Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam AUTUMN & WINTER ...
The World of Late Antiquity and Arabia Before Islam
description
Transcript of The World of Late Antiquity and Arabia Before Islam
The World of Late Antiquity and Arabia Before Islam
HIST 10079/6/13
Cultural Hegemony
Alexander’s Empire
Alexander’s Empire
• Political heir to Achaemenid Empire• Hellenic Culture• Aristotle (384-322BCE)• “to the strongest”
Diadochi
• Seleucids (r. 311-63BCE) – Mesopotamia and Iran
• Ptolemaic Dynasty (r. 303-47BCE) – Egypt
• Antigonids (r. 306-167BCE) – Macedonia
• Other smaller dynasties…
Diadochi
Hellenistic Age
• Hellenization• Cultural Hegemony
Iskandir
Alexandria
Empire
• Neo-Assyrians – Dominance
• Achaemenid Persians – Hegemony
• Alexander the Great – Cultural Hegemony
The Roman Empire
• 290BCE – Italy• 264-202BCE – Western Mediterranean• 200-30BCE – Eastern Mediterranean• 59-51BCE - Gaul
Pax Romana
The Byzantine Empire
Constantine the Great (r. 306-337) and Constantinople (324)
From Milan to Thessalonica• 313: Edict of Milan:Ends persecution of Christians• 325: First Council of Nicaea:Nicaean Creed• 380: The Edict of Thessalonica:Nicaean Christianity becomes state religion of Roman Empire
Justinian the Great (r. 527-565)
Hagia Sophia
Extent of Justinian’s Empire
Justinian’s Plague, 541-767
• 541 – outbreak of bubonic plague• Flea bites infected rat• Flea bites human• Infected human sneezes• 25% of Mediterranean
population dead• 40% of Constantinople
Sasanian Empire (224-651)
First Byzantine-Sasanian War (572-591)
Emperor Justin II (r. 565-578) andShahanshah Khosrau I (r. 531-579)
Chaos in Constantinople
• Maurice Tiberius (r. 582-602)
• Phocas (r. 602-610)• Heraclius (r. 610-641)
Byzantine-Sasanian War (602-628)
Heraclius and the True Cross
Arabia Before Islam
• Jahiliyya• Tribal• Pastoral• Pagan• Small kingdoms on fringes• Christian andJewish communities
Petra
Palmyra
Mecca and the Hijaz
• Pilgrimage center• Market center• Quraysh
Mecca as Pilgrimage Center
The Ka`aba today,in 1880, and at thetime of the Prophet(as portrayed in a 16th
century Ottomanmanuscript).
Mecca as Market Center
Markets of the Arabs
Ghassanids and Lakhmids
Poetry and Arab Culture
• Oral culture• Dialects and literary language• Mu`allaqat• Seven qasida, best poems of pre-Islamic era• The Hanging Poems