The Arab Conquest of the Central Asia was a significant event which impacted on the whole region at the beginning of the eighth century. Abu Ja’far Muhammad al-Tabari was one of the historians who described this conquest for the Muslim population later in ninth century by using different accounts (p. 16). His text is useful for the evaluation of Qutayba’s conquests of Central Asia and can be compared with the same century’s Persian historian al-Baladhuri (p. 11) and his description of the Arab Conquest.
This excerpt can be regarded as relevant to the Silk Roads Survey due to the fact that it reflects in detail all aspects of past events, and emphasizes their historical importance. Firstly, the author refers to accounts from various sources
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Al-Baladhury has written on the Arab conquest also by using different accounts but in different narration style by listing events that happened (p.11). They equally describe the conquest of Samarkand, when the king of Sogdiana appealed for the support of Shash king and even this attempt was not successful (p. 12, 17). However, al-Tabari is more precise in the description of the battle. Also there is a disagreement in the size of payments for capitulation, for example al-Baladhury gives two versions 1.2 million and 700,000 dirhams (p.13) whereas al-Tabari writes about 2.2 million dirhams per annum and 30,000 slaves (p.18). In the same time they both point that Qutayba ordered to burn temples and houses for idols and has participated in this process himself (p. 13, 18-19). There are different points of view on the Islamisation of the Sogdian population. Baladhury explains it as the consequence of the burning of sacred sites and jizya tax for non-Muslims (p. 13, 15) while al-Tabari explains it by taxes only (p. 19-20). In the description of the Paykend battle the both state that it was forced by Qutayba (p.12) but Tabari describes in detail the tide of the battle (p.21). Hence, both of these historians gave equal description of general events happened during
the Accuracy of the Chronicle of Al-Jabarti." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. No. 2 (1970): 283-294. http://www.jstor.org/stable/613005 (accessed November 30, 2013).
Two of the most powerful powers in the post-classical period were the Arabian and Byzantine empires. Each had different political, religious, and economic differences that defined their respective cultures, and managing to create vast empires that greatly rivaled each other.
In the sixth century B.C, the land that we now call Iran was the center of the largest empire in the world. The kings of Ancient Persia( such as Cyrus the Great) were the leaders of a great civilization that made amazing advances in laws, goverment and communication. Founded in 550 B.C by King Cyrus the Great, the Persian Empire spanned from Egypt in the west to Turkey in the north, and through Mesopotamia to the Indus River in the east. Unlike most empires at that time, the Persian kings were benovelent rulers, and allowed a diverse variety of diffrent people with diffrent ethnic backgrounds. The Persian empire was split into three diffrent empires with three diffrent time periods but the first empire was called the Achaemenid Empire. It began with King Cyrus the Great and ended with King Darius III.
Prior to the introduction of Islam, the Arabian Peninsula was made of Tribes. Fighting between these tribes was common as resources were scarce. This created a culture based around continuous warfare. According to the text, “The widespread experience of Arabs in warfare was to be a significant factor in the early expansion of Islam” (Cleveland 7). Another factor, which helped in the spread of Islam, was simply timing. These empires emerged at a time when the rest of the world was relatively weak. The two prevailing Empires preceding the rise of Islam, the Byz...
1. What was the impact of the mongol conquest of Russia? Of the Islamic heartlands?
Pritchard, J.B. The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1958.
Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1991. Print.
Thesis: Islam and The Islamic Empire started suddenly and spread rapidly over a 500+ year period because of political, cultural, and religious reasons.
Located in the province of Xianjing, the Uyghurs are isolated by massive mountains, deserts, Communist China, and extreme poverty. The Uyghurs are of Turkic origin, and were one of the 9 original tribes. One of these tribes, the Ottomans, sacked Constantinople in 1459, starting the rein of the Sultans for 400 years. The superpower carved a massive empire, from its roots in Turkey, to spread from the Russian steppes to the Alps to India, and stamping their name on history in blood. European history in the 1400‘s, 1500‘s, and 1600‘s centered on the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire and the Arabic people carved two massive empires in an extremely short time. They crushed the medieval christian kingdoms around Jerusalem, and quickly started attacking Christian kingdoms in Spain, Greece, and the Balkans. These conflicts between Muslims and Christians have been the longest and bloodiest in the history of the world, and still persist today. These Ottomans are, understandably, the most wel...
"Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West." Publishers Weekly 20 Mar. 2006
The Ottoman Empire reached the peak of its power in the 1500s. While other empires were experiencing their downfalls, the Ottoman Empire’s power seemed to be increasing. In fact, this empire can be ranked as the strongest power due to its tactical internal organization of power, minorities, and religion, due to its physical expansion which provided more resources, more advancements, and more people to support the empire, and due to its large military strength that provided security, reduced rebellion, and challenged the other powers.
Along with Muhammad’s influence on Islam, trade routes also provided a significant impact on the spread of Islam. The most important and remembered trade routes were the Silk Roads and the Indian Ocean trade route. In these trade routes, along w...
Waugh, Daniel C. "THE SILK ROADS IN HISTORY." Expedition 52, no. 3 (Winter2010 2010): 9-22. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed April 7, 2014).
The Fatimid Caliphates were a 10th century Ismacili Shici dynasty that conquered the Ikhshidid dynasty in Egypt. The Fatimids claimed lineage rights from the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatima; and, existed during the Golden Age of Islam. “Unlike the cAbbasids or Umayyads, who were led by a caliph approved by the community, the Shica espoused the concept of designation, in which the Prophet Muhammad chose Ali as his successor and in which each subsequent religious leader was a divinely ordained, supreme, infallible Imam who had the final authority in both religious and social affairs.” In 909, the Fatimid was established by the self-proclaimed Imam, Ubayd Allah al-Mahdi, who migrated his missionary work through the Palestine and Egypt before he finally came to settle in North Africa in the city of Raqqada. Throughout history, there have been differing views towards the establishment and core objectives of the Fatimid dynasty being established for economic or for Islamic progression during the Golden Age of Islam; and further, many claimed there was no separation of religion and government within the Fatimid.
The Middle East has come along way since the rise of civilization thousands of years ago. Civilization emerged in the Middle East and northeast Africa along the river systems as agricultural societies grew in population and developed new forms of social organization. For the last two thousands years the west has been drawn to the middle east fascinated by the culture, religion, resources and politics. The Middle East has an immense impact on the world globally. My goal in this paper is to explain the ancient and modern significance of the Middle East and how it impacts the world in such a globalizing way.