Arab Civilization

In this article we have covered important facts/points about Arab Civilization and what contributions of the Arab Civilization are in World History. This article gives you birdseye view over this topic. Kindly bookmark this article for future use.

Arab Civilization:-

• In the 7th century, a new religion, Islam, arose in Arabia, which led to the establishment of a big empire. 
  
• Muhammad, the Islamic Prophet, was born in Mecca in the year 570AD.
  
• He experienced “visions of truth” and was transformed into a prophet at the age of 40. His visions fully persuaded Muhammad that Allah was the only god.
  
• He prohibited the worship of idols and gained a lot of opponents. He finally had to flee Mecca and seek safety in Medina. This event took place in 622 AD and is known as the year of Hijri, or migration and from it, Muslims date their era (Hijri Samvat).
  
• The Quran, the holy book of Islam, is divided into a number of suras or chapters and contains the teachings of Muhammad. Besides the Quran, the life of a Muslim is guided by the Sunna, the practices of Muhammad, and the Hadees, the sayings of Muhammad. 
  
• After his death (632 AD), his successors were known as Caliphs or Khalifas who held both religious and political authority.
  
• Nearly all of Arabia had accepted the new religion and become a unified state before the death of Prophet Muhammad in 632 AD.
  
• From Arabia, Islam spread very fast to many other parts of the world. Muhammad served as a political as well as a religious leader.
  
• The Khalifas and their generals ruled over Iran, Syria, Egypt, Central Asia, North Africa, and Spain within a century. The Arab empire was the largest that the world had seen so far.
  
• The first three Khalifas ruled from the city of Medina Then the capital was shifted to Kufah.
  
• By 660 AD, when the Umayyad dynasty took over the reins of government, the principal city was Damascus. About 750 AD, the Umayyad were overthrown by the Abbasids, who made Baghdad their capital. An Abbasid emperor named Harun Rashid was well-known in Damascus in numerous stories.
  
• The Abbasids ruled for about 300 years, till the Seljuk Turks took over Baghdad and ended Arab rule. The Turks ruled the Islamic world for the following four centuries.
  
• In the 15th century, most of these territories came under the dominance of the Ottoman Turks. It was the Ottoman Turks who took over Constantinople and ended the Eastern Roman empire in 1453.

Contributions of the Arab Civilization – 

1) The creation of a significant empire made it easier for the intellectual and scientific traditions of several civilizations—especially Greek, Iranian, and Indian—to come together.  The Arabs assimilated all knowledge and expanded it.

2) Al Rasi (Rhazes), an Arab scientist, discovered the true nature of smallpox, and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) discovered that tuberculosis is infectious.

3) In Mathematics, the Arabs learned the Indian numerals (Hindsah) and spread their use far and wide, so that in the West they are to this day called Arabic numerals. Some of the famous literary works of the Arab civilization are the ‘Rubaiyat‘ by Omar Khayyam, ‘Shahnama‘ by Firdausi, and the Arabian Nights, a collection of 1001 stories. 

4) The Arabs created their own unique ornamental patterns. Their structures included horseshoe arches, tiny minarets, bulbous domes, and twisted columns.

5) The technique of book illumination was elevated by the Arabs, who also created the ornate writing style known as calligraphy.

6) All around the world, treasured items included Arab rugs, leather crafts, exquisite swords, silks, inlays, metalwork, and enamelled glassware.