ISLAM

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ISLAM

• a geographical perspective

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Topics

• Symbolism
• Sacred places
• Origins and diffusion
• Impacts of colonialism

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Some flags of Islamic countries

• What seem to be the dominant colors and motifs?
• Green was the color of Muhammads robe
• The crescent moon was a symbol of Constantinople,
  borrowed when it was conquered in 1453 and
  renamed Istanbul
• The five-pointed star represents the five pillars
  of Islam
• Confession of faith in Allah and no other god as
  well as belief in the finality of the prophethood
  of Muhammad
• Ritual worship of Allah 5 times a day
• Charity and concern for the needy
• Avoidance of food, drink and sex during daylight
  hours for the month of Ramadan
• Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca once in ones life)

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Islam

• Islam means submission (to the will of Allah)
• Shares many roots with Judaism and Christianity
  including stories of Adam, Abraham, Moses, David,
  and Jesus
• Islams sacred places
• mosques
• Mecca
• Medina
• Jerusalem

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a mosque in Yemen
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Istanbuls Blue Mosque
http//www.mccullagh.org
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a mosque in N.W. China
What seems to be an important color in Islam?
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Parts of a mosque

• Minarets are landmarks and places from which a
  muezzin (or loudspeaker) calls people to prayer
• Sahn is a courtyard or open hall for prayer
• Mihraab is a recessed niche pointing toward Mecca
• the focal point of the mosque
• the point toward which prayers are directed
• the point at which the person leading prayers
  stands

Parent Teacher Association, Islamic Association
of Greater Detroit http//www.ptaiagd.org/
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Jerusalem (under stormy skies!)
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Jerusalem

• A sacred place for three religions
• A place of conflict
• general the way of the cross (Christian)
• foreground
• Mount of Olives, Jewish burials
• background
• ruins of the city of David and west wall of the
  temple mount (believed by Jews to be the
  remaining wall of Solomons original temple, also
  called the wailing wall)
• Dome of the rock (gold) believed by Muslims to be
  where Muhammad ascended to Heaven and by Jews to
  be where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac

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Mecca
Pilgrims circumambulate the Kaba, a cube encased
in silk containing a black stone
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What is the Kaba?

• For Muslims it is the qibla, the point toward
  which people must face when praying, and they
  believe it was built into the structure by
  Abraham and Ishmael
• The first qibla was Jerusalem, but this was
  changed during Muhammads life, perhaps due to a
  rift between Muhammad and the Jews in Medina
• Non-Muslims generally explain it as a meteorite
  which was worshipped before the time of Muhammad,
  as part of pre-Islamic animist beliefs of the
  region

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Origins

• Muhammad (570-632)
• sought end to feuding between nomadic Bedouins
  and merchant dynasties of cities
• replaced family-centered social order with a more
  harmonious community
• Quran Muslims believe this is the word of Allah
  (unless translated from Arabic) revealed to
  Muhammad, while teachings of previous prophets
  (including Jesus) are corruptions of the word of
  God
• Worldview
• dar al-Islam (means house of submission) parts
  of the world under Islamic control
• dar al-Harb (means house of war) parts of the
  world controlled by non-believers/infidels

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Diffusion

• Under Muhammad the western part of the Arabian
  peninsula (incl. Mecca and Medina) were brought
  under Islam)
• Under the Caliphs (his successors), Islam
  expanded very rapidly across the entire southern
  half of the Roman Empires territory, as well as
  areas under control of Sassanid Empire to the
  east.
• Combination of military conquest and tax policy.
  Those who did not surrender to Muslim forces were
  forced to pay rent on their land whereas those
  who surrendered maintained ownership of their land

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Islam Today
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Interesting aspects of this map

• Massive expansion between 630 and 700
• Replacement of Christianity and Judaism (as the
  dominant religion, though never a complete
  exclusion) in the Middle East
• Far reaches of Islamic diffusion
• Iberian peninsula (Spain Portugal) by 900
• Indonesia by 1200 (via Islamic seagoing traders)
• Land route to China (Xian) by 1000
• Although Arabic dominates, Muslims speak many
  languages including Iranian, Turkic, various
  Indian languages, and Indonesian

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Things are looking better

• Both the Roman Empire and the Sassanid Empire had
  losing their grip and had tried to maintain
  control by waging war and committing atrocities
  on local populations
• Both Empires had been extravagant and demanding
• The new Islamic rulers brought peace to people
  exhausted with conflict and exploitation

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The Ottoman Empire (1300-1917)

• Note Core in Anatolia (Turkey)
• area of earliest control
• hearth of Ottoman culture
• Replacement of Orthodox Christianity in its core
  (Constantinople falls in 1453)

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Islamic Influences in Europe

• Muslim components of the population in the
  Balkans Bosnia Kosovo, Bulgaria, and Albania
• Many Arabic words were carried into Spanish
• e.g. wadi (Arabic for river) shows up in
  Guadalajara

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Carving up the Ottoman Empire
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Sykes-Picot Agreement(or carving up the spoils)

• British agitated for uprising against the Ottoman
  Empire, then broke promise to support self-rule
• Secret agreement (1916) between the British and
  the French
• Britain would control areas roughly comprising
  Jordan, Iraq and a small area around Haifa
• France would control southeastern Turkey,
  Northern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon
• France Great Britain were left free to draw
  state boundaries within these areas
• International then British control over the area
  which later came to be called Israel and which
  was predominantly Muslim at the time
• Later expansion of the Sykes-Picot agreement
• Russia would control Armenia and parts of
  Kurdistan
• Italy would control certain Aegean islands and a
  sphere of influence around Izmir in southwest
  Anatolia.
• The Italian presence in Anatolia as well as the
  division of the Arab lands was later formalized
  in the Treaty of Sevres in 1920.

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Sunni vs. Shiah

• Doctrinal dispute centers around the legitimacy
  of the first three caliphs

Sunni
Sunni
Shiah
Sunni
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Sectarian conflict in Iraq

• Sunnis cooperated with British colonial rule,
  acquired power and remained dominant under regime
  of Saddam Hussein (except for the Kurds, which
  were Sunnis but were persecuted by Saddam)
• violent resistance is coming from the Sunnis, who
  feel they have lost out with Saddams fall
• US administration is currently banking on Shiite
  and Sunni-Kurd support

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Conflict in Israel
Dark Orange territory designated as Jewish by
the UN in 1947 Medium Orange territory gained by
Israel in war with Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq,
and Transjordan (Jordan) by 1949 Yellow
territory controlled by Israel since 1967 (Gaza
largely released from Israeli control in
2005) Israels territorial gains seen by Arabs as
a result of European and American assistance of
Israel
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Conflict in Jammu Kashmir

• Kashmir has been the key to the dispute between
  India and Pakistan since their formation at the
  time of independence from the British in 1947
• Each newly-formed country claimed Kashmir as a
  part of its territory
• The area is separated by a Line-of-Control (LOC
  or cease-fire line)
• East of LOC lies the vale of Kashmir, Jammu and
  Ladakh which are administered by India
• West of LOC lies Azad Free Kashmir controlled
  by Pakistan

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SUMMARY

• The Islamic world is a culture region
• Its global distribution is mainly the result of a
  rapid 7th century diffusion out of the Arabian
  peninsula aided by conquest and tax policy, then
  subsequent trading activities up to the 1600s
• The Islamic region is internally divided by sect
  (Sunni vs. Shiah) and language
• Muslims speak many languages but Arabic is
  numerically dominant and is the language of the
  Quran
• The conflicts within the Islamic world and at its
  boundaries are partly due to European colonialism
  in the wake of World War I, and subsequent
  external involvement in the rest of the 20th
  century
• external involvement (mainly British and US) has
  exacerbated tensions between different religious
  groups