HUM110 Islamic Studies Lecture 1 9 Ummayids & Abbasids The - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

HUM110 Islamic Studies

Lecture 19

Ummayids & Abbasids

The rise and fall of leaders

The Rightly Guided Caliphs

The empire expanded under the next caliphs

• During the Rightly Guided Caliphates, 


the Islamic Empire expanded “Dar-al- Islam” (the areas where Islam is practiced)

• The caliphs used the Shari'ah 


(laws of Islam) to govern the empire.

• The caliphate never forced non-Muslims 


to convert, especially “People of the Book” 
 & allowed religious tolerance as long as taxes were paid to the empire.

The Rightly Guided Caliphs

• Mesopotamia
• North Africa
• Spain
• Crete, Sicily, and Sardinia
• Northwest India
• Dominated eastern Mediterranean Sea
• Capital at Damascus

REGIONS OF UMMAYID CALIPHATE

The Umayyad Empire

The Umayyads expanded the empire which brought wealth & new Islamic converts

• Only Umayyad ruler (Caliphs of Damascus), Umar ibn Abd al-

Aziz, is unanimously praised for his devout piety and justice.

• In his efforts to spread Islam he established liberties by

abolishing the jizya tax for converts to Islam.

• Imam Abu Muhammad Adbullah ibn Abdul Hakam stated that

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz also stopped the personal allowance

• ffered to his relatives stating that he could only give them an

allowance if he gave an allowance to everyone else in the empire.

• Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was later poisoned in the year 720.

When successive governments tried to reverse Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz's tax policies it created rebellion.

NOTABLE CALIPH OF THE UMMAYIDS

• Umayyad became soft and corrupt due to

increasing wealth and power

• Warrior lifestyle declined
• Decadent living sparked revolts
• Indian frontier - warrior settlers revolted under

banner of Abbasid party

• 750 CE victory over Umayyads
• Grandson of Umayyad caliph escaped to Spain-

founded Caliphate of Cordoba

DECLINE OF UMMAYID CALIPHATE

In 750, the Umayyad Empire was


• verthrown by the Abbasids

• The period from 786 to 861 is said to be the

peak of Abbasid rule.

• The empire reached great cultural heights during

this time.

• In 813-833 while al-Ma'mun was in power, he

put down many rebellions and fought wars with the Byzantine Empire.

RISE OF ABBASID CALIPHATE

The Abbasid Empire

• The Abbasid Empire (750 to 1258):
• 1. The Abbasid caliphate built a strong

government bureaucracy to rule their empire

• 2. Muslim merchants expanded wealth by

trading across Africa, Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea

• Built centralized state- absolute power
• Capital at Baghdad
• Bureaucracy under Wazir
• Royal executioner
• Revenues in form of tribute and taxes
• Abbasids grew less powerful at distance
• Caliphs placed themselves above Islamic law
• Caliphs became remote from people

The Abbasid Empire

The Abbasid Empire

Wealth from trade led to 
 a golden age, 
 a time of great Muslim achievements 
 in science, math, medicine, & architecture.

The House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikmah) refers either to a major Abbasid public academy and intellectual center in Baghdad or to a large private library belonging to the Abbasid Caliphs during the Islamic Golden Age. The House of Wisdom is the subject of an active dispute over its functions and existence as a formal academy, an issue complicated by a lack of physical evidence following the collapse

• f the Abbasid Caliphate and a reliance on corroboration of

literary sources to construct a narrative. The House of Wisdom was founded either as a library for the collections of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the late 8th century and later turned into a public academy during the reign of Al- Ma'mun or was a private collection created by Al-Mansur (reign 754-775) to house rare books and collections of poetry in both Arabic and Persian.

Bayt al-Hikmah

Education Law (Jurisprudence) Theology Ahmad ibn Hanbal Philosophy Ibn Sina & Ibn Rushd Metaphysics Mathematics al Khwarizmi Scientific Method Astronomy Physics al Biruni Biology Chemistry al Kindi Engineering Social Sciences - Ibn Khuldun Healthcare - Ibn Sina Surgery - al Zahrawi Commerce Travel Arts & architecture Literature & poetry

THE ISLAMIC GOLDEN AGE