World History / Unit 4: The Byzantine Empire, the Islamic World and Medieval Europe
4.3 The Caliphates and the Islamic Golden Age
Notes
After Muhammad's death, Muslim leaders called caliphs led a rapidly expanding state.
- A dispute over leadership divided Muslims. Sunnis accepted caliphs chosen by the community; Shia believed leadership belonged to Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, and his descendants.
- The Umayyad Caliphate (661 to 750), based in Damascus, expanded from Spain to the Indus River.
- The Abbasid Caliphate (750 to 1258) moved the capital to Baghdad. Its House of Wisdom translated Greek, Persian and Indian works.
- Muslim rulers in al-Andalus (Spain) made Córdoba a center of learning where Muslims, Christians and Jews worked together.
- Achievements: al-Khwarizmi developed algebra; Ibn Sina (Avicenna) wrote The Canon of Medicine; astronomers improved the astrolabe; paper-making spread from China.
- The Mongols destroyed Baghdad in 1258, ending Abbasid rule there.
- Expansion was helped by strong armies, weakened Byzantine and Persian empires, and fairly tolerant rule; non-Muslims paid a special tax (jizya) but could keep their faith.
Practice
The split between Sunni and Shia Muslims began mainly over:
Shia Muslims supported Ali and his descendants as leaders.
The House of Wisdom in Baghdad was important because scholars there:
It helped preserve and advance learning from many cultures.
A student solves an equation using methods first described by a Muslim scholar in Baghdad. This scholar was most likely:
Al-Khwarizmi's work gave us the word algebra.
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