9.49 The Umayyad Dynasty (661-750 AD)

By the time of the start of the first Muslim Umayyad Dynasty their Empire spread into North Africa, past, but avoiding, Carthage, including Egypt south to the Aswan, Mesopotamia and Persia, covering a third of the civilised world. The Umayyad Dynasty was set up by the Quraysh family from Mecca who had fought Ali until his murder in 661 AD. Further expansion from 669 AD meant that by the 680’s AD they had reached the Atlantic coast of Africa, finally overrunning Carthage in 698 AD, and reputedly freeing the Berbers from oppression. Certainly the Berbers converted to Islam and made up much of the Muslim army that invaded Spain starting in 711 AD. The Arabs attempted two incursions into Anatolia to try to take Constantinople from 674 to 678 AD and 717 to 718 AD, but the Byzantines repulsed both. Everywhere the Muslims went they acquired the technology of the inhabitants, and subsequently built on it, as dictated in the Qur’an “to seek knowledge”. The Umayyads, whose Capital was Damascus, were noted for being tyrannical, but they were also noted for their fine buildings. Within 80 years of Muhammad’s death the Arabs had erected the greatest and most beautiful Islamic buildings throughout their Empire, including the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem and the Great Mosques at Damascus, Syria and Cordoba, Spain.

Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem - source
Jerusalem-pedia

By 715 AD, while Western Europe slid into the dark ages, forgetting much of the Roman way of life (especially hygiene – to their eventual cost), the Muslim army had taken most of the Iberian Peninsular (Spain and Portugal) and much of Central Asia previously held by the Chinese, well to the east of Samarkand, as well as to the Indus River.

Trade was very important, partly because it raised revenue for the rulers, and so the security of the caravans on the Silk Road was paramount. The Silk Road was not a single road between two places, but a gathering of routes in China to Chang’an then a route to Samarkand. Here one route went by way of Baghdad or Seleucia to Damascus, then to Tyre and by sea to Byzantium or Venice. Two further routes went to Byzantium from Samerkand, one overland through Turkey and another further north across the Caspian Sea. Along there land routes they built “caravanserai” that were substantial fort-like buildings one day’s travel apart (30-40 miles), which had facilities to look after men and camels overnight.

The Arabs had used the stars to negotiate across the desert at night so had become accomplished astronomers, and they then used this knowledge to navigate the seas. This enabled them to control all the maritime trade between the Red Sea and China. It was also essential to find the direction of Mecca for praying. They took the astrolabe from the Hellenistic Greeks and significantly developed it. Another example of how the Muslims were greatly strengthened by absorbing the cultures and technologies of others, particularly those they conquered, is the acquisition of the technology of papermaking when they captured a papermaking factory in Samarkand from the Chinese around 700 AD. This technology, which replaced expensive vellum, spread throughout their Empire by 10^th century AD. It travelled via Iraq to Egypt, North Africa and then to Moorish Spain. It did not become available to the rest of Europe until the 12^th Century AD when the Moors were driven south. It was not manufactured in England until the 15^th century. Another technology to travel east to west was advances in numerals. Around 500 AD Indian mathematicians developed the concept of zero and ways of depicting large numbers economically, much more so than Roman numerals. These ideas were passed on to the Arab world by Persians living in India and travelled, with progressive modifications, through North Africa. The name “Arabic Numerals” is therefore a bit of a misnomer. The technology eventually reached Europe around 900 AD, and became the numerals people of the west use today.