298 Crusades Lecture 2 Jan 29

Question 1

Picking up from last time

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Question 2

Trade begins to resume

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Question 3

Pilgrimage

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Question 4

Building boom
Churches
Castles

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Question 5

Feudalism and Manorialism

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Question 6

Stirrup a Chinese invention that comes to Europe in about the sixth century. Widespread a little later. Horses now militarily effective. Frankish charge. Horse, rider, long pole. Amazing force. But horses are expensive. Much training necessary. Only aristocracy can do this. Defined by being mounted warriors.

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Question 7

Feudalism a way to try to mobilize those mounted knights. Providing the necessary resources to outfit these mounted warriors. Lord gives lands to a vassal. Vassal swears to God that he will protect him and that he will come annually, usually for forty days, with all the troops that that land can support. Scris of agreements

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Question 8

To understand Crusades we need to understand that the Latin west is responding to the growing religion of Islam.

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Question 9

Arabia never past of Roman Empire.
Mecca the largest city , but fairly small by Roman standards. Second biggest Medina.
Most Arabs lived in rural areas or on caravans bringing goods from the far east.

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Question 10

Muhammad an Arab merchant. Lived in Mecca.

Muhammad exposed to many religions: Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism

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Question 11

610 began receiving divine revelations. Recite
610-622 preached in Mecca. Monotheism not well received. All Arabs had some kind of polytheistic nature religion. Mecca a major pilgrimage site. Kaba.

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Question 12

After death Of his first wife who was of an influential family in Mecca his remaining there became less and less tenable.

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Question 13

Goes to Medina in 622. Factional strife in the city between major families. City looking for someone who could come in without a dog in the fight and bring peace. Muhammad well known as a good man. Charismatic anda born leader. They offer him the job. He would be ruler of the city. He agrees on the condition that the people become Muslim.
Hijira/ Hijra. Romanized variously.

Answer 13

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Question 14

At Medina, Islam also now becoming a form of government. Administration of justice. City defense. The recitations now increasingly have to do with that.
Islam thus gets a head start on Christianity on now to run a state.

Peace of God

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Question 15

Muhammad wages war on Mecca as a city of unbelievers. This is when his thoughts on holy war take shape.
630 Mecca conquered.

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Question 16

632 Muhammad the ruler of all of Arabia

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Question 17

Islam has at its roots much that comes out of Judaism and Christianity. Sees himself in a long line of prophets.
All of the recitations collected into the Koran.
Hadith

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Question 18

Very successful expansion

Muhammad died in 632

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Question 19

By 640 Muslim armies had conquered all of christian Syria and Palestine. 642 had taken almost all of Egypt, one of the most christian places in the world at the time. 644 taken Persian empire entirely. Pushed west across christian North Africa. Berbers by 695 defeated. Cross into Spain. Cross into France. 732 Battle of Poitiers.

Maps

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Question 20

Three quarters Of christian world conquered in a century.

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Question 21

How was it possible ?
Muslims credited God
Benefited from the fact that the two major empires Of the time, Byzantine and Persian, had just finished fighting a long series of wars. 2 decades. Devastating. Deep into each others territories. By 628 when the wars ended and Persians lost and empire destroyed. Byz. Exhausted.

Note: Byzantines calles themselves Roman
Had reconquered parts of western empire in the 530s to 550s under Justinian

Answer 21

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Question 22

Arab Muslims didn’t care about this distinction. For Ms the coming of the Arabs good news: freedom to worship and from Constantinople.

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Question 22

Monophysite controversy over the nature of Christ. Human vs divine Side. Broke out in the last, did not affect the west at all. Syria and Egypt in particular. The issue was less the theology and more there who were upset with the central government in Constantinople. If you didn’t life government of part of on out of power faction you were a monophysite. When Arabs arrived, is you were a M you were being actively persecuted by the emperor and his administration.

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Question 23

Byz generals bungled

Didn’t follow orders
Foolish decisions

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Question 24

Caliphate:
Not kingship or emperorhood
Denotes the unique and universalist inheritance of the mantle of the Prophet as head of the Muslim community (umma)

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Question 25

Shi’a split:
Initial Caliphs (Rightly Guided) had been part of Muhammad’s inner circle.
Abu Bakr 632-634
Umar b. al-Khattab 634-644

Answer 25

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Question 26

Uthman b. Affan 644-656
Contentious. Part of the tribe that had opposed Muhammad in Mecca. Appointed members of his clan to positions of power, discontent brewed.

Answer 26

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Question 27

Ali 656
Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law (M’s daughter Fatima)
Ali had trouble securing his caliphate
Assassinated 661

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Question 28

Ali’s rival gets caliphate: Mu’awiya, part of the same clan as Uthman, the Banu Umayya

Shi’a faction remains

Majority become Sunni – following the scholars. This only really solidifies a little later on. Question of interpretation.

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Question 29

Ummayad dynasty 661-750
Expansions: Across Iranian plateau into central Asia; India; Tunisia; Spain

Damascus capital. Had been Medina

Superficial conquests: autonomy for tribute

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Question 30

Arabs employ those they conquer. Adopt the in place administrative systems.

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Question 31

Usually the culture conquers the conquerors.
Arabs willing to adopt culture artifacts. Music, food. Much of their own culture remains due to Arabs separating themselves from the locals. Language. Religion.

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Question 32

Made some decisions that hurt them in the long run
Hereditary rule to caliphate
Infighting
Being Arab privileged: Islam religion of ruling elite

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Question 33

The clients of the conquered lands considered inferior. Mawali.

Clients chafe under this prejudice. Lack of access to administrative jobs. Even if they’re Muslims.

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Question 34

739 major revolt erupted across North Africa

Ummayads never really regain control of that region

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Question 35

Abbasid revolution
Appeal: offered a fairer Islaimic order in which Muslims, of whatever origin, would be able to participate on equal terms

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Question 36

Abbasids only manage to get partway into Norther Africa (up to modern Tunisia)

Rest left as autonomous city-states, the fruit of the 739 revolt

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Question 37

Abbasids turn east

Baghdad capital: “Baghdad” evoked opulence and splendour as far west as the court of the Carolingians

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Question 38

Samarra capital for 60 years

Marked the arrival of the Turks into the empire

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Question 39

Turks at first as army troops. Soon most of army is Turkish and of non-Muslim origin.

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Question 40

Samarra full of grandeur but a golden cage for the caliphs.

Caliphs resided at the mercy of the Turkish amirs who commanded the loyalties of the troops and their families.

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Question 41

As a result: growth of provincial governors’ power and de facto independence by the late 9th century

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Question 42

Caliphate now respected on a symbolic level, but their power very limited beyond Iran

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Question 43

One successful splintering: Fatimids

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Question 44

Fatamids gained Egypt in 969

Shi’is now in control. “Protecting” the caliphs.

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Question 45

The confusion in the Abbasid empire gave an opportunity to the Byzantines, who reclaimed Syria

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Question 46

In Spain, Ummayad caliphate

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Question 47

1055
A clan of Turks, the Saljuqs (Seljuks) “rescued” the Abbasid caliphs from the Shi’i “protectors” and asserting control over Baghdad and eastern Islamic lands from Syria to Afghanistan

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Question 48

Saljuqs Sunnis
New institution: Sultanate. Created to rationalize the situation.
“Muslim ruler whose assumption and maintencance of power by military means was legitimized by the dedication of his financial and military resources to defending the faith”

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Question 49

Saljuqs drove out the Byzantines from Syria

Leads to the tensions that bring the Byzantines to look to the west for help

Answer 49

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