The Arab Caliphate
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The Arab Caliphate
632 — 1258
Righteous Caliphate (632-661) Umayyad Caliphate (661-750) Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258)
The Arab Caliphate on the world map.
Capital 630-656 Medina
656 — 661 Mecca
661-754 Damascus
754 — 762 El Kufa
762-836 Baghdad
836 - 892 Samarra
892-1258 Baghdad Language (s) Arabic Language Population Arabs, Persians, Iraqi Ajemi, Syrians ← Sasanian State
Виз The Byzantine Empire
Г Ghassanids
вест The Kingdom of the Visigoths
Кавказ Caucasian Albania
Хо Khorezm
Сог Sogdiana
Emirate of Cordoba →
Idrisids →
Aglabids →
Tachyrids →
Tulunids →
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History of Saudi Arabia
Pre Muslim Arabia Arab Caliphate (VII XIII centuries)
The Righteous Caliphate (632-661)
Umayyad Caliphate (661-750)
Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258)
Ottoman Arabia (1517-1928)
The Emirate of Diri (1744-1818)
Emirate of Nejd (1818-1891)
Jebel Shammar (1830-1921)
Emirate of Nejd and Hasa (1902-1921)
Unification of Saudi Arabia
Kingdom of Hejaz (1916-1921)
The Emirate of Asir (1910-1934)
Sultanate of Nejd (1921-1926)
Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz (1927-1932)
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (since 1932)
The Kings of Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia Portal
The Arab Caliphate (Arabic :للاعة إسلامية Islamic Caliphate) is a theocratic Islamic state that emerged as a result of Muslim conquests in the VII—IX centuries and was headed by caliphs.
In the Old Russian sources, it is also known under the names of the kingdom of Hagar and the kingdom of Ishmaelite, which thus included it in the general list of kingdoms (empires) of the world known to bookish people in Russia at that time.
Content
1 The Medina Community 2 The Righteous Caliphate (632-661) 3 The Umayyad Caliphate (661-750) 3.1 The position of the Arabs in the Caliphate 3.2 The position of the non Arab peoples of the Caliphate
4 The Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258) 4.1 The First Abbasids 4.2 The "Golden Age" of Arab Culture 4.3 The loss of the political power of the Caliphs 4.3.1 The persecution of free thought 4.3.2 The Cairo Caliphate
4.4 The Last Caliphs of the Abbasid Dynasty 4.5 The Invasion of the Seljuks 4.6 The Invasion of the Mongols
5 Sources 6 References
Medina community[edit / edit wiki text]
The initial core of the caliphate was the Muslim community — the Ummah, created by the Arab preacher of monotheism and the prophet of Islam Muhammad at the beginning of the VII century in Hejaz (Western Arabia).
As a result of the Muslim conquests, a huge state was created, which included the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Iran, most of the Transcaucasia (in particular, the Armenian Highlands, the Caspian territories, the Colchis Lowland, as well as the districts of Tbilisi), Central Asia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, Sindh.
The word " Caliphate "(Arabic :للية — Khalīfah — "heir"," representative") means both the title of the caliph and the vast state created after Muhammad by the Arab conquerors under the leadership of his" caliphs " (governors).
The era of the existence of the Arab Caliphate, together with several subsequent centuries of the flourishing of general Islamic science and culture, are called in Western historiography the Golden Age of Islam.
The Righteous Caliphate (632-661)[edit / edit wiki text]
Main article: The Righteous Caliphate
The territory of the Caliphate in 632
After the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, a Righteous Caliphate was created.
It was headed by four Righteous Caliphs: Abu Bakr as Siddiq, Umar ibn al Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abu Talib.
During their rule, the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant (Sham), the Caucasus, part of North Africa from Egypt to Tunisia and the Iranian Highlands were included in the Caliphate.
In 632, the Prophet Muhammad died without leaving an heir, and a dispute began between the Muhajirs (Meccans) and the Ansars (Medinites) about his successor, which ended with the election of Abu Bakr as Siddiq, a close friend of the Prophet Muhammad, meanwhile, with the news of Muhammad's death, almost all of Arabia, except Mecca, Medina and at Taif, immediately departed from Islam (ridda).
The war with the apostates allowed Abu Bakr to return the tribes of Arabia back to Islam.
Most of all, the experienced commander Khalid ibn al Walid helped him in this, who defeated the 40 thousandth army of the followers of the false prophet Musaylima in the so called "fence of death" at Akrab (633).
Immediately after quelling the Arab revolt, Abu Bakr, continuing the policy of the Prophet Muhammad, led them to war against the Byzantines and Persians.
The righteous Caliph Umar ibn al Khattab successfully continued his conquests, and thus, at the end of his life, he, in addition to Arabia itself, ruled in Asia Syria, Mesopotamia, Babylonia and the western part of modern Iran, and in Africa — Egypt, Barca and Tripoli.
Under Caliph Uthman, eastern Iran was conquered up to the Amu Darya (Oxus), the island of Cyprus, the region of Carthage.
The internecine strife among the Arabs caused by the murder of Uthman caused a break in the conquests, and some border areas fell away.
The last of the four Righteous Caliphs, Ali ibn Abu Talib, was killed by the Kharijites, after which Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan of the Umayyad family became the sole ruler in the Caliphate.
Muawiya I proclaimed his eldest son Yazid as the heir.
Thus, a hereditary monarchy was formed from a state with an elected government, and Muawiya I himself became the ancestor of the Umayyad dynasty.
Umayyad Caliphate (661-750)[edit / edit wiki text]
Main article: The Umayyad Caliphate
The territory of the Caliphate in 661.
Under the first Umayyad Muawiyah I (661-680), the Arabs crossed the Amu Darya (Oxus) to Transoxiana, to Paykend, Bukhara and Samarkand, and in India they reached the Punjab; they captured Asia Minor, they even approached Constantinople, in Africa they reached Algeria.
The second series of internecine wars that broke out under Muawiyah's son Yazid (680-683) and the struggle of the Umayyads with Hasan ibn Ali, Abdullah ibn az Zubayr, the Kharijites, etc. they allowed some border areas to fall away again, but after the pacification of internecine strife (since 693) under Caliph Abd al Malik (685-705) and his son Walid I (705-715), the Arabs are gaining almost incredible success in Afghanistan, sev.
India and Transoxiana (751) — in the east, the Caucasus and Asia Minor in the center, zap.
Africa (to the ocean), Spain and the South.
France — in the west.
Only the energy of the emperor Leo Isaur and the Bulgarian Khan Tervel, who bravely repelled the Arabs from Constantinople and Asia Minor (717-718), and Charles Martell, who put a limit to the success of the Arabs in France (732), saved Europe from the Muslim conquest.
There were troubles in Iran since the end of the VI century: it was exhausted by the extravagance and extortion of Khosrov II Parviz (590-628), exhausting wars with Byzantium (Heraclius) and anarchy; vassals became independent and did not obey the shah; nobles enthroned their proteges, and the Zoroastrian clergy managed to weaken the internal fortress of the country with their age — old, merciless persecutions of numerous heretics (Manichaeans, Mazdakites, etc.), sometimes on the culturally important element of the state Christians; even before Muhammad, when Khosrow II abolished the vassal Arab kingdom of Khir on the Euphrates, the border Bedouins of the Bekrits in 604-610 were defeated at Zu Kara (near Nizhny Novgorod).
The Iranian army began to boldly make a number of robber raids on the Iranian outskirts, and under Abu Bakr, the Bekrit leader Mosanna, who had converted to Islam, tried to inspire Abu Bakr that with the lack of leadership reigning in Iran, a campaign against it could be quite successful.
In the Byzantine Empire, no matter how exhausted she was a war with Iran, the order was more, but in its Eastern provinces with a population of the native (Semitic, on the outskirts of even the Arabic and Coptic), Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt residents suffered from excessive taxes from the Greek national arrogance and Greek religious intolerance of the local religion there was heretical (Monophysite, etc.).
Therefore, in those countries, and no effort was made to counteract the Arabs; but out of hatred for the Greeks, the population in many cases, it was called Arabs and helped them.
On the contrary, Asia Minor, inhabited by real Greeks and itself fighting against the Arabs, was never conquered by them for a long time, and the Arabs failed several times under the walls of Constantinople.
The position of the Arabs in the Caliphate[edit / edit wiki text]
The position occupied by the Arabs in the conquered lands was very similar to a military camp; imbued with religious zeal for Islam, Umar I deliberately sought to strengthen the character of the militant church behind the Caliphate and, bearing in mind the religious indifference of the general mass of the conquering Arabs, forbade them to own land property in the conquered countries; Uthman abolished this prohibition, many Arabs became landowners in the conquered countries, and it is quite clear that the interests of the landowner attract him more to peaceful activities than to war; but in general, even under the Umayyads, the settlements of Arabs among foreigners did not have time to lose the character of a military garrison (v. Vloten, "Recherches sur la domination arabe", Amsterdam, 1894).
Nevertheless, the religious character of the Arab state was rapidly changing: we see how, simultaneously with the spread of the limits of X. and with the approval of the Umayyads, his rapid transition is made from a religious community led by the spiritual head of the faithful, the viceroy of the Prophet Muhammad, to a secular political power ruled by the sovereign of the Arabs of the same tribe and the conquered foreigners.
For the Prophet Muhammad and the first two Righteous Caliphs, political power was only an addition to his religious primacy; however, already from the time of Caliph Uthman, a turn begins, both due to the above mentioned permission for the Arabs to have immovable property in the conquered areas, and due to the giving of government positions by Uthman to his Umayyad relatives.
The situation of the non Arab peoples of the Caliphate[edit / edit wiki text]
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Paying a land tax (kharaj) in exchange for providing them with protection and immunity from the Muslim state, as well as a general tax (jizya), the gentiles had the right to profess their religion.
Even the above mentioned decrees of ' Umar, it was recognized in principle that the law of Muhammad is armed only against pagan polytheists; the " people of the Book — - Christians, Jews can, paying a fee, remain in their religion; compared to neighboring Byzantium, where all Christian heresy was persecuted, the law of Islam was relatively liberal even under Umar.
Since the conquerors were completely unprepared for the complex forms of state administration, even 'Umar was forced to preserve the old, well — established Byzantine and Iranian state mechanism for the newly formed huge state (before Abdul Malik, even the office was not conducted in Arabic), and therefore access to many management positions was not cut off for the gentiles.
For political reasons, Abd al Malik considered it necessary to remove non Muslims from public service, but this order could not be carried out with complete consistency either during his time or after him; and even Abd al — Malik himself had close courtiers who were Christians (the most famous example is Father John of Damascus).
Nevertheless, there was a great tendency among the conquered peoples to renounce their former faith — Christian and Parsi and voluntarily accept Islam.
Until the Umayyads came to their senses and issued the law of 700, the newly turned did not pay taxes; on the contrary, according to the law of Omar, he enjoyed an annual salary from the government and was fully equalized with the winners; higher state positions were made available to him.
On the other hand, the conquered had to convert to Islam by inner conviction; — how else can we explain the mass adoption of Islam, for example, by those heretical Christians who before that in the kingdom of Khosrov and in the Byzantine Empire could not be rejected from the faith of their fathers by any persecution?
Obviously, Islam with its simple dogmas fully spoke to their hearts.
In addition, Islam did not seem to be any sharp innovation for Christians, or even for Parsis: in many points it was close to both religions.
It is known that Europe for a long time saw Islam, which highly reveres Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin, as nothing more than one of the Christian heresies (for example, the Orthodox Archimandrite Arab Christopher Zhara argued that the religion of Muhammad is the same Arianism)
The adoption of Islam by Christians and then by Iranians had extremely important consequences, both religious and state.
Islam, instead of indifferent Arabs, acquired in but there was an element in their followers for whom belief was an essential need of the soul, and since they were educated people, they (Persians much more than Christians) were engaged at the end of this period in the scientific processing of Muslim theology and jurisprudence connected with it, subjects that had been modestly developed until then only by a small circle of those Muslim Arabs who, without any sympathy from the Umayyad government, remained faithful to the teachings of the prophet.
It was said above that the general spirit that permeated the Caliphate in the first century of its existence was Old Arab (this fact, much more clearly even than in the Umayyad government reaction against Islam, was expressed in the poetry of that time, which continued to brilliantly develop the same pagan tribal, cheerful themes that were outlined in Old Arab poems).
As a protest against the return to pre Islamic traditions, a small group of companions ("sahabs") of the prophet and their heirs ("tabiins") was formed, which continued to observe the precepts of Muhammad, conducted theoretical work on the orthodox interpretation of the Koran and on the creation of the orthodox Sunnah, that is, on the definition of true Muslim traditions, according to which the impious life of the modern Umayyad X.
These traditions, which, among other things, preached the destruction of the tribal principle and the equalizing unification of all Muslims in the bosom of the Muhammad religion, obviously appealed to the newly converted foreigners more than the arrogant non Islamic attitude of the ruling Arab spheres, and therefore the Medina theological school, clogged, ignored by pure Arabs and the government, found active support in the new non Arab Muslims.
There were, perhaps, certain disadvantages for the purity of Islam from these new, believing followers of Islam: partly unconsciously, partly even consciously, ideas or tendencies that were alien or unknown to Muhammad began to creep into it.
Probably, the influence of Christians (A. Muller, "East Island", II, 81) explains the appearance (at the end of the VII century) of the Murji sect, with its teaching about the immeasurable merciful long suffering of the Lord, and the Kadarite sect, which prepared the triumph of the Mu'tazilites with the teaching about the free will of man; probably, the mystical monasticism (under the name of Sufism) was borrowed by Muslims at first from the Syrian Christians (A. F. Kremer "Gesch. d. herrsch. Ideen", 57); in the lower In Mesopotamia, Muslim converts from Christians joined the ranks of the Republican democratic Kharijite sect, which is equally opposed to both the non believing Umayyad government and the Medina believers.
The participation of the Persians, which came later, but was more active, turned out to be an even more double edged aid in the development of Islam.
A significant part of them, unable to get rid of the age old ancient Persian view that "royal grace" (farrahi kayanik) is transmitted only by heredity, joined the Shiite sect (see), which stood for the dynasty of Ali (the husband of Fatima, the daughter of the prophet); moreover, standing for the direct heirs of the prophet meant for foreigners to form a purely legitimate opposition against the Umayyad government, with its unpleasant Arab nationalism.
This theoretical opposition acquired a very real meaning when Umar II (717-720), the only one of the Umayyads devoted to Islam, decided to implement the principles of the Koran favorable to non Arab Muslims and, thus, introduced disorganization into the Umayyad system of government.
30 years after him, the Khorasan Shiite Persians overthrew the Umayyad dynasty (the remnants of which fled to Spain; see resp. article).
However, due to the cunning of the Abbasids, the throne of X. (750) did not go to the Alids, but to the Abbasids, also relatives of the prophet (Abbas is his uncle; see resp. article), but, in any case, the expectations of the Persians were justified: under the Abbasids, they gained an advantage in the state and breathed new life into it.
Even the capital of X. was moved to the borders of Iran: first to Anbar, and from the time of Al Mansur even closer, to Baghdad, almost to the same places where the capital of the Sassanids was; and the hereditary advisers of the caliphs were members of the vizier family of the Barmakids, descended from Persian priests, for half a century.
Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258)[edit / edit wiki text]
Main article: The Abbasid Caliphate
The territory of the Caliphate in the year 750.
The first Abbasids[edit / edit wiki text]
According to its political, although no longer conquering, greatness and cultural flourishing, the age of the first Abbasids is the brightest time in the history of the caliphate, which brought it worldwide fame.
There are still proverbs all over the world: "the times of Harun ar Rashid", "the luxury of the Caliphs" , etc.; many Muslims even today reinforce their spirit and body with memories of this time.
The founder of the dynasty, Abu'l Abbas as Saffah, that is, the "Bloodshed" (750-754); compared in the way of actions with Louis XI, the brilliant organizer of the state and finance Al Mansur (754-775); the lavish and therefore popular in literature father of Harun ar Rashid — Al Mahdi (775-785); the fierce Al Hadi (785-786); the famous patron of poets and writers Harun ar Rashid (786-809), who witnessed the supreme splendor of the Caliphate, although he himself was a bad ruler, not at all like the ideal image that the "Thousand and One Nights"gave him; Al Amin (809-813); a friend of scientists and freedom — loving philosophers, a Persian by mother — Mamun (813-833); the successors of his liberal views Al Mutasim (833-842) and Al Wasik (842-847).
The Abbasid Caliphate on the world map in (820).
The limits of the Caliphate have narrowed somewhat: surviving Umayyad Abd ar Rahman I laid in Spain, the first beginning (755) independent Emirate of Cordoba, which was officially 929 titolata the Caliphate (929-1031).
30 years later, Idris, a great grandson of the Caliph Ali, and therefore equally hostile as Abbasid and Umayyad, founded in Morocco, conquering both lidskou dynasty (785-985), which was the capital city Tudge; the rest of North Africa (Tunisia, etc.) were actually lost to the Abbasid Caliphate, when appointed Harun ar Rashid, Governor Aglab was the founder of Kairouan, the dynasty of the Aghlabids (800-909).
The Abbasids did not consider it necessary to resume their foreign policy of conquest against Christian or other countries, and although military clashes occasionally occurred both on the eastern and northern borders (like Mamun's two unsuccessful campaigns against Constantinople), however, in general, the caliphate lived peacefully.
There is such a feature of the first Abbasids as their despotic, heartless and, moreover, often insidious cruelty.
Sometimes, as with the founder of the dynasty, it was an open subject of caliphal pride (the nickname "Bloodshed" was chosen by Abu'l Abbas himself).
Some of the caliphs, at least the cunning al Mansur, who liked to put on the hypocritical clothes of piety and justice before the people, preferred to act with cunning where possible and executed dangerous people surreptitiously, first lulling their caution with promises and favors.
Al Mahdi and Harun ar Rashid's cruelty was obscured by their generosity, however, the treacherous and ferocious overthrow of the Barmakid vizier family, which was extremely useful for the state, but imposed a certain curb on the ruler, is one of the most disgusting acts of Eastern despotism for Harun.
It should be added that under the Abbasids, a system of torture was introduced into judicial proceedings.
Even the tolerant philosopher Mamun and his two successors are not too free from the reproach of tyranny and cruelty towards people who are unpleasant to them.
Kremer finds ("Culturgesch. d. Or.", II, 61; cf. Muller: "Ist. isl.", II, 170), that the first Abbasids noticed signs of hereditary Caesar madness, which is even more intensified in their descendants.
In justification, we can only say that in order to suppress the chaotic anarchy in which the countries of Islam were under the establishment of the Abbasid dynasty, agitated by the adherents of the deposed Umayyads, bypassed by the Alids, predatory Kharijites and various radical Persian sectarians who did not cease to rebel on the northern outskirts of the state, steep, terrorist measures were, perhaps, a simple necessity.
Apparently, Abu'l Abbas understood the meaning of his nickname "The Bloodshed".
Thanks to the formidable centralization that the heartless man, but the brilliant politician al Mansur, managed to introduce, the subjects were able to enjoy inner peace, and the public finances were delivered in a brilliant way.
Even the scientific and philosophical movement in the Caliphate dates from the same cruel and treacherous Mansur (Masudi: "Golden Meadows"), who, despite his notorious avarice, treated science with encouragement (meaning, first of all, practical, medical goals).
But, on the other hand, it remains unquestionable that the heyday of the caliphate would hardly have been possible if Saffah, Mansur and their successors had ruled the state directly, and not through the talented vizier family of the Barmakids Persians.
Until this family was overthrown (803) by the reckless Harun ar Rashid, who was burdened with its guardianship, some of its members were the first ministers or close advisers of the Caliph in Baghdad (Khalid, Yahya, Jafar), others were in important government positions in the provinces (like Fadl), and all together su on the one hand, it was necessary to maintain the necessary balance between the Persians and the Arabs for 50 years, which gave the caliphate its political fortress, and on the other hand, to restore the old Sasanian life, with its social structure, with its culture, with its intellectual movement.
The "Golden Age" of Arab culture[edit / edit wiki text]
This culture is usually called Arabic, because the Arabic language has become the organ of intellectual life for all the peoples of the Caliphate therefore they say: "Arabic art", "Arabic science", etc.; but in essence they were mostly remnants of the Sasanian and Old Persian culture in general (which, as is known, also received much from India, Assyria, Babylon and, indirectly, from Greece).
In the West Asian and Egyptian parts of the Caliphate, we observe the development of the remnants of the Byzantine culture, just as in North Africa, Sicily and Spain — the Roman and Roman Spanish cultures — and there is no uniformity in them, if we exclude their connecting link — the Arabic language.
It cannot be said that the foreign culture inherited by the Caliphate rose qualitatively under the Arabs: the Iranian Muslim architectural buildings are lower than the Old Persian ones, similarly, Muslim silk and wool products, household utensils and jewelry, despite their charm, are inferior to ancient products.[source not specified 258 days]
But in the Muslim, Abbasid period, in a vast united and orderly state with carefully furnished communication routes, the demand for Iranian made items increased, the number of consumers increased.
Peaceful relations with neighbors allowed us to develop a remarkable foreign exchange trade: with China through Turkestan and by sea through the Indian archipelago, with the Volga Bulgars and Russia through the Khazar kingdom, with the Spanish emirate, with all of Southern Europe (with the exception, perhaps, of Byzantium), with the eastern shores of Africa (from where, in turn, ivory and slaves were exported) , etc.
The main port of the caliphate was Basra.
A merchant and an industrialist are the main characters of Arabic fairy tales; various high ranking officials, military leaders, scientists, etc. were not ashamed to add to their titles the nickname Attar ("muscovite"), Heyat ("tailor"), Jawhari ("jeweler"), etc.
However, the nature of the Muslim Iranian industry is not so much the satisfaction of practical needs as luxury.
The main objects of production are silk fabrics (muslin muslin, satin, moire, brocade), weapons (sabres, daggers, chain mail), embroidery on canvas and leather, lace works, carpets, shawls, stamped, engraved, carved ivory and metals, mosaic works, faience and glass products; less often, purely practical products — paper, cloth and camel wool fabrics.
The well being of the agricultural class (for reasons, however, of tax, and not democratic) was raised by the restoration of irrigation canals and dams, which were launched under the last Sassanids.
But even according to the consciousness of the Arab writers themselves, the caliphs did not manage to bring the people's tax capacity to such a height as was achieved by the tax system of Khosrow I Anushirvan, although the caliphs ordered the Sasanian cadastral books to be translated into Arabic on purpose.
The Persian spirit also takes possession of Arabic poetry, which now, instead of Bedouin songs, gives refined works of the Basrian Abu Nuwas ("Arab Heine") and other court poets of Harun ar Rashid.
Apparently, not without Persian influence (Brockelmann: "Gesch. d. arab. Litt."
, I, 134) there is a correct historiography, and after the "Life of the Apostle", compiled
