Timeline of Islamic history: 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | 11th | 12th | 13th | 14th | 15th | 16th | 17th | 18th | 19th | 20th | 21st century |
YouTube Encyclopedic
-
1/3Views:2 138 5262 460 1472 963
-
Islam and Politics: Crash Course World History 216
-
Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa: Crash Course World History #16
-
Uncovering the important events in Indian history in just 15 minutes | Indian Independence Timeline
Transcription
Hi, I’m John Green, this is Crashcourse World History and today we’re going to talk about the Islamic state. A story ripped from the headlines! JFTP: Mr. Green? Wait. No, no, no, no this is not history this is news and also for me it’s not even news - it’s the future. Yeah, Me from the Past, it turns out that history is a continuous process, and that even current events have a history. INTRO Alright, let’s begin with the headlines. In 2014 ISIS – the Islamic State In Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIL and Islamic State, and many other things. Anyway, they declared a caliphate in the territory that the group controls, prompting many Americans to wonder what a Caliphate is. Well, if you’ve seen our episode on the emergence of Islam, the caliphate is an Islamic state, modeled on the original Islamic community that was founded by the prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. Now Muhammad was not a caliph, because the word means successor and they were the successors to Muhammad. But the first four political leaders who led the community and turned it into an empire have come to be known as the Four Rightly Guided caliphs. And when groups like ISIS that are trying to reestablish this kind of government look back on it they see it as being kind of the golden age. That this was a time of not just of growth for the Islamic empire but also of political stability and unity. Which as it happens it really wasn’t. Like even under the Four Rightly Guided caliphs the Islamic world was tremendously diverse and had huge disagreements. I mean of the Four Rightly Guided caliphs, three were assassinated. But anyway, the ideal version of that type of state is what ISIS and some other Islamists mean when they talk about reconstructing a caliphate although what the boundaries of a modern-day Caliphate might be are far from clear. I mean are you going to try to include Indonesia, but anyway, according to historian Michael Cook, “the restoration of the caliphate is a political ideal for many Islamists – and for some a political project,” But I want to be clear, that is not the case for the vast majority of Muslims. So when I use the term Islamism I mean something very specific. For me, Islamism is the idea that Islam can be the basis of government; it’s not the same as fundamentalism, although it’s often related to it. And it’s certainly not the same thing as Islam - which is a diverse and complicated and world wide religious tradition. Now, Islamism is a potent political force, but it’s a relatively recent one, and in many ways it developed as a response to our old friend, Western-style nationalism. That said, the idea that Islam can guide nation states or new kinds of states is much older than, you know, 2001. But it became much more relevant to Americans with the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Since then there has been more and more attention paid to the argument that Islam and Western civilization were at-best incompatible and at-worst locked in a mortal clash of civilizations. That clash of civilizations idea has become so ingrained that even though I don’t really agree with it i think we need to at least acknowledge what we’re talking about when we talk about us and them. Us, usually refers to European style nation states such as those which became dominant in the 19th century. These states tend to value democracy or at least pluralism, and, to varying degrees, they espouse political values such as egalitarianism and individualism. National identity in these states has at least traditionally been in a sense ethnic – based on some sense of shared language and culture if not exactly kinship – and it’s secular rather than religious. And then the arguments goes that the Islamic world is the opposite of this, but I am not convinced that that’s accurate. For instance, there are lots of religious connections in European nation states and there are lots of conversations about strengthening those religious connections or even making laws according to religious dictates. And in the Islamic world there are lots and lots of nation states. But let’s start with the idea that the Islamists are out of step with the modern political reality of the nation state. Let’s go to the thoughtbubble. So Islam is a universal religion that is supposed to transcend ethnic identity. According to the Quran, “The believers indeed are brothers.” (Q49:10) The universal nature of Islam didn’t mean that ethnicity didn’t matter at all of course; it did. Early on and for a long time Arab ethnicity was privileged in the Islamic world and this was especially true during the period of conquest. This was despite Muhammad saying “Truly the Arab has no superiority over the non-Arab, nor the non-Arab over the Arab, nor the black over the white, nor the white over the black, except in piety.” But their amazingly rapid and far reaching conquest granted the Arabs huge prestige that lasted until the 18th century. Now, from the beginning being a Muslim meant being part of a political community, because unlike Jesus or the Buddha, Muhammad was also a political leader in addition being a religious one. But at least to an extent the tight connection between political and religious identity really ended with the assassination of the Fourth Rightly Guided Caliph Ali. According to the writer Tamim Ansary, “After Ali’s death, the khalifate was just an empire.” But as the empire grew and became more diverse, it became impossible to hold it together as a political unit. So, even though the idea of a caliphate doesn’t square so well with western notions of ethnically homogenous nation states, ethnicity has always mattered in the Islamic world, as we can see if we go to Turkey, or Egypt, or Pakistan. In each of those places, the experience of being a Muslim is affected by the experience of one’s ethnicity. Thanks, Thoughtbubble. So this idea that the Islamic empire wasn’t always a caliphate for much of its history, was just an empire is really important. Because it gets to how not-different ways of organizing people are when it comes to like us and them. Now I’m not trying to make a false equivalence or say that all people are the same or whatever But like let’s look at a defining western political value - egalitarianism. In its earliest incarnations, Islam was unusually egalitarian, especially for its time. The religion structurally avoids hierarchy except perhaps based on piety. The Quran (49:13) states: “the noblest among you in the sight of God is the most godfearing of you,” and there’s a quote from Muhammad that “people are equals like the teeth of a comb.” To which I say. What’s a comb? Also, Islamic law, unlike, say Hammurabi’s code, doesn’t make class distinctions among Muslims, only between Muslims and non-Muslims, and Muhammad is quoted as saying that the blood of believers is always of equal value. In fact, that Islam lacks caste or formal aristocracy was noted by many Europeans, who thought it was weird. Now this canonical idea egalitarianism is not the same thing as equality - at least the equality that we’ve come to think about in the present day. Like in the Quran, and in the sayings of Muhammad called Hadiths, Women and men are alike in the performance of prayer and their obligation to pay the alms tax and their expectations of eternal life in paradise And women did have some inheritance rights in the early Islamic community that they did not enjoy in pre-Islamic Arabic communities. And that they also wouldn’t have had in Byzantium or, god forbid, Rome. And then there’s the inequality between Muslims and ‘unbelievers’ which is pretty well known; like other “peoples of the book” Christians and Jews, could live and work in Muslim empires provided they paid a special tax called the jizya. Which was far better than the life of a Muslim under Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain. And then there’s the issue of slavery, which the Quran accepts. In general Muslims have avoided enslaving other Muslims, showing that there is a sense of brotherhood and solidarity among believers, but overall to quote a historian “Islamic egalitarianism was … limited to free Muslim males.” Of course, if you’ve watched our US History series you may remember that early American egalitarianism was limited to like land-owning Christian males. My point here, is that if you look for historical precedence, you can generally find them. That’s true in the Islamic world, it’s also true in the rest of the world. Now today, in Europe and the United States, most citizens expect their states to be, in at least some degree, democratic, and republican, and constitutional. So when people in the west look at the early Islamic empire we have a way of imaging Caliphs as kings because, like, you know, we had kings. But Caliphs were important in different ways, for starters, they were the successor to the prophet. Now, maybe that’s similar to what the Roman Catholic papacy became over time but it’s not like a king - except for the king of England. King Henry VIII, founder of my church, who was like “I need to be the head of the church so I can get divorced.” But this combination of religious and political authority is important as is, at least initially, there was no hereditary succession of caliphs. And then there’s the concept of bay’a which is a kind of political allegiance, like according to Michael Cook, “an agreement is made between the future caliph and the future subject whereby each party is to have specified rights and duties.” A closely related theme is shura, “the duty of the caliph to consult with others before making his decision.” Like, according to tradition, when Abu Bakr accepted the role of the first Caliph he claimed that Muslims had no duty to obey him if he disobeyed God and the Prophet. Now that’s not democracy, but it is limited rule and it gives people some participation in the government. And then there’s another Western value that is often bandied about as something that isn’t part of the Islamic world - freedom. Islam, as you may know, means “submission.” And a Muslim is a person who submits to God. And to some Westerns that seems like the opposite of freedom. But the tradition within Islam, is that by releasing people from domination by other people, and making them servants of God - there is freedom. Freedom is a famously abstract concept, but if we think of it as the opposite of slavery, then being free from having to serve other people is freedom. That said, in contemporary Islamism, political freedom is not particularly held in high esteem. Which is one of the reasons why Islamists were less relevant in the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 than people tend to think. But in at least one way, the caliphate can be thought of as enshrining republican (with a little “r”) values; Islamism emphasizes the rule of law and that even the caliph is subject to it. Since ultimate sovereignty belongs only to God, men to quote Michael Cook, “are not entitled to exercise lordship over each other.” And the much talked about Shari’a law, coming from a source outside the political process (whether that’s God or scholars) acts as a huge check on rulers becoming dictators. Right. like Iran’s government has many problems, but its president is not a dictator. But that same complete sovereignty of God over the people makes it difficult for Islamists to embrace democracy, because it’s based on the idea that the people themselves are sovereign. And the most radical Islamists, like Ayman al Zawahiri of Al-Qaeda really do hate democracy. He called democracy, “a new religion that deifies the masses.” And the completely extreme and absolutely horrifying Boko Haram in Nigeria have exclaimed that they, “will never accept any system of government apart from on stipulated by Islam,” and will, “keep on fighting against democracy, capitalism, socialism and whatever.” Yes, the “and whatever” is a quote. If you belong to a group that is fighting blank, blank, blank, and whatever - you need to leave that group. So it’s easy and relatively common for people in the West to say that Islam is inimical to political values like freedom, equality and democracy. And when we talk about certain groups of radical Islamists, that’s true. But in the West we also really, really struggle to see the other complexely, and to understand the incredible diversity in response to the revelation of the Quran. In my opinion, the clash of civilization model oversimplifies the world into this group and that group, and imagines that this group sees the world only that way and that group sees the world only this way. In fact, it’s complicated. For one thing, modern Islamism itself, is a very recent phenomenon, and in large part it’s a reaction to western imperialism and nationalism, and it doesn’t always reflect the ideas of Islam OR Islamic history. Humans have a storied tradition of calling upon certain facets of our history to inspire us toward what we already kind of want. And those seeking to recreate the caliphate want a more powerful and unified Arab world, if not, an Islamic world. And so they look toward history for inspiration, taking parts and leaving many others. What really happened, is that for the most part European style nationalism took hold in the Islamic world at the same time it rose in Europe, as the creation of Turkey shows quite clearly. But in trying to understand the allure of the caliphate it’s important to understand that Islam is not just a religion. From the beginning, it was a civilization. As the historian Tamim Ansary wrote: “Islam might just as validly be considered as one item in a class whose other items include communism, parliamentary democracy, fascism, and the like, because Islam is a social project like those others, an idea for how politics and the economy ought to be managed, a complete system of civil and criminal law.” But it’s also a very diverse system shaped by everything around it and everything inside of it - like any civilization. So when we try to discuss a topic as complex and charged as contemporary Islamic thought and practice and political worldviews, we don’t just need to be sure that we have some sense of history. We also need to be sure that we’re all talking about the same thing. There is nothing bright about the lines between politics and religion and history and nation. Thank you for watching. I’ll see you next week. Crash Course is filmed in the Chad and Stacey Emigholz studio here in Indianapolis. It’s made possible thanks to the hard work of all of these people. And also your subscriptions on Subbable. Subbable is a voluntary subscription service that allows you to support Crash Course directly so we can keep it free for everyone forever. You can also support Crash Course by buying some of our awesome merch like t-shirts or posters. Thank you for watching. And as we say in my hometown, “don’t forget to be awesome.”
19th century (1801–1900) (1215 AH – 1318 AH)
- 1803: Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Muhammad bin Saud assassinated. Shah Shuja proclaimed King of Afghanistan.
- 1804: Uprising under George Petrovich against Janissary garrison at Belgrade marked beginning of Serbian Revolution.
- 1804: Othman dan Fodio established Islamic State of Sokoto in Northern Nigeria.
- 1805: Saud bin Abdul Aziz captured Medina defeating the Ottoman Empire garrison.
- 1805: Faraizi movement launched in Bengal.
- 1805: Sultan Selim III yields to the demand that Muhammad Ali be appointed wāli of Egypt.
- 1806: Khanate of Khiva came into limelight under the rule of Muhammad Rahim Khan.
- 1807: Selim III deposed by Janissaries.
- 1807: Darqawi sect revolted against Turkish domination.
- 1807: Tunisia repudiated suzerainty of Algeria.
- 1808: Bairakdar, the ayan of Rusçuk, having arrived in Constantinople too late to restore Selim III (who had been strangled), installed Mahmud II, the sole surviving member of the Ottoman line.
- 1811: Birth of Siyyid Mírzá 'Alí-Muhammad known as the Báb, founder of Bábí movement. British occupied Indonesia.
- 1811: Muhammad Ali has Mamluks massacred in the Citadel of Cairo, thereby consolidating his absolute power.
- 1812: Medina fell to Egyptians.
- 1812: Treaty of Bucharest between Ottoman Empire and Russia end a war of 6 years
- 1813: Mecca and Taif captured by Egyptian forces and Saudis expelled from Hejaz.
- 1814: Iran executed treaty of alliance with the British known as the Definitive Treaty. Death of Saud bin Abdul Aziz. King Othman of Tunisia assassinated by his cousin Mahmud.
- 1816: British withdrew from Indonesia restoring it to the Dutch.
- 1817: Sir Syed Ahmad Khan born.
- 1818: Conclusion of Egypt's seven-year campaign against the Wahabis in Arabia, who had occupied Mecca and Medina and threatened Syria. As a result, the eastern coast of the Mediterranean fell under Egyptian control.
- 1821: Alexander Ypsilantis led Greek insurgents across the river Prut into Danubian Principalities on March 6 (n.s.) to begin the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire.
- 1822: Death of Maulay Ismail in Morocco.
- 1822: Greek assembly at Epidauros declared Greek independence and drew up an organic statute establishing a parliament and executive directory.
- 1826: Janissaries massacred by forces loyal to Mahmud II after they revolted following formation of new army corps.
- 1827: Malaya became a preserve of the British according to Anglo-Netherland treaty in 1824.
- 1828: Russia declared war against Ottoman Empire.
- 1829: Treaty of Adrianople ends the war Russo Turkish war 1828
- 1830: French forces landed near Algiers and occupied Algeria ending 313 years rule of Turks.
- 1831: Syed Ahmad Barelvi and Shah Ismail leaders of Jihad movement in India fell fighting the Sikhs in Balakot.
- 1831: Sayyid Said, King of Oman, shifted his capital to Zanzibar.
- 1832: Turks defeated in the battle of Konya by Egyptian forces.
- 1833: At the urging of France, the Convention of Kütahya ended the war between Egypt and the Ottoman Empire and provided that the empire grant the sultan of Egypt all of Syria and Adana.
- 1833: The Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi established alliance between the Ottoman Empire and Russia and provided that the Ottomans would close the Dardanelles to any foreign warships at the Russians' request.
- 1834: Abdul Qadir of Algeria recognized as ruler of the area under his control by the French.
- 1839: In response to threats by Egyptian wāli Muhammad Ali to declare himself independent, an Ottoman army began (March) the invasion of Syria from the Euphrates. It was defeated (June 24) by the Egyptians in the battle of Nezib. On July 1 the Turkish fleet surrendered itself (possibly by an act of treachery) to Muhammad Ali in Alexandria.
- 1839: The Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane (Supreme Edict of the Rose House) issued by sultan Abdülmecid I, which began the Tanzimât reforms of the Ottoman Empire.
- 1840: Quadruple Alliance by the European powers to force Egypt to relinquish Syria. British free occupied Aden.
- 1841: State of Adamawa established by Adams adjacent to Nigeria.
- 1842: Amir Abdul Qadir, ousted from Algeria by the French. He crossed over to Morocco. Shah Shuja assassinated ending the Durrani rule in Afghanistan.
- 1847: Amir Abdul Qadir surrendred to France under the condition of safe conduct to a Muslim country of his choice, but France violated its pledge and sent him as a captive to France.
- 1849: Death of Muhammad Ali of Egypt.
- 1850: The Báb is executed by the Persian government. Táhirih, a renowned poet and staunch advocate of Bábism also executed.
- 1852: Release of Amir Abdul Qadir by Napoleon III. He settled in Ottoman Empire.
- 1853: After a series of intrigues ostensibly designed to enable it to act as protector of Orthodox Christians in Ottoman territories failed, Russia occupied the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in March. The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia in October beginning the Crimean War. Great Britain and France would declare war on Russia the following March.
- 1856: Hatt-ı Hümâyûnu (the Reform Edict of 1856) is issued on February 18 and constitutes the most important Ottoman reform measure of the nineteenth century. It guaranteed the lives and property of Christians, replaced the heads of churches with a national synod, provided full freedom of conscience and civil participation for adherents to all religions. The edict was forced on the sultan by the British, French and Austrians to forestall a Russian intervention.
- 1856: Treaty of Paris (March 30) ends Crimean War, and admits Turkey into the European concert, whereby its independence and imperial integrity was guaranteed. Russia ceded the mouths of the Danube and Bessarabia, returned Kurs, relinquished its claim as protector of Christians in the Ottoman Empire and agreed to the neutralization of the Black Sea.
- 1857: British captured Delhi and eliminated Mughal rule in India after 332 years. Last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled to Rangoon in Burma. This was also the end of 1000 years of Muslim rule over India.
- 1858: Feudal holdings abolished in the Ottoman Empire.
- 1859: Imam Shamil laid down arms before Russian forces and the Islamic State of Dagestan became a Russian province.
- 1860: Maulay Muhammad defeated by Spain.
- 1860: Masjid-e-Abu Hurairah, established in Cardiff, is the first mosque in Britain.
- 1860: Civil War between Syrian Druzes and Marionite Christians erupted. Authorized by the European Powers, France sent expeditionary force which restored order by June 1861.
- 1861: Sultan Abd-ul-Mejid I died and is succeeded by Abdülaziz whose reign (1861-1876) is notable for the rapid spread of western influence (particularly Great Britain and France, allies of the Ottoman Empire during the Crimean War), as evidenced by the first foreign loans, railroad construction, and public debt administration, and the rise of secular liberalism, shown by literary revival, translation of Western literature, rise of Turkish journalism and establishment of universities.
- 1861: Overthrow of the Bambara Empire by the Toucouleur Empire.
- 1862: Faraizi movement fizzled out after the death of Dadu Miyan. Overthrow of the Massina Empire by the Toucouleur Empire.
- 1863: Banque Impériale Ottoamane established to function as Turkey's central bank.
- 1864: Circassian genocide
- 1865: Khanate of Kokand liquidated by Russia.
- 1869: Jamal al-Din al-Afghani exiled from Afghanistan. He proceeded to Egypt.
- 1871: Tunisia recognised suzerainty of Ottoman Empire through a firman.
- 1873: Emirate of Bukhara and Khanate of Khiva made protectorates by Russia.
- 1876: Britain purchased shares of Khediv Ismail in the Suez canal and got involved in Egyptian affairs.
- 1876: Constitutional monarchy in Ottoman Empire (Turkey)(first phase)
- 1878: Conference of Berlin. Ottoman Empire loses territories to Russia or Balkan countries
- 1878: Ottoman Empire handed over Cyprus to Britain.
- 1879: Jamal al-Din al-Afghani exiled from Egypt. Treaty of Berlin. Ottoman lost 4/5 th of its territory in Europe.
- 1881: France invaded Tunisia and the Bey acknowledged supremacy of France as a result of the treaty of Bardo. Muhammad Ahmad declared himself Mahdi in northern Sudan.
- 1882: Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian first claimed to be divinely appointed by God but did not take pledge until 1889.
- 1882: Egypt came under British military occupation.
- 1883: Death of Amir Abdul Qadir in Damascus.
- 1885: Muhammad Ahmad declared free Government of Sudan under his rule. Death of Mahdi Sudani five months after the occupation of Khartoum.
- 1889: Shah Jahan Mosque opened in Woking (England).
- 1889: Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian claimed to be the Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi, laid the foundation of the Ahmadiyya Movement. But majority of Muslims denounced Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as a Heretic and later Parliament of Pakistan declared followers of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam as Non-Muslims.
- 1890: End of the Toucouleur Empire.
- 1895: Afghanistan got Wakhan Corridor by an understanding with Russia and British India making Afghan border touch China.
- 1897: State of Bagirimi occupied by the French.
- 1899: Fall of Muhammad Ahmad's Mahdi State occupied by the British and the Egyptians jointly. By the end of this century, global Muslim population had grown to 13 percent of the total.
See also
Birth of Siyyid Mírzá 'Alí-Muhammad known as the Báb His Holiness Báb was born in 1819.