OLLI Workshop: History of the Middle East
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Arab Empire under the immediate successors of Muhammad (Rashidun empire). The areas of the Arab Empire are in black overlayed on a map that shows the boundaries and names of modern countries. The location of the cities of Mecca and Medina is approximate. Adapted from |
Arab Empire (multiple caliphates) at its peak circa 945. Adapted
from http://www.zonu.com/detail-en/2009-12-10-11399/Chronological-map-of-the-Arab-Empire-632-945.html |
Because the Arabic peninsula was in far less developed state than the lands conquered by the Arabs, the new rulers had no administrative mechanisms of their own to impose on their new subjects. In Egypt it took over a century for Arabic to replace Greek in government documents.
"In the course of the millennia Middle East bureaucracies, through many changes of government, religion, culture, and even script and language, show a remarkable persistence and continuity". [Lewis: BL95, pp. 182]
What was left of the Roman Empire around 700. Not only Syria and Egypt have been lost to the Arabs, but also most of what is today Greece has been lost to Slavs and most of Italy to the Lombards. | |
Adapted from http://hobbit.ict.griffith.edu.au/~wiseman/Roman/19Maps.html#754 |