The historical course of Islam 2

📚 Part 2 of 6 in the series on the history and civilisation of Islam.

In the second session of the cycle “A reading in the history of the Islamic world”, Gerdi Demneri takes up the period of the High Caliphate, from the founding of the Umayyad caliphate under Mu'awiya, through the consolidation of power by Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan after the second fitna in 692, down to the weakening of the Abbasid caliphate in 945.

Demneri follows the transformation of the Umayyad caliphate into an Arab imperial state, the Abbasid revolution and its unkept promises, the tensions between Arab and non-Arab Muslims, the forming of the schools of law and theology, and the culminating confrontation between the caliphate and the scholars in the case of Imam Ahmad and the mihna — the moment that, in Hodgson's reading, shaped Sunni Islam as we know it today.

Some of the points covered: 📌 The Umayyad caliphate as an Arab imperial state under Abd al-Malik 📌 Arab and non-Arab equality as one cause of the Abbasid revolution 📌 The Abbasids arrive, and the promises left unkept 📌 The forming of the schools of law, and the role of the scholars 📌 Baghdad as a centre of translation and the sciences 📌 The mihna, Imam Ahmad, and the consolidation of Sunni Islam 📌 Kalam, Sufism and philosophy as new paths of thought

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