Islam meast quiz

The Great Arabian Desert

- Arabs rise out of this region, beginnings of Islam

- Arabian Peninsula is 98% desert

Byzantines

- Post Constantine, Christians, still Romans

- Roman empire splits and the Western Roman Empire falls and becomes independent kingdoms (Medieval Europe). This is the Eastern Roman Empire

Persians

- Iran, Cyrus is still seen as their hero from 530 BCE

- Zoroastrianism

Silk road

- Currents in the Red sea make it difficult to travel, so merchants must travel along the Caravan Route (caravanserai).

- The fertile crescent was the great commercial path from the far east to the Roman world, silk road (silks spices, porcelain).

- Almost 2000-mile-long stretch in Arabian Peninsula after ships land in the port of Aden in Yemen

- camels

- towns along this road supply the caravans (supply, security, homes)

- Mecca

Mohammed

- Mohammed born in Mecca to a merchant family in this industry

- He traveled with his brothers along the caravan route doing business

- wanted to deal with the fighting between these nomadic tribes in Arabia

- he met Jewish, Christian, and Persian traders

Mohammed Revelations

- Around the age of 30 (around 600) he begins talking about these Prophecies

- From God, to establish a new/the true religion in the name of this God in the desert

- Arab word- Elslam

- Submission to Allah- who is the God of Israel and the same God of Judaism and Christianity

- God told him to start the ultimate and final phase

Prophet

- Muhammed was not a Messiah

- recognized Jesus, Moses, and Abraham

- final and ultimate prophet according to Islam

Military expedition

- take down the Persians and Byzantines

- First took Palestine (location unknown) because of the bottleneck (Via Maris, expensive ports)

- Next was Syria and Turkey, North Africa, Strait of Gibraltar, Spain, and stopped at France by the Franks tribe (Europe stayed Christian)

- Took down Persians all the way to boarding China, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia

- The Muslim conquest in the 7th and 8th century CE are the greatest conquests the world has ever seen

Islam

The continuation of Judeo-Christianity

Quran

- Mohammad's prophecies written down

- a series of his revelations

- commentaries and additions come after

- debate if Muhammed wrote these, if scribes wrote these, or if they happened outside of his lifetime

first religion to have this idea of a sacred war

- Jihad

- conceived in the Quran

- required by God to promote this religion and people that die in this war in the name of Allah will receive special "benefits"

- Muhammed established this as a peaceful move for internal reasons

- channel violence outside of Arabian tribes to keep the peace inside (one of the modern explanations, Muhammed did not explicitly say this)

Main goal was to reduce violence in Arabia

- many of the men were warriors

- Islam prohibits bloodshed among Muslims

- Jihad is a way to channel this religious violence

Caliphates (Halif)

- "the replacer"

- the continuation of Muhammed after his death

- 4 total successions of califs

- 90-95% united

Early Islam (634-1099)

- the death of Muhammed through the first Crusades

- Caliphates and military expansions

Early military victories

- First victory in 634 in Roman Palestine in the Northern Negev

- Right after Muhammed dies

- Palestine of no value to Muhammed besides its significance as the entrance into the Byzantine world

Mecca

- the city Muhammed was born in

- pilgrimage

Medina

- the city Muhammed died in

The religious travel from Mecca to Medina

Hidra

"the area to the left"

- Al Sham

- Roman Palestine

- victory here against a small Byzantine army (they didn't know of rising Islam, and this wasn't the first time Arabic tribes infiltrated)

Arab Muslim's travels

- arrive in Al Sham from the Arabian Peninsula

- didn't return back to Arabia like other tribes before them

- began traveling along the Via Maris, through wealthy port cities

- got the attention of the Roman Emperor

Demascus

- One year after arriving in Al Sham, it falls (635) to the Muslims

- Junction at Via Maris and Kings highway

- Byzantine army on its way

The greatest military victory of early Islam

- Yarmuk

- 30-40,000 soldiers in the Arab army

- 60-70,000 soldiers in Byzantine

- chosen by Arab leaders because it is ideal place for strong tactile armies, but bad for large armies (many rivers)

- Southern Syria- Byzantine emperor would never hold Syria again

Struggle of the Arabs

- Arab leaders become rules of the Middle East very quickly and with no previous experience

- good fighters but no clue how to conduct rule

- 7-10 million people leaving in the Middle East

- no forced conversions

Omar (Second Caliphate)

- 637/638 (post battle of Yarmuk)

- Omar is staying in Jerusalem

- The Pact of Omar, which may be the most important document of the Middle Age

- Discusses the present challenges of how the Muslims will rule such a large area of many minorities groups

- empire grows tremendously

The Pact of Omar

- Awareness that Omar needs the non-Muslims in the conquered territories to sustain Islam

- embrace and protect the others

- Omar offers protection to the livelihood and possessions of all the minorities

- debates about Zoroastrianism (non-Abrahamic religions) and Persia

- Jizya tax

"dependent"

- Dhimmi

- the new legal category of the protected minority (non-Muslims) in the Arabic Empire

- Pact of Omar

- must pay a special tax, show submission to the Muslims, cannot hold swords, cannot ride horses, etc.

Internal Conflict

- the time of tranquility and peace of the Muslim empire breaking down

- Sunna and Shiah Muslims

- Civil war (655-661)

- same principles lead to confrontations between Iraq and Iran, Hamas and Hasbullah

Shiites

- Muhammed's daughter Fatime married her second cousin Ali

- decided the Caliphate should be transferred through blood (would benefit them)

- lost the Civil war

- mostly modern-day Iran

Sunnis

- friends/upper class of people challenged Fatime and Ali

- decided that the Caliphates ruling should be passed through merit

- won the Civil war

- mostly modern-day Iraq

Umayyads

- 661-750

- Sunnis

- Rise after the Civil war

Abbasids

- 750-870

- people from the North, took down Umayyads

Fatimids

- 870-1099

- Africans from Cairo

- Shiites

- Rule until Crusades

Umayyad Project in Jerusalem

- Muslim Empire wanted to move the center of Islam from Mecca/Medina (deep withing the Arabian desert) to a more convenient location (Damascus)

- by doing this, they detach themselves from the sacred core of Islam

- Jerusalem was very close to Damascus and open real estate at the Temple Mount (Christians had moved their center to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher)

Launched building project

1. clean the temple mount

2. hire the best architects to build a new religious center

- not to replace Mecca/Medina

- ancient poets and scholars create stories of ancient traditions that are shifted to the Temple Mount in order to give it significance

- incorporated Muhammed later on

- Sanctuary for Islam

Jerusalem

- El Quds

- Third most important place in the Muslim Empire

- significance was manufactured here for the third time, the third religion, in the same city

open real estate

- Jerusalem

- the Byzantines intentionally left it opens as a symbol of destruction of Judaism

The sacred stone

- Soloman, Herod, Constantine, Islam

- Herodian support walls

- huge stone on the platform, protruding

- importance of stone in Mecca too

- Kubbat as Sakhra

The Dome of the Rock

- Kubbat as Sakhra

- maybe only second to the stone in Mecca

- spiritual public relation project meant to give meaning to the stone

Sections of the Quran

- Sura/ Surot

- 114 in total

- each one is divided and has separate names

- Sura al isra

Muhammed's night journey

- Sura al Isra

- El Bouraq

- Muhammed journey climbing into the skies at "the edge" where he meets all of the previous prophets and Angels. He reaches the top and is faced with God (the connection between the earth and the sky).

- Umayyads add: they know where the edge is: in the Kubbat as Sakhra (like Constantine/Helen with Jesus)

- propaganda to elevate the dome of the rock

- Muhammed climbs at the dome of the rock

The lightning

-El Bouraq

-flying horse

Mosque

- Al Aqsa Mosque

- faces Mecca

- means "the edge"

- play into the significance and it is located

- in tandem with the Kubbat as Sakhra

The Temple Mount

- The Noble Sanctuary

- Haram esh Sharif

Arabism

- Arabic language will become the most important language, replacing Greek

Islamization

- 430 years, 85% of population

- no forced conversion

- benefits in the Pact of Omar

demography

- many wars change the demography of the populations

The Wailing/Western Wall

- The Kottel

- a portion of the outside remaining Herodian wall

- deal struct between the Muslims and Jewish minority

- Ummayads move the synagogue outside of Haram al Sharif

- minorities flourishing under early Islam

- disputed in Israel today

deadliest triangle in the world

- three most important structures to 3 religions created

- 700 yards apart

- The Kottel, the Church of the Holy Sepulchur, Kubbat as Sakhra