Dar al-Islam After the Abbasids
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| As the Abbasid Caliphate/æz ðɪ ˈæbeɪsɪd ˈkælɪfeɪt/ | As the Abbasid Caliphate |
| Sufis/ˈsjuːfiz/ | Muslims associated with traditions emphasising spiritual discipline and a close personal relationship with God. |
| Dar al-Islam/dɑː æl ɪˈslɑːm/ | Dar al-Islam |
A caliphate fragments, and states multiply
- As the Abbasid Caliphate 阿拔斯哈里发国 fragmented, new Islamic political entities emerged, most of which were dominated by Turkic peoples.
- The CED names them: the Seljuk Empire, the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt, the Delhi sultanates.
- And it applies the unit's three words again: these states showed continuity, innovation and diversity.
Select all the new Islamic political entities the CED names.
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Most were dominated by Turkic peoples.
Two different ways Islam spread
- Muslim rule continued to expand to many parts of Afro-Eurasia due to military expansion.
- Islam subsequently expanded through the activities of merchants, missionaries and Sufis 苏非派.
- Note the order in the CED's own sentence: rule first by conquest, the faith afterwards by contact — two processes, not one.
Three different mechanisms of expansion- which one the evidence supports is usually the question
According to the CED, Muslim rule expanded primarily through...
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The faith then spread subsequently through merchants, missionaries and Sufis.
States funded thinking
- Muslim states and empires encouraged significant intellectual innovations and transfers.
- Innovations: mathematics (Nasir al-Din al-Tusi), literature ('A'ishah al-Ba'uniyyah), medicine.
- Transfers: the House of Wisdom in Abbasid Baghdad, the preservation of and commentary on Greek philosophy, and scholarly exchange in Muslim and Christian Spain.
Expansion, innovation, or transfer?
Sort each item by the CED's categories.
Match each figure or place to what it represents.
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Two categories, and the exam expects you to keep them apart.
Dar al-Islam 伊斯兰世界 is not a state. The Abbasid Caliphate fragmented into separate Turkic-dominated entities — Seljuk, Mamluk, Delhi — while remaining one connected religious and commercial world. Political fragmentation and cultural connection are happening at the same time, and confusing the two loses the whole subtopic.
The House of Wisdom is an example of a ____ rather than an innovation.
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An innovation is knowledge made; a transfer is knowledge moved.
Innovation and transfer are different claims
- An innovation is knowledge made; a transfer is knowledge moved.
- The House of Wisdom is a transfer institution: it translated and preserved what Greek philosophy had produced.
- Al-Tusi's mathematics is an innovation. An exam answer that calls both "preservation" has lost half the point.
Dar al-Islam was a single unified state after the Abbasid fragmentation.
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It was a connected religious and commercial world spanning several sovereign states.
One belief world, many states
- Islam, Judaism and Christianity, and the core beliefs and practices of these religions, continued to shape societies in Africa and Asia.
- So Dar al-Islam names a connected religious and commercial world, not a single government.
- Political fragmentation and cultural connection happened at the same time — which is the point of this subtopic.
A merchant travelling from Cairo to Delhi in 1300 crosses several sovereign states and never leaves Dar al-Islam: the law he is judged under, the language of learning, and the letters of credit he carries all work the whole way. That is what a connected world without a single government looks like.
As the Abbasid Caliphate fragmented, new Turkic-dominated states emerged — Seljuk, Mamluk, Delhi. Rule expanded by military expansion; the faith then spread through merchants, missionaries and Sufis. Muslim states encouraged both innovations (knowledge made) and transfers (knowledge moved).
Write from a translation in Baghdad
- Scholars in Baghdad translated Greek philosophy into Arabic.
- The books had been written centuries earlier.
Was this translation an invention or a transfer?
Translation moves an existing body of knowledge.
What was the Baghdad translation of Greek books?
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The books already existed. Translation carried them.