Topic 1.2 - Developments in Dar-al Islam

Muhammad

the Arab prophet who founded Islam (570-632)

Abbasid Caliphate

third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire. The rulers who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs. In started in 750 CE. It flourished for two centuries, but slowly went into decline with the rise to power of the Turkish army it had created, the Mamluks. In the 13th century the Mongols displaced them.

Caliphs

Islamic leaders regarded as successors of Muhammad for Sunni Muslims

Sharia Law

the code of law derived from the Koran and from the teachings and example of Mohammed

Jizya

tax paid by Christians and Jews who lived in Muslim communities to allow them to continue to practice their own religion

Sunni

A branch of Islam whose members acknowledge the first four caliphs as the rightful successors of Muhammad

Sultans

Rulers of Muslim states

Mamluks

Under the Islamic system of military slavery, Turkic military slaves who formed an important part of the armed forces of the Abbasid Caliphate of the ninth and tenth centuries. Mamluks eventually founded their own state, ruling Egypt and Syria (1250-1517)

Dehli Sultanate

Centralized Indian empire of varying extent, created by Muslim invaders.

Universalizing Religion

A religion that attempts to appeal to all people, not just those living in a particular location.

Diasporic communities

immigrants who have relocated from their ancestral homelands and retain their distinct cultural identities as ethnic minority groups in their new host countries

Sufis

mystical Muslim group that believed they could draw closer to God through prayer, fasting, & simple life

Nasir al-Din Tusi

(1201-1274) Persian mathematician and cosmologist whose academy near Tabriz provided the model for the movement of the planets that helped to inspire the Copernican model of the solar system.

Aishah al-Ba'uniyyah

Sufi mystic poet from Damascus, Syria.She "probably composed more works in Arabic than any other woman prior to the twentieth century."Her poems reflect a contrast with most Muslim writing as it emphasized introspection to grasp understanding of God.

Ibn Rushd

Muslim philosopher who blended Aristotle and Plato's views with Islam

House of Wisdom

Combination library, academy, and translation center in Baghdad established in the

800s.Cordoba

capital of Muslim Spain, an economic center, hundreds of workshops, culture and learning flourished there