Dar al Islam

Moving into the 6th century, the Classical Period had come to an official end. The grand and mighty empires of the world were decaying or already fallen, the wealth of knowledge accumulated during their histories at risk of bring forgotten. Some peoples migrated into new lands such as in Europe, others clung to past greatness like the Byzantine Empire, but it was in the Islamic Middle East, the Dar Al-Islam, that human civilization truly progressed in the Medieval Era.

Dar Al-Islam Definition

Dar Al-Islam refers to the historical realm of the Islamic Middle East, especially during the Medieval Era. But what does Dar Al-Islam mean? Where does the term come from?

Dar Al-Islam literally means "house of Islam" (or country of Islam, place of Islam, abode of Islam, etc.). Muhammed, the prophet and central figure of the Islamic religion, established both Islam and a momentous political movement based on Islam before his death in the 7th century CE. In the years after his death, judges and politicians developed methods of administering the Islamic Middle East; part of this was defining the world they lived in. The lands under sovereign Muslim rule: the Dar Al-Islam.

Fig. 1- Map of the Middle East. Source.

• Dar Al-Islam was a term used by Islamic scholars throughout history; it is not only a contemporary historical term used to define the Islamic Middle East. The term is also rather flexible, often used synonymously with the Islamic Golden Age or the Pax Islamica periods. It's an all encompassing term, used in history and modern-day studies, used to describe a place and a time that is the influence of Islam.

Outside of Dar Al-Islam

Complementary to the Dar Al-Islam were Dar Al-Sulh and Dar Al-Harb, terms used to describe the territories outside of Dar Al-Islam. These terms were implemented by Islamic Qadis in court under the various schools of traditional Islamic law.

Dar Al-Islam Environment

The Dar Al-Islam encompassed the Islamic Middle East, but it was not limited to the Middle East. Islam found a strong following among the Turks and Mongols of Eastern Asia and later in Northern India, all during the Medieval Era. From Europe to East Asia, the Dar Al-Islam knew many environments of the world.

Dar Al-Islam of the Middle East

Most exemplary of the states of Dar Al-Islam were the caliphates, powerful states often ruled by descendants of the Prophet Muhammed. The caliphates held vast territories across multiple continents, remarkably connecting the Medieval worlds of Europe, Africa, and Asia, but the centers of their power were always in the Middle East. Historically, the cities of Damascus and Baghdad have acted as epicenters of Islamic rule from the Middle East.

The third Islamic caliphate the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad (750-1258 CE) was ruled by the Abbasid Dynasty, descendants of Muhammed's bloodline. At its beginning, the Abbasid Caliphate oversaw an extensive centralized state in the Middle East and North Africa, but its dominion fractured as new Islamic states rose (all still within the ever-changing Dar Al-Islam). The Dar Al-Islam of the Middle East was characterized by its extensive trade networks and quickly growing cities in seemingly barren deserts.

Dar Al-Islam Outside the Middle East

As previously stated, Dar Al-Islam expanded well beyond the Middle East. By the 12th and 13th centuries, Islam had heavily influenced the steppe tribes of Central Asia, particularly the Mongols of the Mongol Empire. Even though the Mongols invaded Dar Al-Islam (often siding with Christians against cities in the Middle East), three of the four Khanates that derived from the original Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan officially converted to Islam. The bearers of the Islamic religion changed with time, but the religion remained.

Fig. 2- Map of An-Andalus on the Iberian Peninsula.

Across the Mediterranean Sea, the Iberian Peninsula hosted the western vestiges of the fallen Umayyad Caliphate: Al-Andalus (called the Emirate of Córdoba from 750 to 929 and the Caliphate of Córdoba from 929 to 1031 CE). Even after the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate, the Islamic states of Al-Andalus persisted, often warring with the northern Iberian Catholic Kingdoms during the Reconquista until 1492, when the Catholics conquered all the peninsula.

Dar Al-Islam Economy

As the influence of Dar Al-Islam waxed and waned over the Medieval Era, one factor remained constant: a wealth of goods flowed in the hands of Islamic traders. Whether by sailing in the Mediterranean or Indian Oceans, or in travelling by camelback across thousands of miles of desert, the Dar Al-Islam was the central junction between east and west for all the Medieval Era. But for as wealthy as the caliphates and sultanates were, their expenditures were equally impressive. Wars and political initiatives required taxation.

The jizya tax was a popular method of raising funds. From Zoroastrians to Christians, all dhimmis were required to pay a special, religiously influenced tax in exchange for protection by the Islamic states of Dar Al-Islam.

Dar Al-Islam House of Wisdom

Within Baghdad, the second and most notable capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, was one of the most famous libraries in world history. The Grand Library of Baghdad, or House of Wisdom, was perhaps the largest learning center of its time. The scholars of the House of Wisdom spent generations collecting and building upon the written texts of the classical and ancient worlds, producing the most fantastic technological, mathematical, scientific, and astronomical innovations of the Medieval Era.

Fig. 3- Art depicting an Islamic library.

The House of Wisdom was the embodiment of the Islamic Golden Age, a period of great cultural and scientific progress not only for Dar Al-Islam but the Medieval world. Unfortunately, Baghdad was besieged in 1258 but Hulagu Khan of the Ilkhanate, a powerful Mongol warlord with hundreds of thousands at his command. The haughty sultan of Baghdad was forced to watch as his city, including the House of Wisdom, were tragically obliterated by the Mongol hordes.

Spread of Dar Al-Islam

Dar Al-Islam spread, and it changed as it across both time and land. The Islamic states receded from the Iberian Peninsula and fought costly battles against the Crusaders and Mongols, but its influence continued into India and Central Asia, its homeland still in the Middle East. The dominant Islamic caliphates of the Medieval Era began to decline, replaced by new sultanates and empires, as seen with the Seljuk Turks, Mamluks, and soon the Ottoman Turks.

The disparate states within Dar Al-Islam often warred with each other as much as they warred with the lands of Dar Al-Harb, and worldly dominance soon shifted to Western Europe during the Early Modern and Modern Periods. But history still tells of an Islamic Golden Age where Dar Al-Islam nearly extended from the western to eastern shores of Eurasia, and when great cities produced innovations that changed world history forever.