Mid East 207 Islam Quiz

640-1099 CE

Early Islam Period

1260 - 1917

Late Islam Period ending with the middle of World War 1

Who created Islam

Mohammad

When was he born

60 years before 640

What happened in 1917

The British conquered the region, putting an end to the Islamic rule

The last Muslim ruling power were the Ottoman dynasty from Turkey 

Muslims ruled for about 130 years with only one interruption which was the crusades 

The crusades only ruled our region for about 100 years, Christian power, but then Muslims conquered it back

Islam Originated location

Islam originated in the great Arabian desert/Arabian peninsula

making those people considered Arabs

Expansion

Muslims went throughout the world with armies in order to expand Islam

During this time the Byzantine empire (romans with Christianity) was split into w regions, however, the western point fell

Islam took down the Byzantine and the remains for the Persian empire through Mohammad’s victory. Mohammad died before he can see his first victory of Islam

In 100 years Islam conquered all of Persia and some of the Byzantine empire

Palestine was the first region they conquered, they conquered it first because it is the Bottleneck and geographic centrality. They had to conquer Palestine in order to travel to Greece and use their routes. 

Mohammad + Arabia

In Arabia is the fertile crescent, which is known for its great commercial path of the far east (silk, spices, porcelain (thin pottery)

Arabia developed a road called the caravan route, which went from Yemen all the way to parts of Israel

Tribes that lived in Arabia near the caravan sometimes didn’t let merchants just willingly pass through the caravan. they had to give up some good for the people

One town on the caravan was called Meccah

That is were Mohammad was born, so his family worked on the caravan town, merchant and helpers and suppliers

Arabia was not an easy place to live and never settled in one place

Arabia was built with a bunch of nomad tribes where these people went around Arabia to find place and tried to survive. There was little resources and space and Mohammad wanted to end this

He was exposed to Judaism and Christianity on the caravan

Later on, he started talking about revelations about a god and to share about this god which was Allah

He was the ultimate and final phase

He was the final prophet

Allah

The Arabic equivalent of Elohim in Hebrew which is the God of the Jews and Christianity

Mohammad’s revelations

His prophecies were written in the Quran, series of revelations and this new religion is being formed

Jihab

• Means sacred war in Arabic

• there was wars but never called a sacred war

• it was a war that was required by god to promote their religion

• tool to promote

• those who died in that war receive benefits from Allah

• Mohammad believed that this was a peaceful movement for promotion

• prompted by the harsh conditions of life that was present within the people living on the caravan

• Mohammad wanted to reduce violence against the tribes and harsh conditions 

• the men all knew how to fight (90%)

• According to Mohammad the Muslim religion prohibits Muslims to take life away from another Muslim

• The Jihad is a way to fight

• It was an outlet to channel the violence outside their religion for less violence inside

• an external war to reach internal peace

Caliphate

• Halif - the replacer of Mohammad 

• Many pf the tribes accepted Islam

• Once Mohammad dies this will replace him

• To continue the religion

• Only had 4 halif happened then civil war 

• Mohammad died in the 7th century, dead by 630 CE. 

• 634-1099 is early Islam 

Early Islam notes

• 634-1099 is early Islam 

• first date it is the death of Mohamad and the last is the arrival of the first crusade

The Early Victories

1. City of Meccah

• Where Mohammad was born

• forced out of Meccah and moved to Medinah

• First was with the persian empire with the Halif

• second was with the byzantine empire through the bottleneck

• Palestine was the first Islam conqiered in 634

• Happened in the northern part of the negev

• it was the enterance to the Byzantine world 

• Al Sham - the are to the left was what they called Palestine

• Arabs started traveling along the via maeis

• The byzantine leader sent soldiers, boats to the region because the Islamic army was coming to Israel 30,000 soldiers

• the muslims never went to Jerusalem

• in the quaran he never mentioned Jerusalem

• 634 started traveling on the via maris and a year later they conquered Demascus 

Battle of Yarmuk

• In 636 Islam chose this land to go against the Byzantine empire because it had lots of rivers and little land which is good place to fight against a large army

• decisive victory for the Muslims

Pact of Omar

• The second halif was called Omar

• He oversaw lots of the expansion of Islam

• He created this document

• entered the city of Jerusalem in 638 and wrote this document

• presents the idea on how to rule

• awareness of Omar that he needs the non Muslims in his conquered territories to keep Islam

• Document to embrace/protect all the minorities of the ancient time

• established Dihimmi = the dependent 

• protecting the minorities by Arab law

• in order to save their territories 

Internal conflicts

Shiah and Sunni - challenged moving soverignty along

• Ruling transfer through merrit

• Shiah= a party/faction

• Sunna = the way (the deeper path )

Two different versions of Islam

655-661- Civil war between these two groups

Sunnis won

In the wake of these wars, Islam is separated into dynasty

1. Umayyads 661-750 (Tremendous impact on Palestine

• Victorious

• friends of Muhamad

• from Saudi 

• The replaced by…

2. Abbasides 750-970

3. Fatimids 870-1099

• African

• Shiahs 

• center of Egypt 

• right before the crusades

Umayyads in Jerusalem

They thought they needed to change the center of their power (Meccah and Medinah)

They move their capital to Demascus

By doing this, they defined the sacred core of Islam

Jersualem was mostly Christians at this time

Umayyads launch a building project to…

1. Clean temple mount

2. Took the best architects and build it as a religious center to create somewhere closer to Meccah and Medinah

3. Artificial connection to the temple mount 

4. 3rd most important location of Islam 

5. They called Jerusalem al quds

How long did it take for the Umayyads to build the temple mount

It took 7 years to clean the temple after it being filled with garbage and then they were able to start building the temple, took 15 years to build it. It also costed a lot of money

Stone

• There is a stone inside the temple mount and it is where the second temple once stood

• for when Islam came to the region they build a temple on top of this stone, its the heart of their new religious project

• the dome of the rock/ Kubbat as Sakhra

Surra

Each unit of the Quran is called a Surra = Surrot for plural

114 surrot in the Quran

Each surra has an individual name

There is a surra about the nation of Israel

Has Mohammads night journey with Allahs instruction

took with his el boroque= flying horse and takes him to the edge

at the edge he meets all the great prophets of Judaism and Christianity 

then he starts climbing up the 7 skies and angels give him honor

he reached the top comes face to face with god

night journey si the most important story in the quran 

The Umayyads added one element to the story

they said that they know where the edge is and its at the Sakhra 

saying that Mohammad flown to the temple mount

the kabbat as Sakhra is not a mosque, it is a commemoration center

the building of the temple mount was 687 CE

the Umayyads did add a mosque to come to pray for the people coming in 

the mosque is called Al Aqsa which means the edge 

Developments in Palestine

Ramlah: city by the planes

sand in arabic

jews and arabs live ther

on the seashore planes

Ramalah: on the central hill

Arabism: the language arab will become

the most important language spoken in the Muslim territories

this influenced to be written in arabuc

major change in language

Isalmization: over 250 years more and more people converted to Islam 

not forced 

however given financial incentives so they would have less taxes

Demography: wars took a toll on the population

when the crusade came the population shrink by half