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Visual History of the World
(CONTENTS)
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The Middle Ages
5th - 15th century
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The upheaval that
accompanied the migration of European peoples of late antiquity
shattered the power of the Roman Empire and consequently the entire
political order of Europe. Although Germanic kingdoms replaced Rome,
the culture of late antiquity, especially Christianity, continued to
have an effect and defined the early Middle Ages. Concurrent to the
developments in the Christian West, in Arabia the Prophet Muhammad
in the seventh century founded Islam, a new religion with immense
political and military effectiveness. Within a very short time,
great Islamic empires developed from the Iberian Peninsula and the
Maghreb to India and Central Asia, with centers such as Cordoba,
Cairo, Baghdad, and Samarkand.
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The Cathedral Notre Dame de Reims, built in the 1 3th—14th century
in the Gothic style; the cathedral served for many centuries as the
location for the ceremonial coronation of the French king.
The Cathedral of Reims, by Domenico Quaglio
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For centuries the north of India had experienced periodic Arab
invasions and settlement. The arrival of Turkic Muslim invaders from
central Asia after 1000 had a more lasting impact, not least through
settlement. The Hindu kingdoms of north India were subjugated and by
1206 Delhi and the Ganges valley too. Only the South remained
unaffected. Although the destruction of Hindu temples indicates
persecution, a pattern of co-existence quickly emerged. Ultimately
Indian culture proved adept at assimilating the new influences. The
Muslim sultans were successful as military rulers but were displaced by
the Moguls after 1500.
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The Hindu Empires in India
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While northern India fell under the rule of the Muslim sultans,
Hindu princes held onto power in most of central and southern India. The
Vijayanagar Empire was the last significant Hindu state.
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Distinctly Hindu or Dravidian dynasties reigned in central and
southern India after 550.
One of these was the 2,
3 Calukya dynasty that
ruled in Bidjapur
between 543 and 757 and subjugated a significant part of southern India
between 609 and 642.
A second 5 Calukya dynasty ruled between 975 and
1189.
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2 Shiva, "king of the dance", with 18
arms, sculpture from the western
Calukya dynasty, sixth century
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3 Vishnu, sculpture from
the Calukyan period
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5 Female dancer, sculpture,
late western Calukya dynasty, twelfth ñ
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see also
collection:
The Love Temples of Khajuraho
text
"Kama Sutra"
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They became involved in power struggles with the most important
southern Indian dynasty, the 1,
6 Pallava of Kanchi, who had spread out
in the seventh century into Deccan and the southern tip of India.
They
were supplanted by the dynasty of the Colas (888-1267), who enlarged
their east coast kingdom northward. UnderRajarajal (the Great), they
rose to become the leading power in South India around 1000. They were
also a naval power, their fleet sailing in 1001 to Ceylon and in 1014
occupying the Maldives.
The Hindu rulers of central India, including the Pala kings of Bengal
(750-1199) or the Kanauj kings (840-1197), were eventually defeated by
the advancing Muslim armies.
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1 The Rajasimhesvara temple in Mahabalipuram,
south India, built ca.
690-715 under the Pallava dynasty
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6 Buddha Maitreya, gold-plated bronze sculpture,
seventh-ninth century
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The last great Hindu kingdom, 7 Vijayanagar
(City of Victory), was founded in 1336.
Its capital, 4,
8 Hampi, was
originally built on the site of a temple.
It subsequently grew to become
the preeminent kingdom
in southern India. The flourishing city, with its magnificent temples
and palaces, became a center of Indian literature and science. The kings
of Vijayanagar regarded the Tungabadhra and Kistna rivers as the
southern boundary of Islam and in 1380 compiled a col-lec-tion of all
the Brahman teachings, the Sarvadarshana Sangraha. While they
successfully held off the invaders for some time, the last ruler,
Ramaraja, fell in 1565 at Talikota in battle against the Muslim sultan
Ahmadnagar. Thereafter, only a small Hindu kingdom survived in Madurai.
This was in turn annexed in 1684 by the Grand Mogul Aurangzeb.
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7 Vijayanagar-style ceiling fresco,
in the Virabhadra temple in Lepakshi,
16th ñ
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4 Vithala Temple in Hampi,
capital of the Vijayanagar kings,
16th
century
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8 Narashima, the fourth incarnation
of Vishnu, sculpture in Hampi
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The Sultans of Delhi
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In the wake of the Ghaznavids and Ghurids, military dynasties of
Turkish origin increased the spread of Islam in India. They came to an
end with the Lodi rulers, who were defeated by the Moguls.
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Ever since the first Muslim armies had advanced into Pakistan and
India around 700, India had been coveted by Islamic rulers. Mahmud of Ghazna's campaigns of conquest after 1001 put great pressure on
the Hindus, whose polytheism the strict Muslims vehemently rejected.
The Ghaznavids dominated the north of India at the beginning of the 12th
century, but in 1187 they were displaced by the powerful Afghan
9 Ghurids in Lahore, who had already subjugated Multan in 1175.
In 1193
Sultan Muizz ad-Din occupied Delhi and expanded his realm to Gujarat in
the south and Bengal in the east.
The driving force behind these
conquests was the Turkish general Qutb-ud-Din
10, 11 Aybak, who had ended
the rule of the Buddhist princes in 1194 with the capture of Bihar, and
pushed the Hindus to the south.
He felt strong enough in 1206 to depose
the Ghurid sultan and founded the "Slave King" sultanate of Delhi. His
successor, Iltutmish (ruled 1211-1236) conquered Sind and made Delhi an
independent Islamic kingdom. In 1290, the House of Aybak was overthrown
by the Khalji dynasty, which was also Turkish. They fended off the
Mongols, conquered all of Deccan (central India), and advanced to
Madurai in southern India. The sultanate divided the country into fiefs
that were distributed to the Muslim nobility, each of whom was required
to provide and maintain troop contingents in case of war. The Khaljis
were later followed by the military dynasties of the Tughluqs
(1320-1414) and Sayyids (1414-1451), under whom the state administration
was Islamized. After 1388, many regions became increasingly independent
from the government in Delhi and formed their own sultanates, including
Bengal, Deccan, Gujarat, Jaunpur, and Malwa. In 1398-1399, Tamerlane
invaded India and temporarily occupied Delhi.
After this shattering defeat, effective central authority re-emerged
only under the Afghan Lodi dynasty which ruled from 1451 to 1526.
Sikandar Lodi again extended the kingdom from the Indus to Bengal in the
east. The last Lodi ruler, Ibrahim, fell in battle in 1526 at Panipat
against the Mogul leader Babur, who had been summoned by Ibrahim's own
emirs to depose him. Babur was then able to take possession of Agra.
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9 Adhaidinkajonpara mosque in Ajmer. The original
Jaina school was
converted into a mosque after its
capture by the Ghurids in 1198
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10 The Qutb Minar, "tower of victory," built
under Qutb ad-Din Aybak
from 1199 on.
In front and to the left is the mosque
Quwwat al-lslam,
the oldest Muslim
building in Delhi.
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11 Detail from outer wall of the Qutb Minar
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Delhi
After Delhi became the capital of Islamic rule in India in
1193, various
"slave kings" erected enormous buildings, often using the remains of
destroyed Hindu temples.
In the sameyear Delhi was captured, work began
on the construction of the great Quwwat-ul-Islam ("Power of Islam")
mosque.
In 1236 the magnificent sepulchre of Sultan Jitutmish was
integrated into it. Qutb-ud-Din Aybak began construction of the Qutb
Minar ( "Tower of Victory") in 1192.
Detail from the Qutb Minar, near Delhi
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see also collection:
Indian Court Painting
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The Fourteen Auspicious Dreams of the Jina's Mother
1465
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Krishna Battles the Armies of the Demon Naraka
(Ancient stories of Lord Vishnu)
1520
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Nanda and Vasudeva
1520
see also
collection:
The Love Temples of Khajuraho
text
"Kama Sutra"
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