camps of their own, remaining separate from the indigenous populations. Some of
these camps were eventually abandoned, but others—such as those at Baghdad and
Cairo—became centers of new and thriving urban agglomerations.
Men and women who had been living along the Mediterranean—in Syria,
Palestine, North Africa, and Spain—went back to work and play much as they had
done before the invasions. Safe in Muslim-controlled Damascus, Saint John of
Damascus (d.749) thundered against iconoclasm: “I do not worship matter [i.e., the
paint and wood of an icon]; I worship the God of matter, who became matter for my
sake.”^11 He would never have been allowed to write such words within the Byzantine
Empire. Another Christian, al-Akhtal (c.640–710), found employment at the court of
Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik (r.685–705), where he poured forth verses of praise: “So let
him in his victory long delight! / He who wades into the deep of battle, auspicious his
augury, / The Caliph of God through whom men pray for rain.”^12
Maps of the Islamic conquest divide the world into Muslims and Christians. But
the “Islamic world” was only slightly Islamic; Muslims constituted a minority of the
population. Then, even as their religion came to predominate, they were themselves
absorbed, at least to some degree, into the cultures that they had conquered.
THE CULTURE OF THE UMAYYADS
Dissension, triumph, and disappointment accompanied the naming of Muhammad’s
successors. The caliphs were not chosen from the old tribal elites but rather from a
new inner circle of men close to Muhammad. The first two caliphs, Abu-Bakr and
Umar, ruled without serious opposition. They were the fathers of two of
Muhammad’s wives. But the third caliph, Uthman, husband of two of Muhammad’s
daughters and great-grandson of the Quraysh leader Umayyah, aroused resentment.
(See Genealogy 2.1: Muhammad’s Relatives and Successors to 750.) His family had
come late to Islam, and some of its members had once even persecuted Muhammad.
The opponents of the Umayyads supported Ali, the husband of Muhammad’s
daughter Fatimah. After a group of discontented soldiers murdered Uthman, civil war
broke out between the Umayyads and Ali’s faction. It ended when Ali was killed in
661 by one of his own erstwhile supporters. Thereafter, the caliphate remained in
Umayyad hands until 750.
