The Sunni Revival was a period in

Islamic history The history of Islam is believed, by most historians, to have originated with Muhammad's mission in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE, although Muslims regard this time as a return to the original faith passed down by the Abra ...

marked by the revival of the political fortunes of

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

, a renewed interest in Sunni law and theology and the spread of new styles in art and architecture. Conventionally, the revival lasted from 1055 until 1258.

Richard Bulliet Richard W. Bulliet (born 1940) is a professor emeritus of Middle Eastern history at Columbia University who specializes in the history of Islamic society and institutions, the history of technology, and the history of the role of animals in huma ...

has proposed that the term "recentering" better describes the period than "revival" or "renaissance". The period is characterized as much by developments within Sunnism as by Sunni relations with

Shia Islam Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...

. In particular, it was a period of homogenization of Sunnism as scholars and leaders strove for '' ijmāʿ'' (consensus). Eric Chaney has argued that the Sunni Revival led to the decline of scientific output in the Islamic world.

Timing

The Sunni Revival followed a period of Shia ascendancy, sometimes called the " Shia Century", under the

Fatimid dynasty The Fatimid dynasty () was an Arab dynasty that ruled the Fatimid Caliphate, between 909 and 1171 CE. Descended from Fatima and Ali, and adhering to Isma'ili Shi'ism, they held the Isma'ili imamate, and were regarded as the rightful leaders o ...

in Africa, Palestine and parts of Arabia; the

Hamdanid dynasty The Hamdanid dynasty () was a Shia Muslim Arab dynasty that ruled modern day Northern Mesopotamia and Syria (890–1004). They descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib tribe of Mesopotamia and Arabia. History Origin The Hamdanids hailed ...

in Syria; and the

Buyid dynasty The Buyid dynasty or Buyid Empire was a Zaydi and later Twelver Shi'a dynasty of Daylamite origin. Founded by Imad al-Dawla, they mainly ruled over central and southern Iran and Iraq from 934 to 1062. Coupled with the rise of other Iranian dyn ...

in Iraq and Iran. During this period, Shia polities controlled most of the Islamic world, including its core areas. The

Abbasid Caliph The Abbasid caliphs were the holders of the Islamic title of caliph who were members of the Abbasid dynasty, a branch of the Quraysh tribe descended from the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib. The family came ...

, the supreme Sunni leader, was under the control of the Buyids, who governed Baghdad, while the

Sharif of Mecca The Sharif of Mecca () was the title of the leader of the Sharifate of Mecca, traditional steward of the Holiest sites in Islam, Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The term ''sharif'' is Arabic for "noble", "highborn", and is used to desc ...

was under the authority of the Fatimids. The religious revival began under the Abbasid caliph

al-Qadir Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Ishaq (; 28 September 947 – 29 November 1031), better known by his regnal name al-Qadir (, , ), was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 991 to 1031. Born as an Abbasid prince outside the main line of succession, al-Qad ...

(). Although subject to the Buyids and politically powerless, he managed to steer an increasingly independent course in religious issues. Backed by the

Hanbali The Hanbali school or Hanbalism is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence, belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It is named after and based on the teachings of the 9th-century scholar, jurist and tradit ...

traditionalists, al-Qadir transformed the caliphate into the champion of Sunnism, condemning Shia and rationalist ( Mu'tazilite) beliefs with which previous Abbasid caliphs had partially sympathized. The so-called "Qadiri Creed", formulated in 1018, was the first articulation of Sunni beliefs in their own right, rather than defined in opposition to the Shia. The Sunni Revival became a political movement when the Sunni

Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; , ''Saljuqian'',) alternatively spelled as Saljuqids or Seljuk Turks, was an Oghuz Turks, Oghuz Turkic, Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually became Persianate society, Persianate and contributed to Turco-Persi ...

conquered Baghdad from the Buyids in 1055, saving Caliph al-Qa'im from being overthrown by the Shia. The period of Seljuk domination lasted roughly a century, until about 1150. They were definitively ousted from Baghdad in 1157. Thereafter a period of Abbasid resurgence and ecumenism followed until the

Mongols Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...

sacked Baghdad in 1258.

Spread

The chief architect of the political and legal Sunni revival was

Nizam al-Mulk Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī Ṭūsī () (1018 – 1092), better known by his honorific title of Niẓām al-Mulk (), was a Persian Sunni scholar, jurist, political philosopher and vizier of the Seljuk Empire. Rising from a low position w ...

(d. 1092),

vizier A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...

of the Seljuk Empire. He founded the school which took his name, the Nizamiyya of Baghdad. The chief architect of the theological revival,

al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111), archaically Latinized as Algazelus, was a Shafi'i Sunni Muslim scholar and polymath. He is known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, the ...

(d. 1111), taught at Nizam's school in Baghdad. This was not the first ''

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

'', but it was by far the most influential and '' nizamiyya'' fashioned after that in Baghdad were founded wherever the Sunni revival spread. They were a major factor in the homogenization of Sunnism during the revival. The figure most associated with the Sunni Revival in Syria is Nur ad-Din (d. 1174), who built twenty ''madrasas'' in Damascus. In 1171,

Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...

, originally a general of Nur ad-Din, abolished the Fatimid Caliphate and brought Egypt into the Sunni fold. His

Ayyubid dynasty The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egyp ...

vigorously strengthened Sunnism in Syria, Palestine and Egypt.

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Timing

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Further reading