Midterm Review Notes

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Hist 55

Midterm Review

Structure

of Exam

IDs (four or five with

choice out of 8): emphasis on significance of event/person/institution

1 essay (choice out of

2) that will reflect on a key shift or transition and require you to bring

in three sources to explore changes over time in the emergence of a Muslim

communal identity.

One primary source

identification (out of 2): the significance of the source for broader

themes explored in the class

Review

Terms

6th

Century Regional Dynamics

Imperial Rivalries between Byzantines and Sassanians

Arab Christian Client States

Sasanians – Lakhmids

(southern Iraq, Hira as capital)

Byzantines – Ghassanids

(Syria-Palestine)

Kingdom of Axum

Kingdom of Himyar

Palmyra

Mazdak, Zoroastrianism

Nestorian Christians

Rise of the

Quraysh and Mecca

the Quraysh tribe: reorganized Meccan pilgrimage ca.

430

ka‘ba (black rock)

grandsons of Qusayy-founded clans of Quraysh:

Hashim, ‘Abd al-Shams, al-Mutallib, Nawfal

pre-Islamic Arabia – jahiliyya – age of ignorance

hanifs: Arabian monotheists who preached

in the name of al-Rahman

kahins: soothsayers

hilm: strategy and diplomacy (qualities

of leadership in the Peninsula)

Prophet and

Early Community

first revelation, 610

public preaching, 613

first converts…

wives of the Prophet (Khadijah, Sawdah, A’isha,

Safiyya, Mariya—as key examples)

The Hijra (622)

feud of Aws and Khazraj tribes in town of Yathrib

muhajirun: emigrants

ansar: supporters of Muhammad

umma: the Muslim community as it

forms in Medina/umma document

munafiqun: the waverers

Jewish Tribes and the Constitution of Medina

clients of the Aws and Khazraj

1.

Banu Qaynuqa

2.

Banu Nadir

3.

Banu Qurayza

Nakhlah Oasis

Battle of Badr

Battle of Uhud

Battle of the Trench

Treaty of Hudaybiya

role of the Umayyad clan and Abu Sufyan

Creation of

the New Systems for Political Authority

al-sahaba – companions of the prophet

shura (consultation) – Abu Bakr,

‘Umar, and ‘Uthman, ‘Ali

caliph = khalifat

rasul Allah (successor to the messenger of God)

Amir

al-Mu’minin

– Commander of the Faithful

Amir al-Umera‘

ridda (apostasy) wars

Who were the first Four Caliphs (historiographic

issues of the Rashidun)

Civil Wars/fitna

(issues of succession, chronology and significance)

assassination

of ‘Uthman

Battle of the Camel

Battle of Sifin (657)

arudh:

arbitration

Ritualization of Islam (the so-called Five

Pillars)

salat: prayer

zakat:

alms giving

sawm Ramadan: fast

haj:

pilgrimage to Mecca

shahada: bearing witness to the one God and to Muhammad as his prophet

‘Ummayad’s

Creating an Empire from Damascus

Mu’awiyya (661-680)

‘Abd al-Malik

(685/nominally 692/materially – 705)

diwan

misr/amsar: garrison cities

Basra

(at the head of the Persian Gulf, 635)

Kufa

(near Hira on the Euphrates, 638)

Fustat (just below the Nile

Delta, 641)

Merv (670)

Wasit (692)

Principles of divison between Arab and non-Arab,

Muslim and non-Muslim

diwan: roll call then central treasury

jizya: poll tax on non-Muslims

kharaj: tax on land use

zakat: “alms” owed the central treasury

by Muslims

sadaqa: tax on nomadic populations

dhimmi: system of administering

“protected peoples”

Umayyad Caliphs: 661-750

Reign of Mu’awiyya: 661-680

Second Civil War: 683-692

Reign of ‘Abd al-Malik: 685-705

al-Hajjaj

ibn Yusuf and the bombardment of Mecca in 692 under ‘Abd al-Malik

Wasit: new garrison city

between Kufa and Basra

Reign of ‘Umar 11: 617-620 (why important?)

Third Civil War: 744-750 (‘Abbasid takeover)

jamā‘a: the Muslim collectivity

mulk/muluk/malik: kingdom/s/king

mahdi: messiah-like figure

emanating from Shi’i hopes for political and religious power

[Mukhtar’s mahdi revolt in Kufa, 684-687—we didn’t

cover, but indicates significance of Kufa]

ulema: emerging group of

religious scholars and functionaries inserting themselves between the state and

the community

‘Abbasid

Social Revolution

Ibrahim (Abu Hashim’s son): organizes the Kuffan-Merv

connection

Abu

Muslim in Khurasan

Abu

Salamah in Kufa

Battle of the Great Zab

Abu al-‘Abbas ‘Abdullah al-Saffah (749-54)

al-Saffah

(the slaughterer)

invites

the remaining ‘Umayyads to a “last supper”

executes

Abu Salamah engineered with the help of Abu Muslim

Abu Ja‘far al-Mansur (754-75)

executes

Abu Muslim

dihqan

malawi

Imam vs. Khalifa

‘Abbasid

Consolidation

Medinat al-Salam (symbol and structure)—City of

Baghdad

al-Saffah

al-Mansur

Harun al-Rashid (786-809)

Muhammad

al-Amin (809-13), Baghdad

‘Abd

Allah al-Ma’mun (813-33), Khurasan

Abu Ishaq al-Mu‘tasim (833-42)—moves to Samarra to

avoid Syrian divisions

Bureaucracy

diwan: now references distinct

offices and administrative functions

wazir/vizier: by the 9th

century head official in the empire

Bardak

family: dynasty of wazirs, originally

Buddhist

barid: network of spies as

attempt to maintain central control

Mamluk: term for slaves, came to

constitute a key strategy for military loyalty

Sectarian Rivalries

Kharijis

Zanj (869-883): revolt of slaves who tilled the

Sawad (Iraq) mobilized by Khariji egalitarianism

and Shi’i revolutionary sentiments

Ja’far al-Sadiq (d. 765)

Divided

upon his death by two sons (one who had died before him):

Musa

and the Twelvers/Imamis

Isma’il

and the Isma’ilis/Seveners

Orthodoxies and Speculative Inquiry

Schools of Law: Hanifi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali

usul al-fiqh: sources for determining

legal implementation of Qur’anic principles

hadith

ijma’: consensus of the community

ijtihad: effort necessary to ensure

correct/pure interpretive intervention

qiyas: reasoning through analogy

‘ibadat: duties toward God

mu‘amalat – laws of personal status

mahr – bridal gift that becomes

permanent property of the woman

‘iddah – 3 month waiting period after

divorce

kalam: dialectical theology

Mu‘tazalite

Doctrine

mihna, ibn Hanbal

faylasuf: al-Farabi, ibn Sina

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Key Themes To Look Out For!

1.

Social Norms Before and After Islam

2.

Monotheistic Traditions/Inspirations

3.

Emergence of Communal Boundaries

4.

Shifts of Power: Byzantine/Sassanian – Muhammad – Succession Crises – Umayyads – Abbasids

5.

Questions of Legitimate Leadership and

Factionalism

6.

Variant meanings of “Islam”

7.

Evolving Social Hierarchy/Systems

8.

Arab vs Non-Arab

9.

Gender Equality

10.

Significance of Architecture, Monument

Building, Material Culture and General Questions of Sources (we didn’t discuss this in our review

session, but should pay attention to this as well, the Ka’ba, Dome of the Rock,

significance of coins, creation of Baghdad as a circular city, etc.)

Review of points made in class:

Two levels of meaning attached to terminology used for

successors to the Prophet Muhammad, and thus a clarification of questions

concerning succession, and the use of titles such as caliph, imam, Sunni, Shi’i.

First level: diversity/plethora of terms a general indication of

debate/factionalism concerning succession to the Prophet Muhammad so the

terminology is one way of entering this issue (and an alternative to focusing

on the civil war approach).

Second level: khalifa/caliph simply means "successor" in Arabic. But

by the 9th century the "Caliphate" had become a Sunni-inspired mechanism

for interpreting succession AND legitimizing their own genealogy of leaders and

authority figures. It thereby becomes an institution in and of itself, and the

source of continuing debate up until the present--calls for the reassertion of

a caliphate in the Middle East by some Islamist thinkers and by ISIS, for

example. So, the terms are slippery but this is a generally agreed upon

chronology. Abu Bakr and the other initial three caliphs including Ali (within

Sunni doctrine) had several interchanging terms. Khalifa Rasul Allah (successor

to the Prophet of Allah) is the primary one. But also Amir al-'Umera (commander

in chief) as the military leadership of Abu Bakr and others was primary (shift

away from emphasis on spirituality). The commander in chief model remains a

significant title through the Umayyads, but the 'Abbasids also add Amir

al-Muslimin to the repertory as a way 1) of highlighting their role as leaders

of an expanding community of Muslims; and 2) retaining a certain ambivalence in

their sense of authority/combining political and spiritual leadership for a

time as a nod to originial Shi'i supporters).

The Shi'i use "Imam" as the term for successor/leader and argue that

"Caliph" has too much of the tainted history associated both with the

usurpation of Ali's role in the early history and with Sassanian and Byzantine

models of rule/kingship/monarchical power.

Essentially, these terms indicate a history of how an Arabic

word for succession (khalifa) becomes "overdetermined" and moves from

describing a process (succession) to defining an institution (Sunni notions of

power).