The Most Dominant And Influential Empires

A change that occurred in the political life of Islamic civilization was the shift from the election of a Caliphate to a more dynastical system. Previously, the caliphates were elected by the Islamic community. Capable leaders were preferred over heirs who were not as qualified. Sunni Muslims were firm believers of this concept, while Shia muslims believed that Ali should’ve

It is evident that the two main largest classical empires were the Roman Empire and the Chinese Empire under the rule of the Han kings. These two empires had many social, political, and economic features in common, but likewise many of those features different from one another. A political feature that both classical empires shared was that both had powerful executive emperors who held absolute power. A second political feature that both empires had in common is that both empires had a central governmental body which maintained order, organized funds, collected taxes, and made executive decisions. Socially, the two empires also had features in common. The first similarity between the Roman social organization and the Han social organization

Islam is an empire that expanded greatly, but they didn’t expand by people just joining them they did it by battles and other ways. Muhammad guided a small group of people who followed him in 622 CE. Then died in 632 CE, because there was no one who took charge some Arab tribes started leaving Islam. But Abu Bakr used military force to get back some Muslims. People who were Jew or Christian liked how Islam thought of how people can be equal. But in 656 the third caliph was killed and 661 the fourth was killed and they Umayyad dynasty started to take place. They did what Abu Bakr did and used military forces to expand; they expanded it to Persia, Central Asia, and Spain. By 732 a battle started and Christians stopped Muslim armies. The Umayyad’s

When Muhammad died, Muslims faced the challenge of creating institutions to preserve the community. This is the Middle period of Islam. Muslims believe that the revelation was completed with the work of Muhammad, who is described as the seal of the prophets. The leaders after Muhammad were described only as caliphs, or successors to the Prophet, and not as prophets themselves. The first four caliphs were companions of the Prophet and their period of rule (632-661) is described by the majority of Muslims as the age of the Rightly Guided Caliphate. This was an era of expansion during which Muslims conquered the Sasanid (Persian) Empire and took control of the North African and Syrian territories of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. The Muslim community was transformed from a small city-state controlling much of the Arabian Peninsula into a major world empire, in this case the Umayyad empire, extending from northwest Africa to central Asia. The emphasis

Al-Mamun’s successor and son was a man called Al Mu’tasim. His reign was particularly important in the gradual decline of the Abbasids. Although he was not the first to use the infamous ‘slave soldiers’, they had been used from 814 onwards, he expanded their usage massively. The slave soldiers were mostly Turks from areas like modern Turkmenistan. These were hard nomadic peoples from the grass planes of the Steppe who were brutal worriers and provided the Caliph with military security for a price. These Turk soldiers were to play a crucial part in the decline of the Caliphate as their influence and power grew over their masters. The Turks soon formed the palace guard of the Caliph, taking on a similar to the Praetorian Guard of the Roman Empire. As their presence increased they became increasingly unpopular in Baghdad. This unpopularity and the Caliphs increasing dependence on his mercenaries lead to Mu’tasim relocating the capital from Baghdad to Samarra in 835. This only diminished the power of the Caliphate in

Chau’s thesis that the rise and fall of empires was due to tolerance, inclusion, difference, and diversity is shown to be true of the Roman Empire because of the way that tolerance allowed and caused the empire to rise, enter its golden age, and fall. The Roman Empire was a “hyperpower” that lasted from 44 BCE to 476 CE. The empire contained Western, Southern, and Eastern Europe, along with North Africa; thus, there was an abundance of culture from many different conquered groups. Romans wanted to make these conquered nations provinces of Rome. The Roman Empire began (and the Roman Republic ended) with the assassination of Julius Caesar, who wanted to be a dictator. No longer a republic, the lands already ruled by Rome became part of an empire. The government became centralized with a single ruler, the emperor. However, even before the empire, during the Republic, there was also the similar feeling of wanting to conquer other nations was there.

    Around the years of 632-750 C.E., Islamic followers created an empire that reached across North Africa into Europe and dominated the Middle East. Due to several aspects leading up to expansion such as war, geography, and establishing an organized impressionable government, the Islamic empire grew rapidly.

How did ancient empires exert their power before 600 BCE.? The way that ancient Empires exerted their power was based on their cultural differences. Empires were different in the way they exerted power because they could affect places outside their empire in a positive or negative way . Another way that empires exerted their power is by creating and enforcing laws within their empires.

The Umayya remained a powerful clan as Islam spread under Muhammad and, after his death in 632, his two successors, or caliphs—successors of the Prophet. Still, the clan’s power had far from peaked. After the death of Umar, the second caliph, a member of the Umayya became his successor: Uthman ibn Affan (Kishlansky, Geary and O'Brien). Uthman, however, was quickly murdered because he privileged the Meccan elite over the early converts. Shaken by his death, the Umma charged the fourth caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib, as being complacent with Uthman’s murder. Eventually Ali himself was murdered by the Umayyad’s supporters, giving rise to an Islamic state ruled by the Umayya, the Umayyad Caliphate, where the Islamic

Ancient empires had their own unique ways of exerting political power. After a period known as the Neolithic Revolution, early people settled down to create villages and states, and eventually civilizations formed. As the first civilizations grew larger and more powerful in Europe and Asia, governments became more complex and certain political methods were used to obtain a strong, centralized government. Before 600 C.E., ancient empires exerted political power using different methods, such as creating strict laws for all to follow, avoiding harsh punishments, distributing power to others, specifically free males, and embracing the cultures of other empires. These methods employed by ancient empires allowed them to maintain a centralized government

The chapter begins by discussing how Jose Marti began a rebellion for the Cubans against the last Spanish holdings in the Americas. While Marti began to restore freedom to the Cubans from the Spanish, his next big task would be that of military occupation and political domination by the United States. At this time the United States was regarded as the world’s imperial power.

Ali’s son Husayn was sought out and asked to lead a revolt against the Uyammad’s. When Husayn set out on his journey to overthrow Yazid, the current caliph, his “supporters” failed to join his band. Husayn and 72 of his followers were killed on the plains of Karbala, Iraq. Thus the Shi’at Ali (Party of Ali) or Shia sect of Islam was born (Egger 2004). The Sunni sect would continue to support what they saw as the traditional path of Islam.

Aslan's explanation of early Islam is simply too literalist. The image bestowed is that of a perfect Prophet and principally undeserving heir. Some decades after Muhammad's death the wars of succession led to the beginning of the Shia that asserted on treating Muhammad as more a simple messenger and urged that his family equipped the caliphs, i.e. his in-law Ali and his heirs. Ali was, doubtless, a

Hourani attributes most of the success of the early conquests to the specific role played by Muhammad. Muhammed did not play the role of political leader in the Umma or conquests, but took the position of supreme arbitrator. However, he may have been involved in military leadership; a text from Syria written between 632 and 634 mentions that “a false prophet [had] appeared among the Saracens… with Sword and Chariot”. However, the arabs’ military success can also in part be attributed to the warlike nature of their society, which had been apparent in the constant skirmishes which had previously beset the tribal society. This is a particularly useful source, as the ‘wall of ignorance’ means that many of the sources we can access were written by the victors or were passed through Isnad (word of mouth). The fact that this source does not originate from the victor enhances its reliability.

Will the Abbasids rule do better or worse than Umayyads? Or will the Abbasids fall without success? The Umayyads were disfavored by the Muslims because they were more government leaders than religious leaders. In the following paragraphs, the Abbasids’ rise, tactics for expansion, and the fall will be discussed.