The World of Late Antiquity and Arabia Before Islam

The World of Late Antiquity and Arabia Before Islam

HIST 10079/6/13

Cultural Hegemony

Alexander’s Empire

Alexander’s Empire

• Political heir to Achaemenid Empire• Hellenic Culture• Aristotle (384-322BCE)• “to the strongest”

Diadochi

• Seleucids (r. 311-63BCE) – Mesopotamia and Iran

• Ptolemaic Dynasty (r. 303-47BCE) – Egypt

• Antigonids (r. 306-167BCE) – Macedonia

• Other smaller dynasties…

Diadochi

Hellenistic Age

• Hellenization• Cultural Hegemony

Iskandir

Alexandria

Empire

• Neo-Assyrians – Dominance

• Achaemenid Persians – Hegemony

• Alexander the Great – Cultural Hegemony

The Roman Empire

• 290BCE – Italy• 264-202BCE – Western Mediterranean• 200-30BCE – Eastern Mediterranean• 59-51BCE - Gaul

Pax Romana

The Byzantine Empire

Constantine the Great (r. 306-337) and Constantinople (324)

From Milan to Thessalonica• 313: Edict of Milan:Ends persecution of Christians• 325: First Council of Nicaea:Nicaean Creed• 380: The Edict of Thessalonica:Nicaean Christianity becomes state religion of Roman Empire

Justinian the Great (r. 527-565)

Hagia Sophia

Extent of Justinian’s Empire

Justinian’s Plague, 541-767

• 541 – outbreak of bubonic plague• Flea bites infected rat• Flea bites human• Infected human sneezes• 25% of Mediterranean

population dead• 40% of Constantinople

Sasanian Empire (224-651)

First Byzantine-Sasanian War (572-591)

Emperor Justin II (r. 565-578) andShahanshah Khosrau I (r. 531-579)

Chaos in Constantinople

• Maurice Tiberius (r. 582-602)

• Phocas (r. 602-610)• Heraclius (r. 610-641)

Byzantine-Sasanian War (602-628)

Heraclius and the True Cross

Arabia Before Islam

• Jahiliyya• Tribal• Pastoral• Pagan• Small kingdoms on fringes• Christian andJewish communities

Petra

Palmyra

Mecca and the Hijaz

• Pilgrimage center• Market center• Quraysh

Mecca as Pilgrimage Center

The Ka`aba today,in 1880, and at thetime of the Prophet(as portrayed in a 16th

century Ottomanmanuscript).

Mecca as Market Center

Markets of the Arabs

Ghassanids and Lakhmids

Poetry and Arab Culture

• Oral culture• Dialects and literary language• Mu`allaqat• Seven qasida, best poems of pre-Islamic era• The Hanging Poems