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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology

 

 

Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]

• AKA Wars of Apostasy, although there is some debate on whether this was primarily a religious or political movement.

• Took place from 632-633 AD, immediately following the death of Muhammad

• Begun as campaign against the Arab rebel tribes who refused to pay taxes to the new Caliph Abu Bakr

• These wars were both religious and political in nature; through them, Abu Bakr's goal was to establish Islamic rule over all of Arabia

• In areas of insurrection, rebels rallied around other people who claimed to be prophets

• The campaign established the existence of a new "Muslim religious community"; In pre-islamic practice, after the death of a tribal leader, alliance with the leader's tribe was over. Bakr said that in contrast to pre-islamic times, tribal allegiance to the Muslim community had not ended at all.

• Major battles were in Nejd, Bahrain, Oman, Mahrah, Yemen, Hadramawt

• Led to the eventual Muslim expansion into the remnants of Sassanid Persian empire + the fringes of the Byzantine empire