his201 - lect 1 - (lecture 12 of the semester)

To understand the rise of Islam you have to know something about the Byzantine emperors of the 6th century. Justinian was concerned with lavish, costly building projects, through this exertion of byzantine resources into the West, the byzantine empire began to wane towards the end of Justinian's reign. Maurice reigned for 20 years and brought stability.

What we have is some periods of stability intermingled with tumultuous times, facing the persian threat whilst trying to become stronger economically. Phocas reigned for 30 years and suffered massive losses - the sacking of Constantinople by the Persians seemed imminent. The Persian threat seemed to have been quelled by Heraclius and some sense of stability seemed to return, however, this was a false sense, because of this long, protracted battle between the Byzantines and the Persians had taken its toll.

What we need to understand is the instability of the empire after Justinian. There was a lack of direction, and an emphasis on just survival. (Justinian wanted to restore their link to the heartland Rome and thus he took his men over the Mediterranean sea) This direction, was lost, a loss of identity, that Roman identity which held them together in the fifth and early sixth centuries.

So heading into the 7th century under Heraclius' reign lost its direction and was beginning to look just like any other kingdom. It was not as powerful as it had been and it was losing its authority. Between the 570's and the 620's the Persians and the Romans were in serious conflict, the 2 super powers were slowly tearing at each other. It was no coincidence that by the 620's and 630's both empires were ripe for invasion.

Pre-muhummedian arabic history is difficult to pin down.

Aristotelian and platonic texts were brought to the arabic empire by missionary Christians. The Arabic empire had a greater sense of identity with the East rather then the Mediterranean sea. culturally, economically.

Mohammed born in mecca at 570ad. Believed to be a descendent of Abraham, religiously important family, and thus he followed that religion. So Mohammed, and the people around the Mecca region, seem to be vaguely hebrew, vaguely judaic. He managed a camel caravan that moved through Medina, Yemen and Mecca, that carried spice, like many young men of this region. When he was 40 he received a message from arch angel Gabriel, and this is essentially the first of many religious revelations (moments-messages) over 20 years.

abassid carliffs took to the sea taking over the island of cyprus in 649. This is a huge move. Now in a period of less than 20 years after Mohammeds death the Byzantines have lost that control of the sea. It's a very quick descent, seemingly, for the Byzantines. So Constantinople was under constant siege by the Arabs - essentially this went on for years, with the Byzantines repelling the attack. In the mean time the islamic forces were making headway in Africa. By 698 the Arabs had conquered Carthage, the last remaining bastion of Byzantine ports in the Mediterranean sea. by 698 Constantinople is the last remaining post of the Roman empire.

now we have three clear major powers, byzantine, frankish and arabic, although the byzantine is severely depleted, and the arabs took a strong hold over the trading routes in the mediterranean sea. So you can see why Pirrene thinks that this is the beginning of the middle ages, if trade and economics is the key to civilisation, then the empire collapsed.

So continuity ended in the 7th century, and we have another story of rupture, the consequence of the Arab empire, trade ended for western europe, and Arab dominance began.