Blog Archives

The economy of the Abbasid caliphate

10/2/2016

Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, sala 5.2 - 12 Fev. 2016, 18:00

Org.: Centro de História da Universidade de Lisboa

The question which lies behind this paper is to account for the apparent size and complexity of the economy of the Abbasid period, or, to put it another way, how Baghdad had a population of c.500,000 at a time when London may have had 10,000 and Paris 20,000. To answer this question I shall begin with the Arab-Muslim conquests of the Middle East and the setting up of an administrative structure which required the regular collection of taxes in coined money to pay a military elite. This in turn required a literate and numerate lay bureaucracy to run it. The result was the emergence of a class of consumers who had money to spend on consumer goods, fine textiles, luxury foods, imported ceramics and books etc. This rich and comparatively ordered society I have described as Islamic Late Antiquity. The existence of very large towns led to the expansion of agriculture in greater Mesopotamia as farmers and land owners increased the area under cultivation to take advantage of the demand for foodstuffs generated by this large population. In the final section I will discuss how this prosperous system came under increasing pressure as the agricultural infrastructure of Iraq decayed and an increasingly rapacious military, mostly made up of Turkish ghilmān demanded more and more of the resources of the community. By the 930s and 940s this led to the collapse of ordered government and the power of the Abbasid caliphate itself.

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The Caliphate an idea through history

10/2/2016

Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, sala 5.2 - 11 Fev. 2016, 18:00

Org.: Centro de História da Universidade de Lisboa

In a time when there is much discussion, and considerable anxiety about the concept of caliphate, I want to examine how caliphate has been understood by Muslims in the past and present. In the first part of the talk I shall discuss the origins of the institution in the years immediately following the death of Muhammad in 632. In looking at the reigns of Abu Bakr (632-4), Umar (634-44), Uthman (644-56) and Ali (656-61), the so-called orthodox caliphs, we can see how different ideas of the office emerged in particular the idea of shura as a way of choosing the caliph and the role of the Family of the Prophet, and the tribe of Quraysh more generally. I will also look at the difference between the ideas of khalifat Allah and khalifat rasul Allah and how these differences shape our understanding of the office. Finally in this section I will discuss the theories of the Kharijites and the challenge they posed to other groups. In the second part of the talk, I will move on to looking at the Umayyad caliphate of Damascus (661-750) and the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad (750-1258) examining the bases of their legitimacy and how they exercised power. I will also consider the crisis of the caliphate in the tenth and eleventh centuries when the office effectively lost its power and the attempts of thinkers like Mawardi (d.1058), Juwayni (d.1085) and Ghazali (d.1111) to provide a new theory of the office. Consideration will also be given to Shi’ite views of the caliphate, both the ideas of the Twelver Shi’is and the Ismaili Fatimids (caliphs in Cairo 969-1071). The final section will trace the Caliphate in the Ottoman world down to its abolition in 1924 and subsequent attempts to revive it, notably in the opinions of Hizb al-Tahrir and the so-called Islamic state.

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A colecção egípcia da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa: Contexto arqueológico, simbólico e social

4/2/2016

Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa - 5 de Fevereiro, 17h30

Org.: Centro de História da Universidade de Lisboa - Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa

Cartaz / programa

Call for Papers: O Marfim na História Moderna

1/2/2016

Prazo para apresentação de candidaturas: 29 de Fevereiro de 2016

Org: Departamentos de História/FAFICH, de Artes Plásticas da Escola de Belas Artes - CEA da UFMG
Coord: Vanicleia S. Santos e José da Silva Horta
Âmbito; Projeto “A produção, circulação e utilização de marfins africanos no espaço atlântico entre os séculos XV e XIX” e projecto internacional “African Ivories in the Atlantic World: a Reassement of Luso-African Ivories”, sedeado no Centro de História da Universidade de Lisboa.

A proposta do Seminário “O Marfim na História Moderna: comércio, fé, status social e colecionismo” é reunir pesquisadores e estudantes de graduação e pós-graduação que tratam de temas como a produção, circulação e utilização dos marfins durante o período Moderno no espaço atlântico, onde ocorreram diversas transformações políticas, econômicas, sociais, e intercâmbios culturais que marcaram as relações entre Portugal, África e América Portuguesa.
O evento acadêmico deve evidenciar as formas sociais de circulação e os usos simbólicos dos marfins e outros objetos de arte, assim como de pessoas e de ideias, no que tange aos aspectos relativos à História, História da Arte e Cultura Material.