PART III
THE POSTCLASSICAL PERIOD, 500–1450: NEW FAITH AND NEW COMMERCE
The World Map Changes
Two developments stand out in the postclassical period: the further spread of major religions and flourishing trade networks connecting Africa, Asia and Europe. While two of the major religions were established in the previous period, they expanded greatly now. The third, Islam, was new, and spread extremely quickly. These religious developments are especially interesting because they set patterns that essentially dominate today. In the world of international commerce, the old Silk Road proved insufficient for new demands. Instead, the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea carried the increased traffic. The east-west trade now expanded to include Japan, west Africa and northwestern Europe.
Triggers for Change. Developments in the postclassical period were largely effected by the decline or end of the great empires. Religion became overwhelmingly important in an era when social, economic and political dislocation prevailed. Moreover, regions between the empires took on new roles as borders disappeared. Contacts between world areas increased as a result. Finally, expanding trade itself became a cause of change, as the tools of trade—the compass, maps and more— developed and commercial practices became more sophisticated.
The Big Changes. Contact between conflicting religions brought both intolerance and tolerance. Muslim Spain was the foremost example of the latter. Religion was itself an issue in the postclassical period. Resources were increasingly diverted to fund religious institutions. At the same time, trade networks expanded and became more systematic. Commerce in both raw and finished goods throve. Less tangible goods also moved along the trade networks. Paper and printing made their way to the west from China. Indian mathematics also began to move west, via the Middle East.
Continuity. As always, focus on change should be balanced with due regard for continuity. Survival of traditions, and looking backward to the classical era, ensured that elements of earlier culture would survive. In the Middle East, although Islam brought changes, links with the Hellenistic past also remained vital. Also, fusion took place, for instance in the ways Buddhism absorbed traditions concerning the family in China. The postclassical period saw no major developments in social or political structures. The merchant class loomed larger, but did not affect the role of the landowner in most of the cultures studied. As a final point, many areas were not affected by international trade. In the Americas and Oceania, developments took place regionally, in relative isolation.
Impact on Daily Life: Women
The place of women in much of Afro-Asia underwent conflicting changes in this period. The religious transformations brought with them new attitudes towards women, and especially the role of women in religious life. At the same time, expanding commerce and the concomitant urbanized world, brought with them a more ornamental role, especially for elite women. Such practices as footbinding in China and sati in India arose in this period. In many areas, patterns were established that last to this day.
Trends and Societies in The Early Modern Period
In Chapters 6 and 7, Islam is the focus, as it spread from the Arabian peninsula to neighboring areas. Chapter 8 moves to sub-Saharan Africa, and developments there in trade and civilization. In Europe, two regions developed, both affected by the expansion of Islam and by long-distance trade. In Chapter 9, Eastern Europe and the Byzantine Empire are the focus, while western Europe is the subject of Chapter 10. Chapters 11 and 12 describe developments in the Americas and China, and Chapter 13 focuses on Chinese influence on Japan, Korea and Vietnam. The final chapters of this section deal with the last two centuries of the postclassical period. The spread of the Mongols is the subject of Chapter 14, and Chapter 15 describes the following transitional period.
CHAPTER 6
The First Global Civilization: The Rise and Spread of Islam
Chapter Outliine Summary
I. Desert and Town: The Pre-Islamic Arabian World
Bedouins
Camel herding
Agriculture
A. Clan Identity, Clan Rivalries and the Cycle of Vengeance Clans
Grouped into tribes
Shayks
Free warriors
Rivalry
B. Towns and Long-Distance Trade
Entrepots
Mecca
Umayyad clan
Quraysh tribe
Ka’ba
Medina
C. Marriage and Family in Pre-Islamic Arabia
Women had important roles
Polygyny, polyandry
D. Poet and Neglected Gods
Animism, polytheism
Including Allah
II. The Life of Muhammad and the Genesis of Islam
Banu Hasim clan
Orphaned
Mecca
Khadijah
Revelations, 610
via Gabriel
A. Persecution, Flight and Victory
Ka’ba gods threatened
Invited to Medina, 622
Hijra
Returned to Mecca, 629
B. Arabs and Islam
Umma
C. Universal Elements in Islam
5 Pillars
Acceptance of Islam
Prayer
Fasting during Ramadan
Payment of zakat
Hajj
II. The Arab Empire of the Umayyads
Death, 632
Succession struggle
A. Consolidation and Division in the Islamic Community
Abu Bakr
Ridda Wars
B. Motives for Arab Conquest
Conversions
Booty
C. Weaknesses of the Adversary Empires
Sasanian Empire
Zoroastrianism
Dynasty ended, 651
Byzantium
D. The Problem of Succession and the Sunni-Shi’a Split
Uthman
3rd caliph
Murdered
Ali
Rejected by Umayyads
Siffin, 657
Loses suppor
Assassinated, 661
Son, Hasan, renounces caliphate
Son, Husayn
Killed, Karbala, 680
Sunni – Umayyads
Shi’a – Ali’s descendants
Mu’awiya
Caliph, 660
E. The Umayyad Imperium
Push west
Stopped at Poitier, 732
Retain Iberia
F. Converts and “People of the Book”
Malawi, converts
Dhimmi, people of the book
Jews, Christians
Later Zoroastrians and Hindus
G. Family and Gender Roles in the Umayyad Age
Islamic ideas prevailed at first
H. Umayyad Decline and Fall
Revolts
Merv
Abassid revolt
750, Umayyads defeated by Abassids
III. From Arab to Islamic Empire: The Early Abassid Era
Sunni rule
Repressed Shi’a
Baghdad
New capital
A. Islamic Conversion and Mawali Acceptance
B. Town and Country: Commercial Boom and Agrarian Expansion
Urban expansion
Ayan
C. The First Flowering of Islamic Learning
Building
Mosques, palaces
Chapter Summary
The Spread of Islam. The spread of Islam out of the Arabian peninsula is one of the most remarkable stories in history. Within two decades, the Muslim Arabs had taken territory from the Byzantine and Sasanian empires, advancing into Africa. Significantly, they tended to respect, rather than destroy, the cultures they encountered. Moreover, they absorbed and built upon the traditions and knowledge of the peoples they conquered. From the 7th to the 17th centuries, Islam was the conveyor of goods and ideas between the Mediterranean and the Eastern Hemisphere. This role, shared by other peoples of the Middle East, became central to Euro-Asian culture and commerce.
Chapter Summary. In the 7th century c.e., 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 and forged a truly global civilization. Muslim scientific and philosophical works written in Arabic made it an international language.
Desert and Town: The Pre-Islamic Arabian World. 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, Clan Rivalries, and the Cycle of Vengeance. 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, were usually wealthy men. Free warriors enforced their decisions. Slave families served the leaders or the clan as a whole. Clan cohesion was reinforced by interclan rivalry and by conflicts over water and pasturage. The resulting enmity might inaugurate feuds enduring for centuries. The strife divided bedouin society, making it vulnerable to rivals.
Towns and Long-Distance Trade. Cities had developed as entrepots 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. The city was the site of the Ka’ba, an important religious shrine, that attracted pilgrims and visitors, during an obligatory annual truce in interclan feuds. 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 and later opened a place for Muhammad.
Marriage and Family in Pre-Islamic Arabia. Women may have enjoyed more freedom than in the Byzantine and Sasanian 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. Both sexes had multiple marriage partners. Still, males, carrying on the honored warrior tradition, remained superior. Traditional practices of property control, inheritance, and divorce favored men. Women commonly did drudge labor. Female status was even more restricted in urban centers.
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 focused instead on spirits associated with nature. Religion and ethics were not connected. In all, the bedouin did not take their religion seriously.
The Life of Muhammad and the Genesis of Islam. In the 6th century c.e., camel nomads dominated Arabia. Cities were dependent upon alliances with surrounding tribes. Pressures for change came from the Byzantine and Sasanian empires, and from the presence of Judaisim and Christianity. Muhammad, a member of the Banu Hasim clan of the Quraysh, was born about 570 c.e. 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 monotheistic ideas. Muhammad became dissatisfied with a life focused on material gain and went to meditate in the hills. In 610 he began receiving revelations transmitted from god via the angel Gabriel. Later, written in Arabic and collected in the Qur’an, they formed the basis for Islam.
Persecution, Flight, and Victory. As Muhammad’s initially very 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; the flight, the hijra, became the first year of the Islamic calendar. In Medina, his skilled leadership brought new followers. Hostilities between Mecca and Medina ended with Muhammad’s triumph. A treaty of 628 with the Quraysh allowed his followers the permission to visit the Ka’ba. Muhammad 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. Islam also offered an ethical system capable of healing social rifts within Arabian 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 Qur’an became the basis for laws regulating the Muslim faithful. All faced a last judgment by a stern but compassionate god.
Universal Elements in Islam. Islam by nature contained beliefs appealing to individuals in many cultures: monotheism, legal codes, egalitarianism, and strong sense of community. Islam, while regarding Muhammad’s message as the culmination of divine revelation, accepted the validity of similar components previously incorporated in Judaism and Christianity. Islam’s five pillars provide a basis for underlying unity: (1) acceptance of Islam; (2) prayer five times daily; (3) fasting during the month of Ramadan; (4) payment of a tithe (zakat) for charity; and (5) the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Arab Empire of the Umayyads. Muhammad’s defeat of Mecca had won the allegiance of many bedouin tribes, but the unity was threatened when he died in 632. Tribes broke away and his followers quarreled about the succession. The community managed to select new leaders who reunited Islam by 633, and then began campaigns beyond Arabia. 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 Umayyads and other clans; they had little interest in conversion.
Consolidation and Division in the Islamic Community. Muhammad was the last of the prophets. No successor could claim his attributes, nor had he 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 Persian empires, 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 releasing martial energies against neighboring opponents. The rich booty and tribute gained often was more of a motivation than spreading Islam since converts were exempt from taxes and shared the spoils of victory.
Weaknesses of the Adversary Empires. The weak Sasanian Empire was ruled by an emperor manipulated by a landed, aristocratic class that exploited the agricultural masses. Official Zoroastrianism lacked popular roots and the more popular creed of Mazdak had been brutally suppressed. The Arabs defeated the poorly prepared Sasanian military and ended the dynasty in 651. The Byzantines were more resilient adversaries. The empire had been weakened by the defection of frontier Arabs and persecuted Christian sects, and by long wars with the Sasanians. The Arabs quickly seized western Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. From the 640s, 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.