Book 1, Chapter 4, Set 7 Flashcards
Describe the fall of the Umayyad dynasty. (page 175)
Factionalism still continued to be a major problem under the Umayyads. One major group still believed that the descendants of ‘Ali, the loser of the civil war that had brought the Umayyads to power, should rule. When one of ‘Ali’s sons was killed, this faction made him a martyr, triggering a schism in Islam. From then on, followers of ‘Ali would be Shias, while the supporters of the Umayyads would be Sunni. In 750 CE, several anti-Umayyad factions joined together to overthrow their rulers. The leader of the revolt was descended from another relative of Muhammad, ‘Abbas.
Describe the Abbasid dynasty and some of its crucial accomplishments. (page 175)
The family of ‘Abbas was based largely in the old Persian Empire – modern-day Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. The Abbasids moved their capital to the new city of Baghdad, which was located closer to their seat of power, located on major trade routes, and closer to fertile farming areas. The Abbasids purged their government of any Umayyad officials and spied on officials in far-off provinces to maintain their control. They also implemented a more formal system of taxation to pay for their armies and bureaucrats. The Abbasid period is largely considered a golden age of Islamic art, science, and architecture. Arabic increasingly became important as a religious and political language. Large encyclopedias were commissioned, and Greek and Persian philosophical works, scientific texts, and literature were translated. Without these translations, the modern world would probably know little of ancient Greek and Persian literature, and the technological advances of the scientific revolution and after would have been much delayed.
Describe the fall of the Abbasids. (page 175)
The Abbasids could not control further revolts among their subjects. In the mid-10th century, the Buyids, a group of professional soldiers employed by the Abbasids, staged a coup and took over the caliphate. They allowed the Abbasids to keep their titles, and the Abbasids ruled in name only until the arrival of the Mongols in the 13th century.
Describe the division of the Islamic Empire and name the three factions that arose from this division. (page 176)
Although the Islamic culture was united by culture and trade throughout the whole medieval period, it separated into three governments. The Abbasid dynasty concentrated power to the east, but the areas farthest from the new caliphate began to break away. First was Spain, which in 756 CE became an independent emirate, ruled by a branch of the exiled Umayyad dynasty. Shortly afterward, independent governors arose in Morocco, western and eastern Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt. By the 10th century, Islam had become three separate caliphates. In addition to the Abbasids, there was a Fatimid caliphate in Egypt, and an Umayyad caliphate in Spain.
Describe the Isma’ili Fatimids and their accomplishments. (page 176)
The Fatimid dynasty was founded in the early 10th century by an Isma’ili Shia Muslim named ‘Ubaydallah. The Isma’ili Shia branch of Islam probably started as a secret movement in Iraq, though its missionary activity soon spread its members all across the Islamic world. In 910 CE ‘Ubaydallah, who claimed descent from Muhammad’s daughter Fatima, emerged from Tunisia to take over North Africa and claim the title of caliph. ‘Ubaydallah’s “Fatimid” descendants conquered Egypt in 969 CE, and founded the city of Cairo. From there they went on to conquer Syria and Palestine, reaching as far as Aleppo and Damascus. The Fatimid caliph ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, causing uproar in Europe and helping trigger the Crusades. Cairo, meanwhile, became the center of a massive trade network. It also became an important site of religious learning.
Describe the fall of the Fatimids. (page 177)
The Fatimid dynasty continued to rule Egypt until their conquest by the Kurdish warrior Saladin in 1171 CE. Saladin used his Egyptian base to retake the Holy Land from the crusader settlers, but his Ayyubid dynasty tell within a century, overthrown by the Mamluks, originally turkish slave soldiers, who had risen to become commanders of the Egyptian army.
Describe the rule of the Umayyads in Spain. (page 177)
The emirate of Cordoba was founded by in 756 by the exiled Umayyads, who ruled almost all of Spain. The title of caliph was taken by ‘Abd al-Rahman III al-Nasir in 929 CE, possibly as a reaction to the claim of the Fatimids. Christian, Islamic, and Spanish influences produced a unique cultural fusion across the areas ruled by the Umayyad and the Almoravids, their Moroccan successors. Spain became the wellspring from which Islamic and pre-Islamic knowledge flowed back into medieval Europe, and the influence of highly “Moorish” Spain extended into neighboring Christian kingdoms.
Describe the founding of the Delhi Sultanate. (page 180)
In 1175 CE, the nomadic Muslim chieftain Muhammad of Ghur advanced into India. Although the Indian armies were bigger and richer, the invaders had the advantages of horses and a centralized army. They swept over modern Turkestan, Pakistan, and northern India before sacking Delhi in 1193 CE. After Muahmmad of Ghur’s death in 1206 CE, one of his generals, the ex-slave Qutb-ub-din Aibek, gained control of his Indian possessions and founded the Delhi Sultanate. To celebrate this and the assimilation of new territory into the wider Muslim world, he began construction on what would become the tallest minaret in the world - the Qutb Minar. This 238 ft. tower came to symbolize the sultanate. As the empire expanded, successive sultans tried to demonstrate their power by building grand monuments around it.
Describe the Sultanate of Delhi’s pattern of succession. (pages 180 and 181)
The nomadic tribes who made up the Sultanate’s nobility did not have a strong tradition of hereditary kingship. Succession was often secured by violence, and military slaves often became sultans, along with women if they could muster the support.
Describe the fall of the Sultanate of Delhi. (page 181)
After he became sultan, Muhammad bin Tughlaq moved the capital 700 miles south to Devagiri, now renamed Daulatabad. In 1327-1328 CE, he forced the elite to relocate to Daulatabad, but within two years, the inadequate water supply forced him to relocate back to Delhi. Meanwhile, the empire began to fragment. New kingdoms and elites, both Hindu and Muslim, came to power in the Deccan region of south India. Telugu-speaking warriors established the Vijiyanagar Empire to the south of the Delhi Sultanate in the 1330s, and in 1345 the governors of the Deccan rebelled against Delhi and founded the Bahmani kingdom. By 1398 CE, when the Mongol warrior Timur sacked and destroyed Delhi, the sultanate was no longer a major power. It continued until 1526 CE, when Ibrahim Lodi, the last of the sultans, was defeated at Panipat, but was by then one of many states contending for power in northern India.
Describe the effect of trans-Saharan trade on the Empire of Ghana. (page 182)
In the 8th to 11th centuries CE, the Ghana Empire grew powerful on the trans-Saharan gold trade. Its rulers became Muslim in the 11th century, but then it declined in influence and was supplanted in the 13th century by the Mali Empire.
Describe the settlement of Great Zimbabwe. (pages 182 and 183)
Great Zimbabwe was a settlement built at the head of the Sabi River valley. It was the hub of a trade network that thrived in southern Africa during the 11th to 15th centuries and an important source of gold, lumber, and ivory. It was well positioned between the gold fields to the west and the major trading ports on the Swahili coast to the east. The region also had grazing land for cattle and the soil was fertile enough to allow farming of the key cereals sorghum and millet. The settlement also profited on the taxation of the trading caravans that came through the area. Artifacts found originally from Persia, the Middle East, and Asia suggest that Great Zimbabwe was wealthy and a major trading post.
Describe the decline of Great Zimbabwe. (page 183)
Although in the 13th to 14th centuries CE Great Zimbabwe had a population between 11,000 and 18,000 people, it was abandoned sometime in the mid-15th century. Although its abandonment coincides with the conquests of the king of Karanga, Mutota, Great Zimbabwe was probably abandoned due to the land not being able to support the concentration of population. Many inhabitants were probably forced to find new areas of woodland where plots could be cleared.
Describe the Mail Empire. (page 183)
In West Africa, the first great empire after Ghana was the Mali. The Mali Empire, like that of Ghana, was based in the Sahel, the savanna region running along the southern border of the Sahara. From the Sahel, it was possible for Mali, like Ghana before it, to exploit trade across the Sahara to North Africa and control the exchange of gold for salt mined in the desert. The first capital, Niani, was sited by the Bure goldfields on the Niger River, where much of the wealth of the empire originated. Other trade goods included slaves and kola nuts, as well as glass beads and cowrie shells for currency.
Who was Mansa Musa and what were his accomplishments? (page 183)
The Mali state was founded in 1235 CE by Sundiata Keita when he united the 12 Mandinke tribes of Mali. But the empire reached its peak in the 14th century under his grandnephew, Mansa Musa. A devout Muslim, Musa is renowned for his “Pilgrimage of Gold” to the holy city of Mecca. Musa also expanded the Mali Empire, uniting much of the western Sudan under his rule. During Musa’s reign, the city of Timbuktu became a wealthy commercial hub and a great center for scholarship. Musa had the great Jingereber mosque built in Timbuktu, where it still stands today. North African and Egyptian scholars visited Musa’s court, and he exchanged ambassadors with Egypt, Morocco, and Arabia.
