Foundation Of The Marwand Caliphate And The Achievemnet Of ?abd Al-malik Essay, Research Paper
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Problems in Syria and Iraq (Basra) internal feuding
over family connections etc ?
684 ? terrible battle at Marj Rahit ? Marwan of Yamani
acknowledged caliph at Damascus. ?
Qays and Yaman split across Syria and until 19th
century battles between the two still being fought. ?
Administrative centralization 690 etc with Abd al-Malik
? Arabization of coinage etc ? all surpluses forward to treasury in Damascus. REASONS? FOR SUCCESS ETC House of Islam and House of War ? attack whenever
possible ? conflict interrupted by occasional peace.? True peace only when tributary peace
accepted. Apart from Tang China ? Muslims did not come into
contact with any powers who were equal in terms of wealth or military
power ? like Romans could treat all others as Barbarians ? only toward end
of Umayadd period that Byzantines able to face Muslims on anything
approaching equal basis.? Little
incentive for sending diplomatic missions to establish modus vivendi with
other powers to establish permanent relations who were soon to be defeated
and incorporated within Daral-Islam Umayadd Period bleak time for Byzantine ?
iconoclast emperors concentrated all energies on ensuring survival of the
state, frontier provinces devastated by warm land of ruined cities and
deserted villages ? scattered population looked to rocky castles or
impenetrable mountain rather than empire army for defence. Mediterranean almost entirely? war zone rather than commercial highway
– some cultural and commercial interchange with mosaics in workers from
Byzantium decorating D. mosques. Fruitful diplomatic and commercial
exchanges were limited before more settled period of Abbasid period. Umayyads virtually no communication at all with
Lombards of Italy, late Merovingian and Early Carolingian rulers of
France. Muslims sign permanent treaty with Christian people
of Nubia ? south Egypt. Traffic with Indian ocean seems to have grown
rapidly ? ports like Ubulla and Basra grew rich on products of trade ?
Muslim commercial settlement overseas (Sind Pakistan) Battle of Talas 751 ? Tang?s of China ? symbolic
ending of expansion in north-eastt Iranian word. Umayyad caliphate ? self-contained social,
cultural, economic unit ? much diversity within frontiers Not until 10th century that affairs of
Western Europe and Near East began to interact again ? self contained and
it against this background of cultural self-sufficiency that Islamic civilisation
developed.