Legacy of the Abbasid Empire: Art, Innovation, and Decline

1. The Abbasid Empire 750-1258

2. Political • Killed all of the Umayyad except for one who fled to Spain (furthest extent because of Battle of Tours in 732) • Capital was Baghdad ( bigger than Constantinople in size and wealth) and means the “city of peace” • Bureaucratic and allowed non -Arabs elite positions • Mameluks- Egyptian slave mercenaries for army

3. Economic • Used many slaves from Africa and from within the Empire • The slaves were largely used as domestics • Farmed sugar cane, herbs, fruits, veggies a lot of irrigation, herding and made dyes for cotton • Artisans made furniture, carpets, glassware, tapestries, swords, steel and cloth; • Merchants had extensive trade contacts both land and overseas; collaborated with the Christians and Jews, had contacts with the Indians, Chinese and South East Asians (port of Malacca), used Monsoon winds to trade throughout Indian Ocean; sold goods from Asia, Africa, and Europe (became know as the Middlemen) • Created the concept of the check as form of payment

4. Religion • Many new converts- egalitarianism, trade, war • Much wealth from merchants went to charity (Zakat), continued to tax non-believers • Sufi missionaries helped to spread the faith as far as Southeast Asia They sing: Allah, Allah, Allah Allah ya Mawlana Allah, Allah, Allah Bifadlika Kuli

5. The Crusades • The Crusades were a religious conflict (1095-1250s) over holy land of Palestine when the Seljuk Turks invade and take Jerusalem from Byzantine control • The Muslims won the Crusades because of the forces of Saladin

6. Society Farmers/Peasants Slaves Ruling Class Landlords Merchants • Very diverse society ethnically as well as different levels • Upper class women were veiled – practice was adopted from Persian and Byzantine cultures and women lost rights as time went on; wealthy men had as many as 4 wives and several concubines and these women were kept in a certain part of the household ( harem) • Slaves wouldn’t become free if they converted, but their children would (in addition to Africa, many slaves came from Spain, Greece, India and Central Asia)

7. The Veiling of Women

8. Intellectual- Golden Age 800-1000’s • Greatest achievements in Cordoba Caliphate- Preserved Greco-Roman culture; translated the philosophers not of the ancient Mediterranean but also Persia and India; -Philosopher- Averroes (AKA Ibn Rushd) • Dhows with lateen sails were used to help facilitate trade – IOTN • Spread use of Arabic numerals (really were from INDIA, though!) • Algebra, astronomy, heliocentric view of universe circumference of Earth, navigational tools • Hospitals, emergency Rooms, medical encyclopedias, cataract surgery… • This knowledge would be passed on to western Europe as a result of the Crusades … “History’s most successful failure”

9. Arts • Depiction of humans /animals in art was forbidden in the Koran • ARABESQUE- Geometric shapes in religious art on mosques and palaces • Minarets on mosques • Quran was often written out in calligraphy as a form of art • Literature: One Thousand and One Nights

10. Decline • Corrupt officials/leaders in later dynasty • Began to lose territory in the late 900s to the Persian army and independent dynasties ruled in Egypt (Mameluks) and Spain • In 1055, Seljuk Turks would move into Baghdad and keep caliph in place as a puppet ruler • The Ulama grew very suspicious of non-Islamic teachings- stifled creative thinking- • Mongols (nomads from Asia) would move into Baghdad and destroy Baghdad , ending dynasty in 1258 A power void would be left in the Islamic world; • Tamerlane would control Northern India and Ottoman Turks will come to rule much of the Middle East in the 1300s “Death by 100 Hooves…”