The Global Tapestry (1200-1450) period also finds the Islamic world in the midst of a massive transition. The glory days of the Caliphates are behind us now and the once great Abbasids have fractured into many different groups (often dominated by the new, rising force in Islam: The Turks). Dar al-Islam literally means ‘House of Islam’, or basically the parts of the world where Islam is a dominant force. The New Kids on the Block are the Ottomans (who will dominate the next two periods in World History), the Seljuk Turks and the Mamluks. Like most of earth in this period, Dar al-Islam had to deal with the Mongols. The Mongols were seen, at the time, as the end of the Islamic World. This led to the Ilkhanate that only lasted for a century or so. In the next period, this area will be the realm of the Land Based Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. With all of the political disarray, the Islamic World continued to be at the forefront of science, technology, and culture.

1. The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, 820 CE, (translated into Latin in 1145), al-Khwarizmi (ABBASID CALIPHATE, Baghdad)
2. The Canon of Medicine, 1025 CE, Ibn Sina or Avicenna, (PERSIA/IRAN)
3. The Book of Pleasant Journeys into Faraway Lands, 1154 CE, al-Idrisi, (SICILY)
4. A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling, 1355 CE, Ibn Battuta (MOROCCO)
5. Introduction or Muqaddimah, 1377 CE, Ibn Khaldun (CAIRO, MAMLUK SULTANATE)

1. ALHAMBRA, Emirate of Granada, 1355 CE

2. Seljuk Rug, Konya, Anatolia, c. 1300

3. Compendium of Chronicles, (the largest surviving body of Persian miniatures) Ilkhanate, 1305

4. Jameh Mosque of Yazd, (example of Islamic Geometric designs) Buyid Dynasty (between Abbasids and Seljuks) Iran, 1365 CE

5. Khanqah of Sultan Barquq (interior of the massive dome), Mamluk Dynasty, Cairo, (1411)

1. The Golden Age of the Islamic Caliphates is over by 1200. The Islamic world has fractured into smaller sultanates/dynasties by 1200.
2. The Islamic World is one of the MOST affected by the arrival of the Mongols and the creation of the Ilkhanate.
3. Stop thinking of Mecca or Medina or Baghdad as the center of Islamic influence. From here on, it will be Cairo (and in 1453), Istanbul.
4. If the Mongols are the muscle of this period, the Muslims and Chinese share the “brains” title. Although politically fractured; culturally, scientifically, medically, philosophically, and in the fields of poetry and literature; the Islamic World remains the center of Earth’s innovation from 1200-1450.
5. By 1450, the Islamic World has reached its geographic peak by 1450. With a few exceptions (Constantinople), the extent to which the Islamic World will expand after this period is minimal. In the next period, expansion is dominated by the Europeans.