Essay Questions Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 6

Questions - Essay Example , the khalifa, although with no prophetic function, continued as the leader of the Umayyads, with an ideology of unity and power of Islamic communities. This gave rise to the third Islamic ideology of jihad, i.e warfare, meant to defend or expand their rule and eliminate the monopoly of the Arabic rule. In Islam, religion dictates law. Hence, the propositions of jihad allowed war against non-Muslims, prohibited war within Muslims and usage of violence was allowed only to spread Islam. After the death of the last Umma leader, the Umayyads merely remained as an insignificant group as the Abbasid revolution started (747-750), with their new caliph Abu-al-Abbas-al-Saffah, and this group flourished until 1258, holding the power in Baghdad (Steams & Langer, 113). Although the Umayyads, Caliphates, and jihadis share Islamic ideologies, history revealed huge differences among these communities attributing to various interpretations of Quranic teachings. Enormous political and military oppositions emerged during the Islamicate period. The Umayyads were strongly united only until death of Uthman. Post this, intra-Muslim war broke out and continued up to a century. This war marked the beginning of Umayyads and Abbasids as two separate groups, and the Abbasids expanded vastly and for a very long period (Pipes, 67). Although the Abbasids raged war against non cooperative groups, their intention remained to create an atmosphere of peace through Islam. They invited and supported non-Muslim conversion to Islam to a great extent along with a commitment to provide security to all the Muslims. This security and noble causes helped the Abbasids expand their territory and flourish for many centuries. Therefore, the role of Abbasids in expanding Dar-al-Islam was greater than the Umayyads. The Ottoman Empire is considered as one of the largest and most influential Muslim empires of the later medieval ages. These invasions influenced trade, culture, politics and lifestyle