Lecture 6:

The Umayyad Caliphate and tensions of empire

Review: history history history

• Regional context of Asia, Arabia and Mecca

• Story of Muhammad and revelation

• The political implications of Muhammad’s message

Broad aim of today’s lecture:

To discuss transition in Islam from provincial religious ideology to cosmopolitan imperial project

Why more history?

• Creation of Islamic civilisation as significant to Islam as teachings of Muhammad

• Development of Catholic and Protestant Church in Europe as significant as teachings of Jesus

• Cannot understand Islam without understanding Caliphate

Islam’s historical geography

• Islamic empire Islam’s centre of gravity

• A world religion with a specific geography

• Like Rome for South American Catholics

• Like Jerusalem for American Jews

The Caliphate

• Office of rightful succession.

• From the root Khalafa - to follow

• Caliph translated as successor or representative

Who has the right to succeed a prophet?

• Many tensions surround this issue

• Islam has few divisions in terms of doctrine

• Issue of succession a source of deep division

• Reason: inherent tension between the political and religious dimensions of Muhammad’s message

Specific aim of today’s lecture:

Draw out the implications of this tension on the development of the

Islamic civilisation.

Four Phases of the Caliphate

• The Rashidun (632-661)

• The Umayyad Caliphate (661-750)

• The Abbasid Caliphate (750-833)

• The late Abbasid period (833-945)

This lecture: The Rashidun and the Umayyad’s

Can see tensions of Islam expressed in two ways:

• Tensions 1: who has the right to lead the umma?

• Tensions 2: how should the umma be defined?

Tension 1: Who has the right to lead the umma?

• A religious question: what qualities does one need to be Caliph?

• Echoed long-standing divisions

• Divide between original Muslims and Qurayshi aristocracy

Tension exacerbated by unique political context

• Community no longer Muslim tribes of Arabia

• Included expanding political empire.

• Tension between ‘original’ vs. ‘later’ converts reflects deeper tension

• One invested in spiritual vision (‘original’)

• One with more practical/political outlook (‘later’)

• Both world views within Islam

Arabian invaders all agreed new empire should be Muslim and should

be lead by Caliph But

what a Muslim empire is and who has the authority to lead it

a fraught and open question.

Rashidun

Period characterised by leadership of the four ‘rightly guided’ caliphs

1. Abu Bakr

2. Umar

3. Uthman

4. Ali

Abu-Bakr

• Positions himself as successor

• Not rightful heir of prophecy

• No prophetic insight himself

“I have been given the authority over you, and I am not the best of you. If I do well, help me; and if I do wrong, set me right. Obey me so long as I obey God and His Messenger But if I disobey God and His Messenger, you owe me no obedience”

Umar

• Abu-Bakr favoured early Muslims, Medinans and descendents

• Umar similar: Islamic conception of Caliphate

• Bestowed political favour on early companions

• Patronised those perceived to have fidelity to Muhammad and Muslim values

Uthman

• Meccan aristocrat

• Favoured those in his clan (Umayyads)

• Reassertion of traditional Arabian aristocracy

• Commissioned standard edition of Quran

• Angered early Muslims: rightful custodians of religious matters

Assassination and crisis

• Uthman assissinated 656

• Challenged by coalition of forces around Ali

• Muawiya refuses to acknowledge Ali as Caliph

• Battles between followers of Ali and Muawiya

• Ali assassinated

• Muawiya rises to Caliphate

• Umayyad Caliphate established with capital in Damascus

Significance of crisis

• Ali’s followers: Islamic view of Caliphate

• Favoured direct lineage

• Ali rightful Caliph and descendents should succeed him

• Reject traditional forms of election

• Rationale: would reinstate Quraysh aristocracy

• Mantle of Muhammad usurped by Quraysh

• Followers of Ali come to be known as ‘Alids’

• Tradition eventually known as ‘Shia’ or Shi’ite

Kharajites

• Hard-line Islamic view of Caliphate

• Caliph should be elected by umma

• Should be a sinless

• Shia and Kharajis understood Caliph to be spiritual leader

• Should not be compromised by politics or political expedience

• Should model and promote the teachings of the prophet

Followers of Muawiya

• Accept idea that religious leadership has political dimension

• It is right and proper for religious authorities to be involved in political matters

• Followers eventually come to be called ‘Sunnis’

Significance of early struggles

• Tension over who has right to lead umma

• What qualities must a Caliph embody?

• Must Caliph be purely religious?

• Can they involve themselves in political matters?

• To what extent are religious and politics entwined?

• To what extent are ‘original’ Muslims more faithful to Islam than later converts?

Tension 2: How should the Umma be defined?

• Tension 1: who has the right to lead the Muslim community?

• Tension 2: what is the ‘Muslim community’ anyway?

• How does one create an imperial state whose defining characteristic is that it is Islamic?

• Examine this question through the Ummayad Caliphate

The Umayyads and their subjects

• Invasions a shock to the region

• Old imperial cultures that defined region gone

• Nomadic pastoralists in change

Principles of Umar

Muslim Arabs would:

• Not damage the agricultural society they had just conquered

• Cooperate with local nobles and chiefs

• Principles defined the nature of Ummayad rule

Significance and implications

• Kept local economy in tact and productive.

• No major disruption to local power systems

• Local notables, landowners and chiefs remain in control

Garrison Towns

• Communal barracks

• Sited on the edge of settlements

• Armies quickly mobilised

• Threatening presence

Remains of Fustat outside Cairo

High cast military elites

• Garrison towns maintained Arab elite status

• Arabs kept themselves separate from locals

• Not involved with day-to-day politics

• Appropriated surplus

• Also re-distributed

Myth of forced conversion

• Arabs ambivalent if not hostile to conversion

• Arabs ruling military elite

• Did not want formal association between ruler and ruled

• Muslims also not taxed

• Division illustrates tension over who constitutes the umma

Power and patronage • Local nobles,

military elites and imperial administrators mostly non-Arab

• Non-Arabs responsible for running and servicing empire

Non-Arab warriors and nobles (muwali)

Muwali

• How to absorb political class into tribal structures of loyalty

• Become Arab ‘clients’ (muwali)

• Traditional tribal system for incorporating outsiders

• Tribal protection in exchange for loyalty

• Muwali considered Inferior

• Many muwali convert to Islam

• Muwali high-standing roles but no political status

Muwali Arab division highlights tension of umma

• Ummayad empire essentially Arab in character

• Defined itself in Arab rather than Muslim terms

• If muwali allowed status then nothing to maintain Arabs as privileged class

Umayyad decline

• Death of Muawiya (680): more civil wars

• Shia and Khajari challenges

• Caliphate re-established by Abdel Malik

• Umayyad focus on consolidating empire

• Attempt to create stronger political and cultural solidarity

• Did this in two ways:

Disarmed garrison towns

• Changed nature of towns

• No longer have military function

• Soldiers incorporate other forms of income

• Commerce: open shops, become merchants, inter-marry

• Distinctions between Arab and non-Arab breaks down

• Creates seedbed for integrated cosmopolitan political community

Patronised court culture

• Used court to develop Islamic high culture

• Purpose: to foster political solidarity

• Borrowed symbols from Persian, Byzantine, Greek, Egyptian and Turkish traditions

• Reinterpreted them with Islamic sensibility

• Poetry, Literature, Dress, Coins

• New form of Islamic architecture

Dome of the Rock

Reflects Roman/Byzantine temple structure

Church of St. George, Anatolia

Sketch of Byzantine chapel

Mosques architecture

• Integrate symbols from past imperial traditions

• Architecture Byzantine and Roman

• Decorations and mosaics Persian tradition

• Given Islamic sensibility

• Carefully chosen Quranic inscriptions

• Key motif: Islam binds all traditions together

Dome of Rock Inscriptions

Grand mosque Damascus

Greek influences

Greek Influences

Also molding

distinctive Islamic form

Success of Caliphate

• Begins forging unique Islamic identity

• Integrates Islamic ideals into political system

• Establishes institutions of social welfare

• Hospitals and support for needy and poor

• World’s first welfare state (Crone, 2005)

• Not an oppressive regime

• Created authoritative version of the Quran

Failure of Caliphate

• Attachment to elite status

• Abdel Malik and successors unable to undermine entrenched status of Arabs

• Would require social and political revolution

Umayyad empire essentially Arab

• Umayyad entrenched in traditional tribal systems

• Instrumental in establishment of Islamic empire

• But rule characterised by:

• Social and political aloofness

• Commitment to Arab identity

• Would prove to be the dynasty’s downfall

• Umayyad outlook exemplified in royal palaces

Qasr Amra (present day Jordan)

Built on edge of desert

• Extensive baths

• Trappings of luxury

• Few indoor kitchens

• Small bedrooms

• Monuments of imperial power

• But steeped in Bedouin taste

Roman Bath in Qasr Amar

Take Home Ten