A History of the Muslim World to 1405: The Making of a Civilization

by Egger, Vernon O

• ISBN13: 9780130983893
• ISBN10: 0130983896
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-11-25
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book is an introduction to the history of the Muslim world for readers with little or no knowledge of the subject. It points out the unifying elements that bind together the Muslim world, but stresses the religious and political differences that prevent them from acting as a unit.This book features economic, political, intellectual, and social developments over the wide area of the Muslim world and across many centuries.For readers interested in learning the history of the Muslim world; also, for employees of corporations and businesses that trade with regions ruled by Muslim-dominated governments.

Table of Contents

PREFACE	xi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS	xiii
NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND DATING	xv
PART ONE The Formative Period 610-950	1	(138)
1. ORIGINS	4	(29)
Southwestern Asia in the Seventh Century	4	(16)
The Byzantine Empire	5	(6)
The Sasanian Empire	11	(5)
The Arabian Peninsula	16	(4)
The Rise of Islam	20	(10)
The Meccan Environment	20	(2)
Muhammad	22	(5)
A Framework for a New Community	27	(3)
Conclusion	30	(1)
NOTES	31	(1)
FURTHER READING	31	(2)
2. ARAB IMPERIALISM	33	(29)
Arab Conquests	33	(11)
Arabia and the Fertile Crescent	34	(4)
Iran	38	(3)
North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula	41	(2)
Central Asia and the Indus River Valley	43	(1)
Umayyad Administration	44	(10)
The Caliphate	45	(2)
The Administration of Non-Muslims	47	(2)
The Administration of Muslims	49	(3)
The Rationalization of Society	52	(2)
Dissolution of the Arab Empire	54	(5)
Conclusion	59	(1)
NOTES	60	(1)
FURTHER READING	60	(2)
3. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SECTARIANISM	62	(23)
Ali and the Politics of Division	62	(7)
Political Dissension	63	(1)
Ali's Caliphate: Shi'ites and Kharijites	64	(2)
Karbala	66	(3)
The Abbasid Revott'fio	69	(3)
Shi'ite Identities	72	(8)
The Ghulat and the Zaydis	73	(1)
The Husayni Alids	74	(5)
The Shiite Movement	79	(1)
The Sunni Consensus	80	(3)
Conclusion	83	(1)
FURTHER READING	84	(1)
4. THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD: THREE CALIPHATES	85	(30)
The Abbasid Caliphat	86	(8)
The Early Period	86	(3)
Military and Economic Problems	89	(2)
The Assertion of Regional Autonomy	91	(3)
The Fatimid Caliphate	94	(4)
Isma'ili Activism	94	(2)
A Second Caliphate in the Umma	96	(2)
The Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba	98	(6)
The Consolidation of Umayyad Power	99	(3)
A Third Caliphate in the Umma	102	(2)
Economic Networks	104	(7)
A Single Economy	104	(1)
Overland Trade	105	(4)
Maritime Commerce	109	(2)
Conclusion	111	(1)
NOTES	112	(1)
FURTHER READING	112	(3)
5. SYNTHESIS AND CREATIVITY
The Origins Islamic Law	115	(8)
Assimilation and Adaptation	115	(1)
Groping Toward an Islamic Jurisprudence	116	(1)
The Development of the Sharia	117	(6)
Early Sufism	123	(4)
The Contemplative Life	123	(2)
Testing the Limits of Transcendence	125	(2)
The Accommodation of Sufism	127	(1)
The Reception of Science and Philosophy	127	(6)
Science ("Natural Philosophy")	128	(2)
Philosophy	130	(3)
The Development of an Islamic Theology	133	(4)
The Reception of Rationalism	133	(2)
The Critique of Rationalism	135	(2)
Conclusion	137	(1)
NOTES	138	(1)
FURTHER READING	138	(1)
PART TWO A Civilization Under Siege, 950-1260	139	(118)
6. FILLING THE VACUUM OF POWER, 950-1100	142	(30)
The Buyid Sultanate	142	(3)
The Advent of the Turks	145	(9)
Origins	145	(3)
The Saljuq Invasion	148	(3)
The Great Saljugs and the Saljugs of Rum	151	(3)
The Fatimid Empire	154	(6)
The Conquest of Egypt and Palestine	154	(2)
Religious Policies	156	(2)
The New Egyptian Economy	158	(1)
Ominous Developments	159	(1)
The Nizaris ("Assassins")	160	(2)
The Muslim West	162	(7)
Norman Invasions of Muslim Territory	162	(1)
The "Hilali Invasion" of Ifriqiya	163	(2)
A Berber Empire	165	(1)
The Collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Andalus	166	(2)
The Incorporation of Andalus into the Maghrib	168	(1)
Conclusion	169	(1)
FURTHER READING	170	(2)
7. BARBARIANS AT THE GATES, 1100-1260	172	(27)
The Period of the Crusades	172	(10)
The First Crusade	173	(5)
The Franks on the Defensive	178	(4)
The Loss of Andalus	182	(6)
Provisional Solutions: The Great Berber Empires	182	(4)
The Disintegration of the Almohads and of Andalus	186	(2)
Realignment in the East	188	(9)
The Collapse of the Great Saljugs	190	(2)
Sunni-Nizari Rapprochement	192	(2)
The Mongol Campaigns	194	(3)
Conclusion	197	(1)
FURTHER READING	198	(1)
8. THE CONSOLIDATION OF TRADITIONS	199	(30)
Science and Philosophy	199	(6)
Mathematics and the Natural Sciences	200	(1)
Philosophy	201	(3)
The Sunni Resolution to the Tension between Reason and Revelation	204	(1)
Consolidating Institutions: Sufism	205	(9)
The Emergence of Lodges and Tarigas	206	(3)
Speculative Mysticism	209	(5)
Consolidation Institutions: Shi'ism	214	(5)
Twelver Shi'ites	214	(1)
The Isma'ilis	215	(2)
The Impact of "the Foreign Sciences" and Jurisprudence	217	(2)
The Transmission of Knowledge	219	(5)
Schools	219	(4)
The Legacy to Europe	223	(1)
ENGLISH WORDS DERIVED FROM ARABIC	224	(2)
Conclusion	226	(1)
NOTES	227	(1)
FURTHER READING	227	(2)
9. THE MUSLIM COMMONWEALTH	229	(28)
Frontiers and Identities	230	(11)
Frontiers Defining the Dar al-Islam	230	(6)
Frontiers within the Dar al-Islam	236	(1)
Identities	237	(4)
The City and the Countryside	241	(7)
The City	241	(5)
The Countryside	246	(2)
Conversion to Islam	248	(4)
A Muslim Minority	248	(1)
The Pace of Conversion Quickens	249	(3)
The Issue of Authority in the Muslim World	252	(2)
Conclusion	254	(1)
NOTES	255	(1)
FURTHER READING	255	(2)
PART THREE Mongol Hegemony, 1260-1405	257	(62)
10. THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION	260	(30)
The Mongol Khanates	261	(8)
The Qipchaq Khanate	261	(3)
The Il-khanate	264	(3)
The Chaghatay Khanate	267	(2)
New Centers of Islamic Culture	269	(13)
The Mamluke Empire	269	(4)
The Delhi Sultanate	273	(4)
The Ottoman Sultanate	277	(5)
Scourges	282	(5)
Plague	282	(1)
Timur lang	283	(4)
Conclusion	287	(1)
FURTHER READING	288	(2)
11. UNITY AND DIVERSITY IN ISLAMIC TRADITIONS	290	(29)
Intellectual Life in the Fourteenth Century	291	(11)
The End of the "Golden Age"?	291	(2)
Against All Odds	293	(9)
Law	302	(3)
The Queen of the Sciences	302	(1)
The "Closing of the Gate of Ijtihad"?	303	(2)
The Varieties of Religious Expression	305	(11)
"Orthodoxy" and "Heterodoxy"	306	(2)
The Proliferation of Sufi Groups	308	(8)
Conclusion	316	(1)
FURTHER READING	317	(2)
GLOSSARY	319	(10)
INDEX	329

Excerpts

This book is an introduction to the history of the Muslim world for readers with little or no knowledge of the subject. I use the termMuslimrather thanIslamicbecause this is a study of the history made by the Muslim peoples rather than a history of the religion of Islam: It is important to make a distinction betweenMuslimandIslamic--properly speaking,Islamicshould refer to elements of the religion, whileMuslimrelates to the adherents of the religion. Thus, not all customs followed by Muslims are Islamic, and although a mosque is an example of Islamic architecture, a palace is not. A generation ago, the great scholar Marshall Hodgson wrestled with this problem and coined the termIslamicateto describe the cultural features of Muslim societies that were not strictly religious, such as secular architecture. The term has not gained widespread acceptance, and this oak will avoid it.If the distinction betweenIslamicandMuslimseems strained, suppose that someone said that the White House is an example of Christian architecture because a Christian designed it, or that Bastille Day is a Christian holiday, since it is celebrated in a country with a Christian majority. No one is tempted to make such assertions, and yet they are equivalent to speaking ofIslamicpalaces orIslamic medicine,as many historians do. Much of the history related in this book is not directly related to Islam, and so it is more appropriately called Muslim history.The phraseMuslim world,as used in this book, refers to regions ruled by Muslim-dominated governments, as well as areas in which the Muslim population is a majority or an influential minority. For several decades in the seventh century, the Muslim world was coterminous with the region often referred to today as the Middle East, but it soon expanded far beyond that heartland. By the tenth century, many of the most important cultural developments in the Muslim world were taking place outside the Middle East. The size of the Muslim world has alternately expanded and contracted over time, and we will be concerned to see how and why that has happened.The themes of the book are tradition and adaptation. The history of any society is one of the preservation of core values and practices, but also one of adaptation to changing conditions. Muslims follow a religion that is strongly anchored in both scripture and authoritative codes of behavior and are conditioned to adhere closely to the canon of their religious tradition. On the other hand, from the very beginning Of their history, Muslims have found ways to adapt elements of their faith to their culture, as well as to adapt their cultural values and practices to the core of their faith. am is no more of a homogeneous world religion than is Christianity or Judaism.The themes of tradition and adaptation allow us to make sense of some import issues in Muslim history. By being aware of the premium placed on faithfulness the scriptures, we can understand more clearly how Muslims were able to maintain a common sense of identity throughout the wide expanse of the world in which they settled. Further, we can more readily appreciate why Muslims have accepted certain features of alien cultures and rejected others. From the first century of the Islamic calendar, when Muslims were having to decide how to administer a huge majority of non-Muslims in the former Byzantine and Sasanian empires, until today, when many Muslims are concerned about the impact of a secular, global economy on their heritage, the tension between adherence to tradition on the one hand and adaptation to changing conditions on the other has been at the center of Muslim concerns.This book treats economic, political, intellectual, and social developments over a wide area and across many centuries. Of these topics, the intellectual and political developments receive more attention than