01:506:201 Lecture 6: Chapter 6
17 May 2018
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Chapter 6
The First Global Civilization: The Rise and Spread of Islam
1. Introduction
1. Before 7th century – contacts, but not total control of ancient
world under one empire
1. Arabia – nomadic land on periphery of major civilizations
2. 7th century – followers of Islam “submission” – Muslims – Allah –
one God
1. Began conquest and conversion
2. Within decades, Muhammad had empire of Persia, Greece
and Egypt
3. Later empire spread
1. Merchants, mystics, warriors
2. Empire expanded
1. Africa, Asia, southern Europe
2. Across steppes to central Asia, western China, south
Asia
3. Across ocean trade routes to southeast Asia and
eastern Africa
4. Across overland trade routes, Sahara to western
Africa
5. Across Asia Minor and into European heartland –
rivals Christianity
3. Muslim merchants
1. Worked with traders from other regions
2. Prime agents for transfer of food crops, technology,
and ideas
3. Muslim scholars studied, preserved and improved
upon learning of Ancient Civs
1. Eventually, Arabic – language of Qur’an would
become international language of the educated
4. Would define Middle East and N. Africa until today
2. Desert and Town: The Arabian World and the Birth of Islam
1. Introduction
1. Geography – unlikely birth of religion – inhospitable desert
2. Bedouin – nomadic culture dominant
1. Some towns – Mecca/Medina – merely extensions of
Bedouin life
1. Safety of trade routes determined success of
cities
2. People linked to kinship
3. Culture
1. Focus on clan and family
2. language and religion
2. Some coastal trading towns
2. Clan Identity, Clan Rivalries, and the Cycle of Vengeance
1. Organization
1. kin-related clans group with others to make tribes
1. Only congregate for war, severe crisis
2. Conditions force you to rely on clan – kicked out
equals death
3. Life regulated by councils
1. shayks – leaders of the tribe/clan
1. has large herds, several wives,
many children/retainers
2. Ideas of shayks enforced by warriors
2. Conflict over pastureland/watering holes
1. Need to defend one’s honor
2. One man’s slight could lead to huge conflict
followed by revenge
3. Constant conflicts led to weakened empire –
vulnerable to outsiders
3. Towns and Long-Distance Trade
1. Small communities of traders emerge
2. Some northern cities become trade links
1. Mecca dominates – mountainous region – controlled
by Umayyad clan of Quraysh tribe
1. Mecca has Ka’ba – focus of bazaars
1. Obligatory truce brought rival groups
together
2. Medina – to the north – wells and springs
1. Unlike Mecca, run by five competing families –
2 bedouin, 2 Jewish
1. These divisions later help with formation
of Islam
4. Marriage and Family in Pre-Islamic Arabia
1. Women greater freedom…varied from tribe to tribe
1. Key economic roles – milking camel, weaving cloth,
raising children
2. Unlike Persian neighbors – not covered or secluded
3. wrote poetry
4. Able to have multiple partners
5. Lineage matrilineal
2. …but, men still greater
1. Earn status through war/battle
2. Creation of cities leads to stratification leads to male
dominance
3. Men only polygamy
5. Poets and Neglected Gods
1. Sparse resources – art and architecture didn’t flourish
2. Poetry/oral history main method of sharing stories
1. Theme – heroic clans, warriors
3. Gods – polytheistic and animism
1. But…how many really believed
2. One tribe, Quraysh believed had one god named
Allah
1. but not prayed to, sacrificed to initially
3. The Life of Muhammad and the Genesis of Islam
1. Early life of Muhammad
1. Born into prominent clan of Quraysh tribe
1. Father and mother die, raised by uncle and prominent
grandfather
2. Made caravan trips with Abu Talib – exposed to
Christian/Jewish faiths
2. Early 20s worked as a trader for Khadijah – later wife
1. saw inequity of classes
2. saw class rivalries
3. saw tension between clans as some, Umayyads, got
rich through commerce
4. saw monotheistic religions
1. Many prophets during this time period pushed
for monotheism
3. 610 – first revelation from Gabriel
1. Wrote Allah’s words in Qur-an
2. Persecution, Flight and Victory
1. Seen as threat – Umayyad in Mecca
1. Threat to wealth and power
2. Threatened Ka’ba role, no longer center of
commerce?
2. One clansmen Ali, finds way for him to sneak out to Medina
in 622
1. Medina ideal location – caught up in clan conflict
