Abbasid Research Paper

Islamic History: An Analytic Overview of the Umayyad and Abbasid Empires

Ahmed Al-Sabah

History 305: Islamic History

January 11th 2015 Islamic History: An Analytic Overview of the Umayyad and Abbasid Empires

Abstract

Throughout time, decades and centuries, the Islamic religion has grown to become a great socioeconomic and sociopolitical hegemon. The growth of the religion is attributed to several changes and developments during its early stages. The backgrounds, affiliations and mindsets of its past leaders and entire communities help capture the reasons behind its enormous expansion, wealth and stability over time. This paper investigates these backgrounds and affiliations specifically of the Umayyad and Abbasid empires. The paper highlights

Communities that have embraced the religion worldwide are influenced by the customs, practices and life approaches of the Arabic people. The Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties were both founded in the Arabic territories. These areas are the modern day Middle East and Northern Africa. Many scholars argue that the culture around the time of foundation of a religion influences the teachings, depictions and guidelines conversed. The skill and leadership of Islam varied dependent on the time and environment as shown by the Umayyad and Abbasid empires. Arab tribes in the development of the religion consolidated the House of Islam (Dar-al-Islam) through administration and power. In this, the existence of Islam becomes dependent on the customs of Arabic people. The administration, power, and beliefs of the Umayyad dynasty and the Abbasid Caliphate are responsible for the strength of the Islamic kingdom during the first millennium in one centered around Arabic

The founder of the dynasty was Muayiwa Ibn Abi Sufyan, a Syrian governor who was under the power of the third caliph (Marin 68). The dynasty ranged from North Africa to Western Asia having its capitals at Damascus, Harran, and Cordoba dependent on time and trade patterns . During the time of the caliphate, most Muslims felt that the taxation and legal systems were unjust. Non-Muslims were allowed to carry out their matters using their own judicial and religious figureheads (Marin 69). This was in accordance to Muhammad’s teachings on religious minorities . In this, Christians coexisted with Muslims. The dynasty was more associated with inter tribal was within the Islamic community as opposed to religious was with Christians. The Sufyanids and Marwanids are examples of the various tribes that were at war during the caliphate’s reign. The Umayyad caliphate during the reign of Hisham (724-73) was responsible for the great Islamic military expansion (Silverstein