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The spread of Islam
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When the Ummayad Caliphat ended the Ummayad rulers created a caliphate in Spain. Which city became the centre of this caliphat?
During the time before Muhammad, the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula live in clans and tribes that fight each other every now and then. There’s not much that unites them. Meanwhile two neighbouring empires are very strong. The Byzantine Empire - which is Christian and Persia - the Sassanid empire - which is Zoroastrian. They have developed their cultures and ways of ruling over hundreds of years.
But they have also, for a long time, spent all their resources fighting each other. So both are weakened economically and militarily. It’s now that Muhammad shows up. He becomes a strong leader - in both politics and religion. Under him the clans on the Arabian Peninsula unite to form one collective force.
Is it enough to beat the empires in the north and in the west? We’ll see. Muhammad’s first four successors begin by conquering the areas closest to the Arabian Peninsula, and then the weakened Persia. At about the same time they also start a war against the Byzantine empire. And win areas such as Syria and Egypt.
The Muslim army, initially consisting of soldiers from Arabic tribes, is now augmented by people from the conquered areas. After the first four caliphs a new dynasty takes charge of the Caliphate - The Umayyads. The Umayyad Caliphs expand the empire all the way to Spain, where Cordoba becomes an important city for them. The peoples of the conquered areas are pretty used to living under rulers from other cultures. So many don’t feel it matters much that they are now under new rulers.
The People of The Book - Christians and Jews - are allowed to keep their faith and customs, and have the same legal rights as the Muslims. But they need to pay an additional tax. This tax is an important source of income for the Caliphate. So converting Christians and Jews to Islam is not something Muslims actively engage in. It’s different for the groups that worship several gods - polytheists The polytheists are persecuted and sometimes converted by force.
The Muslims now constitute a higher social class of their own. Colour of skin or origin doesn’t matter so much. Many Christians and Jews convert to Islam. Maybe because they don’t want to pay the extra tax, or out of religious reasons, or just so that they may join the ruling class. In the year 750 a new dynasty takes over the Caliphate - The Abbasidians.
But the Umayyads keep Cordoba as a caliphate of their own. Now what is sometimes called the Muslim Golden Age starts. Cordoba is turned into a centre of culture and science. Architecture is developed and ancient texts are translated and preserved. But this is nothing compared to what is happening in the capital of the Abbasid rulers, Baghdad.
Here the House of Wisdom is built. A library that turns into a centre of science. Here they speak, write, and translate Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin and the old Indian language Sanskrit. The scientists and the translators that meet here are men and women from several religions and countries. In the year 1095 the caliphate gets a new powerful opponent: The Pope.
The Christian church in Europe decides to take Jerusalem, and the holy land - Palestine - from the caliphate. The Pope calls for Christian knights to enter a holy war - it’s the start of the crusades. In 1099 the Christian army takes Jerusalem and kills all Muslims and Jews in the city. The war goes on, and in fact the Muslims retake Jerusalem a century later. Despite the war the Muslim golden age lasts until the year 1258.
Because in the thirteenth century the Mongols come riding. And in 1258 they burn Baghdad! And at about the same time the Christian armies conquer the final parts of the Cordoba caliphate. The golden age is over. Does this mean the end of large Muslim empires in the middle ages?
No. In 1299 the Turks establish an empire: the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman empire is at its largest in 1683. After that it keeps getting smaller, but lasts until the end of The First World War.