Chapter 6The Rise and Spread of

Islam

Saeed Tahseen” titled “Salah Aldeen Al-Aiubi”.

• Arabian peninsula is shaped by bedouin culture, which emphasized:– Kin-related clans

which formed larger tribes led by shaykhs

– Interclan rivalry for resources

– Women playing key roles and enjoying greater relative freedom

– A religion that blends animism and polytheism

Desert & TownThe Pre-Islamic Arabic

World

Towns & Trade

• Arabian peninsula lies on the periphery of the classical world

• Bedouins live by herding; cities develop further south (Mecca and Medina)

• Fierce competition and battles over oases and trade routes

Muhammad and the Birth of Islam

• 7th century C.E., a new religion arose in the Arabian peninsula.

• Built on the revelations received by the prophet Muhammad, Islam won over many camel-herding tribes of the peninsula within decades.

• Islam united Arabs under an important ethical system.

• Islam’s beliefs and practices (including the five pillars) eventually made it one of the great world religions.

The archangel Gabriel brings the word of God to Muhammad. (Turkish poet - Siyer-i Nebi: The Life of the Prophet, 1595.)

•Why are paintings like this not accepted in all Muslim societies?

•

Birth of the Prophet Muhammad

Siyer-i Nebi: The Life of the Prophet. Istanbul, 1594.

What scene does this painting

resemble?What are the differences?

Persecution, Flight & Victory

• Muhammad gains a small following but it constantly threatened by the Umayyad

• Hijra to Medina creates a loyal core and the return to Mecca makes the new faith permanent

The Prophet and his companions advancing on Mecca, attended by the angels Gabriel, Michael, Israfil and Azrail.Siyer-i Nebi: The Life of the Prophet 1595.

What Islam Offers

• One god that transcends all clan rivalries• End to vendettas and feuds under the

umma• An ethical system that heals social rifts• A code of law to organize society• An acceptance of the revelations in

Judaism and Christianity which makes it easier for Islam to spread

The Death of Muhammad

• Many bedouin reject Islam• Conflict over succession• Abu Bakr works to bring

people back into the umma• Conquests into the Persian

and Byzantine empires garners wealth and spreads Islam

• Mourning of the Death of MuhammadSiyer-i Nebi: The Life of the Prophet. Istanbul, 1595.

http://wpscms.pearsoncmg.com/wps/media/objects/3052/3125929/flash/ch7/ch07.swf

The Expansion of Islam

Umayyad Rule and the Sunni-Shi’a Split

• Conflict over successors leads to split, which remains to this day

• Umayyad settle internal disputes and pushed forward into central Asia, northwest India, and southwestern Europe.

• built an imperial administration with both bureaucracy and military dominated by a Muslim Arab elite.

Umayyad policy did not prevent interaction, intermarriage, and conversion between Arabs and their subjects.

Converts paid taxes and did not receive a share of booty; they were blocked from important positions in the army or bureaucracy.

Most of the conquered peoples were Dhimmis (people of the book). Included Jews and Christians; later Zoroastrians and Hindus.

Dhimmis had to pay taxes but could retain their own religious and social organization.

Converts and “People of the Book.”

Family and Gender Roles• Altered as the Muslim community expanded.

Initially, the more favorable status of women prevailed over the seclusion and male domination common in the Middle East.

• Quran stressed the moral and ethical dimensions of marriage. Adultery of both partners wasdenounced; female infanticide was forbidden. Women could have only one husband,but men were allowed four wives, though all had to be treated equally.

• Muhammad strengthened women’s legal rights in inheritance and divorce.

• Both sexes were equal before Allah

Abbasid Era • Focus on luxury and weakened military led to decline of Umayyad

• Abbasid clan wins power; led to increased bureaucratic expansion, absolutism, and luxurious livingMalwiya Minaret

Abbasid Policies• Stressed conversion

and turned against the Shi’a and other allies to support a less tolerant Sunni Islam.

• Accepted Persian ruling concepts

• Large bureaucracy worked under the wazir, or chief administrator.

• Mawali were fully integrated into the Muslim community.

• Most conversions occurred peacefully

Town and Country: Commercial Boom & Agrarian Expansion

Flowering of Islamic Learning

• Before Islam—no writing/knowledge of the outside world.

Receptive to the accomplishments of conquered civs

Islamic learning flourished in religion, law, philosophy, sciences and mathematics.

Recovered and preserved the works of earlier civs (Greeks) which was passed on to the Christian world.

Global Connections

• Basis for the first global civilization

• Islam becomes one of the great universal religions.

• Arabs absorbed precedents from earlier civilizations.

• Muslims did the same in the arts and sciences, later contributing to other societies in Europe, Africa, and Asia.