Study Guide 15
Spread of Islam into Africa & Asia, Islamic Civilization,Readings: Rediscovering Arabic Science, Muslim Agricultural Revolution, The Earth and Its Peoples (p. 202-216)
AP World History
Kienast
Key terms:
Caravanserai
Camel saddle
Compass
Astrolabe
Dhow
Bills of exchange
Credit
Checks
Banking houses
Muslim merchant communities
Timbuktu
Kilwa
Melaka
Swahili
Turkic
Muslim Agricultural Revolution
Qanat System
Noria and sakia
Shaduf
Madrasas
Sufism
Essential questions:
1. What factors allowed Islam to spread rapidly through Africa and Asia?
2. Describe how trade routes promoted the growth of each of the following cities: Timbuktu,
Kilwa, and Melaka.
3. In what ways was Islamic civilization more egalitarian than other societies of the day, and in
what ways was it similar to other societies in terms of equality?
4. What were the philosophical, scientific, and mathematical contributions of Islamic
civilization?
Key Concepts
Familiarize yourself with the following key concepts through class discussions or readings:
Key Concept 3.1. Expansion and Intensification ofCommunication and Exchange Networks
I. Improved transportation technologies and commercial practicesled to an increased volume of trade, and expanded the geographicalrange of existing and newly active trade networks.
A. Existing trade routes flourished and promoted the growth of powerfulnew trading cities.
Required examples of existing trade routes:
• The Mediterranean Sea
• The Trans-Saharan
• The Indian Ocean basins
E. The expansion of empires facilitated Trans-Eurasian trade andcommunication as new peoples were drawn into their conquerors’economies and trade networks.
Required examples of empires:
• The Caliphates
II. The movement of peoples caused environmental and linguisticeffects.
A. The expansion and intensification of long-distance trade routes oftendepended on environmental knowledge and technological adaptations to it. (example: The way the Arabs and
Berbers adapted camelsto travel across andaround the Sahara)
C. Some migrations and commercial contacts led to the diffusion oflanguages throughout a new region or the emergence of new languages such as the spread of Bantulanguages including
Swahiliand the spread of Turkicand Arabic languages
III. Cross-cultural exchanges were fostered by the intensification ofexisting, or the creation of new, networks of trade and communication.
A. Islam, based on the revelations of the prophet Muhammad, developedin the Arabian peninsula. The beliefs and practices of Islam reflectedinteractions among Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians with the localArabian peoples. Muslim rule expanded to many parts of Afro-Eurasiadue to military expansion, and Islam subsequently expanded through theactivities of merchants and missionaries.
B. In key places along important trade routes, merchants set up diasporiccommunities, such as Muslim merchantcommunities in theIndian Ocean region,where they introduced their own cultural traditions into theindigenous culture.
D. Increased cross-cultural interactions resulted in the diffusion ofliterary, artistic, and cultural traditions (Islam in Sub-SaharanAfrica and Southeast Asia)
E. Increased cross-cultural interactions also resulted in the diffusion of
scientific and technological traditions. (example: The influence of Greekand Indian mathematicson Muslim scholarsand the return of Greekscience and philosophyto Western Europe viaMuslim al-Andalus inIberia
IV. There was continued diffusion of crops and pathogens throughoutthe Eastern Hemisphere along the trade routes.
A. New foods and agricultural techniques were adopted in populatedareas.
Key Concept 3.2. Continuity and Innovation of StateForms and Their Interactions
I. Empires collapsed and were reconstituted; in some regions newstate forms emerged.
C. Some states synthesized local and borrowed traditions such as Persian traditions that
influenced Islamic states