World History



World History

Chapter 6 – The World of Islam

Chapter 6 – Section 1 – The Rise of Islam

The Arabs

• Nomads who lived in the Arabian Peninsula as farmers & sheepherders and constantly moved to find water and food for their animals

• It was a harsh environment and they organized into tribes to help one another

• The tribes were ruled by a sheikh (chosen from one of the leading families by a council of elders)

• After the camel was domesticated, they populated more of the desert, expanded the caravan trade into these regions, and became the major carriers of goods between the Indian Ocean & the Mediterranean

• Most early Arabs were polytheistic

• They trace their ancestors to Abraham & his son Ishmael who are believed to have built a Kaaba (house of worship whose cornerstone was a sacred stone called a Black Stone) at Makkah

• Recognized a supreme god that they called Allah

The Life of Muhammad

• Muhammad was born in Makkah to a merchant family & became an orphan at the age of five – grew up to be a caravan manager and married a wealthy widow named Khadija (who was also his employer)

• Muhammad became troubled by the gap between the honesty & generosity of most Makkans and the greediness of rich traders in the city – he began to visit the hills to meditate

• Muslims believe that during these visits, Muhammad received revelations from God – the messages were given by the angel Gabriel who told Muhammad to recite what he heard

• Muhammad believed that Allah had revealed himself partly through Moses and Jesus, but the final revelations of God were given to him

• These revelations were eventually written down in a book called the Quran – the holy book of Islam (Islam means “peace through submission to the will of Allah”)

• The Quran contains the ethical guidelines & laws by which the followers of Allah are to live

• Islam has only one God – Allah and Muhammad is God’s prophet

• After receiving the revelations, his wife Khadija urged him to follow Gabriel’s message and became the first follower of Islam

• The People of Makkah were surprised at his claims to be a prophet & the wealthy feared that his attacks on the corrupt society would upset the social order – after three years of preaching, he had only 30 followers

• Muhammad became discouraged and he and some of his closest followers left Makkah and moved to Yathrib (later renamed Medina, meaning “city of the prophet”) –

• The journey from Makkah to Medina is known as the Hijrah – the year in which this occurred (AD 622) became year 1 in the official calendar of Islam

• Muhammad began to win support from people in Medina and Arabs in the desert known as Bedouins & formed the first community of practicing Muslims

• Muslims saw no separation between political & religious authority – submission to the will of Allah meant submission to his prophet Muhammad

• Muhammad became the religious and political leader & put together a military force to defend himself and his followers – his military victories began to attract a large number of supporters

• In 630 Muhammad & his men marched on Makkah & the city quickly surrendered and most converted to Islam

• Two years later Muhammad died

• All Muslims are encouraged to take a pilgrimage (known as the hajj) to Makkah

The Teachings of Muhammad

• Islam is monotheistic like Christianity & Judaism

• Allah is the all-powerful being who created the universe & everything in it

• Islam emphasizes salvation & offers the hope of an afterlife – those who desire to achieve life after death must subject themselves to the will of Allah

• Islam does not consider Muhammad to be divine (like Christians believe Jesus to be) – he is a prophet much like Moses was, but just like any other man

• Islam is a direct and simple faith, stressing the need to obey the will of Allah, such as practicing the acts of worship known as the Five Pillars of Islam: Belief, Prayer, Charity, Fasting, Pilgrimage to Makkah

• Islam is not just a set of religious beliefs, but a way of life

• After Muhammad’s death, Muslim scholars developed a law code known as the shari’ah – provides believers with a set of practical laws to regulate all aspects of daily life including, family life, business practice, government, and moral conduct

Chapter 6 – Section 2 – The Arab Empire and Its Successors

Creation of the Arab Empire

• Muhammad was both the political & religious leader – his death caused a problem because he had never named a successor & he had no sons

• Some of his followers chose Abu Bakr (a wealthy merchant and Muhammad’s father-in-law) to be the caliph (successor to Muhammad)

• The Islamic movement grew under Abu Bakr’s leadership

• The Quran permitted fair, defensive war as jihad (“stuggle in the way of God)

• Muslim warriors were assured a place in Paradise if they died in battle – they defeated the Byzantine army & the Persian Empire

• After Abu Bakr, there was still no clear successor & several caliphs who ruled after his death were assassinated

The Umayyads

• In 661 the governor of Syria Mu’awiyah became caliph – he was noted for his outstanding virtue and said “I never use my sword when my whip will do, nor my whip when my tongue will do.”

• Mu’awiyah made the office of caliph (called the caliphate) hereditary in his own family – this established the Umayyad Dynasty

• He moved the capital of the Arab empire from Madinah to Damascus in Syria

• The Arab armies conquered and converted the Berbers – a pastoral people living in northern Africa

• Around 710, the combined forces of Berber and Arab forces crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and occupied southern Spain – most of Spain became a Muslim state, but Arab forces were later defeated in Gaul (now France) and the expansion into Europe was stopped

• Internal struggles threatened the stability of the Umayyad empire

• The Persians & Byzantine’s did not like the way local administrators favored the Arabs – Hussein (the second son of Ali who was the son-in-law of Muhammad) led a revolt

• This revolt caused Islam to split into two groups – the Shiite and the Sunni

• The Shiite Muslims accept only the descendants of Ali as the true rulers – most of the people in today’s Iraq & Iran are Shiite

• The Sunni Muslims did not agree with the Umayyad rule, but accepted them as leaders – the majority of today’s Muslim world are Sunni

The Abbasid Dynasty

• Resentment grew against the Umayyads because of the favoritism to the Arabs & in 750 a descendant of Muhammad’s uncle overthrew them and set up the Abbasid dynasty

• They built a new capital city at Bagdad

• The best known caliph at this time was Harun al-Rashid – he was known for his charity

• Under this dynasty, the caliph began acting in a more noble fashion & the bureaucracy assisting the caliph in administering the empire grew more complex

• A council headed by a prime minister (known as a vizier) advised the caliph

• After the death of Harun al-Rashid, his two sons fought to succeed him and almost destoyed the city of Bagdad

• Various rulers broke off and formed their own empires & the Muslim Empire became politically divided

The Selijuk Turks

• The Fatimid dynasty was established in Egypt with its capital city at Cairo

• They created a strong army by hiring non-native soldiers to fight for them – one of these groups was the Selijuk Turks

• The Selijuk Turks converted to Islam and prospered as soldiers – they soon grew stronger, captured Bagdad and took command of the empire

• The title of the Turkish leader was sultan meaning “holder of power”

• The Turks put pressure on the Byzantine Empire who turned to the West for help

The Crusades

• The Byzantine emperor Alexius I asked the Christian states of Europe for help against the Turks – because the Christians & Muslims feared and disliked each other, many Europeans agreed

• At first Muslims were put on the defensive by the invading crusaders, but a new Muslim ruler, Saladin, took control of Egypt, made himself sultan, and took the offensive against the Christian states and destroyed their forces

• The crusades had little lasting imapct on Southwest Asia other than to breed centuries of mistrust between Muslims & Christians

The Mongols

• The Mongols were a pastoral people came out of the Gobi and invaded – their goal was to create such terror that people would not fight back – they burned cities to the ground, destroyed dams, and reduced farming villages to the point of mass starvation

• Over time they converted to Islam and began to marry the local people

Chapter 6 – Section 3 – Islamic Civilization

Prosperity in the Islamic World

• The period of the Arab Empire was a prosperous time and trade flourished

• While the Abbasids were in power, their capital city of Bagdad became known as the City of Peace

• With the Fatamids in Egypt, the focus of trade shifted to Cairo

• Another great trading city was Damascus

• Cordoba was the capital city of Umayyad Spain – it had a population of two hundred thousand and was Europe’s largest city after Constantinople

• Islamic cities had a distinct physical appearance – palaces for the caliphs and great mosques for worship

• The bazaar (covered market) was an important part of every Muslim city or town – goods & services from many areas were available there

Islam Society

• To be a Muslim is not to simply worship Allah, but to live one’s life according to Allah’s teachings as revealed in the Quran – questions concerning politics, economics, & social life are answered by following Islamic teachings

• According to Islam all people are equal in the eyes of Allah, but this was not the case in the Arab empire – there were well defined divisions in social classes

• The Quran granted women spiritual and social equality with men, yet men were still dominant in the Muslim society

• After the spread of Islam, older customs eroded away the rights enjoyed by early Muslim women – they became secluded in their homes and required to cover every part of their body when appearing in public

Chapter 6 – Section 4 – The Culture of Islam

Preservation of Knowledge

• The Arabs were aware of Greek philosophy & began translating works by Plato & Aristotle into Arabic – these translations were put into a library called the House of Wisdom in Bagdad

• It was through the Muslim world that Europeans recovered the works of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers – the Arabic translations were translated into Latin which made them available to the West

Philosophy, Science, and History

• Ibn-Rushd – Arabic philosopher who lived in Cordoba and wrote commentaries on almost all of Aristotles surviving works

• The Muslims adopted & passed on the numerical system of India – including the use of the zero

• A ninth century Arab mathematician gave shape to the mathematical discipline of algebra

• They were aware the earth was round and perfected the astrolabe – an instrument used by sailors to determine their location by observing the positions of stars and planets

• Ibn Sina – philosopher and scientist who wrote a medical encyclopedia that stressed the contagious nature among certain diseases – after being translated into Latin, it became a basic medical textbook for university students in medieval Europe

• Ibn-Khaldun – Muslim historian who wrote Muqaddimah (Introduction to History)

Literature

• Omar Khayyam – poet, astronomer, and mathematician – most famous for his literary works, especially Rubaiyat & The 1001 Nights (The Arabian Nights) – he composed his poems orally and they were later written down by friends or scribes

Art and Architecture

• The Great Mosque of Samarra in present day Iraq was the world’s largest mosque at the time it was built – the most famous section of it is its minaret (the tower from which the muezzin, or crier, calls the faithful to prayer five times a day

• Beginning in the eighth century, Islamic rulers constructed large, brick palaces with protective walls and gates – the finest example of an Islamic palace is the Alhambra in Granada, Spain

• No representations of the prophet Muhammad ever adorns a mosque in a painting or any other form because the Hadith (an early collection of the prophet’s sayings) warns against any attempt to imitate God by creating pictures of living beings – as a result, there are no representations of figures in Islamic religious art

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