The+Islamic+Empire

toc =The Islamic Empire= The Islamic Empire is the term used to describe the areas ruled by the different Islamic caliphates during the 6th through the 13th centuries A.D. A caliph is the person who ruled the Islamic world for a period of time, usually until his death, at which point a successor he had named would take over the caliphate.

Origins
The Islamic Empire started with the prophet Muhammad, the first prophet of the Islamic religion. Eventually, Islam spread to cover much of the Middle East. The empire was ruled by “caliphates,” or dynasties, of rulers from the same tribe or area. One of the things all people in this empire had in common was their religion, Islam.

Muhammad (610-632)
Muhammad is the man commonly believed to be the founder of the Islamic faith. He was born in 570 in Mecca, a city in the western part of modern day Saudi Arabia. Muhammad grew up as a normal child, marrying for the first time at age 25. When he was 40, he became dissatisfied with the way life was in Mecca, and went to a cave nearby to meditate. It was there that Muhammad received his first revelations from the angel Gabriel, which said “Proclaim! In the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created- Created man, out of a clot of congealed blood Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful He Who taught the pen, Taught man that which he knew not.” -Quran, sura 96 (Al-Alaq), ayat 1-5 (1) After receiving these revelations, he began to preach them as part of a new religion, which he called Islam, which means “to surrender [to Allah].” He called followers of this religion Muslims, which means “those who submit [to Allah].” This religion started out small, and many people did not believe in it, and went so far as to call it lies. In 622, Muhammad and his followers migrated to Medina, and began to gain followers in that area. After they gained a force of about 10,000 people, they returned to Mecca and conquered the city. Soon after, in 632, Muhammad fell ill and died. By 632, much of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam and united into a somewhat unified government under the religion.

Rise of caliphs and succession troubles (632-750)
After Muhammad’s death, a debate broke out as to his successor. A close friend of Muhammad recommended Abu Bakr, who was quickly supported and appointed caliph. After his death two years later, four more people became caliph within a short period of time, although all were quickly assassinated after their rise to power. Finally, the Umayyads took power, moved the capitol to Damascus, and ruled until about 750 A.D. The Umayyad caliphs believed the only people who should be allowed to practice Islam were people who were born Arabs. This eventually evolved into a system where non-Muslims (known as Dhimmis) would pay taxes to the Muslim Arabs. People who were not Arab-born were allowed to convert to Islam, but were assigned the status of “mawali,” and did not receive the same benefitsthat Arab Muslims did.

‍‍Beginning of the Abbasid Era (750 onward) ‍‍
The Abbasids were the first caliphate to last for longer than 100 years, and also were the caliphs that expanded the empire the most. Under the Abbasids, the Islamic Empire stretched from where it started, in the Middle East, across Northern Africa to Southern Spain, and eastward into India and Pakistan. This was the “Golden Era” of the Islamic Empire, and stretched for over 5 centuries into the 1200’s before finally falling.

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Spread by Conquest and Trade to south Asia and North Africa
After Muhammad died in 632, there was a lot of controversy of who would succeed him. There were many opinions and arguments about this in the Islamic empire. The first four caliphs were Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali. Ali was murdered and succeeded by his son, Hassan, who soon resigned; this made way for the development of the Umayyad dynasty. The Umayyad dynasty spread from North Africa to Spain. The dynasty tried to overthrow the Byzantine Empire but could not control the empires strong capital. From there the dynasty went on to Europe that was dominated by Christian faiths. They had gotten to the Iberian Peninsula and parts of Italy, but were stopped by Charles Martle before they were able to conquer Paris. Problems with succession in the dynasty led to a spit in the religion into two groups. This split not only stopped the dynasty from further conquest but ultimately led to the decline of the Umayyad. It was followed by the Abbasid Empire in 750. The dynasty was built around the idea of trade, the trade led to many new ideas and inventions that allowed the empire to flourish. The Abbasid army fought the T’ang Chinese army in the Talus river battle, for the control of the Silk Road. When the Abbasid empire won the control of the Silk road there were many ideas the Muslims picked up from the Chinese, this again allowed for new inventions within the Abbasid empire.

Technological Innovations
In the Islamic Empire there have been many advances to some theories. The Ancinet Greeks came up with algebraic and geometric theories but the Muslims made corrections to them. They also found advancements in trigonometry like sone, cosine, and tangent. They also improved many scientific theories. They improved scientific devices used for measruement and Muhammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi classified materials into three substances: animals, vegetables, and minerals. Many of al-Razi's findings are still used in modern day science. The Muslims reorganized and renamed the constellations and improved the astrolabe and armillary sphere for measuring the position of celestial bodies. Craftsmen improved many techniques for paper-making, ceramics, and silk-weaving that had originated in China.