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