Sunni v. Shi

1
Sunni v. Shia

• 3rd caliph murdered over booty issues
• Ali, relative of Muhammad caliph
• Fighting!
• Muawiya (1st Umayyad caliph) says HES caliph
• Ali killed by Umayyads
• Husayn (Alis son) killed in 680 (10,000 v. 72)
  all killed the final split.
• Shia Party of Ali Sunni The Majority

2
Umayyads

• Expansion (central Asia, N.W. India, N. Africa,
  Spain)
• Capital Damascus (modern Syria)
• Arab conquest state
• Bureaucracy small Arab elite ruled over
  non-Arab, non-Muslim populations
• Segregated into garrison towns to prevent mixing

3
Damascus Umayyad Capital
4
People of the Book

• Christians and Jews
• paid extra taxes, but tolerated
• non-Arab converts still had extra taxes
• few conversions

5
Family Gender Roles

• Womens status high, at first
• Active in politics, commerce (Pastoralist
  background!)
• Lost power over time patriarchal like the rest

6
Umayyad Decline Fall

• REVOLT of warriors Led by Abbasids
• Mawali Shias joined Abbasids

7
Abbasid Caliphate

• Centralized, absolutist
• Capital Baghdad. Imitated Persian culture
• Vizir chief advisor

8
From Arab to Islamic Empire Abbasids

• non-Arab Converts fully integrated no more
  booty system
• Greater opportunities for all to advance
  careers, education
• LOTS of conversions

9
Abbasid Economy Culture

• City Trade!
• Learning
• Trade Hajj constant and quick ideas
  exchange
• Ancient authors translated (especially Greek!!!)

10
Abbasid Decline

• Overexpansion succession problems
  (fratricide)!
• Led to caliph hiring personal armies of Turkic
  Central Asian nomads (slave soldiers)
• Centralization breaks down into various smaller
  segments
• Mamluk Seljuk Turks really run the govt
  (caliph figurehead)
• Mongols - 1258