Islamic States In the 12th, 13th & 14th Centuries

The Rise and Partial Disintegration of the Arab Empire

In the 7th and 8th centuries, the Islamic theocratic regime established by the Prophet Muhammad and his successors in Arabia militarily conquered Mesopotamia (Iraq), Iran, Syria, the Levant, Egypt, most of North Africa, Sicily, Spain and adjacent areas. During the Ummayad Caliphate (Damascus 661-740) and the Abbasid Caliphate (Baghdad 750-1258), new state structures evolved to govern this vast and diverse empire. At the center of that state was the Caliph, who was "head of state, supreme judge, leader in public worship and commander in chief of the army" (Fisher, 1979, p. 42). Under strong Ummayad and early Abbasid Caliphs, steps were taken to quell civil wars, develop unified and partially centralized states and integrate the Islamic religion and the Arabic language with the existing administrative structures in the conquered areas. How

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particularly true in the central portions of the Empire and in Egypt, North Africa and Spain. It was less true in Central Asia and the eastern parts of the Empire, including Iran, where Hitti says that "Arabic Islam succumbed to Persian influences" and where Hourani says that "the coming of Islam did not submerge the consciousness of the past to the same extent as it did in the West" (Hitti, 1968, p. 83 and Hourani, 1991, p. 87). Through superior force, Christian Spain eventually subdued Ummayad/Moorish Spain. By the end of the 13th century, the Moslems had been pushed back by the reconquista into the kingdom of Granada. In the central Empire, barbarian tribes adopted the Islamic religion and used Arabic for the conduct of their governmental, legal and religious affairs. The Seljuk Turks "professed to be appointees of the Caliph, to serve Islam, and to support the institutions of religion . . . as the basis for their legitimacy" (Lapidos, 1988, pp. 147 and 141). The conquering Fatimid (969-1171) and Mamluks (1250-1517) in Egypt, various nomadic tribes which took power in other parts of North Africa, the Mongol hordes which dominated the northern and eastern portions of the Empire after 1240 and the Ottoman Turks after 1280 a
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Approximate Word count = 1678
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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