World History

Chapter 6 – The World of Islam

Chapter 6 – Section 1 – The Rise of Islam

The Arabs

  • Nomads who lived in the Arabian Peninsula as farmers & sheepherders and constantly moved to find water and food for their animals
  • It was a harsh environment and they organized into tribes to help one another
  • The tribes were ruled by a sheikh (chosen from one of the leading families by a council of elders)
  • After the camel was domesticated, they populated more of the desert, expanded the caravan trade into these regions, and became the major carriers of goods between the Indian Ocean & the Mediterranean
  • Most early Arabs were polytheistic
  • They trace their ancestors to Abraham & his son Ishmael who are believed to have built a Kaaba (house of worship whose cornerstone was a sacred stone called a Black Stone) at Makkah
  • Recognized a supreme god that they called Allah

The Life of Muhammad

  • Muhammad was born in Makkah to a merchant family & became an orphan at the age of five – grew up to be a caravan manager and married a wealthy widow named Khadija (who was also his employer)
  • Muhammad became troubled by the gap between the honesty & generosity of most Makkans and the greediness of rich traders in the city – he began to visit the hills to meditate
  • Muslims believe that during these visits, Muhammad received revelations from God – the messages were given by the angel Gabriel who told Muhammad to recite what he heard
  • Muhammad believed that Allah had revealed himself partly through Moses and Jesus, but the final revelations of God were given to him
  • These revelations were eventually written down in a book called the Quran – the holy book of Islam (Islam means “peace through submission to the will of Allah”)
  • The Quran contains the ethical guidelines & laws by which the followers of Allah are to live
  • Islam has only one God – Allah and Muhammad is God’s prophet
  • After receiving the revelations, his wife Khadija urged him to follow Gabriel’s message and became the first follower of Islam
  • The People of Makkah were surprised at his claims to be a prophet & the wealthy feared that his attacks on the corrupt society would upset the social order – after three years of preaching, he had only 30 followers
  • Muhammad became discouraged and he and some of his closest followers left Makkah and moved to Yathrib (later renamed Medina, meaning “city of the prophet”) –
  • The journey from Makkah to Medina is known as the Hijrah – the year in which this occurred (AD 622) became year 1 in the official calendar of Islam
  • Muhammad began to win support from people in Medina and Arabs in the desert known as Bedouins & formed the first community of practicing Muslims
  • Muslims saw no separation between political & religious authority – submission to the will of Allah meant submission to his prophet Muhammad
  • Muhammad became the religious and political leader & put together a military force to defend himself and his followers – his military victories began to attract a large number of supporters
  • In 630 Muhammad & his men marched on Makkah & the city quickly surrendered and most converted to Islam
  • Two years later Muhammad died
  • All Muslims are encouraged to take a pilgrimage (known as the hajj) to Makkah

The Teachings of Muhammad

  • Islam is monotheistic like Christianity & Judaism
  • Allah is the all-powerful being who created the universe & everything in it
  • Islam emphasizes salvation & offers the hope of an afterlife – those who desire to achieve life after death must subject themselves to the will of Allah
  • Islam does not consider Muhammad to be divine (like Christians believe Jesus to be) – he is a prophet much like Moses was, but just like any other man
  • Islam is a direct and simple faith, stressing the need to obey the will of Allah, such as practicing the acts of worship known as the Five Pillars of Islam: Belief, Prayer, Charity, Fasting, Pilgrimage to Makkah
  • Islam is not just a set of religious beliefs, but a way of life
  • After Muhammad’s death, Muslim scholars developed a law code known as the shari’ah – provides believers with a set of practical laws to regulate all aspects of daily life including, family life, business practice, government, and moral conduct

Chapter 6 – Section 2 – The Arab Empire and Its Successors

Creation of the Arab Empire

  • Muhammad was both the political & religious leader – his death caused a problem because he had never named a successor & he had no sons
  • Some of his followers chose Abu Bakr (a wealthy merchant and Muhammad’s father-in-law) to be the caliph (successor to Muhammad)
  • The Islamic movement grew under Abu Bakr’s leadership
  • The Quran permitted fair, defensive war as jihad (“stuggle in the way of God)
  • Muslim warriors were assured a place in Paradise if they died in battle – they defeated the Byzantine army & the Persian Empire
  • After Abu Bakr, there was still no clear successor & several caliphs who ruled after his death were assassinated

The Umayyads

  • In 661 the governor of Syria Mu’awiyah became caliph – he was noted for his outstanding virtue and said “I never use my sword when my whip will do, nor my whip when my tongue will do.”
  • Mu’awiyah made the office of caliph (called the caliphate) hereditary in his own family – this established the Umayyad Dynasty
  • He moved the capital of the Arab empire from Madinah to Damascus in Syria
  • The Arab armies conquered and converted the Berbers – a pastoral people living in northern Africa
  • Around 710, the combined forces of Berber and Arab forces crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and occupied southern Spain – most of Spain became a Muslim state, but Arab forces were later defeated in Gaul (now France) and the expansion into Europe was stopped
  • Internal struggles threatened the stability of the Umayyad empire
  • The Persians & Byzantine’s did not like the way local administrators favored the Arabs – Hussein (the second son of Ali who was the son-in-law of Muhammad) led a revolt
  • This revolt caused Islam to split into two groups – the Shiite and the Sunni
  • The Shiite Muslims accept only the descendants of Ali as the true rulers – most of the people in today’s Iraq & Iran are Shiite
  • The Sunni Muslims did not agree with the Umayyad rule, but accepted them as leaders – the majority of today’s Muslim world are Sunni

The Abbasid Dynasty

  • Resentment grew against the Umayyads because of the favoritism to the Arabs & in 750 a descendant of Muhammad’s uncle overthrew them and set up the Abbasid dynasty
  • They built a new capital city at Bagdad
  • The best known caliph at this time was Harun al-Rashid – he was known for his charity
  • Under this dynasty, the caliph began acting in a more noble fashion & the bureaucracy assisting the caliph in administering the empire grew more complex
  • A council headed by a prime minister (known as a vizier) advised the caliph
  • After the death of Harun al-Rashid, his two sons fought to succeed him and almost destoyed the city of Bagdad
  • Various rulers broke off and formed their own empires & the Muslim Empire became politically divided

The Selijuk Turks

  • The Fatimid dynasty was established in Egypt with its capital city at Cairo
  • They created a strong army by hiring non-native soldiers to fight for them – one of these groups was the Selijuk Turks
  • The Selijuk Turks converted to Islam and prospered as soldiers – they soon grew stronger, captured Bagdad and took command of the empire
  • The title of the Turkish leader was sultan meaning “holder of power”
  • The Turks put pressure on the Byzantine Empire who turned to the West for help

The Crusades

  • The Byzantine emperor Alexius I asked the Christian states of Europe for help against the Turks – because the Christians & Muslims feared and disliked each other, many Europeans agreed
  • At first Muslims were put on the defensive by the invading crusaders, but a new Muslim ruler, Saladin, took control of Egypt, made himself sultan, and took the offensive against the Christian states and destroyed their forces
  • The crusades had little lasting imapct on Southwest Asia other than to breed centuries of mistrust between Muslims & Christians

The Mongols

  • The Mongols were a pastoral people came out of the Gobi and invaded – their goal was to create such terror that people would not fight back – they burned cities to the ground, destroyed dams, and reduced farming villages to the point of mass starvation
  • Over time they converted to Islam and began to marry the local people

Chapter 6 – Section 3 – Islamic Civilization

Prosperity in the Islamic World

  • The period of the Arab Empire was a prosperous time and trade flourished
  • While the Abbasids were in power, their capital city of Bagdad became known as the City of Peace
  • With the Fatamids in Egypt, the focus of trade shifted to Cairo
  • Another great trading city was Damascus
  • Cordoba was the capital city of Umayyad Spain – it had a population of two hundred thousand and was Europe’s largest city after Constantinople
  • Islamic cities had a distinct physical appearance – palaces for the caliphs and great mosques for worship
  • The bazaar (covered market) was an important part of every Muslim city or town – goods & services from many areas were available there

Islam Society

  • To be a Muslim is not to simply worship Allah, but to live one’s life according to Allah’s teachings as revealed in the Quran – questions concerning politics, economics, & social life are answered by following Islamic teachings
  • According to Islam all people are equal in the eyes of Allah, but this was not the case in the Arab empire – there were well defined divisions in social classes
  • The Quran granted women spiritual and social equality with men, yet men were still dominant in the Muslim society
  • After the spread of Islam, older customs eroded away the rights enjoyed by early Muslim women – they became secluded in their homes and required to cover every part of their body when appearing in public

Chapter 6 – Section 4 – The Culture of Islam

Preservation of Knowledge

  • The Arabs were aware of Greek philosophy & began translating works by Plato & Aristotle into Arabic – these translations were put into a library called the House of Wisdom in Bagdad
  • It was through the Muslim world that Europeans recovered the works of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers – the Arabic translations were translated into Latin which made them available to the West

Philosophy, Science, and History

  • Ibn-Rushd – Arabic philosopher who lived in Cordoba and wrote commentaries on almost all of Aristotles surviving works
  • The Muslims adopted & passed on the numerical system of India – including the use of the zero
  • A ninth century Arab mathematician gave shape to the mathematical discipline of algebra
  • They were aware the earth was round and perfected the astrolabe – an instrument used by sailors to determine their location by observing the positions of stars and planets
  • Ibn Sina – philosopher and scientist who wrote a medical encyclopedia that stressed the contagious nature among certain diseases – after being translated into Latin, it became a basic medical textbook for university students in medieval Europe
  • Ibn-Khaldun – Muslim historian who wrote Muqaddimah (Introduction to History)

Literature

  • Omar Khayyam – poet, astronomer, and mathematician – most famous for his literary works, especially Rubaiyat & The 1001 Nights (The Arabian Nights) – he composed his poems orally and they were later written down by friends or scribes

Art and Architecture

  • The Great Mosque of Samarra in present day Iraq was the world’s largest mosque at the time it was built – the most famous section of it is its minaret (the tower from which the muezzin, or crier, calls the faithful to prayer five times a day
  • Beginning in the eighth century, Islamic rulers constructed large, brick palaces with protective walls and gates – the finest example of an Islamic palace is the Alhambra in Granada, Spain
  • No representations of the prophet Muhammad ever adorns a mosque in a painting or any other form because the Hadith (an early collection of the prophet’s sayings) warns against any attempt to imitate God by creating pictures of living beings – as a result, there are no representations of figures in Islamic religious art

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