![]() “Raids” is consequently a better term for many of these engagements than “battles,” even if the raids eventually turned into permanent occupations. Since the troops of the caliphate were paid by the spoils of war - by what they could lay their hands on in the lands they conquered - the army could only be maintained as long as it continued to be successful. The expansion may best be explained not by a religious but by a military logic. During his short rule, 632–634, Abu Bakr consolidated Muslim control over the Arabian Peninsula, but he also attacked the southern parts of Iraq, occupied by the Persians, and the southern parts of Syria, occupied by the Byzantines.ģ The term jihad, “holy war,” is often used to describe this military expansion, yet political control, not religious conversion, was its main objective. In 632, it was the Prophet’s father-in-law, Abu Bakr, who best exemplified these qualities, and he was elected to be the first caliph of what later came to be known as the rashidun, or “rightly guided,” caliphate. The new leader of the community must consequently, many felt, combine the qualities which had characterized Muhammad - to be a religious leader but also a politician and military commander. The sahabah were the custodians of the revelation as given to Muhammad and their task was to spread the word and convert infidels to the new faith. Moreover, they were on a mission from God. This, the sahabah believed, could best be achieved if their energies were directed towards external, non-Arab targets. ![]() Yet a small but influential group of the Prophet’s followers, the sahabah, sought to preserve the teachings which he had left them and to keep the Arabs united. The Arab expansionĪfter the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, the various families, clans and, tribes that made up the population of the Arabian Peninsula seemed prepared to return to their former ways of life, which included perpetual rivalries and occasional cases of outright warfare. Not surprisingly perhaps, the idea of restoring the caliphate is still alive among radical Islamic groups who want to boost Muslim self-confidence. During the caliphates the Arab world experienced unprecedented economic prosperity and a cultural and intellectual success which made them powerful and admired. The next Muslim empire to call itself a “caliphate” was instead the Ottoman Empire, with its capital in Istanbul, the city the Greeks had called “Constantinople.” Although the Ottomans were Muslims, they were not Arabs but Turks, and they had their origin in Central Asia, not on the Arabian Peninsula.Ģ Despite the continuing story of political infighting and fragmentation, the idea of the caliphate continues to exercise a strong rhetorical force in the Muslim world to this day. Yet the caliphs in Cairo too were quickly undermined, in this case by their own soldiers, an elite corps of warriors known as the mamluks. From then on it was instead Cairo that constituted the center of the Muslim world. These achievements came to an abrupt halt when the Mongols sacked the city in 1258. The Abbasid capital, Baghdad, became a center in which Islamic learning combined with influences from Persia, India and even China. And while it did not last long, one of its offshoots established itself in today’s Spain and Portugal, known as al-Andalus, and made Córdoba into a thriving, multicultural center.ġ The third caliphate, the Abbasids, 750–1258, presided over what is often referred to as the “Islamic Golden Age,” when science, technology, philosophy, and the arts flourished. The second caliphate, the Umayyads, 661–750, moved the capital to Damascus in Syria. ![]() The first, the Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661, was led by the sahabah, the “companions” who were the family and friends of the Prophet and who were all drawn from Muhammad’s own Quraysh tribe. Thus, the first caliphate was soon replaced by a second, a third and a fourth, each one controlled by rival factions. This was known as the “caliphate,” from khalifah, meaning “succession.” Yet it was difficult to keep such a large political entity together and there were conflicts regarding who should be regarded as the rightful heir to the Prophet. After the death of the Prophet Muhammad in Medina in 632, his followers on the Arabian Peninsula quickly moved in all directions, creating an empire which only one hundred years later came to include not only all of the Middle East and much of Central Asia, but North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula as well.
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