77 THEME

The Central Islamic

Lands 4
AS we enter the twenty-first century, there are over 1 billion
Muslims living in all parts of the world. They are citizens
of different nations, speak different languages, and dress
differently. The processes by which they became Muslims
were varied, and so were the circumstances in which they
went their separate ways. Yet, the Islamic community has its
roots in a more unified past which unfolded roughly 1,400
years ago in the Arabian peninsula. In this chapter we are
going to read about the rise of Islam and its expansion over a
vast territory extending from Egypt to Afghanistan, the core
area of Islamic civilisation from 600 to 1200. In these
centuries, Islamic society exhibited multiple political and
cultural patterns. The term Islamic is used here not only in
its purely religious sense but also for the overall society and
culture historically associated with Islam. In this society not
everything that was happening originated directly from
religion, but it took place in a society where Muslims and
their faith were recognised as socially dominant. Non-Muslims
always formed an integral, if subordinate, part of this society
as did Jews in Christendom.

Our understanding of the history of the central Islamic lands

between 600 and 1200 is based on chronicles or tawarikh
(which narrate events in order of time) and semi-historical
works, such as biographies (sira), records of the sayings and
doings of the Prophet (hadith) and commentaries on the
Quran (tafsir). The material from which these works were
produced was a large collection of eyewitness reports (akhbar)
transmitted over a period of time either orally or on paper.
The authenticity of each report (khabar) was tested by a
critical method which traced the chain of transmission (isnad)
and established the reliability of the narrator. Although the
method was not foolproof, medieval Muslim writers were more
careful in selecting their information and understanding the
motives of their informants than were their contemporaries
in other parts of the world. On controversial issues, they
reproduced different versions of the same event, as they found
in their sources, leaving the task of judgement to their
readers. Their description of events closer to their own times
is more systematic and analytical and less of a collection of
akhbar. Most of the chronicles and semi-historical works are

2020-21
 78 THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

in Arabic, the best being the Tarikh of Tabari (d. 923) which
has been translated into English in 38 volumes. Persian
chronicles are few but they are quite detailed in their treatment
of Iran and Central Asia. Christian chronicles, written in
*Aramaic is a Syriac (a dialect of Aramaic*), are fewer but they throw
language related to interesting light on the history of early Islam. Besides
Hebrew and Arabic. chronicles, we have legal texts, geographies, travelogues and
It has also been literary works, such as stories and poems.
used in Ashokan Documentary evidence (fragmentary pieces of writing,
inscriptions.
such as official orders or private correspondence) is the
most valuable for writing histories because it does not
consciously refer to events and persons. It comes almost
entirely from Greek and Arabic papyri (good for
administrative history) and the Geniza records. Some
evidence has emerged from archaeological (excavations
done at desert palaces), numismatic (study of coins) and
epigraphic (study of inscriptions) sources which is of great
value for economic history, art history, and for establishing
names and dates.
Proper histories of Islam began to be written in the
nineteenth century by university professors in Germany and
the Netherlands. Colonial interests in the Middle East and
North Africa encouraged French and British researchers to
study Islam as well. Christian priests too paid close attention
to the history of Islam and produced some good work,
although their interest was mainly to compare Islam with
Christianity. These scholars, called Orientalists, are known
for their knowledge of Arabic and Persian and critical
analysis of original texts. Ignaz Goldziher was a Hungarian
Jew who studied at the Islamic college (al-Azhar) in Cairo
and produced path-breaking studies in German of Islamic
law and theology. Twentieth-century historians of Islam have
largely followed the interests and methods of Orientalists.
They have widened the scope of Islamic history by including
new topics, and by using allied disciplines, such as
economics, anthropology and statistics, have refined many
aspects of Orientalist studies. The historiography of Islam
is a good example of how religion can be studied with
modern historical methods by those who may not share the
customs and beliefs of the people they are studying.

The Rise of Islam in Arabia:

Faith, Community and Politics
During 612-32, the Prophet Muhammad preached the worship of a
single God, Allah, and the membership of a single community of believers
(umma). This was the origin of Islam. Muhammad was an Arab by
language and culture and a merchant by profession. Sixth-century
Arab culture was largely confined to the Arabian peninsula and areas
of southern Syria and Mesopotamia.

2020-21
 THE CENTRAL ISLAMIC L ANDS 79

The Arabs were divided into tribes* (qabila), each led by a chief who *Tribes are societies
was chosen partly on the basis of his family connections but more for organised on the basis
of blood relationships.
his personal courage, wisdom and generosity (murawwa). Each tribe The Arab tribes were
had its own god or goddess, who was worshipped as an idol (sanam) in made up of clans or
a shrine. Many Arab tribes were nomadic (Bedouins), moving from dry combinations of large
to green areas (oases) of the desert in search of food (mainly dates) and families. Unrelated
clans also merged to
fodder for their camels. Some settled in cities and practised trade or
make a tribe stronger.
agriculture. Muhammad’s own tribe, Quraysh, lived in Mecca and Non-Arab individuals
controlled the main shrine there, a cube-like structure called Kaba, in (mawali) became
which idols were placed. Even tribes outside Mecca considered the members through the
Kaba holy and installed their own idols at this shrine, making annual patronage of prominent
tribesmen. Even after
pilgrimages (hajj) to the shrine. Mecca was located on the crossroads converting to Islam, the
of a trade route between Yemen and Syria which further enhanced the mawali were never
city’s importance (see Map p. 82). The Meccan shrine was a sanctuary treated as equals by
(haram) where violence was forbidden and protection given to all visitors. the Arab Muslims and
had to pray in separate
Pilgrimage and commerce gave the nomadic and settled tribes
mosques.
opportunities to communicate with one another and share their beliefs
and customs. Although the polytheistic Arabs were vaguely familiar A thirteenth century
with the notion of a Supreme God, Allah (possibly under the influence painting from ‘Ajaibul
Makhluqat’ depicting
of the Jewish and Christian tribes living in their midst), their attachment
the artist’s imagination
to idols and shrines was more immediate and stronger. of the Archangel Gabriel
Around 612, Muhammad declared himself to be the messenger (Jibril) who brought
(rasul) of God who had been commanded to preach that Allah alone messages to
should be worshipped. The worship involved simple rituals, such as Muhammad. The first
word he spoke was
daily prayers (salat), and moral principles, such as distributing ‘recite’ (iqra) from
alms and abstaining from theft. Muhammad was to found a which has come the
community of believers (umma) bound by a common set of religious word Quran. In Islamic
beliefs. The community would bear witness (shahada) to the existence cosmology, angels are
one of the three
of the religion before God as well as before members of other religious
intelligent forms of life
communities. Muhammad’s message particularly appealed to those in the Universe. The
Meccans who felt deprived of the gains from trade and religion and other two are humans
were looking for a new community identity. Those who and jinns.
accepted the doctrine were called Muslims. They
were promised salvation on the Day of Judgement
(qiyama) and a share of the resources of the
community while on earth. The Muslims soon
faced considerable opposition from affluent
Meccans who took offence to the rejection of
their deities and found the new religion a
threat to the status and prosperity of Mecca.
In 622, Muhammad was forced
to migrate with his followers to Medina.
Muhammad’s journey from Mecca (hijra) was
a turning point in the history of
Islam, with the year of his arrival in
Medina marking the beginning of the
Muslim calendar.

2020-21
 80 THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

Islamic Calendar
The Hijri era was established during the caliphate of Umar, with the first year
falling in 622 CE. A date in the Hijri calendar is followed by the letters AH.
The Hijri year is a lunar year of 354 days, 12 months (Muharram to Dhul
Hijja) of 29 or 30 days. Each day begins at sunset and each month with the
sighting of the crescent moon. The Hijri year is about 11 days shorter than the
solar year. Therefore, none of the Islamic religious festivals, including the
Ramazan fast, Id and hajj, corresponds in any way to seasons. There is no easy
way to match the dates in the Hijri calendar with the dates in the Gregorian
calendar (established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 CE). One can calculate the
rough equivalents between the Islamic (H) and Gregorian Christian (C) years
with the following formulae:
(H × 32 / 33) + 622 = C
(C – 622) × 33 / 32 = H

The survival of a religion rests on the

survival of the community of believers. The
community has to be consolidated internally
and protected from external dangers.
Consolidation and protection require
political institutions such as states and
governments which are either inherited from
the past, borrowed from outside or created
from scratch. In Medina, Muhammad
created a political order from all three
sources which gave his followers the
protection they needed as well as resolved
the city’s ongoing civil strife. The umma was
converted into a wider community to include
polytheists and the Jews of Medina under
the political leadership of Muhammad.
Muhammad consolidated the faith for his
followers by adding and refining rituals
(such as fasting) and ethical principles. The
community survived on agriculture and
trade, as well as an alms tax (zakat). In
addition, the Muslims organised
expeditionary raids on Meccan caravans
and nearby oases. These raids provoked
reactions from the Meccans and caused a
breach with the Jews of Medina. After

Pilgrims at the Kaba, illustration from a fifteenth-

century Persian manuscript.

2020-21
 THE CENTRAL ISLAMIC LANDS 81

a series of battles, Mecca was conquered and Muhammad’s reputation

as a religious preacher and political leader spread far and wide.
Muhammad now insisted on conversion as the sole criterion for
membership of the community. In the harsh conditions of the desert,
the Arabs attached great value to strength and solidarity. Impressed
by Muhammad’s achievements, many tribes, mostly Bedouins, joined
the community by converting to Islam. Muhammad’s alliances began
to spread until they embraced the whole of Arabia. Medina became the
administrative capital of the emerging Islamic state with Mecca as its
religious centre. The Kaba was cleansed of idols as Muslims were
required to face the shrine when offering prayers. In a short space
of time, Muhammad was able to unite a large part of Arabia under
a new faith, community and state. The early Islamic polity, however,
remained a federation of Arab tribes and clans for a long time.

The Caliphate: Expansion, Civil Wars and

Sect Formation
After Muhammad’s death in 632, no one could legitimately claim
to be the next prophet of Islam. As a result, his political authority
was transferred to the umma with no established principle of
succession. This created opportunities for innovations but also
caused deep divisions among the Muslims. The biggest innovation
was the creation of the institution of caliphate, in which the leader
of the community (amir al-muminin) became the deputy (khalifa) of
the Prophet. The first four caliphs (632-61) justified their powers
on the basis of their close association with the Prophet and
continued his work under the general guidelines he had provided.
The twin objectives of the caliphate were to retain control over the
tribes constituting the umma and to raise resources for the state.
Following Muhammad’s death, many tribes broke away from the
Islamic state. Some even raised their own prophets to establish
communities modelled on the umma. The first caliph, Abu Bakr,
suppressed the revolts by a series of campaigns. The second caliph,
Umar, shaped the umma’s policy of expansion of power. The caliph
knew that the umma could not be maintained out of the modest
income derived from trade and taxes. Realising that rich booty
(ghanima) could be obtained from expeditionary raids, the caliph and
his military commanders mustered their tribal strength to conquer
lands belonging to the Byzantine Empire in the west and the Sasanian
empire in the east. At the height of their power, the Byzantine and
Sasanian empires ruled vast territories and commanded huge
resources to pursue their political and commercial interests in Arabia.
The Byzantine Empire promoted Christianity and the Sasanian empire
patronised Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of Iran. On the eve
of the Arab invasions, these two empires had declined in strength
due to religious conflicts and revolts by the aristocracy. This made it

2020-21
 82 THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

• Ghazni

• Cairo
• Fustat

• Medina
• Mecca

Expansion of Islam under Muhammad

MAP 1: The Islamic Central Islamic lands c. 750
Lands

easier for the Arabs to annex territories through wars and treaties.
In three successful campaigns (637-642), the Arabs brought Syria,
Iraq, Iran and Egypt under the control of Medina. Military strategy,
religious fervour and the weakness of the opposition contributed
to the success of the Arabs. Further campaigns were launched
by the third caliph, Uthman, to extend the control to Central
Asia. Within a decade of the death of Muhammad, the Arab-
Islamic state controlled the vast territory between the Nile and
the Oxus. These lands remain under Muslim rule to this day.
In all the conquered provinces, the caliphs imposed a new
administrative structure headed by governors (amirs) and tribal
chieftains (ashraf ). The central treasury (bait al-mal) obtained its
revenue from taxes paid by Muslims as well as its share of the booty
from raids. The caliph’s soldiers, mostly Bedouins, settled in camp
cities at the edge of the desert, such as Kufa and Basra, to remain
within reach of their natural habitat as well as the caliph’s command.
The ruling class and soldiers received shares of the booty and monthly
payments (ata). The non-Muslim population retained their rights to
property and religious practices on payment of taxes (kharaj and jiziya).
Jews and Christians were declared protected subjects of the state
(dhimmis) and given a large measure of autonomy in the conduct of
their communal affairs.

2020-21
 THE CENTRAL ISLAMIC LANDS 83

Political expansion and unification did not come easily to the Arab
tribesmen. With territorial expansion, the unity of the umma became
threatened by conflicts over the distribution of resources and offices.
The ruling class of the early Islamic state comprised almost entirely
the Quraysh of Mecca. The third caliph, Uthman (644-56), also a
Quraysh, packed his administration with his own men to secure greater
control. This further intensified the Meccan character of the state
and the conflict with the other tribesmen. Opposition in Iraq and
Egypt, combined with opposition in Medina, led to the assassination
of Uthman. With Uthman’s death, Ali became the fourth caliph.
The rifts among the Muslims deepened after Ali (656-61) fought
two wars against those who represented the Meccan aristocracy.
Ali established himself at Kufa and defeated an army led by
Muhammad’s wife, Aisha, in the Battle of the Camel (657). He was,
however, not able to suppress the faction led by Muawiya, a
kinsman of Uthman and the governor of Syria. Ali’s second battle,
at Siffin (northern Mesopotamia), ended in a truce which split his
followers into two groups: some remained loyal to him, while others
left the camp and came to be known as Kharjis. Soon after, Ali was
assassinated by a Kharji in a mosque at Kufa. After his death, his
followers paid allegiance to his son, Hussain, and his descendants.
Muawiya made himself the next caliph in 661, founding the
Umayyad dynasty which lasted till 750.
After the civil wars, it appeared as if Arab domination would
disintegrate. There were also signs that the tribal conquerors
were adopting the sophisticated culture of their subjects. It was
under the Umayyads, a prosperous clan of the Quraysh tribe,
that a second round of consolidation took place.

The Umayyads and the Centralisation of Polity

The conquest of large territories destroyed the caliphate based in
Medina and replaced it with an increasingly authoritarian polity. The
Umayyads implemented a series of political measures which
consolidated their leadership within the umma. The first Umayyad
caliph, Muawiya, moved his capital to Damascus and adopted the
court ceremonies and administrative institutions of the Byzantine
Empire. He also introduced hereditary succession and persuaded the
leading Muslims to accept his son as his heir. These innovations were
adopted by the caliphs who followed him, and allowed the Umayyads
to retain power for 90 years and the Abbasids, for two centuries.
The Umayyad state was now an imperial power, no longer based
directly on Islam but on statecraft and the loyalty of Syrian troops.
There were Christian advisers in the administration, as well as
Zoroastrian scribes and bureaucrats. However, Islam continued to
provide legitimacy to their rule. The Umayyads always appealed for

2020-21
 84 THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

unity and suppressed rebellions

in the name of Islam. They also
retained their Arab social
identity. During the reign of
Abd al-Malik (685-705) and his
successors, both the Arab and
Islamic identities were
strongly emphasised. Among
the measures Abd al-Malik
took were the adoption of
Arabic as the language of
administration and the
introduction of an Islamic
coinage. The gold dinar and
silver dirham that had been
circulating in the caliphate
The Dome of the Rock, were copies of Byzantine and Iranian coins (denarius and drachm),
built over a rocky with symbols of crosses and fire altars and Greek and Pahlavi
mound by Abd al-
Malik, is the earliest
(the language of Iran) inscriptions. These symbols were removed
major work of Islamic and the coins now carried Arabic inscriptions. Abd al-Malik also
architecture. Created made a highly visible contribution to the development of an Arab-
as a monument to the Islamic identity, by building the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
Muslim presence in
the city of Jerusalem,
it acquired a mystical
association connected Abd al-Malik’s Coinage Reform
with the Night Journey
of the Prophet to The three coin specimens show the transition from Byzantine to
Heaven (miraj). Arab-Islamic coinage. On the second coin, the bearded and long-
haired caliph is dressed in traditional Arab robes and is holding a
sword. It is the first extant portrait of a Muslim. It is also unique
because later there developed an antipathy towards the
representation of living beings in art and craft. Abd al-Malik’s reform
of coinage was linked with his reorganisation of state finances. It
proved so successful that for hundreds of years, coins were struck
according to the pattern and weight of the third specimen.

Byzantine gold solidus

(denarius aureus) showing
the emperor Heraclius and
his two sons.

Portrait gold dinar struck The reformed dinar was purely epigraphic.
by Abd al-Malik with his It carries the kalima: ‘There is no God but
name and image. Allah and He has no partner (sharik)’

2020-21
 THE CENTRAL ISLAMIC L ANDS 85

The Abbasid Revolution

For their success in centralising the Muslim polity, the Umayyads
paid a heavy price. A well-organised movement, called dawa, brought
down the Umayyads and replaced them with another family of
Meccan origin, the Abbasids, in 750. The Abbasids portrayed the The Great Mosque of
Umayyad regime as evil and promised a restoration of the original al-Mutawwakil in
Islam of the Prophet. The revolution led not only to a change of Samarra (the second
dynasty but changes in the political structure and culture of Islam. Abbasid capital) built
in 850. The minar is
The Abbasid uprising broke out in the distant region of
50 metres high, and is
Khurasan (eastern Iran), a 20-day journey from Damascus on a made of brick.
fast horse. Khurasan had a mixed Arab-Iranian population which Inspired by
could be mobilised for various reasons. The Arab soldiers here Mesopotamian
were mostly from Iraq and resented the dominance of the Syrians. architectural
traditions, this was
The civilian Arabs of Khurasan disliked the Umayyad regime the largest mosque in
for having made promises of tax concessions and the world for
privileges which were never fulfilled. As for the Iranian centuries.
Muslims (mawali), they were exposed to the scorn of
the race-conscious Arabs and were eager to join any
campaign to oust the Umayyads.
The Abbasids, descendants of Abbas, the Prophet’s
uncle, mustered the support of the various dissident
groups and legitimised their bid for power by promising
that a messiah (mahdi) from the family of the Prophet
(ahl al-bayt) would liberate them from the oppressive
Umayyad regime. Their army was led by an Iranian
slave, Abu Muslim, who defeated the last Umayyad
caliph, Marwan, in a battle at the river Zab.
Under Abbasid rule, Arab influence declined,
while the importance of Iranian culture increased.
The Abbasids established their capital at Baghdad,
near the ruins of the ancient Iranian metropolis,
Ctesiphon. The army and bureaucracy were
reorganised on a non-tribal basis to ensure
greater participation by Iraq and Khurasan.
The Abbasid rulers strengthened the religious
status and functions of the caliphate and
patronised Islamic institutions and
scholars. But they were forced by the
needs of government and empire to
retain the centralised nature of the
state. They maintained the magnificent
imperial architecture and elaborate
court ceremonials of the Umayyads.
The regime which took pride in having
brought down the monarchy found
itself compelled to establish it again.

2020-21
 86 THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

Break-up of the Caliphate and the Rise of

ACTIVITY 1 Sultanates
Identify the The Abbasid state became weaker from the ninth century because
changing Baghdad’s control over the distant provinces declined, and because of
locations of the conflict between pro-Arab and pro-Iranian factions in the army and
caliphate’s bureaucracy. In 810, a civil war broke out between supporters of Amin
capital. Which
and Mamun, sons of the caliph Harun al-Rashid, which deepened the
would you say
was most
factionalism and created a new power bloc of Turkish slave officers
centrally (mamluk). Shiism once again competed with Sunni orthodoxy for power.
situated? A number of minor dynasties arose, such as the Tahirids and Samanids
in Khurasan and Transoxiana (Turan or lands beyond the Oxus), and
the Tulunids in Egypt and Syria. Abbasid power was soon limited to
central Iraq and western Iran. That too was lost in 945 when the
Buyids, a Shiite clan from the Caspian region of Iran (Daylam), captured
Baghdad. The Buyid rulers assumed various titles, including the ancient
Iranian title shahanshah (king of kings), but not that of caliph. They
kept the Abbasid caliph as the symbolic head of their Sunni subjects.
The decision not to abolish the caliphate was a shrewd one,
because another Shiite dynasty, the Fatimids, had ambitions to
rule the Islamic world. The Fatimids belonged to the Ismaili sub-
sect of Shiism and claimed to be descended from the Prophet’s
daughter, Fatima, and hence, the sole rightful rulers of Islam. From
their base in North Africa, they conquered Egypt in 969 and
established the Fatimid caliphate. The old capital of Egypt, Fustat,
was replaced by a new city, Qahira (Cairo), founded on the day of
the rise of the planet Mars (Mirrikh, also called al-Qahir). The two
rival dynasties patronised Shiite administrators, poets and scholars.
Between 950 and 1200, Islamic society was held together not by a
single political order or a single language of culture (Arabic) but by
common economic and cultural patterns. Unity in the face of political
divisions was maintained by the separation between state and society,
the development of Persian as a language of Islamic high culture, and
the maturity of the dialogue between intellectual traditions. Scholars,
artists and merchants moved freely within the central Islamic lands
and assured the circulation of ideas and manners. Some of these also
percolated down to the level of villages due to conversion. The Muslim
population, less than 10 per cent in the Umayyad and early Abbasid
periods, increased enormously. The identity of Islam as a religion and
a cultural system separate from other religions became much sharper,
which made conversion possible and meaningful.
A third ethnic group was added to the Arabs and Iranians, with the
rise of the Turkish sultanates in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The
Turks were nomadic tribes from the Central Asian steppes (grasslands)
of Turkistan (north-east of the Aral Sea up to the borders of China) who
gradually converted to Islam (see Theme 5). They were skilled riders
and warriors and entered the Abbasid, Samanid and Buyid

2020-21
 THE CENTRAL ISLAMIC L ANDS 87

administrations as slaves and soldiers, rising to high positions on

account of their loyalty and military abilities. The Ghaznavid
sultanate was established by Alptegin (961) and consolidated by
Mahmud of Ghazni (998-1030). Like the Buyids, the Ghaznavids
were a military dynasty with a professional army of Turks and
Indians (one of the generals of Mahmud was an Indian named
Tilak). But their centre of power was in Khurasan and Afghanistan
and for them, the Abbasid caliphs were not rivals but a source of
legitimacy. Mahmud was conscious of being the son of a slave and
was especially eager to receive the title of Sultan from the caliph.
The caliph was willing to support the Sunni Ghaznavid as a
counterweight to Shiite power.
The Saljuq Turks entered Turan as soldiers in the armies of the
Samanids and Qarakhanids (non-Muslim Turks from further east).
They later established themselves as a powerful group under the
leadership of two brothers, Tughril and Chaghri Beg. Taking advantage
of the chaos following the death of Mahmud of Ghazni, the Saljuqs *An important Perso-
conquered Khurasan in 1037 and made Nishapur* their first capital. Islamic centre of
learning and the
The Saljuqs next turned their attention to western Persia and Iraq birthplace of Umar
(ruled by the Buyids) and in 1055, restored Baghdad to Sunni rule. Khayyam.
The caliph, al-Qaim, conferred on Tughril Beg the title of Sultan in a
move that marked the separation of religious and political authority.
The two Saljuq brothers ruled together in accordance with the tribal
notion of rule by the family as a whole. Tughril (d. 1064) was succeeded
by his nephew, Alp Arsalan. During Alp Arsalan’s reign, the Saljuq
empire expanded to Anatolia (modern Turkey).
From the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, there was a series
of conflicts between European Christians and the Arab states.
This is discussed below. Then, at the start of the thirteenth century,
the Muslim world found itself on the verge of a great disaster. This
was the threat from the Mongols, the last but most decisive of all
nomadic assaults on settled civilisations (see Theme 5).

The Crusades
In medieval Islamic societies, Christians were regarded as the
People of the Book (ahl al-kitab) since they had their own scripture
(the New Testament or Injil). Christians were granted safe conduct
(aman) while venturing into Muslim states as merchants, pilgrims,
ambassadors and travellers. These territories also included those
which were once held by the Byzantine Empire, notably the Holy
Land of Palestine. Jerusalem was conquered by the Arabs in 638
but it was ever-present in the Christian imagination as the place
of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. This was an important factor
in the formation of the image of Muslims in Christian Europe.
Hostility towards the Muslim world became more pronounced in
the eleventh century. Normans, Hungarians and some Slavs had

2020-21
 88 THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

been converted to Christianity, and the Muslims alone remained

as the main enemy. There was also a change in the social and
Aleppo, a Hittite, economic organisation of western Europe in the eleventh century
Assyrian and
Hellenistic site, which which contributed to the hostility between Christendom and the
was occupied by the Islamic world. The clergy and the warrior class (the first two
Arabs in 636. It was orders – see Theme 6) were making efforts to ensure political
fought over for the stability as well as economic growth based on agriculture and
next 1,000 years; note
the Crusaders seen in
trade. The possibilities of military confrontation between competing
action. feudal principalities and a return to economic organisation based
–Nasuh al-Matraki’s on plunder were contained by the Peace of God movement. All
Itinerary, 1534-36. military violence was forbidden inside certain areas, near places
of worship, during certain
periods considered sacred in
the Church’s calendar, and
against certain vulnerable
social groups, such as
churchmen and the common
people. The Peace of God
deflected the aggressive
tendencies of feudal society
away from the Christian
world and towards the
‘enemies’ of God. It built a
climate in which fighting
against the infidels (non-
believers) became not only
permissible but also
commendable.
The death in 1092 of Malik
Shah, the Saljuq sultan of
Baghdad, was followed by the
disintegration of his empire.
This offered the Byzantine
emperor, Alexius I, a chance
to regain Asia Minor and
northern Syria. For Pope
Urban II, this was an
opportunity to revive the spirit
of Christianity. In 1095, the
Pope joined the Byzantine
emperor in calling for a war
in the name of God to liberate
the Holy Land. Between 1095
and 1291, western European
Christians planned and fought

2020-21
 THE CENTRAL ISLAMIC LANDS 89

wars against Muslim cities on the coastal plains of the eastern

Mediterranean (Levant). These wars were later designated as * The Pope ordered the
Crusades*. ceremonial granting of
crosses to those who
In the first crusade (1098-99), soldiers from France and Italy
had sworn to fight.
captured Antioch in Syria, and claimed Jerusalem. Their victory
was accompanied by the slaughter of Muslims and Jews in the
city, chronicled by both Christians and Muslims. Muslim
writers referred to the arrival of the Christians (called ifrinji or
firangi) as a Frankish invasion. The Franks quickly established
four crusader states in the region of Syria-Palestine.
Collectively, these territories were known as Outremer (the
land overseas) and later crusades were directed at its defence
and expansion.
The Outremer survived well for some time, but when the Turks
captured Edessa in 1144, an appeal was made by the Pope for a
second crusade (1145-49). A combined German and French army
made an attempt to capture Damascus but they were defeated
and forced to return home. After this, there was a gradual erosion
of the strength of Outremer. Crusader zeal gave way to living in
luxury and to battles over territory among the Christian rulers.
Salah al-Din (Saladin) created an Egypto-Syrian empire and
gave the call for jihad or holy war against the Christians, and
defeated them in 1187. He regained Jerusalem, nearly a century
after the first crusade. Records of the time indicate that Salah
al-Din’s treatment of the Christian population was humane, in
marked contrast to the way in which Christians had earlier dealt
with Muslims and Jews. Although he gave custody of the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre to the Christians, a number of churches
were turned into mosques, and Jerusalem once again became a
Muslim city.
The loss of the city prompted a third crusade in 1189, but the
crusaders gained little except for some coastal towns in Palestine
and free access to Jerusalem for Christian pilgrims. The Mamluks,
the rulers of Egypt, finally drove the crusading Christians from
all of Palestine in 1291. Europe gradually lost military interest in
Islam and focused on its internal political and cultural
development.
The Crusades left a lasting impact on two aspects of Christian-
Muslim relations. One was the harsher attitude of the Muslim
state towards its Christian subjects which resulted from the bitter
memories of the conflict as well as the needs for security in areas
of mixed populations. The other was the greater influence of Italian
mercantile communities (from Pisa, Genoa and Venice) in the
trade between the East and the West even after the restoration of
Muslim power.

2020-21
 90 THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

Franks in Syria
The treatment of the subjugated Muslim population differed among the various
Frankish lords. The earliest of the crusaders, who settled down in Syria and Palestine,
were generally more tolerant of the Muslim population than those who came later.
In his memoirs, Usama ibn Munqidh, a twelfth-century Syrian Muslim, has something
interesting to say about his new neighbours:
‘Among the Franks there are some who have settled down in this country and
associated with Muslims. These are better than the newcomers, but they are
exceptions to the rule, and no inference can be drawn from them.
Here is an example. Once I sent a man to Antioch on business. At that time,
Chief Theodore Sophianos [an
eastern Christian] was there, and
he and I were friends. He was then
all powerful in Antioch. One day
he said to my man, ‘‘One of my
Frankish friends has invited me.
Come with me and see how they
live.’’ My man told me: “So I went
with him, and we came to the
house of one of the old knights,
those who had come with the first
Frankish expedition. He had
already retired from state and
military service, and had a
A crusader castle in Syria. Built during the property in Antioch from which
crusades (1110), it was an important base to he lived. He produced a fine table,
attack Arab-controlled areas. The towers and
with food both tasty and cleanly
aqueducts were built by the Mamluk sultan,
Baybars, when he captured it in 1271. served. He saw that I was reluctant
to eat, and said: “Eat to your
heart’s content, for I do not eat Frankish food. I have Egyptian women cooks and
eat nothing but what they prepare, nor does swine flesh ever enter my house.” So
I ate, but with some caution, and we took our leave.
Later I was walking through the market, when suddenly a Frankish woman
caught hold of me and began jabbering in their language, and I could not
understand what she was saying. A crowd of Franks collected against me, and I
was sure that my end had come. Then, suddenly, that same knight appeared and
saw me, and came up to that woman, and asked her: “What do you want of this
Muslim?” She replied: “He killed my brother Hurso.” This Hurso was a knight of
Afamiya who had been killed by someone from the army of Hama. Then the
knight shouted at her and said, “This man is a burjasi [bourgeois, that is, a
merchant]. He does not fight or go to war.” And he shouted at the crowd and they
dispersed; then he took my hand and went away. So the effect of that meal that I
had was to save me from death.’
– Kitab al-Itibar.

2020-21
 THE CENTRAL ISLAMIC LANDS 91

Economy: Agriculture, Urbanisation and

Commerce
Agriculture was the principal occupation of the settled populations
in the newly conquered territories. The Islamic state made no changes
in this. Land was owned by big and small peasants and, in some
cases, by the state. In Iraq and Iran, land existed in fairly large
units cultivated by peasants. The estate owners collected taxes on
behalf of the state during the Sasanian as well as Islamic periods. In
areas that had moved from a pastoral to a settled agricultural system,
land was the common property of the village. Finally, big estates
that were abandoned by their owners after the Islamic conquests
were acquired by the state and handed over mainly to the Muslim
elites of the empire, particularly members of the caliph’s family.
The state had overall control of agricultural lands, deriving the
bulk of its income from land revenue once the conquests were over.
The lands conquered by the Arabs that remained in the hands of the
owners were subject to a tax (kharaj),
which varied from half to a fifth of
the produce, according to the
conditions of cultivation. On land
held or cultivated by Muslims, the
tax levied was one-tenth (ushr) of the
produce. When non-Muslims started
to convert to Islam to pay lower taxes,
this reduced the income of the state.
To address the shortfall, the caliphs
first discouraged conversions
and later adopted a uniform policy
of taxation. From the tenth century
onwards, the state authorised its
officials to claim their salaries
from agricultural revenues from
territories, called iqtas (revenue
assignments).
Agricultural prosperity went
hand in hand with political
stability. In many areas, especially
Grain harvesting; the
in the Nile valley, the state supported irrigation systems, the labourers’ lunch is
construction of dams and canals, and the digging of wells (often being brought on a
equipped with waterwheels or noria), all of which were crucial for tray.
good harvests. Islamic law gave tax concessions to people who –Arabic version of the
Pseudo-Galen’s Book
brought land under cultivation. Through peasant initiatives and
of Antidotes, 1199
state support, cultivable land expanded and productivity rose, (see the story of
even in the absence of major technological changes. Many new Doctor Galen, p. 63).
crops such as cotton, oranges, bananas, watermelons, spinach
and brinjals (badinjan) were grown and even exported to Europe.

2020-21
 92 THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

Islamic civilisation flourished as the number of cities grew

phenomenally. Many new cities were founded, mainly to settle Arab
soldiers (jund) who formed the backbone of the local administration.
Among this class of garrison-cities, called misr (the Arabic name for
Egypt), were Kufa and Basra in Iraq, and Fustat and Cairo in Egypt.
Within half a century of its establishment as the capital of the
Abbasid caliphate (800), the population of Baghdad had reached
around 1 million. Alongside these cities were older towns such as
Damascus, Isfahan and Samarqand, which received a new lease of
life. Their size and population surged, supported by an expansion in
the production of foodgrains and raw materials such as cotton and
A boat sailing to
Basra. The crew are sugar for urban manufactures. A vast urban network developed,
Indian and the linking one town with another and forming a circuit.
passengers Arab. The At the heart of the city were two building complexes radiating cultural
transport of goods and and economic power: the congregational mosque (masjid al-jami), big
passengers by water
enough to be seen from a distance, and the central marketplace (suq),
was cheaper, quicker
and safer in pre- with shops in a row, merchants’ lodgings (fanduq) and the office of the
modern times. money-changer. The cities were homes to administrators (ayan or eyes
Illustration from the of the state), and scholars and merchants (tujjar) who lived close to the
Maqamat written by centre. Ordinary citizens and soldiers had their living quarters in the
Hariri (twelfth-century
manuscript). The outer circle, each fitted with its own mosque, church or synagogue
Maqamat (Assemblies) (Jewish temple), subsidiary market and public bath (hammam), an
were a genre of important meeting place. At the outskirts were the houses of the urban
popular Arabic poor, a market for green vegetables and fruits brought from the
literature in which a
countryside, caravan stations and ‘unclean’ shops, such as those dealing
narrator tells stories of
a trickster and his in tanning or butchering. Beyond the city walls were inns for people to
escapades. rest when the city gates were shut and cemeteries. There were variations
on this typology depending on the nature
of the landscape, political traditions and
historical events.
Political unification and urban
demand for foodstuffs and luxuries
enlarged the circuit of exchange.
Geography favoured the Muslim empire,
which spread between the trading
zones of the Indian Ocean and the
Mediterranean. For five centuries, Arab
and Iranian traders monopolised the
maritime trade between China, India and
Europe. This trade passed through two
major routes, namely, the Red Sea and
the Persian Gulf. High-value goods
suitable for long-distance trade, such as
spices, textile, porcelain and gunpowder,
were shipped from India and China to
the Red Sea ports of Aden and Aydhab
and the Gulf ports of Siraf and Basra.

2020-21
 THE CENTRAL ISLAMIC LANDS 93

From here, the merchandise was carried overland in camel caravans

to the warehouses (makhazin, origin of the word magazine which ACTIVITY 2
has a similar collection of articles) of Baghdad, Damascus and
Aleppo for local consumption or onward transmission. The caravans Describe a
passing through Mecca got bigger whenever the hajj coincided with morning scene
the sailing seasons (mawasim, origin of the word monsoon) in the in Basra.
Indian Ocean. At the Mediterranean end of these trade routes,
exports to Europe from the port of Alexandria were handled by
Jewish merchants, some of whom traded directly with India, as can
be seen from their letters preserved in the Geniza collection. However,
from the tenth century, the Red Sea route gained greater importance
due to the rise of Cairo as a centre of commerce and power and
growing demand for eastern goods from the trading cities of Italy.

Paper, Geniza Records and History

In the central Islamic lands, written works were widely circulated after the
introduction of paper. Paper (made from linen) came from China, where the
manufacturing process was a closely guarded secret. In 751, the Muslim governor of
Samarqand took 20,000 Chinese invaders as prisoners, some of whom were good at
making paper. For the next 100 years, Samarqand paper remained an important
export item. Since Islam prohibited monopolies, paper began to be manufactured
in the rest of the Islamic world. By the middle of the tenth century, it had more or
less replaced papyrus, the writing material made from the inner stem of a plant
that grew freely in the Nile valley. Demand for paper increased, and Abd al-Latif, a
doctor from Baghdad (see his depiction of the ideal student on p. 98) and a resident
of Egypt between 1193 and 1207, reported how Egyptian peasants robbed graves to
obtain mummy wrappings made of linen to sell to paper factories.
Paper also facilitated the writing of commercial and personal documents of all
kinds. In 1896, a huge collection of medieval Jewish documents was discovered in a
sealed room (Geniza, pronounced ghaniza) of the Ben Ezra synagogue in Fustat. The
documents had been preserved thanks to the Jewish practice of not destroying any
piece of writing that contained the name of God. The Geniza was found to contain
over a quarter of a million manuscripts and fragments dating back as far as the mid-
eighth century. Most of the material dated from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries,
that is, from the Fatimid, Ayyubid and early Mamluk periods. These included personal
letters between merchants, family and friends, contracts, promises of dowry, sale
documents, laundry lists, and other trivia. Most of the documents were written in
Judaeo-Arabic, a version of Arabic written in Hebrew characters that was commonly
used by Jewish communities throughout the medieval Mediterranean. The Geniza
documents provide rich insights into personal and economic experiences as also into
Mediterranean and Islamic culture. The documents also suggest that the business skills
and commercial techniques of merchants of the medieval Islamic world were more
advanced than those of their European counterparts. Goitein wrote a multi-volume
history of the Mediterranean from Geniza records, and Amitav Ghosh was inspired
by a Geniza letter to tell the story of an Indian slave in his book, In an Antique Land.

2020-21
94 THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

Towards the eastern end, caravans of Iranian merchants set

out from Baghdad along the Silk Route to China, via the oasis
cities of Bukhara and Samarqand (Transoxiana), to bring Central
Asian and Chinese goods, including paper. Transoxiana also
formed an important link in the commercial network which
extended north to Russia and Scandinavia for the exchange of
European goods, (mainly fur) and Slavic captives (hence the
word, slave). Islamic coins, used for the payment of these goods,
were found in hoards discovered along the Volga river and in
the Baltic region. Male and female Turkish slaves (ghulam) too
were purchased in these markets for the courts of the caliphs
and sultans.
The fiscal system (income and expenditure of the state) and
market exchange increased the importance of money in the
central Islamic lands. Coins of gold, silver and copper (fulus)
were minted and circulated, often in bags sealed by money-
changers, to pay for goods and services. Gold came from Africa
(Sudan) and silver from Central Asia (Zarafshan valley).
Precious metals and coins also came from Europe, which used
these to pay for its trade with the East. Rising demand for
money forced people to release their accumulated reserves and
idle wealth into circulation. Credit combined with currencies
to oil the wheels of commerce. The greatest contribution of the
Muslim world to medieval economic life was the development
of superior methods of payment and business organisation.
Letters of credit (sakk, origin of the word cheque) and bills of
exchange (suftaja) were used by merchants and bankers to
transfer money from one place or individual to another. The
widespread use of commercial papers freed merchants from
the need to carry cash everywhere and also made their journeys
safer. The caliph too used the sakk to pay salaries or reward
poets and minstrels.
Although it was customary for merchants to set up family
businesses or employ slaves to run their affairs, formal business
arrangements (muzarba) were also common in which sleeping
partners entrusted capital to travelling merchants and shared
profits and losses in an agreed proportion. Islam did not stop
people from making money so long as certain prohibitions were
respected. For instance, interest-bearing transactions (riba) were
unlawful, although people circumvented usury in ingenious ways
(hiyal), such as borrowing money in one type of coin and paying
in another while disguising the interest as a commission on
currency exchange (the origin of the bill of exchange).
Many tales from the Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla wa
Layla) give us a picture of medieval Islamic society, featuring
characters such as sailors, slaves, merchants and money-changers.

2020-21
 THE CENTRAL ISLAMIC L ANDS 95

Learning and Culture

As the religious and social experiences of the Muslims deepened
through contact with other people, the community was obliged to
reflect on itself and confront issues pertaining to God and the
world. What should be the ideal conduct of a Muslim in public
and private? What is the object of Creation and how does one
know what God wants from His creatures? How can one
understand the mysteries of the universe? Answers to such
questions came from learned Muslims who acquired and organised
knowledge of different kinds to strengthen the social identity of
the community as well as to satisfy their intellectual curiosity.
For religious scholars (ulama), knowledge (ilm) derived from the
Quran and the model behaviour of the Prophet (sunna) was the
only way to know the will of God and provide guidance in this
world. The ulama in medieval times devoted themselves to writing
tafsir and documenting Muhammad’s authentic hadith. Some went
on to prepare a body of laws or sharia (the straight path) to govern
the relationship of Muslims with God through rituals (ibadat) and
with the rest of the humanity through social affairs (muamalat). In
framing Islamic law, jurists also made use of reasoning (qiyas) Courtyard of
since not everything was apparent in the Quran or hadith and life Mustansiriya Madrasa
had become increasingly complex with urbanisation. Differences of Baghdad, founded
in the interpretation of the sources and methods of jurisprudence in 1233. The madrasa
was a college of
led to the formation of four schools of law (mazhab) in the eight and learning for students
ninth centuries. These were the Maliki, Hanafi, Shafii and Hanbali who had finished their
schools, each named after a leading jurist (faqih), the last being schooling in maktab.
the most conservative. The sharia provided guidance on all possible Madrasas were
attached to mosques
legal issues within Sunni society, though it was more precise on
but big madrasas had
questions of personal status (marriage, divorce and inheritance) a mosque attached to
than on commercial matters or penal and constitutional issues. them.

2020-21
 96 THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

The Quran
‘And if all the trees on earth were pens and the ocean were ink
with seven oceans behind it to add to its supply,
yet would not the words of Allah be exhausted in the writing.’
(Quran, chapter 31, verse 27)

Page from a Quran

written on vellum in the
ninth century. It is the
beginning of Sura 18,
‘al-Kahf’ (The Cave)
which refers to Moses.
The angular Kufi script
has vowel signs in red
for the correct
pronunciation of the
language.

The Quran is a book in Arabic divided into 114 chapters (suras) and arranged in
descending order of length, the shortest being the last. The only exception to this is
the first sura which is a short prayer (al-fatiha or opening). According to Muslim tradition,
the Quran is a collection of messages (revelations) which God sent to the Prophet
Muhammad between 610 and 632, first in Mecca and then in Medina. The task of
compiling these revelations was completed some time in 650. The oldest complete
Quran we have today dates from the ninth century. There are many fragments which
are older, the earliest being the verses engraved on the Dome of the Rock and on coins
in the seventh century.
The use of the Quran as a source material for the history of early Islam has
posed some problems. The first is that it is a scripture, a text vested with religious
authority. Theologians generally believed that as the speech of God (kalam
allah), it has to be understood literally, but rationalists among them gave wider
interpretations to the Quran. In 833, the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun imposed
the view (in a trial of faith or mihna) that the Quran is God’s creation rather
than His speech. The second problem is that the Quran very often speaks in
metaphors and, unlike the Old Testament (Tawrit), it does not narrate events
but only refers to them. Medieval Islamic scholars thus had to make sense of
many verses with the help of hadith. Many hadith were written to help the
reading of the Quran.

2020-21
 THE CENTRAL ISLAMIC L ANDS 97

Before it took its final form, the sharia was adjusted to take into
account the customary laws (urf) of the various regions as well as
the laws of the state on political and social order (siyasa sharia).
Customary laws, however, retained their strength in large parts of
the countryside and continued to bypass the sharia in matters
such as the inheritance of land by daughters. In most regimes, the
ruler or his officials dealt routinely with matters of state security
and sent only selected cases to the qazi (judge). The qazi, appointed
by the state in each city or locality, often acted as an arbitrator in
disputes, rather than as a strict enforcer of the sharia.
Painting of whirling
A group of religious-minded people in medieval Islam, known dervishes, Iranian
as Sufis, sought a deeper and more personal knowledge of God manuscript, 1490. Of
through asceticism (rahbaniya) and mysticism. The more society the four men dancing,
gave itself up to material pursuits and pleasures, the more the only one is shown
with his hands in the
Sufis sought to renounce the world (zuhd) and rely on God alone ‘correct’ position.
(tawakkul). In the eighth and ninth centuries, ascetic inclinations Some have succumbed
were elevated to the higher stage of mysticism (tasawwuf) by the to vertigo and are
ideas of pantheism and love. Pantheism is the idea of oneness of being led away.
God and His creation which implies that
the human soul must be united with
its Maker. Unity with God can be
achieved through an intense love for
God (ishq), which the woman-saint
Rabia of Basra (d. 891) preached in her
poems. Bayazid Bistami (d. 874), an
Iranian Sufi, was the first to teach the
importance of submerging the self
(fana) in God. Sufis used musical
concerts (sama) to induce ecstasy and
stimulate emotions of love and passion.
Sufism is open to all regardless of
religious affiliation, status and gender.
Dhulnun Misri (d. 861), whose grave
can still be seen near the Pyramids in
Egypt, declared before the Abbasid
caliph, al-Mutawakkil, that he ‘learnt
true Islam from an old woman, and true
chivalry from a water carrier’. By
making religion more personal and less
institutional, Sufism gained popularity
and posed a challenge to orthodox Islam.
An alternative vision of God and the
universe was developed by Islamic
philosophers and scientists under the
influence of Greek philosophy and
science. During the seventh century,
remnants of late Greek culture could still

2020-21
 98 THEMES IN WORLD H ISTORY

be found in the Byzantine and Sasanian empires, although they

were slowly dying. In the schools of Alexandria, Syria and
Mesopotamia, once part of Alexander’s empire, Greek philosophy,
mathematics and medicine were taught along with other subjects.
The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs commissioned the translation
of Greek and Syriac books into Arabic by Christian scholars.
Translation became a well-organised activity under al-Mamun,
who supported the Library cum Institute of Science (Bayt
al-Hikma) in Baghdad where the scholars worked. The works of
Aristotle, the Elements of Euclid and Ptolemy’s Almagest were
brought to the attention of Arabic-reading scholars. Indian works
on astronomy, mathematics and medicine were also translated
into Arabic during the same period. These works reached Europe
and kindled interest in philosophy and science.

ACTIVITY 3 The Ideal Student

Comment on Abd al-Latif, a twelfth-century legal and medical scholar of
this passage. Baghdad, talks to his ideal student:
Would it be ‘I commend you not to learn your sciences from books unaided,
relevant to a even though you may trust your ability to understand. Resort to
student today? teachers for each science you seek to acquire; and should your
teacher be limited in his knowledge take all that he can offer,
until you find another more accomplished than he. You must
venerate and respect him. When you read a book, make every
effort to learn it by heart and master its meaning. Imagine the
book to have disappeared and that you can dispense with it,
unaffected by its loss. One should read histories, study biographies
and the experiences of nations. By doing this, it will be as though,
in his short life space, he lived contemporaneously with peoples
of the past, was on intimate terms with them, and knew the good
and bad among them. You should model your conduct on that
of the early Muslims. Therefore, read the biography of the
Prophet and follow in his footsteps. You should frequently distrust
your nature, rather than have a good opinion of it, submitting
your thoughts to men of learning and their works, proceeding
with caution and avoiding haste. He who has not endured the
stress of study will not taste the joy of knowledge. When you have
finished your study and reflection, occupy your tongue with the
mention of God’s name, and sing His praises. Do not complain
if the world turns its back on you. Know that learning leaves a
trail and a scent proclaiming its possessor; a ray of light and
brightness shining on him, pointing him out.’
– Ahmad ibn al Qasim ibn Abi Usaybia, Uyun al Anba.

2020-21
 THE CENTRAL ISLAMIC LANDS 99

The study of new subjects promoted critical inquiry and had a

profound influence on Islamic intellectual life. Scholars with a
theological bent of mind, such as the group known as Mutazila, used
Greek logic and methods of reasoning (kalam) to defend Islamic
beliefs. Philosophers (falasifa) posed wider questions and provided
fresh answers. Ibn Sina (980-1037), a doctor by profession and a
philosopher, did not believe in the resurrection of the body on the
Day of Judgement. This was met with strong opposition from
theologians. His medical writings were widely read. The most
influential was al-Qanun fil Tibb (Canon of Medicine), a million-word
manuscript that lists 760 drugs sold by the pharmacists of his day
and includes notes on his own experiments conducted in hospitals
(bimaristan). The Canon points out the importance of dietetics (healing
through dietary regulation), the influence of the climate and
environment on health and the contagious nature of some diseases.
The Canon was used as a textbook in Europe, where the author was
known as Avicenna (see Theme 7). Just before his death, the scientist
and poet Umar Khayyam was said to be reading the Canon. His gold
toothpick was found between two pages of the chapter on metaphysics.
In medieval Islamic societies, fine language and a creative
imagination were among the most appreciated qualities in a person.
These qualities raised a person’s communication to the level of adab,
a term which implied literary and cultural refinement. Adab forms
of expressions included poetry (nazm or orderly arrangement) and
prose (nathr or scattered words) which were meant to be memorised
and used when the occasion arose. The most popular poetic
composition of pre-Islamic origin was the ode (qasida), developed by
poets of the Abbasid period to glorify the achievements of their patrons.
Poets of Persian origin revitalised and reinvented Arabic poetry and
challenged the cultural hegemony of the Arabs. Abu Nuwas (d. 815),
who was of Persian origin, broke new ground by composing classical
poetry on new themes such as wine and male love with the intention
of celebrating pleasures forbidden by Islam. After Abu Nuwas, the
poets addressed the object of their passion in the masculine, even if
the latter was a woman. Following the same tradition, the Sufis
glorified the intoxication caused by the wine of mystical love.
By the time the Arabs conquered Iran, Pahlavi, the language of the
sacred books of ancient Iran, was in decay. A version of Pahlavi, known
as New Persian, with a huge Arabic vocabulary, soon developed. The
formation of sultanates in Khurasan and Transoxiana took New Persian
to great cultural heights. The Samanid court poet Rudaki (d. 940) was
considered the father of New Persian poetry, which included new forms
such as the short lyrical poem (ghazal) and the quatrain (rubai, plural
rubaiyyat). The rubai is a four-line stanza in which the first two lines
set the stage, the third is finely poised, and the fourth delivers the
point. In contrast to its form, the subject matter of the rubai is
unrestricted. It can be used to express the beauty of a beloved, praise

2020-21
 100 THEMES IN W ORLD HISTORY

a patron, or express the thoughts of the philosopher. The rubai

reached its zenith in the hands of Umar Khayyam (1048-1131),
also an astronomer and mathematician, who lived at various times
in Bukhara, Samarqand and Isfahan.
At the beginning of the eleventh century,
Ghazni became the centre of Persian
literary life. Poets were naturally attracted
by the brilliance of the imperial court.
Rulers, too, realised the importance of
patronising arts and learning for enhancing
their prestige. Mahmud of Ghazni gathered
around him a group of poets who composed
anthologies (diwans) and epic poetry
(mathnavi). The most outstanding was
Firdausi (d. 1020), who took 30 years to
complete the Shahnama (Book of Kings), an
epic of 50,000 couplets which has become
a masterpiece of Islamic literature. The
Shahnama is a collection of traditions and
legends (the most popular being that of
Rustam), which poetically depicts Iran from
Creation up until the Arab conquest. It was
in keeping with the Ghaznavid tradition that
Persian later became the language of
administration and culture in India.
Dimna is talking to the The catalogue (Kitab al-Fihrist) of a Baghdad bookseller, Ibn Nadim
lion (asad) in this
miniature painting of a
(d. 895), describes a large number of works written in prose for the
thirteenth-century moral education and amusement of readers. The oldest of these is a
Arabic manuscript. collection of animal fables called Kalila wa Dimna (the names of the
two jackals who were the leading characters) which is the Arabic
translation of a Pahlavi version of the Panchtantra. The most
widespread and lasting literary works are the stories of hero-
adventurers such as Alexander (al-Iskandar) and Sindbad, or those
of unhappy lovers such as Qays (known as Majnun or the Madman).
These have developed over the centuries into oral and written
traditions. The Thousand and One Nights is another collection of
stories told by a single narrator, Shahrzad, to her husband night
after night. The collection was originally in Indo-Persian and was
translated into Arabic in Baghdad in the eighth century. More stories
were later added in Cairo during the Mamluk period. These stories
depict human beings of different types – the generous, the stupid,
the gullible, the crafty – and were told to educate and entertain. In
his Kitab al-Bukhala (Book of Misers), Jahiz of Basra (d. 868) collected
amusing anecdotes about misers and also analysed greed.
From the ninth century onwards, the scope of adab was expanded
to include biographies, manuals of ethics (akhlaq), Mirrors for Princes
(books on statecraft) and, above all, history (tarikh) and geography.

2020-21
 THE CENTRAL ISLAMIC LANDS 101

The tradition of history writing was well established in literate

Muslim societies. History books were read by scholars and students
as well as by the broader literate public. For rulers and officials,
history provided a good record of the glories and achievements of
a dynasty as well as examples of the techniques of administration.
In the two major historical works, Ansab al-Ashraf (Genealogies of
the Nobles) of Baladhuri (d. 892) and Tarikh al-Rusul wal Muluk
(History of Prophets and Kings) of Tabari, the whole of human history
was treated with the Islamic period as the focal point. The tradition
of local history writing developed with the break-up of the caliphate.
Books were written in Persian about dynasties, cities or regions to
explore the unity and variety of the world of Islam.
Geography and travel (rihla) constituted a special branch of adab.
These combined knowledge from Greek, Iranian and Indian books
with the observations of merchants and travellers. In mathematical
geography, the inhabited world was divided into seven climes (singular
iqlim) parallel with the Equator, corresponding to our three
continents. The exact position of each city was determined Mosaic floor in the
bath-house of the
astronomically. Muqaddasi’s (d. 1000) descriptive geography, Ahsan palace at Khirbat al-
al-Taqasim (The Best Divisions) is a comparative study of the countries Mafjar, Palestine,
and peoples of the world and a treasure trove of exotic curiosities. eighth century.
Geography and general history were combined in Muruj al-Dhahab Imagine the caliph
enthroned on the tree;
(Golden Meadows) of Masudi (written in 943) to illustrate the wide
the scene below
variety of worldly cultures. Alberuni’s famous Tahqiq ma lil-Hind depicts peace and
(History of India) was the greatest attempt by an eleventh-century war.
Muslim writer to look beyond the world
of Islam and observe what was of value
in another cultural tradition.
By the tenth century, an Islamic world
had emerged which was easily
recognisable by travellers. Religious
buildings were the greatest external
symbols of this world. Mosques, shrines
and tombs from Spain to Central Asia
showed the same basic design – arches,
domes, minarets and open courtyards –
and expressed the spiritual and
practical needs of Muslims. In the first
Islamic century, the mosque acquired a
distinct architectural form (roof
supported by pillars) which transcended
regional variations. The mosque had an
open courtyard (sahn) where a fountain
or pond was placed, leading to a vaulted
hall which could accommodate long lines
of worshippers and the prayer leader
(imam). Two special features were located

2020-21
 102 THEMES IN W ORLD HISTORY

The Islamic decorative inside the hall: a niche (mihrab) in the wall indicating the direction
genius found full of Mecca (qibla), and a pulpit (minbar, pronounced mimbar) from
expression in the art
of metal objects that where sermons were delivered during noon prayers on Friday.
are among the best- Attached to the building was the minaret, a tower used to call
preserved specimens. the faithful to prayer at the appointed times and to symbolise the
This mosque lamp presence of the new faith. Time was marked in cities and villages
from fourteenth-
century Syria has the
by the five daily prayers and weekly sermons.
Light verse inscribed The same pattern of construction – of buildings built around a
on it. central courtyard (iwan) – appeared not only in mosques and
‘God is the Light (nur) mausoleums but also in caravanserais, hospitals and palaces.
of the heavens and The Umayyads built ‘desert palaces’ in oases, such as Khirbat
the earth al-Mafjar in Palestine and Qusayr Amra in Jordan, which served
His light is like a niche as luxurious residences and retreats for hunting and pleasure.
(mishkat) with a lamp
(misbah)
The palaces, modelled on Roman and Sasanian architecture, were
The lamp is in a glass lavishly decorated with sculptures, mosaics and paintings of
which looks as if it people. The Abbasids built a new imperial city in Samarra amidst
were a glittering star gardens and running waters which is mentioned in the stories
Kindled from a
and legends revolving round Harun al-Rashid. The great palaces
blessed olive (zaitun)
tree that is neither of the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad or the Fatimids in Cairo have
eastern nor western disappeared, leaving only traces in literary texts.
Whose oil would The rejection of representing living beings in the religious art of
always shine even if Islam promoted two art forms: calligraphy (khattati or the art of beautiful
no fire (nar) touched it’
writing) and arabesque (geometric and vegetal designs). Small and big
(Quran, chapter 24, inscriptions, usually of religious quotations, were used to decorate
verse 35).
architecture. Calligraphic art has been best preserved in manuscripts
of the Quran dating from the eighth and ninth centuries. Literary
works, such as the Kitab al-Aghani (Book of Songs), Kalila wa Dimna,
and Maqamat of Hariri, were illustrated with miniature paintings. In
addition, a wide variety of illumination techniques were introduced to
enhance the beauty of a book. Plant and floral designs, based on the
idea of the garden, were used in buildings and book illustrations.
The history of the central Islamic lands brings together three
important aspects of human civilisation: religion, community
and politics. We can see them as three circles which merge and
appear as one in the seventh century. In the next five centuries
the circles separate. Towards the end of our period, the influence
of Islam over state and government was minimal, and politics involved
many things which had no sanction in religion (kingship, civil
wars, etc.). The circles of religion and community overlapped.
The Muslim community was united in its observance of the
sharia in rituals and personal matters. It was no more
governing itself (poltics was a separate circle) but it was
defining its religious identity. The only way the circles of religion
and community could have separated was through the progressive
secularisation of Muslim society. Philosophers and Sufis advocated
this, suggesting that civil society should be made autonomous, and
rituals be replaced by private spirituality.

2020-21
 THE CENTRAL I SLAMIC LANDS 103

ACTIVITY 4

Which of the pictures in the chapter

do you like best and why?

595 Muhammad marries Khadija, a wealthy Meccan trader who later

supports Islam
610-12 Muhammad has first revelation; first public preaching of Islam (612)
621 First agreement at Aqaba with Medinan converts
622 Migration from Mecca to Medina. Arab tribes of Medina (ansar)
shelter Meccan migrants (muhajir)
632-61 Early caliphate; conquests of Syria, Iraq, Iran and Egypt; civil wars
661-750 Umayyad rule; Damascus becomes the capital
750-945 Abbasid rule; Baghdad becomes the capital
945 Buyids capture Baghdad; literary and cultural efflorescence
1063-92 Rule of Nizamul mulk, the powerful Saljuq wazir who established a
string of madrasas called Nizamiyya; killed by Hashishayn (Assassins)
1095-1291 Crusades; contacts between Muslims and Christians
1111 Death of Ghazali, influential Iranian scholar who opposed rationalism
1258 Mongols capture Baghdad

Exercises
ANSWER IN BRIEF

1. What were the features of the lives of the Bedouins in the early
seventh century?
2. What is meant by the term ‘Abbasid revolution’?
3. Give examples of the cosmopolitan character of the states set up
by Arabs, Iranians and Turks.
4. What were the effects of the Crusades on Europe and Asia?

ANSWER IN A SHORT ESSAY

5. How were Islamic architectural forms different from those of the

Roman Empire?
6. Describe a journey from Samarqand to Damascus, referring to the
cities on the route.

2020-21