The muslim world

THE MUSLIM WORLD
600-1250Chapter 10Chapter 10

Arabian Peninsula
 Crossroads of 3
continents- Africa,
Europe and Asia
 Little land, and a few
oases can support
agriculture
 Remainder of the land
is desert

Desert Town Life
 Bedouins= nomads who lived in desert, organized into tribes
called clans
 Took pride in being able to defend themselves and their
families
 Many choose to settle in an oasis or market town when they
had enough water to support farming

Crossroads of Trade and Ideas
 Trade routes connected Arabia to other lands
 Arabian cities became prosperous trading
centers on the caravan routes

Mecca
 Became an important
stop on the trade route
 Religious piligrims
came to worship at an
ancient shire house
called the Ka’aba
(KAH-buh)
 Ka’aba contained over
360 idols brought by
the many tribes
 Pilgrimage

Prophet Muhammad
 Born into the clan of a
powerful Meccan family
 Orphaned and then
raised by grandfather
and uncle
 Work in the caravan
trade
 Married at age 25 to a
wealthy
businesswomen

Revelations
 Often prayed and
meditated
 Life changed when he
heard a voice believed to
have been the angel
Gabriel while praying
outside a cave near Mecca
 Believed that Allah spoke
to him through Gabriel
 He taught that Allah was
the one and only god

 Islam= “submission to the will of
Allah”
 Muslim= “one who has submitted”
 Muhammad’s wife and his close
friends were the first followers
 He began preaching in Mecca but
many were worried that Mecca
would lose its position as a
pilgrimage center if people
accepted Muhammad’s
monotheistic beliefs
 Many followers were beaten or
stoned

The Hijrah
 Because of hostility,
Muhammad decided to leave
Mecca.
 He settled in the town, Yathrib,
200 miles north of Mecca
 This migration became known
as the Hijrah
 This was a turning point and
Muhammad attracted many
followers
 Yathrib was renamed Medina
which means, “city of the
Prophet”

Medina
 In Medina, Muhammad displayed many
leadership skills
 He joined his own people with the Arabs and Jews
of Medina into one community
 These groups accepted Muhammad as a political
leader
 Muhammad was a political, religious and military
leader

Returning to Mecca
 Mecca’s power was declining
because of fights between
Muslims and Meccans
 In 630, the Prophet and 10,000
of his followers marched to the
outskirts of Mecca
 Mecca’s leaders surrendered
and the Prophet had won
 Muhammad went to the Ka’aba
and destroyed all the idols and
had the call to prayer made
from the roof of the Ka’aba

Umma
 Many joined, converted and pledged their
loyalty to Muhammad
 Joined umma, or Muslim religious community
 Muhammad died 2 years later, but he had
made great progress with unifying the Arabian
Peninsula under Islam

Dome of the Rock
 Located in Jerusalem
 Earliest surviving
Islamic monument
 Completed in 691
 Located on Mount
Moriah, the site of a
Jewish temple
destroyed by the
Romans
 Muslims say this is the
spot that Muhammad
ascended to heaven to
learn Allah’s will
 Jews say the rock is the
site when Abraham was
prepared to sacrifice his
son, Isaac

Beliefs and Practices of Islam
 One God (Allah)-
monotheistic
 Good and evil
 Each individual is
responsible for their
actions in this life
 Qur’an= holy book
 Final judgment with Allah
and then you will either
enter heaven or hell

Five Pillars of Islam
 = to be a Muslim, all believers must carry out
five duties
 These demonstrate a Muslim’s submission to
the will of God

1. Faith
 To become a Muslim, a person must testify
the following statement of faith, “There is not
God but Allah, and Muhammad is the
Messenger of Allah.”

2. Prayer
 5 times per day (at least)
 Pray toward Mecca
 Assemble at mosque (Islamic house of worship)
 Prayer brings a Muslim closer to Allah

3. Alms
 Muhammad taught that all Muslims have the
responsibility to support the less fortunate
 Alms= money for the poor
 All must pay alms through a special religious
tax

4. Fasting
 Muslims fast during the Islamic holy month of
Ramadan (month the Qur'an was revealed to
Muhammad)
 Reminds Muslims they have a “greater need
than bread”

5. Pilgrimage
 All Muslims perform the hajj, or pilgrimage to
Mecca at least once in a lifetime

A Way of Life
 Muslims do not separate
their personal life from their
religious life
 Forbidden to eat pork or
intoxicating beverages
 Friday afternoons are set
aside for worship and
prayer
 No priests. All expected to
pray directly to Allah

Sources of Authority
 Allah spoke to Gabriel
Muhammad  Qur’an
 Sunna= Muhammad’s
example, best model for a
proper life
 Shari’a= laws

Links to Judaism and
Christianity
 To Muslims, Allah is the same God that is
worshipped in Christianity and Judaism
 Muslims view Jesus as a prophet, but not the
Son of God
 Qur’an is like the Bible for Christians
 All 3 religions (Islam, Christianity and
Judaism) believe in heaven and hell and a
judgment
 Muslims trace their ancestry to Abraham like
the Jews and Christians

Section 2: Spread of Islam
 After Muhammad’s death,
Islam lacked a leader to carry
the message to the world
 Muhammad did not instruct
his followers how to choose a
successor
 Abu-Bakr was chosen
 Friend of Muhammad
 Devoted to Islam
 Became the first caliph
(“successor” or “deputy”)

“Rightly Guided” Caliphs
 3 caliphs after Abu-Bakr
followed Muhammad
and the Qur’an and
were known as the
“rightly guided”
caliphs
 Their rule was known as
caliphate
 Muslim armies were well
disciplined in addition to
having extreme faith

Treatment of Conquered
Peoples
 Many conquered
people chose to
accept Islam
 Attracted by the
appeal of the
message of Islam as
well as the economic
benefit
 Qur’an forbade forced
conversion

Internal Conflict Creates a
Crisis
 Even with military gains,
the Muslim community
had difficulty maintaining
a unified rule
 With many caliphs being
murdered, a family
known as the Umayyads
came into power
 Set up a hereditary
system of succession

Sunni-Shi’a Split
 Sunni= followers of Muhammad’s example,
chosen by Allah
 Shi’a= “party” of Ali, successor must be a
direct relative of the prophet

Muslim Trade Network
 2 major sea-trading zones (Mediterranean Sea and Indian
Ocean)
 Muslims merchants needed only a single language- Arabic
and a single currency, the Abbisad dinar
 To encourage flow of trade, Muslims money changers set up
banks throughout the empire
 Cordoba Muslim city, had a population of 500,000 in
contrast Paris had 38,000

Section 3: Muslim Achievement
 Market towns increase
 Damascus was the cultural center of Islamic learning
until Baghdad was built
 Urban centers showed strength of dynasty
 Baghdad was lined with shops, protective walls, grand
mosque and reached the one million population peak

Four Social Classes
 Upper Class: those
who were born Muslim
at birth
 Second Class:
converts to Islam (paid
a higher tax than the
upper class)
 Lower Class:
“protected people,”
Christians, Jews and
Zoroastrians
 Lowest Class: slaves,
POWs and all were
non-Muslims

Role of Women
 Men and women believers
are equal
 Women had specific legal
rights of marriage, family
and property
 Muslim women had more
rights than European
women at the time
 In early days they could
gain an education

Head
Coverings
(Veils)
Niqab= face covering
Burqa/Hijab=
head covering
HowtoWeartheVeil
CNN: Why some are proud to wear the veil
Newsnight:Whydo
WomenWeartheNIqab
Hijab, Niqab or Nothing?

Muslim Scholarship Extends
Knowledge
 Qualified physicians to cure illnesses
 Muhammad believed in the power of learning
 Baghdad opened a library, academy and
translation center called the House of Wisdom

Medicine, Arts & Sciences
 Translation of languages
 Belief that patients will
recover more quickly if
they have fresh air (al-
Razi, great physician)
 Scientific observation and
experimentation
 Al-jabr algebra
 Advances in astronomy
 Beginnings of telescopes
and microscopes

Philosophy & Literature
 Translated works of Aristotle and Plato into Arabic
 Qur’an is the standard for all poetry and literature
 Famous for their poetry that focused on the
mystical experiences with God

Art & Architecture
 Because drawing figures
was prohibited (because
only Allah could create
beings) artist turned to
calligraphy= art of
beautiful handwriting
 Woodwork, glass, ceramics,
and textiles
 Most famous for their
architecture- mosques

Is Radical Islam
dangerous Today?

Journal
Should we be
worried about
radical or moderate
religions or groups?
Why or why not?

The muslim world

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