What peoples inhabited the Arab Caliphate under Harun. The last caliphs of the Abbasid dynasty

The homeland of the Arabs is Arabia (or rather, the Arabian Peninsula), called so by the Turks and Farces (Persians). Arabia is located at the junction of Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. The southern part of the peninsula is more suitable for living - there is a lot of water, it rains. The nomadic Arabs are called "Bedouins" (people of the desert). At the end of the 6th - beginning of the 7th centuries, the Arabs were at the stage of transition from a primitive system to feudalism. The largest shopping center was Mecca.The nature of the Arab Caliphate and Islamic societies,
which are controlled by the clergy.

The Arabs were originally idolaters. Since 610, the Prophet Muhammad began to preach a new, Islamic religion. In 622 the Prophet moved (hijrat) from Mecca to Medina. Returning to Mecca in 630, Muhammad founded the Arab state. Most of the Arabs converted to Islam. The fundamental book of Islam - the Koran consists of 114 suras. A devout Muslim must observe five main conditions: 1) know the formula for the evidence of the unity of Allah; 2) pray; 3) observe fasting; 4) give alms; 5) if possible, visit the holy places (hajj) - Mecca. After the Prophet Muhammad, the country was ruled by the caliphs (successor, deputy). The history of the Arab state is divided into three periods:

630-661 years. The period of the reign of the Prophet Muhammad and after him four caliphs - Abu Bekr, Omar, Osman, Ali. The capital of the Caliphate was Mecca and Medina.
661-750 years. The period of the Umayyad dynasty from Mu'awiyah. The capital of the Caliphate was the city of Damascus.
750-1258 years. Period of Abbasid rule. Since 762, the capital has been the city of Baghdad. Under the Abbasids, 120 km from Baghdad, in the city of Samira, the residence of the Caliph was built. How has the Arab Caliphate developed throughout history?

The Arabs hit Byzantium and Iran like an avalanche. The reasons for their successful offensive were: 1) a large army, especially a large light cavalry; 2) Iran and Byzantium were exhausted by a long war with each other; 3) the locals, exhausted by this war, looked at the Arabs as deliverers.

At the beginning of the VIII century, the Arabs conquered North Africa and in 711, led by Tarig, crossed Gibraltar (the Arabic name “Jaballutarig” - in honor of Tarig) and conquered the Iberian Peninsula. In 732, the Arabs lost at the Battle of Poitiers and retreated south. Muslim troops conquered the Caucasus and Central Asia, in the east they reached China and the Indus river valley. At the end of the 7th - first half of the 8th centuries, the borders of the Caliphate stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to India and China. At the head of the country was the caliph, who during the war was the supreme commander in chief.

To manage various sectors of the economy, sofas were created: the military affairs sofa was engaged in providing for the army, the internal affairs sofa controlled the collection of taxes. The couch of the postal service played an important role in the caliphate. Even carrier pigeons were used. All state affairs in the Caliphate were conducted in Arabic. The gold dinar and silver dirhem were in circulation within the caliphate. All the conquered lands were the property of the state. To gain a foothold in the conquered territories, the Arabs widely practiced a resettlement policy. In this case, two goals were pursued:

by creating an ethnic support, to strengthen;
resettling those who were state support, to free the treasury from unnecessary payments.

The peoples, forcibly included in the caliphate, rebelled. In Central Asia, under the leadership of Muganna in 783-785. an uprising arose. The teachings of Muganna were based on the teachings of Mazdak.

During the reign of Caliph Mohtasim (833-842), the military positions of the Turks were strengthened, a special army was created, consisting only of the Turks. In the struggle against Byzantium and in the suppression of uprisings, Mohtasim attracted the Turks.

In state institutions, the Turks were given high positions, since they were more knowledgeable in administrative matters.

The Tulun dynasty that ruled Egypt was of Turkic origin. During the reign of the Egyptian governor, Ahmed ibn Tulun, a strong flotilla was built, which reigned in the Mediterranean. Tulun supervised construction work and took care of the welfare of the people. Egyptian historians call the period of his reign (868-884) "golden time".

In the middle of the VIII century, Spain separated from the Caliphate and an independent state arose here - the Emirate of Cordoba. In the 9th century, Egypt, Central Asia, Iran and Afghanistan also split from the Caliphate.In the XI century, all the territories of the Caliphate were taken over.

Historical preconditions for the emergence

The initial nucleus of the caliphate was the Muslim community, the ummah, created by the prophet Muhammad at the beginning of the 7th century in the Hejaz (Western Arabia). As a result of the Muslim conquests, a huge state was created, which included the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Iran, most of the Transcaucasia (in particular the Armenian Highlands, the Caspian territories, the Colchis Lowland, as well as the regions of Tbilisi), Central Asia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, Sindh.

From the founding of the Caliphate () to the Abbasid dynasty ()

This period includes the era of the first 4 caliphs who "walked the right path" (ar-rashidin) - Abu Bakr (632-634), Umar (634-644), Uthman (644-656) and Ali (656-661) and the rule of the Umayyads (661-750).

Arab conquests

Their empire, which was formed in less than a hundred years, surpassed the Roman one in size, and this turned out to be all the more amazing because at first, after the death of Muhammad, one could have feared that even the small successes of Islam that he had achieved in Arabia would collapse. Muhammad, dying, did not leave an heir, and after his death (632) a dispute arose between the Meccans and the Medinians over the question of his successor. During the discussions, Abu Bakr was chosen as the caliph. Meanwhile, with the news of Muhammad's death, almost all of Arabia, except for Mecca, Medina and Taif, immediately abandoned Islam. With the help of the believers of Madina and Meccans, Abu Bakr was able to bring the vast but divided Arabia back to Islam; most of all, the so-called Sayfullah "sword of Allah" helped him in this - the experienced commander Khalid ibn al-Walid, who only 9 years ago defeated the prophet at Mount Leaving; Khalid defeated the 40,000-strong army of followers of the false prophet Musailima in that name. "Fence of death" at Akrab (633). Immediately, after pacifying the revolt of the Arabs, Abu Bakr, continuing the policy of Muhammad, led them to war against the Byzantine and Iranian possessions.

The limits of the caliphate narrowed somewhat: the escaped Umayyad Abd ar-Rahman I laid the first foundation () of an independent Cordoba Emirate in Spain, which since 929 has been officially titled “caliphate” (929-). 30 years later, Idris, the great-grandson of Caliph Ali and therefore equally hostile to both the Abbasids and the Umayyads, founded the Alid dynasty of Idrisids (-) in Morocco, whose capital was the city of Tudga; the rest of the northern coast of Africa (Tunisia, etc.) was actually lost to the Abbasid Caliphate, when the governor named Aglab appointed by Harun ar-Rashid was the founder of the Aglabid dynasty in Kairouan (-). The Abbasids did not consider it necessary to renew the foreign policy of conquest against Christian or other countries, and although at times there were military clashes both on the eastern and northern borders (like Mamun's two unsuccessful campaigns to Constantinople), however, in general, the Caliphate lived peacefully.

Such a feature of the first Abbasids is noted as their despotic, heartless and, moreover, often insidious cruelty. Sometimes, like the founder of the dynasty, she was an open object of caliph pride (the nickname "Bloodbath" was chosen by Abu al-Abbas himself). Some of the caliphs, at least the cunning al-Mansur, who loved to clothe the people in hypocritical clothes of piety and justice, preferred, where possible, to act deceitfully and executed dangerous people on the sly, first lulling their caution with oath promises and favors. In al-Mahdi and Harun ar-Rashid, cruelty was obscured by their generosity, however, the treacherous and fierce overthrow of the Barmakid vizier family, extremely useful for the state, but imposing a certain bridle on the sovereign, constitutes for Harun one of the most disgusting acts of Eastern despotism. It should be added that under the Abbasids, a system of torture was introduced into the judicial procedure. Even the tolerant philosopher Mamun and his two successors are not too free from the accusation of tyranny and cruelty towards people unpleasant for them. Kremer finds ("Culturgesch. D. Or.", II, 61; compare Müller: "Ist. Isl.", II, 170) that the very first Abbasids showed signs of hereditary Caesar madness, which in descendants intensifies even more.

In justification, one could only say that in order to suppress the chaotic anarchy in which the countries of Islam were located during the establishment of the Abbasid dynasty, the , terrorist measures were, perhaps, a simple necessity. Apparently, Abu-l'Abbas understood the meaning of his nickname "Bloodshed". Thanks to the formidable centralization that the heartless man, but the brilliant politician al-Mansur, managed to introduce, the subjects were able to enjoy inner peace, and public finances were delivered in a brilliant manner. Even the scientific and philosophical movement in the Caliphate dates from the same cruel and insidious Mansur (Masudi: "Golden Meadows"), who, despite his notorious stinginess, treated science with encouragement (meaning, first of all, practical, medical goals) ... But, on the other hand, it remains unquestionable that the flowering of the caliphate would hardly have been possible if Saffah, Mansur and their successors ruled the state directly, and not through the talented vizier family of the Persians-Barmakids. Until this family was overthrown () by the reckless Harun al-Rashid, burdened by her tutelage, some of its members were the first ministers or close advisers of the Caliph in Baghdad (Khalid, Yahya, Jafar), others were in important government positions in the provinces (like Fadl ), and all together managed, on the one hand, to maintain for 50 years the necessary balance between the Persians and the Arabs, which gave the Caliphate its political fortress, and on the other hand, to restore the ancient Sassanian life, with its social structure, with its culture, with its mental movement.

The "golden age" of Arab culture

This culture is commonly called Arab, because the Arabic language became the organ of mental life for all the peoples of the Caliphate, so they say: "Arabic art", "Arabic science ", etc .; but in essence, these were most of all the remnants of the Sassanian culture and, in general, Old Persian (which, as you know, also took a lot from India, Assyria, Babylon and, directly, from Greece). In the West Asian and Egyptian parts of the Caliphate, we observe the development of remnants of Byzantine culture, just as in North Africa, Sicily and Spain - the culture of the Roman and Roman-Spanish - and the homogeneity in them is imperceptible, if we exclude the link between them - the Arabic language. It cannot be said that the foreign culture inherited by the Caliphate rose qualitatively under the Arabs: Iranian-Muslim architectural buildings are lower than the old Parse ones, and Muslim products made of silk and wool, household utensils and ornaments, despite their charm, are inferior to ancient products.

But on the other hand, in the Muslim, Abbasid period in a vast, united and orderly state with carefully furnished communication routes, the demand for Iranian-made items increased, and the number of consumers increased. Peaceful relations with neighbors made it possible to develop remarkable foreign exchange trade: with China through Turkestan and - by the sea - through the Indian archipelago, with the Volga Bulgars and Russia through the Khazar kingdom, with the Spanish Emirate, with all of southern Europe (with the exception, perhaps, of Byzantium), with the eastern shores of Africa (from where, in turn, ivory and negros were exported), etc. The main port of the Caliphate was Basra. The merchant and the industrialist are the protagonists of Arabian tales; various high-ranking officials, military leaders, scientists, etc. were not ashamed to add to their titles the nicknames Attar ("sewing machine"), Hayat ("tailor"), Javkhariy ("jeweler"), etc. However, the nature of the Muslim-Iranian industry is not so much a satisfaction of practical needs as a luxury. The main items of production are silk fabrics (muslin, satin, moire, brocade), weapons (sabers, daggers, chain mail), embroidery on canvas and leather, gimped work, carpets, shawls, chased, engraved, carved ivory and metals, mosaic works, faience and glass products; less often, products are purely practical - paper, cloth and camel wool.

The well-being of the agricultural class (from considerations, however, tax, and not democratic) was raised by the restoration of irrigation canals and dams, which were launched during the last Sassanids. But even according to the consciousness of the Arab writers themselves, the caliphs did not succeed in bringing the people's amenability to such a height that was achieved by the tax system of Khosrov I Anushirvan, although the caliphs deliberately ordered to translate the Sassanid cadastral books into Arabic for this purpose.

The Persian spirit also takes possession of Arab poetry, which now, instead of Bedouin songs, gives the refined works of the Basrian Abu-Nuwas ("Arab Heine") and other court poets of Harun al-Rashid. Apparently, not without Persian influence (Brockelmann: "Gesch. D. Arab. Litt.", I, 134), a correct historiography arises, and after the "Life of the Apostle", compiled by Ibn Ishaq for Mansur, a number of secular historians also appear. From the Persian language, Ibn al-Mukaffa (about 750) translates the Sassanian "Book of Kings", the Pahlavi adaptation of Indian parables about "Kalila and Dimna" and various Greco-Syro-Persian philosophical works, which Basra, Kufa, then and Baghdad. The same task is performed by people of a language closer to the Arabs, the former Persian Christian Aramaic subjects of Jondishapur, Harran and others. Moreover, Mansur (Masudi: "Golden Meadows") is also taking care of translating Greek medical works into Arabic, and at the same time mathematical and philosophical ones. ... Harun gives the manuscripts brought from the Asia Minor campaigns for translation to the Jondishapur doctor Ioann ibn Masaveikh (who even dealt with vivisection and was then a physician-in-chief with Mamun and his two successors), and Mamun arranged, already specifically for abstract philosophical purposes, a special translation college in Baghdad and attracted philosophers (Kindi). Under the influence of Greco-Syro-Persian philosophy, commentary work on the interpretation of the Koran turns into scientific Arabic philology (Basrian Khalil, Basrian Persian Sibaveikhi; teacher Mamun Kufi Kisviy) and the creation of Arabic grammar, philological collection of works of pre-Islamic and Umayyad folk literature, Hoseilite poems, etc.).

The age of the first Abbasids is also known as the period of the highest tension of the religious thought of Islam, as a period of a strong sectarian movement: the Persians, who now converted to Islam in large numbers, took Muslim theology almost completely into their own hands and initiated a lively dogmatic struggle, among which heretical sects, which were outlined even during The Umayyads, received their development, and the orthodox theology-jurisprudence was defined in the form of 4 schools, or interpretations: under Mansur - the more progressive Abu Hanifa in Baghdad and the conservative Malik in Medina, under Harun - the relatively progressive ash-Shafi'i, under Mamun - Ibn Hanbal. The government's attitude towards these Orthodox was not always the same. During the reign of Mansur, a supporter of the Mu'tazilites, Malik was hewn to injury. Then, during the next 4 reigns, orthodoxy prevailed, but when Mamun and his two successors elevated (since 827) mutazilism to the level of a state religion, the followers of orthodox religions were subjected to official persecution for "anthropomorphism", "polytheism", etc., and under al-Mutasime was hewn and tortured by the holy imam ibn-Hanbal (). Of course, the Caliphs could patronize the sect of the Mu'tazilites fearlessly, because its rationalistic doctrine of the free will of man and the creation of the Koran and its inclination towards philosophy could not seem politically dangerous. To sects of a political nature, such as the Kharijites, Mazdakites, extreme Shiites, who sometimes raised very dangerous uprisings (the Persian false prophet Mokanna in Khorasan under al-Mahdi, 779, the brave Babek in Azerbaijan under Mamun and al-Mutasim, etc. ), the attitude of the caliphs was repressive and merciless even during the times of the highest power of the caliphate.

The collapse of the Caliphate

The loss of political power of the Caliphs

The gradual disintegration of X. were witnessed by the caliphs: the already mentioned Mutawakkil (847-861), the Arabian Nero, greatly praised by the faithful; his son Muntasir (861-862), who ascended the throne, killing his father with the help of the Turkic guard, Mustain (862-866), Al-Mutazz (866-869), Mukhtadi I (869-870), Mutamid (870-892 ), Mutadid (892-902), Muktafi I (902-908), Muktadir (908-932), Al-Kahir (932-934), Al-Radi (934-940), Muttaki (940-944), Mustakfi (944-946). In their person, the caliph from the ruler of a vast empire turned into a prince of a small Baghdad region, at war and reconciling with his sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker neighbors. Inside the state, in their capital Baghdad, the caliphs became dependent on the willful praetorian Turkic guard, which Mutasim saw fit to form (833). Under the Abbasids, the national identity of the Persians revived (Goldzier: "Muh. Stud.", I, 101-208). Harun's reckless extermination of the Barmakids, who knew how to unite the Persian element with the Arab, led to discord between the two peoples. Under Mamun, the strong political separatism of Persia was expressed in the founding of the Tahirid dynasty in Khorasan (821-873), which turned out to be the first symptom of the impending fall of Iran. After the Takhirids (821-873), independent dynasties were formed: the Saffarids (867-903; see), Samanids (875-999; see), Ghaznavids (962-1186; see), and Persia slipped out of the hands of the caliphs. In the West, Egypt, together with Syria, separated under the rule of the Tulunids (868-905); however, after the fall of the Tulunids, Syria and Egypt were again under the control of the Abbasid governors for 30 years; but in 935 Ikhshid founded his dynasty (935-969), and since then not a single region west of the Euphrates (Mecca and Medina also belonged to the Ikhshids) was subject to the secular authority of the Baghdad caliphs, although their rights as spiritual rulers were recognized everywhere (except , of course, Spain and Morocco); a coin was minted with their name and a public prayer (khutba) was read.

Persecution of free thought

Feeling their weakening, the caliphs (the first - Al-Mutawakkil, 847) decided that they should gain new support for themselves - in the orthodox clergy, and for this - to renounce the Mu'tazili freethinking. Thus, since the time of Mutavakkil, along with the progressive weakening of the power of the caliphs, there has been an increase in orthodoxy, the persecution of heresies, free thinking and other faiths (Christians, Jews, etc.), religious persecution of philosophy, natural and even exact sciences. The new powerful school of theologians, founded by Abul-Hasan al-Ashari (874-936), who left Mu'tazilism, conducts scientific polemics with philosophy and secular science and triumphs in public opinion. However, in fact, to kill the mental movement of the Caliphs, with their increasingly falling political power, were not able to, and the most glorious Arab philosophers (Basrian encyclopedists, Farabi, Ibn Sina) and other scientists lived under the auspices of vassal sovereigns just at that time. the era (- century), when officially in Baghdad, in Islamic dogma and in the opinion of the masses, philosophy and non-scholastic sciences were recognized as impiety; and literature by the end of the named era produced the greatest free-thinking Arab poet Maarri (973-1057); at the same time, Sufism, which was very well grafted into Islam, passed over with many of its Persian representatives into complete free-thinking.

Cairo Caliphate

The last caliphs of the Abbasid dynasty

The Abbasid caliph, that is, in essence, a petty Baghdad prince with a title, was a plaything in the hands of his Turkic military leaders and Mesopotamian emirs: under Al-Radi (934-941) a special position of mayordom was established (“emir-al-umar”). Meanwhile, in the neighborhood, in western Persia, the Shiite dynasty of Buyids advanced, which was deposited from the Samanids in 930 (see). In 945, the Buyids captured Baghdad and held it for over a hundred years, with the title of sultans, and at that time there were nominal caliphs: Mustakfi (944-946), Al-Muti (946-974), Al-Tai (974-991 ), Al-Qadir (991-1031) and Al-Qaim (1031-1075). Although for political reasons, to counterbalance the Fatimids, the Shiite sultans-Buyids called themselves vassals, “emirs of al-umar” of the Sunni Baghdad Caliphate, but, in essence, they treated the Caliphs as captives, with complete disrespect and contempt, patronized philosophers and free sectarians, and in Baghdad itself Shiism was making progress.

Seljuk invasion

A ray of hope for deliverance from the oppressors flashed across the caliphs in the person of the new conqueror, the Turkic sultan Mahmud Ghaznevi (997-1030), who, having created his own huge sultanate instead of the Samanid state he had overthrown, showed himself to be an ardent Sunni and introduced orthodoxy everywhere; however, only from small Buyids he took Media and some other possessions, and avoided collisions with the main Buyids. Culturally, the campaigns of Mahmud turned out to be very disastrous for the countries he conquered, and in 1036 a terrible misfortune struck the whole of Muslim Asia: the Seljuk Turks began their devastating conquests and dealt the first fatal blow to the Asian-Muslim civilization, already shaken by the Ghaznavid Turks ... But the caliphs got better: in 1055 the leader of the Seljuks Togrul-bek entered Baghdad, freed the caliph from the rule of the heretics-Buyids, and instead of them became a sultan himself; in 1058, he solemnly accepted the investiture from al-Qaim and surrounded it with external signs of reverence. Al-Qaim (d. 1075), Muhtadi II (1075-1094) and Al-Mustazhir (1094-1118) lived in material contentment and respect, as representatives of the Muslim church, and Al-Mustarshid (1118-1135) the Seljukid Mas'ud granted for independent secular government Baghdad and most of Iraq, which remained behind his successors: Ar-Rashid (1135-1136), Al-Muktafi (1136-1160), Al-Mustanjid (1160-1170) and Al-Mustadi (1170 -1180).

End X. The Fatimid, so hated by the Abbasids, was put by the faithful Sunni Saladin (1169-1193). The Egyptian-Syrian Ayyubid dynasty (1169-1250) founded by him revered the name of the Baghdad Caliph.

Mongol invasion

Taking advantage of the weakness of the disintegrated Seljuk dynasty, the energetic Caliph An-Nasir (1180-1225) planned to expand the limits of his little Baghdad X. and dared to fight the powerful Khorezmshah Muhammad ibn Tekesh, who advanced instead of the Seljuk. Ibn Tekesh ordered the assembly of theologians to transfer X. from the clan of Abbas to the clan of Ali and sent troops to Baghdad (1217-1219), and An-Nasir sent an embassy to the Mongols of Genghis Khan, inviting them to invade Khorezm. Neither An-Nasir (d. 1225), nor the Caliph Az-Zahir (1220-1226) saw the end of the catastrophe brought on by them, which destroyed the Islamic countries of Asia both culturally, materially and mentally. The last Baghdad caliphs were Al-Mustansir (1226-1242) and the absolutely insignificant and incompetent Al-Mustasim (1242-1258), who in 1258 surrendered the capital to the Mongols Hulagu and 10 days later was executed with most of the members of his dynasty. One of them fled to Egypt, and there the Mamluk Sultan Baybars (-), in order to have spiritual support for his sultanate, elevated him to the rank of "caliph" under the name Mustansir (). The descendants of this Abbasid remained nominal caliphs under the sultans of Cairo until the rule of the Mamluks was overthrown by the Ottoman conqueror Selim I (1517). In order to have all the official data of spiritual supremacy over the whole Islamic world, Selim I forced the last of these caliphs and the last in the Abbasid family, Motavakkil III, to solemnly renounce his caliph rights and title in favor of

In old Russian sources it is also known under the names kingdom of Agarian and kingdom of Izmailty, which thus included him in the general list of kingdoms (empires) of the world, known to book people in Russia at that time.

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Medina community

The initial nucleus of the caliphate was the Muslim community, the ummah, created by the prophet Muhammad at the beginning of the 7th century in the Hejaz (Western Arabia). Initially, this community was small and was a proto-state formation of a super-religious nature, by analogy with the Moses state or the First Christian communities. As a result of the Muslim conquests, a huge state was created, which included the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Iran, most of the Transcaucasia (in particular the Armenian Highlands, the Caspian territories, the Colchis Lowlands, as well as the districts of Tbilisi), Central Asia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, most of the Iberian Peninsula, Sindh.

Righteous Caliphate (632-661)

After the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632, the Righteous Caliphate was created. It was headed by four Righteous Caliphs: Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abu Talib. During their reign, the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant (Sham), the Caucasus, part of North Africa from Egypt to Tunisia and the Iranian Highlands were included in the Caliphate.

Umayyad Caliphate (661-750)

Situation of the non-Arab peoples of the Caliphate

By paying the land tax (kharaj) in exchange for providing them with protection and immunity from the Muslim state, as well as the head tax (jizya), the Gentiles had the right to practice their religion. Even to the above-mentioned decrees of "Umar, it was in principle recognized that the law of Muhammad is armed only against pagan polytheists;" people of the Scripture "- Christians, Jews - can, by paying a fee, remain in their religion; in comparison with neighboring Byzantium, where any Christian heresy was persecuted, the law of Islam, even under Umar, was relatively liberal.

Since the conquerors were not at all prepared for the complex forms of state administration, even "Umar was forced to preserve the old, well-established Byzantine and Iranian state mechanism for the newly formed huge state (before Abdul-Malik, even the chancellery was not conducted in Arabic), and therefore Gentiles were not cut off from access to many positions of government. For political reasons, Abd al-Malik considered it necessary to remove non-Muslims from public service, but with full consistency this order could not be carried out either under him or after him; and even with Abd al-Malik himself -Malik, his close courtiers were Christians (the most famous example is Father John Damascene.) Nevertheless, among the conquered peoples there was a great tendency to renounce their former faith - Christian and Parsian - and voluntarily accept Islam. law of 700, did not pay taxes; on the contrary, according to the law of Omar, he used he was paid by the government with an annual salary and was completely equalized with the winners; higher government positions were made available to him.

On the other hand, the conquered had to convert to Islam out of inner conviction; - How else to explain the massive adoption of Islam, for example, by those heretical Christians who, before that in the kingdom of Khosrov and in the Byzantine empire, could not be rejected from the faith of their fathers by any persecution? Obviously, Islam, with its simple dogmas, spoke to their hearts quite well. Moreover, Islam did not appear to be any drastic innovation either for Christians or even for Parsis: in many points it was close to both religions. It is known that Europe for a long time saw in Islam, highly venerating Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin, no more than one of the Christian heresies (for example, the Orthodox Arab archimandrite Christopher Zhara argued that the religion of Muhammad is the same Arianism)

The adoption of Islam by Christians and then by Iranians had extremely important consequences, both religious and governmental. Islam, instead of indifferent Arabs, acquired in its new followers such an element for which belief was an essential need of the soul, and since these were educated people, they (the Persians are much more than Christians) engaged by the end of this period in the scientific processing of Muslim theology and combined with him of jurisprudence - subjects modestly developed until then by only a small circle of those Muslim Arabs who, without any sympathy from the Umayyad government, remained faithful to the teachings of the prophet.

It was said above that the general spirit that permeated the Caliphate in the first century of its existence was Old Arab (this fact, much clearer even than in the government Umayyad reaction against Islam, was expressed in the then poetry, which continued to brilliantly develop the same pagan-tribal, cheerful themes that were outlined in the Old Arabic poems). In the form of a protest against the return to pre-Islamic traditions, a small group of companions ("sahaba") of the prophet and their heirs ("tabiins") was formed, which continued to observe the behests of Muhammad, led in the silence of the capital she had abandoned - Medina and in some places in other places of the Caliphate theoretical work on the orthodox interpretation of the Koran and on the creation of an orthodox Sunnah, that is, on the definition of truly Muslim traditions, according to which the wicked life of the contemporary Umayyad X should be rebuilt. These traditions, which, among other things, preached the destruction of the tribal principle and the equalizing unification of all Muslims in the bosom of the Muhammad religion, the newly converted foreigners, obviously, were more at heart than the arrogant un-Islamic attitude of the ruling Arab spheres, and therefore the Medina theological school, downtrodden, ignored by pure Arabs and the government, found active support in the new non-Arab Muslims.

There were, perhaps, well-known disadvantages for the purity of Islam from these new believers of its followers: partly unconsciously, partly even consciously, ideas or tendencies began to creep into it, alien or unknown to Muhammad. Probably, the influence of Christians (A. Müller, "Ist. Isl.", II, 81) explains the emergence (at the end of the 7th century) of the sect of the Murjiites, with its teaching about the immense merciful longsuffering of the Lord, and the sect of the Kadarites, which is the man was prepared by the triumph of the Mu'tazilites; probably, mystical monasticism (under the name of Sufism) was borrowed by Muslims at first from the Syrian Christians (A. v. Kremer "Gesch. d. herrsch. Ideen", 57); in the bottom. In Mesopotamia, Muslim converts from Christians have joined the ranks of the republican-democratic sect of the Kharijites, which is equally disgusting to both the unbelieving Umayyad government and the Medina right-believers.

An even more double-edged aid in the development of Islam was the participation of the Persians, which came later, but more active. A significant part of them, not being able to get rid of the age-old Persian belief that "royal grace" (farrahi kayanik) is transmitted only through heredity, joined the Shiite sect (see), which stood behind the Ali dynasty (the husband of Fatima, the daughter of the prophet) ; moreover, to stand for the direct heirs of the prophet meant for the aliens to form a purely legal opposition against the Umayyad government, with its unpleasant Arab nationalism. This theoretical opposition took on a very real meaning when Umar II (717-720), the only Umayyad devoted to Islam, decided to enforce the principles of the Koran favorable to non-Arab Muslims and thus disorganized the Umayyad system of government.

Thirty years after him, the Khurasan Shiite Persians overthrew the Umayyad dynasty (the remnants of which fled to Spain; see related article). True, due to the cunning of the Abbasids, the throne of X. went (750) not to the Alids, but to the Abbasids, also relatives of the prophet (Abbas is his uncle; see the corresponding article), but, in any case, the Persians' expectations were justified: under the Abbasids they received an advantage in state and breathed new life into it. Even the capital of X. was moved to the borders of Iran: first - to Anbar, and from the time of Al-Mansur - even closer, to Baghdad, almost to the same places where the capital of the Sassanids was; and for half a century, members of the Barmakid vizier family, descended from the Persian priests, became the hereditary advisers of the caliphs.

Abbasid Caliphate (750-945, 1124-1258)

First Abbasids

Even the scientific and philosophical movement in the Caliphate dates from the same cruel and insidious Mansur (Masudi: "Golden Meadows"), who, despite his notorious stinginess, treated science with encouragement (meaning, first of all, practical, medical goals) ... But, on the other hand, it remains unquestionable that the flowering of the caliphate would hardly have been possible if Saffah, Mansur and their successors ruled the state directly, and not through the talented vizier family of the Persians-Barmakids. Until this family was overthrown () by the reckless Harun al-Rashid, burdened by her tutelage, some of its members were the first ministers or close advisers of the Caliph in Baghdad (Khalid, Yahya, Jafar), others were in important government positions in the provinces (like Fadl ), and all together managed, on the one hand, to maintain for 50 years the necessary balance between the Persians and the Arabs, which gave the Caliphate its political fortress, and on the other hand, to restore the ancient Sassanian life, with its social structure, with its culture, with its mental movement.

The "golden age" of Arab culture

This culture is commonly called Arab, because the Arabic language became the organ of mental life for all the peoples of the Caliphate, so they say: "Arabic art", "Arabic science ", etc .; but in essence, these were most of all the remnants of the Sassanian culture and, in general, Old Persian (which, as you know, also took a lot from India, Assyria, Babylon and, indirectly, from Greece). In the West Asian and Egyptian parts of the Caliphate, we observe the development of remnants of Byzantine culture, just as in North Africa, Sicily and Spain - the culture of the Roman and Roman-Spanish - and the homogeneity in them is imperceptible, if we exclude the link between them - the Arabic language. It cannot be said that the foreign culture inherited by the Caliphate rose qualitatively under the Arabs: Iranian-Muslim architectural buildings are lower than the old Parse ones, and Muslim products made of silk and wool, household utensils and ornaments, despite their charm, are inferior to ancient products. [ ]

The merchant and the industrialist are the protagonists of Arabian tales; various high-ranking officials, military leaders, scientists, etc. were not ashamed to add to their titles the nicknames Attar ("sewing machine"), Hayat ("tailor"), Javkhariy ("jeweler"), etc. However, the nature of the Muslim-Iranian industry is not so much a satisfaction of practical needs as a luxury. The main items of production are silk fabrics (muslin, satin, moire, brocade), weapons (sabers, daggers, chain mail), embroidery on canvas and leather, gimped work, carpets, shawls, chased, engraved, carved ivory and metals, mosaic works, faience and glassware; less often, products are purely practical - paper, cloth and camel wool.

Moreover, Mansur (Masoudi: "Golden Meadows") takes care of translating Greek medical works into Arabic, and at the same time - mathematical and philosophical ones. Harun gives the manuscripts brought from the Asia Minor campaigns for translation to the Jondishapur doctor Ioann ibn Masaveikh (who even dealt with vivisection and was then a physician-in-chief with Mamun and his two successors), and Mamun arranged, already specifically for abstract philosophical purposes, a special translation college in Baghdad and attracted philosophers (Kindi). Under the influence of Greco-Syro-Persian philosophy, commentary work on the interpretation of the Koran turns into scientific Arabic philology (Basrian Khalil, Basrian Persian Sibaveyhi; teacher Mamun Kufi Kisviy) and the creation of Arabic grammar, philological collection of works of pre-Islamic and Umayyad folk literature, Khalas Hoseilite poems, etc.).

Then, during the next 4 reigns, orthodoxy prevailed, but when Mamun and his two successors elevated (since 827) mutazilism to the level of a state religion, the followers of orthodox religions were subjected to official persecution for "anthropomorphism", "polytheism", etc., and under al-Mutasime was hewn and tortured by the holy imam ibn-Hanbal (). Of course, the Caliphs could patronize the sect of the Mu'tazilites fearlessly, because its rationalistic doctrine of the free will of man and the creation of the Koran and its inclination towards philosophy could not seem politically dangerous. To sects of a political nature, such as the Kharijites, Mazdakites, extreme Shiites, who sometimes raised very dangerous uprisings (the Persian false prophet Mokanna in Khorasan under al-Mahdi, 779, the brave Babek in Azerbaijan under Mamun and al-Mutasim, etc. ), the attitude of the caliphs was repressive and merciless even during the times of the highest power of the caliphate.

The loss of political power of the Caliphs

Persecution of free thought

However, in fact, to kill the mental movement of the Caliphs, with their increasingly falling political power, were not able to, and the most glorious Arab philosophers (Basrian encyclopedists, Farabi, Ibn Sina) and other scientists lived under the auspices of vassal sovereigns just at that time. the era (- century), when officially in Baghdad, in Islamic dogma and in the opinion of the masses, philosophy and non-scholastic sciences were recognized as impiety; and literature by the end of the named era produced the greatest free-thinking Arab poet Maarri (973-1057); at the same time, Sufism, which was very well grafted into Islam, passed over with many of its Persian representatives into complete free-thinking.

Cairo Caliphate

Shiites (c. 864) also became a powerful political force, especially their branch of the Carmatians (see); when in 890 the Karmatians built a strong fortress Dar al-Hijra in Iraq, which became a stronghold for the newly formed predatory state, since then “everyone was afraid of the Ismailis, and they were no one,” in the words of the Arab historian Noveiria, and the Karmatians disposed of as they wanted, in Iraq, Arabia and border Syria. In 909, the Carmatians managed to establish a dynasty in North Africa