What is civilization

Introduction to Arab and Islamic Civilization October 6-October 26 CULT200 What is Civilization

Sources The University of Calgary the Islamic World Until 1600 http:// www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/index.html Cleveland, William L. The Development of Islamic Civilization in A History of the Modern Middle East (Third Edition) Part I pp. 5-57 Tarabay, Ali and Wakim, Jamal Arabs and Muslims in History

The Roman Empire before 600 CE, the Roman Empire was the most influential power in many regions that would later become Islamic. By the 3rd century BCE Rome had completed its conquest of the Italian Peninsula. Roman territory included Spain, North Africa, Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt.

The Roman Empire In the 3rd century CE, the Emperor Diocletian (r. 284-305) officially split the empire. The Empire was reunited by Constantine I (r. 306-337). Constantine was the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity. Christianity in the Roman Empire evolved from a Jewish sect into a complex system of beliefs, though it continued to include a number of rival currents.

The Roman Empire In 451, the Council of Chalcedon divided the Christian world into five patriarchates, or regions to be overseen by a patriarch: Rome (whose patriarch later assumed the title of pope), Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The Islamic conquests of the 7th century brought Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem under Muslim rule, Constantinople became the leading city of Eastern Christianity. The division between the Western church, based in Rome, and the Eastern church, based in Constantinople, culminated in the Great Schism of 1054, when the Pope in Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other. The result was the formation of the Catholic Church in the west, and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the east.

The Roman Empire At the height of its power in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, the Roman Empire consisted of some 2.2 million square miles (5.7 million sq. km). 60 million people (or as much as 1/5 of the world's population) claimed citizenship of Rome and as many as 120 million people may have lived within its borders.

The Roman Empire The Roman government was a mix of a democracy and a republic. The people of Rome took many of their ideas of government from the Ancient Greeks. The Edict of Caracalla was an edict issued in 212, by the Roman Emperor Caracalla declaring that all free men in the Roman Empire and all free women were to be given full Roman citizenship were given the same rights as Roman women were. Before 212, inhabitants of Italia held full Roman citizenship. Client state citizens and allies (socii) of Rome could receive a limited form of Roman citizenship such as the Latin Right. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/78*.html

The Byzantine Empire After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476, it has acquired the name, Byzantine Empire. The name is based on the ancient Greek city of Byzantium, which became the site for Constantinople in 330. Emperor Justinian (r. 527-565) reclaimed the Italian Peninsula from the Visigoths, bringing the Christians of the former Western Empire under Byzantine rule. He also conquered northwest Africa and coastal Spain, temporarily bringing most of the Mediterranean under Byzantine control.

The Byzantine Empire The Sassanid Empire in Persia was a historic enemy of the Roman Empire. The Sassanids began a new campaign into Byzantine territory in 610, the same year Muslims believe Muhammad received his first revelation from God, in Mecca, that he was the prophet of Islam. Within 30 years these three civilizations - the Byzantine, Persian, and Arab - would collide. The Muslim Arabs embarked on a rapid expansion campaign that brought down the Sassanid Empire and took a large swath of Byzantine territories in North Africa and Mesopotamia.

The Arch The Romans adopted the arch from the Greeks and used it in their architecture

The Aqueduct of Segovia, Spain

Ancient Persia The Iranian plateau, much of the territory of present-day Iran, was first populated in the 9th century BCE, The first people to inhabit Iran were the Medes people from Central Asia. The Medes were followed by the Persians in the 8th century BCE. These two groups laid the foundation for a series of empires that arose on the Iranian plateau over the next thousand years.

Ancient Persia Around 750 BCE the Medes people formed their own kingdom, called Media, in the northwest plateau, becoming powerful enough by 612 BCE defeating the older Assyrian Empire to the west. In 550 BCE, the Persian leader Cyrus the Great ( كورش الكبير ). In Islamic Tradition he is said to be ذو القرنين Cyrus led the Persians into battle against the ruling Medes people, resulting in the unification of the two groups under the name of the victor, the Persians. Cyrus also captured the city of Babylon on the Euphrates River and freed the Jewish captives there, earning himself a place in the Book of Isaiah.

Ancient Persia The first Persian Empire, the Achaemenid, emerged from Cyrus' victories, and lasted until the 2nd century BCE. The Achaemenid Empire was the largest empire in the ancient world, extending at its height as far east as the Hindu Kush mountains in present-day Afghanistan.

Ancient Persia Economically, the Achaemenids established an efficient trade system throughout their empire. As a result of this commercial activity Persian words for many commodities spread throughout the region, some of which are still used in English today. Examples include bazaar, shawl, sash, turquoise, tiara, orange, lemon, melon, peach, spinach, and asparagus.

Ancient Persia The Greeks of were the first western subjects of the Achaemenid Empire, bringing the Greek and Persian cultures together for the first time. Thought out this historic relationship military conflict grew between the two as their respective empires grew.

Ancient Persia Religiously, the Achaemenid Empire featured a variety of polytheistic religions. The followers of prophet Zoroster claimed that Zoroastrianism was the world's first monotheistic religion developed on the Iranian plateau. Zoroastrianism - which most religious scholars now categories as dualism, not monotheism - was gaining converts among the Persians.

Ancient Persia By the 4th century BCE, Macedonia had become a strong force in the west. About 330 BCE, Alexander the Great of Macedonia invaded Persia ending the Achaemenid Empire.

Ancient Persia Persia did not regain its power until the Sassanid Empire rose in the 3rd century CE. Persia was ruled by weaker dynasties, the Seleucid and the Parthian.

The Sassanid Empire About 224 CE, the Parthian governor of the province of Fars (Iran), brought down the central government in Ctesiphon and established the Sassanid Empire. The Sassanid Empire lasted over 400 years, and was the last Persian Empire before the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century brought the region under Arab rule.

The Sassanid Empire the Sassanid Empire was instrumental in promoting Persian nationalism, and creating a Persian identity that remained strong even after the Islamic conquest and attempted Arabisation of the region. Arabisation

The Sassanid Empire The Sassanid Empire was constantly at war with the Roman Empire to the west. The animosity between the two empires was exacerbated in the 4th century, when the Roman Emperor, Constantine I, converted to Christianity, and later, Theodosius I made Christianity the official state religion. Two religious centers emerged within two centers of power the Byzantine Christians and the Persian Zoroastrians. The Roman Empire sought to protect all Christians outside its borders, including those under Sassanid rule. Nevertheless, the Christians in the Sassanid Empire were mostly Nestorian Christians, a different branch of Christianity than that practiced in the Roman Empire

The Sassanid Empire While Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman Empire, Zoroastrianism had been the official religion of the Sassanids since the beginning of their empire in the 3rd century. The Zoroastrian church became very powerful, and its head, the mobadan mobad , joined the military and bureaucratic leaders as one of the most important men in the empire

The Sassanid Empire Zoroastrianism has great similarities with Judeo-Christian and Islamic theology. Particularly, the dualism between good and evil, or light and darkness; the belief in angels and archangels; Satan as the epitome of evil and the adversary of God; the idea of paradise and hell; the idea of the continued existence of the soul past that of the body; reward and punishment by divine justice; the resurrection of the dead; the Last Judgement; beliefs in millennial periods and the end of the world; and the coming of a Saviour at the end of the world. Many of these ideas would also appear in Islamic theology. Zoroastrianism, which itself might have absorbed some of these ideas from Buddhism and Hinduism, was thus an important influence on several religions that followed it.

The Sassanid Empire Politically, Khusrau I (r. 531-579) is considered the most influential Sassanid ruler. He instituted reforms that changed the empire. He reformed the army by providing soldiers with salaries and equipment. He improved efficiency in the tax system, by changing the method of assessment and collection. The Sassanid tax system later became a model for tax collection in the Islamic caliphate. The Muslims were also influenced by the office of the Sassanid prime minister, which became a prototype for the Islamic grand vizier.

The Sassanid Empire After 50 years of peace, Khusrau II (r. 590-628) resumed hostilities with the neighboring Byzantine Empire, the successor to the Roman. He expanded into Byzantine lands, capturing Jerusalem in 612 and Alexandria in 619, while placing Constantinople, the Byzantine capital, under siege. The Byzantines responded by staging an attack through the Caucasus into the northern Sassanid Empire. They sacked Ctesiphon in 627, and Khusrau II was killed while fleeing the city.

The Sassanid Empire The Sassanid Empire collapsed After 400 years, by the Arab conqest. There are several possible reasons: The Persians and Byzantines mutually wearied each other, but each regarded themselves as superior to the rest of the world, which was seen as somewhat barbarian. The continuous state of war between the two empires made them focus of fighting each other while virtually ignoring other threats. The Arabs were underestimated; the Persians gave more credence to the threat from raiding groups from the east than to the Arabs.

The Sassanid Empire By the time of the invasion, the Arabs were able to take advantage of Persian weaknesses, such as disunity among the provinces and a lack of allegiance among the people to the Sassanid central administration. Many Persians submitted to the invaders when the Arabs demanded less taxes than the Sassanids and did not force conversion to Islam. Later, Islam did spread to non-Arab groups, most notably the Persians, who began to convert in significant numbers as Islamic rule over Persia strengthened in the centuries after the initial conquest.

The Sassanid Empire the Sassanid Empire played a major role in developing a distinct Persian nationalism, which survived the Islamic conquest and mass conversion of Persians to Islam. The Persians and the Arabs would become the leading ethnic groups in the Islamic world.

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula is a rectangular piece of land surrounded by the Red Sea on the west, the Persian Gulf on the east, and the Arabian Sea to the south. To the north lie Syria and Mesopotamia, lands which saw the birth of both Judaism and Christianity. Many Jewish and Christian influences had penetrated Arabia before the coming of Islam in the 7th century, but the inhabitants of the Peninsula - the Arabs - did not follow either of those religions. Islam, as taught by the Prophet Muhammad was the religion that would convert the Arabs en masse to monotheism, or the belief in only one God.

Arabia The people who inhabited the Arabian Peninsula - were nomads, who survived the harsh desert environment by adhering to a seasonal migration cycle. For four months from June to September, the Arabs waited out the summer heat, until the rains came in October. The eight months until the following summer were then spent traveling between grazing grounds on the desert's fringes. Their travel was eased by the domestication of the camel, which allowed the Arabs access to the harsh Arabian desert.

Southern Arabians Southern Arabians had an established civilization with many urban centers and long-lasting temples. Its people, the Banu Himyar, were well endowed and intelligent. They built the dam of Ma'rib and thereby changed the course which water would have naturally followed to courses such as settled life and intensive agriculture required.

North and South Arabians Mecca and Medina Yemen: Ancient alphabet The Yemenites were believers with various stories told in Koran about prophets that came to them including Solomon, who married the Queen of Seba South Arabians had a different script than North Arabians.

Kingdom of Ma'in (7th century BCE – 1st century BCE) During Minaean rule, the capital was at Karna). Their other important city was Yathill. The Minaean Kingdom was centered in northwestern Yemen, with most of its cities lying along the Wadi Madhab. Minaean inscriptions have been found far from the Kingdom of Ma'in, as far away as al-`Ula in northwestern Saudi Arabia and even on the island of Delos and in Egypt. It was the first of the Yemeni kingdoms to end, and the Minaean language died around 100 CE . The success of the kingdom was based on the cultivation and trade of spices and aromatics including frankincense and myrrh. Agriculture in thrived during this time due to an advanced irrigation system

Kingdom of Saba (9th century BCE – 275 CE) During Sabaean rule, trade and agriculture flourished, generating much wealth and prosperity. The Sabaean kingdom was located in Yemen, and its capital, Ma'rib, is located near Yemen's modern capital, Sana'a. According to South Arabian tradition, the eldest son of Noah, Shem, founded the city of Ma'rib.

The Arabians The nomadic Bedouin population would prove difficult to convert to Islam in the 7th century, not only under Muhammad, but under his successors as well. Much of the Bedouins' reluctance to embrace Islam as quickly as the settled Arabs was due to their strong adherence to traditional religions. The Arabs were polytheistic, meaning they believed in and worshipped more than one god. Different regions of the Arabian Peninsula often had their own patron deity, which usually had its own shrine. Arabs often embarked on pilgrimages to different shrines throughout Arabia. Above their various gods, however, the Arabs also believed in a supreme God, who they called al-ilah , or "the God."

Muhammed Muhammad, name means "worthy of praise," about 570 in Mecca. His father, Abdullah, died before Muhammad was born, and his mother, Amina, died when he was six years old. His paternal grandfather, Abdul Muttalib, then cared for him until his own death two years later, after which time Muhammad spent the rest of his childhood in the care of his uncle, Abu Talib. He was not wealthy, and it is believed he was a shepherd. When he was 25 he married Khadija, a wealthy widow about 15 years his senior. Despite her age, Khadija would bear Muhammad six children, four of whom survived to adulthood - daughters Zaynab, Ruqayya, Fatima, and Umm Kulthum. Ruqayya later married Uthman, and Fatima married Ali, men who became the third and fourth caliphs, respectively.

Muhammed It is said that Khadija and Muhammad were truly in love, and that although polygamy was common in Arabia, she was his only wife until her death in 619. In 620, Muhammad married A'isha, whose father, Muhammad's friend Abu Bakr, would become the first caliph after Muhammad's death 12 years later. In 622, at age 52, Muhammad fled persecution in Mecca, taking his followers north to the city of Yathrib. After his arrival, the name of the city was changed to Medinat un-Nabi , the City of the Prophet, or Medina. Muhammad's journey to Mecca is known as the Hijra , or emigration, and marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

Non Muslims in Arabia Non Muslims especially Christians and Jews for whom Islam represented a direct challenge, have found it difficult to accept the idea that Quran contains the word of God and not Mohamed.

Death of Mohamed Mohamed Died in 632 and his followers in Mecca and Medina resolved to continue the development of the new religion. Mohamed had no sons and the Koran contained no direction of the role of a successor to the Prophet. Let alone how a successor will be chosen.

The Koran Mohamed Prophet hood could be divided over two periods. Mecca and Medina. The Koran was revealed in a series of chapters (suras) and is organized according to the length of the of the chapters, with the longest first and the shortest last. The Shorter chapters are from the Meccan years, when Mohamed concentrated on establishing the theological foundations of faith. Monotheism is the message. The longer chapters established the rules and regulations of the religious faith.

Overview of the State after Muhammad's close friends and advisors decided to select a leader to replace Muhammad and to continue spreading the Islamic faith. This leader was known as the khalifa. In the years following Muhammad's death there would be four caliphs, sometimes called the "Rightly Guided Caliphs." The first Islamic dynasty was established in 661 by the Umayyad family, who established the practice of hereditary succession. The Umayyad were overthrown in 750 by the Abbasids, who established a dynasty that would last until the Mongol invasion of Baghdad, the Abbasid capital, in 1258.

Abu Baker 632-634 There are differing opinions about whether or not Muhammad designated his successor before his death. One group of his followers claimed at the time, and continues to believe today, that Muhammad named his son-in-law, Ali, as his successor. For this group, known today as Shi'ites, their belief that Ali was the rightful claimant to the leadership after Muhammad's death sparked centuries of disagreement with the other main group in Islam, the Sunnis. The schism between the Sunnis and Shi'ites remains a major issue in the Islamic world.

Abu Baker Regardless of whether or not Muhammad chose a successor, Ali did not become the first caliph. The title went to Abu Bakr, one of Muhammad's fathers-in-law. One of the first problems Abu Bakr faced as caliph was a rapid renunciation of the Islamic faith by many Arab groups.

Abu Baker As we saw in Chapter 1, these groups, known as the Bedouins, were present in the Arabian Peninsula before the coming of Islam. Many of them had converted to Islam under Muhammad, but the faith had not yet been strongly accepted by them by the time of Muhammad's death. The Bedouins abandoned Islam and refused allegiance to Abu Bakr, in a revolt known as the Ridda . After several small battles with the Bedouins, the Muslim forces finally crushed the Ridda in 633.

Umar 634-44 Before his death, Abu Bakr named Umar, another of Muhammad's fathers-in-law, as his successor. That appointment, unlike that of the previous caliph, appears to have gone virtually unchallenged. Umar added Amir al-Mu'minin , meaning "Commander of the Faithful," to his title, and from then on, all caliphs used this title. It denoted the fact that caliphs were not just the political leaders of the Muslim community, but the spiritual leaders as well. Despite this new title, however, Umar is remembered more for his military leadership than his spiritual leadership, because he focussed on expanding the realm of Islam outside of the Arabian peninsula. This focus on the secular would later reappear under the Umayyad dynasty.

Umar The first territorial conquests Umar made were in Syria, which he took from the Byzantines in 635. Damascus, an important city in Syria, fell to the Muslim forces that year Jerusalem - considered by Muslims, Christians, and Jews alike to be a holy city followed in 637. The Muslim policy of tolerance towards other religions had a positive effect on the people of Syria, especially the Christians and Jews, who had been persecuted under the Byzantines.

Umar Umar realised that the loyalty of his new subjects was paramount to the success of Islamic rule in the region, and he therefore tried not to alienate them with excessive taxation or oppression. He instituted the kharaj , a tax that landowners and peasants paid according to the productivity of their fields, as well as the jizya , paid by non-Muslims in return for the freedom to practice their own religion. He retained the civil service of the Byzantines, however, until he could establish his own system for governing his rapidly expanding empire, and for that reason Greek remained the language of administration in the new Muslim territories for over 50 years after the conquest.

Umar Umar realised the importance of creating a buffer zone around all of Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, and so while Syria was being invaded to the west, Muslim forces were also heading east through Iraq towards Persia, in an attempt to topple the 400-year-old Sassanid Empire there. The Sassanids were weak at the time of the Muslim invasion, having suffered a recent defeat to the Byzantines, and with an eleven-year-old boy on the throne.

Umar Once Umar had consolidated his power in Syria, he was able to devote his full attention to fighting the Sassanids, and in 636 the Muslims won the Battle of Qadisiyya near the Euphrates River. Muslims moved further east to occupy Ctesiphon, the Sassanid capital, on the Tigris River. By 653, nine years after Umar's death, they reached the Oxus River in Central Asia, the eastern border of the Sassanid Empire.

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