Unit One; - Pre-Islamic Arabia

1.1 Geographical Setting

Arabia is a peninsula situated in the south western tip of Asia bounded on the north by Jordan
and Iraq, on the west by the Red Sea, on the south by the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and
on the east by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. It consists of the modern states of Saudi
Arabia, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Island state of Bahrain and Kuwait. Most
of the Arabian Peninsula is a desert land with extremely dry climate. However, the boarder areas
stretching from south Palestine all along up to Iraq is a fertile land having more or less fair
climate. Throughout the centuries, the greater majority of the Arabs were moving to these
regions from the arid interior.
1.2-Ancient Kingdoms
The better watered territory of south-west Arabia witnessed the emergence of three early
kingdoms. The first, the Minaean Kingdom, situated in the interior of the present Yemen, but
probably included most of Southern Arabia. The Minaean Kingdom is believed to have existed
from 1200 to 650 B.C. The second Kingdom, the Sabaean, was founded about 930 B.C and
lasted until about 115 B.C; it probably superseded the Minaean kingdom and occupied
substantially the same territory. The Sabaean capital and chief city, ma’rib, probably flourished
as did no other city of Ancient Arabia, partly because it was situated on a hub of caravan routes
between seaports of the Mediterranean and the frankincense-growing region of the Hadhramaut
and also because of its access to a large nearby dam which provided water for irrigation. The
Sabaean kingdom was widely referred to as Saba and it has been believed that the queen of
Sheba mentioned in the Bible, who visited king Solomon of Israel in Jerusalem in the 10 th
century BC, was Sabaean. The Himyarites succeeded the Sabaeans as the leaders in Southern
Arabia. The Himyarite kingdom existed from about 115 B.C to about 525 A.D. In 24 B.C the
Roman emperor Augustus sent the prefect of Egypt Aelius Gallus, against the Himyarites but his
unsuccessful army was returned to Egypt. The Himyarites prospered in the Frankincense,
Myrrh, and Spice trade until the Romans began to open the sea routes through the Red Sea.

Moreover, several states are known to have existed in northern Arabia in the pre-Christian and
early Christian era. Among these, the earliest was the Nabataean kingdom, which extended its
hegemony as far north as Damascus, in present-day Syria, from about 9 B.C to 40 A.D. The
ruins of Petra, the Nabataean capital city, attested to a high degree of a culture. The Nabataean
form of writing developed into the Arabic script used in the Qur’an (Koran), the holy book of
Islam.
 Unit Two
2.1 Origin of Islam
Islam dates its origin to the events which unfolded in the early 7th century to the Hijaz, the
northwest region of the Arabian Peninsula, and specifically to the town of Mecca (Makkah) and
Yathrib, subsequently known as Medina (from the Arabic Madinat al-Nabi, “the city of the
prophet”. Muhammad ibn Abdallah commonly referred to simply as the prophet, or messenger
of God, received a series of revelation from God beginning in 610 A.D. Muhammad was born
into one of the Quraysh tribe of Meccan Arabs, about 570 A.D. At an early age he entered the
service of a wealthy widow to lead her caravan trade to Syria and Palestine. Later, however, he
married her and became rich. In his trade activities to Palestine and Syria, he learned a lot from
Christian and Jewish about their religion and social affairs. Then at the age of forty, he began to
preach a new religion, Islam, which was a combination of Judaism and Christianity. The term
Islam itself, often translated as “Submission”, refers to the decision by the Muslim (“one who
submits or surrenders”) to abide both in mind and body by the will of God (in Arabic Allah,
“The one God”). Islam, as preached by Muhammad, is a religion designed for all men, the
perfection of both Judaism and Christianity and the final revelation of God’s truth. This
revelation of Allah (God) was spoken to him by the Angel Gabriel. The divine Words spoken to
Muhammad were written in the Quran, the Holy Book of the Muslims, and are held by Muslims
to be God’s direct and inalterable words and are the principal source of Islamic belief and
practice. The Quran is both the symbol and embodiment of the intimate relationship between
God and humankind. Completing the Quran is the vast and complex record of Muhammad’s
life, known as the Haddith, which embodies the Sunna, or “Tradition” of how the prophet
thought, spoke and conducted his affairs.
2.2. Early Expansion

Until he was forty years old, the prophet of Arabia lived a respectable but in no way
distinguished life. Then commenced his astounding destiny with the preaching upon which he
embarked among his relatives and friends. He soon made converts, and at first the ruling
conservative aristocracy of Mecca did not object to his activities. It was only when the new faith
began to threaten the position of Mecca as a centre of pilgrimage and the seat of the
profitablecult for its citizens that the guardians of the ka’aba began to oppose the prophet and his
followers.
In 615, the prophet ordered some of his followers including his daughter and her husband to
travel to the Christian Kingdom of Aksum, where they were received and given protection from
the king. Following this, as the opposition was beginning to develop into fierce persecution,
Muhammad was invited by the Arabs of Medina to seek refugee with them and became their
judge and lawgiver. Being divided into two factions that had exhausted themselves by mutual
conflict, the inhabitants of Medina were glad to welcome a neutral arbitrator. The prophet
prepared the way for his own move by sending all his supporters in advance, with the exception
of his father-in-law and closest adherent, Abu Bakr. With them he at last left Mecca on a night
in 622 A.D. They were pursued, but by making a long detour and hiding for a while in some
hills, where food and water had been stored for them in advance, they succeeded in making good
their escape and reaching Medina. This event of Muhammad’s flight from Mecca to Medina is
known as Hijira in Arabic. And the first year of Muslim calendar starts from this great event.

In Medina Muhammad established the first Muslim community consisting of the Meccan
emigrants (the Muhajirun) and the medina inhabitants (the Ansars or helpers). The newly
formed community was referred as the Sahaba - the companion of the prophet. Muhammad was
soon given supreme authority, and he began to establish the ritual practices of Islam and carry
out social reforms. He promulgated a charter that specified the rights and relationships of the
Muslims, Jews, and other groups of the city. The Meccans, meanwhile, persisted in their
hostility, demanding the extradition of Muhammad and his Meccan followers. They were
supported in Medina by a group who had submitted to Islam but were secretly working against it.
This group in turn was aided by the three Jewish tribes that were residing in Medina. After
consolidating his power in Medina, Muhammad marched to Mecca to fight against his
opponents. In 624, the first major Battle took place at Badr, in which the Muslims, despite their
inferiority in number and weapons, soundly defeated the Meccans. In 625, in the next major
Battle of Uhud, though the Meccans had the advantage, they were failed to achieve a decisive
victory. A Meccan army besieged Medina in 627 but still failed to take the city. In 630, the
Meccans, unable to conquer Medina and crippled by the severing of their trade routes, finally
submitted peacefully to Muhammad, who treated the city generously, declaring a general
amnesty. Tribal delegations arrived from throughout Arabia, and their tribes were soon
converted to Islam.

Before his death in 632, therefore, Prophet Muhammad founded a strong theocratic state and
extended his authority over much of Arabia through diplomacy and war.
2.3 The Islamic Sects and the the Sharia (the Law of Islam)

2.3.1 The Islamic Sects

Concerning religious observance and law, there was almost no difference between the two major
Islamic groups, Shi’ite and Sunni. The dispute, however, was over the issue where power in the
Islamic community should reside and how it should pass on.

Following the Prophet Muhammad’s death several respected Muslims chose, Abu Bakr,
Muhammad’s close follower, as the first caliph, to the dismay of those who saw Ali ibn Abi
Talib, the prophet’s Son-in law, as his rightful successor. Though Ali later became caliph (656-
661), his followers argued that an injustice had been committed. The Shiite movement arose
from the Alid (pro-Ali) faction. The chief difference between Shi’ite and Sunni traditions is
Shi’ite’s belief in, and veneration of, a line of divinely inspired leaders known as Imams. This
belief is grounded in a particular understanding of events in the early history of Islam. In his last
address to his followers at Ghadir Khumm, Muhammad is said to have spoken of his son-in-law,
Ali ibn Abi Talib. According to Sunni interpretation, Muhammad praised Ali and commended
him to the community. But, Shiite commentators claim that Muhammad in fact designated Ali
as his successor and that Ali therefore had the only legitimate claim to succeed the prophet as
leader (Imam) and Spiritual guide of the young Islamic community. In the Shiite’s view, the
Muslim leadership violated the prophet’s wishes in not selecting Ali ibn Abi Talib as
Muhammad’s immediate successor. The term Shii, or Shiite, derives from Shiat Ali, “partisans,
or followers, of Ali.”

According to the Shiite Muslims only a descendant of Ali and his wife Fatima, the prophet’s
daughter, can serve as leader or Imam of the Umma, the Muslim community. Shiite rejected the
principle of the consensus of the community and propounded the doctrine that there was in every
age a perfect Imam to whom alone God entrusted the guidance of mankind. The Imams are
deemed to be a divinely appointed rulers and teachers of the faithful, and to possess super-human
qualities. The first Imam, according to the Shiites, was Ali. In 680 A.D, the Alid cause was
taken up by his son, al-Husayn, in a brief uprising that ended with the massacre of al-Husayn and
his male followers by troops of the caliph Yazid I (680-683 A.D)

There was also division among the Shiites. The two major divisions of the Shiite Muslim, the
Twelvers and the Ismailis (the seveners), arose as a result of disagreements over who could claim
the title of Imam. The Twelvers recognized the twelfth descendants of Ali, called Muhammad al-
Mahdi. Centered on Baghdad, the Twelvers were led by fairly a political scholarly elite and
were well integrated into Islamic Urban society. Today, they are dominant in Iran. They are
also found in Iraq, India, Syria and Lebanon. Initially, the Twelvers Ulama (religious Scholars),
in the absence of the Imam himself, were content to play a limited role as teachers and spiritual
guidance’s to their community. However, it became increasingly clear that the Ulama would
also have to carry out, if only temporarily, the Imam’s functions as leader of the community and
source of legal and doctrinal rulings. Over the course of centuries, the Twelver Ulama have
elaborated a definition of their role as the representative of the “Hidden Imam.” As a result, the
Imam’s full legal and religious authority came to be bestowed up on the leading scholars of the
day, and the community was obliged to pay alms, sometimes referred to as religious taxes, to the
leading members of the Ulama. The combination of economic power with high moral and
religious standing endowed these men with considerable influence with in the Twelver
community.

The Ismaili branch of Shiite arose following the death of al-Sadiq, the sixth Imam, in 765 A.D.
While many of his followers supported his son, Musa, to succeed as seventh Imam, others
backed his eldest son Ismail, hence this branch is known as the Ismaili’s, or “Seveners”. The
Ismailis believe in an unbroken line of Imams to the present day, unlike the Twelvers who await
the return of the “hidden” Imam. Ismaili shiite encompasses a variety of subsets. An offshoot is
the Druze community, originally an Ismaili group which, in the eleventh century, ascribed divine
status to a Fatimid caliph. Attempts to eradicate this heresy failed and the Druze persist in
remote areas of Lebanon, Syria, and northern Israel. Ismaili Shiite, rurally based and politically
radical, emerged as a dynamic missionary movement, winning followers throughout the Islamic
world. In the early tenth century, an Islamic state, the Fatimid caliphate, was established in
North Africa. From 969 to 1171, the Fatimid’s ruled an empire with Egypt at its centre.

Opponents of Ali’s faction are known as Kharadja (the Arabic for seceding). The Kharidjites
rejected hereditary political succession and argued that anyone, even a black slave, could be
elected as head of Muslim community, if he had the necessary qualifications of piety, integrity
and religious knowledge. This being so, they believed in forceful conversion of the non-
Muslims and were intolerant to other Muslims in power. This isolated them from the masses
everywhere and remained minorities, except in Berber society. The Berbers used the
Kharidjites’ ideology as a means to struggle against Arab despotism.

Most Muslims adhere to the Sunni branch of Islam. Its emergence can be traced to disputes
between Shiite and majority communities in the early caliphate, as well as to the challenges that
face all new faiths in developing coherent system of practice and thought. Sunnis stresses
consensus and community, based on the Quran and the Prophetic Model. The term “Sunni”
derives from the Arabic for “people of the tradition [Sunna] and the community.” The
“tradition” is the example of Muhammad, the Model for; Muslim conduct. key steps in the
formalization of sunnism include the development, by ca 1000 A.D of four major legal schools-
the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafii, and Hanbali. These Schools are distributed throughout the Sunni
World. The Maliki predominates in North Africa; the Shafii in Egypt, Indonesia and Malaysia;
the Hanafi in central Asia and the Indian sub-continent; and the Hanbali in Saudi Arabia. Sunni
Islam shows far more tolerance for differences of beliefs than any of the sects. The Sunnites
accept the first three caliphs as Mohammad’s legitimate successors. They are strictly orthodox in
the emphasis they place on following the deeds and utterances of the prophet.

2.3.2 The Sharia (the Law of Islam)

The Islamic tradition, based on teachings of the Quran and Haddith, and as articulated by the
Muslim religious scholars (the Ulama), directs Muslim to abide by the divine will not simply as
individual but also as a community. According to this view, humankind was chosen by God to
serve as his representative (Khalifa) on earth and, to use a variation of the Quranic formula, “to
bring about the good, and forbid the wrong”. All Muslims, therefore, bear the responsibility to
see that a just and moral social order is created and maintained.

Forming the basis of this moral order and social well being are, of course, the teachings laid out
in the Quran (the principal source of Islamic legal and ethical practice), Haddith, and the
religious-legal traditions developed by the Ulama. This body of teachings is collectively known
as the Sharia, the “Islamic way”. From it derive the laws by which Muslim scholars have sought
to put the ideal Islamic social system into practice. The study of the Sharia is known as fiqh,
perhaps best translated as “jurisprudence.” Scholars who study the Sharia are known as
fuqaha(singular faqih).

From early on, in the development of the legal tradition, the laws that govern Islamic life were
perceived as essentially divided into two categories: those that concern the relationship between
humankind and God; and those that relate to the integrity of the human community. In each of
these spheres there are in turn five categories of human ethical behavior: “required,”
“recommended”, (“not required”), “indifferent” (“permissible”), “reprehensible,” and
“forbidden.” Thus, in the sphere of human relationship with Allah, five acts of devotion to God
(ibadat, singular ibada) are “required” practice for Muslim. These acts are often referred to as
the “Five pillars” of Islam and constitute the Islamic ritual system. These are the Profession of
Faith (Shahada), Prayer (Salat), Almsgiving (Zakat), Fasting (Sawm), and Pilgrimage (Haji).
Although some of these practices had precedents in Jewish, Christian and other Middle Eastern
religious traditions taken together, they distinguish Islamic religious practices from those of
other religions. The body of Islamic law concerning the social and political realm is far larger.
One key Quranic area of concern to the legal scholars is family law. The Quran speaks of an
array of Issues in this regard, which include marriage, divorce, adultery, and inheritance, the
treatment of wives and children, and financial matters? As far as Islamic teachings on marriage
are concerned, the question of polygamy (having more than one wife) remains controversial.
The Quran is clear that a Muslim man may be married to up to four women at the same time.
However, as modern apologists are quick to point out, this and a later verse also exhort men to
treat each of the women equally in all respects- a demand that has been understood as a practical
limitation, if not an outright ban, on the practice.

Sunni Scholars discern four sources of Islamic law. First and for most, the Quran is the direct
expression of the divine will. From very early on, Muslim scholars dedicated themselves to
Quaranic exegesis or Tafsir, an intense scrutiny of the sacred book from both a linguistic and
religious point of view. According to the tradition, the Quran achieved its present, written form
during the caliphate of Uthman (644-656 A.D), who ordered a group of respected Muslims to
create a definitive Version.

To help elucidate the often complex meaning of the text, scholars turned next to the Haddith, the
second authoritative source for the law. Containing as it does the teachings of the prophet
himself, the Haddith provided explanation and elaboration of the Quranic versus. The key period
of Haddith collection and commentary was the late eighth and early ninth centuries A.D. The
Haddith generated much debate in early medieval times since it became clear to scholars that
individual Haddith often reflected opinions or doctrinal positions that postdated the prophet’s
lifetime. From ca. 850 A.D. a number of critical collections of Haddith were produced in the
Sunni Muslim world, the most respected being those of al-Bukhari (810-870 A.D) and Muslim
ibn al-Hajjaj(died 875 A.D).

Shi’ite Muslims, from an earlier period, also generated a large and complex body of Haddith
going back through the Imams. For the Shi’ite scholars, the Haddith of the Imams play an
identical role to that of the Sunni Haddith, namely to elucidate the Quran and to serve as a source
of religious and legal thought. Of four early collections of Haddith held as canonical in Shi’ite
Muslim, perhaps the central one is that of al-Kulayni (died 939 A.D)
The third source for Sunni legal scholars is Ijma, usually translated as “consensus” that is, an
agreed interpretation of a given issue, either on the part of a majority of scholars of a particular
region or as understood from the work of earlier generations of scholars. Ijma was an effective
means of establishing and maintaining conformity of opinion over a given issue or problem.

The fourth source of law, developed roughly at the same time as Ijma, is Qiyas, “reasoning on
the basis of analogy.” This proved to be a useful tool with which scholars could reach decisions
over problems for which the Quran and Haddith provided no clear instruction. Where Shiite
scholars differ from their Sunni colleagues is in placing greater value in the exercise of human
reason and intellect; therefore instead of Qiyas, the Shiites have Aql or Ijthad, “individual
reasoning.”

UNIT THREE
The Muslim Arab Conquests, the Caliphates and Muslim
States
3.1 The Four Caliphs
In 632 A.D prophet Mohammad died in Medina and his Companions, Abu Bakr, ‘Umar,
‘Uthman and ‘Ali, became his successors (Caliphs) one after the other. All of them had been
tied with the prophet by blood or Marriage. Abu Bakr, the first Caliph, was the father-in-law of
the prophet. His daughter A’isha married the prophet. It was he who gained the allegiance of
the Arab tribes (Bedouins) to the prophet. After the death of Prophet Mohammad, the Muslim
leaders determined to continue the Islamic state by choosing the leader of Umma (Muslim
community).

‘Umar was also father-in-law of the prophet. He was designated by Abu Bakr as the second
caliph in 634. Under Umar the Arabs were well organized and well directed to enter into a
watery and fertile lands that had been occupied by the Byzatine Empire, the territories of the
Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians, and the Persians. ‘Umar established his own administration
system, Diwan in which the Arab conquerors were paid by the conquered people. He also
adopted his favorite title, Amir al-Muminin (Commander of the Faithful).

‘Umar’s murder by a small group of Muslims in 644 was followed by the election of ‘Uthman,
the Son-in-law of the prophet, as the next Caliph. Uthman, however, faced serious challenges
from rebellious groups who were discontented with the administration. Lastly, that claimed the
life of ‘Uthman in 656 that led to continuous internal conflicts among the Muslim leaders called
al-Bab al-maftuh ‘the door opened to civil warfare’.

The last orthodox (rightly guided) caliph was Ali ‘Ali was related with the prophet as he was the
foster child of Mohammad and later he became his son-in-law. Some circles of the believers
accepted Ali as the successor of Mohammad. However, Mu’awiya, the governor of Syria
refused to accept the fact that Ali was the leader of the Umma. ‘Ali Mobilized the Arabs in Iraq
and met Mu’awiya at the battle of Siffin in the Euphrates valley but without meaningful victory.
Rather ‘Ali inclined to accept arbitration with Muawiya that led ‘Ali to be equal with Mu’awiya.

At this time some of the followers of ‘Ali angered on the hesitation of Ali and decided to kill
both Ali and Mu’awiya. They called themselves Kharijites. But they were only succeeded to
kill Ali not Mu’awiya. An attempt was made to make Hassan the son of Ali the successor but he
abdicated because of the pressure of the Mu’awiya’s supporters who outnumbered the Shi’s,
Ali’s supporters.

In the Islamic history, the period when the four caliphs ruled was considered as ‘the Golden
Age’. It is believed that it was in this time that the main Islamic virtues flourished. The title
“Rightly Guided” was given to them in order to distinguish them from the ‘impious’ and
‘worldly’ Ummayad Caliphs.

3.2 The Expansion of the Islamic State towards Byzantine and Persia

During the life time of Prophet Mohammad, the Arabs submitted to him. He spent much time to
put Mecca under his control but few years to enforce the submission of the Bedouins in the
Arabian Peninsula. It was at his last years that the representatives of the Arabs began to visit
him in Medina that showed the pastoralists recognized him as their leader. They had been in the
frequent warfare among themselves for water and pasture until they were demanded to be united
under the umbrella of Islam. Islam required ceasefire among the Muslims in the Arabian
Peninsula.

However, the death of the prophet, put many of the believers in to hesitation which historically
known as the “Great Apostasy”. That threatened the survival of the Islamic state for the time.
But the leaders of Muslims determined to continue it by electing their leader of the Umma. The
Caliph, Abu Bakr and his associates stood against the ‘seceders’ by using “the sword of God”.
The ‘Faithful’ won the battle against the apostates in the Arabian Peninsula which paved the way
for the turbulent Arabs to conquer areas outside of the Arabia in the middle of the seventh
century.

The Semitic movement was a long tradition in the Middle East. Though not in the same rate of
the Hebrews, the Canaanites and the Phoenicians, the Arabs had had contacts with the Byzantine
and the Persian Empires. But they never had a considerable impact on these states. They did
establish the Nabataean and Palmyra kingdoms at the fringe of these states. In the first century
BC Nabataean with its capital Petra became the province of the Roman Empire. The same was
happened to Palmyra after three centuries later. The later Arab migration resulted in the
formation of Arab states, Gahassan in Syria and Hira in Iraq. The aforementioned Empires could
extend their political and religious influence over these states until the rise of Islam. But these
Empires had little impact over the Arab homeland.

Shortly after ‘Umar took the title of the caliph, the Arabs invaded the territories of Persia and the
Byzantine Empire. These empires could not save their territories from the invasion of the Arabs
for several reasons. By the time when the Arab population relatively increased and the
competition for the limited resources grew, the Arabs received Islam. Islam provided for the
people powerful psychological equipment to strive. The people who had fighting for earthly
materials, after they became Muslims, they, added that making battle for the sake of religion, too.
The commanders of the Arabs, Khaled Ibn-al Walid and Amr Ibn-al-Aas had great experience of
fighting even before they became Muslim. The Bedouins were forbidden to fight one another, in
Islam, but were directed towards the fertile lands of the Persians and Byzantines.

In addition to the above factors, the Sasanid Persian Empire in the East and the Byzantine
Empire in the west were suffering from internal problems. Both of them involved in continuous
warfare one against the other for political supremacy. This led to the political ad economic
wearing of these states. Some of the people of the Byzantine were resentful to their government
because of religious persecution. The unity of the Christians faced challenges when they were
divided between those who worship images and those who did oppose such tradition. Within the
official religion of Persia, Zoroastrianism, there were heresies and divisions. Furthermore, the
old feudal structure in these states could not satisfy the people in the administration. Rather they
were characterized by military despotism and unbearable taxation imposed on the people.

Before the Arab conquest had been started, the Arab dynasties, which are mentioned before, lost
their autonomy. The tribe, Beni Bekr opened hostility and defeated the Persian army at the battle
of Dhu Qar. Emperor Heraclius also cut the payment of chiefs of frontier tribes which had been
paid for them as frontier guards. In 630, Prophet Mohammad, in his Te Book expedition, made a
friendly agreement with chiefs of Aila (the modern Aqaba) and Duma (the modern Jauf). Instead
of trying to win the support of the Arab satellites, both of the empires followed a harsh way to
destroy them from their territories that led to the dissatisfaction of the Arabian people.

At the beginning of the Arab conquests it was the Persian territory first attacked. There was
suitable condition for this. The Beni Bekr had engaged in guerilla war in the lower Euphrates.
This was because, the Lakhmide dynasty of Hira quarreled with the Persian rule since 605. In
this area of contest the Muslim warriors appeared and invaded it in 633 when Beni Bekr began to
ally with the Muslim Arabs, who were commanded by Khalid.

In the subsequent years, Khalid and Amr proceeded to Syria, Iraq and Egypt by launching
dazzling war. During the reign of Abu Bakr (632-634) the Arabs went out outside of the Arabian
Peninsula for occupation of new lands. In the ten years of Umar’s rule the Muslim warriors
reached at the height of their conquest over the Empires. The Persian Empire could not survive
afterwards. But the Byzantine survived in Constantinople and Anatolia. The famous cities like
Damascus in Syria, Jerusalem and Alexandria became under the control of the Muslims.

After several battles had been fought the Muslim army entered the city, Hira which was a capital
of Lakhmide dynasty before it was destroyed by the king of Persia. The Beni Bekrs were loyal
to the dynasty and it would have been difficult for the Muslim Arabs to occupy the areas of
Euphrates if the Lakhmide dynasty had not been disintegrated. When the Khalid’s army
advanced to the area, the Persian governors had only one alternative, fleeing to Medain where
the capital city of the Persians located.

The king of Persia named Chosroes Parwiz was overthrown by Emperor Heraclius in 627. His
son Siroes assassinated him to seize the throne. All male descendants of the area Chosroes
Anushiruan faced a great massacre to abolish the legitimate successor to the royalty. However,
Siroes himself did not escape from the assassination after his eight months reign. There after the
Persian army took only defensive position when the Arabs overran the Persian territories like the
fertile land of Suwad, plundered the wealth, collected tributes and put the people in to slavery.

Although records about the fighting between the Byzantine army and the Arabs in Syria are
limited and confusing, the battle between the two at Yarmouk is repeatedly mentioned. The
Hauran area was drained by the Yarmour River until it created a deep gorge which was
impassable to horses and camels. Near to the gorge lava spurs narrowed the passage. The small
gap between the lava and the gorge called Deraa Gap direct to the road of Damascus and
Palestine, Aman and Aila (Aqaba). It was there the two rival parties the Arabs and the Byzantine
armies met one against the other without a significant consequence. The ‘Deraa Gap’ was like
the Thermopylae of Syria.

The Arabs used different tactics to breech the barrier of conquering Syria Abu Ubaida had been
sent to the area by Abu Bakr. He was appointed as supreme commander over Amr ibn al-Aas,
Yezeed ibn abi Sofian and Shurahbis ibn Hassana. He was among devoted Muslims, a just judge
and administrator but not a man with high skills in war. By the time, Khalid arrived there; he
seemed agree to give the title of supreme command to Khalid who was mobile and aggressive.

From his base camp at Wadi Araba he invaded the southern Palestine. Emperor Heraclius was
confident enough to defend Syria. He dispatched his force to Yarmouk believing that the
Yarmouk fortification would be unbreakable. Assuming that the main force of Amr Ibn al- Aas
would attack the Beersheba area, the Byzantine army moved southwards into Palestine. Also the
Byzantine had Command of sea that would reinforce the army in Palestine via Caesarea or Jaff
or Gaza to defeat the force of Amr Ibn al-Aas in the Beersheba area, leaving the major force of
the Muslim army at Yarmouk. The strategy of the Byzantine army was first to ruin the Muslims
at Beersheba and then to evacuate the other Muslim armies from Yarmouk. This strategy
threatened the communication line of the Muslims with Mecca and Medina by moving in to Aila
(Aqaba).

Such Strategy seemed to be heard by the Arab commanders. They left the Yarmouk and
marched twenty four hours for the Moab pass. The inhabitants of the Moab Mountains did not
try to prevent the movement of the Arabs; most probably they were half-Arab and the
Monophysite Christian sect who were disadvantageous from the Byzantine administrative
system. Across the Wadi Araba, the Muslims moved into the semi-desert area of Beersheba
where the core of the Byzantine army had been in the movement southwards from Caesarea.
There the Muslim desert raiders with little provisions defeated the Byzantine army which had
been equipped well, provided with better provisions and logistics. In July 634, the Muslim army
under Khalid defeated the Byzantine army at the battle of Ajnadain which located between
Ramla and Beit Jabrin. In the battle one of the important Muslim figure, Ikrima was killed. He
was the son of Abu Jahal, the prophet’s uncle.

After the battle of Ajnadain, the Muslim army returned to the fortification of Yarmouk where the
Byzanite force still active and strong. In August 634, the Muslims faced the Byzantine army in
the Deraa Gap as it was very important to occupy Damascus.
In the meantime, the Caliph died after he had appointed his successor ordering him to send
reinforcement to the Muslim army at Iraq against the Persian and Syria against the Byzantine
states. Probably, because of the Muslim victory at Ajnadain, the Byzantine army at Yarmouk
Deraa Gab became frustrated. At the end of August 634, the Muslims took that important
position by forcing the Byzantine army to withdraw from their position. Still the commander of
the Muslim fighters was Khalid. But in the meantime, a letter was sent from the new caliph,
Umar demanded the replacement of Khalid by Abu Ubaida as the supreme commander of the
Muslims. Khalid accepted his subordinate position under Abu Ubaida. Abu Ubaida knew how
much Khalid was skillful and aggressive, hence of the Muslims.

Following the battle at Deraa Gap, it became easy for the Arabs to invade the plain of Hauran
south of Damascus. The Muslim commanders seized Pella (later renamed Fahel) to protect their
linkage before conquering Damascus. The Byzantine army made their last attempt to save
Damoscus at the place called Marj about twenty miles from Damascus. In 635 the Arabs
reached to Damascus. They besieged the city from March 635 to the summer by preventing any
supplies for the city. Then the Arabs flood the city via the eastern gate in a great numbers under
the leadership of Qaqaa, Beni Temeen Shaikh who accompanied Khalid when he returned from
Iraq. The governor of the city sent a messenger to Abu Ubaida who approached the south-west
gate. Abu Ubaida lacked co-ordination with Khalid who entered the city via the eastern gate and
was fighting in the eastern quarter of the city. Abu Ubaida did not want to plunder the fabulous
but one of the oldest cities. Both Abu Ubaida and Khalid met at the center of the city where
bazaar was conducted and decided to save the city from looting.

The other accounts made by the Arabs said that it was Khalid who signed peaceful terms with
the governor. It said that it was Abu Ubaida who entered the city violently in the South-West
gate. However, from the general character of the commanders the first explanation seemed
authentic account.

The agreement of submission by the city governor included that the non-Muslim people would
pay a poll-tax of one dinar and some amount of wheat in a year. Regarding houses and churches
they would be divided into half to the Christians and half for Muslims. Following the occupation
of the city, it was believed that the Byzantine army would not attack the Arabs. As a result the
Arab commanders returned to their places from where they were directed to Damascus, Amr ibn
al Aas went to Jerusalem and made unsuccessful assault. Shurahbil ibn Hasana went back to
Jordan to accept the submission of Beisan and Tiberias. Abu Ubaida went northwards to receive
the capitulation of Homs, Hama and Baalbek; Khalid established his center in Homs, the former
head quarter of Heraclius who fled now to Antioch.

By the time when the battle of Ajnadain was conducted the lands chained from Jordan to Edom
were not occupied. Instead the Arabs decided to go to Moab where they wanted to help Amr Ibn
al Aas in Beersheba. Yezeed Ibn abi Sofian went to the south direction to accept the capitulation
of the Shera, the Moab ad the Edom Mountains. But Jerusalem and Caesarea had been left out.
In the north the coastal cities of Sidon, Beirut, Tyre and Tripoli were still under the influence of
Emperor Heraclius.

Like the Muslim armies who were successful on the open land battle field, the Muslim navies
had to win their war if the expansion of the Muslim state had been effective on the Eastern
Mediterranean world. The occupation of Syria and Egypt by the Arabs brought the
Mediterranean coast line under the control of the Arabs with several ports. Concerning the
creation of the Muslim navies, Caliph Mu’awiya, and ‘Abdullah ibn Said ibn Abi Sarh are
always mentioned. In both ports of Syria and Alexandria the Muslims equipped their war fleets
which became victorious over the opposite forces just like the Muslim armies on the land
warfare.

It was in 655 that the first great naval battle fought between the Byzantine fleet and that of the
Arabs in the Anatolian coast in which the former lost the battle. But it was earlier that the
Muslim fleets were led to attack the Byzantine navy power at Cyprus, Crete and Rhodes in the
eastern Mediterranean. It is said that the first caliphs were unwilling to conduct navy battle on
the seas. Umar is cited as against the move of the Arab generals on water ‘which I can not reach
on my camel’. In 649, however, the caliph Uthman permitted Mu’awiya to conduct sea raid on
Cyprus. That was followed by occupation of Rhodes and Crete and the Arabs were able to hold
Cyzicus in the Sea of Marmara and used it as a naval base to launch an attack on the city of
Constantinople. But Constantinople was survived.

3.3 The Umayyad Dynasty (Caliphates)

Mu’awiya was appointed as governor of Syria by the caliph Umar. Mu’awiya and Uthman were
kinsmen. Both of them were belong to the clan of Umayya or ‘Abd-Shams. Mu’awiya who
ruled Syria for about twenty years, avenged the death of Uthman. He had a better organized and
disciplined army, more organized than the followers of Ali. The greatest caliphs of the Umayyad
dynasty were Mu’awiya, ‘Abd-al-Malik, and Hisham. All of them ruled the Islamic state from
Damascus. Each of them was first class administrators of the Empire which the Arabs
conquered.

The Umayyad rulers adopted different administrative systems from the people they had
conquered. These systems were the administrative practices of the Greeks, the Persians and
others ‘techniques and manners. They had learnt a lot about the administrative systems from
court chroniclers. However, it does not mean that the Umayyad caliphs ruled their subjects just
by adopting ruling systems from others. They had also their own principles of ruling emanated
from their book of laws, Sharia.

Mu’awiya was capable of doing what the Islamic dynasty required and he was effective in the
consolidation of the Islamic state. The Arabs were effective on land battle field. But on the seas
it was the Byzanitane rulers strong until the 650s which was big threat for the Islamic state even
for its survival let alone for its further expansion. The ability of Mu’awiya was clearly observed
in this case. It was he who wrote to Caliph Umar in order to encourage the building of fleets by
Arabs with more efforts than what they had done before. However, it was during the reign of the
next caliph, Uthman that Mu’awiya got permission for his request of building Arab fleets. Umar
refused the demand of Mu’awiya for fighting on the sea in their verbal communication.
However, it was discovered that Umar left a written correspondence that showed his inclination
towards the demand of fighting on the sea. Uthman read that correspondence that enabled him to
agree with Mu’awiya.

The first naval struggle was conducted between the Arabs and the Byzantines over Cyprus. The
Byzantine fleets had had supremacy over that of the Arabs. The rulers of the former could not
expect that the Arabs would be Victorious in their naval struggle. It was only when the Arab
fleets occupied Cyprus in 652 that the Byzantines were alarmed and dispatched a huge naval
force to re-conquered Cyprus and became aware of the reality. The Arabs knew this plan. An
Egyptian commander named Ibn abi Sarh organized the Egyptian Sailors and the Arab fighters to
prevent the anchoring of the Byzantine fleets on Alexandria. The following text explains the
combat between the two. “In the evening the wind dropped, and both fleets passed the night at
anchor off shore. The next morning a furious battle took place. The fleets intermingled, the
ships grappled one another and a desperate hand-to-hand struggle ensued with swords and
daggers. At length the Byzantines broke off the action and, unable to make a landing, were
obliged to sail away baffled to the north.”
Although, the Arabs did not chase the retreating Byzantine fleets, they could re-conquered
Cyprus in 653 in the pretext the latter supported the Byzantine violating the earlier agreement of
neutrality of Cypriots. The agreement ended and Cyprus occupied by force, many people were
killed and others reduced into slavery. After such punitive measures had been taken, several
Arabs, counted in thousands, settled on the Island.

Another naval battle took place between the two parties at Phoenix in 655. The Byzantine
Emperor who succeeded Emperor Heraclius was present in the battle. It was the naval battle on
which the Byzantine naval supremacy was crushed. They lost the battle. The Byzantine often
associated with the feeble administration of the Empire next to the rule of Heraclius. For
Mu’awiya it was the battle that glorifies his name in the Islamic world. This is because he
eliminated the danger of re-conquest of Syria, Palestine and Egypt by the Byzantine if they had
maintained their naval supremacy in the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea.

By 659 the Umayyad dynasty was established in Damascus with its centralized organization,
reflecting secularity, holding the major structural arrangements that had been in operation within
the Byzantine Empire. If not the caliphs were monarchs, surely they were the temporal lords of
the Arabs and other conquered peoples. The decree of Caliph Umar that prevented the military
leaders to isolate themselves from engaging in trade, agriculture and crafts might encourage the
emergence of aristocratic class among the Muslims.

There was differentiation in administration between the Muslims and other subjects of the
Umayyad dynasty. The Muslim rulers left out the non-Muslims outside of the Muslim
community in order to levy separate taxes on them as revenue of the Muslim state. The Muslims
paid taxes but that was not as heavy taxes as that of the non-Muslims. It is said that many
Christians and Jews joined Islam to enjoy the privilege of Muslims enjoyed in the case of
taxation. Such pattern had its own consequence on the revenue of the government and on the
previous prestige of the Muslims on tax exemption. When this pattern hurt the revenue of the
state, some changes were made on the taxation system. Rather than allowing the newly
converted people in to Islam to enjoy the same privilege of tax exemption, they were pushed to
continue paying taxes as high as the tax payment of the non-Muslim population.

Gradually, conversion of non-Arab people in to Islam could not put on the same status which
was experienced by the Arab Muslims. However, many of the Arabs caused the blurring of
racial distinction through polygamous marriage. Islam did not prohibit the Arab conquerors
from marring Christian and Jews women let alone marring converted non-Arab women. As a
result racial mixture was took place in the Islamic world. Therefore, it was time consuming to
re-establish the line between the Arabs who kept their racial purity and the Arabs who mixed
themselves with non-Arabs. Therefore, today’s distinction between the Arabian Muslims and
non-Arabian Muslims would be on whether they adopted the Arabic language as official
language or not.

The Middle Ages were dominated by the Arabs in the part of the world under discussion in the
three aspects. The Arabs made part of the world their own share by Arabizing the peoples in the
Middle East and North Africa. By 1950s about sixty million people were speaking Arabic in this
region. Moreover, the Arabs expanded Islam outside of their original lands. By way of conquest
made as far as Spain in the west and China in the East, the Arabs spread their culture over other
people. Trading activity was also the additional means of religious and cultural expansion of the
Arabs.

The Muslim conquest by the military means did not cease in the time of the Umayyad Caliphs.
The conquest reached at the highest point during the reign of the sixth Umayyad caliph named
al-Walid I (r. 705-715). The Arabs campaigned in remote, mountainous areas where the climatic
condition was so harsh. North African countries were occupied. In 710 the Muslim passed the
straits of Gibraltar into Spain and then they crossed the Pyrenees to raid the Carolingian Empire
in France. They had also created contact with Turkish and Greek territories. Gradually,
Khwarazm and Transoxania were conquered in Iran after their staunch opposition was subdued.
The Arabs also could penetrate the Indian sub-continent via Makran into Sind. These conquests
enabled the Arabs to own large number of slaves. Labor became available to the Muslim Arabs.
The laborers helped the Muslim, Arabs to use effectively the wealth of the ‘Fertile Crescent’.

The advance of the dynasty politically and economically did not deter the staunch opposition of
people against the dynasty, especially, the Arab tribes in Iraq and the pious Muslims in Medina.
Many of these people claimed Ali’s descendants as the Imam’s of Shi’ite (party of Ali). In
addition to the above opposition the conquered people outside of the Arabs became discontented
class who had resentments towards the Umayyad rulers in many respects. They felt inferiority to
the Arab ruling classes. Revolt followed initiated by Abu-Muslims that began in Khurasan,
eastern Persia. This much discontents and revolutions gave chances to the Abbasids
(descendants of Abu Abasa) to take over power from the Umayyad’s rulers. The Umayyads
were mercilessly murdered, except few members of the Umayyad families. One the members
who escaped was Hisham’s grand son’ Abd-ar-Rahman in 750 when the Umayyad dynasty
ended. He fled to North Africa and later founded the separate Umayyad dynasty in Spain.
3.4 The Abbasid Dynasty (Caliphate)

Unlike the Umayyad dynasty, the Abbasid dynasty centered in Iraq not in Syria that lasted from
749 to 1258. Its first caliph was as-Saffah. After him thirty seven caliphs ruled in Baghadad
succeeding one after the other in the time span mentioned above.

The origin of the Abbasids traced back to the prophet’s uncle, al-Abbas who belonged to the clan
Hashim. They could cultivate huge support for their claim of legitimacy from the pious
Muslims. Even the Shi’ites had positive attitude towards the Abbasids at least in their line age
are connection with the prophet. The Abbasids adopted a new title (alqab sing. Laqab), that
enabled them to connect their rule with God which was believed that the Umayyads lacked.
They could obtain the support of religious institution. The revolution of the Abbasids (Abu-
Muslims) overthrew the Umayyads from power and shifted the center to Baghdad from
Damascus. Baghdad was not an old city as Damascus. This situation helped the Abbasids to
build their own culture though they brought several elements from other areas that were civilized
in the earlier periods.

The Abbasids did not extend the frontiers of the Islamic state beyond what the Umayyads
achieved except some time when al-Ma’mun (r.813-817) and al-Mu’tasim (r.833-842) were able
to win battle in Anatolia. In the remaining period especially in the tenth and eleventh centuries,
the Abbasids took defensive positions. The seed of disunity in the Islamic state was sown when
the Umayyads escaped to Spain to establish their separate dynasty. Also North Africa was too
far for the Abbasids to put it under complete control. In Persia, the Tahirids were autonomous
though they paid some tributes to Baghdad rulers. They established their own dynasty called
Samanids and Saffarids. In the tenth century the Abbasids complete control was restricted to
Iraq when many parts of the Islamic world became under the control of the Shi’ite. Different
independent Islamic states began to emerge in the tenth centuries that cause for the disintegration
of the Abbasid caliphate.

In 945, there was an occasion when the decline of the Abbasid caliphate reached at its alarming
stage. It was a period when the dynasty of Buwaihids from Persia entered Iraq and seized the
capital. In the following century the Buwaihids became the real power in the capital by making
the caliphs, puppets on the throne. The Shi;ites, though they saw the Abbasid caliphs as figure
heads did establish their own autonomous states like the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt and North
Africa. From the East the Seljuq Turks emerged as the threat of the Abbasids. They were the
adherents of the Sunni Islam and they were moderate. However, they did not do any thing to
help the revival of the Abbasids dynasty. Rather the opposite was true. In the twelfth century
however, the Seljuqs were unable to keep their solidarity. That was a good fortune for the
Abbasids to revive their power from decay during the reign of al-Muqtafi (r, 1136-1160) and an
Nasir (r, 1180-1225). However, this recovery changed to be failure when Hulagu, the Mongol
general, murdered the last Abbasid caliph in Baghdad in 1258. The name of the caliph, who was
murdered in Baghdad at the end, was known as al-Musta’sim (r.1242-1258).

The Abbasid caliphate was in the state of static in the economic activities after the tenth century.
The profitable trade activities that had been conducted between the caliphate and China ceased to
exist. The trade with Russia and the north disappeared in the eleventh century. The shortage of
precious metals was also another factor for the diminishing of the economic activity.

From the main causes of the economic and political decline of the Abbasid caliphate,
extravagance and absence of effective organization could be mentioned. There happened lavish
court expenditure. The bureaucratic system of the caliphate was unworkable for the value
adding business such as technological Advancement. It was however, suitable to recruit the
power contenders within the Islamic empire. How could this happen? Senior officials and
generals had been paid from the revenues that had been collected from the provinces of the
Empire by the appointed provincial governors. In the long period of the time the provincial
governors were providing conditions for their independence while they were fulfilling the
demand of the central government. Thus, the function of the caliphs gradually reduced to the
formality of power.

In the eleventh century the Islamic Empire was exposed for attack almost from all directions.
The Christian forces from Europe launched a crusade wars in Spain, Sicily and the Near East. In
the North Africa and Senegal-Niger and some parts of Spain the new Berber states emerged. In
the east of North Africa two Arab tribes of Hilal and Sulaim devastated the North Africa which
was more severe than the devastation of the seventh century invasion. For example they cause
the destruction of Qairawan, the capital of Tunisian in 1056/57.

There emerged another wave of invasions from central Asia. The Seljuqs from central Asia
began to enter the caliphate’s territory around 970s. They were fast in accepting Islam.
Gradually they could capture Baghdad and became the dominant political power in the Eastern
world.
 UNIT FOUR
The Ottoman Turks
The origin of the Ottomans is obscured except to legendary explanation. It is little known about
them before the beginning of the 14th century. Apparently, they were member of Qayigh clan of
the Oghuz and led a pastoralist life in Asia Minor. They were one of the Turkish waves who
pushed the Byzantines westwards. After the decline of the Seljuqs power in the 13 th century, the
Ottomans moved to north-west of Anatolia and continued to fight against the Byzantines led by
Osman (r.1299-1326). They were continuously reinforced by the new arrivals of Turkmens who
were volunteers to serve as ghazis (warriors). This military experience led the establishment of
the Ottoman dynasty over several Turkish principalities (emirates).

In 1357 the Ottomans entered Europe at Gallipoli by using the disunity of Balkan Slavs. They
concentrated more and more in Europe than Asia as a result of the shift of their capital from
Bursa to Edirne (Adrianople) in 1366. They built cavalry force. Besides, the infantry called
Janissaries (New Troops) who were recruited from the occupied territories of Balkans, converted
to Islam and trained as special Soldiers. From Bursa the Ottomans extended their governorship
to the nearby areas of the city of Constantinople, the Byzantine Capital. They moved to the Sea
of Marmmara and the Aegean Sea to which Constantinople is very close to which the Islam
conquest aimed at since the time of Prophet Muhammad.

The successor of Murad I (r.1362-1389), Bayazid I (r.1389-1402) secured the title of Sultan of
Rum. He advanced and expanded his territories in Europe and Anatolia. His swift movement
from east to west fronts enabled him to earn an attractive nick name Yildirim (lightning or the
thunderbolt). However, his empire faced a serious challenge from the aggressive and
expansionist state of Timur who claimed to be descendant of Genghis (Chingiz) Khan. He
defeated the force of Bayazid I at Ankara in 1402. Timur divided the Turkish Empire among the
sons of Bayazid and the Turkish emirs who had been formerly subjugated.

The disintegrated Turkish Sultanate started to be reunited and consolidated during the reign of
Muhammad I (r. 1413-1421). He was succeeded by Murad II (r. 1421-1444, 1446-1451) who re-
conquered the western Anatolia from the emirs. He turned to Europe and annexed Serbia in
1439 and besieged Belgrade in 1440. He tired of fighting and abdicated in favor of his son
Muhammad II (r. 1444-1446, 1451-1481). Muhammad II (later Mohammad the Conqueror) is
frequently mentioned in association with the fall of Constantinople under the control of Muslim
army. Its name became Istanbul and it served as the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Muhammad
continued the expansion of the Ottomans and controlled the Balkan Peninsula.

The empire under Bayazid II (r. 1481-1512) faced serious challenges from two sides. The
Portuguese ships invaded the Indian Ocean in the 15th century which threatened the advantage of
the Turkish Empire from the lucrative spice trade with Indian and Arbians. The other challenge
was opened from the Saffavid dynasty in Iran whose people were adherents of the Shi’ite branch
of Islam. They forced the people of eastern Turkish to be converted into Shi’ite believers.

Generally the 16th Century is regarded as the “Golden Age” for the Turkish Empire. Selim I (r.
1512-1520) defeated the Safavids in 1514 at Caldiran. He extended his control over the Fertile
Crescent and the holy cities of Islam. He established naval fleets at Suez Canal hoping expel the
Portuguese from the Indian Ocean. Lastly, he was succeeded by Suleiman I (later Suleiman the
Magnificent) (r.1520-1566) when the Empire reached at its peak. He brought Hungary under the
rule of the Ottomans for more than a Century. By the time the Ottomans conquered the whole
Arab world except Morocco and some parts of the Arabian Peninsula. They added the whole
areas which had been under the Byzantine Empire. They attempted to make new conquests in
Europe for example in Italy. Everywhere, the Arabians lost their ruling power in their former
political positions. All of them lost their independence except in Morocco and Nejd in Arabia
who kept an independent sultanate. The important Islamic title, the Caliph was gradually taken
by the Ottoman Sultans.

In this highest period of strength the Ottomans had positive attitude towards people who had
different religion other than Islam. Even the Jews who had been persecuted in the Christian
Europe had got a relative freedom in the empire. Ethnic minorities were also tolerated in the
Empire.

The Europeans could successfully halt the advancement of Ottomans towards further west even
though they had been engaged in the ‘Thirty Years War’. The Ottomans were successful to
capture Crete from the hand of Venetians. However, they were defeated when trying to capture
Vienna in 1683. They faced a strong challenge from Habsburgs and Iran in the 17 th Century. By
1680s the Ottomans lost Hungary and Transylvania. But the empire could survive for other two
centuries.

The Turkish and the Arabians suffered from serious economic competition with the Europeans
who went ahead in manufacturing industries and commercial activities. The military
technologies of the westerners got supremacy over that of the Turkish. The Turkish Empire
continued to use the army of Janissaries who were effective by the time of the 16th century not in
the later periods. But their military skills and weapons became obsolete in relative of the
European military technologies advanced in time more rapidly than the technology of the
Ottomans. The empire also faced economic decline by the 19th century.

The defeat of the Crimean Tartars which was an ally of the Ottomans alarmed the Empire. This
was because the expansionist Russians aimed at controlling Istanbul and the Bosporus to acquire
ways to the coast of the Mediterranean. In the beginning of the 19th century Muhammad Ali
proclaimed the virtual autonomy of Egypt. The Greeks revolted and secured their independence
in 1829, The French occupied Algeria. The Balkan peoples revolted against the Turkish rule. At
the end of the Second Balkan War Turkey reduced to Eastern Thrace. The Turkish participation
in the WWI caused for the loss of the Arab provinces from the hand of the Turkish. The
European powers designed to control the Turkish territories but that provoked the Turkish

3.4. The Safavids

The Safavids were the Turkish-Speaking people though their origin perhaps Kurdish. Shaykh
Safi-ad-Din (d.1334) established the Sufi order of the Safawiyya at Aradabil in Azerbayjan.
Because of influence in his surrounding he adopted Shiism. Overcoming competition for power
among Safavids, Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu, Ismail b. Haydar seized Azerbaijan in 1501.
He brought the whole Persia under his control and established the Safavid monarchy that
changed to be theocratic rule because the descendants of Ismail considered him as Imam.
Shi’ism was taken as a state religion in the dynasty. This period is very important in the Persian
history where Shi’ism was consolidated over Sunni religion which had been dominant there
before that period.

The Safavids were struggling to maintain their position against the Ottomans in the west and the
Turkmen Ozbegs in the north-east. The Turkmen frequented in the frontier of the dynasty for
plunder and slave until the 19th century. However, the most dangerous enemy of the Safavids
was the Ottomans. At the height of the Ottomans power, Selim I defeated the Safavids at
Chaldiran in 1514. The battle was where the Ottomans showed their superiority in fire arms over
the Safavids. Territories like Kurdistan, Diyarbakir, and Baghdad went to the hands of Ottomans
from the Safavids. The Safavids shifted their capital from Tabriz to Qazwin, then to Isfahan for
the sake of their own security.
The reign of Shah Abbas I mark the highest political power in the dynasty and the revival of
Safavid culture. They showed their achievements in architecture by beautifying their capital city
Isfahan. At this time the Ottomans were repulsed from Azerbaijan. The Persians strengthened
their control over eastern Caucasus and the Gulf of Persia. Shah Abbas attempted to make a
diplomatic relation with Europe. He recruited his guards and warriors from the converts in
Georgia and Circassian. He won the support of groups of Turkmens.

The death of Shah Abbas II in 1666 was followed by the decline of the Safavid dynasty. The
Safavid rule was extended as far as Afghanistan one of the Sunni regions. But later Mir Ways,
the Safavid governor in Afghanistan declared himself to be independent of the Safavids in early
18th century. His son Mahmud invaded Persia in 1722. The rise of Nadir Shah and Afghan ruler
succeeded in occupying much of the Persian territories. There after, members of the Safavids
became nominal rulers while their effective rule ended in 1732.

4.5 The Mughal Empire

In India there was, an empire called Mogul before Mughal Empire. Mogul originally was the
name of royal family in the southern regions of Tartary, India. Tamerlane was from this family
born in 1335. Beginning from his childhood he became the head of shepherds and trained as
warrior using javelin to protect his and his friend’s sheep. Eventually he adopted cavalry. First
he took power from Houssain in Tartar in 1370. Then he subdued much part of Asia, like
Indostan, Persia, Syria. The conquered territories were either subjected to him or destructed.
The Occupation of Capul by Tamerlane was a significant history in the Tamerlane’s reign. It
was occupied and served as a capital of the Mughal Empire in 1504. After he had subdued
several kingdoms incorporated into his empire he returned to Capul at the age of 64 and Stayed
there until his death in 1406. Hundred years later, Capul was captured by a Muslim ruler. The
Mughal line was established in 1526 by Zahir-ad-Din-Babur. He was belonged to a Chaghatay
Turk. By using the political intrigue in Delhi, he intervened there. However, it was his son
Humayun who consolidated the Mughal Empire seating in Delhi and Agra other sultanates were
incorporated into the Mughal Empire by the second half of the 16th century. It was under Akbar,
the empire was firmly established. Diverse ethnic groups, like Turks, Afghans, Persians and
Hindus were participants in the ruling system. Officials were paid in land grants called jagirs
which was not hereditary. At least at early age the rulers were not tyrannical despot.

The 1620s saw a severe succession struggle among the Mughal rulers. This was not new
however, for the Mughals. Even at the time of Babur’s death his son Humayun had to make a
relentless effort to defeat his brothers named Hindal, Askari and Kamran. This political turmoil
rose time and again through out the periods of the Mughal Empire. In the 1622 the sons of
Jahangir the ruler of the Empire before, were contesting one against the other for political power.
Specially, the contest between Shahryar and Sultan Bulaqi was severe.

The succession problem also observed when Shah Jihan died. His sons launched war against one
another. Aurangzib defeated his brother Dara Shikoh in 1658-1659.

Aurangzib’s death in 1707 marked the decline of the Empire. Nadir Shah’s invasion of India in
1738-39 and occupation of Delhi led to the moral and material blow to the empire. All sides
Hindu reviving became a factor for stretching of the English hands through Bengal to Oudh,
Central India, and Rajputana made the Mughals helpless. The last Mughal, Shah Alam II was
sent into exile in 1858 for the complex mutiny.
 Unit Five
Arab Conquest and the Expansion of Islam in Africa and Iberian
Peninsula
5.1: Arab Conquest of the Nile Valley, Maghreb and Western Sudan

1.1Arab Conquest of the Nile Valley and Maghreb

1 Arab Conquest of Egypt

The religion of Islam, funded in Arabia in the early 7th century, quickly united Arabs and
inspired the expansion of a great Islamic empire across the Middle East and North Africa. By
640 A.D., Muslim Arabs had conquered Egypt, where they established a new ruling class of
administrators and merchants. The majority of the Egyptians also showed no resistance for Arab
conquest.

In the meantime, Egypt was ruled by Byzantium (Eastern Roman Empire). Egyptians were
disappointed by the oppression and corruption of Byzantine rule and Byzantine persecution of
the Coptic Church. This prompted the majority of Egyptians to offer no resistance to the Arabs.
Over the ensuing centuries and following further Arab immigration, most of the Egyptian
population converted to Islam and adopted the Arabic language, learning the Egyptian Coptic
church as a small christian sect.

Lower Egypt was conquered in 641 A.D. By 642 A.D. the Arab army had expelled the unpopular
Byzantine administrators from Egypt. But the Byzantines still maintained a powerful navy
which threatened the Arab presence at Alexandria. This led the Arabs to move their centre of
administration inland to the land of the Nile delta. There, they built their new Islamic capital of
Cairo, near the ruins of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis. From Cairo they were better able
to dominate the Nile valley to the south as well as keep open their trading links with Syria and
Arabia.

Arab conquest of Nubia, however, was halted by fierce opposition from the recently-united
Christian kingdom of Noba and Makurra. Nubians had long resisted the tendency of the various
rulers of Egypt to try and extend their authority southward into Nubia. In this instance a huge
Nubian army of archers managed to confine the new Islamic rulers of Egypt to north of the first
cataract. A treaty was agreed and this led to a lengthy period of peaceful coexistence and
profitable trading between Islamic Egypt and Christian Nubia. Thus, Arab penetration of the
south and conversion of Christian Nubia to Islam did not occur until the early 14th century.

1.1.2. Arab conquest of the Maghreb

The Muslim Arabs refereed to the whole costal region of North Africa west of Egypt al-
Maghreb, meaning the ‘West’. The Muslim Arab conquest of the Maghreb was not as easy as
Egypt. The Arabs faced strong opposition from both the Byzantine Empire and the North
African Berbers. The initial objective of the Arabs was the control of Cartage and the fertile
Tunisian plain. This region was the Roman province of ‘Africa’ which the Arabs called
‘Ifriqiya’.

The Byzantines had recaptured Cartage from the Vandals in 533 and they now used their
powerful navy to protect it from Arab attack. It was only in 690 that the Arabs had built enough
ships to defeat the Byzantine fleet. Soon the Arabs continued the conquest and destruction of
Cartage. Near its ruins the victorious Arabs built their own city of Tunis.

Meanwhile Ifriqiya itself was under attack from Berber chiefdoms in the west and from desert
nomads in the south. The Berbers equaled the Arabs in their mastery of the camel and their
conduct of lightning raids from the northern fringes of the desert. On one occasion ‘rebel’
Berbers from the central Maghreb drove the Arabs from the fortress of Qayrawan which was
their main base in Ifriqiya. However, they were unable to maintain their success over the Arabs.

The Berbers got initial success over the Arabs, but they were unable to sustain their resistance.
Their main weakness was lack of unity and coordination. For the Arabs, on the other hand, unity
was their greatest strength, and they used it to overcome the Berber chiefdoms at a time.
Muslims conquered Byzantine Carthage in about 700 A.D., and by 711 A.D. they overcame
Berber resistance, extended their empire to Morocco, and crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to
Southern Spain.

2. Early Arab Rule

Initially, the Arab presence in North Africa was as an army of occupation. The Arabs considered
the region as a source of wealth. They were mainly interested in tributes. The Arabs major
policy towards subject peoples was to give them one of the following three choices: pay a poll-
tax (a tax paid by each adult); convert and avoid paying the poll tax; or die.
In the early period of Arab occupation, there was no energetic attempt at converting the local
peoples. This was because Muslims were exempted from taxation and non-Muslims were
considered as a useful source of taxation for the Arabs. Within Egypt, the Aras quickly settled
down as administrators, merchants and to some extent as landlords. The majority of Coptic-
speaking Egyptian peasants were left in possession of their land. But they had to shoulder heavy
taxation imposed by the Arabs. Like the earlier alien rulers of the Nile valley, the Arabs
regarded Egypt as a major source of wealth for their empire, mainly in the form of food collected
through taxation. But the Arab system of poll-tax was less oppressive than the taxation of the
Greeks and Romans before them. At the same time, increasing numbers of Egyptians learned
that they could evade the burdens of taxation by becoming Muslims.

3. The process of Islamization and Arabization Islamization

1. Islamization

Before the Muslim Arab conquest of North Africa, Monophysite Christianity was the established
faith in the region. However, Christianity had never been deep-rooted in Berber society. At the
same time, North African Berbers as a whole did not readily accept the new Islamic faith. At
first the Arabs also did not make energetic and widespread attempt to convert the peoples of
Northern Africa into Islam, because they preferred to keep non-Muslim local peoples as source
of taxation.

As indicated above, for most part of a century, Arabs and Islam in the Maghreb were mostly
confined to coastal towns. There they organized slave labor to work the nearby farming estates.
Their slaves were drawn largely from Berbers captured in war and later from peoples raided or
traded from the centre and southern Sahara. The early Arab rulers of the Maghreb also made
little effort to conquer the highlands and desert fringes to the south.

One major way in which Islam spread among the Berbers of North Africa was through
membership of the army. At first, conquered or captive Berbers were recruited into the army and
then converted to Islam. They proved very able soldiers and ardent pronouncers of the new
religion. Indeed it was a largely Berber Islamic army which crossed the Straits of Gibraltar in
711 A.D. spearheaded the conquest of Spain where they were known as ‘Moors’ (people from
Mauretania). In Egypt, increasing numbers of Egyptians also became Muslims after conquest, so
as to be free from taxation. However, the Muslim Arabs attempt to conquer and Islamize Nubia
was not successful because of the resistance of Christian kingdoms in the region. By the
beginning of the 10th century A.D., the peoples of the conquered territories of the Maghreb and
Egypt had become Muslim. But they belong largely to the Shiite and the Kharijite sects of
Islam.

2. Arabization

Before the Arab conquest the peoples of North Africa were non-Arab. Egypt was largely
populated by Coptic Christians who were speakers of the old Egyptian Coptic language. The
Maghreb also was populated by Coptic Christian Berbers. North Africa was Arabized through
gradual process. In Egypt the Arabic language and Muslim religion gradually spread through the
local population. This was partly through the immigration of Arab peasants in the eight and
ninth centuries and partly through a gradual process of education. From the beginning Arabic
had quickly taken over as the language of administration, but it was also the language of the new
religion as well as the language of literacy and education. By the end of the 9 th century A.D.,
Egypt had mostly became Arabized. The old Coptic language, which exists until the present
among the remnants of the Coptic Christian Church, had become a minority language in Egypt.

Within a few decades of 1050 some quarter of a million Arab nomads moved from Egypt
westwards into the Maghreb. Those Arab nomads taking a northern coastal route were known as
the Banu Hilal, others, the Banu Sulaym, went inland south of the Atlas. The Banu Sulaym
absorbed large number of Berbers. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries ‘Arabised’ Berber
nomads known as Hawwara moved eastwards from the Maghreb into Egypt and pushed south up
the Nile valley to the region of the first cataract. Indeed, it was the Arabized Berber nomads that
pushed against Egypt and became instrumental in the spread of Islam into Nubia (the Sudan) in
the 13th and 14th centuries A.D. It was during this period that the local populations of Egypt and
the Maghreb became Arabic-speaking.

1.2 The Spread of Islam to Western Sudan

The name Western Sudan has Arabic origin. The Arabs used to refer to the land in Africa
immediately to the south of the Sahara desert, as bilad al-Sudan which means land of the black
people. The Sudanic belt is usually divided into western, central and eastern Sudan. Therefore,
Western Sudan is a label used to refer to the western part of the Sudanic belt in West Africa.

Merchants carried Islam a cross the desert to Western Sudan even before the Maghreb itself was
fully converted. The Kharijite center at Sijilmasa was a main northern terminus of the caravan
trade. Towns’ people and traders were generally Muslim before most of the rural population had
been converted. Some people in Sub-Saharan Africa converted even before 800 A.D., and the
knowledge of Islam spread in the southern desert edge during the next century. The first
reported conversion of a royal court followed in 985, when the rulers of Gao accepted Islam.

Rulers on the desert edge received Islam in different ways. In Gao, then rulers became Muslim,
but they made no effort to force or encourage the conversion of their subjects. In Takrur, the
rulers became Muslim in the 1030s with more enthusiasm. Further east, the Mai (or king) of
Kanem became Muslim before the end of the century, even before the Kanuri became sedentary.
Here too, the ruler tried to do what he could to spread the new religion, with special
encouragement for the Ulama. In Ghana, the rulers rejected Islam for themselves, but they
welcomed Muslim merchants.

Islam offered clear advantage to Sub-Saharan merchants. It was the religion of their trading
partners from the north, and it brought the invaluable techniques of literacy. The Soninke
merchant’s classes of Ghana were among the first West African converts to Islam, and they
spread the religion as their trade networks spread out to the south.

Early Islam in West Africa followed the patterns of the Maghreb, with a strong Kharijite
influence followed by Shi’ism. It also picked up the continued influence of local religions, much
as it did in the north. All West African religions before the colonial period were monotheistic in
the sense that they contained the belief that the world was created by a single God. They
differed from Christianity and Islam in holding that the creator God was no longer in active
charge-nor was he ever a moral force for good or evil; he simply set the stage and then retired
into neutrality. The supernatural forces that they counted in day-to-day affairs were themselves
part of the created world.

In West African societies, the individual used ritual to communicate with a particular deity
which often included a sacrifice, sometimes that of an animal that was later cooked and eaten by
the congregation. Music and dance helped the spirit to enter the worshipper’s body. Along-side
the ritual of the cults, most West African societies also practiced some form of divination.
Diviners were usually a separate group from the cult leaders and were, like them, at least semi-
professional. Their main task was to give advice, to help the individual deal with the spirit
world. A diviner would be consulted, for example, in deciding which cult or deity should be
most honored. He or she could be asked to foretell the future or deal with misfortune-whether
human or supernatural in origin.

Many of the religious ideas of the West African societies-ritual sacrifice, for example-occur also
in Middle Eastern religions like Judaism and Christianity. It is generally believed that these
resemblances go back to an ancient substratum of religious thought that was common to much of
the old world before cultures diverged. Detailed resemblances between the religious ideas of the
Maghreb and West Africa, furthermore, suggest that these two regions were closer to one another
in religious culture than either was to the Middle East before the rise of Islam.

2: Muslim Invasion of Iberian Peninsula

2.1 Muslim Invasion of Spain

In 409 Germanic tribes migrated south crossed the Pyrenees and swept into the Iberian
Peninsula. The most important of these, the Vandals, settled in central and southern Spain.
Another group, the Sueri, established a kingdom in northwestern Spain. Roman rule in Spain
disintegrated as Roman authority gave way to a mosaic of barbarian settlements. In an attempt
to stem the havoc brought by the invasions, Rome appealed to the Visigoths, who had settled in
parts of modern France. In 429 the Visigoths forced the Vandals from the peninsula into North
Africa. By 500 Visigoths controlled all of Spain except a strip in the south occupied by the
Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire.

In the second half of the 7th century A.D, Byzantine strongholds in North Africa gave way before
the Arab advance. Carthage fell in 698. In 705, al-Walid I, Caliph of the Umayyad dynasty, the
first great Muslim dynasty centered in Damascus, appointed Musa ibn Nusayr governor in the
West. Musa annexed all of North Africa as far as Tangier (Tanjah) and made progress in the
difficult task of Islamizing the Berbers.

Muslim armies in North Africa posed the most serious threat to Visigothic Spain. In the early 8 th
century Muslim forces began conducting raids on Spain’s southern coast. The invasion of Spain
was the result of both of a Muslim readiness to invade and a call for assistance by one of the
Visgothic factions, the “Witizans.” In 710 a battle for succession to the Visigothic throne
erupted following the death of king Witiza. Dynastic conflict prevented the succession of
Witiza’s son, and Roderick, duke of Baetica, claimed the throne. In April or May of 711 Musa
sent a Muslim army under the commands of Berber general Tariq ibn-Ziyad crossed the Strait of
Gibraltar and invaded Spain. After defeating Roderick’s army at the battle of Guadalete in
Southern Spain, Muslim forces advanced swiftly into the rest of Spain. They marched north and
conquered Toledo (Tulaytulah), the Visigothic capital. In the following year Musa himself led
an Arab army to the peninsula and reduced Merida (Maridah) after along siege. He reached
Tariq in Toledo in the summer of 713. From there he advanced northeast, taking Saragossa
(Saraqustah) and invading the country up to the northern mountains. He then moved from west
to east, forcing the population to submit or flee. By 714 most of the Iberian Peninsula was under
Muslim control.

The rapid success can be explained by the fact that Hispano-Visigoth society had not yet
succeeded in achieving a compact and homogenous integration. The Jews, harassed by the legal
ordinances of Toledo, were particularly hostile towards the Christian government. Moreover, the
Muslim conquest brought advantage to many elements of society. The burden of taxes was on
the whole less onerous than that it had been in the last years of the Visigoth epoch Serfs who
converted to Islam advanced into the category of freedmen and enrolled among the dependents
of some conquering noble; Jews were no longer persecuted and were placed on an equal footing
with the Hispano-Romans and Goths who still remained within the Christian fold.

In the first half of the 8th century, a new society was born in Muslim Spain. The Arabs were the
ruling elements. A distinction was made between baladiyyun, who were Arabs who had entered
Spain in 712 under Musa and Syrians, who arrived in 740 under Balj. Below them in status were
the Berbers, the majority of the invading troops, whose number and influence continued to grow
over the course of centuries because of their steady influx from Africa. Then came the native
population who had converted to Islam, the musalimah, and their descendants, the muwallads;
many of them were also mawali, who were connected by patronage with an Arab, and they had
also Berber lineage. This group formed the majority of the population because during the first
three centuries social and economic motives induced a considerable number of natives to convert
to Islam. Christians and Jews who kept their religion came next in the social hierarchy, but their
numbers decreased in the course of time. Finally, there was a small group of slaves (sagalibah)
– captives from northern peninsula and other European countries – and Negro captives or
mercenaries.

At first Islamic Spain, or al- Andalus, as it was known, was ruled as part of the province of North
Africa, a division of the Caliphate of Damascus. At that time Damascus, in modern Syria, was
the capital of the Islamic world and the residence of the powerful Umayyad caliph. Therefore,
the period between 711 and 756 is called the dependent emirate because, as already mentioned,
Muslim Spain was dependent on the Umayyad Caliph in Damascus. These years were marked
by continuous hostility between the different Arab factions and between the various social
groups. Nonetheless, Muslim expansion beyond the Pyrenees continued until 732, when Franks,
under Charles Martel, defeated the Muslims, led by the emir ‘Abd ar-Rohman al-Ghafiqi, near
Tours. This battle marked the beginning of the gradual Muslim retreat. Thus, the power of the
Caliphate in Spain was weak, however, and governors (emirs) appointed by Damscus had little
real authority. In 750 the Abbasids deposed the Umayyad ruling family in Damascus and
claimed the caliphate.

Abd-ar-Rahman I, a member of the Umayyad family, fled Syria having succeeded in escaping
from the slaughter of his family by the ‘Abbasids, and in 756 established an independent emirate
at Cordoba in Southern Spain. His Iberian Umayyad dynasty centralized power and ruled al-
Andalus for almost 300 years. Cordoba reached its peak under Abd-ar-Rahman III, who
established the Caliphate of Cordoba in 929. By then Cordoba was one of the largest and most
cosmopolitan cities in the Mediterranean world.

Over time ruling elites across Muslim Spain challenged Cordoba and other Muslim cities became
independent. This trend accelerated in 1036 with the death of the last Umayyad Caliph. Spain
fragmented into a mosaic of small, independent Muslim kingdoms, known as taifas. The most
important of these were Cordoba, Serille, Granada, Toledo, Lisbon, Zaragoza, Murcia, and
Valencia. The Muslim advance, however, never succeeded in conquering the entire Iberian
Peninsula. A remnant of Christian rule survived in northern Spain. The Christian kingdoms of
Castle and Aragon continued to expand into Muslim territories, and by 1230 Christian armies
had captured most of Andalucia. Only the wealthy kingdom of Granada remained Muslim.
Muslims maintained control of Granada until 1492, when Castile, with the help of Aragon,
conquered the kingdom, ending centuries of Muslim rule in Spain.

4.2 Muslim Domination and Christian Re-conquest in Portugal

As discussed above, in 711 Muslims invaded Iberian Peninsula from Africa and deposed the
Visigothic monarchy. However, several small Christian kingdoms in the north of the peninsula
resisted Muslim expansion. In 997 the territory between the Douro and Mino rivers (now
northern Portugal) was captured from the Muslims by Bermudo II, king of Leon. By 1064 the
Christian struggle to reclaim lands from the Muslims was completed as far south as present-day
Coimbra under Ferdinand I, king of Castile and Leon. The re-conquered districts were then
organized into a feudal county, composed of fiefs loyal to Spanish kings.

In 1093 Alfonso I, the Christian king of Castile (who also ruled Leon as Alfonso VI), called on
the assistance of a French nobleman, Henry of Burgondy, to help defeat a siege of Muslims at
Toledo in what is now central Spain. In gratitude Alfonso named Henry count of Portugal and a
warded Henry land in the Atlantic seaboard between the Douro and Mino rivers. This land,
named Portus Cale became the basis of modern Portugal.
On the death of Alfonso in 1109, Count Henry, and later his widow, Teresa, refused to continue
feudal allegiance to Castile and Leon. Henry invaded the Spanish kingdom and began a series of
peninsular wars, but with little success. In 1128 Henry’s son, Afonso Henriques, rebelled against
Teresa and defeated her in battle. Afonso Henriques declared Portugal independent from Castile
and Leon in 1139 and proclaimed himself Afonso I, the first king of Portugal. Eight years later
Afonso, assisted by Christian crusaders bound for the Holy land, seized Lisbon from the
Muslims.

3: Muslim States in North Africa

3.1 The Sanhajah Confederation

When the Arab conquerors arrived in the Maghreb in the 7th century A.D. they met the
indigenous peoples of the region, the Berbers. Berber tribes could be found from present-day
Morocco to Algeria and from the Mediterranean to the Sahara. In these areas small tribal
groupings of Berbers formed short-lived confederations and involved themselves in caravan
trade. No previous conqueror had tried to assimilate the Berbers, but the Arabs quickly
converted them into Islamic faith and enlisted them in their further conquests.

The Sanhajah was the Western Saharan Berber confederation responsible for the first Berber-
directed effort to control the Maghrib. The Sanhajah were camel herders who traded mined salt
for gold with the black Kingdoms of the south. By the 11th century their power in the Western
Sahara was being threatened by expansion both from other Berber tribes, centered at Sijilmassa,
and from the Soninke state at Ghana to the south, which had actually captured their capital of
Audaghost in 990 A.D. The subsequent revival of their fortunes parallels Muhammad’s
revitalization of the Arabs 500 years earlier, in that Muslim ideology reinforced their efforts to
unify several small groups.

The Sanhajah had been in contact with Islam since the 9th century, but their distance from major
centers of Muslim life had kept their knowledge of the faith minimal. In 1035, however, Yahya
ibn Ibrahim, a chief from one of their tribes, the Gudalah, went on hajj. When Yahya returned
he was accompanied by a teacher from Nafis (in present day Libya), ‘Abd Allah ibn Yasin, who
would instruct the Berbers in Islam as teachers under ‘Umar I had instructed the Arab fighters in
the first Muslim garrisons.

Yahya Ibn Ibrahim and Abd Allah ibn Yasin had little success in converting the Berbers into
Islam. Consequently, the two are said to have retired to a remote site in Mauritanian coast
known in Arabic as, a ribat, a fortified place of seclusion, to pursue a purer religious life. Soon
they got many followers. The followers they attracted to that ribat were known, by derivation, as
al-Murabitun (which means “the people of the retreat”). There they founded a dynasty which
came to be known by the same name Almoravids in its Anglicized form.

In 1042 Ibn Yasin declared ajihad against the Sanhajah tribes, because they were people who
had embraced Islam, but failed to practice it properly. By his death in 1059, the Sanhajah
confederation had been restored under an Islamic ideology; and the conquest of Morocco, which
lacked strong leadership, was under way.

3.2 The Almoravid Dynasty

Across the Sahara, Islam provided the traders and herders of the remote desert Oases with a
common sense of brotherhood. Trans-Saharan trade expanded in response to the Islamic world’s
demand for West African gold for its trading currencies. Muslim Berbers making their
pilgrimages to Mecca-a duty of Muslims- were exposed to the vast differences between life in
the remotest Saharan Oases and the realities of the wider Muslim world. Offended by the wealth
and luxuries of urban North Africa, a small group of Sanhaja Berbers in what is now Mauritania
initiated an Islamic reform movement in the mid- 11th century known as the Almoravids, which
provided the desert peoples with a new sense of unity and reformist zeal.

As pointed out above, Abdallah ibn Yasin preached the observance of strict Islamic law among
nominally Muslim Berbers. Ibn Yasin’s spiritual role was taken by a consultative body of
‘Ulama’. His successor as a military commander was Abu Bakr ibn ‘Umar. While pursuing the
campaign against Morocco, Abu Bakr had to go south, leaving his cousin Yusuf ibn Tashufin as
his deputy. When Abu Bakr tried to return, Ibn Tashufin turned him back to the south, where he
remained until his death in 1087. Under Ibn Tashufin’s leadership, by 1082, Almoravid control
extended as far as Algiers. In 1086 Ibn Tashufin helped the Andalusian party kings, unable to
defend themselves against the Christian kingdoms in the north, such as Castile. By 1110, all
Muslim states in Andalusia had come under Almoravid control.

Like most other Jamai-Sunnite rulers of his time, Ibn Tashufin had himself “appointed” deputy
by the caliph in Baghdad. He also based his authority on the claim to bring correct Islam to
peoples who had strayed from it. For him “correct” Islam meant the shariah as developed by the
Maliki faqihs, who played a key role in the Almoravid state by working out the application of the
shariah to every day problems. Like their contemporaries elsewhere, they received stipends
from the government, sat in the ruler’s council, went on campaign with him, and gave him
recommendations (fatwas) on important decisions.

A second major Berber movement originated in a revolt began against Almoravid rule in 1125
by Ibn Tumart, a settled Masmudah Berber from the Atlas Mountains. Like Ibn Yasin, Ibn
Tumart had been inspired by the hajj, which he used as an opportunity to study in Baghdad,
Cairo, and Jerusalem, acquainting him with all current schools of Islamic thought and becoming
a disciple of the ideas of the recently deceased al-Ghazali. Emulating his social activism, ibn
Tumart was inspired to act on the familiar Muslim dictum, “command the good and forbid the
reprehensible.” His early attempts took two forms, disputations with the scholars of the
Almoravid court and public chastisement of Muslims who in his view the rules of Islam. He
went so far as to throw the Almoravid ruler’s sister off her horse because she was unveiled in
public. His activities aroused hostility and he fled to the safety of his own people. There, like
Muhammad, he grew from teacher of a personal following to leader of a social movement.

Like many subsequent reformers, especially in Africa and other outlying Muslim lands, Ibn
Tumart used Muhammad’s career as a model. He interpreted the prophet’s rejection and retreat
as an emigration (hijrah) that enabled him to build a community, and he divided his followers
into muhajirsm (“fellow emigrants”) and ansar (“helpers”). He preached the idea of surrender to
God to a people who had strayed from it. Ibn Tumart further based his legitimacy on his claim to
be asharif (descendant of Muhammad) and the Mahdi, not in the Shiite sense but in the more
general sense of a human sent to restore pure faith.

In his view Almoravid students of legal knowledge were so concerned with pursuing the
technicalities of the law that they had lost the purifying fervor of their own founder, Ibn Yasin.
They even failed to maintain proper Muslim behavior, be it the veiling of women in public or the
condemning of the use of wine, musical instruments, and other unacceptable, if not strictly
illegal, forms of pleasure. Like many Muslim revitalizes before and since, Ibn Tumart decried
the way in which the law had taken on a life of its own, and he called upon Muslims to rely on
the original and only reliable sources, the Quran and Haddith.

Although he opposed irresponsible rationalism in the law, in matters of theological discourse he

learned towards the limited rationalism of the Ash’arite school, which was becoming so popular
in the eastern Muslim lands. Like the Ash’arites, he viewed the unity of God as one of Islam’s
fundamentals and denounced any reading of the Qur’an that led to anthropomorphism. Because
he focused on attesting the unity of God (tawhid), he called his followers al-Muwahhidum
(Almohads), “those who attest the unity of God.”

3.3 The Almohad Dynasty

Almohad (Arabic al-muwahhid- “those who proclaimed the unity of God”) was Berber Muslim
reform movement and dynasty established in North Africa and Spain during the 12th and 13th
centuries. The origin of the movement is traced to Muhammad ibn Tumart, an Arab reformer in
Morocco who preached moral reform and the doctrine of the unity of divine being. He gathered
a large following of Arabs and Berbers and in 1121 was proclaimed Al Mahdi (“The rightly
guided”). The founder of the dynasty was the Berber Abd al-Mumin, who succeeded Ibn Tumart
and took the title of Caliph. He conquered Morocco (1140-1147) and other parts of North
Africa. Thus, by 1147, 17 years after Ibn Tumart’s death, Almohads had replaced Almoravids in
all their Maghribi and Andalusian territories. In Andalusia their arrival slowed the progress of
the Christian Reconquista.

By 1154 Abd al-Mumin also ruled Islamic Spain and part of Portugal. Notable among
successive Almohad rulers was Yakub al-Mansur, who ruled in Spain from 1184 until his death.
He aided the Sultan Saladin against the Crusaders and was responsible for the construction of
numerous architectural monuments including the Hassan Tower in Rabat, Morocco.

After replacing the Almorabids, Almohads jihad continued the work of the former in unifying
the whole of the Maghreb, which was completed by the end of the twelfth century. During this
period the North African Berber became more Islamized and immigrant Arab nomads extended
the Arabic language and culture into the rural area. One of the most important consequences of
this was the spread of literacy through the Muslim world of North and West Africa. Literacy,
usually in Arabic was spread through the teaching of the Qur’an. The Mosques thus became
centers of learning. In this way the peoples of northern and western Africa were exposed to and
contributed to the intellectual achievement of the Muslim world.

By the early 13th century, Almohad power began to decline. A defeat in 1212 at Las Navas de
Tolosa by the Christian kings of the north such as kings of Castile, Aragon, and Navarre forced a
retreat to the Maghrib. But the impact of Almohad cultural patronage on Andlusia long outlasted
Almohad political power. Successor dynasties in surviving Muslim states were responsible for
some of the highest achievements of Andalusian Muslims, among them the Alhambra palace in
Granada. Further more, the 400 – year southward movement of the Christian-Muslim frontier
resulted, ironically, in some of the most intense Christian – Muslim interaction in Andalusian
history. Muslims, as Mudejars, could live under Christian rule and contribute to its culture; Jews
could translate Arabic and Hebrew texts into Castilian.

The political unity of the Maghrib collapsed in the thirteenth century as the Almohad Empire
split into three rival Islamic states, roughly corresponding to the modern nations of Morocco,
Algeria, and Tunisia. At the same time, Muslims were pushed out of Spain and into North
Africa by the advancing armies of the Christian kingdom of Aragon, Castile and Portugal. Thus,
the power of the Almohads declined and finally came to an end in Spain in 1232 and in Africa in
1269.
 Unit Six;- The War of Crusades

1-Origin of the Crusades

This empire, Christian Europe was under attack and on the defensive. The Magyars, nomadic
people from Asia, pillaged eastern and central Europe until the 10th century. Beginning about
800 A.D, Several centuries of Viking raids disrupted life in northern Europe and even threatened
Mediterranean cities. But, the greatest threat came from the forces of Islam, Militant and
victorious in the centuries following the death of their leader, Muhammad, in 632. By the 8th
centaury, Islamic forces had conquered North Africa, the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, and
Most of Spain. Islamic armies established bases in Italy, greatly reduced the size and power of
the Byzantine Empire (the Eastern Roman empire) and besieged its capital, Constantinople. The
Byzantine Empire, which had preserved much of the classical civilization of the Greeks and had
defended the eastern Mediterranean from assaults from all sides, was barely able to hold off the
enemy. Islam posed the threat of a rival culture and religion, which neither the Vikings nor the
Magyars had done.
In the 11th Century the balance of power began to swing towards the west. The church became
more centralized and stronger from a reform movement to end the practice where by kings
installed important clergy, such as bishops, in office. Thus for the first time in many years, the
popes were able to effectively unite European popular support behind them, a factor that
contributed greatly to the popular appeal of the first crusade.

Furthermore, Europe’s population was growing, its urban life was beginning to revive, and both
long distance and local trade were gradually increasing. European human and economic
resources could now support new enterprises on the scale of the crusades. A growing population
and more surplus wealth also meant greater demand for goods from else where. European
traders had always looked to the Mediterranean; now they sought greater control of the goods,
routes, and profits. Thus worldly interests coincided with religious feelings about the Holy Land
and the Pope’s new found ability to mobilize and focus a great enterprise.
1.1. The First Crusade
In 1095 at the Council of Clermont (southern France), pope Urban II proclaimed the first
crusade, promising all those who took part absolution from their sin and rich booty. The first
armies which started the crusade were composed of the poor peasantry. Poorly armed crowds
of peasant soldiers reached Constantinople, plundering and looting as they went. The Byzantine
emperor hastily urged them to set out for Asians shores where they were soon routed by the
Turks. Pathetic stragglers of the peasant detachments returned to Constantinople and started to
wait for the main expeditionary force led by knights, which set out from Europe in 1096 for
Jerusalem. After a long and difficult Journey this force finally reached Jerusalem in 1099. They
took the city by storm and then instigated a brutal massacre of the Muslim population. A number
of crusader states were set up in Syrian and Palestinian territory. They were ruled by powerful
European nobles who headed a complex and strict hierarchy of lesser lords and Knights. The
European peasants, just like their local counterparts, found themselves in economic bondage and
had thus achieved no easing of their lot. The local population revolted and in 1144 the Crusaders
lost Edessa, one of their most important strongholds.
The crusaders faced many obstacles. They had no obvious or widely accepted leader, no
consensus about relations with the churchmen who went with them, no definition of the Pope’s
role, and no agreement with the Byzantine emperor on weather they were his allies, servants,
rivals, or perhaps enemies. These uncertainties divided the crusaders into factions that did not
always get along well with one another.
1.2. The Second Crusade
Pope Eugenius III called for a second crusade in 1147 after Muslims recaptured the city of
Edessa on the Euphrates River. King Louis VII of France and King Conrad II of Germany set
out, but both armies were defeated. Conrad made the mistake of choosing the land route from
Constantinople to the Holy Land and his army was decimated at Dorylaeum in Asia Minor. The
French army was more fortune, but it also suffered serious casualties during the journey and only
part of the Original force reached Jerusalem in 1148. In consultation with King Baldwin III of
Jerusalem and his nobles, the crusaders decided to attack Damascus in July. The expedition
failed to take the city, and shortly after the collapse of this attack, the French, king and the
remains of his army returned home. The second crusade resulted in much western casualty and
no gains of value in outremer (French for “beyond the sea”). In fact the only military gains
during this period were made in what is now Portugal, where English troops, which had turned
aside from the second crusade, helped free the city of Lisbon from the moors.
In the years between the failure of the second crusade and 1170, when the Muslim prince Salah
al-Din came to power in Egypt, the Latin states were on the defensive but were able to maintain
themselves. But, in 1187 Salah al-Din inflicted a major defeat on a combined army at Hattin and
subsequently took Jerusalem. The situation had become dire. In response to the Church’s call
for a new, major crusade, three western rulers undertook to lead their forces in person. These
were Richard I, the Lion-Hearted of England, Phillip II of France, and Frederick I, called
Frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor. Known as the third crusade, it has become
perhaps the most famous of all crusades other than the first crusade, though its role in legend and
literature greatly outweighs its success or value.

The three rulers were rivals. Richard and Philip had long been in conflict over the English
holdings in France. Though English kings had inherited great fiefs in France, their homage to
the French king was a constant source of trouble. Frederick Barbarossa, old and famous, died in
1189 on the way to the holy land, and most of his armies returned to Germany following his
death. Philip II had been spurred into taking up the crusade by a need to match his rivals, and he
returned home in 1191 with little concern for eastern glories. But, Richard, a great soldier, was
very much in his element. He saw an opportunity to campaign in the field, to establish links with
the local nobility, and to speak as the voice of the crusader states. Though he gained much glory,
the crusaders were unable to recapture Jerusalem or much of the former territory of the Latin
kingdom. They did succeed, however, in wresting from Salah al-Din control of a chain of cities
along the Mediterranean coast. By October 1192, when Richard finally left the Holy Land, the
Latin kingdom had been reconstituted. Smaller than the original kingdom and considerably
weaker military and economically, the second kingdom lasted precariously for another century.

During the Fourth crusade western knights plundered Constantinople (1204) thus exposing for all
to see that the principal aim of the crusades was not to rescue the Holy sepulcher but to plunder
and loot, since the Byzantine capital was a Christian city. Soon afterwards the Turks drove the
crusaders out of Asia Minor. Their last stronghold in Palestine, the town of Acre, was taken by
the Turks in 1291 and that year is regarded as marking the end of the crusade.

Crusades after the fourth one were not mass movements. They were military enterprises led by
rulers moved by personal motives. Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II vowed to lead a crusade
in 1215, but for domestic political reasons postponed his departure. Under pressure from Pope
Gregory IX, Frederick and his army finally sailed from Italy in August 1227, but returned to port
with in a few days because Frederick had fallen ill. The Pope, outraged at this further delay,
promptly excommunicated the emperor. Undaunted, Frederick embarked for the Holy Land in
June 1228. There he conducted his unconventional crusade almost entirely by diplomatic
negotiations with the Egyptian sultan. These negotiations produced a peace treaty by which the
Egyptians restored Jerusalem to the crusaders and guaranteed a ten-year respite from hostilities.
However, Frederick was ridiculed in Europe for using diplomacy rather than the sword.

In 1248 Louis IX, Saint Louis of France, decided that his obligations as a son of the church
outweighed those of his throne, and he left his kingdom for a six-year adventure. Since the base
of Muslim power had shifted to Egypt, Louis did not even march on the Holy Land; any war
against Islam now fit the definition of a crusade. Louis and his followers landed in Egypt on June
5, 1249, and the following day captured Damietta. The next phase of their campaign, an attack
on Cairo in the spring of 1250, proved to be a catastrophe. The crusaders failed to guard their
flanks, and as a result the Egyptians retained control over the water reservoirs along the Nile. By
opening the Sluice gates, they created floods that trapped the whole crusading army, and Louis
was forced to surrender in April 1250. After paying an enormous ransom and surrendering
Damietta, Louis sailed to Palestine, where he spent four years building fortifications and
strengthening the defenses of the Latin kingdom. In the spring of 1254 he and his army returned
to France.

King Louis also organized the last major crusade in 1270. This time the response of the French
nobility was unenthusiastic, and the expedition was directed against the city of Tunis rather than
Egypt. It ended abruptly when Louis died in Tunisia during the summer of 1270.

For many years, scholars were inclined to give the crusades credit for making Western Europe
more Cosmopolitan. They believed the crusades had brought Western Europe higher standards
of Eastern Medicine and learning, Greek and Muslim culture, and such luxuries as Silk, and
Oranges. Extreme statements of this view held that the crusades brought Europe out of the
provincialism of the dark Ages.

Scholars no longer accept this assessment, because, it ignores the larger trends of population
growth expanding trade, and the exchange of ideas and cultures that existed long before 1095.
These trends would have encouraged east-west exchange with out military expeditions or the
taking of Jerusalem. The crusades, while an exciting and integral part of the Middle Ages,
merely served to hasten changes that were inevitable.

The most important effect of the crusades was economic. The Italian cities prospered from the
transport of crusaders and replaced Byzantines and Muslims as merchant traders on the
Mediterranean. Trade passed through Italian hands to Western Europe at a handsome profit.
This commercial power became the economic base of the Italian Renaissance. It also provoked
such Atlantic powers as Spain and Portugal to seek trade routes to India and China. Their
efforts, through such explorers as Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus, helped to open
most of the world to European trade dominance and colonization and to shift the centre of
commercial activity from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
 UNIT SEVEN
The Medieval Civilization of the Islamic World
1: Literature
The Quran is the base of learning in the Islamic world. Besides, the Muslim scholars produced
several works in poetry and prose. Further more, the Muslims preserved the manuscripts of
ancient Greek and Romans that indicated their zeal for maintaining and expanding knowledge
through literature.

Mentioning some of the Muslim poets and writers of prose is necessary for the understanding of
their contribution for the Islamic civilization. Al-Farazdaq, Tarir and al-Akhtal are some of the
outstanding writers who wrote by appreciating the people for their good activities in the tenth
century. Abu Tammam’s work Diwan and Hamasa are famous books from which the following
verses could be mentioned written by the time when the Muslim warriors occupied Amorium in
Asia Minor.

The sword is truer than what is told in books:

In its edge is the separation between truth and falsehood.
Abu Tamman rewarded a city named Mosul for his qasida (rhyming in sin) praising the
“Command of the Faithful”. He died in 846 in Mosul where his tomb is presented by
outstanding monument.

Al-Mutanabbi (915-965) is one of the greatest Arabic poets. Westerners have some reservation in
admiring his work because of his powerful expression of thing on which his emotionality
reflected. But for his countrymen he was an admirable rhetoric and his lines were considered as
wonderful expressions.

Night and the horses and the Desert know me,

Also the Sword and the guest and paper and the pen
Al-Mutanabbi described his ability not only in writing but also in fighting. The marauders said to
have attacked him and his accompany, lastly they claimed their life.

The Arabs were also experienced in the prose literature. Mentioning Ibn al-Muqaffa is important
in such kind of literature. He was the author of Kalila wa-Dimna, translated from the Middle
Persia, Pahlavi, fables of Bidpal’ which itself was a version of the Indian mirror of princes
Panchatantra. Kalila wa-Dimna was an admirable work till today in which the Political life of
the time represented by the relation between jackals and lion or other animals. Ibn al-Muqaffa
had translated other books from Persia. These were Khuday-nama, Categories, de
Interpretatione and Analytics of Aristotle. Moreover, he wrote several orginal works among
them Kitab al-Adab al-Kabir and Risalat al-Adab al-Wajiz lil-Walad as-Saghir can be
mentioned. They were written on ethics and correct behavior.

Another writer of worth mentioning is al-Jahiz in 8th century who had produced several books
such as the Kitab al-Hayawan (book of Animals), the Kitab al-Bukhala (Book of Misers) Kitab
Fakhr as-Sudan ala l-Bidan (Book of the Boasting of the Blacks over the Whites) and others. He
had contributed several prose works raising some significant issues. At one time he faced a
strong challenge from Ahmad b. Abd al-Wahhab saying that al-Jahiz did deal with issues that he
could not understand. Al-Jahiz responded by writing inter alia that was about the meaning of his
titles.

The Arabs were most of the time aware of the importance of preserving written documents that
had been provided by the Greeks, the Romans and the Persians. It was not only preserving what
they did. They translated them into Arabic for common use as a source of knowledge. They had
also produced their own original works both in Poetry and prose literature.

Literature was a field in which the role of the Arabs magnified their own civilization Pre-Islamic
poetry had public and social function. During the period of the Umayyad Caliphate, the Pre-
Islamic Poetry had been codified Qzb applied for further development. Their poetry enriched by
elements of the persons during the time of the Abbasid Caliphate. They added new themes and
forms on the Pre-Islamic models of writing. The Arabic literature that existed first in the oral
form transmitted by reciting verses reached in the stage of Publications in several book in the
time of the Caliphates.

1.1 History

The Islamic historians did not consider Islam as a new religion. Their view towards Islam is that
it was the extension of Judaism and Christianity. But it was Muhammad, the last prophet of
Allah, brought Islam into final version of Islamic beliefs.

From the earlier Arab chroniclers, the works of Ubayd (Ubayd b. Sharya) and Wahb b.
Munabbih are said to be still survived. The former asked what the best wealth was ever seen.
The latter also remembered by his Kitab al-Israiliyyat (Book of Israelitish History) in which he
raised new themes who treated them in a sophistical ways. He had also some knowledge of the
Septuagint version of the Bible. The passage of al-Ghazali in his Ihya Ulum ad-Din (Revival of
the Religious Sciences) qouted Wahb who found on the margin of the Torah twenty-two letters
(harf), which the pious men of the Israelites study who excelled the importance of knowledge and
forbearance more than anything else.

Musa b. Uqba al-Asadi one of the prophet’s companion, inaugurated a series of important early
works on the history of Muhammad. He was known as Imam al-Maghazi, that is, apparently, the
‘expert on the early Muslim expeditions’. He was quated now and then by later historians to
write the Islamic expansion and the establishment of Islamic states.

Muhammad b. Ishaq (d. 768) is even better known by his work with the title Kitab al-Maghazi
that contained the early biography of prophet Muhammed. His writings worked up by Ibn
Hisham (d. 833) whose work Sirat Muhammad Rasul Allah is one of the best accounts about the
life of the prophet. Apart from Haddith (traditions of Muhammad), we have in the work of al-
Waqidi (d.823) and especially that of his pupil Ibn Said (d.845) another tradition of the
momentous events which transpired in Mecca and Median in the early days of Islam and before
its promulgation, in the personal story of Muhammad.

Abu Abd Allah Muhammad b. Umar b. Waqid al-Waqid, was a merchant in Medina left to
Baghdad after he had lost his business. Eventually he became Qadi of Askar al-Mahdi (Rusafa)
on the east bank of Tigris. He left several books, of which the kitab al-Maghazi (Book of the
Raids) has survived, edited twice and translated into German. His work is different from that of
Ibn Ishaq-Ibn Hisham since it is early, is of great interest. His critics considered his work,
however as an unreliable authority, saying that he included forged traditions in his accounts. His
other work Kita ar-Ridda (Book of the Apostasy) had also to be mentioned. This was written
about deserting of some Arabs from Islam after the death of the prophet and their coercion by the
Muslims. He had also other works about the Islamic conquests over Syria, Egypt, and Iraq.

The main course of Muslim history flowed elsewhere, in the East, and for accounts of the gradual
breakdown of the Abbasid Caliphate, the coming of the Crusaders and the Mongol Storm, we
have to turn to works of more general Scope. Ibn al-Athir was one of the most celebrated
historians. His work is said to be the general reliability which has almost always been
recognized, covered many centuries to 1231 and its readability. Al-Athir’s Annals was a work in
which his impartiality reflected and well documented referring all available sources. Sibt Ibn al –
Jawzi’s Mir’at az-Zaman fi Tarikh al-Ayan (Mirror of the Age in History of Famous Men) was a
reflection of the period when the Abbasid’s Caliphate was disintegrated and the fall of Baghdad
into the hands of the Mongols. This was a general history in the same manner like that of al-
Athir’s work.

The other Arabic historian who deserves mentioning often is Ibn-Khaldun who wrote
Maqaddima (Prolegomena). His own life experience is the source of history as he made wide
journey from east to west in the Islamic world and wrote his own autobiographies. Though divot
Muslim, Ibn-Khaldun raised the question of science in writing his work. He tried to look at the
attachment of problems and society. His attitude and methodology brought him close to the
modern sociologists. He raised several issues about the Politics of the time that made his
masterpiece similar with the work of Florentine Niccolo Machiavelli, one of the Renaissance
scholars in the 15th century.

1.2 Philosophy

The Arab thinkers considered Aristotle as ‘al-Muallim al-Awwal’-the First Teacher. The Arab
translation, interpretation, and teaching in Spain that Aristotle came to be the supreme arbiter of
thought in medieval Europe after profoundly influencing the whole intellectual complexion of
Islam.

The Arabs admitted generally that the forerunners of the Arab Philosophy are from Greek also
perhaps from India. The earliest stirrings seem to have come from Alexandria. It had been
captured by the Arabs in 646.

Al-Kindi (d.866) was recognized as ‘philosopher of the Arabs’ (faylasuf al-Arab). He served the
Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad as instructor of princes. He combined philosophy with
mathematics, alchemy, Optics and Musical theory. His work on Optics, based on Euclid’s,
becomes known in Europe. In a work Fam adh-Dhahab (Golden –Mouth) Al-kind, had adopted
the doctrine of Plato concerning the creation of the world out side of the time and supported this
opinion with ill-based arguments. Until his manuscript was discovered in an Istambul by a
German Orientalist Hellmut Ritter in 1932, al-Kindi as a philosopher was little known. Al-kindi
had metaphysical interest. It is as a metaphysician that al-Kindi meets us in many of the treaties
discovered. The combination of natural science and metaphysics both developed to a high degree
is reminiscent of Aristotle. Yet al-Kindi is not dominated by Aristotle’s thought. He appears to
be much more under the influence of Orthodox Muslim ideas.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) was born in 980. He is regarded as the second great Muslim philosopher.
He spent his time in services of local dynasties like Samanids and Buwayhids. By profession he
was a doctor and he had great interest in Science and philosophy. Among his numerous medical
writings, the most influential was the Canon of Medicine (al-Qanun fi’t – Tibb). It was used as a
text book in Europe as late as the seventeeth century, and much later in the East. The most
celebrated work of Ibn-Sina was the Treatiseon on the Canon of Medicine of Abvicenna Contains
the translation of book I by O.Cameron Gruner.

New Texts have been Published, e.g.a Majmu (collection) at Haidarabad in 1934-5, containing;
Risalat al-Fa’l Wa’l –Infial (Treatise on Acting and Being Acted upon); Risala fi Dhikr Asbab
ar-ra’d (Account of the Causes of Thunder); Risala fi Sirra-Qadr (Mystery of the Divine
Decree); ar-Risala al-Ar Shiyya fi’t – Tawhid (The Throne Treatise on the Divne unity): Risala
fi’s-Sa’ada (on Happiness) containing ten proofs that the human soul is a substance (jawhar), that
it does not admit of corruption, that it is supplied from divine emanation, that the heavenly bodies
possess a sentient soal, and treating of the conditions of the sentient soul at its departure-quite in
the Alfarabian vein, and showing traces of panpsychism, or the doctrine of a general soul, which
appears to have been taken up later by Ibn Bajja (Avempace).

Ibn Rushd, known in medieval Europe by the corrupted Latinized version of his name, Averroes,
was the greatest of the Arab Aristotelian commentators-as he was indeed, whether in philosophy,
jurisprudence, medicine, or mathematics, one of the foremost figures of Arab civilization. He
lived and taught in Cordova in the twelfth century, and from there he influence reached into the
very heart of Europe and of Christian Philosophy and theology. His commentaries on Aristotle
were an obligatory subject of study at the university of Paris; and though some of his original
teaching as a philosopher were misunderstood by European scholars and led to the development
of a line of thought called, after him, Averroism, which St Thomas Aquinas refuted, and which
Ibn Rushd himself would probably have repudiated, the similarities of outlook, method, and aim
between him and the Angelic doctor show that even St. Thomas was influenced by the Arab
Philosopher’s thought, particularly in his approach to Aristotle and on the Paramount question of
reconciling faith with reason, philosophy with revelation.

It may be indeed, be claimed that it was Ibn Rushd who led the way alike for Muslims, Jews, and
Christians in the great medieval venture of trying to show that the truths of philosophy, as
expounded by Aristotle, did not conflict with the word of God. The harmony which Koran which
Ibn Rushd tried to deduce between Aristotle and the Quran (though he was some times bold
enough to follow reason even to the point at which it might contradict religions), the Jewish
Maimonides (under the influence of Ibn Rushd) tried to deduce between Aristotle and the Old
Testament, and later, the schoolmen, steeped in the Aristotelian expositions of Ibn Rushd, tried to
do in regard to Christian dogma.

2. Science and Medicine

It was too early to speak about advanced culture in the pre-Islamic period regarding science. But
at that time the Arabs were not completely divorced from it. The Kahin (diviner), more or less
similar with the Hebrew Kohen (priest) and the Shai’r (Percipient or poet), was practicing for
casting the future.

Later on seemingly under the influence of the Persians, the physician, tabib (the Skilful) entered
in the Arabian scene. According to Ibn Khaldun, the Arabs had been conducted some medical
treatment under the well known physician such as al-Harith b. Kalada (d.634). Other sources
indicate that al-Harith b. Kalada studied in the medical school of Jundishapur in Persia.

The early contact of Arabs with the civilized world strengthened more by the conquest of Arabs
over these parts of the world. The seat of the caliphate transferred from Arabia to Syria and Iraq.
In these centers the conquerors, imperceptibly at first, began to acquire the usages of amore
civilized life. The caliphs and other men took advantage to the scientific knowledge of their
subjects. Mu’awiya I (r.661-80) employed the physician Ibn Uthal, a Christian of Damascus.
Tayadhuq, a Greek, served al-Hajjaj, the governor of Iraq in the same field. He had conducted
the most remarkable notices of scientific activity under Khalid b. Yazid. Ibn an-Nadim, the
author of the Fihrist, indicated that Khaldi b. Yazid was himself hakim (wise man) of the family
of Marwan. Though he was not successful to ascend on throne, he determined to develop his
interest in the science of alchemy. The books of medicine astrology and alchemy were translated
for him. Crude forms of the ammoniac ingredient are indicated. Later Sal ammoniac was
universally used by the alchemists, and the substance was manufactured in various ways. An
Arabic proverb well expressed the content of the lines, and could be based on them; ‘He who
dissolves the talc is independent of all nature.’

It is said that Khalid b. Yazid learned alchemy from a Greek monk called Marianus and wrote
three treatises on the art, one of which contained an account of what passed between him and
Marianus and how he learned the science and the secret names which his master used.

As an Umayyad prince, Khalid b. Yazid might have enjoyed the best education that Syria could
offer, and there is no a Priori reason why his attention should not have been turned in the
direction of Greek science, by some tutor or otherwise. There is no doubt that the intellectual
interests attributed to him-medicine, astrology and alchemy-are precisely those aspects of the
inheritance of the past which first and most strongly appealed to the Arabs, as the titles of Greek
and other books at an early date translated into Arabic.

The next important name in this connection is Jabir b. Hayyan of Kufa, who is said by the Fihrist
and later sources to have been a prominent alchemist living in the time of Harun al-Rashid
(caliph 786-809). The circumstances of Jabir are wrapped in deep obscurity. The study of early
Arabic alchemy may be said to have been first placed on a solid basis by the Frenchman,
Berthelot, who in 1893, in conjunction with O.Houdas, published a number of Arabic treaties
including six short works attributed to Jabir. Numerous texts of Jabir had been edited by Paul
Kraus in 1935 and he cited the astonishing number of nearly three thousand works attributed to
Jabir which he canvassed the whole Arabic tradition.

Apart from Khalid b. Yazid and Jabir b. Hayyan there are few names connected with Arabic
science in the Umayyad period. Tawfil ar-Rumi (Theophilus of Edessa), according to Ibn
Khaldun an astrologer in the days of the Umayyads, who calculated that Islam would endure for
the period of a great conjunction that is the space of time between two great conjunctions, or 960
years. When this time had elapsed, the two superior planets, Saturn and Jupiter, would again be
together in the sign of the Scorpion at the beginning of Islam, but the stars would have a different
configuration from what they had then, consequently, either the practice of Islam would be
relaxed or new doctrines of an altogether opposite character would be introduced.

Little is known about Theophilus of Edessa, except that he was chief astrologer to the Caliph al-
Mahdi and is said to have translated two books of the Iliad into Syria. The theory of conjunctions
had a great Vogue in the astrology of the Middle Ages, both Arabic and Latin, and if Theophlilus
of Edessa is in fact the first men to speak about it, his originality would be very great, for this was
no part of the astrology of the Greeks. The standard work on the subject, the Tetrabiblos of
Ptolemy, does not discuss conjunctions. The prevailing view, endorsed by Nallino, a great expert
on Arabic astrology and astronomy, is that the Arabs learned about cycles and planetary
conjunctions from the Indians.

With the beginning of the Abbasid age the environment to some extent altered and that the times
were now more favorable for the reception and development of natural science and intellectual
culture in general. Astrology became even more popular. It may be going too far to say that
astronomy was the ancillary science. Astronomy was ardently pursued for the sake of astrology.
Court astrologers were a feature of life under the Abbasids. It is noteworthy that the foundations
of the new Abbasid capital, Baghdad, were laid at a propitious moment chosen by astrologers.
The plan of the city was traced in circular form. Works on the science are ascribed both to
Nawbakht and to al-Fazari, and the latter has the distinction, according to the Fihrist and other
sources, of being the first Muslim to construct an astrolabe, a plane astrolabe, the simplest means
of determining a star’s altitude above the horizon, and to write book about it.

A Muslim physician and man of science called the Galen of the Arabs, who enjoyed the greatest
reputation during the middle Ages and whose celebrity has come down to our own time. He is
Abu Bakr Muhammad b. Zakariyya ar-Razi the famous Rhases, He was a native of the Persian
city of Rayy, where he lived in the 9th century.

For knowledge of Rhazes in Europe the date 1766 is of considerable importance. In that year the
Londoner John Channing published a work of Rhazes in the original Arabic-an edition, Arabic
and Latin, of the Kitab fi al-fadari wa’l-Hasba (on small box and measles), which had already in
1747 attracted the attention of the celebrated Dr Mead (1673-1754) and which has been described
as ‘the oldest and most important original work on smallpox and measles’ and as ‘probably the
most concise and most original treatise in Arabic medical literature.’

3: Language
In medieval times, Arab scholars had classified peoples by what they considered to be their most
characteristic trait. Thus, the Greek was characterized by the superiority of his brain, the Chinese
by the dexterity of his hands, the Indian by his imagination, and the Arab by the eloquence of his
tongue. Since pre-Islamic times, eloquence has been considered one of the basic attributes of the
perfect Arab. Arabic tradition had fostered an attitude toward the Arabic language which was
almost worshiped. Linguistic purity was valued, and meticulous use of the language was
required.

Arabic is important to the Arabs not only for practical, religious, and nationalistic reasons, but
because it is their only living art. The Arabic language is a beautiful and resonant language, rich
in vocabulary, images, smiles, unusual metaphors, ornate expressions, elegance, and sonority.

The Arabic language invariably leads its user to become passionately carried away. When
reciting poetry or prose, speaking literary Arabic, and especially chanting the Quran, the literate
Arab almost always has to show overt signs of emotion. Because of the endless rules of
inflection and changing vowels and consonants as well as the Ubiquitous accent marks of Arabic,
the simple act of reading or speaking in Arabic involves numerous voice changes, accompanied
by emotional and physiological changes.

The Arabic language is one of the witnesses regarding the Muslims contributions in the
development of science and mathematics. Betelgeuse, Rigel (foot), al-Kaid (the leader), al-Tair
(the bird or eagle), and the names of the fixed stars in the international scientific vocabulary are
Arabic words, testifying both to the Arab’s work in astronomy and to its permanent place in the
corpus of world knowledge. ‘Algebra’, ‘algorism’, ‘Zero’, ‘alchemy’, ‘Chess’, ‘check’, are other
words of Arabic derivation, suggesting Arab influence in mathematics, Chemistry, and the
intellectual reactions of a civilized society.

The cipher, the so-called Arabic numerals, and the decimal system of notation were all invented
by the Indians, but it was the Arabs who brought them into the service of world civilization and
handed them onto Europe, thus making possible not only everyday arithmetic as we know its, but
also far-reaching mathematical developments which the Greeks, for all their original genius and
intellectual power, had not been able to embark upon without the cipher and the Arabic numerals.

Other set of English words derived from the Arabic indicate Arab influences in commerce,
craftsmanship, and agriculture. The word ‘Cheque’ comes from the Arabic Saqq, suggesting an
Arab origin for many trading and financial transactions. The word Sofa comes from Suf, the
Arabic for ‘wool’, ‘Lemon’, ‘rice’, ad ‘sugar’, as well as ‘Syrup’ and ‘ginger’ are also Arabic
words, indicating either that the articles they stand for first came into Europe from the Arab
countries, or that they were brought there by Arab enterprise from central Asia.

4 Architecture
The Islamic architectural achievement observed mainly on the construction of Mosques, Oleg
Grabar’s argument indicated us that there is no pan-Islamic accepted worldwide design of
architecture and perceived symbols by all. Thus since the different buildings in which Moslems
pray and perform a diversity of functions are different in their architectural design or style it
would be extremely difficult to assert the existence of a pan-Islamic architecture.

It is Abdullah Al-Jasmi who analyzed the argument of such type mentioned above. He critically
evaluates this view and argued against it. Here the argument of Al-Jasmi is presented briefly.

Grabar calls three approaches in defending his conclusion. The first approach focuses on the
philosophical, the semi logical and the anthropological theories to show a light of understanding
on the identity of Islamic architecture. His reasons are the abstractness of the theories and lack of
explanation based on deep study on how symbols originated in the historical process of Islamic
architecture. His second approach focused on the classical texts, the Quran and Haddith, and
literary and mathematical treaties. He claimed that he did not get iconography of Islamic
architecture in these texts. He did not say these texts never mention iconographies. But he
argued that these iconographies were not memorized and used throughout the time in the
architectures. The third approach focused on the monument itself. According to him the
symbolic meaning changed in the process of time. He mentioned Taj Mahal, Dome of the Rock
and the Grand Mosque of Damascus as examples. He added that the architectural type of
Mosques in Fertile Crescent, Arabia, Iran, Turkey and others are determined by culture without
exemplifying unique Islamic mosque. He mentioned three architectural forms, the Mihrab, the
Minaret and the Gate. But to him they had different practical functions changed from place to
place and time to time.

Abdullah Al-Jasmi, first he saw critically the methods of Grabar as inadequate and then he
argued supporting the idea that Islamic symbols in the architecture existed.

According to him Grabar’s effort to find evidence in classical texts was inappropriate
methodology thinking the people who did not involve in the actual work provided source. This is
because architecture is creation embodies meaning that could not be done according to rules
imposed from outside by the people who did not create it. As to him the religious identity of the
mosque is discovered by a critical or aesthetic perception of the kind of meaning, values, or
aesthetic qualities it embodies. These qualities including symbols are the ultimate basis of its
cultural identity.

Moreover, Grabar’s attempt look for a consistent system is not complete and enough to support
his argument. Even his claim about the existence of a Christian system of visual symbols is not
adequate to explain the case of different denominations in Christianity who have divergent
outlook on the topic.

Grabar investigated well, but he did investigate by giving much attention on the physical side of
the symbol, on its outside, not on its content or meaning, Grabar could not take the minaret as
pan-Islamic symbol because he observed it from outside different from Mosque to mosque. Al-
Jasmi noted that to know whether Minaret is religious symbol, it is important to direct the thrust
of our inquiry to the domain of the religious as such, to the source from which such a quality or
form derives its meaning and the place this quality or form occupies in this domain. Some
symbols are adopted by convention (e.g. the flag), others are natural (e.g. moon), while still
others evolve (e.g. wedding ring). Many symbols of world religions evolved. This applies to the
minaret.

The Mihrab of the Mosque is the other Islamic symbol in the architecture as far as what Al-
Jasmi’s saying concerned. The focal point of the mosque, regardless of when or where it was
built is the Mihrab. It is the axis of the Mosque in two senses, the architectural and spiritual. The
Mosque can not stand without the Mihrab. The Mihrab is a metaphysical center, it represents an
invisible, spiritual vertical axis points towards heaven.
 Unit Eight
Islamic World in the Nineteenth Century
1: Islamic Jihad (Expansion) in West Africa
1.1 Isalmization of the Fulbe (Fulani) People

In the early 19th century, a succession of Islamic jihads swept West Africa. This greatly changed
the political map of the region. These great religious upheavals were conducted by fervent
Muslims. The spearheads were the Fulani. They were pastoralist people who had spread across
much of the West African savannah by the 17th century.

The conversion of the Fulbe to Islam may be attributed to their isolation from the people with
whom they were settled. The Fulbe retained their separate identity and usually took no part in
the political life of the chiefdoms among whom they had settled. They were also under
increasing pressure from the settled agricultural population and their rulers. The Fulbe were also
often resented as intruders and their grazing lands and trading rights were restricted. At the same
time they were subjected to heavy tribute and taxation. Thus, this sense of isolation may explain
why many Fulbe people turned to Islam at this time.

The Fulbe conversion to Islam was the result of contacts with Muslim traders of the towns and
Tuareg pastoralists of the Sahel. Islam gave the Fulbe additional sense of unity. By the early
eighteenth century a number of Fulbe Muslim clans were competing with the Tuareg as the
leading Islamic scholars of West Africa. They also became the spearhead of the Islamic
expansion that swept Western Sudan. The Fulbe Muslim teachers who preached jihad against
the infidel may have been inspired by earlier religious reforming movements such as the
Almoravids of the eleventh century.

1.2. The Jihads of Futa Jalon and Futa Toro

The West African jihads of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries began in the highlands
of Futa Jalon in what is now the modern state of Guinea. The Fulbe pastoralists had settled in
these highlands from the early 1500s. The local farming population was organized in a series of
small village chiefdoms. As their herds increased in size the Fulbe felt the pressure of the
restrictions and taxation of the farmers. In 1725 the Fulbe rose in rebellion against their rulers
and with the support of Muslim traders they waged holy war against the ‘pagan’ settled farmers.
They completed their conquest before 1750. At the middle of the eighteenth century they had
both the region under Islamic law and created a Fuble-dominated state.

The jihad that took place in Futa Jalon inspired a similar movement in Futa Toro to the south of
Lower Senegal. In this region, Muslim Tukolor and Fulbe waged successful jihad and
established a new Muslim state under the rule of the Sharia.

1.2 The Jihads of the Hausa States

The eighteenth-century jihads of Futa Jalon and Futa Toro provided inspiration for later Muslim
teachers elsewhere in Western Africa. In the early nineteenth century a series of jihads were
waged within the Hausa States of the northern regions of modern Nigeria. From these jihads
emerged the Sokoto Caliphate or Empire. It was the largest single West African state of the
early nineteenth century. This jihad was led by Usman dan Fodio, son of a Fulbe Muslim
teacher in the northern Hausa State of Gobir.

Usman began his preaching in Gobir in the 1770’s. His main concerns were the conversion of
Fulani pastoralists who still clung to indigenous religious beliefs and the religious and social
reform of the nominally Muslim Hausa rulers. He developed a firm concept of the ideal Muslim
society and he judged the rulers of the Hausa by the principles of the Sharia. Initially he planned
to achieve his ends by the peaceful preaching of reform. But eventually he grew increasingly
critical of government corruption and injustice.

To achieve his concerns, Usman had the support of Fulani Pastoralists, both Muslim and non-
Muslim. The Fulani lived relatively in peace among farming populations. However, in the
Hausa region of what is now northern Nigeria the Fulani became estranged from what they
regarded as the corrupt rule of the nominally Muslim Hausa aristocracy. They particularly
resented the Hausa’s heavy taxation of their cattle. As a result, the Fulani became very receptive
to the reformist teachings of Muslim scholar Usuman dan Fodio.

Usman’s reputation as a holy man and preacher quickly spread through the Muslim communities
of Hausa land. By the 1790’s Usman had gathered a considerable following at Degel near the
border of Gobir and Kebbi. However, his growing power and influence were resented by the
rulers of Gobir, who tried to restrict his movements and prevent him making further conversions.

In the early 1800s the king of Gobir, Yunfa, tried to assassinate Usman. Usman and his
followers also withdrew from Gobir. When Yunfa sent his cavalry against them his forces
suffered defeat and the jihad had begun in 1804 against the Hausa aristocracy. The revolution
quickly spread through the Muslim and Fulani community of Hausa land. The capital of Gobir
was finally captured in 1808. The Hausa rulers fell because they failed to gain the support of the
oppressed Hausa peasantry, and because they did not act in unison.

Fulani pastoralists tried to extend the jihad into Bornu, but they were resisted by Muhammad al-
Kanemi, a religious and military leader from Kanem. Although the state lost control of its
eastern Hausa provinces, Bornu retained its independence under a new dynasty set up by al-
Kanemi’s son Umar.

1.2 The Jihad of the Upper Niger River

On the upper Niger River, a jihad was led by al-Haji Umar (also called as Umar Tal), a Muslim
preacher from Fouta Toro. In the Fouta Jalon region, he built up an army and equipped it with
firearms, bought in exchange for captives on the coast. From 1855 to 1862 Umar’s army
captured the Bambara states of Kaarata and Segu, and the Fulani state of Masina. He thus
created what was known as the Tukolor Empire, which stretched from Fouta Jalon to
Tombouctou. Following Umar’s death in 1864, the Tukolor Empire was seriously weakened by
internal revolts and lack of unity among his sons and closest followers, and was conquered by
the French in 1893.

1.3 The Rise of the Mandinka Empire

South of Tukolor, in what is now Guinea, military leader Samory Toure conquered and united
the states of the Dyula people who live in the region of the Upper Niger basin to the east of Futa
Jalon and built up a powerful Mandinka kingdom in the 1860s. Unlike some of his
contemporary state-builders, Samory was not a religious preacher and Mandinka was not a
reformist state. Nevertheless he used Islam to unite and strengthen his kingdom. He promoted
Muslim education and the building of mosques and he use Islamic law as a base for his rule.

During the late 1870s Samori extended his conquest to include the Bure goldfields in the north
and down the upper Niger valley towards modern Bamako. By the early 1880s he had turned his
Mandinka kingdom into a huge empire. It became the third largest empire next to Sokoto and
Tukolor.

Besides the spread of Islam, the strength of Samori’s army was a major unifying factor in the
creation of the Mandinka Empire. He incorporated male captives into the army rather than
selling them as slaves. This increased local loyalties to Samori and the state. He imported the
latest rifles from Sierra Leone port of Free Town and used local ironsmiths to repair and
manufacture guns.

Samori constantly engaged in defending his conquests from outside invasion and he had little
opportunity to devote his talents for further development within the state. As a result, Samori’s
Mandinka Empire was tragically short lived. As such it provided one of the major forces of
resistance to French conquest in the final decades of the century.

2: The Ottoman Empire and Westernization

2.1 The Tanzimat Reforms

The geographical location of the Ottoman Empire close to Europe gave it early exposure to
European innovations. Consequently, the Ottoman rulers experimented with financial and
military modernization earlier than other rulers of the region. In the mid-19th century, however,
the Ottoman government faced widespread opposition against the changes taking place. As a
result it put into place a series of reforms designed to remove the influence of religious elites
from many area of the state and economy. The reforms created momentum for centralization and
development of nationalism in the late 19th century, and they formed a practical base for the
founding of a Turkish Republic in the twentieth century.

2.1.1 Mahmud II’s Reforms

In 1826 Mahmud II (r. 1808-1839) revived the reform movement begun in the early 1800s by
Selim II (r.1789-1807). Traumatic episodes such as a bloody revolt in 1805 against reforms by
the Janissaries, the specially trained corps of military slaves, and the execution of Selim himself
had taught the Ottoman court a lesson on undertaking a reform. That is, if reform was to be
pursued, it had been more systematic and ruthless than had been the case earlier.

Mahmud II dissolved the Janissaries and reduced the political power of the religious elite.
Education and law were placed under the authority of the civil government, and the bureaucracy
was restructured. Property laws were amended to make the charitable trusts (auqat) by which
religious communities and families managed their wealth subject to civil review and regulation.
Even the public judgments of the Muslim councilors, the Ulama, were to be regulated by
Ottoman bureaucrats.

In most of his attempts to secularize the state, Mahmud II relied on laws to establish a uniform
civil code of government. Many of his ideas were given their widest expression in the Tanzimat
reforms, announced by his sixteen- year-old son and successor, Abdul Mejid (r.1839-1961), soon
after Mahmud’s death. Tanizimat means “restructuring”. It was ushered in by an imperial decree
issued in 1839. The purpose of the reform was to preserve the Ottoman state. It was the desire to
preserve the state that brought about the mobilization of resources for modernization.

2.1.2 Focus Areas of Tanzimat Reforms

The central reforms were made in the area of the army, administration, both at the centre and in
the provinces; and in the society, through changes in education and law.

A striking feature of the Tanzimat proclamations was a set of guaranteed political rights which
have been compared to Magna Carata, the charter of limited political and civil liberties that the
king of England issued in 1215. The Tanzimat called for public trials and for equal protection
for all under the law, regardless of religious affiliation. It also guaranteed some rights of
privacy, equalized the eligibility of men for conscription into the army, and provided for a new,
formalized method of tax collecting that legally ended tax farming in the empire.

Before the reforms, education in the Ottoman Empire had not been a state responsibility but had
been provided by the various millets. Education for Muslims was controlled by the Ulama and
was directed towards religion. The first inroads into the system had been made with the creation
of naval engineering (1773), military engineering (1793), medical (1827), and military science
(1834) colleges. In this way specialized western type training was grafted onto the traditional
system to produce specialist for the army. Similar institutions for diplomats and administrators
were founded, including the translation bureau (1833) and the civil service school (1859).
French was the preferred language of instruction in all advanced professional and scientific
training.

In 1846 the first comprehensive plan for state education was put forward. It provided for a
complete system of primary and secondary schools leading to the university level, all under the
Ministry of Education. A still more ambitious education plan, inaugurated in 1869, provided for
free and compulsory primary education. Both schemes progressed slowly because of lack of
money, but they provided a framework within which development towards a systematic, secular
educational program could take place. By 1914 there were more than 36,000 Ottoman schools,
although the great majorities were small, traditional primary schools.

Mahmud II and later reforming rulers quickly appreciated that limited technical improvements
could not be isolated from more general issues of society and culture. Change in the Ottoman
armies was gradual, beginning with the introduction of European guns and artillery. To use the
new weapons efficiently and safely, the Janissaries were required to modify their dress and their
beards. Beards were trimmed and elaborate headgear was reserved for ritual occasions.
Traditional military units attempted to retain distinctive dress whenever possible, and one
compromise was the brimless cap, the Fez, adapted from the high hats that some Janissaries had
traditionally worn.

Secularization of the legal code had profound implications for the non-Muslim subjects of the
Ottomans. Neither Christianity nor Judaism was forbidden in the Islamic state. Non-Muslims,
however, had frequently been under special tax obligations and been excluded from certain
professions, including the military, unless they converted to Islam. In addition, the rule of
Islamic judges in the legal process had often limited the extent to which non-Muslims could seek
redress or protection. The reforms gave all male subjects, regardless of their religion, access to
the courts, and they equalized taxation.

The Tanzimat reforms moved readily in the direction of modernization and centralization. The
reformers were handicapped by alack of money and skilled men, and they were opposed by
traditionalists who argued that the reformers were destroying the empire’s fundamental Islamic
character and who often halted the progress of reform. Centralization was slowed down by
interference from the major European powers, which obstructed the Ottoman attempt to recover
power in Bosnia and Montenegro in 1853, forced the granting of autonomy to Mount Lebanon in
1861, and considered intervention to prevent the Ottomans from suppressing a Cretan revolt of
1868.

The Tanzimat reforms, however, were explicitly limited to the rights and political participation
of men. Private life like marriage and divorce was left within the sphere of religious law, and at
no time was there a question of political participation by women. The secularization reforms of
Mahmud II, however, removed the charitable trusts from the jurisdiction of the religious courts
and brought them under the regulation of the state. The general effect was to destroy women’s
control over their own and their families’ property and to lower the status of Ottoman women.

2.2 European Patronage and Economic Decline

Mahmud II’s successors continued to secularize Ottoman financial and commercial institutions
and to model them closely on European counter parts. The Ottoman imperial bank was founded
in 1840, and a few years later currency reform linked the value of Ottoman gold coins to the
British pound. Banks, insurance companies, and legal firms were created throughout the empire.
Between 1850 and 1880 many of the major cities of the empire doubled in size. However, the
Ottoman reforms were ineffective in correcting the insolvency of the imperial government.
Ottoman finances were damaged by declining revenues from agricultural yields and by
widespread corruption. As a result, after the conclusion of the Crimean war in 1856, the imperial
government was heavily dependent on foreign loans for reform and for survival.

To solve financial problem, commercial and financial life was rapidly restructured to fit
European practices. Trade tariffs were altered to favor European imports, and European banks
were established in Ottoman cities. The Ottoman currency was changed to allure more
systematic conversion to European currency. Urban residence laws were revised to allow
Europeans to live in Istanbul and other commercial centers in their own enclaves under their own
law.

Because of the stimulation that the inflow of European trade, money and culture provided, the
cities became attractive to laborers, and the massive movement of people from the countryside to
the cities continued. For wage-dependent workers in the bloated cities, the economic situation
worsened. The growing foreign trade brought large number of imports to the empire, but few
exports went abroad, apart from the Turkish opium that American traders took to china.
Together with the growing national debt, these factors in the middle of 1800s aggravated
inflationary trends.

The problems mentioned above were frustrating to the ruling elite but had a much sharper impact
on the generations of young men, who, in the mid-1800s, aspired to wealth and influence. These
groups were educated but wielded no political power. They believed that the Ottoman rulers
would be forced to allow the continued domination of the empire’s political, economic, and
cultural life by Europeans.

Inspired by the European nationalist movements of 1848, they banded together in the 1860s as
the “Young Turks.” To them, freedom from European domination meant the destruction of the
Ottoman Empire from within. They proposed that the empire be replaced by a national republic-
a Turkish national state. The young Turks continued to foster nationalisms but the Ottoman
Empire continued its weakened existence under the sponsorships of western powers until 1922.