THE CALIPHATES

The Umayad caliphate established in 661 was to last for about a century.

During this time Damascus became the Capital of an Islamic world which

stretched from the western borders of China to southern France. Not only

did the Islamic conquests continue during this period through North Africa

to Spain and France in the West and to Sind, Central Asia and Transoxiana

in the East, but the basic social and legal institutions of the newly founded

Islamic world were established.

The Abbasids, who succeeded the Umayyads, shifted the capital to Baghdad

which soon developed into an incomparable center of learning and culture

as well as the administrative and political hear of a vast world.

They ruled for over 500 years but gradually their power waned and they

remained only symbolic rulers bestowing legitimacy upon various sultans

and princes who wielded actual military power. The Abbasid caliphate was

finally abolished when Hulagu, the Mongol ruler, captured Baghdad in

1258, destroying much of the city including its incomparable libraries.

While the Abbasids ruled in Baghdad, a number of powerful dynasties such

as the Fatimids, Ayyubids and Mamluks held power in Egypt, Syria and

Palestine. The most important event in this area as far as the relation

between Islam and the Western world was concerned was the series of

Crusades declared by the Pope and espoused by various European kings.

The purpose, although political, was outwardly to recapture the Holy Land

and especially Jerusalem for Christianity. Although there was at the

beginning some success and local European rule was set up in parts of

Syria and Palestine, Muslims finally prevailed and in 1187 Saladin, the

great Muslim leader, recaptured Jerusalem and defeated the Crusaders.