5. Islam and the Caliphate

Talking Book

5.1. The origins and spread of Islam

Talking Book

Before the arrival of Islam, the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula were divided into nomadic tribes that travelled around the extensive Arabian Desert. They worked in livestock farming and traded in groups called caravans. They shared the same language and were polytheists, meaning they worshipped various gods. There were frequent conflicts among them for control of trade routes and oases.

To the south of the peninsula there was a fertile region (the Yemen), where farming was possible. A prosperous trade route was established between this region and the Mediterranean civilisations. The city of Mecca was in the middle of this route.

In 610 A.D., Muhammad, a merchant from Mecca, claimed he had been visited by the Angel Gabriel, who revealed a new religion to him. From then onwards, he dedicated his time to preaching the new religious doctrine, according to which there was only one god: Allah. His enemies expelled him and his followers from Mecca in 622 A.D., so they moved to Medina. This event, known as the Hegira, marks the first year of the Islamic calendar.

Muhammad became successful in Medina and years later, in 630 A.D., the Muslims defeated the inhabitants of Mecca and Muhammad returned triumphant to this city. He suppressed the polytheistic cults but respected the holy stone, or Kaaba. The city became Islam's main religious centre. When Muhammad died in 632 A.D., most of the Arab tribes had submitted to his authority.

The causes of this rapid expansion were:

• the greater motivation of the Muslim soldiers, who fought for their faith (jihad), while the soldiers in the opposing armies had been recruited by force or were mercenaries.
• the decline of the neighbouring empires: the dominant minorities in the Byzantine and Neo-Persian Empires demanded high taxes from their subjects. Therefore there was discontent among the population.
• the popularity of the new religion in other lands: the Muslims allowed a certain tolerance towards other religions. They permitted Christians and Jews to practise their religion in exchange for the payment of special taxes.

Talking Book

THE EVOLUTION OF THE MUSLIM EMPIRE​               The Orthodox Caliphs (632–661 A.D.) The first caliphs were members of Muhammad's family. There was great territorial expansion. They controlled the Arabian Peninsula. They defeated the Byzantine Empire (the Battle of Yarmouk, 636 A.D.) and conquered Syria, Palestine and Egypt. They subdued the Neo-Persian Empire (the Battle of Kadisiya, 636 A.D.) and conquered Mesopotamia and Persia.     The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 A.D.) After a civil war, the position of caliph passed to the Umayyad dynasty, who governed from their capital in Damascus. As a result of their territorial expansion, they reached as far as India in the east, Samarkand in the north and the Iberian Peninsula in the west. However, they failed to conquer Constantinople and they were also stopped by the Franks at the Battle of Poitiers (732 A.D.).     The Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258) After another civil war, the position of caliph passed to the Abbasid dynasty, who moved the capital to Baghdad. They introduced more centralised government. The 8th to the 10th century was the golden age of the caliphate. After that it went into decline. The crisis of the caliphate (10th century) From the 10th century onwards, frequent civil wars limited economic development. Eventually, the empire was divided into several independent caliphates, such as that of the Umayyads, who governed al-Andalus, and that of the Fatimids in Egypt. Meanwhile, the Turks became more influential. They were an Asian people who had converted to Islam.     Later expansion Sailors and Muslim merchants spread Islam beyond the borders of the caliphate, following the trade routes. This occurred south of the Sahara, on the east coast of Africa, and in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Central Asia and western China.

5.2. The political structure of the caliphate

Talking Book

The main political positions in the caliphate were:

• the caliph, who was the highest religious and political authority.
• the viziers, or ministers, who acted as advisors to the caliph and eventually took charge of the government and important matters.
• the emirs, or walis, who were governors of the empire's provinces and territories.
• the qadis, or judges, who were in charge of handing out justice. They dealt with both civil and religious matters.
• the diwans, or treasurers, who collected taxes.

5.3. The economy

Talking Book

Agriculture

The Arabs maintained their tradition of livestock farming. They obtained milk, meat, wool and leather from their flocks of goats and sheep. They used dromedaries, donkeys and horses to transport people and goods.

Since the Arabs came from desert regions, they took care to gain the maximum benefit from water. Therefore they spread the use of agricultural irrigation systems: wells to obtain water from the sub-soil; reservoirs in which they collected rainwater; dykes, which were small canals through which they distributed water; and waterwheels and terraces to make cultivation and irrigation easier in hilly areas.

They also increased the use of techniques for preserving food in salt (salting) and in vinegar or oil (pickling). They introduced new crops from Asia throughout their domains, such as rice, cotton, sugar cane, citrus fruits (oranges and lemons) and vegetables (such as aubergines, carrots and spinach). These crops arrived in Europe thanks to the Arabs.

Trade and craftwork

Trade became the main source of wealth in the caliphate. It developed greatly, as the caliphate replaced the Byzantine Empire as the crossroads of land, river and sea trade routes from:

• Western Europe, where wood, iron, tin and silver came from.
• Eastern Europe, where furs, gold and copper came from.
• Asia, which exported spices, perfumes, luxury goods and silk. One of the most famous routes from here to the Muslim world was the Silk Road, which brought silk and other products from China across Central Asia.
• Africa, where ivory, gold, slaves and salt came from.

This extensive network of trade routes also encouraged the development of craftwork. The Muslims were famous for making products such as textiles, rugs, jewellery, weapons and glass and ivory objects. For the local market they also made bricks, tiles, ceramics and wicker objects.

To make trade easier, all of the lands in the caliphate began to use the same currencies: the gold dinar and the silver dirham.

Talking Book

MUSLIM CITIES​ Urban life developed as a result of commercial prosperity. Cities became important, such as Baghdad (Iraq), Damascus (Syria) and Alexandria (Egypt). In Muslim cities, the following could be found: the medina, which was the central part of the city and was walled. Inside the medina there were religious buildings, such as the main mosque and the madrasah, the school where the Koran was studied; civil buildings, such as the souk or market where products were bought and sold, public baths and the corn exchange, where cereals were stored and traded; the residential areas, which were characterised by narrow streets and an irregular layout; and the exclusively Jewish and Christian areas. There were also military buildings such as the citadel, or fortified palace, which was protected by a garrison of soldiers. outside the medina there were suburban neighbourhoods and also cemeteries.

5.4. Muslim society

Talking Book

• The privileged minority, the landowning aristocracy, was composed of:

– families of Arab origins, descendants of the conquerors, who held the main political posts.

– important families from the occupied territories, who had converted to Islam but were not Arabs and held less important political posts.

• The rest of the population included:

– people who had converted to Islam.

– people who practised other religions, such as Christians and Jews. Their customs and religions were respected. They had limited rights and paid more taxes than the Muslims, so it became common to convert to Islam. Once people had converted, they could not retract, as Islamic law severely punished Muslims who changed religion.

– slaves, of Turkish, Slav or African descent. There were not many slaves and if they converted to Islam, they gained their freedom. This was because it was forbidden to have Muslim slaves.

Important

Averroes and Avicenna were among the great Muslim thinkers.

Averroes was from Córdoba. He translated and studied Aristotle. Due to his works, Aristotle's thought became well-known in Europe.

The Persian Avicenna studied medicine, astronomy, philosophy and physics. In his work The canon of medicine, he compiled all the medical knowledge of the time. This became the main source of medical information for centuries.

5.5. Muslim culture 

Talking Book

The Arabic language replaced native languages from Morocco to Iraq. In Persia and the territories further to the east, people retained their native languages, although they converted to Islam.

Philosophy, science and Muslim art adopted features from other cultures:

• from the East, the Arabs brought the use of Arabic numerals, the decimal system (which we still use nowadays), paper, chess, the compass and books such as One thousand and one nights, a collection of Arabic, Indian and Persian stories.
• from the West, they revived the Ancient Greeks' way of thinking, which had disappeared from Western Europe. Due to the books written by Muslim scholars, Europeans were able to recover knowledge that had been forgotten.

5.6. Muslim religion

Talking Book

      

Islam means submission. The holy book of Islam is the Koran. According to Islam, the Koran is a collection of God's revelations to Muhammad. It was written after Muhammad's death in order to record the words attributed to him. It was divided into suras, or chapters.

The Five Pillars of Islam are stipulated in the Koran. All Muslims must respect them.

• Belief in a single God, Allah (God in Arabic) and his prophet Muhammad (sent by Allah)
• Praying five times a day, at specific times and facing Mecca
• Giving charity to the poor
• Fasting during the daytime in the month of Ramadan (one month a year)
• Going on a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once

The Koran also stipulates other rules which are considered law in Muslim states. This is known as Sharia, or Islamic law. Some examples are:

• not depicting images of God, Muhammad or any human figures.
• not eating pork or drinking alcohol.

In Islam, there are no priests, although there are imams, who lead prayers, and ulamas, who study the Koran.

There are different denominations within Islam:

• Sunnis, who constitute 90% of Muslims. As well as the Koran, they follow the Sunnah, a collection of texts and events about the life of the prophet Muhammad.
• Shias, who constitute 10% of Muslims. They broke with the Sunnis when the Umayyads came to power. They only recognise the legitimacy of the Caliph Ali, who was the last Orthodox Caliph. The Shias follow their own set of rules and the guidance of their leaders, who are called ayatollahs.

Islam accepts the stories of the Bible, but considers that Jesus Christ is just another prophet and not the son of God (as the Christians believe).

5.7. Muslim art

Talking Book

Decorative design is very important in Muslim art. As human figures could not be depicted, artists used beautiful calligraphy, arabesque or foliate ornaments (shaped like leaves) and lattice-work (geometric shapes). These designs were repeated in various formats, such as in painting, sculpture, mosaics, ceramics, plasterwork and miniatures.

The main buildings were religious temples called mosques (such as those in Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo, Samarra, Kairouan and Córdoba), palaces (such as the Umayyad Palace in Damascus and the Abbasid Palace in Baghdad) and mausoleums, or monumental tombs, (such as Timur's mausoleum in Samarkand and the Taj Mahal in Agra, India). Muslim architecture adopted features from different cultures: semi-circular arches and coloured keystones from Rome, golden domes and vaults from the Byzantine Empire, lobed arches from the East and horseshoe arches from the Visigoths.

Muslim architecture was characterised by the use of cheap materials, such as brick, covered with attractive materials, such as tiles, and by rich decoration.