The Central Islamic Lands

The Bedouins were Arab independent tribes. They were nomadic. They moved from dry to green areas in search of food and fodder for their camels. Their main diet consisted of sate palm and camel milk. Some of them settled in cities and practiced trade or agriculture and others in looting and plunging.

A movement called ‘dawa’ had thrown away the Umayyad dynasty in Arab. It was replaced by another dynasty, the Abbasids, in 750 CE. This movement was started by Abu Muslim from Khurasan against the Umayyad dynasty. The event is given the name of the Abbasid Revolution.

Examples of the cosmopolitan character of the state set up by Arabs, Iranian and Turks are:-

i) The Arab empire was inhabited by people of Muslim, Christian and Jewish cultures.

ii) In the Iranian empire, Muslims and Asian culture developed.

iii) In the Turk empire, Egyptian, Iranian, Syrian and Indian cultures developed.

There were various effects of the Crusades on Europe and Asia:-

i) The Muslim states began to adopt a harsher attitude towards their Christian subjects.

ii) There was a great increase in the influence of Italian mercantile communities in the trade between the east and the west.

iii) Power of Europeans feudal lords decrease and there was a decline of feudalism in Europe. It helped in the emergence and rise of the Nation-States.

iv) the crusade left a deep impact on Christian-Muslim relation in a negative way.

Roman Architectural Forms – Romans were skilled architects. They introduced arch and domes in architecture. Their buildings had two or three stories. In these buildings, arch were constructed on one another. Their arches were round in shape. These arches were used in building city gates, bridges, big buildings and victory monuments. Arches were used even in building collegiums. There gladiator’s competitions were also held. These arches were also used in constructing canals.

Islamic Architectural Forms – Islamic architectural forms were influenced by Iranian art. But Arabs discovered original specimens of decorations. Their buildings included round domes, minarets, and horse hoof- shaped arches and carved pillars. Features of Islamic architecture can be seen in Arab’s mosques, libraries, places, hospitals, and schools. They used decorative forms of writing to decorate their architecture nd manuscripts. The places were richly decorated with sculptures, mosaics and paintings like the Palace of Baghdad.

Journey from Samarqand to Damascus had a lot of cities in its route. Samarqand was located in the North east of the Islamic state and Damascus was situated in the centre (Syria). A traveller journeying from Samarqand to Damascus had to pass through the cities of Merv, Nishapur, and Samarra etc.