Discuss The Changes And Continuities Of The Islamic Empires

Lee Breece

Mrs. Nowotarski

AP World

5 October 2014

The Islamic empires have persisted in the way that their populations are influenced by and follows the customs of Islam which shaped their social and moral codes. However, the Islamic world changed over time as it expanded and encountered areas beyond its cultural territories and improved its trade and education system. As the centuries passed in the Islamic world from 632 to 1258 C.E., it can be concluded that the changes and continuities of the Islamic empires are due to their religion, trade systems, political organizations, and its education systems.

Islam in its early stages exhibited it’s first major change in 632 CE when Abu Bakr became Islam’s first caliph. After Muhammad died the

Under new caliph leadership, the Islamic armies expanded beyond its hypothetical boundaries diffusing their faith and culture to the Byzantine and Sassanid empires through 600 CE and 700 CE. As it conquered new territories, systems of communication and new trade routes between travelers, merchants, and diplomats evolved. The well established trade routes in the Islamic empires often became major trading centers, often consisting of regions such as, China, Northern Africa, India, and Persia. Each new region brought new influences and products (like bananas and henna) to the trading market. Despite the economic, physical, and political growth, the new caliphate system aroused disagreements concerning who was to inherit the position and created a political battle for power, until the Umayyad dynasty (661 C.E.) the problem for succession was temporarily resolved. The Umayyad dynasty was a time that lead by Arabian military interests. A network of alliances helped bring cohesion and strength to the Islamic community and their capital, Damascus. Despite such success, the Umayyads’

One way that the Islamic empires lacked change was in it belief system. When Islam was first established in Arabia it had followed a heavy influence on the Muslim world’s social and belief system. The Islamic empire have then been governed by an unchanging monotheistic belief system involving devotion to one God, Allah, and the strict following of the Five Pillars of Islam. The pillars were: acknowledgment of Allah as the one, true God, pilgrimage to Mecca, fasting during Ramadan (Islamic holiday), and charity. Another Continuity included the gender relationships. Even though Muslim women enjoy certain rights that women of other civilizations of the time do not have. The Quran, did recognize that male had a right of dominance over women and granted men more privileges in government/society than women; the key continuity being that this society remained a patriarchal civilization. Another key continuity was Islamic society’s advanced educational system in the Golden Age of Islam. In the Golden Age many scholars developed major inventions and made huge strides in math and science resulting in advances in the world of medicine and commerce, in addition to new examples of excellent artistic