IslamLecture_Rashidun

Lecture Notes - Islam

1. Arab Conquests and the Rashidun

2. Umayyads Empire

3. Abbasid Empire

(first four “Rightly Guided” Caliphs). Regarded by Sunni Islam as the normative period – an idealized past to be emulated.

Abu Bakr (632-634) – appointed by small group of Muhammad’s intimate advisors.

Reasons for his selection

Early convert and close advisor to Muhammad
Prophet had appointed him to lead Friday prayer in his absence
Father of Aisha, Prophet’s favorite wife

Consolidated Muslim rule in Arabia – put down tribal rebellions

Many tribes claimed that allegiance had been to Muhammad only

Umar ibn al-Khattab (634-644)

Initiated great period of expansion and conquest.
Conquests

Damascus : 635
Qadisiyya: defeat of Sasanians, 637 Ctesiphon
Jerusalem 638:
The "Covenant of Umar," a pact between Umar Ibn Khatib and the Christians of Jerusalem, was concluded on the occasion of the conquest of that city by the Muslims. Umar decreed that Muslims should forever thereafter guarantee Christians freedom of religion, use of their churches for worship, and the right to visit holy places. In another version, Umar rescinded the Roman decrees that had banished Jews from Jerusalem and accorded Jews all the rights granted Christians.

Non-Muslims were not required to participate in jihad (military action in defense of Islam) nor did they have to pay the zakat (the tax for charity required of all Muslims), but they were required to pay the jizya, a poll tax that helped defray the expense of protecting them. Since Muslim taxes amounted to considerably less than what had been exacted from them under Byzantine rule and since Muslims allowed them much more freedom to pursue their own customs and religious beliefs, Jews and Christians almost universally welcomed their new rulers.

Egypt 641, Ibn al `As conquered Egypt and built a new capital, Misr al-Fustat, ("city of the tent"): the future Cairo.

Established land system

All lands taken by force became state land - not given to conquerors
Tribesmen were kept in armed camps (garrison cities) i.e. Busra and Kufa
Received income from lands as stipends paid by gov for military service
Agricultural activity forbidden
kept Arabs together, fighting, and dependent on state
Caused bitter complains about distribution of wealth contributing to fitna

Added title of “Commander of the Faithful” to that of “Successor”
Instituted new method of selecting successor.

Appointed an “election committee” Shura
Pattern established for selecting caliphs

Caliph from Quraysh tribe, consultation, and oath of allegiance, baya.

Uthman ibn Affan (644-656)

His selection divided community causing friction b/n Meccans and Medinans
He was from Umayyad clan, leading family of Mecca , but strongest foe of Prophet. He favored Banu Umayya against the rival clans of the Prophet’s house and upheld reasons of state against the rights of the tribal armies, which had achieved the conquest, creating social unrest.
The Medinan elite resented Uthman’s accession
Though pious, Uthman accused of weakness, nepotism, allowing corruption.

He was branded as a betrayal of theocracy, as “innovation” (bid’ a) against God’s command and the bidding of the Prophet. (bid’ a became the essence of heresy, just as “precedent (sunna) became the fundamental concept of true religion.)

Qurayshi Meccans used strength to get lions share of state resources
Assassinated by disgruntled veterans, 656, who came to Medina to protest lack of money & corruption and found Uthman unresponsive.

Ali ibn Abi Talib (656-661) became fourth Caliph and civil war broke out. The rival parties of the civil war embodied the conflicting beliefs of the first religious schism and these politico-religious views remained in the minds of the theologians as paradigms of debate about theocracy.

First Civil War: Fitna

Three factions, representing different regional and ideological interests.

Ali ibn Abi Talib (656-661) based in Kufa

Cousin and son-in-law of Prophet

His wife: Fatima only surviving child of Khadija
Ali had two sons: Hasan and Husayn

Many believed that leadership remain with family of the Prophet

Believed Muhammad had designated Ali as rightful successor
That first three caliphs were interlopers

His followers were called Shi`a or “Shi`at-u-Ali”, party of Ali

Aisha, daughter of Abu Bakr and Muhammad’s wife

Supported by Talha and al-Subayr, early converts based in Basra

Accused Ali of not avenging Uthman’s murder
Ali crushed revolt at “ Battle of the Camel”
First time caliph fought another Muslim army

Muawiya, governor of Damascus

late convert and nephew of Uthman
contested Ali’s right to succession and refused to step down

Battle of Siffin 657 – Ali led army against rebellious governor

Muawiyah’s men, faced with defeat, raised Qurans on tips of spears and called for arbitration according to Quran, crying out, “Let God decide.”

The arbitration was decided in favor of the Syrian governor, and Ali was condemned by a puritanical faction of his own followers (the Kharijites) for failing to prevail over Mu'awiyya. Thus, Mu’awiyya’s challenge succeeded, and he became the first Umayyad caliph, based in Damascus . Ali was deposed.

Ali fled, but was stopped at his capital Kufa in southern Iraq in 661 where he was felled by a Kharijite assassin’s poisoned arrow. He was buried four miles away in the city of Najaf , a major Shiite shrine city. .
Mu’awiya becomes Caliph and capital is moved to Damascus

Sunnis, Shi`is, and Kharijites - the major divisions in Islam have beginnings in the first fitna

Ali’s son, Husayn, was himself martyred by the Umayyad caliph, Yazid, at Karbala , also in Iraq , in 680. Husayn’s death is commemorated each year on the tenth (Ashura) of the Muslim month of Muharram, the first month of the calendar year, by Shiites who perform passion-plays depicting the sad events. Kufa and Karbala are two of the principal Shiite shrines.
Hence, the essential difference between the Shia and the Sunnis is that the Shia believe in a dynastic succession (the new caliph must be a blood descendant of the Prophet Muhammad) while the Sunnis believe that any qualified person from the tribe of the Prophet (the Quraysh) is eligible to succeed as caliph.

Umayyad Dynasty 661-750

Within 100 years of Muhammad’s death, Arab forces had conquered from Spain to India : Poitiers 732; For 200 years majority non-Muslim
Mu’awiya (r. 661-80)

Dhimmis - non-Muslims under Muslim protection paid taxes
Ruled indirectly and through tribal system

close family became governors of provinces
Allied with Kalb tribe (Syrian tribe and head of Qudaa confederacy)

Kingship

passed government on to son, Yazid (r.680-83)- not elective
Muslims complained bitterly of becoming slaves to Umayyads rather than to God. They had become like Byzantines - empire, corrupt and unfree
History remembers them as dislikeable, impious and secular
Imperial system based on Byzantine and Sassanian practices
Conquests: Poitiers (732) to Chinese defeated at Talas in 751.

Second Civil War (683-92)

When Yazid died, 683, civil war broke out between:

Son of Ibn al-Zubayr of first fitna, who wanted to rule from Mekka

He conquered Iraq but not Syria and Egypt

Marwan I (r.684-85) Umayyad elected by Qudaa confederation, conquered Eg and Syria
Chaos in Iraq

Husayn, Ali’s son revolted in Kufa and massacred at Karbala

Abd al-Malik (r.685-705) son of Marwan I, reconquered Iraq in 692 and killed Ibn al-Zubayr - consolidating empire but further tarnishing umayyad image

The Later Umayyads (684-750)

A new post-tribal order and distinctively Islamic culture began to emerge.

Conversion: How did non-Arabs enter Islam

Free non-Arabs began to convert on a significant scale by late Umayyad period

Already non-Arabs began to outnumber Arabs: called “mawali”
Most converts entered through slavery

Villagers began to migrate to garrison cities to join ranks of privileged

Converts gained freedom from taxes
Arbitrary admission caused anger

Many would be converts denied

Transformation of tribesmen into taxpayer accomplished by end of empire

Painful process, but necessary to continue revenues
Hard to eradication notion that tax-paying was humiliating and contrary to the original spirit of Islam – freedom and superiority
Permitted Islam to spread freely in countryside

Muslim Society

Army became professionalized

Main army recruited in Syria – mixed ethnically

Arabs settled and integrated into society

Some became peasants

Hadith – Muhammad reportedly said: “You will become tillers of soil, you will follow the tails of cows and dislike holy war”

Most settled in towns to become merchants and craftsmen

Ulama – The scholars

Private individuals acting as guardians of Islamic values
Generated huge literature debating aspects of Islamic law
Shari’a

Hadith - tradition

Compilation of what the Prophet, first caliphs and other dignitaries said about important questions of behavior
Reflected issues of later age

Example: Abd al-Razzaq from Mamar from Ayyub from Nafi from Ibn Umar, who said: ‘The Prophet (may God bless him and bring him peace) prohibited traveling into enemy territory with a Quran, lest it fall into enemy hands.’

Kalam – systematic philosophy – also appeared at this time

Sect formation

Debate over right path for Islamic community

Centered on status of caliphs and issues of first civil war

Shiites held that Prophet designated Ali his successor

All other caliphs illegitimate – only descendents of Ali legit

Kharijites accepted only first two – Abu Bakr and Umar
Sunnis – refused to take sides in civil war and endorsed all caliphs

Community required rulers – even if misguided

Why was Caliphate so central?

Imamate crucial to salvation

Quran “Those whom God has guided, follow their example”

Tribal society refitted for Umma

Where was guidance to be found?

Sunnis – came to believe that caliph was only the political guardian
Spiritual leaders were scholars – called imams

Muslims had to study guidance enshrined in past
study and knowledge become all important

Alids believe guidance is ongoing in “Imams”

Fall of the Umayyads (744-50)

Third civil war begins when group of Syrian soldiers kill Caliph al-Walid II and enthrone their candidate
Marwan, Umayyad governor of Jazira , Armenia , and Azerbaijan defeats Walid and becomes caliph
Iraqi Kharajites revolt, but put down
Shiite uprising in Khurasan, 747, led by Abu Muslim successful

defeats Marwan II in 750
promoted a Hashimite but contrary to expectations not member of Ali’s family
Caliph from Abbasid branch which was said to be behind revolt
Abu Muslim liquidated as well as other architects of revolt

Abbasid Empire 750-1258 and Islamic Civilization

New political organization devised - openly imperial

Islam began to validate imperial organization it had originally repudiated

New elite as Baghdad and Iraq become center of empire

Iranians take over administration
Khurisanis replaced Syrians as imperial troops
Iranian court culture replaced simple Arab ways

Religious scholars collaborate because they want to keep umma united and orderly

prohibit revolt
But their ideal Islamic world envisions Gov. like that of prophet and early caliphs
They regarded their rulers as dirty but necessary

Shuubiyya: adherents of non-Arab peoples

Iraqi bureaucracy filled with non-Arabs and particularly Iranians

They were interested in philosophy, art, science
They resented identification of Islam with Arabs
Tried to “open the door of Ijtihad” but this meant jettisoning the tradition and law that had become the heart of the Islamic tradition.

Harun al-Rashid (r.786-809
Al-Mamun (r.813-33)

Tried ousting ulama
espoused Shiism
al mihna - inuisision shortly before his death.

al-Mutasim (r. 833-42

Introduced Slave oldiers recruited from Central Asia (mamluks)
861 slave soldiers murdereed al-Mutawakkil inititating period of anarchy

- The Turks

- 11 th c. Turks military power and ruling authority had passed from Arabs to Turks.

- Seljuks: By middle of 11 th c. seljuk confederation had established domination over Iran .

- 1055 Abbasid Caliph invited Seljuk leader to assume administrative and military authority in Baghdad

- Manzikert 1071, Seljuks began to transform Anatolia into Turkish-Islamic land

- Nizam al-Mulk, Seljuk minister founded madrasa system

- Ottoman empire emerged from Seljuk conquests of Anatolia .

- The Mongols

- Genghis Khan: in early 13 th c. conquored northern China

- 1220s Samarkand and Bukhara and all Iran

- Hulagu: Son, 1256 campaign to conquor all Islamic lands to Egypt

- Baghdad sacked in 1258 and Caliph killed

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