FROM PROPHET TO EMPIRE U May Yad, It’s the First Islamic Empire!

Military Force  “desert power” --- sea tactics  Became iron clad like the Persians/Byzantines  800s: added naphtha-firemen (flame throwers)  Did believe in martyrdom (driving force)  Ex. Battle of Yarmuk: 40,000 Arabs vs 140,000 Byzies

Islam on the Rise  Muslims exempt from taxation: conversion was discouraged.  Muslims could take non-Muslim wives  Islam spread because it gave people an elevated status

Outside Influences  Dome of the Rock founded by Abd al Malik in 691 (pattern is based on the Church of the Ascension)  The legal code was sharia law but was heavily influenced by Byzantine practice.

Post Prophet Problems  Abu Bakr dies of natural causes BUT  Caliph #2 (Omar) was assassinated at dawn  #3 (Othman) was torn apart by a mob  Finally Ali (son in law) gets his chance (658)  Muawiya Umayya disagrees ----fighting begins  Appeals for a truce  Decision went before the elders  Sunnis won the decision

Ali is Down, Umayya is Up  January 22, 661: Ali is murdered by a sunni fanatic  Muawiya becomes caliph  14 Umayyad caliphs ruled  Naval supremacy  Postal system  Standard Arab coins  Arabic as the official language

Decline/Fall  Husain (grandson of Ali) led a failed revolt (681)  Vengeance of Husain (Karbala)  2 problems  Decay of tribal loyalties  Anger towards the government Persians Abbasids (Abbas ---uncle of prohet) Shiites  Abu Muslim (former persian slave) leads revolt in 747  The last Umayyad leader (Marwan II) runs to Egypt  Abu Al Abbas takes control with a massacre (Saffah)  19 year old Abd al-Rahman escapes through N. Africa to Spain….)