HIST 46 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Ummah, Abbasid Caliphate, Muawiyah I
Document Summary
Islamic empire took existing civilizations and built upon it. On the eve of islam, it was sandwiched between the byzantines and the sasanian empire. Byzantiens and sasanians fought for nearly 100 years and it depleted their resources. The byzantine emperor persecuted jews and christians outside of greek orthodoxy and this alienated their citizens. The sasanian empire had a large, effective bureaucracy and professional military. Because of the lack of state religion, sasanian citizens didn"t feel any loyalty towards the empire and became disaffected. Islam was influenced by byzantines and sasanians alike. The arabian pensinsula had no unifying empire and was just a bunch of tribes. Majority of arabia"s inhabitants were pastoral nomads. Arabs always engaged in warfare because of scarce resources. Most arabs did speak a form of poetry that was understood across arabia. This was significant because mohammad could spread the quran through this poetry.
