PPT notes with embedded primary and secondary sources for use in Global History and Geography 9R.

1. Islam and the Muslim
World
600-1600

2. The Arab World in the 7th
Century
• Most of the Arabian Peninsula is covered by
desert
• Home of the Bedouins
– Nomadic Pastoralists:involved in trade
caravans
• Trading towns on the Red Sea led to cultural
diffusion
• The cities of Mecca and Medina were greatly
influenced by Bedouin traders.

3. • Mecca was a city that conducted trade
between the Mediterranean and Asia
• Mecca’s status was elevated because it
was the site of the Kaaba, a pre-Islamic
religious shrine
– This shrine was used as a source of peace
during interclan feuds allowing merchants
to go to Mecca and trade without fear

4. • The City of Yathrib, later known as Medina
was northeast of Mecca
• Built in an oasis
• Medina was also an important trade city
• Medina’s control was split between two
Bedouin and three Jewish clans.

6. Women in the Arab World
• Pre-Islamic Arabian women enjoyed a higher
status than neighboring civilizations like the
Byzantines
• Many tribes traced descent through the
mother (matrilineal) so women were
important to clans
• In cities and towns, women enjoyed less
status
– Cities followed patrilineal lines
– Male polygamy/female monogamy was common

7. Muhammad
• Born around 570 CE into a prominent
clan in the Quraysh tribe, (founders of
Mecca)
• By 20, Muhammad was an orphan living
in Mecca and working as a trader for
the widow Khadijah (his first wife)
• Caravan trade exposed him to the wider
world
– Interclan tension
– Economic inequality

8. Muhammad
• Muhammad saw the economic, clan-
based, and religious tension
throughout the Arabian peninsula
• He tried to find a solution

10. Muhammad
• 610 had his first vision.
Followers believe
visions came from Allah
to Muhammad through
the angel Gabriel.
– They were later written in
Arabic and collected in
the Quran
• Muhammad slowly
began to gain followers
as he taught Islam

12. Muhammad
•Muhammad preached monotheism, which threatened the
worship of the gods at the Kaaba
•Without the Kaaba, Mecca’s leaders worried they wouldn’t
be able to keep peace
•Even though his ideas caused problems, Muhammad
developed a reputation for being a skillful and fair
negotiator, which helped him when he needed protection
because his own family tried to kill him
•He escaped to Medina where he was asked to help mediate
a conflict in 622 (Hijra).
•This represents year ONE on the Muslim Calendar.

15. In Medina…
• By 623, Muhammad had over 10,000
followers
• Wars between Mecca and Medina were
common
• Muhammad set out to conquer Mecca

17. Back to Mecca…
• In 629, Muhammad
and his followers
returned
• They smashed the
idols of the “false
gods” in the Kaaba
• The conversion of the
Umayyads to Islam
began!

20. Islam
• Monotheistic religion
created by Muhammad
• Has some roots in
Judaism and
Christianity
• Shares important
people like Abraham
and Moses
• Islam = Submission to
the will of God
• Muslim = One who

21. Why did Arabs Covert to
Islam?
• Religion was not clan based, so it did
not promote rivalries
• All worshippers are equals
• Offered an end to the vendettas and
feuds

22. • Provided an ethical system
– Dignity of all before Allah
– Responsibility of the well-off to provide for
the poor and weak. The ZAKAT was a tax
for charity.

23. Beliefs of Islam
• Islam shares many
beliefs with Judaism
and Christianity
– Monotheistic
– Abraham, Moses,
and Jesus seen as
prophets of the faith
• All Muslims must
carry out the Five
Pillars (duties) of
Islam

25. Five Pillars of Islam
• Confession of faith:
There is one God,
Allah
• Pray 5 times a day
facing Mecca
• Fast during the
month of Ramadan
• The Zakat (charity)
• The Hajj, or
pilgrimage to the Holy
City of Mecca and to
the Kaaba (if you can)

27. The Hajj

29. After Muhammad
• Muhammad dies in
632 CE (suddenly)
• Religion loses some
followers
• Division arises over
who should succeed
Muhammad as
religious and political
leader (Caliph)

30. Divisions persist…
Today the Muslim world is still
divided:
Sunni Muslims
• Back the Umayyads
claim to the caliphate.
• Believe influential
leaders in the Muslim
community should
become Caliph
• Wanted religious
leaders to choose the
next Caliph
Shi’a Muslims
• Believed only a
descendant of
Muhammad was
capable of ruling as
Caliph
War broke out over who the next ruler should
be

32. The Umayyad Caliphate
• Practiced Shi’a Islam
• Mecca remains the holiest city in Islam
• Damascus, Syria becomes the new
political capital
• Umayyads ruled a vast territory under
the banner of Islam.
– On Muslim Arabs were first-class citizens
– Taxed only for charity

33. • Intermarriage
between conquered
peoples and the
Muslim warrior elite
was widespread
• Conversion did little
to advance non-
believers
– Muslim converts,
mawali, still had to
pay property taxes
– Sometimes still had
to pay the jizya, or
head tax levied on
non-believers

34. The Umayyad Caliphate
• Mawali received no
share of the booty
from conquests.
• They were not
considered full
members of the
umma
• During the Umayyad
era, the amount of
conversions was
low
• The Dhimmi, were
“People of the Book”
(Christians and Jews)
– They had to pay the
Jizya…but their legal
systems were left
intact.
– Additionally, they were
given the freedom to
worship as they
pleased.

35. The Umayyad Caliphate
• The Dhimmi accepted Muslim rule often
because it was better than their previous
rulers.
• Family and Gender Roles
– Muhammad encouraged marriage
– Denounced adultery
– Forbade female infanticide
– Men could marry up to four wives
– Enhanced rights of inheritance and divorce
for women

36. The Umayyad Fall…
• Warriors who traced their ancestry from
Muhammad attacked from Persia in
747 under the banner of the Abbasid
party…
• The Abbasid’s won the support of the
Shia and the Mawali, defeated the
Ummayad and created the Abbasid
Empire

37. The Abbasid Era
• Carried out large scale conversions to
Islam
– All Mawali were granted full rights
• Transformation of Islam to a genuinely
universal faith.
• Practiced Sunni Islam
• Abbasid’s built their new capital in the
city of Baghdad.

38. Revived Commercialism
• Trade resumed
• Abbasid expanded through trade more
than through war.
• Expanded across northern Africa and
even into Spain and Sicily!

39. Abbasid Golden Age
• Built many mosques
• Early Abbasid learning focused on
science and math

40. Abbasid Golden Age
• Muslim and Jewish scholars revive the
writings of the Greeks on subjects such
as
– Medicine
– Algebra
– Geometry
– Astronomy
– Anatomy
– Ethics
• Through Spain, Greek writings found their
way into Christendom.

42. The Late Abbasid Era
• Begins to decline around 770
• Corrupt government
• Caliphs isolated inside their palaces
• Problems with succession

43. Abbasid Decline
• Caliphs struggle to control the Slave
Regiments
• Poor leadership
• Spiraling taxation/pillaging, etc…
• Abandonment of some of the earlier
parts of the empire.

44. Late Abbasid
Decline…women
• The Harem and the Veil
are the twin emblems of
women’s increasing
subjugation to men and
confinement.
• The Abbasid court
created the concept of
the Harem for the
Caliphate.

46. The End of the Caliphate
• By the 10th and 11th
Abbasid gov’t was
weak
• The Mongols, united
under Genghis Khan
gained control of
Baghdad by 1220
CE.
• Caliphates become
Mongol puppets

48. The Spread of Islam

49. Indian/Muslim cultural
diffusion
• Muslims gain access to India through
trade
• Inherit Indian scientific learning, which
rivaled the Greeks as the most advanced
in the world.
• Arabic numerals originated in India!
• Indian learning was transferred to
Baghdad in the age of the Abbasids.
– Indian doctors, scientists, etc.
• Muslims adopt Indian styles of

50. The Delhi Sultanate
• A new Muslim empire
in India was
proclaimed with the
capital at Delhi, in the
Gangetic Plain.
• Ruled northern India
for 300 years

51. Conversion
• The Delhi succeeded in spreading Islam
into India
• Most conversions came from
untouchables, low-caste or Buddhist
groups who were attracted to the ideas of
equality.

52. Accommodation
• Hindus were convinced that Muslims
would just be absorbed into Indian
society
– Many things pointed that way!
• Muslim princes adopted Hindu regal styles
• Muslim rulers claim divine descent
• Muslim rulers minted coins with Hindu images
• Muslim communities also became
socially divided along Caste lines
– Violation of the original tenets of Islam!

53. Conversion
• Trading was the key to
conversion.
• Muslim laws (Sharia)
which governed all
interactions including
trade helped spread
ideas
• Conversion linked
centers culturally, and
economically to ports in
India, the Middle East,
and the Mediterranean

55. Ottoman Empire: Beginning
• Turks who came to power following the
Mongol defeat of the Seljuks
• 1453- Defeat Constantinople
• Eventually spread throughout
Anatolia, Balkans, Eastern Europe (up
to Vienna), Arabia, and Northern Africa

56. Ottoman Military Might
• Society was heavily geared for warfare
• Warrior aristocracy controlled land and
peasants they conquered
• Janissaries- elite gunpowder troops
made up of boys conscripted from
conquered Christian peoples come to
dominate the military by the mid 16th
century

57. Ottoman Government
• Absolute monarchy, loses touch with
people over time
• Lacked clear rules for succession 
political turmoil
• Sultans advised by viziers, rule huge
bureaucracy
• Kept factions fighting against each
other

58. Ottoman Culture
• Religiously tolerant
• Merchants had great power
• Istanbul continued as an important
center of trade
• Sultans beginning with Suleiman the
Magnificent, build mosques and other
public works to beautify city and leave
their mark

59. Ottoman Problems  Decline
• Empire grows too big
• Problems with succession weaken
government
• Siege of Vienna weakens military and drains
treasury (1688)
• Peasants begin to revolt or flee empire
• Janissaries block attempts at reform

63. Safavid Empire Formed
• 1501- Isma’il a Sufi mystic names
himself Shah
• Begins expanding
• 1514- Battle of Chaldiran- defeated by
Ottoman, stops westward expansion of
shi’ism

64. Safavid Politics and War
• Absolute monarchy,
• Abbas the Great-
–rules during golden Age (1589-1627)
–recruited Persians into bureaucracy
–created elite gunpowder troops made
up of conquered Russian peoples
(similar to Janissaries)

65. Safavid Culture
• Originally wrote in Turkish, changed to
Persian following the Battle of
Chaldiran
• Created elaborate court based on
Persian traditions
• Religious leaders and teachers grow in
power with spread of Shi’ism
• Produced beautiful silk textiles
• New capital built in Isfahan

66. Decline of the Safavid
• Abbas I kills his successors  series of
weak leaders
• Internal power struggles  more
weakness
• 1722- Isfahan falls to Afghan raiders

67. Mughals Establish an Empire in
India
• Babur descendant of Tamerlain invades
India in 1526 seeking wealth, get stuck
and decide to stay
• by 1528 control most of the Indus and
Ganges region

69. • Worked to solve problems between
Muslims and the Hindu
majority, religious toleration
– Encouraged intermarriage
– Ended special tax on Hindus
– Respected most Hindu traditions
– Granted land to Hindu and Muslim warriors
in return for loyalty
• Din-i-ilahi- Universal faith, encourages
respect of all peoples’ beliefs
Akbar the Great

70. • Encourages social reforms like:
– limiting alcohol
– Encourages widow remarriage
– while discouraging child marriage
– tries to ban Sati
– creates special market day for women
• Most reforms have little impact

71. Mughal Achievements
• Many rulers were patrons of the arts
–Painting workshops for miniatures
–Textile and rug production
–Great architectural works (Taj Mahal)

72. Mughal Decline
• 1707- Aurangzeb reverses religious
toleration, drains treasury and weakens
military and government bureaucracy
• Regional lords gain power as central
government declines
• Foreign powers step in to gain land as
Mughal empire declines

73. Gunpowder Empires
• All three empires gain power with help
of nomadic warriors
• Firearms became decisive in battle, ie)
Chaldiran
• Governments used military technology
to change the organization of their
empires, warrior aristocracy lose power
as governments build professional
armies

74. Review