Between the 7th and 8th centuries, the Islamic Empire reached its greatest territorial extension, encompassing lands from Central Asia to the Iberian Peninsula, passing through North Africa. This rapid rise can be explained by the unity achieved among the Arabs brought about by the advent of Islam and its adoption as a religion.
The origin of the empire is in the Arabian Peninsula, a desert region occupied by the Arabs, who were mainly engaged in trade, either through Bedouin caravans in the desert or in cities near the coast, such as Iatreb and Mecca. It was in the latter that Muhammad, a member of the Quraysh tribe, was born around 570, and where he began to spread the belief in a single god, Allah. You arabs they were polytheists, worshiping animals and plants. The city of Mecca was a religious center for housing the temple where the Black stone, a possible meteorite considered sacred, which was kept in the Kaaba, together with several images of the other gods.
Mohammed he claimed that for more than twenty years, in his meditations, he had been in the presence of the angel Gabriel, who in his messages told him that there was only one God, condemning the worship of other gods Arabs. He also said that Muhammad was one of the prophets of God, like Moses and Jesus, and should spread the divine truth conveyed in the messages throughout the world. Muhammad began his preaching in Mecca, gaining adherents mainly among the poor. The wealthy members of the Quraysh tribe saw monotheistic preaching as a threat to their economic and religious power, as the economy revolved mainly around pilgrimage to the city for visits to the Kaaba, and monotheistic preaching could drive out the visitors.
The persecution of Muhammad and his followers intensified, forcing them to flee to Yatreb, a city north of Mecca, in 622. The episode became known as hegira and marked the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In Iatreb (later called Medina, city of the prophet), Muhammad was able to convert the population and raise an army to conquer Mecca in 630. Muhammad died in 632, but in the ten-year period between the Hijra and his death he was able to unify the Arab tribes and convert them to Islam, thanks in large part to jihad, the effort in favor of God, militarily subduing the recalcitrant.
By his death Muhammad had conquered the entire Arabian Peninsula, and the four caliphs who succeeded him expanded the empire's territory to Persia, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. The caliphs were "successors to the Prophet of God." However, there was the problem of succession, and the debate emerged as to whether members of the Quraysh tribe or the direct descendants of Muhammad would succeed him. The first caliph turned out to be Muhammad's father-in-law, Abu-Béquer. The Islamic Empire was a theocratic state, with the caliph exercising the functions of religious head and head of state. Despite waging a war to spread the new religion, the Arabs were tolerant of Christians and Jews in the conquered territories, as they were considered the "People of the Book", indicating a religious heritage ordinary.
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The fourth caliph, Ali, son-in-law of Muhammad, was overthrown by members of the tribe of Umayyads, linked to Caliph Otman, starting a new dynasty. In the Umayyad period, between 661 and 750, the Islamic Empire knew its greatest territorial extension, adding up territories in India, Asia Central, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, being contained by the Franks in 732, at the Battle of Poitiers, passing the capital to Damascus. It was during this period that there was the main division among Muslims, which resulted in the Sunnis and Shiites, who joined succession divergences to religious issues. The Sunnis adopted the precepts of the Sunna, book of the sayings and deeds of Muhammad, and the Koran, in addition to believing that the election of chiefs should be free. The Shiites, on the contrary, assumed the link only to the Koran and pointed out the need for a centralizing leadership.
In 750, the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyad dynasty, turned Baghdad into the capital of the Empire, and began a process of disaggregation with the institution of the emirates, which were independent caliphates, such as Córdoba and Cairo. Later, from the 13th century onwards, the empire was also conquered by the Turks, original peoples of Central Asia, a process that lasted until the beginning of the 20th century, but which kept Islam as religion. In the Iberian Peninsula, Muslims were defeated by Christians during the Wars of Reconquest, which ended in the 15th century.
The extension of the Empire, the link between West and East and the assimilation of cultural habits and knowledge produced by the conquered peoples provided Muslims the production of an important cultural heritage, including philosophy, medicine, mathematics, architecture, among others, which until today is made gift.
* Image Credit: Zurijeta and Shutterstock.com
By Tales Pinto
Graduated in History
