Kennedy_ppr 30/06/2006 06:29 AM Page 1 THE CALIPHATES THE PROPHET AND AGE OF The Near East and Islamic society have never been as close to the forefront of international attention. In this time of conflict the Western population is increasingly eager to expand their knowledge of the region’s past. This updated edition of Hugh Kennedy’s popular introduction to the history of the Near East is a timely aid to this quest for knowledge about the roots of Islam. The Prophet and the Age of Caliphates is an accessible guide to the history of the Near East from c.600–1050AD, the period in which Islamic society was formed. Beginning with the life of Muhammad and the birth of Islam, Kennedy goes on to explore the great Arab conquests of the seventh century and the golden age of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates when the world of Islam was politically and culturally far more developed than the West. A period of political fragmentation shattered this early unity, never to be recovered. This new edition takes into account new research on early Islam and contains a fully updated bibliography. Based on extensive reading of the original Arabic sources, Kennedy breaks away from the Orientalist tradition of seeing early Islamic history as a series of ephemeral rulers and pointless battles by drawing attention to underlying long term social and economic processes. This book deals with issues of continuing and increasing relevance in the twenty-first century, when it is, perhaps, more important than ever to understand the early development of the Islamic world. General readers and scholars of early Islamic history will find Kennedy’s book a clear, informative and readable introduction to the subject. SECOND Hugh Kennedy is Professor of Middle Eastern History at the University of St EDITION Andrews. His previous publications include Crusader Castles; Muslim Spain and Portugal and Armies of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic State. KENNEDY Cover image: Detail of the court of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Photograph by the author. www.pearson-books.com THE PROPHET AND THE AGE OF THE CALIPHATES A History of the Near East General Editor: Professor P. M. Holt * The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates: the Islamic Near East from the sixth to the eleventh century Hugh Kennedy * The Age of the Crusades: the Near East from the eleventh century to 1517 P. M. Holt The Rise of the Ottoman Empire 1300–1574 C. Kafadar The Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1574–1792 R. C. Repp and G. Piterberg * The Making of the Modern Near East 1792–1923 M. E. Yapp * The Near East since the First World War M. E. Yapp * Medieval Persia 1040–1797 David Morgan * Already published THE PROPHET AND THE AGE OF THE CALIPHATES THE ISLAMIC NEAR EAST FROM THE SIXTH TO THE ELEVENTH CENTURY Second edition HUGH KENNEDY PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED Edinburgh Gate Harlow CM20 2JE Tel: +44 (0)1279 623623 Fax: +44 (0)1279 431059 www.pearsoned.co.uk First published in Great Britain in 1986 Second edition 2004 © Pearson Education Limited 1986, 2004 The right of Hugh Kennedy to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. ISBN 0 582 40525 4 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book can be obtained from the Library of Congress All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the Publishers or a licence permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. 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CONTENTS LIST OF GENEALOGICAL TABLES viii LIST OF MAPS ix PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION x PREFACE xi NOTE: NAMES, TITLES AND DATES xiii chapter one THE MATRIX OF THE MUSLIM WORLD: THE NEAR EAST IN THE EARLY SEVENTH CENTURY 1 chapter two THE BIRTH OF THE ISLAMIC STATE 15 Arabia in the Sixth Century 15 The Early Life of Muqammad 29 Muqammad in Medina 33 chapter three CONQUEST AND DIVISION IN THE TIME OF THE RuSHIDyN CALIPHS 50 Abe Bakr and the Ridda Wars 11–13/ 632–634 50 ‘Umar and the Early Islamic Conquests 13–23/634–644 57 ‘Uthman and the Beginnings of Internal Strife 23–35/644–656 69 The Caliphate of ‘Alc 35–40/656–661 75 chapter four THE UMAYYAD CALIPHATE 82 The Sufyanid Caliphs: Mu‘awiya and his Family 41–64/661–684 82 The Foundation of the Marwanid Caliphate and the Achievement of ‘Abd al-Malik 64–86/684–705 90 · v · CONTENTS The Sons of ‘Abd al-Malik and ‘Umar II: Consolidation and Division in the Marwanid Caliphate 86–125/705–743 103 The Collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate 125–132/743–750 112 chapter five THE EARLY ‘ABBASID CALIPHATE 123 The Coming of the ‘Abbasid Caliphate 132–145/750–763 123 The Golden Age of the ‘Abbasid Caliphate 145–193/763–809 132 The Great ‘Abbasid Civil War 193–218/ 809–833 147 chapter six THE MIDDLE ‘ABBASID CALIPHATE 156 The Rise of the Turkish Army and the Caliphate of Samarra 218–247/833–861 156 The Anarchy at Samarra 247–256/861–870 169 The Revival of the ‘Abbasid Caliphate 256–295/870–908 173 The Disastrous Reigns of al-Muqtadir and his Successors 295–334/908–946 185 chapter seven THE STRUCTURE OF POLITICS IN THE MUSLIM COMMONWEALTH 198 chapter eight THE BUYID CONFEDERATION 210 The Origins 210 Expansion and Conflict 215 The Years of Decline: 372–440/983–1048 234 The Buyid Kingdom of Rayy 243 chapter nine THE KURDS 248 chapter ten THE HAMDANIDS 265 The Hamdanids of Mosul 265 The Hamdanids of Aleppo 273 chapter eleven BEDOUIN POLITICAL MOVEMENTS AND DYNASTIES 283 Origins 283 The Qaramisa 285 · vi · CONTENTS The Bedouin Dynasties 290 The Mazyadids 292 The ‘Uqaylids 295 The Mirdasids 300 Other Bedouin Tribes 304 chapter twelve EARLY ISLAMIC EGYPT AND THE FATIMID EMPIRE 307 POSTSCRIPT: THE COMING OF THE SELJUKS 343 PRINCIPAL SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF THE NEAR EAST, 600–1050 346 SUGGESTED FURTHER READING 385 GLOSSARY 393 GENEALOGICAL TABLES 395 MAPS 401 INDEX 407 · vii · LIST OF GENEALOGICAL TABLES 1Muqammad and the Descent of the Caliphs 396 2 The Umayyad Caliphs 397 3 The ‘Abbasid Caliphs 398 4 The Principal Buyid Rulers 399 5 The ‘Uqaylids of Mosul 400 6 The Hamdanids of Aleppo and Mosul 400 · viii · LIST OF MAPS 1 Provinces of the Early Islamic world 402 2 Syria, Palestine and the Western Jazira 404 3 Iraq and Western Iran 405 4 Egypt 406 · ix · PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION have taken advantage of this new edition to incorporate the results Iof research published since the 1986 edition, especially in the chap- ters on the Rashiden, the Umayyads and the Middle ‘Abbasids. The discussion of the sources has been revised and the bibliographies have been brought up to date. I am grateful to many reviewers and colleagues who have drawn my attention to deficiencies in the first edition. I owe a very great debt of gratitude to Paul Cobb who generously took the time and care to bring numerous glitches to my attention and suggest improvements: I have acted on almost all of them. H. Kennedy St Andrews April 2003 · x · PREFACE his work is intended as an introduction to the history of the Near TEast in the early Islamic period, from the time of the Prophet to the vast upheaval caused by the arrival of the Seljuk Turks in the mid-fifth/eleventh century. In it I have attempted to strike a balance between too dry presentation of factual material and speculative inter- pretation. Some will no doubt find this approach traditional and unad- venturous but I have tried to bear in mind the needs of the reader who is approaching the history of the Near East for the first time and who requires a basic framework of chronological narrative. At the same time I have tried to avoid the impression that Islamic history is full of ephem- eral rulers and pointless battles and to devote space to long-term social and economic changes and to the positive aspects of Muslim govern- ment and the immense achievements of the period which are too often neglected in Western writing. Whether I have reached the right balance is for the reader to judge. In writing this book, I am deeply conscious of the debt I owe to many scholars who have worked on the period. I have been especially helped by the works of W. M. Watt on Muqammad, F. M. Donner and M. Morony on the Islamic conquests. The articles of G. M. Hinds on the reign of ‘Uthman and the battle of hiff cn are of fundamental importance. For later periods, I have been greatly helped by the work of J. Lassner and F. Omar on the ‘Abbasid caliphate, R.