AP World History: The Expansive Realm of Islam

The Arabian Peninsula: crossroads of three continents Africa, Europe, Asia

-desert

-After the 3rd century C.E, Arabia became an increasingly important link between China and India and Persia and Byzantium. The weakening of Empires led to insecure travel lines. Many people decided to travel by water, which the city Mecca became an important stopping point of merchants

-The traveling culture in Mecca led to variant believes in the city: monotheistic and polytheistic. (Christian, Judaism)

The Prophet of Muhammad:

-born around 570 A.D—-a merchant

-About 610 C.E, he claim that he is the messenger of Allah.

-About 620 C.E, many people in Mecca joined his circle

Conflict at Mecca:

-Many polytheistic Arabs felt offensive from Muhammad’s belief (monotheistic)

-Muhammad’s belief also threaten merchants’ position where he mentioned people who is greedy will be punished by Allah

-The Hijra: About 622 C.E, Muhammad escaped to north of Mecca. Muslims called their new home “Medina”

-Muhammad: a great political, military, religious leader.

He organized a community called umma that provide legal and social code (daily pray + battle with enemies at Medina and Mecca)

-He accept the authority of earlier Jewish and Christian prophets but his messages provide a better revelation of Allah than Judaism.

-he created obligations for Islamic community: The Five Pillars

must perform hajj (the islamic pilgrimage to Mecca) , give money to the poor, pray five times a day

This bounded umma into a cohesive community

-The Sharia: Islamic holy law that provide guidance on proper behavior

-Quran: the holy book that believed to be literal word of Allah received by Muhammad.

-Jihad: means “struggle”. It imposes spiritual and moral obligations on Muslims by requiring them to combat vice and evil

Similarities between Islamic and Judaism:

-Muslims believe Allah is the same god worshiped by christians and jews

-all trace their roots to Abraham

-all believe in heaven, hell, and a day of judgement

630 C.E took back Mecca

The Expansion of Islam：

By the 700s C.E , they took over Byzantine, Syria, Palestine, Sassanid, Persia

-Well disciplined armies and expertly commanded

-Byzantine and Sassanid are weak (they fought with each other)

-citizens wanted them to come because they can bring equal rights

-they also tolerate other religions, but people need to pay high tax when they are non-muslims

Coliphs: Abu-Bakr

Shia: support Muhammad’s decendents

Sunni: support for the strong

Internal Conflict:

Rise of the Umayyads (Wealthy family)

-started a new dynasty (661-750 C.E)

-established their capital at Damascus-Focused on expanding the Islamic Empire

-they only favor Arabs, bringing divisions of Arabs and non-Arabs

they only distribute the wealth to privileged class, the good positions with big amount of money and power are reserved for Arabs military aristocracy.

They created jizya to people who did not convert to Islam

they ruled dar-al-Islam as conquerors

all these led to deep resentment

-later in the early eighth century: The Umayyad caliphs focused more on their luxury life instead of leading the umma

The Abbasid Dynasty: a descendent of Muhammad’s uncle (no Arab)

-about 750 C.E he establish a new dynasty at Baghdad (capital)

not a conquering dynasty: it focused on getting itself fat and rich

They started building relationships with Tang Dynasty (the silk routes)

-promoting trading by including banking systems

Silk route:

-the spread of food and industrial crops

new crops were adopted to different growing seasons

ex. cotton can grow under different climate.

lemon, oranges, bananas, coconuts

-The improvement of Women status

men should treat women with sensitivity and respect

but still men get to marry four wives

-Formation of an Islamic cultural Tradition

uniformity of Islamic law (common written ton: Arabic)

emphasis the importance of Hajj

Culture shares:

math from India

governance and literature from Persia

philosophy from Greece