, Muhammad became a trader. At theage of twenty-five, he married Khadija, a richwidow who had once employed him. Theyhad at least four daughters and lived (to allappearances) happily and comfortably. YetMuhammad sometimes left home and spentsome time on the nearby Mount Hira, devot-ing himself to prayer and contemplation.

In about 610, on one of these retreats,Muhammad heard a voice and had a visionthat summoned him to worship Allah, theGod of the Jews and Christians. (AUoh means"the God" in Arabic.) He accepted the call ascoming from God. Over the next years he re-ceived messages that he understood to be di-vine revelation. Later, when they had beenwritten down and arranged—a process thatwas completed in the seventh century, butafter Muhammad's death—these messages

* Quraysh: kur RAYSH

294 CHAPTER 8 » THE HEIRS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

600-750

Qur'anMore than a holy book, theQur'an represents for Muslimsthe very words of God thatwere dictated to Muhammadby the angel Gabriel. Gener-ally the Qur'an was writtenon pages wider than long, per-haps to differentiate it fromother books. This exampledates from the seventh oreighth century. It is writtenin Kufic script, a formal and

majestic form of Arabic thatwas used for the Qur'an until the eleventh century. The round floral decoration on the right-handpage marks a new section of the text. Property of the Ambrosian Library. All rights reserved

became the Qur'an,* the holy book of Islam.(See pages of a Qur'an above.) Qur'an means"recitation"; each of its chapters, or suras, isunderstood to be God's revelation as told toMuhammad by the archangel Gabriel, thenrecited in turn by Muhammad to others. Itbegins with the Fatihah, frequently also saidas an independent prayer, and continueswith suras of gradually decreasing length,which cover the gamut of human experienceand the life to come (see 'The Fatihah of theQur'an," page 295). For Muslims (literally,"those who submit to Islam") the Qur'an con-tains the foundations of history, prophecy,and the legal and moral code by which menand women should live: "Do not set up anothergod with God— Do not worship anyone butHim, and be good to your parents— Giveto your relatives what is their due, and tothose who are needy, and the wayfarers."

The Qur'an emphasizes the nuclearfamily—a man, his wife (or wives), and chil-dren—as the basic unit of Muslim society.Islam cuts its adherents adrift from the pro-tection and particularism of the tribe butgives them in return an identity as part of theummafi, the community of believers, whoshare both a belief in one God and a set of re-ligious practices. Islam stresses individualbelief in God and adherence to the Qur'an.Thus, Muslims have no priests, no mass,and no intermediaries between the divineand the individual. However, Islam does rec-

»Qur'an: Kur AN/Koo RAHN

ognize authorities whose interpretations ofthe Qur'an and related texts are considereddecisive. The Ka'ba, with its many gods, hadgathered together tribes from the surround-ing vicinity. Muhammad, with his one God,forged an even more universal religion.

Growth of Islam, c. 610-632First to convert to Muhammad's faith was hiswife, Khadija; then a few friends and mem-bers of his immediate family joined him; and,as Muhammad preached the new faith, even-tually some others became adherents. Soon,however, the new faith polarized Meccan so-ciety. Muhammad's insistence that the cultsof all other gods be abandoned in favor of onebrought him into conflict with leading clanmembers of the Quraysh tribe, whose controlover the Ka'ba, a polytheistic shrine, hadgiven them prestige and wealth. Lacking po-litical means to expel him, they insultedMuhammad and harassed his adherents.

Hijra: Journey to Medina. Disillusionedwith Mecca and angry with his own tribe,Muhammad tried to find a place and a popu-lation receptive to his message. Most impor-tant, he expected support from Jews, whosemonotheism, in Muhammad's view, preparedthem for his own faith. When a few of Muham-mad's converts from Medina promised toprotect him if he would join them there, heeagerly accepted the invitation, in part be-cause Medina had a significant Jewish popu-

600-750

I S L A M : A N E W R E L I G I O N A N D A N E W E M P I R E 2 9 5

lation. In 622, Muhammad made the Hijra,*or emigration, to Medina, an oasis about twohundred miles north of Mecca, This journeyproved a crucial event for the fledgling move-ment. At Medina, Muhammad found followersready to listen to his religious message and toregard him as the leader of their community.They expected him to act as a neutral andimpartial judge in their interclan disputes.Muhammad's political position in the com-munity set the pattern by which Islamic so-ciety would be governed afterward; rather thanadding a church to political and cultural life,Muslims made their political and religious in-stitutions inseparable. After Muhammad'sdeath, the year of the Hijra was named thefirst year of the Islamic calendar; it markedthe beginning of the new Islamic era.l

Although successful at Medina, the Mus-lims felt threatened by the Quraysh at Mecca,who actively opposed the public practice ofIslam. For this reason Muhammad led raidsagainst them. At the battle of Badr* in 624,aided by their position near an oasis, Mu-hammad and his followers killed forty-nine ofthe Meccan enemy, took numerous prisoners,and confiscated rich booty. At the battle ofBadr, Bedouin plundering was grafted onto theMuslim duty of jihad (literally, "striving").2

The battle of Badr was a great triumphfor Muhammad, who was now able to con-solidate his position at Medina, gaining newadherents and silencing all doubters, in-cluding the Jews. Muhammad had first seenthe Jews of Medina as allies, but they had notconverted to Islam as he had expected. Sus-pecting them of supporting his enemies,Muhammad expelled two Jewish tribes fromMedina and killed the male members of an-other. Although Muslims had originallyprayed in the direction of Jerusalem, thecenter of Jewish worship, Muhammad nowhad them turn in the direction of Mecca.

HBHMMBMHHBHMM

'Thus, 1 A.H. (1 annoHegirae) on the Muslim calen-dar Is equivalent to 622 C.E.

2Jihod means "striving" and is used in particular inthe context of striving against unbelievers. In thatsense, it is often translated as "holy war." But it canalso mean striving against one's worst impulses.

» Hijra: HID jruh*Badr: BAHD ihr

The Fatihahof the Qur'anThe Fatihah (or Prologue) is the prayer that beginsthe Qur'an. It emphasizes God's oneness and thebeliever's recourse to God alone, without inter-mediaries of any sort. The "path that is straight" isthe path of right worship.

The FatihahIn the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-mercifulAll praise be to AllahLord of all the worlds,2. Most beneficent, ever-merciful,3. King of the Day of Judgement.4. You alone we worship, and to You alone

turn for help.5. Guide us (O Lord) to the path that is

straight,6. The path of those You have blessed,7. Not of those who have earned Your anger,

nor those who have gone astray.

Source: AI-Qur'on: A Contemporary Translation, trans. AhmedAll (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 11.

Defining the Faith. As Muhammad brokewith the Jews, he instituted new practices todefine Islam as a unique religion. Amongthese were the zakat, a tax on possessions tobe used for alms; the fast of Ramadan, whichtook place during the ninth month of the Is-lamic year, the month in which the battle ofBadr had been fought; the hajj, the pilgrim-age to Mecca during the last month of theyear, which each Muslim was to make oncein his lifetime; and the salat, formal wor-ship at least three times a day (later in-creased to five), which could include theshahodah, or profession of faith—'There isno divinity but God, and Muhammad is themessenger of God." Detailed regulations forthese practices, sometimes called the fivepillars of Islam, were worked out in the eighthand early ninth centuries.

296 C H A P T E R 8 • THE HEIRS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE600-750

600-750

Meanwhile, Muhammad sent troops tosubdue Arabs north and south. In 630, heentered Mecca with ten thousand men andtook over the city, assuring the Quraysh of le-niency and offering alliances with its leaders.By this time the prestige of Islam was enoughto convince clans elsewhere to convert.Through a combination of force, conversion,and negotiation, Muhammad was able tounite many, though by no means all, Arabic-speaking tribes under his leadership by thetime of his death two years later.

In so doing, Muhammad brought aboutimportant social transformations. Theummah included not only men but alsowomen; as a result, women's status was en-hanced. Islam prohibited all infanticide, apractice that had long been used largelyagainst female infants; and at first, Muslimwomen joined men during the prayer periodsthat punctuated the day. Men were allowedto have up to four wives at one time, but they

were obliged to treat them equally; theirwives received dowries and had certain in-heritance rights. But beginning in the eighthcentury, women began to pray apart from themen. Like Judaism and Christianity, Islamretained the practices of a patriarchal societyin which women's participation in commu-nity life was circumscribed.

Even though Islamic society was a newsort of community, in many ways it did func-tion as a tribe, or rather a "supertribe," obli-gated to fight common enemies, share plunder,and resolve peacefully any internal disputes.Muslims participated in group rituals, such asthe salat and public recitation. The Qur'anwas soon publicly sung by professional re-citers, much as the old tribal poetry had been.Most significant for the eventual spread ofIslam, Muslim men continued to be warriors.They took up where Meccan traders had beenforced to leave off; along the routes once takenby caravans to Syria, their armies reaped

Expansion under Muhammad, 622-632

Expansion under the first caliphs, to 661

I I Expansion under the Umayyads, to 750

Battle

ATLANTICrtrn A \r KINGD0M

Black Sea

Constantinople

N T I N E E M P I * *

MAP 8.3 Expansion of Islam to 750In little more than a century, Islamic armies conquered a vast region that included numerous differentpeople, cultures, climates, and living conditions. Yet under the Umayyads, these disparate territorieswere administered by one ruler from the capital city at Damascus. The uniting force was the religionof Islam, which gathered all believers into one community, the ummah.

profits at thefrom intertripeople who \f God ag£

Prophet," sa;believers anithem firmly,what a wretc

The Caliph;Successors,In foundingArabia, MulArab societyand welcorrforged the IVforce, and hinto the By;ing them bj

War and Cilims easilyand movedTo the eastpire, defeatof their capof Persia wing the lasthe beginnextended tand to Ind

How wpecially inforces canThe Byzanhausted fnthe MiddlePersians adepopulatwith heav;welcomedterritoriesMonophysand EgyptByzantinelamic oviphysites,best irrelKings ancnal reasoalso interused to i

600-750ISLAM: A NEW R E L I G I O N AND A NEW EMPIRE 297

profits at the point of a sword. But this differedfrom intertribal fighting; it was the jihad ofpeople who were carrying out the injunctionof God against unbelievers. "Strive, OProphet," says the Qur'an, "against the un-believers and the hypocrites, and deal withthem firmly. Their final abode is Hell: Andwhat a wretched destination!"

The Caliphs, Muhammad'sSuccessors, 632-750In founding a new political community inArabia, Muhammad reorganized traditionalArab society as he cut across clan allegiancesand welcomed converts from every tribe. Heforged the Muslims into a formidable militaryforce, and his successors, the caliphs, movedinto the Byzantine and Persian worlds, tak-ing them by storm.

War and Conquest. To the west, the Mus-lims easily took Byzantine territory in Syriaand moved into Egypt in the 640s (Map 8.3).To the east, they invaded the Sassanid Em-pire, defeating the Persians at the very gatesof their capital, Ctesiphon, in 637. The wholeof Persia was in Muslim hands by 651. Dur-ing the last half of the seventh century andthe beginning of the eighth, Islamic warriorsextended their sway to Spain (in the west)and to India (in the east).

How were such conquests possible, es-pecially in so short a time? First, the Islamicforces came up against weakened empires.The Byzantine and Sassanid states were ex-hausted from fighting each other. The cities ofthe Middle East that had been taken by thePersians and retaken by the Byzantines weredepopulated, their few survivors burdenedwith heavy taxes. Second, the Muslims werewelcomed into both Byzantine and Sassanidterritories by discontented groups. ManyMonophysite Christians (see p. 276) in Syriaand Egypt had suffered persecution under theByzantines and were glad to have new, Is-lamic overlords. In Persia, Jews, Mono-physites, and Nestorian Christians were atbest irrelevant to the Zoroastrian King ofKings and his regime. These were the exter-nal reasons for Islamic success. There werealso internal reasons. Arabs had long beenused to intertribal warfare; now they were

Arab CoinThe Arabs learned coinageand minting from those

whom they con-quered—the Persians

and the Byzantines.Although one branch of

Islam barred depictingthe human form, others 1were less condemning.Thus, the Umayyads sawnothing wrong with imitat-

ing traditional numismaticmodels. The ruler depicted onthis silver coin wears a headdressthat echoes the one worn by the Sassanid ruler de-picted on page 287. The word for this type of coin,

dirham, is Greek, from drachma. The Umayyad fiscalsystem, which retained the old Roman land tax, was

administered by Syrians, who had often served Byzan-tine rulers in the same capacity. The British Museum.

united as a supertribe. The tribes of the citieshad been the first to convert to Islam; theythen brought the Bedouins into the fold, con-solidating all of Arabia under one Islamicstate. Under the banner of jihad, these unitedtribes exercised their skills as warriors notagainst one another but rather against un-believers. Fully armed, on horseback, em-ploying camels as convoys, they conqueredwith amazing ease. Then, making their vic-tories permanent, they built garrison citiesfrom which soldiers requisitioned taxes andgoods. Sometimes whole Arab tribes, includ-ing women and children, were imported tosettle conquered territory, as happened inparts of Syria. In other regions, such as Egypt,a small Muslim settlement at Fustat sufficedto gather the spoils of conquest.

The Politics of Succession. Struck downby an illness in the midst of preparations foran invasion of Syria, Muhammad died quietlyat Medina in 632. His death marked a crisisin the government of the new Islamic stateand was the origin of tension between Shi'iteand Sunni Muslims that continues today.The choice of caliphs to follow Muhammadwas difficult. They came not from the tradi-tional tribal elite but rather from a new innercircle of men who had participated in the

298 CHAPTER 8 • THE HEIRS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

600-750

Hijra and remained close to Muhammad.The first two caliphs ruled without seriousopposition, but the third caliph, Uthman(r. 644-656), a member of the Umayyad*family and son-in-law (by marriage to twodaughters) of Muhammad, aroused discon-tent among other clan members of the innercircle and soldiers unhappy with his distri-bution of high offices and revenues. AccusingUthman of favoritism, they supported hisrival, All, a member of the Hashim clan (towhich Muhammad had belonged) and thehusband of Muhammad's only survivingchild, Fatimah. After a group of discontentedsoldiers murdered Uthman, civil war brokeout between the Umayyads and All's faction.It ended when Ali was killed by one of his ownerstwhile supporters, and the caliphate re-mained in Umayyad hands from 661 to 750.

Nevertheless, the Shi'atAli, the faction ofAli, did not fade away. All's memory lived onamong groups of Muslims (the Shi'ites) whosaw in him a symbol of justice and righ-teousness. For them, All's death was themartyrdom of the only true successor toMuhammad. They remained faithful to hisdynasty, shunning the mainstream caliphs ofthe other Muslims (Sunni Muslims, as theywere later called, from Surma, the practices ofMuhammad). The Shi'ites awaited the arrivalof the true leader—the imam—who in theirview could come only from the house of Ali.

Under the Umayyad caliphate, whichlasted from 661 to 750, the Muslim world be-came a state with its capital at Damascus,the historic capital of Syria—and today's aswell. Borrowing from the institutions wellknown to the civilizations they had just con-quered, the Muslims issued coins and hiredformer Byzantine and Persian officials. Theymade Arabic a tool of centralization, impos-ing it as the language of government on re-gions not previously united linguistically.For Byzantium, this period was one ofunparalleled military crisis, the prelude toiconoclasm. For the Islamic world, now amultiethnic society of Muslim Arabs, Syrians,Egyptians, Iraqis, and other peoples, it wasa period of settlement, new urbanism, and lit-erary and artistic flowering.

* Umayyad: oo MAH yuhd

Peace and Prosperityin Islamic Lands

Ironically, the Islamic warriors brought peace.While the conquerors stayed within their for-tified cities or built magnificent hunting lodgesin the deserts of Syria, the conquered wentback to work, to study, to play, and—in thecase of Christians and Jews, who were con-sidered protected subjects—to worship asthey pleased in return for the payment of aspecial tax. At Damascus, local artists andcraftspeople worked on the lavish decorationsfor a mosque in a neoclassical style at the verymoment Muslim armies were storming thewalls of Constantinople. Leaving the Byzantineinstitutions in place, the Muslim conquerorsallowed Christians and Jews to retain theirposts and even protected dissidents.

During the seventh and eighth centuries,Muslim scholars wrote down the hithertolargely oral Arabic literature. They deter-mined the definitive form for the Qur'an andcompiled pious narratives about Muham-mad (hadith literature). Scribes composedthese works in exquisite handwriting; Arabcalligraphy became an art form. A literateclass, composed mainly of the old Persianand Syrian elite now converted to Islam, cre-ated new forms of prose writing in Arabic—official documents as well as essays on top-ics ranging from hunting to ruling. Umayyadpoetry explored new worlds of thought andfeeling. Patronized by the caliphs, who foundin written poetry an important source of pro-paganda and a buttress for their power, thepoets also reached a wider audience thatdelighted in their clever use of words, theirsatire, and their invocations of courage, piety,and sometimes erotic love:

/ spent the night as her bed-companion,each enamored of the other.And I made her laugh and cry, and strippedher of her clothes.I played with her and she vanquished me;I made her happy and I angered her.That was a night we spent, in my sleep,playing and joyful,

But the caller to prayer woke me up.

Such poetry scandalized conservativeMuslims, brought up on the ascetic tenets of

WESTERN EUROPE: A MEDLEY OF KINGDOMS 299600-750

the Qur'an. But this love poetry was a prod-uct of the new urban civilization of theUmayyad period, during which wealth, cul-tural mix, and the confidence born of con-quest inspired diverse and experimental lit-erary forms. By the close of the Umayyadperiod in 750, Islamic civilization was multi-ethnic, urban, and sophisticated, a true heirof Roman and Persian traditions.

Review: How and why did the Muslims conquerso many lands in the very short period 632-750?

»> Western Europe:A Medley of KingdomsWith the demise of Roman im-perial government in the west-ern half of the empire, the re-gion was divided into a numberof kingdoms: various monarchsruled in Spain, Italy, England,and Gaul. The primary foun-dations of power and stabilityin all of these kingdoms werekinship networks, church pa-tronage, royal courts, andwealth derived from land andplunder. In contrast to Byzan-tium, where an emperor stillruled as the successor to Au-gustus and Constantine, draw-ing upon an unbroken chain ofRoman legal and administra-tive traditions, political powerin western Europe was morediffuse. There were kings, tobe sure; but in some placeschurchmen and rich magnateswere even more powerful thanroyalty. Power lodged too (aspeople believed) in the tombsand relics of saints, who rep-resented and wielded the di-vine forces of God. Althoughthe patterns of daily life andthe procedures of governmentin western Europe remainedrecognizably Roman, they werealso in the process of change,

borrowing from and adapting to local tradi-tions and to the very powerful role of theChristian religion in every aspect of society.

Prankish Kingdomswith Roman RootsThe most important kingdoms in post-RomanEurope were Prankish. During the sixth cen-tury, the Franks had established themselvesas dominant in Gaul, and by the seventh cen-tury the limits of their kingdoms roughly ap-proximated the eastern borders of present-day France, Belgium, the Netherlands, andLuxembourg (Map 8.4). Moreover, the Frank-ish kings, known as the Merovingians* (the

^Merovingians: Mehr oh VIN jians

I 1 Merovingian kingdoms

I I Tributary regions 0 100 200 kilometers

Limoges,

AQUITAINE

BAVARIA

Salzburg •

1 BURGUNDY '-,

/ /Lyon .

KINGDOM OFTHE VISIGOTHS

.PROVENCE '

KINGDOM OFTHE LOMBARDS

MarseilleAdriatic

Sea

Mediterranean Sea

MAP 8.4 The Merovingian Kingdoms in the Seventh CenturyBy the seventh century, there were three powerful Merovingian kingdoms: Neustria,Austrasia, and Burgundy. The important cities of Aquitaine were assigned to one ofthese major kingdoms, while Aquitaine as a whole was assigned to a duke or othergovernor. Kings did not establish capital cities; they did not even stay in one place. Rather,they continually traveled throughout their kingdoms, making their power felt in person.

326 CHAPTER 9 • UNITY AND D IVERSITY IN THREE SOCIETIES

750-1050

such links through his own marriage andthose of his sons and daughters to rulersand princely families in France, Hungary,and Scandinavia. laroslav encouraged intel-lectual and artistic developments that wouldconnect Russian culture to the classical past.At his own church of St. Sophia, at Kiev, whichcopied the one at Constantinople, laroslavcreated a major library.

When laroslav died, his kingdom wasdivided among his sons. Civil wars brokeout between the brothers and eventually be-tween cousins, shredding what unity Russiahad known. Massive invasions by outsiders,particularly from the east, further weakenedKievan rulers, who were eventually displacedby princes from northern Russia. At thecrossroads of East and West, Russia couldmeet and absorb a great variety of tradi-tions; but its situation also opened it to un-remitting military pressures.

Review: What were the effects of expansion onthe power of the Byzantine emperor?

* The Islamic World: FromUnity to Fragmentation

A new dynasty of caliphs—the Abbasids—first brought unity and then, in their de-cline, fragmentation to the Islamic world.Caliphs continued to rule in name only as re-gional rulers took over the real business ofgovernment in Islamic lands. Local tradi-tions based on religious and political differ-ences played an increasingly important rolein people's lives. Yet, even in the eleventh cen-tury, the Islamic world had a clear sense ofits own unity, which came from language,commercial life, and vigorous intellectualdebate across regional boundaries.

The Abbasid Caliphate, 750-c. 950

In 750, a civil war ousted the Umayyads andraised the Abbasids* to the caliphate. TheAbbasids found support in an uneasy coali-tion of Shi'ites (the faction of Islam loyal to

* .Abbasids: A buh suhds

All's memory) and non-Arabs who had beenexcluded from Umayyad government andnow demanded a place in political life. Thenew regime signaled a revolution. The centerof Islamic rule shifted from Damascus, withits roots in the Roman tradition, to Baghdad,a new capital city, built by the Abbasidsright next to Ctesiphon, which had been theSassanid capital. Here the Abbasid caliphsimitated the Persian King of Kings (whoseimage they knew from sculptures such as theone on page 287) and adopted the court cer-emony of the Sassanids. Their administrationgrew more and more centralized: the caliph'sstaff grew, and he controlled the appointmentof regional governors.

The Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid»(r. 786-809) presided over a flourishing em-pire from Baghdad. His contemporary Frank-ish ruler, Charlemagne, was very impressedwith the elephant Harun sent him as a gift,along with monkeys, spices, and medicines.But these items were mainstays of everydaycommerce in Harun's Iraq. For example, amid-ninth-century list of imports invento-ried "tigers, panthers, elephants, pantherskins, rubies, white sandal, ebony, and co-conuts" from India, as well as "silk, china-ware, paper, ink, peacocks, racing horses,saddles, felts [and] cinnamon" from China.

The Abbasid dynasty began to declineafter Harun's death. Obliged to support ahuge army and increasingly complex civilservice, the Abbasids found their tax base in-adequate. They needed to collect revenuesfrom their provinces, such as Syria andEgypt, but the governors of those regionsoften refused to send the revenues. AfterHarun's caliphate, ex-soldiers seeking bettersalaries recognized different caliphs andfought for power in savage civil wars. Thecaliphs tried to bypass the regular army,made up largely of free Muslim foot soldiers,by turning to slaves, bought and armed toserve as mounted cavalry. This tactic failed,however, and in the tenth century the caliphsbecame figureheads only. Religious leader-ship was now in the hands of religious schol-ars. Political leadership fell into the hands ofindependent rulers, who established them-selves in the various Islamic regions. To sup-

* Harun al-Rashid: huh ROON ahl run SHEED

THE ISLAMIC WORLD: FROM UNITY TO FRAGMENTATION 327750-10SO

Normandy ^~~\S "«"<

ATLANTIC Bu

OCEAN

UMAYYADAL-ANDALUS

(SPAIN)

•Cordoba

Rome.

Naples* fiy^

Black Sea

Constantinople

4 J V T I NHAMDANID

DYNASTY7 •'-,.

r-r-n Territories dependent onFatimid overlordship

SYRIAIRAQ IRA1ijS ^Baghdad

Jamascus '^fvABBASID CALIPHATE(BUYID DYNASTY)

MAP 9.2 Islamic States, c. 1000A glance back at Map 8.3 on page 296 will quickly demonstrate the fragmentation of the onceunited Islamic caliphate. In 750, one caliph ruled territory stretching from Spain to India. In 1000,there was more than one caliphate as well as several other ruling dynasties. The most importantwere the Fatimids, who began as organizers of a movement to overthrow the Abbasids. By 1000,they had conquered Egypt and claimed hegemony over all of North Africa.

port themselves militarily, many of thesenew rulers came to depend on independentmilitary commanders who led armies ofMamluks*—Turkish slaves or freedmentrained as professional mounted soldiers.Mamluks were well paid to maintain theirmounts and arms, and many gained renownand high positions at the courts of regionalrulers.

Thus, in the Islamic world, as in theByzantine, a new military elite arose. Butthe Muslim and Byzantine elites differed inkey ways. Whereas the Byzantine dynatoiwere rooted in specific regions—tied to theirestates and extended families—the Mam-luks were highly mobile. They were not sup-ported by land but rather were paid fromtaxes collected by local rulers. Organizedinto tightly knit companies bound together bydevotion to a particular general and by astrong camaraderie, they easily changed em-ployers, moving from ruler to ruler for pay.

•Mamluks: MAM looks

Regional Diversity

A faraway caliph could not command suffi-cient allegiance from local leaders once hedemanded more in taxes than he gave backin favors. The forces of fragmentation werestrong in the Islamic world: it was, after all,based on the conquest of many diverse re-gions, each with its own deeply rooted tra-ditions and culture. The Islamic religion,with its Sunni/Shi'ite split, also became asource of polarization. Western Europeansknew almost nothing about Muslims, callingall of them Saracens* (from the Latin for"Arabs") without distinction. But, in fact,Muslims were of different ethnicities, prac-ticed different customs, and identified withdifferent regions. With the fragmentation ofpolitical and religious unity, each of thetenth- and early-eleventh-century Islamicstates built on local traditions under localrulers (Map 9.2).

* Saracens: SAIR uh suhns

328 CHAPTER 9* UNITY AND D I V E R S I T Y IN THREE S O C I E T I E S750-1050

Dome of the Mihrab ofthe Great Mosque at CordobaThe mihrab is the prayer niche of the mosque, locatedso that the worshiper facing it is thereby facing Mecca.For the one at Cordoba, built between 961 and 976by the Andalusian caliph al-Hakam, Byzantine mo-saicists were imported to produce a decoration thatwould recall the mosaics of the Great Mosque atDamascus (see page 282). Why would this caliph,a Umayyad, be particularly interested in remindingAndalusians of the Damascus mosque? Institut Amatllerd'Art Hispanic, Barcelona.

The Fatimid Dynasty. In the tenth century,one group of Shi'ites, calling themselves theFatimids* (after Fatimah, Muhammad's onlysurviving child and wife of All), began a suc-cessful political movement. Allying with theBerbers in North Africa, the Fatimids estab-lished themselves in 909 as rulers in the regionnow called Tunisia. The Fatimid Ubayd Allah*claimed to be not only the true imam,*descendant of Ali, but also the mahdi,* the"divinely guided" messiah, come to bringjustice on earth. In 969, the Fatimids declared

* Fatimids: FAT ih mihds* Ubayd Allah: ub EYED a LAH*imam: ih MAHM* mahdi: MAH dee

themselves rulers of Egypt. Their dynasty last-ed for about two hundred years. Fatimid lead-ers also controlled North Africa, Arabia, andeven Syria for a time.

The Spanish Emirate. Whereas the Shi'itesdominated Egypt, Sunni Muslims ruled al-Andalus,* the Islamic central and southernheart of Spain. Unlike the other indepen-dent Islamic states, which were forged duringthe ninth and tenth centuries, the Spanishemirate of Cordoba* (so called because itsruler took the secular title emir* "comman-der," and fixed his capital at Cordoba) wascreated near the start of the Abbasid cali-phate, in 756. During the Abbasid revolution,Abd al-Rahman—a member of the Umayyadfamily—fled to Morocco, gathered an army,invaded Spain, and was declared emir afteronly one battle. He and his successors ruleda broad range of peoples, including manyJews and Christians. After the initial Islamicconquest of Spain, the Christians adopted somuch of the new language and so many ofthe customs that they were called Mozarabs, *that is, "like Arabs." The Arabs allowed themfreedom of worship and let them live ac-cording to their own laws. Some Mozarabswere content with their status, others con-verted to Islam, and still others intermar-ried—most commonly, Christian womenmarried Muslim men and raised their childrenas Muslims, since the religion of the father de-termined that of the children.

Abd al-Rahman* III (r. 912-961) waspowerful enough to take the title of caliph; thecaliphate of Cordoba that he created lastedfrom 929 to 1031. Under Abd al-Rahman'srule members of all religious groups in al-Andalus were given absolute freedom of wor-ship and equal opportunity to rise in thecivil service. The caliph also initiated impor-tant diplomatic contracts with Byzantine andEuropean rulers, ignoring the weak and tinyChristian kingdoms squeezed into northernSpain. His successor, al-Hakam, built asplendid mihrab at Cordoba (see Dome of the

*al-Andalus: al AND uh loos* Cordoba: KAWR duh buh*emir: ih MIHR* Mozarabs: moh ZAR ruhbs*Abd al-Rahman: uhb dur rahk MAHN

4 750-1050

THE ISLAMIC WORLD: FROM UNITY TO FRAGMENTATION 329

Mihrab at Cordoba, page 328). Yet underlater caliphs, al-Andalus, too, experiencedthe same political fragmentation that wasoccurring everywhere else. The caliphate ofCordoba broke up in 1031, and rulers ofsmall, independent regions, called tai/os,*took power.

Unity of Commerce and LanguageAlthough the regions of the Islamic worldwere diverse culturally and politically, theymaintained a measure of unity through tradenetworks and language. Their principal bondwas Arabic, the language of the Qur'an. Atonce poetic and sacred, Arabic was also thelanguage of commerce and government fromBaghdad to Cordoba. Moreover, despite po-litical differences, borders were open: anartisan could move from Cordoba to Cairo; alandowner in Morocco might very well ownproperty in al-Andalus; a young man fromNorth Africa would think nothing of going toBaghdad to find a wife; a young girl pur-chased as a slave in Mecca might become partof a prince's household in Baghdad. Withfew barriers to commerce (though every cityand town had its own customs dues), tradersregularly dealt in various, often exotic, goods.

Although the primary reason for theseopen borders was Islam itself, the opennessextended to non-Muslims as well. We happento know a good deal about the Tustari* broth-ers, Jewish merchants from southern Iran.The Tustaris' commercial activities were typ-ical in the Arabic-speaking world. By 1026,they had established a flourishing businessin Egypt. They did not have "branch offices,"but informal contacts allowed them many ofthe same advantages and much flexibility:friends and family in Iran shipped the broth-ers fine textiles to sell in Egypt, and the Tus-taris exported Egyptian fabrics to sell in Iran.Dealing in fabrics could yield fabulouswealth, for cloth was essential not only forclothing but also for home decoration: textilescovered walls; curtains separated rooms.The Tustari brothers held the highest rank inJewish society and had contacts with Muslimrulers. The son of one of the brothers con-

»taifos: TYfuhs*Tustari: tus TAR ee

verted to Islam and became vizier (chiefminister) to the Fatimids in Egypt. But thesophisticated Islamic society of the tenthand eleventh centuries supported networkseven more vast than those represented bythe Tustari family. Muslim merchantsbrought tin from England; salt and gold fromTimbuktu in west-central Africa; amber, gold,and copper from Russia; and slaves fromevery region.

The Islamic Renaissance,c. 790-c. 1050The dissolution of the caliphate into separatepolitical entities multiplied the centers oflearning and intellectual productivity. Unlikethe Macedonian renaissance, which was con-centrated in Constantinople, a renaissance ofIslam occurred throughout the Islamic world.It was particularly dazzling in capital citiessuch as Cordoba, where tenth-century rulerspresided over a brilliant court culture, patron-izing scholars, poets, and artists. The libraryat Cordoba contained the largest collection ofbooks in Europe at that time.

Elsewhere, already in the eighth cen-tury, the Abbasid caliphs endowed researchlibraries and set up centers for translationwhere scholars culled the writings of the an-cients, including the classics of Persia, India,and Greece. Many scholars read, translated,and commented on the works of ancientphilosophers. Others worked on astronomy(see Andromeda C, page 330), and still oth-ers wrote on mathematical matters. Al-Khwarizmi's* book on equations, writtenaround 825, became so well known in theWest that the word al-jabr in the title of hisbook became the English word algebra.Muhammad ibn Musa* (d. 850) used nu-merals such as 1, 2, and 3, which had beencreated in India, in his treatise on arith-metical calculations. Inventing the crucialplaceholder zero, Musa was for the first timeable to manipulate very large numbers (some-thing impossible with Roman numerals). Whenthese numerals were introduced into westernEurope in the twelfth century, they were knownas Arabic, as they are still called today.

»Al-Khwarizmi: al KWAHR ihz mee* Muhammad ibn Musa: moh HAM uhd

330 CHAPTER 9 » UNITY AND DIVERSITY IN THREE SOCIETIES

750-1050 .

v<s

Andromeda C. (11th century)The study of sciences such as medicine, physics, andastronomy flourished in the tenth and eleventh cen-turies in the cosmopolitan Islamic world. This whimsi-cal depiction of Andromeda C, a constellation in theNorthern Hemisphere, illustrates the Book of Images ofthe Fixed Stars, an astronomical treatise written around965 by al-Sufi at the request of his "pupil," the ruler ofIran. Since the Muslim calendar was lunar and thetimes of Muslim prayer were calculated by the move-ment of the sun, astronomy was important for religiousas well as secular purposes. Al-Sufi drew from classicaltreatises, particularly the Almagest by Ptolemy. Thiscopy of his book, probably made by his son in 1009,also draws on classical models for the illustrations; butinstead of Greek clothing, Andromeda wears the pan-taloons and skirt of an Islamic dancer. Reference (shelf-mark) MS Marsh 144. Bodleian Library. University of Oxford.

The newly independent Islamic rulerssupported science as well as mathematics.Ibn Sina* (980-1037), known in ChristianEurope as Avicenna,* wrote books on logic,

*Ibn Sina: Ihb uhn SEE nah*Avicenna: a vuh SEH nuh

the natural sciences, and physics. HisCanon of Medicine systematized earlier trea-tises and reconciled them with his own ex-perience as a physician. Active in the centersof power, he served as vizier to variousrulers. In his autobiography he spoke withpleasure and pride about his intellectualdevelopment:

One day I asked permission [of the ruler] to gointo /his doctors'] library, look at their books, andread the medical ones. He gave me permission,and I went into a palace of many rooms, eachwith trunks full of books, back-to-back. In oneroom there were books on Arabic and poetry, inanother books on jurisprudence, and similarly ineach room books on a single subject....When I reached the age of eighteen, I had com-pleted the study of all these sciences.

Long before there were universities inEurope, there were important institutionsof higher learning in the Islamic world. RichMuslims, often members of the ruling elite,demonstrated their piety and charity byestablishing schools for professors and stu-dents. Each school, or madrasa.* was lo-cated within or attached to a mosque. Pro-fessors held classes throughout the day onthe interpretation of the Qur'an and otherliterary or legal texts. Students, all male,attended the classes that suited theirachievement level and interest. Most stu-dents paid a fee for learning, but there werealso scholarship students. One tenth-centuryvizier was so solicitous of the welfare of allscholars that each day he set out iced re-freshments, candles, and paper for them inhis own kitchen.

The use of paper, made from flax andhemp or rags and vegetable fiber, points to amajor difference among the Islamic, Byzan-tine, and (as we shall see) Carolingian renais-sances. Byzantine scholars worked to en-hance the prestige of the ruling classes. Theirwork, written on expensive parchment (madefrom animal skins), kept manuscripts outof the hands of all but the very rich. This wastrue of scholarship in Europe as well. Bycontrast, Islamic scholars had goals that cut

* madrasa: muh DRA suh

750-1050

THE CREATION AND DIV IS ION OF A NEW EUROPEAN EMPIRE 331

across all social classes: to be physicians tothe rich, teachers to the young, and con-tributors to passionate religious debates.Their writings, on paper (less expensive thanparchment), were widely available.

Review: What forces led to the fragmentationof the Islamic world in the tenth and eleventhcenturies?

<* The Creation andDivision of a NewEuropean EmpireJust as in the Byzantine and Islamic worlds,so too in Europe the period 750-1050 sawfirst the formation of a strong empire, ruledby one man, and then its fragmentation aslocal rulers took power into their own hands.A new dynasty, the Carolingians, came torule in the Prankish kingdom at almost thevery moment (c. 750) that the Abbasidsgained the caliphate. Charlemagne, the mostpowerful Carolingian monarch, conquerednew territory, took the title of emperor, andpresided over a revival of Christian classicalculture known as the Carolingian renais-sance. He ruled at the local level throughcounts and other military men. Neverthe-less, the unity of this empire—based largelyon conquest, a measure of prosperity, andpersonal allegiance to Charlemagne—wasshaky. Its weaknesses were exacerbated byattacks from invaders—Vikings, Muslims,and Magyars. Charlemagne's successorsdivided his empire among themselves andsaw it divided further as local leaders tookdefense—and rule—into their own hands.

The Rise of the CarolingiansThe Carolingians were among many aristo-cratic families on the rise during the Merovin-gian period, but they gained exceptionalpower by monopolizing the position of "palacemayor" under the Merovingian kings. CharlesMartel, mayor 714-741, gave the name

Carolingian (from Carolus, the Latin for"Charles") to the dynasty. Renowned for de-feating an invading army of Muslims from al-Andalus between Poitiers* and Tours in 732,he also contended vigorously against otheraristocrats who were carving out independentlordships for themselves. Charles and hisfamily turned aristocratic factions againstone another, rewarded supporters, crushedenemies, and dominated whole regions bysupporting monasteries that served as focalpoints for both religious piety and land do-nations.

The Carolingians also allied themselveswith the Roman papacy and its adherents.They supported Anglo-Saxon missionarieslike Boniface,* who went to areas on thefringes of the Carolingian realm as the pope'sambassador. Reforming the Christianity thatthese regions had adopted, Boniface set up ahierarchical church organization and foundedmonasteries dedicated to the Benedictinerule. His newly appointed bishops were loyalto Rome and the Carolingians. Pippin III (d.768), Charles Martel's son, turned to thepope even more directly. When he deposedthe Merovingian king in 751, taking over thekingship himself, Pippin petitioned PopeZachary to legitimize the act. The popeagreed. The Carolingians readily returnedthe favor a few years later when the popeasked for their help in defense against hos-tile Lombards. That papal request signaled amajor shift. Before 754, the papacy had beenpart of the Byzantine Empire; after that, itturned to Europe for protection. Pippinlaunched a successful campaign against theLombard king that ended in 756 with the so-called Donation of Pippin, a peace accordbetween the Lombards and the pope. Thetreaty gave back to the pope cities that hadbeen ruled by the Lombard king. The new ar-rangement recognized what the papacy hadlong ago created: a territorial "republic of St.Peter" ruled by the pope, not by the Byzan-tine emperor. Henceforth, the fate of Italywould be tied largely to the policies of thepope and the Frankish kings to the north, notto the emperors of the East.

* Poitiers: pwah tee AY*Boniface: BAH nuh funs