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Course: World History Project - Origins to the Present > Unit 4

Lesson 3: Systems Restructure | 4.2

READ: Networks and Exchange in the Islamic World

From Malacca to Timbuktu, a vibrant Islamic network emerged during Era 4. Through trade, pilgrimage, and missionary work, a global Islamic community came together.

The article below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here.

First read: preview and skimming for gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads Worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Second read: key ideas and understanding content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

What are some reasons that trade played such an important role in the spread of Islam in Era 4?
What were some technologies that promoted trade within Muslim communities?
Who were some key players in spreading ideas and beliefs across the Islamic world and to new areas, according to the author?
How did Islamic religious and legal thought develop in this period?

Third read: evaluating and corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

The author makes an argument for an Islamic “golden age” in this period. What evidence does she give for this golden age? Are you convinced?
This article focuses on trade through the networks frame. How does your understanding of this article change if you consider it through the communities frame or the production and distribution frame? In other words, how did trade in the Islamic world affect (or how was it affected by) changes in communities and how things were made?

Now that you know what to look for, it’s time to read! Remember to return to these questions once you’ve finished reading.

Networks and Exchange in the Islamic World

Eman M. Elshaikh

From Malacca to Timbuktu, a vibrant Islamic network emerged during Era 4. Through trade, pilgrimage, and missionary work, a global Islamic community came together.

Locating the Islamic world

We often hear the phrase, the "Islamic world," or "Muslim world." But where, exactly, was the Islamic world in Era 4? Was it everything within the borders of the early caliphates (Muslim empires)?

That's one potential answer. But then what happens when these caliphates break up? The map gets messy. After these massive empires become fragmented, we're left with several Muslim states spanning Afro-Eurasia. And even if we trace around all of their borders—fuzzy and shifting, as dynasties rose and fell—are we leaving anyone out? What about Muslims living outside the bounds of Muslim states, in communities along trade and pilgrimage routes, or even farther afield?

These questions push us to think about what, exactly, pulled the Muslim world together, given that it's made up of so many different political communities. We'll talk about how trade, pilgrimage, and religious institutions energized the flow of ideas, things, and people across Afro-Eurasia. We'll find out what created the spirited network that came to be known as "the Islamic world."

The Islamic trade zone

Trade and the Islamic world are tightly intertwined, because trade is the main way that Islam spread across so many regions. True, the political and military expansion of Muslim caliphates led to many new Muslims. And later, smaller dynasties spread Islamic teachings at the local level. But really it was merchants, teachers, pilgrims, and mystics

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who spread the message—and they traveled far beyond the borders of the caliphate. Some scholars even argue that just by looking at the Afro-Eurasia trade routes that existed before Islam, you can see where Islam was headed.

And that makes sense: the Islamic world was at the center of many overlapping Afro-Eurasian trade zones. After about 700 CE, anyone traveling along the Silk Road, across the Sahara, or sailing across the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean would go through places where Muslims ruled or traded. Hubs like Baghdad, Cairo, and Samarkand were smack dab in the middle of it all, connected by land routes and sea lanes. These linked up and expanded beyond Muslim-ruled states. Indeed, Abbasid coins made their way to Scandinavia, and Chinese papermaking technology made its way to Arab lands—most likely along these routes.

The majority of people traveling along these routes were men, especially merchants. However, in West Africa and Southeast Asia, both men and women worked as merchants. Women around the globe played an important role in creating networks. As male merchants traveled, they often married local women, creating new connections to their family networks and gaining valuable knowledge of local trade practices. Women were often involved in the production of goods. In addition, women often used their personal property to finance trade expeditions and loaned money to their male relatives.

Muslim merchants brought more with them than their religion. They also spread the Arabic language, and many Muslims learned the language to understand Islamic sources. Arabic—and later Persian, too—became a lingua franca, meaning a bridge language that people spoke alongside their own indigenous languages. Across vast Muslim empires, common currencies like the dinar made it easy to exchange goods and services. They also brought new laws and technologies to help them to trade. Checks and bills of exchange

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were a lot easier and safer to move across trade routes than heavy coins, so Muslim traders began to use these new tools. Mathematical innovations, some adapted from Indian thinkers, made it easier to crunch numbers, especially currency conversions and investment returns.

A dynamic community

But a far simpler technology had a huge impact: the caravan. Caravans were basically traveling communities that used pack animals, especially camels, to carry cargo and people across long distances. People of all professions, not just merchants, traveled in caravans for many reasons. They cooperated with each other. And caravans were slow—covering only a dozen miles a day or so before stopping at a medieval rest area called a caravanserai. The constant motion of caravans made communities fluid and dynamic. People were always coming and going. New communities were always springing up around the many caravanserai.

The dynamic, connected community of the Islamic World also relied on the movement of people who weren't merchants. Pilgrims were super important. The annual hajj brought thousands of Muslim pilgrims from faraway corners of Afro-Eurasia to worship at the Ka'aba at Mecca in Arabia. Along the way, people bought and sold all kinds of goods and services. It's because of the holy pilgrimage to Mecca that we have important stories like the one where Mansa Musa literally destroyed the value of gold for a while. Or the many tales of Ibn Battuta's fascinating travels. Both started with pilgrimages.

The Sufis were key players as well. Sufis, Muslim mystics, were responsible for a ton of conversions to Islam, especially in Central Asia, West Africa, and India. They preached versions of Islam that focused on connection with God. Their versions of Islam could adapt to many different cultures both because they syncretically

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included elements of local belief while identifying local Muslim converts and leaders as saints. They also built monasteries all over the place, which became places for people to stop along their travel and mingle with fellow Sufis. Most were for men, but there were a few for female worshippers. Sufis energized the spread of Islam long after the fall of the major caliphates.

The fruits of exchange

As people moved, ideas spread as well. Intellectual and scientific knowledge—like the papermaking technologies mentioned earlier—also made their way across large expanses of land and sea. Supported by the money generated by trade, these ideas led to a growth of science and culture. In great Muslim cities like Baghdad (Mesopotamia) and Cordoba (Spain), these ideas came together with local knowledge and contributed to some revolutionary ideas and technologies. As a result, mathematicians, astronomers, philosophers, and doctors, often with state patronage (support) were really active across the Islamic world.

Some historians describe a "paper revolution" occurring in the Islamic World around the ninth century. People wrote and read more, so intellectual communities grew. While literacy was still mostly for the elite, it grew significantly during this period. Greek and Persian knowledge was translated, preserved, and reinterpreted.

Even Islamic religious thought was changed by these connections. Religious scholars called ulema combined the sayings of the prophet, called hadith, into collections. They developed and crystallized Islamic law into a canon called sharia, meaning "the way." Sharia covers everything in Islamic life from trade to marriage. Of course, not everyone agreed on all of these new ideas. Sunni and Shia divisions became clearer institutions between 800-1100 CE, and different schools of thought developed within each of them. As a result, different groups of Muslim intellectuals and scientists were combined in smaller—but still huge— networks of religious belief and practice. A student from one school of thought could move from Baghdad to Cairo to Cordoba and be able to study under the same tradition. These created shared communities of faith across borders.

Muslim networks and global Islam

As empires and dynasties rose and fell, vibrant networks and solid communities remained. They unified Muslims across distances into a larger community. Many Muslims felt they were part of a universal religious community called an ummah, that stretched far beyond the edges of any Muslim state. The lack of political unity didn't mean the end of Islamic culture. In Era 4 and beyond, Muslims and people who lived in the Islamic world continued to experience an interconnected community that felt—to them—very global.

You could try to trace the lines along this massive web, from the Malacca Sultanate in the Malay peninsula to Samarkand in central Asia to the beginnings of the Ottoman Empire in Anatolia to Timbuktu in Mali. But to figure out where exactly the Islamic world begins and ends, you'll need more information than can fit on a map.

Author bio

Eman M. Elshaikh holds an MA in social sciences from and is pursuing a PhD at the University of Chicago, where she also teaches writing. She is a writer and researcher, and has taught K-12 and undergraduates in the US and in the Middle East. Eman was previously a World History Fellow at Khan Academy, where she worked closely with the College Board to develop curriculum for AP world history.

Sources

Arjomand, Said Amir. “Thinking Globally about Islam.” The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions, October 26, 2006. Ashtor, Eliyahu. “Banking Instruments Between the Muslim East and the Christian West” 3 (1972).

Berkey, Jonathan Porter. The Formation of Islam : Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800. Themes in Islamic History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Cook, Michael. 1940-, ed. The New Cambridge History of Islam. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Venture of Islam Conscience and History in a World Civilization. Volume One, The Classical Age of Islam.

Edited by Inc ebrary. Paperback ed. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1977.

Hoyland, 1966-, Robert G. In God’s Path : The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire. Ancient Warfare and Civilization. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Laine, James W. Meta-Religion : Religion and Power in World History. Joan Palevsky Imprint in Classical Literature. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2014.

Lapidus, Ira M. (Ira Marvin). A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge Cambridgeshire ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

———. Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century : A Global History. Edited by Ira M. (Ira Marvin) Lapidus. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Lieber, Alfred E. “Eastern Business Practices and Medieval European Commerce.” The Economic History Review 21, no. 2 (1968): 230–43.

McKay, John P et al. A History of World Societies. Boston: Bedford Saint martins, 2014.

Michalopoulos, Stelios, Alireza Naghavi, and Giovanni Prarolo. “Trade and Geography in the Spread of Islam.” The Economic Journal 128, no. 616 (2018): 3210–41.

Quinn, Stephen F., and William Roberds. “The Evolution of the Check as a Means of Payment: A Historical Survey.” Economic Review, 2008.

Robinson, Chase F. “The First Islamic Empire.” The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean, February 1, 2013.

Silverstein, Adam J. Islamic History : A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions ; Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Super, 1944-, John C. Religion in World History : The Persistence of Imperial Communion. Edited by Briane K. Turley. Themes in World History. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Udovitch, Abraham L. Bankers without Banks : Commerce, Banking, and Society in the Islamic World of the Middle Ages. Princeton, N.J.: Program in Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University, 1981.

Valérian, Dominique. “Middle East: 7th–15th Centuries.” The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History, February 1, 2013.

Image credits

Cover: Isle of Graia Gulf of Akabah Arabia Petraea, depicting the Pharaoh’s Island in the northern Gulf of Aqaba off the shore of Egypt’s eastern Sinai Peninsula. David Roberts, retouched by, GerardM. Public domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Isle_of_Graia3.jpg#/media/File:Isle_of_Graia3.jpg

Maps by WHP and George Chakvetadze, Alliance USA, LLC, CC BY-NC 4.0.

One of the first mosques, in Kerala India, was reportedly built during the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Shahinmusthafa, CC BY-SA 3.0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheraman_Juma_Mosque#/media/File:Cheraman_Juma_Masjid.jpg

An image of scholars at an Abbasid library. Public domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Wisdom#/media/File:Maqamat_hariri.jpg

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deepakbessy
Posted 4 years ago. Direct link to deepakbessy's post “The author makes an argum...”
The author makes an argument for an Islamic “golden age” in this period. What evidence does she give for this golden age? Are you convinced?
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- William Wang
  Posted 4 years ago. Direct link to William Wang's post “As you might know, there ...”
  As you might know, there was a lot of trade routes between these empires that, inevitably, helped diffuse foreign practices and religions into indigenous cultures.
  
  Islam spread incredibly fast - by the middle centuries (1450-1750 -- just a century after it began), it had spread through across the middle east, parts of Africa, south east Asia, and even some parts of Europe I believe. Although the core truths of the Islamic beliefs remained, many foreign areas modified the Islamic culture slightly to fit their own locally cultural needs.
  
  Without trade routes and the general inclusive theme within the religion, Islam wouldn't have spread fast and it wouldn't have reached the numbers it now is at today, where it's one of the most well known religions.
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Jayden Padilla
Posted 18 days ago. Direct link to Jayden Padilla's post “how did the trades in Cai...”
how did the trades in Cairo affect the Muslim trade world
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nitzi
Posted 3 years ago. Direct link to nitzi's post “How did Arabian merchants...”
How did Arabian merchants impact Afro-Eurasia?) that uses evidence from two or more sources.
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