Developments in Dar al-Islam

Essential Question: In the period from c. 1200 to c.

1450, how did Islamic states arise, and how did major
religious systems shape society?
Invasions and Shifts in Trade Routes

Cultural and Social Life

Free Women in Islam

Islamic Rule in Spain

Starting from a handful of small settlements in the Arabian peninsula, followers of
Islam, also known as Muslims, conquered most of the Middle East, the northern
coast of Africa and the western half of Central Asia between 632 and 655.

For six centuries after that, Islamic civilization flourished.

Although the original founders of the religion were Arabs, many Muslims belonged to
other ethnic groups, assimilated into Islam via conquest and subsequent forced
conversion, or as a result of proselytizing activities carried out by merchants and
sufi missionaries.

In terms of material culture, language, customs, and even doctrinal interpretations of

their faith, medieval and early modern Muslims formed a diverse and heterogeneous
community.
From the 5th to the 13th century, the political organization of the Muslim world was
based on caliphates, a type of state formation that combined dynastic and doctrinal
elements.
The ruler of a caliphate was an hereditary monarch, known as caliph, which ran the
state but was also the ultimate religious authority in the land.

The initial expansion of Muslim rule took place during the Rashidun Caliphate (632–
661).

Under the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), the size of the Muslim controlled
territories doubled and the title of caliph became hereditary.

Greater stability and economic growth was achieved under the Abbasid Caliphate
(750–1258), a period that has come to be known as the Islamic Golden Age.
Spread of Islam

Expansion under Muhammad, 622–632

Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661
Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750
By 1200, Muslim states controlled a vast contiguous region known as Dar al-Islam
or the House of Islam, which extended from the Iberian peninsula across North
Africa and all the way to India

Indirect Muslim influences via trade were much wider, reaching throughout the
Indian Ocean into Southeast Asia and across the Sahara Desert into West Africa.

Having access to a wide variety of climates, resources, and cultures gave Muslims
an advantage over more localized economic competitors.

They could adopt innovations, transfer crops, and recruit specialists from almost
every corner of Afro-Eurasia.

At the same time, the geographical centrality of Dar al-Islam allowed several Muslim
cities to become key nodes in some of the largest commercial networks of the era,
such as the Silk Roads and the Trans-Saharan trade routes.
Operating with government support, scholars gathered in cities like Baghdad,
Damascus, Cairo, and Cordoba, where they made significant contributions to the
development of science and technology.

Translations from classical Greek into Arabic contributed to preserve and popularize
the work of ancient philosophers, mathematicians, historians, and poets, while the
introduction of paper from China fueled the mass production of manuscripts.

This in turn, facilitated the spread of formal instruction in schools known as

madrasas.

As a result, members of the urban elite were able to create a sustainable demand
for cultural production in areas such as literature, architecture, music, and the visual
arts, which was met by intellectuals, artisans, and performers coming from every
corner of the Islamic World and beyond.
The impact of Abbasid scholars on the development of mathematics can be
summarized just by saying that many of the terms we use to identify key concepts in
the field, such as algebra, algorithm, or average, come from Arabic words or even
from the names of famous Muslim mathematicians.

At least two of them carried out their work between 1200 and 1450.

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274) was a Persian polymath born in northern Iran. He
eventually settled in Mosul, within today’s Iraq, where he studied mathematics and
astronomy. Many consider him to be the founder of trigonometry as a discipline, but
his contributions to biology, chemistry, logic, and philosophy were also very
significant.

Another Persian mathematician, Jamshīd al-Kāshī (1380-1429), is known, among

other things, for his formulation of the law of the cosines, for his work on cubic
equations, and for estimating the value of π to sixteen decimal places.
Several other Muslim scholars made a long lasting impact on the development of
science during this period.

Zakariya al-Qazwini (1203-1283), a polymath born in Iran, moved to Baghdad where

he compiled an encyclopedia known as “The Wonders of Creation”.

Ibn al-Baytar (1197–1248), was a physician and botanist born and educated in
Muslim Spain, who collected medicinal plants throughout North Africa, eventually
settling in Syria to write a very influential “Compendium on Simple Drugs and
Foods”.
Ibn al-Nafis (1213-1288) a doctor and anatomist who lived in Syria and Egypt, is
credited with first describing the circulation of blood through the lungs.

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1405) was a historian and social sciences pioneer born and
educated in Tunisia, who also lived in Spain and Egypt. He was the author of what
many considered to be the first attempt at writing a world history.
Almost as impressive as the achievements of Muslim scientists are those of storytellers
and poets.

Many of the folk stories that would be eventually included in “One Thousand and One
Nights” were first compiled in manuscript form during the Abbasid period. At the time,
however, they were considered a form of minor literature, not to be taken seriously.

True admiration was reserved for poetry. Islamic mysticism, known as Sufism, had
experienced a profound revival starting in the eleventh century. As part of this process,
Sufi poetry flourished. The works of Rumi (1207-1273) and Saadi (1210-1291), two
prominent representatives of the genre, continue to be published even today.

In a world dominated by men, the fact that Syrian poet and mystic 'A'isha al-Ba'uniyya
(1456-1517) reached high levels of official support demonstrates both her obvious
talent, as well as the high esteem that poetry enjoyed in the Muslim courts.
THE HOUSE OF WISDOM IN ABBASID BAGHDAD

Also known as the Grand Library of Baghdad, this famed institution included a
translation workshop, a research academy, an astronomical observatory and one of
the largest collections of classical manuscripts ever assembled.

Or maybe it didn’t ?

There are ongoing debates regarding the existence of the House of Wisdom as a
single entity, centered on a particular building within the city of Baghdad, operating
continuously from the eighth to the thirteenth century.

There is no doubt, however, that a sizable contingent of multi-ethnic learned

individuals used to gather in the city, during the Abbasid Dynasty, and that they had
access to impressive repositories of ancient and medieval texts. There is also plenty
of evidence regarding the work of translators based in Baghdad, which was home to
some of the most influential Muslim scientists, poets and inventors of the era.
This image was created by painter
and calligrapher Yahyá al-Wasiti in
1237, and it is often described as a
representation of the House of
Wisdom, but it was actually meant
to illustrate instead a meeting of
scholars at the much modest town
library of Basra, a port city south of
Baghdad.

We could think about it as a visual

reminder of the pervasive and
ubiquitous nature of book culture
and scholarly learning during the
Islamic Golden Age.
Starting in the ninth century, the Caliphate was often under the political and
military control of competing factions, with the caliphs operating as ecumenical
figure heads, and a series of sultans ruling over temporal affairs, which resulted in
territorial fragmentation and some degree of economic instability.
The Seljuk dynasty (1037-1194) was one of the most powerful political entities in
control of the Caliphate. Its founders were two brothers that led a Turkish army
into Persia from their ancestral home in the shores of the Aral Sea. After seizing
Baghdad, they turned east, conquering Anatolia and the Levant.
At its peak, the Seljuk Empire included most of the territories that today constitute
Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran. Its rulers were Sunni Muslims in terms of
religion. Their culture, however, combined both Turkish and Persian elements.
Although the Abbasids regained military control of Baghdad in 1157, effectively
ruling over most of Iraq, the original territory under the direct rule of the Caliphate
was now in the hands of several other states. Eventually, a series of successful
Mongol invasions led to the final collapse of the Abbasids, as signaled by the fall
of Baghdad to the forces of Hulagu Khan in 1258.
The Seljuk Empire, c. 1190