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From`Abbasid Baghdad to Umayyad Cordoba, 750-
1000
750: Abbasids overcome Umayyads
• Al-Mansur and after– Taxation:
• Fiscal centralization took money from provinces to capital, Baghdad
• Reform over time; constant source of friction– Military:
• Kurasani military elite based in Baghdad, rewarded with property• Troops used mainly to control provinces, collect taxes• Al-Mu`tasim developed private army, Turkish slaves. This group
would create problems as time went on.– Administrative network:
• Separate branches of Government (diwans) with secretaries• Head of administration: visir• Chamberlain, personal assistant to caliph
• Continuous line of caliphs source of strength
Harun al-Rashid (786-809) and after
• Cultural Revival– Thousand and One Nights– “Microcultures”: religious and literary, development of
specialized disciplines– Adab: “polite education”; compare to Greek term Paidaea– Exemplary stories
• Barmakids– Dominant family, ran most of the government– Successfully oversaw centralization of tax system– 803: al-Rashid had them destroyed
• Royal women– Less powerful than Merovingian queens– Had wealth and personal administrations
Controversies
• In the Sunni Tradition: Basis for Islamic Law (Shari’a)– Legislation: by precedent– Reasoning from Qu’ran: by principles– Expanded literary sources: by tradition (hadith)– By 900: “Closing of the gate of independent reasoning”
• Applies to Islamic law, but not legal practice. What’s the difference?
• Authority of Qu’ran– Word of God, part of God– Part of created order– Al-Ma’mum: wanted caliph to have more power– Former position prevailed, leading to lessening of caliph’s
authority
Breakup of Abbasid Empire; Al-Andalus
• Breakup of Caliphate:– Reasons?
• Al-Andalus– How does it resemble the rest of the Islamic world?– How does it maintain ties with its Visigothic past?– How does it resemble other western European states?
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