Iraq is a backward country, with a poorly developed industry. The large-scale oil-producing industry that has grown up over the past twenty years in the regions of Kirkuk-Mosul and Basra, planted from above by foreign imperialism and limited locally, has not introduced any serious changes into the country's backward multi-structural economy. In general, Iraq continues to be a state where the countryside is dominated by feudal relations, intertwined with the remnants of patriarchal relations, where capitalism is only one of the ways.

Agriculture and cattle breeding remain the main occupations of the population of Iraq. Agricultural activities employ at least 75% of the population of Iraq; half of it is made up of semi-sedentary tribes, 8-10% are Bedouin nomads.

Agriculture

Agriculture, which fell into decay as a result of numerous invasions and four centuries Turkish yoke, under the conditions of imperialist oppression, develops very slowly. In modern Iraq, only a small part of the once grandiose irrigation system has survived. On the vast area of ​​Iraq, which is 435.4 thousand km 2, about 9 million hectares are considered suitable for processing, but actually less is processed. According to the United Nations, in 1951-1952. the total area of ​​cultivated land was about 3 million hectares, of which only 1,750 thousand hectares were under irrigation 1 .

Cultivate mainly cereals - wheat and barley, as well as rice, millet, corn; the second place is occupied by the date palm, the third - by cotton. In the southern regions of the country, horticulture plays a significant role (except for dates, peaches, apricots, plums, pistachios, almonds). Gourds and horticultural crops are ubiquitous.

State of the art Agriculture Iraq is low, the technique is primitive, the yield is very low. A wooden plow with an iron plowshare, a hoe, a sickle, a threshing log studded with sharp stones or pieces of iron, a stone hand mill - such is the assortment of agricultural implements in the vast majority of Iraqi peasant farms. Irrigation technique does not differ from that already described in the previous chapters.

Agrarian relations in the Iraqi countryside are of a feudal nature. The bulk of the country's land belongs to a few large landowners. The monstrous lack of land and lack of land of the Iraqi fellahs has already been noted more than once in the literature. For example, an organ of the US State Department notes that “there are more than 2 million landless peasants in Iraq who are tenants”

Describing the forms of land tenure existing * in the country, the Iraqi researcher Jafar Hayat points out that “most of the agricultural land, especially in the south and center of the country, was in the hands of sheikhs, yes, wealthy urban families, large landlords. The land holdings of some of them amount to more than half a million mushars... Taking advantage of the landlessness of the peasants, the big landowners turn many of them into feudal slaves...” 2

Renting on the basis of sharecropping has become widespread - at least three-fifths of the crop is given to the owner of the land by the fellah. The harvest is divided into five equal parts, called kumat, or fardagi. One part is given to the landowner to pay the government tax, two parts go to pay rent, two remain to the fellah. Of his share, the fellah also pays to the intermediary between the landowner and the peasant, the trustee of the landowner - the sarkala.

In the south, in the areas of date plantations, a form of exploitation is widespread, known in all Arab countries under the name of mugarasa. The peasant clears the land with his own hands, builds channels and cultivates the area planted with palm trees, usually for seven years, until the palm trees begin to bear fruit. As a reward, the fellah during these years keeps the harvest of the crops he has made between the seedlings. After seven years, the wasteland turned into a palm plantation by the labors of the fellah passes to the landowner, who, according to custom, must either pay the fellah a certain amount for each palm grown by him, or transfer to his ownership from a quarter to a half of the entire plantation. However, practically by the end of the seven-year term, the peasant is so indebted to the owner of the land that, as a rule, he receives nothing.

The additional exploitation of the peasantry is determined by the feudal monopoly on the means of irrigation, since the entire peripheral canals or at the entrances are in the hands of the landowners.

Capitalist relations penetrate the Iraqi countryside very slowly. They have been developed to some extent in areas where oil-fired mechanical pumps 1 are used for irrigation, requiring the use of hired labor. In date plantation areas, it is practiced to hire seasonal workers to pick dates; women's and children's labor is especially widely exploited here. The weakness of the development of capitalist relations is evidenced, in particular, by the negligible number of agricultural machines in the Iraqi countryside; thus, in 1949 there were 450 tractors in the country, in 1951 - 662 2 . Nevertheless, on the basis of the development of commercial crops and pumping irrigation, the differentiation of the peasantry is intensifying, there is a separation of the kulak elite while the bulk of the peasantry is impoverished.

After the end of the Second World War, during the period of the rise of the national liberation democratic movement, the government of Iraq, in order, on the one hand, to deceive the peasantry, and on the other, to plant kulak farms devoted to the government, took some more than modest steps to resolve the agrarian question. . In 1945, a law was passed on the distribution of land in the Dujail region, where, on an area of ​​​​30 thousand hectares newly irrigated with mechanical pumps, 1200 families received land 13 hectares in size. Later, 9,000 hectares were distributed among 360 families in the Sulaymaniyah region and 1,000 hectares among 250 families in the Kirkuk region 3 . Only 70% of those who received land in the Dujail area were fellah; the rest are people who have served five years in the police and the army, or "literate citizens." Those who received land in the Dujail and other areas were obliged: not to engage in outside work, build a house, sow the land with certain crops at the direction of the administration. All agricultural products produced by them must be sold through a special "cooperative", whose members are required to make large entrance fees.

Semi-nomadic and nomadic tribes

As already noted, about half of the rural population of Iraq are semi-nomadic and nomadic tribes. In the economy of the Arab semi-nomads, along with agriculture, an important role is played by distant pastoralism, the main branch of which is the breeding of small cattle - sheep and goats. In southern Iraq, buffalo are bred in large numbers. Camel breeding is mainly carried out by nomadic Bedouin tribes. In 1949/50 there were 7,420,000 sheep, about 2 million goats, 1,062,000 head of cattle, 170,000 buffalo and about 300,000 camels in Iraq.

More than a hundred semi-nomadic Arab tribes live in Iraq. The largest of them are: muntefik, hazail, fatla, janabiyin, zuwaya, dulayim, akeydat on the Euphrates; beni malik, abu muhammed, beni lam, shammar rabiya, shammar toga, jabur, tayy, ubeyd and azza on the lower Tigris and in the Diala region. The largest nomadic tribes belong to the Shammar and Anaza associations, also nomadic in Saudi Arabia and Syria.

Most of the semi-nomadic and nomadic tribes of Iraq come from the Arabian Peninsula. The process of migration of the Arabian tribes on the territory of Syria and Iraq lasted for centuries and even millennia. Separate migrations of Arabian tribes, in particular the Shammars, to the territory of Iraq took place as early as the 19th and even the 20th century. The nomadic tribes of Arabia, invading the borders of Iraq, gradually pushed the tribes that had previously settled here to the north, seized their lands and switched from nomadic camel breeding to semi-sedentary sheep breeding, combining it with the cultivation of initially very small plots of land.

The settling of nomads on the ground was slow, passing through a series of intermediate stages. So, at the beginning of the 20th century. Russian researcher A. Adamov wrote that the transition to a settled way of life affected the tribes of Arab Iraq “so far only in a relatively small part of them, which explains the division of each of them into four transitional stages: 1) Bedauis, or Bedouins, nomads ... 2) Shauiye - or scattered, raising large and small livestock, continuing to roam with their herds, but limiting their movements to a small riverine area; 3) mach-don, or inhabitants of swamps and reed beds, who devoted themselves to buffalo breeding and rice cultivation, and 4) fellahs, or farmers who settled on cultivated lands " G.

The transition of nomads and semi-nomads to settled life intensified after the First World War in connection with the crisis of nomadic pastoralism, the causes of which are described in the previous chapters. However, the craving of ruined pastoralists for settled agriculture that arose in these years ran into a lack of land suitable for this. At one time, the grazing territories of the tribes were their collective property, and the cultivated plots were only in the use of those members of the tribe who cultivated them. During the years of Turkish rule, the chiefs of the tribes, the sheikhs, took possession of most of the fertile lands and in a number of cases, as, for example, in the Muntefik tribe in southern Iraq, acquired the right of official owners to them. Thus, the sheikhs turned into large feudal proprietors. The British occupiers, having carried out a cadastralization, assigned most of the land suitable for cultivation to tribal sheikhs and English concession firms. The process of seizing tribal lands was further intensified with the appearance in some areas of mechanical pumps, the owners of which - feudal lords and city merchants - were given by the authorities the pasture territories taken from the nomads.

In the semi-nomadic and nomadic pastoral economy, the same relations of feudal sharecropping prevail as in agriculture. Concentrating in their hands the possession of herds, pastures, irrigation facilities and irrigated lands, sheikhs and wealthy members of the tribes turned ordinary tribesmen into their shepherds and agricultural tenants. Nomads who do not have livestock or have it in insufficient quantities are forced to graze sheep, goats, camels belonging to sheikhs and city merchants; for this they use dairy products or receive a small part of the offspring. Other nomads, on similar terms of sharecropping, sit on land owned by tribal nobility or urban merchants.

The remnants of patriarchal-tribal relations, still strong among the semi-nomadic tribes of Iraq, on the one hand, serve as a cover for feudal exploitation, and on the other hand, this exploitation is often intensified. So, for example, in many tribes, Arabs have to make special “traditional” offerings to their feudal lords-sheikhs for the sheikh scribe, for the kaveji (servant serving coffee to guests), etc.

Thus, the position of the bulk of the Arabs of Iraq - settled and semi-sedentary peasants - is characterized by landlessness, mass impoverishment, and cruel feudal exploitation. The ruling classes of Iraq oppose in every possible way a democratic solution of the agrarian question, hoping to appease and deceive the masses of the people by means of separate petty measures.

Fishing and marine industries

Part of the population of southern Iraq is engaged in fishing, mainly in the swampy channels on the Shatt al-Arab and on the coast of the Persian Gulf. The fishermen themselves build boats, put dams, weave nets. Most of the fishermen are united in artels, headed by elders-sheikhs, who receive the lion's share of the catch; usually the members of the artel, in addition, are enslaved by city fences. On the coast of the Persian Gulf, several tens of thousands of people are also engaged in pearl fishing; the organization of this fishery is basically the same as on the eastern coast of Arabia.

For fishing, as well as for transport purposes 1, boats are used on the Euphrates and Tigris various kinds and sizes. The most common boats are mashkhuf, loan and goofa. Mashkhuf is a narrow boat with a pointed bow and stern, sewn from planks and covered with asphalt on the outside. The same but lighter boat made of reed bundles is called a loan. In shallow water, in reed beds and canals, boats move with the help of long bamboo poles; in deep waters they row with short spade-shaped oars. The goofa boat, known in Mesopotamia since ancient times, is peculiar. This is a round, basket-like vessel, 3-4 m in diameter, with a flat bottom and outwardly curved walls. Its frame is woven from palm leaves and covered with a layer of asphalt on top. When transporting goods, a horse is sometimes harnessed to the guffa. Along with boats, mainly for moving short distances and crossing the river, rafts of keleks made of air-filled skinskins and bundles of reeds are widespread.

Industry and the working class

Despite the semi-colonial position of the country and the numerous remnants of feudalism, some industry has grown in Iraq over the past twenty to twenty-five years. First of all, this is a large oil-producing and partially oil-processing industry created by foreign capital (there is an oil refinery). Other industries are represented by the primary processing of raw materials, the production of certain foodstuffs and consumer goods. In Iraq there are 30 brick factories, 8 tobacco and 5 shoe factories, 3 cotton-cleaning, 11 cotton-spinning and 9 soap-making enterprises, about a thousand mills, etc. its raw materials - cotton and wool. Iraqi industry is dominated by manual labor. Many enterprises, in essence, are large craft workshops. There are also many small craft workshops, which are both shops and are usually located in bazaars. The most common crafts are the production of silk, paper and woolen fabrics, pottery, the manufacture of copper utensils and leather goods, boat building, the production of cheap perfumes and cheap jewelry. The villagers are quite widely engaged in the same crafts.

According to available data, in various fields economy and administration (except agriculture), 450 thousand people are employed, including merchants - 110 thousand, government officials and employees of private enterprises - 125 thousand, artisans - 45 thousand, workers - 60 thousand (in the oil industry 14 thousand) 1 . If we add to this number workers of railway and river transport, port loaders, packers, etc., then the total number of workers will exceed 100 thousand.

This figure will increase significantly if we add to this an army of many thousands of landless peasants who fled to the cities, especially to Baghdad and Basra, as well as unemployed city dwellers and day laborers who live by odd jobs.

Information characterizing the position of the working class rarely gets into the press, but even the little that is available testifies to the cruel exploitation of the proletariat. In 1936, after a series of strikes in various industries, a law on labor protection was passed in Iraq, containing articles on the eight-hour working day, equal pay for women and men, social insurance, etc.; at the same time, the law allows child labor. Forced to make a concession to the working class, the government made every effort to limit the scope of the law, extending it only to enterprises employing more than a dozen workers. The law was formally put into effect only in 1942, but in fact it is not implemented by the owners of enterprises at the present time. The requirement that the 1936 law be applied in practice remains unchanged in all labor strikes and demonstrations. The government limited the right to form trade unions by placing them under the control of the Ministry of the Interior. Political activity Trade unions are persecuted, workers' organizations are allowed to deal only with domestic issues.

Question 1. How did the nature and climate of Arabia affect the occupations and lifestyle of its people?

Answer. Most of the Arabian Peninsula is desert. It's hot here and there's little rain. Most of the population (Bedouin Arabs) were engaged in cattle breeding. They moved mainly on camels, only very rich people could keep horses in the desert. Important trade routes passed through the peninsula, along which caravans transported goods. The Arabs guarded the caravans for a fee, gave them camels, or were themselves drivers. In some places, among the desert came across oases. The inhabitants of the oases were engaged in agriculture, grew fruits and exchanged products with the inhabitants of the desert.

Question 2. What contributed to the unification of the Arab tribes?

Answer. Arab tribes were united by Islam, the army of Mohammed gathered the tribes into one state.

Question 3. How do you think Muhammad's sermons could attract people?

Answer. A Muslim would answer clearly: that Muhammad preached the truth. I am not a Muslim. But there was clearly something in these sermons that is difficult to explain by ordinary logic. All other denunciations of the rich and similar considerations were clearly not the main ones. It is hard to believe that before Muhammad no one spoke out against the wealth of the nobility, but they could not achieve such success.

Question 4. How was Islam established among the Arab tribes?

Answer. In Medina, most of the population believed in the preaching of Muhammad. But the warriors of Mohammed brought Islam to the rest of the tribes. However, sermons, apparently, played a big role. It is hard to believe that one tribe could defeat the entire peninsula by force of arms alone.

Question 5. Explain the reasons for the military success of the Arabs.

Answer. The reasons:

1) the Arabs were led by a strong faith, which taught them to conquer more and more new countries and spread Islam there;

2) the Arabs had a light, exceptionally fast and maneuverable cavalry;

3) it was at this moment that Byzantium and Iran were exhausted by the most serious war with each other in their history;

4) many Christians, whom the Byzantine authorities considered heretics, were better off under the rule of the Arabs than under the rule of Byzantium (because, for example, the Arabs, when they came to the Mediterranean coast, had their own fleet almost immediately - former Byzantine "heretics" served there long familiar with maritime affairs).

Question 6. When did the Arab Caliphate reach its peak and when did it collapse? Why did it collapse?

Answer. The caliphate reached its peak under Caliph Harun ar-Rashid (768-809), and collapsed in the 8th-9th centuries because:

1) the power of the Abbasids was not recognized by the Umayyads overthrown by them (the Caliphate of Cordoba, for example, was created by a person from this kind);

2) contradictions between Sunnis and Shiites (two branches of Islam, akin to Christian denominations) intensified;

3) the caliph gave his governors too much power to be able to suppress the uprisings;

4) natural conditions helped decay - large centers were in oases or in the river valleys that surrounded the deserts;

5) too many nomads - Seljuk Turks - moved to the Caliphate.

The Arabs call Arabia their homeland - Jazirat al-Arab, that is, the “Island of the Arabs”.

Indeed, from the west, the Arabian Peninsula is washed by the waters of the Red Sea, from the south - by the Gulf of Aden, from the east - by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. The rugged Syrian Desert stretches to the north. Naturally, with such geographical location the ancient Arabs felt isolated, that is, "living on an island."

Speaking about the origin of the Arabs, they usually single out historical and ethnographic areas that have their own characteristics. The allocation of these areas is based on the specifics of socio-economic, cultural and ethnic development. The Arabian historical and ethnographic region is considered to be the cradle of the Arab world, the borders of which by no means coincide with the modern states of the Arabian Peninsula. This includes, for example, the eastern regions of Syria and Jordan. The second historical and ethnographic zone (or region) includes the rest of Syria, Jordan, as well as Lebanon and Palestine. Iraq is considered a separate historical and ethnographic zone. Egypt, Northern Sudan and Libya are united into one zone. And finally, the Maghrebino-Mauritanian zone, which includes the countries of the Maghreb - Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, as well as Mauritania and Western Sahara. This division is by no means universally recognized, since the border regions, as a rule, have features characteristic of both neighboring zones.

Economic activity

The agricultural culture of Arabia developed quite early, although only some parts of the peninsula were suitable for land use. These are, first of all, those territories on which the state of Yemen is now located, as well as some parts of the coast and oases. St. Petersburg orientalist O. Bolshakov believes that "in terms of the intensity of agriculture, Yemen can be put on a par with such ancient civilizations as Mesopotamia and Egypt." The physical and geographical conditions of Arabia predetermined the division of the population into two groups - settled farmers and nomadic pastoralists. There was no clear division of the inhabitants of Arabia into settled and nomads, for there were different types mixed economy, relations between which were maintained not only through the exchange of goods, but also through family ties.

In the last quarter of the II millennium BC. the cattle breeders of the Syrian desert had a domesticated dromedary camel (dromedary). The number of camels was still small, but this already allowed part of the tribes to move on to a truly nomadic way of life. This circumstance forced pastoralists to lead a more mobile lifestyle and make many kilometers of transitions to remote areas, for example, from Syria to Mesopotamia, directly through the desert.

First state formations

On the territory of modern Yemen, several states arose, which in the 4th century AD. were united by one of them - the Himyarite kingdom. The South Arabian society of antiquity is characterized by the same features that are inherent in other societies of the Ancient East: a slave-owning system was born here, on which the wealth of the ruling class was based. The state carried out the construction and repair of large irrigation systems, without which it was impossible to develop agriculture. The population of the cities was mainly represented by artisans who skillfully made high-quality products, including agricultural implements, weapons, household utensils, leather goods, fabrics, and decorations from sea shells. Gold was mined in Yemen, and fragrant resins were also collected, including frankincense, myrrh. Later, the interest of Christians in this product constantly stimulated transit trade, due to which the interchange of goods between the Arabian Arabs and the population of the Christian regions of the Middle East expanded.

With the conquest of the Himyarite kingdom at the end of the 6th century by Sasanian Iran, horses appeared in Arabia. It was during this period that the state fell into decline, which affected primarily the urban population.

As for the nomads, such collisions affected them to a lesser extent. The life of the nomads was determined by the tribal structure, where there were dominant and subordinate tribes. Within the tribe, relations were regulated depending on the degree of kinship. The material existence of the tribe depended solely on the harvest in the oases, where there were cultivated plots of land and wells, as well as on the offspring of the herds. The main factor influencing the patriarchal life of the nomads, in addition to the attacks of unfriendly tribes, were natural disasters - drought, epidemics and earthquakes, which are mentioned by Arab legends.

The nomads of central and northern Arabia have long been raising sheep, cattle, and camels. Characteristically, the nomadic world of Arabia was surrounded by economically more developed regions, so there is no need to talk about the cultural isolation of Arabia. In particular, this is evidenced by the excavation data. For example, in the construction of dams and reservoirs, the inhabitants of southern Arabia used cement mortar, which was invented in Syria around 1200 BC. The presence of links that existed between the inhabitants of the Mediterranean coast and southern Arabia as early as the 10th century BC confirms the story of the trip of the ruler of Saba (“Queen of Sheba”) to King Solomon.

Advance of Semites from Arabia

Approximately in the III millennium BC. Arabian Semites began to settle in Mesopotamia and Syria. Already from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. began an intensive movement of Arabs outside the "Jazirat al-Arab". However, those Arabian tribes that appeared in Mesopotamia in the 3rd-2nd millennium BC were soon assimilated by the Akkadians living there. Later, in the XIII century BC, a new advancement of the Semitic tribes began, who spoke Aramaic dialects. Already in the 7th-6th centuries BC. Aramaic becomes spoken language Syria, displacing Akkadian.

ancient Arabians

By the beginning of the new era, significant masses of Arabs moved to Mesopotamia, settled in southern Palestine and the Sinai Peninsula. Some tribes even managed to create state formations. So, the Nabataeans founded their kingdom on the border of Arabia and Palestine, which lasted until the 2nd century AD. Along the lower reaches of the Euphrates, the Lakhmid state arose, but its rulers were forced to recognize vassal dependence on the Persian Sassanids. The Arabs who settled in Syria, Transjordan and southern Palestine united in the 6th century under the rule of representatives of the Ghassanid tribe. They also had to recognize themselves as vassals of the stronger Byzantium. It is characteristic that both the Lakhmid state (in 602) and the Ghassanid state (in 582) were destroyed by their own suzerains, who feared the strengthening and growing independence of their vassals. Nevertheless, the presence of Arab tribes in the Syrian-Palestinian region was a factor that subsequently contributed to softening the new, more massive invasion of the Arabs. Then they began to penetrate into Egypt. Thus, the city of Koptos in Upper Egypt, even before the Muslim conquest, was half inhabited by Arabs.

Naturally, the newcomers quickly joined the local customs. Caravan trade allowed them to maintain ties with kindred tribes and clans within the Arabian Peninsula, which gradually contributed to the convergence of urban and nomadic cultures.

Prerequisites for the unification of the Arabs

In the tribes living near the borders of Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia, the process of decomposition of primitive communal relations developed faster than among the population of the interior regions of Arabia. AT V-VII centuries there was an underdevelopment of the internal organization of the tribes, which, in combination with the remnants of the maternal account and polyandry, testified that, due to the specifics of the nomadic economy, the decomposition of the tribal system in Central and Northern Arabia developed more slowly than in neighboring regions of Western Asia.

Periodically, kindred tribes united in unions. Sometimes there was a fragmentation of tribes or their absorption by strong tribes. Over time, it became obvious that large formations are more viable. It was in tribal unions or confederations of tribes that the preconditions for the emergence of a class society began to take shape. The process of its formation was accompanied by the creation of primitive state formations. As early as the 2nd-6th centuries, large tribal unions began to take shape (Mazhidj, Kinda, Maad, etc.), but none of them could become the core of a single pan-Arab state. The prerequisite for the political unification of Arabia was the desire of the tribal elite to secure the right to land, livestock and income from caravan trade. An additional factor was the need to join forces to resist external expansion. As we have already pointed out, at the turn of the 6th-7th centuries, the Persians captured Yemen and liquidated the Lakhmid state, which was in vassal dependence. As a result, in the south and north, Arabia was under the threat of absorption by the Persian state. Naturally, the situation had a negative impact on Arabian trade. The merchants of a number of Arabian cities suffered significant material damage. The only way out of this situation could be the unification of kindred tribes.

The Hejaz region, located in the west of the Arabian Peninsula, became the center of the unification of the Arabs. This area has long been famous for its relatively developed agriculture, handicrafts, but most importantly - trade. The local cities - Mecca, Yasrib (later Medina), Taif - had strong contacts with the surrounding tribes of nomads who visited them, exchanging their goods for the products of urban artisans.

However, the religious situation prevented the unification of the Arabian tribes. The ancient Arabs were pagans. Each tribe revered its patron god, although some of them can be considered pan-Arab - Allah, al-Uzza, al-Lat. Even in the first centuries in Arabia it was known about Judaism and Christianity. Moreover, in Yemen, these two religions have practically supplanted pagan cults. On the eve of the Persian conquest, Yemenite-Jews fought with Yemenite-Christians, while the Jews focused on Sasanian Persia (which subsequently facilitated the conquest of the Himyarite kingdom by the Persians), and Christians - on Byzantium. Under these conditions arose its own form of Arabian monotheism, which (especially in early stage) to a large extent, but in a peculiar way, reflected some postulates of Judaism and Christianity. Its adherents - hanifs - became carriers of the idea of ​​a single god. In turn, this form of monotheism set the stage for the emergence of Islam.

The religious beliefs of the Arabs of the pre-Islamic period are a conglomeration of various beliefs, among which were female and male deities, the veneration of stones, springs, trees, various spirits, genies and shaitans, who were intermediaries between people and gods, was also widespread. Naturally, the absence of clear dogmatic ideas opened up wide opportunities for the ideas of more developed religions to penetrate into this amorphous worldview and contributed to religious and philosophical reflections.

By that time, writing began to become more widespread, which subsequently played a huge role in the formation of medieval Arab culture, and at the stage of the birth of Islam contributed to the accumulation and transmission of information. The need for this was colossal, as evidenced by the practice of oral memorization and reproduction of ancient genealogies, historical chronicles, poetic narratives, common among the Arabs.

As noted by the St. Petersburg scholar A. Khalidov, "most likely, the language was formed as a result of a long development based on the selection of different dialectal forms and their artistic comprehension" . In the end, it was the use of the same language of poetry that became one of the most important factors that contributed to the formation of the Arab community. Naturally, the process of mastering the Arabic language did not occur at the same time. This process took place most rapidly in those areas where the inhabitants spoke the related languages ​​of the Semitic group. In other areas, this process took several centuries, but a number of peoples, once under the rule of the Arab Caliphate, managed to maintain their linguistic independence.

Arab caliphs

Abu Bakr and Omar

Omar Ibn Khattab

Caliph Ali

Harun ar Rashid

Abd ar Rahman I

Arab Caliphate

The Arab caliphate is a theocratic state headed by a caliph. The core of the Caliphate arose on the Arabian Peninsula after the advent of Islam at the beginning of the 7th century. It was formed as a result of military campaigns in the middle of the 7th - beginning of the 9th century. and the conquest (with subsequent Islamization) of the peoples of the countries of the Near and Middle East, North Africa and Southwestern Europe.

Abbasids, the second great dynasty of Arab caliphs

Caliphate conquests

Trade in the Caliphate

Arabic dirhams

• In c.6 c. Arabia lost a number of territories - trade was disrupted.

• Unification became necessary.

• The unification of the Arabs was helped by the new religion of Islam.

• Its founder, Mohammed, was born around 570 in a poor family. He married his former mistress and became a merchant.

Islam

The science

Arab army

applied arts

Bedouins

Bedouin tribes: At the head - the leader The custom of blood feuds Military clashes over pastures At the end of the VI century. - Arab trade disrupted.

The conquests of the Arabs - VII - n. 8th century A huge Arab state was formed - the Arab Caliphate, the capital of Damascus.

The heyday of the Baghdad caliphate - the years of the reign of Harun ar-Rashid (768-809).

In 732, as the chroniclers testified, the 400,000-strong army of the Arabs crossed the Pyrenees and invaded Gaul. Later studies lead to the conclusion that the Arabs could have from 30 to 50 thousand warriors.

Not without the help of the Aquitanian and Burgundian nobility, who opposed the process of centralization in the kingdom of the Franks, the Arab army of Abd el-Rahman moved across Western Gaul, reached the center of Aquitaine, occupied Poitiers and headed for Tours. Here, on the old Roman road, at the crossing of the Vienne River, the Arabs were met by a 30,000-strong army of Franks, led by the mayor of the Carolingian family Pepin Karl, who was the actual ruler Frankish state since 715.

Even at the beginning of his reign, the Frankish state consisted of three long-separated parts: Neustria, Austrasia and Burgundy. royalty was purely nominal. This was not slow to take advantage of the enemies of the Franks. The Saxons invaded the Rhine regions, the Avars invaded Bavaria, and the Arab conquerors moved across the Pyrenees to the Laura River.

Karl had to pave his way to power with weapons in his hands. After the death of his father in 714, he was thrown into prison along with his stepmother Plektruda, from where he was able to escape the following year. By that time, he was already a fairly well-known military leader of the Franks of Austrasia, where he was popular among free peasants and medium landowners. They became his main support in the internecine struggle for power in the Frankish state.

Having established himself in Austrasia, Karl Pepin began to strengthen his position on the lands of the Franks by force of arms and diplomacy. After a bitter confrontation with his opponents, in 715 he became the major of the Frankish state and ruled it on behalf of the infant king Theodoric IV. Having established himself at the royal throne, Charles began a series of military campaigns outside of Austrasia.

Charles, having gained the upper hand in battles over the feudal lords who tried to challenge his supreme power, in 719 won a brilliant victory over the Neustrians, led by one of his opponents, Major Ragenfrid, whose ally was the ruler of Aquitaine, Count Ed. At the Battle of Sausson, the Frankish ruler put the enemy army to flight. Having extradited Ragenfried, Count Ed managed to conclude a temporary peace with Charles. Soon the Franks occupied the cities of Paris and Orleans.

Then Karl remembered his sworn enemy - his stepmother Plectrude, who had her own large army. Starting a war with her, Karl forced his stepmother to surrender to him the rich and well-fortified city of Cologne on the banks of the Rhine.

In 725 and 728, Major Karl Pepin made two large military campaigns against the Bavarians and eventually subjugated them. This was followed by campaigns in Alemannia and Aquitaine, in Thuringia and Frisia ...

The basis of the combat power of the Frankish army until the battle of Poitiers was the infantry, which consisted of free peasants. At that time, all the men of the kingdom who were able to bear arms were liable for military service.

Organizationally, the Frankish army was divided into hundreds, or, in other words, into such a number of peasant households that in wartime could field one hundred foot soldiers in the militia. Peasant communities themselves regulated military service. Each Frankish warrior was armed and equipped at his own expense. The quality of weapons was checked at the reviews, which were conducted by the king or, on his behalf, military leaders-counts. If the warrior's weapon was in an unsatisfactory condition, then he was punished. There is a known case when the king killed a warrior during one of these reviews for the poor maintenance of personal weapons.

The national weapon of the Franks was the "francisca" - an ax with one or two blades, to which a rope was tied. The Franks deftly threw axes at the enemy at close range. For close hand-to-hand combat, they used swords. In addition to Francis and swords, the Franks were also armed with short spears - angons with teeth on a long and sharp tip. The teeth of the angon had the opposite direction and therefore it was very difficult to remove it from the wound. In battle, the warrior first threw angon, which pierced the enemy's shield, and then stepped on the shaft of the spear, thereby pulling back the shield and hitting the enemy with a heavy sword. Many warriors had bows and arrows, which were sometimes saturated with poison.

The only defensive armament of the Frankish warrior in the time of Karl Pepin was a shield of a round or oval shape. Only rich warriors had helmets and chain mail, since metal products cost a lot of money. Part of the armament of the Frankish army was military booty.

In European history, the Frankish commander Karl Pepin became famous primarily for his successful wars against the Arab conquerors, for which he received the nickname "Martell", which means "hammer".

In 720, the Arabs crossed the Pyrenees and invaded what is now France. The Arab army took the well-fortified Narbonne by storm and laid siege to the large city of Toulouse. Count Ed was defeated, and he had to seek refuge in Austrasia with the remnants of his army.

Very soon, the Arab cavalry appeared on the fields of Septimania and Burgundy and even reached the left bank of the Rhone River, entering the lands of the Franks. Thus, for the first time, a major clash between the Muslim and Christian worlds matured on the fields of Western Europe. The Arab commanders, having crossed the Pyrenees, had big conquest plans in Europe.

We must pay tribute to Charles - he immediately understood the danger of the Arab invasion. After all, the Moorish Arabs by that time had managed to conquer almost all the Spanish regions. Their troops were constantly replenished with new forces that came through the Strait of Gibraltar from the Maghreb - North Africa, from the territory of modern Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Arab commanders were famous for their martial arts, and their warriors were excellent riders and archers. The Arab army was partially staffed by North African Berber nomads, for which in Spain the Arabs were called Moors.

Charles Pepin, having interrupted the military campaign in the upper reaches of the Danube, in 732 gathered a large militia of Austrasians, Neustrians and Rhine tribes. By that time, the Arabs had already plundered the city of Bordeaux, captured the fortress city of Poitiers and moved towards Tours.

The Frankish commander resolutely moved towards the Arab army, trying to prevent its appearance in front of the fortress walls of Tours. He already knew that the Arabs were commanded by the experienced Abd el-Rahman and that his army was much superior to the militia of the Franks, which, according to the same European chroniclers, numbered only 30 thousand soldiers.

At the point where the old Roman road crossed the river Vienne, across which a bridge had been built, the Franks and their allies barred the Arab army from reaching Tours. Nearby was the city of Poitiers, after which the battle was named, which took place on October 4, 732 and lasted several days: according to Arabic chronicles - two, according to Christian ones - seven days.

Knowing that the enemy army was dominated by light cavalry and many archers, Major Karl Pepin decided to give the Arabs, who adhered to active offensive tactics on the fields of Europe, a defensive battle. Moreover, the hilly terrain made it difficult for large masses of cavalry to operate. The Frankish army was built for the battle between the rivers Clen and Vienne, which, with their banks, well covered his flanks. The basis of the battle formation was the infantry, built in a dense phalanx. The cavalry, heavily armed in a knightly manner, was stationed on the flanks. The right flank was commanded by Count Ed.

Usually, the Franks lined up for battle in dense battle formations, a kind of phalanx, but without proper support for the flanks and rear, trying to solve everything with one blow, a general breakthrough or a swift attack. They, like the Arabs, had a well-developed mutual assistance based on family ties.

Approaching the river Vienne, the Arab army, not immediately getting involved in the battle, spread their camp not far from the Franks. Abd el-Rahman immediately realized that the enemy was taking very strong position and it cannot be outflanked by light cavalry. The Arabs did not dare to attack the enemy for several days, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Karl Pepin did not move, patiently waiting for an enemy attack.

In the end, the Arab leader decided to start the battle and built his army in a fighting, dissected order. It consisted of battle lines familiar to Arabs: horse archers made up the “Morning of the Barking Dog”, then came the “Day of Help”, “Evening of Shock”, “Al-Ansari” and “Al-Mugadzheri”. The reserve of the Arabs, intended for the development of victory, was under the personal command of Abd el-Rahman and was called the "Banner of the Prophet."

The battle of Poitiers began with the shelling of the Frankish phalanx by Arab horse archers, to which the enemy responded with crossbows and longbows. After that, the Arab cavalry attacked the positions of the Franks. The Frankish infantry successfully repulsed attack after attack, the enemy's light cavalry could not break through their dense formation.

A Spanish chronicler contemporary with the Battle of Poitiers wrote that the Franks "stood close together, as far as the eye could see, like an immovable and icy wall, and fought fiercely, hitting the Arabs with swords."

After the Frankish infantry repulsed all the attacks of the Arabs, which, line by line, rolled back to their original positions in some disorder, Karl Pepin immediately ordered the knightly cavalry, which was still inactive, to launch a counterattack in the direction of the enemy camp located behind the right flank of the battle formation of the Arab army .

Meanwhile, the Frankish knights, led by Ed of Aquitaine, delivered two ram attacks from the flanks, overturning the light cavalry opposing them, rushed to the Arab camp and captured it. The Arabs, demoralized by the news of the death of their leader, could not hold back the onslaught of the enemy and fled from the battlefield. The Franks pursued them and inflicted considerable damage. This ended the battle near Poitiers.

This battle had extremely important consequences. The victory of Majordom Karl Pepin put an end to the further advancement of the Arabs in Europe. After the defeat at Poitiers, the Arab army, hiding behind detachments of light cavalry, left French territory and, without further combat losses, went through the mountains to Spain.

But before the Arabs finally left the south of modern France, Karl Pepin inflicted another defeat on the Berre River south of the city of Narbonne. True, this battle was not among the decisive ones.

The victory over the Arabs glorified the commander of the Franks. Since then, they began to call him Karl Martell (i.e., war hammer).

Usually little is said about this, but the battle of Poitiers is also known for being one of the first battles when numerous heavy knightly cavalry entered the battlefield. It was she who, with her blow, provided the Franks with a complete victory over the Arabs. Now not only riders, but also horses were covered with metal armor.

After the battle of Poitiers, Charles Martel won several more great victories, conquering Burgundy and regions in southern France, up to Marseilles.

Charles Martell significantly strengthened the military power of the Frankish kingdom. However, he stood only at the origins of the true historical greatness of the state of the Franks, which will be created by his grandson Charlemagne, who reached the highest power and became the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Arab army

Hamdanid army X - XI centuries.

Late Fatimid army (11th century)

Ghaznavid army (late 10th - early 11th centuries): Ghaznavid palace guard. Karakhanid equestrian warrior in full dress. Indian mounted mercenary.

ancient arabia

City of Petra

The cistern of the Genies in Petra, with a hole at the bottom

Monument of the Serpent in Petra

Obelisk (top) next to the altar (bottom), Petra

Nabataean sundial from Hegra (Museum of the Ancient East, Archaeological Museum of Istanbul

Literature during the Caliphate

Thousand and One Nights

Islamic script

Applied art of the Arabs

Bronze candlestick with silver inlay. 1238. Master Daoud ibn Salam from Mosul. Museum of Decorative Arts. Paris.

Glass vessel with enamel painting. Syria. 1300. British Museum. London.

Dish with luster painting. Egypt. 11th c. Museum of Islamic Art. Cairo.

Sculptural ceiling in the Khirbet al-Mafjar castle. 8th c. jordan

Jug with the name of Caliph al-Aziz Billah. Rhinestone. 10th c. Treasury of San Marco. Venice.

Arabic architecture

Architecture at Almoravids and Almohads

The Almohad tower and the Renaissance bell section merge into one harmonious whole at La Giralda Campanile, Seville

Almoravides invaded al-Andalus from North Africa in 1086 and united the taifas under their rule. They developed their own architecture, but very few examples of it survived, due to the next invasion, by the now Almohads, who imposed Islamic ultra-orthodoxy and destroyed almost every significant Almoravid building, including Madina al-Zahra and other caliphate structures. Their art was extremely austere and simple, and they used brick as their main building material. In a literal sense, their only external decoration, the "sebka", is based on a grid of rhombuses. The Almohads also used palm-pattern ornaments, but these were little more than a simplification of the much more luxuriant Almoravid palms. As time went on, the art became a little more decorative. The most famous example of Almohad architecture is the Giralda, the former minaret of the mosque of Seville. Considered a Mudejar style, but this style is absorbed into the Almohad aesthetic here, the Santa Maria la Blanca synagogue in Toledo is a rare example of the architectural collaboration of the three cultures of medieval Spain.

Umayyad dynasty

dome of the rock

Umayyad Grand Mosque, Syria, Damascus (705-712)

Mosque Tunisia XIII century.

Arab invasion of Byzantium

Arab-Byzantine Wars

the entire period of the Arab-Byzantine wars can be divided (roughly) into 3 parts:
I. Weakening of Byzantium, offensive of the Arabs (634-717)
II. Period of relative calm (718 - middle of the 9th century)
III. Counteroffensive of Byzantium (late 9th century - 1069)

Main events:

634-639 - Arab conquest of Syria and Palestine with Jerusalem;
639-642 - campaign of Amr ibn al-As to Egypt. The Arabs conquered this populous and fertile country;
647-648 - Construction of the Arab fleet. Capture of Tripolitania and Cyprus by the Arabs;
684-678 - First siege of Constantinople by the Arabs. Ended unsuccessfully;
698 - the capture of the African Exarchate (belonging to Byzantium) by the Arabs;
717-718 - Second siege of Constantinople by the Arabs. It ended unsuccessfully. Arab expansion in Asia Minor was halted;
IX-X centuries - Arabs capture the southern Italian territories of Byzantium (the island of Sicily);
X century - Byzantium goes on a counteroffensive and conquers part of Syria from the Arabs, and in particular such an important outpost as Antioch. The Byzantine army at that time even put Jerusalem in immediate danger. The Arab Sultanate of Aleppo recognized itself as a Byzantine vassal. At that time, Crete and Cyprus were also reconquered.

Rise of the Caliphate of Baghdad under Haroun-ar-Rashid

Arabic culture

Caliphate of Baghdad

Architecture of Baghdad

In Baghdad, there was a kind of intellectual center of the Islamic Golden Age - the House of Wisdom. It included a huge library, a huge number of translators and scribes worked in it. The best scientists of their time gathered in the House. thanks to the accumulated works of Pythagoras, Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Euclid, Galen, research was carried out in the field of humanities, Islam, astronomy and mathematics, medicine and chemistry, alchemy, zoology and geography.
This greatest treasury of the best works of antiquity and modernity was destroyed in 1258. It, along with other libraries in Baghdad, was destroyed by the Mongol troops after the capture of the city. Books were thrown into the river, and the water remained colored with their ink for many months ...
Almost everyone has heard about the burned-out Library of Alexandria, but for some reason, few people remember the lost House of Wisdom...

Fortress Tower Talisman in Baghdad.

Necropolis Shakhi Zinda

The emergence of the Shakhi-Zindan memorial on the slope of the Afrasiab hill is associated with the name of Kusam ibn Abbas, the cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. It is known that he participated in the first campaigns of the Arabs in Maverannahr. According to legend, Kusam was mortally wounded near the walls of Samarkand and took refuge underground, where he continues to live. Hence the name of the memorial Shakhi-Zindan, which means "The Living King". By the X-XI centuries. the martyr of the faith Kusam ibn Abbas acquired the status of an Islamic saint, the patron saint of Samarkand, and in the XII-XV centuries. Along the path leading to his mausoleums and funeral mosques, their exquisite beauty, as it were, denies death.

On the northern outskirts of Samarkand, on the edge of the Afrasiab hill, among the vast ancient cemetery, there are groups of mausoleums, among which the grave attributed to Kussam, the son of Abbas, the cousin of the Prophet Muhammad, is the most famous. According to Arabic sources, Kussam came to Samarkand in 676. According to some sources, he was killed, according to others, he died of natural causes; according to some reports, he died not even in Samarkand, but in Merv. The imaginary or real grave of Kussam under his Abbasid relatives (VIII century), perhaps not without their participation, became the object of the Muslim cult. Among the people, Kussam became known as Shah-i Zinda - "The Living King". According to legend, Kussam left the earthly world alive and continues to live in the “other world”. Hence the nickname "The Living King".

Mausoleum of Zimurrud Khatun in Baghdad

Conquest of Spain

At the end of the 7th century AD. Arabs after long wars The Byzantines were expelled from North Africa. Once the land of Africa was a battlefield between Rome and Carthage, it gave the world such great commanders as Jugurtha and Masinissa, and now it has passed into the hands of Muslims, albeit with difficulty. After this conquest, the Arabs set out to conquer Spain.

They were driven to this not only by the love of conquest and the dream of expanding the Islamic State. The locals of North Africa - the Berber tribes - were very brave, warlike, violent and temperamental. The Arabs feared that after some time of calm, the Berbers would set out to avenge the defeats, raise an uprising and then the Arabs would miss the victory. Therefore, the Arabs, having aroused interest among the Berbers in the conquest of Spain, wanted to distract them from this and extinguish their thirst for bloodshed and revenge by war. As Ibn-Khaldun notes, it is not surprising that the Muslim army, which was the first to cross the Jabalitarik Strait and entered Spanish soil, could be said to have consisted entirely of Berbers.

From ancient history it is known that the main inhabitants of Spain were Celts, Iberians and Ligors. The peninsula was divided into territories that once belonged to Phenicia, Carthage and Rome. After the conquest of Spain, the Carthaginians built the majestic city of Carthage here. Around 200 BC. in the Punic Wars, Rome defeated Carthage, took possession of these fertile lands, and up to the B century AD. dominated these lands. At this time, from Spain, which was considered the most important and flourishing place of the empire, came such great thinkers as Seneca, Lucan, Marsial and such famous emperors as Trajan, Marcus Aurelius and Theodosius.

Just as the prosperity of Rome created the conditions for the progress of Spain, so the fall of this city led to the decline of Spain. The peninsula once again became the scene of battles. At the beginning of the B century, the tribes of the Vandals, Alans and Suebi, who destroyed Rome and France, also devastated Spain. However, soon the tribes of the Goths expelled them from the peninsula and took possession of Spain. From the YOU century until the attack of the Arabs, the Goths were the dominant force in Spain.

Soon the Goths mixed with the local population - the Latin peoples, and adopted Latin language and Christianity. It is known that before the XNUMXth century, the Goths prevailed among the Christian population of Spain. When the Arabs expelled them towards the Asturian mountains, the Goths, thanks to mixing with the local population, were again able to maintain their superiority. For example, among the Christian population of Spain, it was considered pride to be a descendant of the Goths and to bear the nickname "son of the Goths."

A little earlier, before the conquest of the Arabs, the nobility of the Goths and the Latin peoples united and created an aristocratic government. This association, engaged in the oppression of the oppressed masses, has gained the hatred of the people. And it is natural that this state, built on money and wealth, could not be strong and could not adequately defend itself from the enemy.

Also, the appointment of the ruler by election led to eternal strife and enmity for power between the nobility. This enmity and wars eventually hastened the weakening of the Gothic state.

General strife, internal wars, people's dissatisfaction with the local government and for this reason a weak rebuff to the Arabs, the lack of loyalty and the spirit of self-sacrifice in the army, and other reasons ensured an easy victory for the Muslims. It even came to the point that because of the above reasons, the Andalusian ruler Julian and the Bishop of Seville were not afraid to help the Arabs.

In 711, Musa ibn Nasir, who was the governor of North Africa under the rule of the Umayyad caliph Walid ibn Abdulmelik, sent a 12,000-strong army formed from Berbers to conquer Spain. The army was led by a Berber Muslim Tarig ibn Ziyad. The Muslims crossed the Jabalut-tarig strait, which got its name from the name of this famous commander Tarik, and entered the Iberian Peninsula. The wealth of this land, its clean air, delightful nature and its mysterious cities so impressed the army of the conquerors that in a letter to the Caliph Tarig wrote: “These places are similar to Syria in terms of air purity, similar to Yemen in moderate climate, similar to vegetation and incense. India, in terms of fertility and abundance of crops, are similar to China, in terms of the availability of ports, they are similar to Adena.
The Arabs, who spent half a century conquering the coastline of North Africa and met with fierce resistance from the Berbers, expected to face a similar situation when they conquered Spain. However, contrary to expectations, Spain was conquered in a short time, in just a few months. The Muslims defeated the Goths in the first battle. In this battle they were assisted by the Bishop of Seville. As a result, having broken the resistance of the Goths, the coastal zone passed into the hands of the Muslims.

Seeing the success of Tarig ibn Ziyad, Mussa ibn Nasir gathered an army consisting of 12 thousand Arabs and 8 thousand Berbers and moved to Spain in order to be a partner in success.

Throughout its journey, the Muslim army can be said not to have met a single serious resistance. The people dissatisfied with the government and the nobility, torn by strife, voluntarily submitted to the conquerors, and even sometimes joined them. Such major cities in Spain as Cordoba, Malaga, Granada, Toledo surrendered without resistance. In the city of Toledo, which was the capital, 25 valuable crowns of Gothic rulers, decorated with various precious stones, fell into the hands of Muslims. The wife of the Gothic king Rodrigue was captured and the son of Musa ibn Nasir married her.

In the eyes of the Arabs, the Spaniards were on a par with the populations of Syria and Egypt. The laws observed in the conquered countries were also enforced here. The conquerors did not touch the property and temples of the local population, local customs and orders remained the same as before. The Spaniards were allowed to turn to their judges in contentious matters, to obey the decisions of their own courts. In return for all this, the population was obliged to pay a meager tax (jizya) for those times. The amount of tax for the nobility and the rich was set at the limit of one dinar (15 francs), and for the poor half a dinar. That is why the poor, driven to despair by the oppression of local rulers and countless dues, voluntarily surrendered to Muslims, and even by converting to Islam, were exempted from taxes. Despite the fact that in some places there were isolated cases of resistance, they were quickly suppressed.

As historians write, after the conquest of Spain, Musa ibn Nasir intended to reach Constantinople (present-day Istanbul; at that time Constantinople was the capital of the great Byzantine Empire), passing through France and Germany. However, the caliph called him to Damascus and the plan remained unfinished. If Moussa could carry out his intention, could conquer Europe, then at present the divided peoples would be under the flag of a single religion. Along with this, Europe would be able to avoid medieval darkness and medieval, terrible tragedies.

Everyone knows that when Europe groaned in the clutches of ignorance, fratricide, epidemics, senseless crusades, the Inquisition, Spain under the rule of the Arabs prospered, lived a comfortable life and was at the peak of its development. Spain shone in the darkness. In Spain, excellent conditions were created for the development of science and culture, and it owes this to Islam.

In order to determine the role of the Arabs in the political, economic and cultural life of Spain, it would be more appropriate to consider the ratio of their total number.

As mentioned above, the first Muslim army that entered the Iberian Peninsula consisted of Arabs and
Berbers. Subsequent military units consisted of representatives of the population of Syria. It is known from history that in the early Middle Ages in Spain, the leadership of science and culture belonged to the Arabs, and the Berbers were subordinate to them. The Arabs were considered the highest stratum of the population (ashraf), and the Berbers and the local population were considered a secondary and tertiary stratum of the population. Interestingly, even when the Berber dynasties were able to gain power in Spain, the Arabs managed to maintain their dominance.

As for the total number of Arabs, there is no exact data on this matter. One can only assume that after the Emirate of Cordoba separated from the Arab Emirate, the Arabs became isolated from the rest of the countries. However, due to the rapid growth and emigration from North Africa, the Berbers increased in number and gained supremacy in power.
Muslims mixed with the local Christian population of Spain. According to historians, in the very first years of the conquest of Spain, the Arabs married 30,000 Christian women and brought them into their harem (the harem in the Sibyl fortress, nicknamed the "room of girls", is a historical monument). In addition, at the beginning of the conquest, some part of the nobility, in order to show their devotion to the Arabs, annually sent 100 Christian girls to the Caliph's palace. Among the women with whom the Arabs entered into marriage were girls from Latin, Iberian, Greek, Gothic and other tribes. It is clear that as a result of such mass mixing, a new generation arose in a few decades, radically different from the conquerors of the 700s.

From 711 (the date of the conquest of Spain) to 756, this area was subject to the Umayyad Caliphate. An emir appointed by the Umayyad caliph ruled over this territory. In 756, Spain seceded from the Caliphate and became independent. It became known as the Caliphate of Cordoba, whose capital was the city of Cordoba.

After 300 years had elapsed since the reign of the Arabs in Spain, their magnificent and glorious star began to fade. The strife that engulfed the Cordoba caliphate shook the power of the state. At this time, Christians living in the north took advantage of this chance and began to attack in order to take revenge.

The struggle of Christians for the return of the lands conquered by the Arabs (in Spanish: reconquista) intensified in the 10th century. In the Asturian region, where the Christians expelled from the Spanish lands concentrated, the Kingdom of Lyon and Castile arose. In the middle of the 11th century, both these kingdoms united. At the same time, the Navarrese, Catalan and Aragonese states, having united, created a new Aragonese kingdom. At the end of the 11th century, a Portuguese county arose in the west of the Iberian Peninsula. Soon this county also turned into a kingdom. Thus, at the end of the XNUMXth century, serious Christian rivals of the Caliphate of Cordoba began to appear on the Spanish map.

In 1085, as a result of a powerful attack, the northerners captured the city of Toledo. The leader of the northerners was the king of Castile and Leon, Alphonse VI. The Spanish Muslims, seeing that they could not resist on their own, asked the Berbers of North Africa for help. The al-Murabit dynasty, having established itself in Tunisia and Morocco, entered Spain and tried to resurrect the Caliphate of Cordoba. Al-Murabits in 1086 defeated Alphonse VI, and were temporarily able to stop the movement of the reconquista. In just half a century, they lost to a new dynasty that entered the political arena - al-Muwahhids. Having seized power in North Africa, the al-Muwahhids attacked Spain and subjugated the Muslim regions. However, this state was unable to properly resist the Christians. Despite the fact that they decorated their palaces with such prominent personalities as Ibn Tufeil, Ibn Rushd, the al-Muwahhids became helpless before the reconquista. In 1212, near the town of Las Navas de Tolosa, the united Christian army defeated them, and the al-Muwahhid dynasty was forced to leave Spain.

The Spanish kings, who did not get along with each other, put aside the enmity, and united against the Arabs. The reconquista movement directed against the Muslims involved the combined forces of the Castilian, Aragonese, Navarre and Portuguese kingdoms. In 1236, the Muslims lost Cordoba, in 1248 Seville, in 1229-35 the Balearic Islands, in 1238 Valencia. Capturing the city of Cadiz in 1262, the Spaniards reached the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

Only the Emirate of Grenada remained in the hands of the Muslims. At the end of the 13th century, Ibn al-Ahmar, nicknamed Muhammad al-Ghalib, who was from the Nasrid dynasty, retreated to the city of Granada, and fortified the fortress of Alhambra (al-Hamra) here. He was able to maintain his relative independence, subject to the payment of tribute to the King of Castile. In the palace of the Grenada emirs, who were able to defend their independence for two centuries, such thinkers as Ibn Khaldun and Ibn al-Khatib served.
In 1469 Ferdinand II of Aragon married Queen of Castile Isabella. The Aragonese-Castilian kingdom united all of Spain. The Grenada emirs refused to pay tribute to them. In 1492, Grenada fell to a powerful onslaught of the Spaniards. The last Muslim fort in the Iberian Peninsula was captured. And with this, all of Spain was conquered from the Arabs and the reconquista movement ended with the victory of the Christians.

The Muslims gave up Grenada on the condition that their religion, language and property be inviolable. However,
soon Ferdinand II broke his promise, and a wave of mass persecution and oppression began against the Muslims. At first they were forced to accept Christianity. Those who did not want to accept Christianity were brought to the terrible court of the Inquisition. Those who changed religion in order to escape torture soon realized that they had been deceived. The Inquisition declared the new Christians to be insincere and dubious, and began to burn them at the stake. At the instigation of the church leadership, hundreds of thousands of Muslims were killed: old people, young people, women, men. A monk of the Dominican order Belida offered to destroy all Muslims, young and old. He said that one cannot show mercy even to those who converted to Christianity, because their sincerity is in question: “If we do not know what is in their hearts, then we must kill them so that the Lord God will draw them to his own judgment” . The priests liked the proposal of this monk, but the Spanish government, fearing the Muslim states, did not approve this proposal.

In 1610, the Spanish government demanded that all Muslims leave the country. The Arabs, who remained in a hopeless situation, began to move. Within a few months, more than a million Muslims left Spain. From 1492 to 1610, as a result of massacres directed against Muslims and their emigration, the population of Spain decreased to three million people. Worst of all, Muslims leaving the country were attacked by local residents, as a result of which many Muslims were killed. The monk of Belida happily reported that three-quarters of the Muslims who migrated died on the way. The mentioned monk himself personally participated in the murder of one hundred thousand people who were part of the 140 thousandth caravan of Muslims heading towards Africa. Truly, the bloody crimes committed in Spain against the Muslims leave the night of St. Bartholomew in the shade.

The Arabs, having entered Spain, which was very far from culture, raised it to the highest point of civilization, and ruled here for eight centuries. With the departure of the Arabs, Spain underwent a terrible decline and for a long time could not eliminate this decline. Having expelled the Arabs, Spain lost highly developed agriculture, trade and art, science and literature, as well as three million people of science and culture. Once the population of Cordoba was one million people, and now only 300 thousand people live here. Under Muslim rule, the population of the city of Toledo was 200 thousand people, and now less than 50 thousand people live here. Thus, it is safe to say that despite the fact that the Spaniards defeated the Arabs in the war, abandoning the great Islamic civilization, they plunged themselves into the abyss of ignorance and backwardness.

(The article used the book of Gustave le Bon "Islam and Arab Civilization")

Arab capture of Khorezm

The first Arab raids on Khorezm date back to the 7th century. In 712, Khorezm was conquered by the Arab commander Kuteiba ibn Muslim, who inflicted cruel reprisals on the Khorezmian aristocracy. Kuteiba brought down especially cruel repressions on the scientists of Khorezm. As al-Biruni writes in the Chronicles of Past Generations, “and by all means Kuteyb scattered and destroyed everyone who knew the writing of the Khorezmians, who kept their traditions, all the scientists that were among them, so that all this was covered with darkness and there is no true knowledge about what was known of their history before the establishment of Islam by the Arabs.

Arabic sources say almost nothing about Khorezm in the following decades. On the other hand, it is known from Chinese sources that Khorezmshah Shaushafar sent an embassy to China in 751, which was at war with the Arabs at that time. During this period, a short-term political unification of Khorezm and Khazaria took place. Nothing is known about the circumstances of the restoration of Arab sovereignty over Khorezm. In any case, only at the very end of the VIII century. the grandson of Shaushafar takes the Arabic name of Abdallah and mints the names of the Arab governors on his coins.

In the 10th century, a new flowering of urban life in Khorezm began. Arab sources paint a picture of the exceptional economic activity of Khorezm in the 10th century, with the surrounding steppes of Turkmenistan and western Kazakhstan, as well as the Volga region - Khazaria and Bulgaria, and the vast Slavic world of Eastern Europe becoming the arena for the activity of Khorezm merchants. The growth of the role of trade with Eastern Europe put forward the city of Urgench (now Kunya-Urgench) [specify], which became the natural center of this trade, to the first place in Khorezm. In 995, the last Afrigid, Abu-Abdallah Muhammad, was captured and killed by the emir of Urgench, Mamun ibn-Muhammad. Khorezm was united under the rule of Urgench.

Khorezm in this era was a city of high learning. Natives of Khorezm were such outstanding scientists as Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, Ibn Iraq, Abu Reihan al-Biruni, al-Chagmini.

In 1017, Khorezm was subordinated to Sultan Mahmud Gaznevi, and in 1043 it was conquered by the Seljuk Turks.

Arabshahid dynasty

The real name of this country since ancient times was Khorezm. The khanate was founded by nomadic Uzbek tribes who captured Khorezm in 1511, under the leadership of the sultans Ilbars and Balbars, descendants of Yadigar Khan. They belonged to the Genghisid branch, descended from Arab-shah-ibn-Pilade, a descendant of Shiban in the 9th generation, so the dynasty is usually called Arabshahids. Shiban in turn was the fifth son of Jochi.

The Arabshahids, as a rule, were at enmity with another branch of the Shibanids, who at the same time settled in Maverannahr after the captures of Shaibani Khan; the Uzbeks, who occupied Khorezm in 1511, did not participate in the campaigns of Shaibani Khan.

The Arabshahids adhered to steppe traditions, dividing the khanate into estates according to the number of men (sultans) in the dynasty. Supreme ruler, Khan, was the eldest in the family and chosen by the council of sultans. During almost the entire 16th century, Urgench was the capital. Khiva became the residence of the khan for the first time in 1557-58. (for one year) and only during the reign of Arab-Mohammed-Khan (1603-1622) Khiva became the capital. In the 16th century, the khanate included, in addition to Khorezm, oases in the north of Khorasan and Turkmen tribes in the sands of Kara-Kum. The possessions of the sultans often included areas in both Khorezm and Khorasan. Until the beginning of the 17th century, the khanate was a loose confederation of virtually independent sultanates, under the nominal authority of the khan.

Already before the arrival of the Uzbeks, Khorezm lost its cultural significance due to the destruction caused by Timur in the 1380s. A significant settled population survived only in the southern part of the country. Much of the formerly irrigated land, especially in the north, was abandoned and urban culture was in decline. The economic weakness of the khanate was reflected by the fact that it did not have its own money until late XVIII Bukhara coins were used for centuries. Under such conditions, the Uzbeks were able to maintain their nomadic way of life longer than their southern neighbors. They were the military class in the khanate, and the settled Sarts (descendants of the local Tajik population) were taxpayers. The authority of the khan and the sultans depended on the military support of the Uzbek tribes; to reduce this dependence, the khans often hired Turkmens, as a result of which the role of Turkmens in the political life of the khanate grew and they began to settle in Khorezm. Relations between the Khanate and the Sheibanids in Bukhara were generally hostile, the Arabshahids frequently allied with Safavid Iran against their Uzbek neighbors and on three occasions; in 1538, 1593 and 1595-1598. The khanate was occupied by the Sheibanids. By the end of the 16th century, after a series of internal wars in which most of the Arabshahids were killed, the system of dividing the khanate between the sultans was abolished. Shortly thereafter, in early XVII century, Iran occupied the lands of the Khanate in Khorasan.

The reigns of the famous historian-khan Abu-l-Ghazi (1643-1663) and his son and successor Anush Khan were periods of relative political stability and economic progress. Large-scale irrigation works were undertaken, and new irrigated lands were divided among the Uzbek tribes; who became more and more sedentary. However, the country was still poor, and the khans filled their empty treasury with booty from predatory raids against their neighbors. From that time until the middle of the 19th century, the country was, in the words of historians, a "predatory state."

Culture in Spain during the Caliphate

Alhambra - the pearl of Arabic art

Tiles from the Alhambra. 14th century National Archaeological Museum, Madrid.

Arab harems

The Eastern harem is the secret dream of men and the personified curse of women, the focus of sensual pleasures and the exquisite boredom of beautiful concubines languishing in it. All this is nothing more than a myth created by the talent of novelists. A real harem is more pragmatic and sophisticated, like everything that was an integral part of the life and life of the Arab people.

The traditional harem (from the Arabic "haram" - forbidden) is primarily the female half of the Muslim home. Only the head of the family and his sons had access to the harem. For everyone else, this part of the Arab home is a strict taboo. This taboo was observed so strictly and zealously that the Turkish chronicler Dursun Bey wrote: "If the sun were a man, then even he would be forbidden to look into the harem." Harem - the realm of luxury and lost hopes ...

Haram - Forbidden Territory
In early Islamic times, the traditional inhabitants of the harem were the wives and daughters of the head of the family and his sons. Depending on the wealth of the Arab, slaves could live in the harem, whose main task was the harem economy and all the hard work associated with it.

The institution of concubines appeared much later, during the time of the Caliphates and their conquests, when the number of beautiful women became an indicator of wealth and power, and the law introduced by the Prophet Muhammad, which did not allow having more than four wives, significantly limited the possibilities of polygamy.

In order to cross the threshold of the seraglio, the slave went through a kind of initiation ceremony. In addition to checking for innocence, the girl in without fail had to convert to Islam.

Entering the harem was in many ways reminiscent of being tonsured as a nun, where instead of selfless service to God, no less selfless service to the master was instilled. Candidates for concubines, like God's brides, were forced to break all ties with the outside world, received new names and learned to live in humility. In later harems, wives were absent as such. The main source of a privileged position was the attention of the Sultan and childbearing. Showing attention to one of the concubines, the owner of the harem elevated her to the rank of a temporary wife. This situation was most often shaky and could change at any moment depending on the mood of the master. The most reliable way to gain a foothold in the status of a wife was the birth of a boy. A concubine who gave her master a son acquired the status of mistress.

Only the head of the family and his sons had access to the harem. For everyone else, this part of the Arab home is a strict taboo. This taboo was observed so strictly and zealously that the Turkish chronicler Dursun Bey wrote: "If the sun were a man, then even he would be forbidden to look into the harem."

In addition to the old proven slaves, eunuchs followed the concubines. Translated from Greek, "eunuch" means "guardian of the bed." They got into the harem exclusively in the form of guards, so to speak, to maintain order.

COUNTRIES OF ASIA, AFRICA AND AMERICA IN THE MIDDLE AGES

622 - the first year of the Muslim era.

1. Nature and population of the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabian Peninsula is one of the hottest places on earth. The temperature there sometimes reaches 50 degrees Celsius. Most of the peninsula is occupied by sultry deserts with their loose sands and steppes, which are covered with green grass and shrubs only in winter and early spring. There are no lakes here. For most of the year, only dried-up channels remain from the rivers; water appears only when it rains. And the rains are rare and not every year. This part of the peninsula was called "desert Arabia" in ancient times.

And a narrow strip of land on the southern coast of the peninsula was called "happy Arabia." The climate was not so dry there. The inhabitants of the south of the Arabian Peninsula learned to store rainwater, build dams, canals for artificial irrigation of fields. Agriculture was the main occupation of the population of these lands. It was in the south of the peninsula that the first states of the Arabs arose - about 3 thousand years ago.

Arab nomads who lived in the vastness of "desert Arabia" were called Bedouins. The main occupation of the Bedouins was nomadic cattle breeding. They raised sheep, goats, but especially camels. After all, a camel is a very unpretentious animal; he can not drink water for a long time, he feeds on such thorny bushes that no other animal will eat.

When states already existed in the south of the Arabian Peninsula (and legends were made about the wealth of their rulers), the Bedouins still continued to live in the conditions of a primitive system.

2 . Arabs in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. Many important trade routes passed through the Arabian Peninsula. Camel caravans transported goods from "happy Arabia", Iran, India, China, Africa to the north to the Mediterranean countries. The Bedouins were also involved in this caravan trade. They gave for a fee their camels, guides, drivers, guarded caravans from robbers. This brought large incomes to the leaders and elders of the tribes, and they quickly grew rich.

Cities began to spring up at the crossroads of trade routes in the barren deserts. The Bedouins who settled in them already lived off the income from trade. At the beginning of the 7th century Mecca was the largest of these cities. Mecca rose not only because important trade routes converged in it, but also because the most revered sanctuaries of the Bedouins were located there. The main one was the Kaaba temple. The Bedouins were pagans, meaning they believed in many gods. In the temple of the Kaaba, stones were installed that were considered sacred. The Bedouins believed that these stones were the incarnations of their gods and goddesses. Many Arabs flocked to Mecca to the Kaaba to make sacrifices to their gods and perform other rites.

But in the VI century. the south of the Arabian Peninsula was conquered - first by Ethiopia (a Christian country in eastern Africa), and then by Iran. These conquests led to the destruction of the irrigation system of "happy Arabia". From the south to the north of the peninsula, fewer and fewer caravans with goods followed. Caravan trade was greatly reduced, which means that the incomes of the Bedouin nobility and the population of cities located on trade routes were reduced.

Where to find new sources of income? The easiest way out for the nobility of the Bedouin was to seize the wealth of neighboring agricultural countries. But the forces of individual Arab tribes and clans were not enough for this. Byzantium and Iran not only repulsed the raids of the Arabs, but also subjugated some of the Arab tribes.

Among the Bedouins, there was property inequality. The nobility had large herds of cattle, the best pastures. The poor had to herd the camels, goats and sheep of the rich. Often the poor, in order not to die of hunger, stole the cattle of the rich.

Property inequality, contradictions between the rich and the poor in Arab society, the need to repulse external enemies and the desire to seize the wealth of neighboring agricultural countries were the main reasons for the formation of a single Arab state.

3 . Rise of Islam. A feature of the formation of a single Arab state was that it was created along with the emergence and spread among the Arabs of a new religion - Islam. The founder of Islam and the unifier of the Arabs was the same person - Muhammad.

Muhammad was born in Mecca in a poor family, his parents died early, and the boy was brought up in the family of his uncle. Then he became a merchant. But when Muhammad was 40 years old, he decided that God had chosen him as his prophet, and he needed to convey the words of God to people. Muhammad began to preach to the people of Mecca. He said that there is only one God - Allah, and all the other gods that people believe in are not real. Allah is the only God for all people, whether they are pagans, Christians or Jews. God created the whole world: the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, and animals and people. Allah gave people everything necessary for their life, taught people how to live among themselves. But instead of thanking Allah, people pray to fake gods, worship stones and other idols. People do not fulfill the commandments of Allah, they quarrel among themselves, lie to each other, steal, the rich do not give alms to the poor, widows, orphans. But Allah will severely punish the sinners who do not believe in him and violate the commandments.

Muhammad convinced people that the end of the world would definitely come. And then a terrible judgment will be made - Allah will judge every person for his deeds. Sinners will go to hell, where eternal torment awaits them, and those who believed in Allah and lived according to his commandments will receive an eternal happy life in paradise.

Muhammad used to say that Allah had transmitted the correct faith to people before him through other prophets. These prophets were Musa (Moses) and Isa (Jesus). But people misunderstood the teachings of these prophets. Christians, Muhammad claimed, declared Jesus to be the son of God, when in fact there is only one God.

Those people who believed that Muhammad is indeed a prophet and preaches the correct faith, began to be called Muslims (which means "submissive to God"), and the new faith was called Islam ("submission"). This meant that believers in Allah must obey the will of Allah in everything, fulfill his commandments, transmitted to people through Muhammad.

Few people in Mecca believed Muhammad. The others mocked him and did not want to give up their belief in many gods. Muhammad and his supporters even had to move to the neighboring city of Medina in 622. This event later became the first year of the Muslim era.

The people of Medina recognized Muhammad as a prophet and the head of all believers in Allah. In already in 630, almost all the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula converted to Islam and united under the leadership of Muhammad. Muslims liberated the south of the peninsula from foreign rule.

So simultaneously with the adoption by the Arabs new faith Islam, they were united in one state. The ruler of this state and the head of all Muslims was the Prophet Muhammad.

4 . Koran. The holy book of Muslims is called the Quran, which means "reading" in Arabic. It was compiled after Muhammad's death from the records of the prophet's sermons. Muslims believe that the Koran contains the words of Allah himself, which were transmitted to Muhammad through the archangel Jabrail.

Islam arose near the places where Judaism and Christianity had previously originated. And the Quran has much in common with the Bible. For example, the story about the creation of the first people, about how they were expelled from paradise, about the global flood, and much more.

The Qur'an sets out the basic tenets of the teachings of Islam. The main one is faith in one God (Allah). Muslims must also believe that everything in the world happens according to the will of Allah. The human soul is immortal. After the death of a person, she will go to heaven or hell, which depends on the actions of a person in his earthly life.

The Qur'an says that believers must obey the authorities, because they are appointed by Allah. One of the main provisions of the Qur'an is the idea of ​​jihad, the holy war for Islam against the infidels. The souls of the warriors who died in such a war immediately go to heaven, and they will be delivered from the judgment of Allah at the end of the world. The idea of ​​jihad played an important role in the Arab conquests of other countries. Arab warriors boldly went into battle, being sure that if they died in battle with the infidels, then their souls would end up in paradise.

Muslims are obligated to pray 5 times every day. You can pray everywhere (except for unclean places), but it is better in a special mosque building. Every Muslim is obliged at least once in his life to make a trip to Mecca and worship its shrines (visit the Kaaba, drink water from a sacred well, etc.). This pilgrimage to Mecca is called Hajj. Islam was originally the religion of the Arabs only. But it quickly spread to other nations as well. This was facilitated by extensive Arab conquests.

Arabs are a Semitic people, their relatives are Jews, Assyrians, Phoenicians. They consider Ishmael, the son of Abraham (the common ancestor of Jews and Arabs), to be their ancestor. The geography of its settlement: the Mediterranean Sea, the peninsula of Asia Minor, the Red Sea of ​​Persia, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea.

Most of the Arabian Desert, where they live Bedouins- pastoral nomads. The southwestern and western coasts - Yemen and Hijaz - are oases - the most developed parts, where settled agriculture and trade flourished (through them lay the trade route from Byzantium to Africa and India.

Social structure and beliefs of the Arabs

The Bedouins lived in tribes, which were divided into clans and families. They had nobility - sheikhs and Said, who had large herds, slaves and received a large share of the booty during the wars. All members of the same tribe considered themselves relatives. Sheikhs were elected, their power was limited by the council of the tribal nobility. The principle of blood feud applies. Consequently, the social system is defined as transitional from primitive communal to early feudal with remnants of tribal relations.

Beliefs are pagan. Most Arabs worshiped various tribal gods: there was no single religion in them. Of the revered were the god of war and fertility Astar, the goddess of the moon Sin, the mother goddess Lat. The Arabs considered man-made stone idols and natural stone pillars to be the personifications of their gods.

Through the Hijaz, along the Red Sea, ran the ancient trade route from the Mediterranean to Africa and India, on which large trading centers arose, turned into cities - Mecca, Yathrib, etc. Especially great importance Mecca had that arose in the main stopping place for caravans. Its inhabitants lived in large stone houses. Every year in Arabia, in the spring, wars and robbery attacks were stopped for four months and general peace was established. At present, all Arabs could visit the main sanctuary of Mecca - Kaaba(Translated from Arabic "Cube"), in the wall of which a black meteorite was embedded. At the same time, various competitions and a large fair were held in the city.