Classical islam

Classical Islam or Medieval Islam is the period in the history of Islam that begins in pre-Islamic Arabia and ends in the 15th century, when, for On the one hand, the end of the Kingdom of Granada (the last Muslim kingdom of al-Andalus, 1492) occurred, and on the other, the expansion of the Ottoman Empire began (conquest of Constantinople, 1453). During those nine centuries, the Arab tribes, led by Muhammad, carried out from the seventh century (first of the Hegira) an extraordinary expansion of migration, culture, religion and military conquest.

Pre-Islamic Arabia

The Arabs who inhabited the Arabian peninsula did not form a nation or a state. They formed various dispersed and independent tribes (some were nomadic and others sedentary) and in continuous struggles. These tribes did not recognize a power that was common to all of them.

The nomadic desert tribes, the Bedouins, were a social group of about 3,000 members; This group was in turn divided into families but united by blood inheritance, which was transmitted through the father. The relationship between the different tribes was always difficult and unstable. The characteristics of these Bedouin tribes were, in addition to the union of blood, the sense of hospitality, the always keeping in mind the honor and warrior courage, and the appreciation of poetry and eloquence, faculties that served as instruments in the collective memory of the Arab people.

The sedentary tribes lived in Yemen, to the southwest, and in the principalities of the north (actually in these principalities the tribes were semi-nomadic) that were related to Persia and Byzantium. Yemen served as a link between sea lanes and caravan routes. These tribes, after times of splendor, disappeared as independent entities before the supremacy and pressure of the Persians in the first third of the sixth century.

On the other hand, the city of Mecca (مكة), as well as the cities of the central-western desert, at the same time, prospered greatly in the shadow of the caravan routes. The tribes became sedentary and the merchants formed a new social entity accumulating wealth and somewhat forgetting the old nomadic values.

As for religion, pre-Islamic Arabs were not monotheistic, they venerated stones, trees, stars, demons and certain gods or idols that were honored in Mecca. Bedouins were more religious than the rest of the population.

Mohammed

Such was the scene and situation in the Arabian peninsula at the turn of the VII century, when Muhammad (Muhammad, محمد) and in the year 610 he began to preach a new and monotheistic religion: Islam. The Arabs were skeptical and positive and at first they mocked him and even persecuted him. But with energy and perseverance plus the force of arms with which his supporters intervened, Muhammad imposed his doctrine and his power. The Arabs allowed themselves to be carried away at the beginning above all, more than by religion, by their warrior and conquering spirit, qualities that their successors were able to develop equally.

With the help of Muhammad, his new religion and his spirit of expansion, the Arab tribes came to have a certain political unity with a common chief. Although it was never a strong and solid cohesion, since they maintained continuous tribal wars throughout history and throughout the territory of Islam, appearing various parties and differences in ideas and religious precepts. The internal history of the Muslim empire continually shows a natural independence and the memory of hatred between tribes. This constant struggle through the centuries culminated in the breakup of the Muslim states and allowed for the subsequent domination of the major Western colonial powers British Empire, French colonialism and American expansionism.

Very important and definitive for future conquests was the human contribution of the Bedouins. His strength, his aggressiveness, his combat tactics were to a great extent effective for the triumph of Islam over the great sedentary empires of its neighbors. Throughout the history of the Islamic world, this human contribution of new nomads will continually repeat themselves, who will follow sedentary patterns but who will always carry the memory of their origins, mythologizing the figure of the Bedouin as primitive perfection.

The united Arab tribes under the rule of Muhammad and his successors brought Islam and conquered in a few years (from 697 to 708) almost all of Asia Minor, Egypt and North Africa. The peoples dominated and who accepted the new religion are known by the names of Muslims (which comes from the classical Arabic word muslim from the triliteral root SLM from the same family as Islam), Mohammedans (from Muhammad) and Saracens (from Rabbinic Aramaic sarq-iy-in, inhabitants of the desert; sraq is desert). Among all of them, the main one was the Arab people, but not the only one. These denominations are not synonymous with Arabic.

The expansion

Since the return of Muhammad, the city of Mecca had been transformed into the center of piety of the Islamic world. Muhammad and his followers then began their expansion throughout the Arabian peninsula until they reached southern Syria. In the year 632 the prophet died and the new leaders took the title of caliph, which means "successor".

The first caliph (632-634) "Khalifa,خليفة" He was Muhammad's father-in-law, Abu Bakr As-Sidiq, ابو بكر الصديق. He was succeeded by the caliphs Omar Ben Khatab عمر بن الخطاب, Otman and Ali Ben Abu Talib, علي بن أبي طالب. Upon his death (he was assassinated) the first civil war broke out.

Classical historiography considers the expansion out of Arabia to be the result of rapid military expansion, ending it in the mid-century VII, and have compared this expansion to the campaigns of Alexander the Great. There is an eccentric view of the process (disclosed in the 1970s and original by Ignacio Olagüe Videla The Islamic Revolution in the West, 1966-1969), according to which it is denied that an invasion had taken place (meaning impossible due to the small Arab population and the poverty of its logistical means, which would not allow it to carry out large military operations, be it through the sea or the desert, and even less, to defeat so many peoples in such a short time) but a "a revolutionary climate that allowed the emergence of new concepts".

In the second half of the VII century, more conquests take place and expansion reaches its limits of stable frontiers that will endure like this for centuries. It is the domain of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. From the west they reached Hispania and from the east to China and India.

The conquest and expansion was an amazing phenomenon accomplished in a relatively short time and with apparent ease. These circumstances arose for various reasons, some contributed by the Arabs themselves and others by the enemy common to all of them.

The Muslim Arabs counted on their benefit with a firm religious conviction, a warrior cohesion inherited from the tribal world from which they came, a sufficient force to be able to win, a special tendency to know how to move and control the routes and also, a great ability to make a deal with the enemy. The fortified points were surrendering not only because of the thrust of arms but also because of the offer of benign capitulations that ensured respect for the personal, legal, religious, and administrative situation of the Christians, Jews, and Mazdeans, who immediately became protected (dimmies).

On the other hand, the invaded offered their particular circumstances by which the invasion could have been less arduous than normal:

There was a military and economic exhaustion of the Byzantine and Persian emperors, as they had waged fierce wars between them. As a consequence of these wars, Syria (سورية), Palestine (فلسطين) and Mesopotamia were very impoverished. To this must be added the plague that occurred in Syria in the years 614, 628 and 638. In Byzantium there were also religious clashes between the Monophysites and the Jews. Neither Persia nor Byzantium had enough troops to defend the borders or the points where their conquerors moved.

With this situation of the invaded towns, the expansion could be carried out, although there were great battles and confrontations. Throughout the first half of the VII century the following conquests were established:

In 634, the Arabs defeated the emperor of Byzantium Heraclio in Adinadeyn.

In 636 they were defeated in Yarmuk, east of the present Turkey. Chronicles tell of this battle that the Arabs formed an army of 25 000 men while the Byzantines were 50 000.

In 636, he capitulated Damascus (Syria).

In 638 he captured Jerusalem (al-Qods, القدس).

In 642 he capitulated Alexandria (Africa). General Amr ibn al-As thus ended the conquest of Egypt.

In 643, the Arabs entered Tripoli (now Libya, on the Mediterranean coast).

In 647 there was a first attack on Cartago. Soon after they were conquering Cyprus and Rhodes (Mediterranean islands), they also entered Armenia (in the Middle East), which only partially resisted.

The army that occupied Mesopotamia's front got the victories of Kindisiyah (on the Mediterranean coast), the Euphrates and Ctesifonte (on the shores of Tigris, in the current Iraq), all between the years 635 and 639. With these victories the domain of Mesopotamia was completed.

In the year 642 the battle of Nihavand is given and they arrive to the northwest border, where he died (in 651) Yazdgar III, the last Persian emperor, with what remains the conquest of Persia (present-day Iran). They gradually replaced Zoroastrianism by Islam, and incorporated Persia into the caliphate.

Under the rule of the third caliph, Uthman, they reached as far as the desert of Cyrenaica (present-day Libya) in the west, the mountain ranges of Taurus and Caucasus in the north, and as far as Central Asia.

Politics and society

One of the greatest successes of the Arabs to achieve such a vast conquest and expansion, was their application of the administrative and fiscal regime, which continued to be the same as the invaded towns already had; they did not change anything and thus had most of the local aristocrats as collaborators. They also applied a tax system that replaced the old custom of the spoils of war, thus achieving less hatred and more supporters for their cause. In these first conquests there was not much pressure to impose Islam, so there were not many converts.

Religious plurality

In the territories dominated by the Muslims, they coexisted with Christians and Jews. Religious plurality conditioned the social structure that was made up of three fundamental groups: original Arabs, converts to Islam (muladíes or neo-Muslims) and protected populations.

• The Arabs formed a privileged caste. They occupied the army's command and received rents from the spoil of the conquests.
• The muladi or neo-Muslims were the native population of the conquered territories which, well in the first moments, well with time, became Islam. Procuraban arabize (incorporate Arab language and culture, and with the passage of generations, identify as Arabs). This brought social and economic advantages, as it was to avoid the double tax paid by non-Muslims: one, for the amount of land possessed; another, depending on the number of inhabitants. Muslims were only obliged to pay a legal or zakat (fishing).
• The protected populations, taxing those other taxes, were the so-called dimmí or people of the Book (believers in Abrahamic or monotheistic religions): the Christians who did not convert and retain their cult their form of government and their own laws (in Spain the Mozarabians, in Egypt the Copts, in different regions of the Near East Armenians, Maronites, etc.); the Jews, who lived in their own neighborhoods or Jewish quarters; and the Zoroastrians (in Persia).

Tribal Rivalries

During all this time of conquest, the Arabs had not forgotten their tribal origin and kept regrouping by tribes. Rivalries lay between them and some clans claimed hegemony over others. In Syria, the Umayyad clan stood out, highly protected by the Caliph Utman, who belonged to that same family.

Discords began around the written fixation of the Koran and traditions. The two years of Caliph Utman's rule are characterized by internal struggles and the beginning of instability. Utman himself was assassinated in one of these riots. On his death, his opponents named Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, caliph.

With Ali in power, the first civil war took place. The first battle called the "battle of the Camel" (or & # 34; of Basra & # 34;), in 656, with the triumph of Ali and his followers. A radical group, the Kharijites, come to oppose the new caliph. Ali died betrayed and assassinated in 661. His followers began to call themselves Shiites or Shias and regrouped around his two sons, Hasan and Husayn. The dissent between Shias and Jarayis was important and long-lasting in the history of Islam.

Umayyad Dynasty

The first caliph of this dynasty is Muawiya (or Muhawiya, or Moawia), who ruled from 661 to 680. He belonged to the Umayyad clan of the Quraish tribe (Mohamed was from the Hashemí clan of the Quraish tribe). During his tenure, the second civil war took place.

The Umayyads dealt extensively with political and administrative organization. They were also guardians of religion and knew how to maintain a purely Arab character throughout their rule, despite being in a minority in all the occupied regions.

Little by little they became large landowners and the former nomadic camps became urban centers. They ended up being a sedentary army whose main nucleus was in Syria. The capital was in Damascus. The Arabs had the ability to know how to assimilate the cultures of other peoples and that was the case wherever they went. The influence of the Byzantium culture was very significant.

The provinces were governed by walis or governors, always appointed by the caliph. In the times of the third Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik, Arabic was declared the administrative language. Arabic spread rapidly to all the conquered places. They soon thought that power should be hereditary, through the designation of a successor during the life of the caliph.

They organized a council to deal with stubborn tribal issues. In Syria they appointed Christian collaborators for the Administration and in Mesopotamia the local aristocrats were appointed. The fundamental element was the appointment of judges or cadis; justice was administered according to religious precepts and always in the name of the caliph.

The Umayyads minted currency, a symbol of stability and good government. The currencies were the gold dinar and the silver dirham. But at the same time serious problems arose, especially in the religious and tribal fields. The Kharijites were fighting against the Shiites, who were the key element in the fall of the Umayyads.

The Umayyads carried out the second era of conquest, generally with good results. The greatest successes were obtained in North Africa and in Hispania. The foundation of Kairouan (in what is now Tunisia) was something very important and was the basis for the conquest of the entire Maghreb. It was also the consolidation of their strength and power, since they dominated in Africa the same lands that years before had been under the Byzantine government.

In North Africa, the Arabs met the Berber peoples who would become a very valuable part of the Islamic world and who would also be the object of discord and rebellions throughout the centuries. These peoples accepted Islam from the beginning and it was they themselves who spread it much more than the Arabs themselves.

It was during the time of the Umayyad dynasty that they reached the farthest to the west, making an incursion into the Gallic country and losing the famous Battle of Poitiers. To the east, expansion ceased in the year 751. The large regional areas of this second period were: Arabia, Syria, Egypt (مصر), Iraq, Persia (Iran), Maghreb and al-Andalus, plus the domain of the Mediterranean and the Indian.

The end of the Umayyad dynasty was embroiled in feuds and rebellious movements. With the last caliph, Marwan II, the Islamic world suffered the third civil war. It was a decisive defeat, with the slaughter of almost the entire Umayyad clan, from which the young Abderramán (Abd al-Rahman) was able to get rid of, who fled and reached Hispania where shortly after he founded the Independent Emirate of Córdoba, in 756.

Abbasid Dynasty

Also called Abbasida and Abassi. From the year 750-1258. True power lasted only a century or so.

The Abbasids base their claim to the caliphate on their descent from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566-652), one of the prophet's younger uncles. Muhammad ibn 'Ali, Abbas's great-grandson, began his campaign for his family's rise to power in Persia, during the reign of the Umayyad Caliph Umar II. During the caliphate of Marwan II, this opposition reached its climax with the rebellion of imam Ibrahim, a fourth-generation descendant of Abbas, in the city of Kufa (present-day Iraq), and in the province of Khorasan, (in Persia, present-day Iran). The revolt achieved some considerable successes, but Ibrahim was eventually captured and died (or was assassinated) in prison in 747. The fight was continued by his brother Abdallah, known as Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah who, after a victory decisively at the Great Zab River in 750, he crushed the Umayyads and was proclaimed caliph.

The Abbasids considered themselves blessed, compared to the Umayyads whom they considered illegitimate and impious. With the new dynasty, the Arab empire of the Umayyads is replaced by a strictly Islamic empire. They move the capital to Baghdad (year 762) and thus Mesopotamia becomes the center of the empire. The government and administration is in the hands of members of Persian origin instead of Syrian, as was the case with the Umayyads.

The army system was also changed from being made up of Arabs willing to expand, to being made up of mercenary soldiers, coming from everywhere, although the majority came from the province of Khorasan.

The underlying problems do not change or disappear at this stage, but they do not increase either. The eternal confrontation between Arabs and Persians continues with the consequent revolts and secession.

From the Caliph al-Mutasim (833-842), the Abbasid dynasty weakened with the new power of the Turkish army, which began to show too much influence over the different caliphs, an influence that became very dangerous for the maintenance of these in the true domain. It is the end of political power; the caliph remains the spiritual guide of the believers after the death of al-Muktafil, in 908. From this moment it can be said that the successive caliphs became puppets in the hands of their Turkish soldiers.

End of classical Islam

In the years 909 and 929 the caliphate unity in Islam was broken for the first time. In 909 the Fatimid movement took place in the Maghreb, initiated by the envoy or mahdi Udayd Allah, who also took the title of caliph; in 929 it is Abderramán, in al-Andalus who also takes the title of caliph.

Turkish soldiers created in 935 the title of amir-al-umara (commander of commanders), which represents the true political power and is assumed by the chief of said soldiers. In 1055 Baghdad is captured by the Seljuk Turks, who were Sunni followers. Finally, in the year 1258, the line of the Abbasid caliphs ended and their influence on Sunni Islam, which no longer needed them.

In Egypt (مصر), the Fatimid regime exercised its development far away from the last Abbasid caliphs.

The Crusades

Simultaneously, the Crusades took place, a military and religious movement of Latin or Western Christianity that between the 11th and 13th centuries maintained a territorial presence in the so-called Holy Land.

Ottoman Empire

In what can be seen as the final crisis of classical Islam, from the 13th to the 15th century, political dominance in the Muslim world it passed from the Arab ethnic group to the Turkish ethnic group, coming from Central Asia, which would end up taking shape in the growing territorial power of the Ottoman Empire.

Al-Andalus and the Maghreb

On the other hand, to the west of the empire, in North Africa called Maghreb, the Islamic world was mostly Berber. The Almoravid tribes seized power and dominance at the end of the 11th century and later it will be the Almohad tribes who would lead the hegemony.

As for the Iberian Peninsula, the northwestern end of the Islamic world, which was known in the Islamic world as al-Andalus, remained with different phases of predominance, balance or subordination with the kingdoms Christians, during the period called Reconquista from their perspective (8th to 15th centuries). It had begun its takeoff from the Muslim east with a survivor of the Umayyad family who proclaimed himself an independent emir in Córdoba, Abderramán I, and his descendant Abderramán III, who proclaimed himself caliph. That disunity was not restored with the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba in the XI century, which produced a division into taifas, nor with the successive arrivals of the Almoravids and the Almohads.