|
A continuing survey of Islamic history from around
the middle of the 10th century, comprising:
the deepening crisis of the Abbasid caliphate; mass
conversions to Islam among non-Arab peoples
(including the Karakhanids as well as the Volga Bulgars);
the triumph of the Seljukid war-leadership over the
Ghaznavids, and from 980 the overrunning of East Iran,
then Mesopotamia, and eventually Asia
Minor by this new Turkish warrior nobility. A first
external shock in the form of the Crusades. With
the breakup of the Greater Seljukids, the emergence of
a series of independent Seljukid successor sultanates in
Anatolia, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Kirman
and Iran; the triple division of the caliphate itself
(between the Abbasids in Baghdad, the Fatimids
in Egypt, and the Umayyads in Spain). A second external
shock of the Mongol conquest. Finally, the rise of the
Mamluks in Egypt, the Ottomans in northwest Anatolia and
Rumelia, and the Safavids in Iranian space.
|
