1.2E: Governance Across the Islamic World

Islam Expanded Rapidly in Multiple Waves

Main idea

Islam began on the Arabian peninsula before expanding across Afro-Eurasia in several waves of expansion.

By the middle of the 15^th century, Islam’s influence extended further than any other belief system or religion that came before it—from Spain in Western Europe to the Islands of Southeast Asia. Most remarkable about Islamic expansion is the speed at which it happened—taking less than 100 years to expand across the Middle East, North Africa, and the Iberian peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain). By 1350, the Islamic society had spread even further, controlling territory that spanned 8000 miles from Spain to Southeast Asia.

The arrival of Islam into a region often resulted in the following changes to that area existing social systems:

Governance became Islamic with Muslim rulers.
Legal systems used Islamic law (Sharia).
Elite groups adopted the Arabic language and script.
Artists and architects adopted some Islamic art and architectural styles.

Historical comparison

Islamic culture is a significant force shaping Afro-Eurasia. Chinese culture, especially Confucianism, was a dominant force that shaped East Asia.

The expansion of Islam happened in several waves over 1000 years.

The first wave of Islamic expansion happened during the life of the prophet Muhammad. Before his death in 632, Muhammad’s Islamic forces had conquered the Western half of the Arabian peninsula. Within three decades of Muhammad’s death, Islamic forces captured the whole of Arabia, significant portions of territory from the Christian Byzantine empire in the Levant and North Africa, and the Persian empire in the Middle East.

The spread of Islamic influence into sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia took hundreds of years.

Sub-Saharan Africa: African geography—the Sahara desert and dense jungles of central Africa—had prevented Islam from rapidly expanding outside North Africa. However, over hundreds of years, Islam slowly converted West and East Africa as Islamic traders spread their belief system while they traded with non-Muslims. In West Africa, Islam arrived with Muslim merchants trading along the Trans-Saharan trade routes. In East Africa, Islam arrived in the Swahili city-states via Islamic merchants selling goods on the Indian Ocean trade network.

South Asia: Islamic traders traded along the coast of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms in South Asia within a few decades of the religions founding in the 7^th century. However, there was no large conversion to Islam in South Asia. Islamic rule arrived in South Asia when Turkish Muslims conquered North India in the 13^th century.

The last significant Islamic expansion took place between the 14^th and 15^th centuries.

Southeast Asia: Islam has a long tradition in Southeast Asia. Like in India and along the East African coast, Islam first arrived in Southeast Asia via merchants engaged in Indian Ocean trade. These merchants set up Islamic diaspora communities from which they traded. Regional kings in the Southeast Asia islands regions began supporting Islam in the 14^th century. The conversion of the ruling class helped Islam further spread into the area. The first Islamic power in the region was the Sultanate of Kedah, established when King Mahawansa converted from Hinduism to Islam in 1136. By the 13^th century, Sumatran (modern Indonesia) kings had converted.

Anatolia: Throughout the 14^th and 15^th centuries, the power of Turkish Muslims increased in the Middle East. They used that power to expand their emerging Ottoman Empire deeper into the Christian Byzantine Empire in Anatolia and Southeastern Europe. These Ottoman Turks conquered what remained of Byzantium in 1453. With the last flame of Christianity extinguished in the Middle East, Islam became the dominant force on the Anatolian peninsula and spread into Eastern Europe.

How Did Islam Expand?

Main idea

Islam expanded through multiple methods, including conquest, trade, and missionary work.

The spread of Islam and the creation of Dar al-Islam (the Islamic world) took place through various methods.

! AP exam alert !

Pay close attention to the role of trade and networks of exchange play and spreading culture and leading to significant historical changes throughout the course.

Sufi Missionaries

Sufi missionaries also helped spread Islam, especially to ordinary people outside the elite classes. Sufi Muslims practice a mystical form of Islam that rejects worldly goods and wealth. They believe that Muslims must form a personal relationship with God.

In India, the former Byzantine empire, and Southeast Asia, Sufi missionaries traveled preaching Islam and engaging in charity work.
They had extensive contact with people outside cities where Islamic leaders and the governing class rarely ventured.
The mystical Sufi form of Islamic practice allowed Sufi missionaries to blend Islamic practices with local traditions. This blended form of Islam helped make Islam more understandable to local populations, making it easier to convert them from their traditional belief systems.

Turkish Muslims Began to Dominate the Islamic World in the 13th Century

Main idea

In the 13th century, Islamic converts from Central Asia (the Turks) moved into the Middle East and replaced the Arabs as the most powerful group in the Islamic world. Turkish Muslims founded many of the most powerful Islamic political dynasties between the 13th and 19th centuries.

In the 13th century, the Islamic world underwent a massive change. For its first 600 years, the Islamic world had been dominated and led by Arab Muslims connected to Muhammad’s original Arabian tribes. Turkish Muslims from Central Asia became the dominant political and ruling force in Middle Eastern Islam after they migrated into the region and grew their territories.

Arab dominance: The Islamic world before the 13th century

Within a few decades following Islamic expansion under Muhammad, a vast Islamic empire began to take shape. For the next six hundred years, large portions of the Islamic world remained centralized under two expansive Islamic caliphates (kingdoms) ruled by Arab Muslims that could trace their lineage to Muhammad’s original tribe.

The Umayyad Caliphate (661-750) stretched from Persia across North Africa to Spain. However, corruption and anger from non-Arab Muslims at the privileged position of Arab Muslims led to the weakening and collapse of the Umayyad.
The Abbasid Caliphate also stretched from Persia to North Africa. With the help of Persian Muslims, the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258) overthrew the Umayyad leadership. The Abbasid caliphs were Arab but increased the power of non-Arabs within the centralized administration of the empire and created a multi-ethnic form of Islam.

Before the 13th century, the two following features defined governance of the Islamic world.

The Islamic world (dar al-Islam) remained centralized under a large caliphate and caliph (Islamic kingdom and Islamic ruler).
Arab Muslims who could trace their lineage back to Muhammad’s original tribe governed the Islamic world.

The collapse of the Abbasid Empire and the end of Arab political dominance in the Islamic world

During its peak, the Abbasid dynasty was one of the wealthiest and grandest civilizations of early history. Abbasid rulers supported artists and built great libraries and centers of learning that attracted scholars from across the world.

Despite their achievements, various internal and external problems weakened and collapsed this once great Islamic empire.

The government lost tax revenue as corruption within the empire’s provinces decreased government tax revenue. Trade patterns also shifted as more goods along the Silk Road trade route moved onto more northern routes.
The government grew too large and distant from the people and increasingly failed to understand and meet their needs.
Infrastructure like canals in the countryside fell into disrepair, lowering agricultural output and leaving urban residents without a sufficient food supply.

Turkic Muslims: The increasing power of the Mamluk and Seljuk Turkish Muslims along the Abbasid weakened the Abbasid. The Seljuk took over the core of the Abbasid caliphate. Once in control, they demoted the Abbasid leader to the position of chief religious authority, removing much of his political power.
The Crusades: When the Seljuk Turks took control of the holy lands from the Abbasid Caliphate, they began to limit Christian access to sacred Christian sites in the region. In response, the Catholic Church and various European monarchs raised armies during a series of religious Crusades and invaded the Mediterranean coast of Abbasid lands.
The Mongols: The Abbasid Empire ended in 1258 when the Mongols invaded and destroyed the Abbasid capital of Baghdad. While the Mamluks stopped the westward expansion of the Mongols in Egypt, the Mongols placed the Persian territory of the Abbasid under Mongol control. What remained of the Abbasid Caliphate fragmented into multiple smaller kingdoms.

The Rise of Turkish Power: the Islamic World after the 13th century

The collapse of the Abbasid resulted in significant political change in the Islamic world.

Political fragmentation: The Middle Eastern Islamic world fragmented. Instead of one Islamic power controlling North Africa and most of the Middle East, multiple Islamic powers existed within the region.

Varied forms of Islamic practice: Islamic practices and traditions became more diverse as different Islamic leaders created political and social alliances with various Islamic groups.

The Rise of Turkic Muslims: Arab domination of the Islamic world ended. The Islamic world’s dominant force shifted from Arab Muslims who shared direct ancestry with the prophet Muhammad to Turkic Muslims who had immigrated to the Middle East from Central Asia. From North Africa to India, the most influential Islamic leaders were of Turkic ancestry. This Turkic influence led to a much more diverse Islamic culture.

New Turkic Muslim dynasties

As Turkic Muslims gained power, they established multiple new dynasties across the Middle East and North Africa.

The Seljuk Turks were the first to challenge Abbasid power. From 1040 to 1157, Seljuk leaders controlled vast portions of territory that had once belonged to Abbasid rulers. During the height of their power, the Seljuk nearly conquered what remained of the Christian Byzantine Empire North of Abbasid lands in Anatolia. The Seljuk’s descendants founded the Ottoman Empire, which replaced the Abbasid as the dominant Islamic power in portions of the Middle East and North Africa in the 15^th century.

The Mamluk were former Islamic military slaves of Turkic origin. When the Abbasid Caliphate weakened and collapsed, the Mamluk conquered Egypt, the Levant, and Hejaz.

There were two significant impacts of the Egyptian Mamluk.

They defeated the Mongols: First, in the Battle of Ain Jalut, Mamluk forces under Sultan Qutuz defeated the advancing Mongol forces of Hulagu Khan, ending the Mongol’s westward expansion.
Conquered European Crusader kingdoms: In 1302, the Mamluks invaded and destroyed what remained of the European crusader kingdoms in the holy lands. The Mamluk’s reconquest of the holy lands from Christians ended Europe’s 200-year quest to recapture the holy lands from Islam.

Before Islam’s partial conquest of India, various Hindu kings held political power across the subcontinent. Islamic control arrived in 1192 when the Mamluk Islamic general Muhammad Ghori defeated the Hindu forces of Prithvi Raj Chauhan in the second battle of Terrain. In 1206 Qutb-ud-din Aibak established the Islamic Delhi Sultanate in modern-day Delhi, India ushering in 600 years of Islamic influence in South Asia. At its height, the Delhi Sultanate grew to encompass three-fourths of the Indian subcontinent. Unlike in other regions where Islam expanded, most of India’s population never converted to Islam.