The Post-Classical Era

The First Global Civilization:

The Rise and Spread of Islam

PART III Summary

The post-classical period extends between the 5th and 15th centuries.

A new international framework would emerge to produce genuine changes in the world.

International trade became a standard part of world history.

The Chronology of the Postclassical Period

The world civilization map was altered greatly by the decline or collapse of the classical civilizations and by nomadic invasions.

The postclassical era closed as new central Asian invasions once again changed patterns.

Another phase of world development opened as new empires formed and Europeans explored the wider world.

The Postclassical Millennium and the World Network

Four developments define postclassical centuries:

[1] Islamic civilization spread politically and culturally into Asia, Europe, and Africa.

[2] civilization expanded into new world regions.

[3] the great world religions gained converts from peoples once following local belief structures.

[4] the creation of a world network linking many of the individual civilizations.

The Rise of Islam

Islam created a new empire encompassing Asian, African, and European territories.

In the classical period the three civilizations were roughly in balance; with Islam there was a world leader.

Islam's decline marked the end of this phase of world history.

The Expansion of Civilization

Civilization spread into many new regions in Africa and Europe

It became more established in Japan.

Both American and Polynesian societies expanded their reach.

Seven diverse areas were important in the postclassical era:

Middle East and North Africa, India, China and East Asia, eastern and western Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, India and southeast Asia and the Americas.

The World Religions

In the postclassical era major religions spread into much of Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism brought a new focus on issues of spirituality and an afterlife.

They were able to extend beyond local cultures and draw together diverse peoples, many of whom were living in very confused political times.

Growth in international commerce also assisted change.

The World Network

The most important characteristic of the postclassical world was the development of a world network.

International trade and military contacts allowed all types of intellectual and material exchanges.

Diseases also spread.

Once established the network expanded.

Individual civilizations still maintained their essential values, but many were operating in a genuinely international framework.

The major limitation was that the Americas, Polynesia, Australia, and a few other places were not yet included.

World History Themes

Although agriculture expanded during the postclassical period, there was not, except in central America, a period of massive environmental problems.

Since few new fundamental technological innovations occurred, environmental change mainly reflected population growth.

Basic structures of social and gender inequality persisted.

The nomadic impact on history peaked with the achievements of the Mongols.

Expanding civilizations and new religions provided opportunities for individuals to influence society.

Exchange and Imitation in the Postclassical World

Three characteristics highlighted the importance of imitating established centers.

Expanding commercial contacts and missionary activity connected once excluded regions to established civilizations.

The best established civilizations were in roughly the same areas once occupied by the classical civilizations.

They were surrounded by areas where there were less organized civilizations, who participated in the world exchange at a disadvantage and attempted to imitate features of the major centers.

The First Global Civilization:
The Rise and Spread of Islam

Chapter 6

CHAPTER SUMMARY

In the 7th century the Arab followers of Muhammad surged from the Arabian peninsula to create the first global civilization.

They quickly conquered an empire incorporating elements of the classical civilizations of Greece, Egypt, and Persia.

Islamic merchants, mystics, and warriors continued its expansion in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

The process provided links for exchange among civilized centers.

Although united in belief of Muhammad’s message, the Islamic world was divided by cultural and political rivalries.

The disputes did not undermine the strength of Muslim civilization until the 14th century.

The Arabian World and the Birth of Islam

The inhospitable Arabian peninsula was inhabited by Bedouin societies.

Some desert-dwellers herded camels and goats.

Others practiced agriculture in oasis towns.

Important agricultural and commercial centers flourished in southern coastal regions.

The towns were extensions of Bedouin society, sharing its culture, and ruled by its clans.

Clan Identity and Clan Rivalries

Mobile kin-related clans were the basis of social organization.

The clans clustered into larger tribal units that functioned only during crises.

In the harsh environment individual survival depended upon clan loyalty.

Wealth and status varied within clans.

The Cycle of Vengeance

Leaders, or Shaykhs, although elected by councils, usually were wealthy men.

Free warriors enforced their decisions.

Slave families served the leaders or the clan as a whole.

Clan cohesion was reinforced by inter-clan rivalry and by conflicts over water and land, which sometimes resulted in feuds that lasted for centuries.

Mecca and
Long-Distance Trade

Cities had developed in the trading system linking the Mediterranean to East Asia.

The most important, Mecca, in western Arabia, had been founded by the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh tribe.

This city was the site of the Ka'ba, an important religious shrine, that, during an obligatory annual truce in inter-clan feuds, attracted pilgrims and visitors.

Medina

A second important town, Medina, an agricultural oasis and commercial center, lay to the northeast.

Quarrels among Medina's two Bedouin and three Jewish clans hampered its development, until the onset of Islam.

Woman in Pre-Islamic Arabia

Women might have enjoyed more freedom than in the Byzantine and Sassanian empires.

They had key economic roles in clan life.

Descent was traced through the female line, and males paid a bride-price to the wife’s family.

Women did not wear veils and were not secluded.

Marriage and the Family in
Pre-Islamic Arabia

Poets and Neglected Gods

Arab material culture, because of isolation and the environment, was not highly developed.

The main focus of creativity was in orally transmitted poetry.

Bedouin religion was a blend of animism and polytheism.

Some tribes recognized a supreme deity, Allah, but paid him little attention.

They instead focused on spirits associated with nature.

Religion and ethics were not connected.

In all, the Bedouin did not take their religion seriously.

Before Muhammad

In the 6th century camel nomads dominated Arabia.

Cities were dependent upon alliances with surrounding tribes.

Pressures for change came from the Byzantine and Sassanid empires, and from the presence of Judaisim and Christianity.

Muhammad of Islam

Muhammad, a member of the Banu Hasim clan of the Quraysh, was born about 570.

Left an orphan, he was raised by his father's family and became a merchant.

Muhammad resided in Mecca where he married a wealthy widow, Khadijah.

The Life of Muhammad
Continued

Merchant travels allowed Muhammad to observe the forces undermining clan unity and to encounter the spread of monotheistic ideas.

Muhammad became dissatisfied with a life focused on material gain and went to meditate in the hills.

Persecution

As Muhammad's initially small following grew, he was seen as a threat by Mecca's rulers.

The new faith endangered the gods of the Ka'ba.

With his life in danger, Muhammad was invited to come to Medina to mediate its clan quarrels.

Flight and Victory

In 622 Muhammad left Mecca for Medina where his skilled leadership brought new followers.

The Quraysh attacked Medina, but Muhammad's forces ultimately triumphed.

A treaty of 628 allowed his followers the permission to visit the Ka'ba.

He returned to Mecca in 629 and converted most of its inhabitants to Islam.

Arabs and Islam

The new religion initially was adopted by town dwellers and Bedouins in the region where Muhammad lived.

But Islam offered opportunities for uniting Arabs by providing a distinct indigenous monotheism supplanting clan divisions and allowing an end to clan feuding.

The umma, the community of the faithful, transcended old tribal boundaries.

Arabs and Islam Continued

Islam also offered an ethical system capable of healing social rifts within Arab society.

All believers were equal before Allah; the strong and wealthy were responsible for the care of the weak and poor.

The prophet's teachings and the Quran became the basis for laws regulating the Muslim faithful.

All faced a last judgment by a stern but compassionate god.

Universalistic Elements
in Islam

Islam contains beliefs appealing to individuals in many differing world cultures.

They included monotheism, legal codes, social justice, and a strong sense of community.

Islam, while regarding Muhammad's message as the culmination of divine revelation, accepted the validity of Judaism and Christianity.

Islam's five pillars provide a basis for underlying unity: (1) acceptance of Islam; (2) prayer five times daily; (3) the fast month of Ramadan; (4) payment of a tithe (zakat) for charity; and (5) the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.

After Muhammad

Muhammad's defeat of Mecca had won the allegiance of many Bedouin tribes, but unity was threatened when he died in 632.

The Arab Empire
of the Umayyads

Arab religious zeal and the weaknesses of opponents resulted in victories in Mesopotamia, North Africa, and Persia.

The new empire was governed by a warrior elite under the Umayyad clan that had little interest in conversion.

Consolidation and Division in the Islamic Community

Muhammad, the last of the prophets, could not have a successor possessing his attributes.

He had not established a procedure for selecting a new leader.

After a troubled process Abu Bakr was chosen as caliph, the leader of the Islamic community.

Breakaway tribes and rival prophets were defeated during the Ridda wars to restore Islamic unity.

Arab armies invaded the weak Byzantine and Sassanid empire where they were joined by Bedouins who had migrated earlier.

Motives for Arab Conquest

Islam provided the Arabs with a sense of common cause and a way of fighting neighboring opponents.

The rich booty and tribute gained often was more of a motivation than spreading Islam since converts were exempted from taxes and shared the spoils of victory.

Weak Adversary Empires

The weak Sassanian empire was ruled by an emperor manipulated by a landed, aristocratic class that exploited the agricultural masses.

The Arabs defeated the poorly prepared Sassanid military and ended the dynasty in 651.

The Byzantines were more resilient adversaries.

Land Grabs

The empire had been weakened by the defection of frontier Arabs and persecuted Christian sects, and by long wars with the Sassanids.

The Arabs quickly seized western Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt.

From the 640’s Arabs had gained naval supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean and extended conquests westward into North Africa and southern Europe.

The weakened Byzantines held off attacks in their core Asia Minor and Balkan territories.

The Problem of Succession

Arab victories for a time covered old tribal internal divisions. The murder of Uthman, the 3rd caliph, caused a succession struggle.

Muhammad’s earliest followers supported Ali , but he was rejected by the Umayyads.

In the ensuing hostilities Ali won the advantage until at Siffin in 657 he accepted a plea for mediation.

Ali lost the support of his most radical adherents, and the Umayyads won the renewed hostilities.

The Sunni-Shi'i Split

The Umayyad leader, Mu'awiya, was proclaimed caliph in 660.

Ali was assassinated in 661; his son, Husayn, was killed at Karbala in 680.

The dispute left permanent division within Islam.

The Shi’i, eventually dividing into many sects, continued to uphold the rights of Ali's descendants to be caliphs.

Umayyad Power

With internal disputes resolved, the Muslims during the 7th and 8th centuries pushed forward into central Asia, northwest India, and southwestern Europe.

The Franks checked the advance at Poitiers in 732, but Muslims ruled much of Iberia for centuries.

By the 9h century they dominated the Mediterranean.

Umayyad Power Continued

The Umayyad political capital was at Damascus.

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

The warriors remained concentrated in garrison towns to prevent assimilation by the conquered.

Converts and
"People" of the Book”

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

Muslim converts, malawi, still paid taxes and did not receive a share of booty.

They were blocked from important positions in the army or bureaucracy.

"People" of the Book”

Most of the conquered peoples were dhimmis, or people of the book.

The first were Jews and Christians; later the term also included Zoroastrians and Hindus.

Family and Gender Roles
in the Umayyad Age

Gender relationships altered as the Muslim community expanded.

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

Muhammad and the Quran stressed the moral and ethical dimensions of marriage.

The adultery of both partners was denounced

Woman’s Rights

Female infanticide was forbidden.

Although women could have only one husband, men were allowed four wives, but all had to be treated equally.

Muhammad strengthened women's legal rights in inheritance and divorce.

Both sexes were equal before Allah.

Civilization and Gender

The strong position gained by women through Muhammad’s teachings did not endure.

Long-established Middle Eastern and Mediterranean male-dominated traditions of the conquered societies eventually prevailed.

The historical record in China, India, Greece, and the Middle East appears to make a connection between political centralization, urbanization and decline in the position of women.

But in the Islamic world religion and law left women of all classes in better conditions than in other civilized cultures.

Umayyad Decline and Fall

The spoils of victory brought luxurious living styles and the decline of military talents among the Umayyads.

Many Muslims considered such conduct a retreat from Islamic virtues, and revolts occurred throughout the empire.

The most important occurred among frontier warriors settled near the Iranian borderland town of Merv.

Abu al-Abbas

Many men had married locally and developed regional loyalties.

Angry at not receiving adequate shares of booty, they revolted when new troops were introduced.

The rebels were led by the Abbasid clan.

Allied with Shi'ite and Mawali, Abu al-Abbas defeated the Umayyads in 750, later assassinating most of their clan leaders.

From Arab to Islamic Empire:
The Early Abbasid Era

The triumph of a new dynasty reflected a series of fundamental changes within the Islamic world.

The increased size of Muslim civilization brought growing regional identities and made it difficult to hold the empire together.

The Early Abbasid Era
Continued

Once in power the Abbasids turned against the Shi'i and other allies to support a less tolerant Sunni Islam.

At their new capital, Baghdad, the rulers accepted Persian ruling concepts, elevating themselves to a different status than the earlier Muslim leaders.

A growing bureaucracy worked under the direction of the wazir, or chief administrator.

The great extent of the empire hindered efficiency, but the regime worked well for more than a century.

The constant presence of the royal executioner symbolized the absolute power of the rulers over their subjects.

The Abbasid Empire

Islamic Conversion and
the Mawali Experience

Under the Abbasids new converts, both Arabs and others, were fully integrated into the Muslim community.

The old distinction between Mawali and older believers disappeared.

Most conversions occurred peacefully.

The Mawali Experience

Many individuals sincerely accepted appealing ethical Islamic beliefs.

Others perhaps reacted to the advantages of avoiding special taxes, and to the opportunities for advancement open to believers in education, administration, and commerce.

Persians, for example, soon became the real source of power in the imperial system.

Commercial Boom and
Urban Growth

The rise of the Mawali was accompanied by the growth in wealth and status of merchant and landlord classes.

Urban expansion was liked to a revival of the Afro- Eurasian trading network declining with the fall of the Han and Roman empires.

Muslim merchants moved goods from the western Mediterranean to the South China Sea.

Town and Country

Urban prosperity led to increased artisan handicraft production in both government and private workshops.

The most skilled artisans formed guild-like organizations to negotiate wages and working conditions, and to provide support services.

Slaves performed unskilled labor and served caliphs and high officials.

Country and Town

Some slaves held powerful positions and gained freedom.

Most unskilled slaves, many of them Africans, worked under terrible conditions.

A rural, landed elite, the ayan, emerged.

The majority of peasants occupied land as tenants and had to give most of their harvest to the owners.

Islamic Art

The Arabs before Islam were without writing and knew little of the outside world.

They were very receptive to the accomplishments of the many civilizations falling to Muslim armies.

Under the Abbasids, Islamic artistic contribution first lay in mosque and palace construction.

The First Flowering of
Islamic Learning

Islamic learning flourished in religious, legal, an philosophical discourse, with special focus on the sciences and mathematics.

Scholars recovered and preserved the works of earlier civilizations.

Greek writings were saved and later passed on to the Christian world.

Muslims also introduced Indian numbers into the Mediterranean world.

Conclusion: The Measure of Islamic Achievement

By the 9th century Abbasid power had waned before the rise of regional states and the incursions of non-Muslim peoples.

The Turks converted to Islam and became a major component of the Muslim world.

The Arabs had created a basis for the first global civilization, incorporating many linguistic and ethnic groups into one culture.

They created Islam, one of the great universal religions.

Religion and politics initially had been joined, but the Umayyads.

However, the Abbasids used religious legitimacy to govern their vast empires.

In both religion and politics they absorbed precedents from earlier civilizations.

Muslims did the same in the arts and sciences, later fashioning their own innovative thinking which influenced other societies in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

The First Global Civilization:
The Rise and Spread of Islam

The End


	The post-classical period extends between the 5th and 15th centuries.
	A new international framework would emerge to produce genuine changes in the world.
	International trade became a standard part of world history.


	The world civilization map was altered greatly by the decline or collapse of the classical civilizations and by nomadic invasions.
	The postclassical era closed as new central Asian invasions once again changed patterns.
	Another phase of world development opened as new empires formed and Europeans explored the wider world.


	Four developments define postclassical centuries:
		[1] Islamic civilization spread politically and culturally into Asia, Europe, and Africa.
		[2] civilization expanded into new world regions.
		[3] the great world religions gained converts from peoples once following local belief structures.
		[4] the creation of a world network linking many of the individual civilizations.


	Islam created a new empire encompassing Asian, African, and European territories.
	In the classical period the three civilizations were roughly in balance; with Islam there was a world leader.
	Islam's decline marked the end of this phase of world history.


	Civilization spread into many new regions in Africa and Europe
		It became more established in Japan.
		Both American and Polynesian societies expanded their reach.
	Seven diverse areas were important in the postclassical era:
		Middle East and North Africa, India, China and East Asia, eastern and western Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, India and southeast Asia and the Americas.


	In the postclassical era major religions spread into much of Asia, Africa, and Europe.
	Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism brought a new focus on issues of spirituality and an afterlife.
	They were able to extend beyond local cultures and draw together diverse peoples, many of whom were living in very confused political times.
	Growth in international commerce also assisted change.


	The most important characteristic of the postclassical world was the development of a world network.
		International trade and military contacts allowed all types of intellectual and material exchanges.
		Diseases also spread.
	Once established the network expanded.
	Individual civilizations still maintained their essential values, but many were operating in a genuinely international framework.
	The major limitation was that the Americas, Polynesia, Australia, and a few other places were not yet included.


	Although agriculture expanded during the postclassical period, there was not, except in central America, a period of massive environmental problems.
	Since few new fundamental technological innovations occurred, environmental change mainly reflected population growth.
	Basic structures of social and gender inequality persisted.
	The nomadic impact on history peaked with the achievements of the Mongols.
	Expanding civilizations and new religions provided opportunities for individuals to influence society.


	Three characteristics highlighted the importance of imitating established centers.
		Expanding commercial contacts and missionary activity connected once excluded regions to established civilizations.
		The best established civilizations were in roughly the same areas once occupied by the classical civilizations.
		They were surrounded by areas where there were less organized civilizations, who participated in the world exchange at a disadvantage and attempted to imitate features of the major centers.


	In the 7th century the Arab followers of Muhammad surged from the Arabian peninsula to create the first global civilization.
	They quickly conquered an empire incorporating elements of the classical civilizations of Greece, Egypt, and Persia.
	Islamic merchants, mystics, and warriors continued its expansion in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
	The process provided links for exchange among civilized centers.
	Although united in belief of Muhammad’s message, the Islamic world was divided by cultural and political rivalries.
	The disputes did not undermine the strength of Muslim civilization until the 14th century.


	The inhospitable Arabian peninsula was inhabited by Bedouin societies.
	Some desert-dwellers herded camels and goats.
	Others practiced agriculture in oasis towns.
	Important agricultural and commercial centers flourished in southern coastal regions.
	The towns were extensions of Bedouin society, sharing its culture, and ruled by its clans.


	Mobile kin-related clans were the basis of social organization.
	The clans clustered into larger tribal units that functioned only during crises.
	In the harsh environment individual survival depended upon clan loyalty.
	Wealth and status varied within clans.


	Leaders, or Shaykhs, although elected by councils, usually were wealthy men.
	Free warriors enforced their decisions.
	Slave families served the leaders or the clan as a whole.
	Clan cohesion was reinforced by inter-clan rivalry and by conflicts over water and land, which sometimes resulted in feuds that lasted for centuries.


	Cities had developed in the trading system linking the Mediterranean to East Asia.
	The most important, Mecca, in western Arabia, had been founded by the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh tribe.
	This city was the site of the Ka'ba, an important religious shrine, that, during an obligatory annual truce in inter-clan feuds, attracted pilgrims and visitors.


	A second important town, Medina, an agricultural oasis and commercial center, lay to the northeast.
	Quarrels among Medina's two Bedouin and three Jewish clans hampered its development, until the onset of Islam.


	Women might have enjoyed more freedom than in the Byzantine and Sassanian empires.
	They had key economic roles in clan life.
	Descent was traced through the female line, and males paid a bride-price to the wife’s family.
	Women did not wear veils and were not secluded.


	Arab material culture, because of isolation and the environment, was not highly developed.
	The main focus of creativity was in orally transmitted poetry.
	Bedouin religion was a blend of animism and polytheism.
	Some tribes recognized a supreme deity, Allah, but paid him little attention.
	They instead focused on spirits associated with nature.
	Religion and ethics were not connected.
	In all, the Bedouin did not take their religion seriously.


	In the 6th century camel nomads dominated Arabia.
	Cities were dependent upon alliances with surrounding tribes.
	Pressures for change came from the Byzantine and Sassanid empires, and from the presence of Judaisim and Christianity.


	Muhammad, a member of the Banu Hasim clan of the Quraysh, was born about 570.
	Left an orphan, he was raised by his father's family and became a merchant.
	Muhammad resided in Mecca where he married a wealthy widow, Khadijah.


	Merchant travels allowed Muhammad to observe the forces undermining clan unity and to encounter the spread of monotheistic ideas.
	Muhammad became dissatisfied with a life focused on material gain and went to meditate in the hills.


	As Muhammad's initially small following grew, he was seen as a threat by Mecca's rulers.
	The new faith endangered the gods of the Ka'ba.
	With his life in danger, Muhammad was invited to come to Medina to mediate its clan quarrels.


	In 622 Muhammad left Mecca for Medina where his skilled leadership brought new followers.
	The Quraysh attacked Medina, but Muhammad's forces ultimately triumphed.
	A treaty of 628 allowed his followers the permission to visit the Ka'ba.
	He returned to Mecca in 629 and converted most of its inhabitants to Islam.


	The new religion initially was adopted by town dwellers and Bedouins in the region where Muhammad lived.
	But Islam offered opportunities for uniting Arabs by providing a distinct indigenous monotheism supplanting clan divisions and allowing an end to clan feuding.
	The umma, the community of the faithful, transcended old tribal boundaries.


	Islam also offered an ethical system capable of healing social rifts within Arab society.
	All believers were equal before Allah; the strong and wealthy were responsible for the care of the weak and poor.
	The prophet's teachings and the Quran became the basis for laws regulating the Muslim faithful.
	All faced a last judgment by a stern but compassionate god.


	Islam contains beliefs appealing to individuals in many differing world cultures.
	They included monotheism, legal codes, social justice, and a strong sense of community.
	Islam, while regarding Muhammad's message as the culmination of divine revelation, accepted the validity of Judaism and Christianity.
	Islam's five pillars provide a basis for underlying unity: (1) acceptance of Islam; (2) prayer five times daily; (3) the fast month of Ramadan; (4) payment of a tithe (zakat) for charity; and (5) the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.


	Muhammad's defeat of Mecca had won the allegiance of many Bedouin tribes, but unity was threatened when he died in 632.


	Arab religious zeal and the weaknesses of opponents resulted in victories in Mesopotamia, North Africa, and Persia.
	The new empire was governed by a warrior elite under the Umayyad clan that had little interest in conversion.


	Muhammad, the last of the prophets, could not have a successor possessing his attributes.
	He had not established a procedure for selecting a new leader.
	After a troubled process Abu Bakr was chosen as caliph, the leader of the Islamic community.
	Breakaway tribes and rival prophets were defeated during the Ridda wars to restore Islamic unity.
	Arab armies invaded the weak Byzantine and Sassanid empire where they were joined by Bedouins who had migrated earlier.


	Islam provided the Arabs with a sense of common cause and a way of fighting neighboring opponents.
	The rich booty and tribute gained often was more of a motivation than spreading Islam since converts were exempted from taxes and shared the spoils of victory.


	The weak Sassanian empire was ruled by an emperor manipulated by a landed, aristocratic class that exploited the agricultural masses.
	The Arabs defeated the poorly prepared Sassanid military and ended the dynasty in 651.
	The Byzantines were more resilient adversaries.