How and why did Islamic civilization flourish from 700 to 1300 CE?

DBQ adapted by Toni Biasiello, Linda Burns, and Dan Wolman

Central Question: How and why did Islamic civilization flourish from 700-1300 CE?

Document 1: Text: Desmond Stewart and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Great Ages of Man: Early Islam, Time-Life Books, 1967.

By the middle of the sixth century…Mecca was…prosperous and important. First, it was at the crossroads of the lucrative caravan trade. Vast camel trains, bearing spices, perfumes, precious metals, ivory and silk, filed through the town, headed north on the way from Yemen…to the markets of Syria, and headed east from the Red Sea across the desert to Iraq. Adding to the profits from caravans was a brisk pilgrimage trade, for Mecca was the site of Arabia’s holiest pagan shrine [the Ka’ba].

Questions:

1) Why might it be important that Mecca was “prosperous and important” by the mid-6th century?

2) What explains the significance of the Ka’ba in Mecca’s economy?

3) How does this document help answer the central question?

Document 2: Two maps: Map of Abbasid dynasty, ca. 700 CE and Map of Expansion of Islam 750-1500

1

Questions:

1) Where is the concentration of trade routes in the early Islamic empire?

2) What does this map suggest about the Abbasid dynasty?

3) Where and when is Islam’s expansion most significant, according to the map?

4) What connection do you see between the two maps (trade routes and the expansion of Islam)?

5) How do these maps help you answer the central question?

Document 3: Between 750-1350, the Muslim merchants built a trade network throughout their empire, as this excerpt from The Gates of India by Sir T. H. Holdich (London: MacMillan, 1910) explains:

Masters of the sea, even as of the land, the Arabs spread throughout the geographical area. The whole world was theirs to explore….their ships sailed across the seas even as they moved across the land [Sahara Desert into West Africa]. The might of the sword of Islam carved the way for the slave owner and the merchant to follow.

2

Questions:

1) Why and where were the Muslims able to establish a trading empire?

2) In what ways do the maps in Document 2 support this document?

3) What does Holdich mean when he writes that “the sword of Islam carved the way for the slave owner and the merchant to follow?”

4) How does this document help you answer the central question?

Document 4: Verses from the Quran. Translated by N.J. Dawood.

Those who submit to God and accept the true Faith; who are devout, sincere,patient, humble, charitable, and chaste; who fast and are ever mindful of God--on these, both men and women, God will bestow forgiveness and rich recompense [reward]. (33:35)

... (W)hoever killed a human being, except as punishment for murder or other villainy..., shall be deemed as having killed all mankind; and ... whoever saved a human life shall be deemed as having saved all mankind .... (5:32)

But the believers who do good works, both men and women, shall enter Paradise. They shall not suffer the least injustice. (4:124)

Do not devour one another's property by unjust means, nor bribe the judges with it in order that you may wrongfully and knowingly usurp [take] other people's possessions .... (2:188)

Permission to take up arms is hereby given to those who are attacked, because they have been wronged. God has power to grant them victory. (22:39)

Questions:

1) According to verse 33:35 of the Qur'an, what are the qualities of someone who is favored by God?

2) What does verse 5:32 suggest about the value of human life? To whom might this passage be particularly appealing?

3) Examine verse 2:188. What does it suggest about Islam's view toward private property?

4) According to verse 22:39, when are Muslims allowed to fight?

5) How does this document help you answer the central question?

3

Document 5: In this excerpt from The Spirit of Islam, by a Muslim writer, Syed Ali, the expansion of Islam is defended and that of Christianity criticized.

Islam never interfered with the dogmas of any moral faith, never persecuted…Islam ‘grasped the sword’ in self -defense; Christianity grasped it in order to stifle freedom of thought and liberty of belief. Wherever Christianity prevailed, no other religion could be followed without molestation. The Muslims, on the other hand, required from others a simple guarantee of peace, tribute in return for protection, of perfect equality—on condition of the acceptance of Islam.

Questions:

1) According to Ali, why do Muslims and Christians “grasp the sword”?

2) How did Muslims treat those who accepted Islam?

3) In what ways to these assessments align with the passages from the Qur’an in Document 4?

4) How does this document help you answer the central question?

Document 6: This excerpt suggests that there are options to conversion, depending on the religion of the people facing conversion (from J.J. Saunders’ “The Caliph Omar: Arab Imperialist,” History Today, March 1961, pp. 180-181).

Koranic revelation commanded them to “fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not be the aggressors.” The early Muslims thus fought their heathen enemies…war against unbelievers was sanctioned [approved] by divine revelation and the example of the Prophet. But many Arabs were Jews or Christians: what was to be done with them? Muhammad respected the older monotheistic faiths…He called them “people of the book”… they were not forced into Islam, but were allowed to maintain their ancestral religion on payment of tribute.

Questions:

1) Muhammad referred to Christians and Jews as “people of the book” – what did he mean? In other words, why was he tolerant of Christianity and Judaism?

2) Christians and Jews who were allowed to continue practicing their own faiths on payment of tribute were called what? (vocab word)

3) In what ways does Saunders suggest the early intertwining of a religious and political order in the Islamic world?

4) How does this document help you answer the central question?

4

Document 7: Abu al-Hasan Al-Mawardi, The Ordinances of Government, ca. 975 CE.

Note: in 632, following the death of Muhammad, the first caliph (a spiritual ruler, sometimes called an imam) was selected to lead the Muslim community. Over the next three centuries, the duties of the caliph were firmly established. The excerpt below, from a book of Islamic law written by an Arab judge in the 10th century, outlines five of the ten public duties of the caliph.

The Ordinances of Government

1. To maintain the religion according to established principles and the consensus of the first generation of Muslims. If . . . some dubious person deviates from it, the Imam must clarify the proofs of religion to him, expound that which is correct, and apply to him the proper rules and penalties  so that religion may be protected from injury and the community  safeguarded from error.

2. To execute judgments between litigants [people involved in lawsuits] and to settle disputes between contestants so that justice may prevail and so that none commit or suffer injustice.

3. To defend the lands of Islam and to protect them from intrusion so that people may earn their livelihood and travel at will without danger to life or property.

4. To enforce the legal penalties for the protection of God's commandments from violation and for the preservation of the rights of his servants from injury or destruction. . . .

5. To wage . . . jihad  [holy war] against those who, after having been invited to accept Islam, persist in rejecting it, until they either become Muslims or enter the Pact* so that God's truth may prevail over every religion.

* The Pact was an arrangement often made by Muslim rulers that permitted conquered Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims to continue to practice their religion if they paid a special tax called the jizyah and obeyed Islamic laws.

 Questions:

1) What responsibility is given to the caliph in the first duty?

2) What responsibilities are listed in duties 2, 3, and 4?

3) In American society, who is responsible for these non-religious tasks?

4) What was the Pact? (see Note)

5) What would have been the potential impact of ordinance #5 above? In other words, how might people have interpreted that provision?

6) How does this document explain how Islam spread so quickly?

5

Document 8: lbn Battuta traveled in Mali in 1352 and wrote this description in Travels to Kingdom of Mali.

They are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorrence [hatred] of injustice than any other people. Their sultan shows no mercy to anyon e who is gu ilty of the least act of it. There is complete security in their country. Neither traveler nor inha bitant in it has anything to fear from robbers.

Questions:

1) What two things impressed lbn Battuta about Mali?

2) What are the implications of this document with respect to Islam’s penetration into Africa?

3) How does this document help you answer the central question?

Document 9: This excerpt, from the textbook World History: Patterns of Interaction (Beck, Black; Naylor, Shabaka. Evanston, IL: McDougal  Littell,  1999), explains  why  Muslims  both  preserved  existing  knowledge  and  extended it.

Muslims had practical reasons for supporting the advancement of science. Rulers wanted qualified physicians treating their ills. The faithful . . . relied on mathematicians and astronomers to calculate the times of prayer and the direction of Mecca . . . . Their attitude reflected a deep-seated curiosity about the world and a quest for truth that reached back to . . . Mohammed himself. After the fall of Rome in A.D. 476, Europe entered a period of upheaval and chaos, an era in which scholarship suffered . . .. In the early 800’s . . . the House of Wisdom opened in Baghdad. There, scholars of different cultures and beliefs worked  . . . translating texts from Greece, India, Persia, and elsewhere into Arabic.

Questions:

1) What were some of the practical explanations for Muslims’ support for scientific and mathematical advancement?

2) What might have motivated Arab scholars to collect and translate disparate works into Arabic?

3) Many would argue that scientific advancement and religious belief are incompatible; does this document support or refute that position?

4) How does this document help you answer the central question?

Document 10: The Islamic capital of Cordova (Spain) was described by a contemporary as the "jewel of the world." The Islamic schools and universities were preferred by European scholars such as Abelard and Roger Bacon. Philip Hitti describes Cordova in Capital Cities of Arab Islam (University of Minnesota Press, 1973).

Besides the university library, Arab statisticians assure us the city boasted 37 libraries, numberless bookstores, 800 public schools . . . and a total population of 300,000. Its people enjoyed a high standard of living and refinement and walked on paved streets . . .all this at a time when hardly a town in Europe, Constantinople excepted, counted more than a few thousand inhabitants. Parisians and Londoners were still trudging on muddy, dark alleys. . . .

6

Questions:

1) What conditions in Cordova does this author cite as evidence of a flourishing Islamic scholarship and civilization?

2) When you have learned about or thought about the world’s great cities throughout history, Cordova has likely seldom (if ever) been included; what do you think explains this phenomenon?

3) How does this document help you answer the central question?

Document 11: Using scientific observation and their understanding of mathematics and optics, Muslim scholars made major advancements in trigonometry and astronomy as well as in cartography (mapmaking). They used the astrolabe (Figure A) and the armillary sphere (Figure B) to study the skies and make calculations for their calendars and maps.

FIGURE A FIGURE B

Questions:

1) What impact do you think these instruments had in terms of expanding the Islamic world?

2) In what ways might the advent of these instruments lend legitimacy to the Islamic faith?

3) How does this document help you answer the central question?

4) Other scientific and mathematical achievements of the Islamic world include: transmitting the decimal system and the use of “zero” to the western world; development of algebra and analytical geometry; introducing the concept of the “objective experiment” in science; development of the world’s first pharmacies; propounding (for the first time) the “theory of infection”; and the first textbook in ophthalmology. Additionally, early Islamic civilizations made critical and lasting contributions to language and literature, education, philosophy and theology, and the arts. With a partner, pick two specific Islamic advancements and discuss them either as causes of, or evidence of, a flourishing civilization.

7