Islam

The Rise of Islam:

Geography of Arabia- desert-like

Oasis - A place with water where traders stay and share ideas (cultural diffusion —> cosmopolitan center)

Bedouins - Desert Nomads

Tribes - They were organized into tribes and clans - led by sheiks and were warlike and fought over scarce resources

Mecca - Muslim’s home and leading city of Arabia

Ka’aba - A large black rock housed in a cube-shaped building that drew worshipers from all over Arabia and brought considerable wealth to Mecca

Muhammad - A prophet who taught the teachings of Allah given to him through revelations/visions

Khadija - A wealthy widow who he married (first wife)

Revelations - visions that Muhammad understood as messages or revelations from Allah, delivered through the archangel Gabriel

Qu’ran - Compilation of written texts of Muhammad’s revelations (Holy Book of Islam)

Hijrah - The migration from Mecca to Yathrib due to persecution

Medina - An area in Yathrib meaning “the city” or “the city of the prophet.”

Islam - the name of the religion (“submission to the will of God”)

Muslim - a (person) follower of Islam (“one who submits to the will of God”)

Hadith - traditions that include sayings attributed to Muhammad and accounts of his deeds

Beliefs and Practices:

Five Pillars

1. Muslims must acknowledge Alla as the only God and Muhammad as his prophet

2. They must pray to Allah daily while facing Mecca

3. They must observe a fast during the daylight hours of the month of Ramadan

4. They must contribute alms for the relief of the weak and poor

5. In honor of Muhammad’s visits to Mecca in 629 and 632, those who are physically and financially able must undertake the Hajj and make at least one pilgrimage to Mecca

Faith, Prayer, Alms, Fasting, Pilgrimage

Sharia + Laws/rules

• A body of law that regulates family life, moral conduct, business, and community life. It does not separate religious life from civil and criminal matters.

  1. Muslims are forbidden to eat pork. All food must be halal (lawful or permissible). Opposite: Haram - forbidden

  2. No gambling

  3. Adultery is forbidden (cheating on your spouse)

  4. Men are allowed to marry up to 4 wives, but you must treat them equally in terms of love and money

Caligraphy - the art of writing - is sacred to Muslims. It was born from the Arabic script of the Quran.

1. Since Islam forbids idolatry, mosques are decorated with calligraphy rather than pictures of human or animal figures. Verses of the Quran, drawn in flowing Arabic, are bordered by complex geometrical and floral designs. Often colorful, the walls and domes of mosques are inspiring works of art in themselves.

Sunnah - Accepted the legitimacy of early caliphs, believe any devout Muslim can be if he follows the sunnah (Muhammed’s example)

Mosque - House of Worship

Minaret - House of Worship - tower-like structures the Muezzin chants to call to prayer from the minaret

Muezzin - A man who calls Muslims to prayer from the Minaret of a mosque

Spread of Islam:

Where did Islam spread under Mohammed?

• Throughout the Arabian peninsula (towns/bedouin clans)

Under the Four Rightly Guided Caliph?

1. Four rightly guided Caliph - Abu-Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali = successor or deputy (religious + political leader of dar al-Islam) and they knew Muhammad + followed the Quran

2. They conquered Byzantine Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Byzantine Egypt, North Africa, Persia, the Hindu Kingdom, and the Iberian peninsula. By 750, the Muslim empire stretched 6,000 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indus River.

   1. Arabia, Syria + Lower Egypt (Byzantine Empire), parts of Sassanid Empire

   2. Strategy - Leaders united tribal groups into a powerful state —> unified their allegiance to Islam. Muslim armies also attacked when the Byzantine and Sassanid empires were exhausted from fighting each other and when they were facing internal problems

Under the Umayyads?

List the reason that Islam spread (include motives for spread and acceptance)

1. Well-trained army

2. Inspired to fight by faith in Allah

3. The army was fierce due to their Bedouin roots (scarce resources in the desert)

4. Byzantines and Sassanids were exhausted from fighting each other

5. Non-Christians in Byzantine and Non-Zoroastrians in Sasanid would welcome “liberators.”

6. Conquered would be attracted to Islam due to:

   1. Muslims pay lower taxes (non-Muslims pay additional “Jizyah” = non-believer tax)

   2. Islam treated all Muslims equally

7. Islam spread along the trade routes

Caliph - Successor or deputy (religious + political leader of Dar Al-Islam)

“Rightly Guided” Caliphs

1. Abu-Bakr

2. Umar

3. Uthman

4. Ali

   = spread Islam, tolerated “people of the book” (Jews/Christians), were elected by leaders of the Muslim community

Sects: Shi’a and Sunni (sufis). Why did they split?

• Sunni - Accepted the legitimacy of early caliphs, believe any devout Muslim can be Caliph if he follows the sunnah (Muhammed’s example)

• Shi’a - “Party” of Ali - felt Ali should’ve been Caliph

• They split due to disagreements over succession

Umayyad Dynasty

What types of people were not happy with their rule?

• Non-Arabs: could not obtain jobs in bureaucracy (they favored Arabs (more specifically military aristocracy))

• Arabs: upset because Caliphs were immoral and lax in their religious devotion

• Non-Muslims (Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Buddhists): levied a special head tax (Jizya) on those who did not convert to Islam

Where was their capital? Why did they move it from Mecca?

• Damascus, which was a thriving commercial city in Syria, whose central location enabled them to maintain better communication with the vast and still-expanding Islamic empire

Why did they lose their power?

• They became more focused on materialistic things such as luxurious living rather than the zealous leadership of the Umma and scandalized devout Muslims.

What happened to the remaining Umayyads after the Abbasids came to power?

• Took over the Umayyads and murdered all but one family. He moved to Spain and ruled there (Cordoba/Al-Andalus)

Abbasid Dynasty

Why was this Islam’s “Golden Age”?

• The absence of invasion created an atmosphere of stability, which resulted in the empire's prosperity.

Where was the capital? Why?

• Baghdad because the Abbasids wanted to associate themselves with the cosmopolitan environment of Mesopotamia

1. Why was there stability? (Discuss tolerance and cultural ties vs. political unity — qadis, ulama, madrasas, sharia)

   • The Abbasid Rules were tolerant

   • Cultures shared ideas and created new ones

   • The empire had a common language (Arabic) and a common religion (Islam)

   • Bureaucracy brought stability

   • The Abbasids concentrated on administration rather than conquest

   • Although the Abbasids became figureheads (Persians, and then Seljuk Turks — sultans), the stability was maintained through common cultural ties

     • Sufi - (3rd branch of Islam): Missionaries —ascetics— emphasized the spiritual connection with Allah (over doctrine)

     • Qadi - Judges — decided cases based on Sharia and Quran

     • Ulama-Scholar, who made public policy based on Islam

     • Madrasas - schools of higher learning. Caliphs supported to educate Muslim scholars for bureaucracy

       • Promoted Cultural unity

2. Why was there prosperity (discuss trade routes)

   1. New crops transplanted from India to the West

   2. Longer growing seasons lead to increased crops

   3. Increased Urbanization

   4. Banking system

   5. Letters of Credit (sakks/checks)

   6. common currency (dinar)

   7. pooled investments to lower risks (stocks)

   8. new maritime tech (compass, astrolabe, lateen sail)

   9. Camels/roads/caravanserais

      a. What were the achievements (see chart)

      1. Science - Manufacture of glass, chemical compounds, laboratory equipment; books on chemistry and optics, paper-making, bookbinding

      2. Medicine - Advances in surgery and anesthetics; pharmacies; diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as smallpox and measles; medical encyclopedias, hospitals; texts/examinations for physicians, flavoring for bad tasting medicine, optics, and eye surgery

      3. Astronomy - Observatories; use of the astrolabe for navigation; estimating the earth’s circumference and acknowledging it is shaped like a sphere. Astronomy aided Muslims in knowing prayer times, facing Mecca, and knowing when Ramadan fell each year

      4. Math: Algebra and trig; modern numerals; number system adopted from Gupta and eventually transmitted to Europe as Arabic numerals same for a decimal system, the concept of zero

      5. Literature - The Thousand and One Arabian Nights (including famous stories such as Aladdin, Ali Baba, and the Forty Thieves). These were stories compiled from tales told by traders as they met in Baghdad

      6. Art/Architecture - Mosques with elaborate details of trees, flowers, geometric designs, and the Quran; colorful carpets and textiles

      7. Philosophy - Plato and Aristotle were studied, and concepts were incorporated into Islamic philosophy

         What people/civilizations did they come into contact with? What did they adopt from each of these places?

         1. Persia, India, Greece (Hellenistic)

            1. Persia - Traditions: Persian administrative techniques, Persian ideas of kinship, literary works

            2. Indian - Math, science, medicine

            3. Greek - philosophical, scientific, medical writings

      d. Compare and Contrast the Muslim World with the Gupta, the Persians, and the Hellenistic (Greek) world.