Saunders J.J. A History of Medieval Islam

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A HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL ISLAM

A HISTORY OF

MEDIEVAL ISLAM

J.J.Saunders

London and New York

First published 1965

by Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.

No part of this book may be reproduced

in any form without permission from the

publisher, except for the quotation of

brief passages in criticism

ISBN 0-415-05914-3 (Print Edition)

ISBN 0-203-19976-6 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-19979-0 (Glassbook Format)

Contents

PREFACE page vii

GLOSSARY ix

DATES xiii

I ARABIA AND HER NEIGHBOURS 1

II THE PROPHET 18

III THE FIRST CONQUESTS 39

IV THE CIVIL WARS 59

V THE ARAB EMPIRE 77

VI THE ABBASID REVOLUTION 95

VII THE BREAKUP OF THE CALIPHATE 106

VIII THE ISMA‘ILIAN SCHISM 125

IX THE TURKISH IRRUPTION 141

X THE CHRISTIAN COUNTER-ATTACK 154

XI THE MONGOL DISASTER 170

XII THE CIVILIZATION OF MEDIEVAL ISLAM 187

INDEX 205

Maps

Arabia at the time of Muhammad pages 20–1

The First Arab Conquests showing the main thrusts 54–5

The Arab Empire at the fall of the Omayyads, 750 78–9

The Breakup of the Caliphate showing the independent

dynasties 108–9

Christendom and Islam at the time of the Crusades 156–7

The Mongol Conquests showing the main Mongol thrusts 172–3

vii

Preface

DR. JOHNSON, commenting in one of the Ramblers on the oblivion

which overtook Richard Knolles’ Generall Historie of the Turkes

(1603), despite its literary merits, explained this neglect on the ground

that the author ‘employed his genius upon a foreign and uninteresting

subject’ and recounted ‘enterprises and revolutions of which none

desire to be informed.’ Indifference to Oriental history among the

educated public of the West still exists, but is diminishing, and more

‘desire to be informed’ of the relations between Europe and Islam

throughout the ages. Such recent works as Dr. Norman Daniel’s Islam

and the West (1960) and Professor R.W. Southern’s Western Views

of Islam in the Middle Ages (1962) provide striking evidence of the

wider perspectives now being opened up, and as our historians cease

to be Europe-centred and devote more attention to the nature and

evolution of non-European societies, we may expect the history of

the Muslim East to be studied with increasingly critical care.

It is true that the task confronting scholars in this field is

enormous. The language barrier alone is not easily surmounted.

Many relevant texts remain unpublished, and many of the

problems to be solved have scarcely been formulated, much less

seriously tackled. Thus, for example, the social and economic

history of medieval Islam has only just begun to be investigated.

The unfamiliarity of the subject daunts some prospective students.

The rhythms of Muslim history are not our rhythms. To give but

one instance, the memorable struggles of Church and State, from

which emerged the Western theory and practice of civil and

political liberty, had no counterpart in Islam, which knows no

distinction between secular and ecclesiastical, and is puzzled by our

concepts of representative government and a free society. In this

book I have aimed to provide a brief sketch of a vast theme, a

rough outline which may serve as an introduction for those wishing

to acquire a general view of the Muslim world during the Middle

viii

PREFACE

Ages. It would be absurd to claim it as a work of original research;

it does not profess to trace the development of Islam as a religion,

and it omits all but the briefest mention of Muslim Spain and

India. I have tried to indicate the main trends of Islamic historical

evolution down to the Mongol conquests, to avoid a mere recital

of facts and names and dates, and to explain rather than to narrate.

Hence I have exercised a rigid selection of material; much of

moment has been left out, and the picture presented may often be

unavoidably over-simplified.

I wish to express my deep obligation to Professor C.F.Beckingham,

Professor of Islamic Studies in the University of Manchester, and to

Dr. J.A.Boyle, Head of the Department of Persian Studies in the same

University, who kindly read the typescript and made many valuable

suggestions for improving it. I am also grateful to the editors of

Cahiers d’Histoire Mondiale and History Today for permission to

reproduce portions of articles which have appeared in these

periodicals. Perhaps I may also be allowed to say how much my

understanding of Islamic history has been deepened by the writings

of Sir Hamilton Gibb and Professor Bernard Lewis, whose influence

will be easily detected in these pages.

In facing the perennial problem of the transliteration of Oriental

names, I can claim no consistency. Place-names like Mecca, Medina

and Cairo have been left in their familiar English form, together

with such words as ‘Koran’ and ‘Caliph’. For the rest, I have

usually followed the spelling given in the Encyclopedia of Islam,

omitting the diacritical points and the long-vowel markings (which

are restored, however, in the index entries), and substituting ‘j’ for

the Frenchified ‘dj.’

Glossary

(A)=Arabic; (P)=Persian; (T)=Turkish.

Abd (A): slave, servant. Ahdallah: slave of God.

Abu (A): father of.

Agha (T): chief, master.

Ahl (A): family, household, people. Ahl al-Kitab: people of the

Book, i.e. Jews and Christians possessing their own scriptures.

Ain or Ayn (A): eye, spring, fountain.

Ak (T): white.

Alp (T): hero.

Amir (A): commander, governor, prince. Amir al-Mu’minin,

commander of the faithful (Caliph’s title).

Ansar (A): helpers, Medinans who supported Muhammad.

Ata (T): father. Atabeg: ‘father-chief’, guardian.

Bahr (A): sea. Bahr al-Rum: the Roman Sea, i.e. the

Mediterranean.

Banu (A): sons of, followed by name of tribe, e.g. Banu-Hilal.

Bait or Bayt (A): house, tent. Bait al-Mal: house of wealth, i.e.

the Treasury.

Barid (A): post service.

Bey or Beg (T): lord, chief.

Bi’r (A): well.

Dagh (T): mountain.

Da‘i (A): missionary, propagandist.

Dair or Dayr (A): Christian monastery.

Dar (A): house, dwelling, abode. Dar al-Islam: the abode of

Islam, where Islam is the established religion, as opposed to

Dar al-Harb, the abode of war, non-Muslim lands.

Dawla (A): dynasty, “State.”