Islamic World: Notable Places

Mecca (All Facts)

• Birthplace of Mohammed and Islam

• Center of pilgrimage

  • It is here that Arabs came to venerate the temple of the Kaaba, a black meteoric stone central to their polytheistic religion, of which the Quraysh were guardians

• Prosperous oasis town

• City in which Mohammed preached

• Remote but important trading and cultural center where the Quraysh tribe of the Bedouin peoples in Arabia became prosperous as entrepreneurs

  • The Quraysh there sent caravans to Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Yemen

Medina (All Facts)

• Birthplace of the first Muslim community

• City to which Mohammed fled from Mecca

• City which eventually accepted Mohammed’s authority as a preacher

Damascus (All Facts)

Basra (All Facts)

Kufa (All Facts)

Harran (All Facts)

Kabul (All Facts)

• City that represented the easternmost point of the Islamic Empire during the reign of Muawiya of the Umayyad Caliphate, it was located in Afghanistan

Kairouan (All Facts)

• City that represented the westernmost point of the Islamic Empire during the reign of Muawiya of the Umayyad Caliphate, it was located in Tunisia

• Capital of the Aghlabid Dynasty Tunisia

Kandahar (All Facts)

Khorasan (All Facts)

• Rich northeastern province of Persia during the Abbasid Caliphate

Zanj (All Facts)

• Term used by medieval Muslim geographers to refer to both a certain portion of Southeast Africa (primarily the Swahili Coast) and to its Bantu inhabitants

  • Term that was also used to refer to Africans collectively by Arab sources

• From 730 to 750, Arabs and Persians took control of coastal trade along the namesake Swahili coast

Baghdad (All Facts)

• Capital of the Abbasid Caliphate

• Established by Al-Mansur, who had a formal and ceremonial round city built for his court and army with four vast gates and a mosque and palace in its center

• Located on the banks of the Tigris River, close enough to the Euphrates River for canals to link the two rivers and a pass leads through the Zagros mountains to the Persian plateau and beyond

• Although an Arab city, it was heavily influenced by Persian culture and political ideas

Madmat az Zahra (All Facts)

• Second capital of the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba

Cairo (All Facts)

• Capital of the Fatimid Caliphate by the reign of Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah

• Established for two reasons:

  • To sever the local Sunni Muslim population from their links with the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad

  • To create a center of Shia Muslim learning and education comparable to those in Baghdad

• Before work on the city was started, an astrologer was consulted

  • Stakes were driven into the ground with ropes strung between them to which bells were attached

  • Work would start only when the bells rang; where a crow landed on a rope, bels rang, and work began on building the namesake city

  • However, the astrologer’s forecast of date and time were wrong

Baghdad Academy of Science (All Facts)

• Replaced Jundishapur in Persia as the center of scientific learning in the Islamic World by the year 800

Cordoba (All Facts)

• Capital of the namesake Umayyad Emirate / Caliphate of Al-Andalus

• By the reign of Al-Mansur

  • It became a booming city with 500K inhabitants, the largest in western Europe at the time

  • Its craftsmen were renowned for their work in producing exquisite goods and specializing in textiles, leather, and ivory

  • Its streets were clean and safe

  • It had many mosques and public baths

Ghazni (All Facts)

• Capital of the Ghaznavid Empire

Valencia (All Facts)

Marrakesh (All Facts)

• Capital of the Almoravid Empire / Dynasty

Seville (All Facts)

• The last great city in Spain under Islamic rule

• It fell to King Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon and his forces