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Medieval Islam
(AD 570-1453)

  1. Muhammad (570-632)
    1. Founding Islam
      • -570-610: Muhammad was born in Mecca and belonged to the Hashim clan, a poor but prominent Arab family; after his parents died, he was raised by his uncle Abu Talib; as a teenager, he worked as a trader which allowed him to travel to Syria often, where he learned of Christianity; at age 25, Muhammad married Khadija, a wealthy widow who ran her late husband's market, and he took over the business as a merchant.
      • -610: Muhammad would often go into the desert to pray and meditate on the different religious views he heard about in Mecca; during one of his meditations, Muhammad had a vision of the angel Gabriel who said Allah (God) had chosen Muhammad as his prophet and that he was to consummate and supersede all earlier prophets, including Jesus; he wrote down his revelations in the Koran, the holy book of Islam.
      • -622: while Muhammad's family trusted his visions, many others opposed his teachings; to escape persecution and even murder, Muhammad took an offer to govern a nearby city and arbitrate its tribal feuds as an impartial religious authority; he and his followers took a journey, known as the hejira (departure), from Mecca to Yathrib.
      • -622-630: as supreme political and religious leader of Yathrib, Muhammad established Islam not only as the religion, but also as the law of the city; he controlled all aspects of the peoples' lives and thus won many converts, such that the city of Yathrib was renamed Medina (City of the Prophet).
    2. Teachings of Islam
      • -Muhammad taught to people to submit their will to Allah by participating in the Five Pillars of Islam ("submission"): (1) believing that "there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the prophet of God"; (2) praying five times a day, while facing Mecca; (3) caring for the poor and less fortunate; (4) fasting during the holy month of Ramadan; and (5) making a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives.
      • -Muhammad taught that Jews and Christians were "People of the Book" because they believed in God's revelations in the Bible; he believed that Muslims should recognize the close relationship between Muslims and Judeo-Christians, so that they never quarrel; despite this teaching, non-Muslim religions were often persecuted by Muslims.
      • -Muhammad gave women the right to control property, to divorce and retain dowry, and also forbade the killing of unwanted baby girls, all rights which had been previously overlooked; although women sometimes had influence as artists, physicians, or scholars, most women remained in the domestic sphere, at the mercy of a husband or father.
    3. War with Mecca
      • -624: because his followers, who were used to being merchants, had no means of living in the agrarian Medina, Muhammad began attacking and looting Meccan caravans; the angry Meccans retaliated with a force four times that of Medina, but were defeated at the Battle of Uhud.
      • -627: an army of 10,000 Meccans besieged Medina at the Battle of the Trench, but failed to capture the city; instrumental to this victory was Khalid ibn al-Walid, one of Muhammad's early followers, who became known as "the Sword of Allah"; this victory allowed Muhammad to eliminate his enemies within Medina, Jews and pro-Meccans, who were either exiled or massacred.
      • -630: Muhammad led an army of 10,000 Muslims and captured Mecca, only ten years after being exiled from there; his first action within Mecca was the destruction of all idols in the Kaaba and the conversion of the city to Islam; because many Arab pilgrims passed through Mecca, almost all of Arabia was converted to Islam within the year.
      • -632: on his last visit to Mecca, which became the holy city of Islam, Muhammad gave a sermon which summarized his teachings and advocated the unity of Arabs through the Muslim religion; after his return to Medina, Muhammad died suddenly, and, according to Muslims, ascended into heaven just as Jesus where the Dome of Rock now stands.


  2. Spread of Islam (632-750)
    1. Immediate Successors (Rightly Guided Caliphs)
      • -632: without any instructions from Muhammad on succession, a Muslim council elected Abu Bakr, one of Muhammad's fathers-in-law, as Caliph (successor); after hearing of Muhammad's death, many Arab tribes choose local prophets to lead them and Abu Bakr put down many of these rebellions; he also expanded Islam into the Iraq, where many people were disatisfied with Persian rule.
      • -634: Umar I, another of Muhammad's fathers-in-law, succeeded Abu Bakr as Caliph; he successfully expanded the Caliphate into most of Persia and the Byzantine territories of Palestine, Syria, and Egypt; Umar also introduced a Muslim constitution, in which he banned unbelievers from Arabia.
      • -644: Umar I was assassinated by Abu-luluah, a Persian slave, and he was succeeded by Uthman ibn Affan, a son-in-law of Muhammad; because the Koran had copied and reworded by many local prophets, Uthman ordered the mass production of the official Koran and the destruction of all others, angering many local tribes, especially Shiites.
      • -656: Ali, another son-in-law of Muhammad, succeeded Uthman, when he and the rebellious Shiite Muslims assassinated Uthman; Ali went to civil war with the Sunni Muslims who claimed Muawiyah, a relative of Uthman, was the true Caliph.
    2. Umayyad Caliphs
      • -661: Ali was killed by a group of his own followers, who had vowed to kill both Ali and Muawiyah, but Muawiyah I survived and succeeded Ali as the first Umayyad Caliph; he stabilized the Caliphate and moved its capital from Medina to Damascus, a formerly Byzantine city, which introduced Islam to advanced culture and government.
      • -680: Yazid I succeeded his father Muawiyah I as Caliph, and set the precedent of hereditary succession; when the Kufan Shiites recognized Husayn, Muhammad's grandson, as the true Caliphate, Yazid had them all slaughtered; with the death of Muhammad's grandson, the Shiites gained great sympathy throughout Islam.
      • -685: Abd al-Malik succeeded his father Yazid I as Caliph; he quelled various Shiite rebellions, conquered Byzantine and Persian territories, and also expanded the Caliphate into North Africa, where the native Berber tribes converted to Islam.
      • -711: Tariq ibn-Zayid, a Berber warrior, led Muslim armies into Spain and conquered Iberia, converting most of its Germanic inhabitants.
      • -732: Muslim forces from Spain crossed the Pyrenees Mountains into the territory of the Franks, but were defeated by Charles Martel, the Frank mayor of the palace, at the Battle of Tours.
      • -750: Shiite Muslims and Mawalis (non-Arab Muslims) allied themselves with the Abbasids, who claimed descent from the Muhammad's uncle; they rebelled against the oppressive Umayyad dynasty, killed Caliph Marwan II and his entire family, except Abd-ar-Rahman who fled to Spain.


  3. Golden Age (750-1258)
    1. Rise of the Abbasids
      • -750: the Abbasids were put in power with Abu al-Abbas as Caliph; Abu assured equal rights for all Muslims, Arab or mawali, and advocated theology, industry, and commerce which flourished in cities such as the new capital, Baghdad.
      • -756: Abd-ar-Rahman I, the last remaining member of the Umayyad dynasty, proclaimed himself Emir of Cordoba (in Iberia) and declared the Emirate of Cordoba independent from the Caliphate.
      • -786: Harun ar-Rashid became Caliph and the Caliphate greatly prospered under his reign; he patronized learning, art, and the translation of the classics, inviting scholars from all over the Caliphate to Baghdad; he was successful against the Byzantine Empire, in quelling rebellions, and also in diplomatic relations, including Charlemagne.
      • -809: Harun ar-Rashid died and civil war abrupted between his two sons, al-Amin and al-Mamun; al-Mamun defeated al-Amin and became a very prosperous Caliph, who continued to patronize the arts.
      • -833-847: because the influence of Sunni Islam was spreading, the Abbasids, who were Shiite Muslims, attempted to impose their will over the Sunni religious scholars in a conflict known as the Mihna; the Abbasids failed and were thus restricted to nominal rule over the Caliphate.
    2. Seljuk Turks take Power
      • -935: the Seljuk Turks, a warlike people who recently converted to Sunni Islam, claimed the title of Amir al-Umara (commander of the commanders); from here on the real power was in the hands of the Turkish army and the caliphs were only figureheads.
      • -1055: Togrul Beg, the chief of the Seljuk Turks conquered most of Iran and Iraq, including Baghdad; after declaring himself protector of the Abbasid Caliphs, Togrul Beg was made a sultan and started conquering small Muslim states in Syria and Anatolia.
      • -1071: Alp Arslan, the son and successor of Togrul Beg, defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert; he proceeded to conquer Palestine, where he tortured Christians, angering and frightening all of Christian Europe.
    3. The Crusades
      • -1095: the Seljuk Turks massacred thousands of poor, unarmed peasants, under a barefoot preacher named Peter the Hermit, who attempted to stop the injustices against Christians in Jerusalem.
      • -1099: 25,000 European crusaders besieged Jerusalem and slaughtered Muslim and Jewish men, women, and children which resided there; they established the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa.
      • -1144-1148: the Muslims conquered back the County of Edessa and initiated the Second Crusade; Muslim forces defeated the combined armies of Louis VII of France and Baldwin II, king of Jerusalem at the battle of Damascus.
      • -1187-1192: Saladin, a Muslim prince, captured Jerusalem and initiated the Third Crusade; Muslim forces defeated the army of Richard I of England and the local Christian nobles; after a long war, they finally accepted a truce guaranteeing the protection of Christians in Jerusalem, while Muslims retained the city.
      • -1228: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, pressured by Pope Gregory IX, led a crusade to the Holy Land; although no fighting occurred, Frederick negotiated a treaty with the Egyptians by which Jerusalem was given back to the crusaders.
      • -although crusades continued to occur into the 13th century, it only gave cause for the Muslims to conquer back Christian strongholds; the crusaders never again won a major battle and eventually lost all of their teritories in the Middle East.
    4. Fall of the Caliphate
      • -the Abbasids gradually gave up power to local leaders, creating many fragmented Muslim states; with the Caliphs serving only as figureheads, two states proclaimed themselves true Caliphate at the same time as the Abbasids: the Fatimid Caliphate in North Africa (909-1171) and the Emirate of Cordoba in Spain (929-1031).
      • -1258: Hulagu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, led a Mongol army into Baghdad and executed Caliph al-Mustasim; urged by the European monarchs, he slaughtered over one million Muslims and destroyed the city of Baghdad; the Abbasids fled to Cairo, Egypt where they claimed the title Caliph, but they remained powerless.
      • -although Islam was no longer united politically, the Muslim religion survived in North Africa and the Middle East, and the religion began to evolve into different forms in different regions, the major forms being Sunni and Shiite Islam.


  4. Turkey (1078-1453)
    1. Sultanate of Rum (Iconium)
      • -1078: Suleiman I, a Seljuk prince, saw an opportunity create a large state in Anatolia; he united much of central Anatolia and established the sultanate of Rum with its capital at Konya.
      • -1258: Hulagu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, led a Mongol army into Anatolia and vassalized the Sultanate of Rum under the Khanate of the Il Horde; the Sultanate entered a period of anarchy with constant civil wars and Christian revolts, but the Seljuk sultans maintained some control.
    2. Ottoman Empire
      • -1293: Osman I, the son of a Rum chieftain, captured various cities in northwestern Anatolia and declared himself sultan of Turkey, beginning the Ottoman (a variable spelling for Osman) dynasty; he raided the weak Byzantines and gained many riches.
      • -1324: Orhan succeeded his father Osman as sultan and began expanding the Empire; in the Byzantine territories of the west he used conquest, but with the Turks in the east he acquired territory only through peaceful acquisition such as purchase or marriage.
      • -1360: Murad I succeeded his father Orhan as sultan; he conquered the territories of Adrianople, Bulgaria, Serbia, and made the Byzantine Emperor John V his vassal; with John V as his vassal, Murad forced him to use Christian armies to acquire Turkish lands in the east (so that Muslim would not fight Muslim).
      • -1389: Murad I was killed by an allied Serbian, Bosnian, and Bulgarian army at the Battle of Kosovo, but his son and successor Bayazid I continued the battle and defeated them; Bayazid proceeded to break Muslim tradition and conquered many Turkish states in Anatolia.
      • -1402: Bayazid's conquest of fellow Turks greatly angered his own generals and created a period of disunity which allowed for Tamerlane, a Muslim general, to invade Anatolia and execute Bayazid; Bayazid was succeeded by his son Muhammad who restored unity in the Ottoman Empire.
      • -1453: Muhammad II, the grandson of Bayazid, conquered Greece, Serbia, Bosnia, and Albania, ending the Byzantine Empire; he renamed the city of Constantinople as Istanbul, made it his capital, and converted it to Islam; Muhammad II proceeded to unite the empire in religion, education, and law.