The Conquests HSTAFM 162, Class 2.2 January 14, 2016 H A of Islam Spreads 01–07 21/5/04 9:06 AM Page 27 MUHAMMAD’S MISSION AND CAMPAIGNS Muhammad’s Missions and Campaigns to 632 Muhammad moves to Medina 30° 35° 40° 45° 50° 55° 60° Campaigns Conquered by Muhammad to 632 Anatolia Conquered by Abu Bakr 632–34 Battle site with date Marash Samosata Edessa Dabiq Harran Tigris Mosul Qazvin Antioch Aleppo Rayy 35° Cyprus Raqqa Hamadan Tripoli Homs Euphrates Jafula Mediterranean E Nihavand SASANIAN Sea R Damascus I Ctesiphon EMPIRE Caesarea P Wasit Damietta Gaza Kufa Isfahan M Alexandria Jerusalem Qadisiya 636 E Heliopolis 30° al-Fustat E Basra Kerman (Cairo) N I Dumat al-Jandal T Shiraz N B Y Z A P e r s Siraf HEJAZ i N a i le n G u l f 25° G u 625 l f Aswan o Medina al-Yamama f O Red Sea m a n 624 Arabia 632 Muscat NOBATIA 630 Mecca i r l e 20° a t h r K a MAKKURA l u a q b y u t R p e m e t h 633 ALWA Arabian Sea 15° Sana N AXUM 633 0 400 km 0 400 miles 27 The Death of Muḥammad (632 CE) • Crisis of succession • Rebellion of Arab tribes • Sustainability of the Arab state The Conquerors Arrive • 636: Battles of Yarmuk (Syria) and Qādisiyya (Iraq) • 639–42: Conquest of Egypt • 642: Battle of Nahāvand. • 650: Merv in Central Asia captured. Last Sasanian king Yazdgird III (r. 632–651) killed. • 711: Sind and Andalusia invaded • 751: Muslims meet the armies of the Tang Chinese at Talas in Central Asia. H A of Islam Spreads 01–07 21/5/04 9:06 AM Page 28 H A of Islam Spreads 01–07 21/5/04 9:06 AM Page 29 HISTORICAL ATLAS OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD EXPANSION OF ISLAM TO 750 10 ° Expansion of Islam to 750 0 10 ° 20 ° ° ° ° 30° 40° 50° 60° 70° 80 90 F R K A N I N N A N S A G K Expansion to 750 E S D I Muhammad’s death left the Muslim communi- T D S L H C U O H A V S R A M Arab advance ty without an obvious leader. One of his oldest O I Q A U S Battle site C IT B U L G A R S I A companions, Abu Bakr (r. 632–634), was IN T E Expansion of Islam: acknowledged by several leaders as the first N A A L V Under Muhammad caliph, or successor. Under Abu Bakr and his E A 50° T M R P A I I A N S successor Umar (634–644), the tribes, who had RE H U N G A R Under Abu Bakr (632–634) K K . K O begun to fall away on the death of Muhammad, O H A Under Umar (634–644) F Agadir F Z A T were reunited under the banner of Islam and T S R Under Uthman (644–656) H L E and Ali (656–661) E M converted into a formidable military and ideo- A P S L V I R E Under the Umayyads (661–750) Rome O E L B Rome S P logical force. The Arabs broke out of the penin- E M O R B BU E A L P sula, conquering half the Byzantine provinces B GA E R RIA D C R I as well as defeating the armies of Sasanian S S K Sy Aral r D R ar Persia. Ctesiphon, the Persian capital, fell in Carthage Black Sea Sea ya rthage C U 751 A Kairouan Constantinople a T Talas A N I B T R H rouan 698 673– s R G 637, Jerusalem in 638. By 646, under Umar’s F Y 77, 717 p A F E ° S – i N 40 R 670 18 670 Z a S A n successor Uthman (r. 644–656), the whole of I A O Q N RMEN A X T IA mu Tiflis Derbend D I The Dome of the Rock in I I ar A Egypt had come under Arab Muslim control. a N ya N Y E S 710 E Erzurum e A Jerusalem, built by the Caliph A M a Samarkand Acquiring ships from Egypt and Syria, the nomadic preda- Tripoli P I A 710 M R E Z Bukhara E h 647 R Abd al-Malik in 691–92, is the e B Arabs conducted seaborne raids, conquering tors would have d A i I t Tarsus JA first great building to have been e Edessa M Tabriz N Ardabil Mery 664 Cyprus in 649 and pillaging Rhodes in 654. taken the plunder or r Rhodes E Balkh r S a a 654 Antioch O N constructed after the Arab n Cyprus P A Religious differences between the Byzantine held onto land, dispersing e O Mosul G 664 a 649 E 641 R 651 n u T GU Nishapur Kabul S p A conquest. Embellished with rulers and their subjects in Egypt and Syria e h Rayy as landlords or peasants L a ra M AB r I SYR t Jalula K NJ BY Damascus IA es I H U Herat U A A R A S P Koranic quotations proclaiming ensured that the Muslims were met with indif- capital from 658 635 A N among the conquered peoples. Nehavend Ramla Kerbela the unity of God, the building Yarmuk 680 642 N ference, or even welcomed by fellow monothe- In a farsighted decision Caliph a Alexandria 636 Ctesiphon A N I A 711 Fihl S A S Multan 30° Jerusalem surrounds the rock from where 646 Kufa Susa ists embittered by decades of alien Byzantine Umar encouraged the tribes to settle al-Fustat 638 S I A Ajnadain Qadisiya 636 Isfahan P E R Faiyum670 Heliopolis 634 U Muhammad is believed to have rule. But secular factors were also important. with a system of stipends paid from the 640 I N D s H F u Basra A S E I S T A N d S embarked on his miraculous n E The Arabs were motivated by desire for plun- common treasury, which took control of E 656 R Istahar 648 I A T G S S T Y K P Tabuk I “night journey” to heaven. der, as well as religious faith. In previous eras T R ND the conquered lands. The Arabs were kept B M SI A P H e A R r N apart from the population in armed camps that N A s i l I i e N a A N n M A K R evolved into garrison cities such as Basra and H G u Tropic of Cancer E l f Kufa in Iraq. Although the tensions over the Badr J 624 A Suhar Z Medina Y O Arabian Sea distribution of booty would erupt into open A M Muscat M A A N civil war the overall control exercised by the M M 20° A A R fledgling Islamic government remained under K Mecca e A r a b i a n K d 622 dynastic rule. Though individual dynasties U Dongola S P l a R e e n i n s u would often be challenged as ruling contrary to I a A Islamic principles of equality and justice, the T U N Najran A dynastic system of governance fitted the pre- Soba M A R H vailing form of social organization, the patriar- D ALODIA A INDIAN OCEAN chal kinship group, and remained the norm H Y E M E N until modern times. Under the Umayyads the KINGDOM ° remarkable expansion of Islam continued, with OF AXUM Aden 0 300 km 10 the Arab raiders reaching as far as central 0 300 miles France and the Indus Valley. 28 29 What Drove the Conquests? • Ecological Thesis: The Byzantine-Sasanian Wars (602–628), along with the outbreak of disease (plague of 619) and climate change severely depleted the region’s resources. • Nationalist Thesis: Concentrated effort of united tribes could be directed to conquest outside the borders of Arabia. • Accidental Thesis • Money: – Spoils of War: ‘Umar establishes the dīwān, a list that divides the spoils of conquest up among the armies according to seniority in conversion – Question of Centralization: centralized on a strategic but not tactical level Islam and Taxes • Muslim Isolation: – Miṣr (amṣār): garrison cities – Laws for non-Muslims (dhimmī): religious freedom, separate dress, no weapons • Non-Muslims & Taxes: – The jizya (poll tax) as ‘compensation’ for religious freedom taken from non-Muslim adult males; exempted from zakāt (alms tax) • Result: Conversion is Slow – In Iraq in 800 CE, only 18% Muslim – Majority of Egypt is not Muslim until the 11th century Leadership and Authority • Succession to Muhammad: religious and/or political authority? • Caliph: ‘khalīfat allāh’ or ‘khalīfat rasūl allāh’ – Deputy of God or Deputy of the Messenger of God? • The Partisans of ‘Ali • First Civil War 656-660 – ‘Āʼisha (defeated at Battle of the Camel by ʻAlī in 656) – Muʻāwiya, a relative of the third caliph ʻUthmān and governor of Syria since 639 – Ali and his partisans (face-off with Muʻāwiya at Battle of Ṣiffin in 657) – The Khārijites: the first radicals, secede from ʻAlī’s party after arbitration with Muʻāwiya (defeated by ʻAlī in 658, assassinate him in 661) The Battle of Ṣiffīn, from a 13th century illustrated Book of History of Balʻamī Qurʼān as a Book • Types of material: – Hortatory/didactic: believe, do good deeds, fear God, beware the Day of Judgment, obey God and his Prophet – Narrative: tales of Moses, Abraham, Noah, Yusuf, Zulaykha – Predictive/Eschatological: fate of believers and unbelievers, creation and end of the world – Polemical: claims of Muhammad’s opponents, the failings of the ‘People of the Book’ – Doctrinal: the nature of God – Legal: less than 500 verses deal with law and ritual • Structure of Quran: • Not a continuous narrative • Contextual: asbāb al-nuzūl = occasions of revelation’ • Ellipticalism: assumes audience knowledge • Person: God as beyond language… ‘He’, ‘I’ ‘We’ and ‘God’ .