AKS 34 The Islamic World

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AKS 34The Islamic World

• Chapter 10
• Pages 263-279

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Origins of Islam

• Bedouins
• Arab nomads
• Ideals of courage, loyalty to family, and warrior
  skills became an important part of the Islamic
  way of life

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Origins of Islam

• Muhammads Early Life
• Orphaned at age 6
• Raised by his grandfather and uncle
• Received very little schooling
• Began working in caravan trade as a young man
• Became the trader and business manager for
  Khadijah, whom he later married

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Origins of Islam

• Muhammads Revelations
• Muhammad was meditating in a cave outside Mecca
  when he heard a voice who told Muhammad he was a
  messenger of Allah
• He believed the voice was that of the angel
  Gabriel
• He came to believe that he was the last of the
  prophets and began to teach that Allah was the
  one and only God and all others must be abandoned
• Islam submission to the will of Allah
• Muslim one who has submitted

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Origins of Islam

• Ideas Rejected in Mecca
• Meccans feared that the traditional Arab gods
  would be neglected and Mecca would no longer be a
  center for pilgrims
• Mecca had become a religious destination because
  that was where the Kaaba was located
• The Kaaba was associated with Abraham, a Hebrew
  prophet and believer in one God
• Over the years, they had introduced the worship
  of many gods and spirits it contained over 360
  idols

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Origins of Islam

• The Hijrah
• Muhammad decided to leave Mecca in 622 after some
  of his followers were attacked
• He moved to Yathrib (later called Medina), 200
  miles north of Mecca
• This migration is known as the Hijrah, or
  flight
• Turning Point because
• Attracted many devoted followers
• Became a popular religious leader
• Became a political leader who united Arabs,
  Muslims, Jews
• Became a military leader in the hostilities
  between Mecca and Medina

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Origins of Islam

• Muhammads Return to Mecca
• 630 Muhammad 10,000 of his followers marched
  to Mecca
• Meccas leaders surrendered without a fight
• Muhammad destroyed the idols in the Kaaba and
  had the call to prayer made from its roof
• Most Meccans pledged their loyalty to Muhammad
  and converted to Islam
• Mecca became a base from which to work toward
  unifying the Arabian Peninsula under Islam

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Basic Tenants of Islam

• There is only one god, Allah
• Each person is responsible for his or her own
  actions

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Basic Tenants of Islam

• Five Pillars of Islam
• Faith
• Prayer
• Alms
• Fasting
• Pilgrimage
• Muslims do not separate their personal life from
  their religious life. Carrying out the Five
  Pillars of Islam and other customs ensures that
  Muslims live their religion while serving in
  their communities

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Basic Tenants of Islam

• Faith
• To become a Muslim, a person has to testify to
  the following statement of faith There is no
  God but Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of
  Allah. This simple statement is heard again and
  again in Islamic rituals and in Muslim daily life

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Basic Tenants of Islam

• Prayer
• Five times a day, Muslims face toward Mecca to
  pray. They may assemble at a mosque (Islamic
  house of worship) or wherever they find
  themselves

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Basic Tenants of Islam

• Alms
• Muhammad taught that all Muslims have a
  responsibility to support the less fortunate.
  Muslims meet that social responsibility by giving
  alms, or money for the poor, through a special
  religious tax

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Basic Tenants of Islam

• Fasting
• During the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Muslims
  fast between dawn and sunset. A simple meal is
  eaten at the end of the day. Fasting serves to
  remind Muslims that their spiritual needs are
  greater than their physical needs

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Basic Tenants of Islam

• Pilgrimage
• All Muslims who are physically and financially
  able perform the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, at
  least once in their lifetime. Pilgrims wear
  identical garments so that all stand as equals
  before Allah
• Hajj to Mecca encouraged trade and promoted faith
  throughout the Islamic Empire

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Basic Tenants of Islam

• Sources of Authority
• Original source of authority is Allah
• Islam has a scholar class called the ulama
• The Quran is the holy book of Muslims
• The best model for proper living is the Sunna, or
  Muhammads example
• Guidance of Sunna and Quran was assembled into a
  body of law called sharia
• System of law regulates the family life, moral
  conduct, and business community life of Muslims

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Islamic Empire Expands

• Muhammads Death
• Died in 632
• Abu-Bakr, a loyal friend, became the first
  caliph, or successor
• Spread Islam by waging jihad against nonbelievers
• Jihad has two meanings
• Means striving and refers to inner struggle
  against evil
• Means holy war against those who do not believe

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Islamic Empire Expands

• The Rightly Guided Caliphs
• Used the Quran and Muhammads actions as guides
  to their leadership
• Mobilized highly disciplined armies that
  conquered Arabia, parts of the Byzantine Empire,
  and parts of the Sassanid Empire

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Islamic Empire Expands

• Reasons Why Expansion Was Successful
• Muslims were willing to fight to extend and
  defend Islam
• Armies were well disciplined and expertly
  commanded
• Byzantine and Sassanid empires were weak
• People who had suffered from religious
  persecution welcomed the more tolerant invaders

From 632 to 750, highly mobile troops mounted on
camels were successful in conquering lands in the
name of Allah
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Islamic Empire Expands

• Ali, Muhammads cousin and son-in-law, was
  assassinated
• This ended the elective system of choosing a
  caliph
• The Umayyads
• Moved the Muslim capital to Damascus
• Abandoned the simple life of previous caliphs
• Surrounded themselves with wealth and ceremony
• Collapsed due to religious political opposition

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Islamic Empire Expands

• The Abbasids
• Took power because they were the most powerful of
  the rebel groups that opposed the Umayyads
• Moved the capital to a newly created city,
  Baghdad
• Developed strong bureaucracy to conduct the
  affairs of the huge empire
• Created a system of taxation
• Established strong trade network
• Failed to keep complete political control over
  their immense empire, and so they eventually fell

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Muslim Trade Network

• Trade flourished during the reign of the Abbasids
• Two major sea-trading networks
• Mediterranean Sea
• Indian Ocean
• Land networks
• Silk Roads
• Arabian Peninsula

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Muslim Trade Network

• Trade Encouraged By
• Muslim moneychangers who set up banks in cities
  throughout the empire
• Banks offered sakks, or credit, to merchants that
  could be exchanged for cash throughout the empire
• In Europe, sakk was pronounced check, so using
  checks dates back to the Muslim Empire
• Silk Roads Arabian Peninsula
• Connected Muslims world to China, India, Europe,
  and Africa
• Arabian Peninsula
• Connected Indian Ocean trade routes to
  Mediterranean Sea
• Muslim merchants needed only to speak Arabic
  (unifying force of Islamic Empire) and the
  Abbasid dinar as a currency to travel
• No one person traveled the entire length of the
  Silk Road middlemen would buy goods in one
  region and sell them in another

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The Conflict

• 656
• Uthman, the third caliph, was murdered
• There was disagreement over who should succeed
  Muhammad
• Ali was the natural choice as a successor, but
  his right to rule was challenged by Muawiya, a
  governor of Syria
• Ali was assassinated
• Umayyad family filled the power vacuum

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The Split

• Majority of Muslims accepted Umayyad rule in the
  interest of peace they became Sunni, meaning
  followers of Muhammads example
• Some continued to resist they became Shia
• The Shia said that the caliph needed to be a
  descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. Shia means
  party of Ali.
• Another group, the Sufi, rejected the luxurious
  lifestyle of the Umayyads and pursued a life of
  poverty and devotion to a spiritual path.

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Muslim Cities

• Cities symbolized the strength of the caliphate.
• Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid empire.
• Baghdads city plan included circular design and
  protective walls

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Social Classes

• Four Social Classes
• The upper class was Muslims by birth
• The second class included converts to Islam
• The third class included Christians, Jews, and
  Zoroastrians
• The lowest class was made up of slaves
• These social classes do not exist anymore

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Role of Women

• According to the Quran, men and women are equal
  as believers
• Muslim women were expected to submit to men
• Muslim women were expected to be veiled when out
  in public

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Muslim Literature

• The Quran is the standard for all Arabic
  literature and poetry
• Literary tastes also included poems about nature
  and the pleasures of life and love
• Bedouin poets composed poems on bravery, love,
  and generosity.

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Muslim Art

• Calligraphy
• The art of beautiful handwriting
• Allowed artists who could not portray living
  beings to express themselves

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Muslim Architecture

• Lots of cultural blending
• Mix between Muslim and Byzantine ideas, some
  Roman ideas mixed in there
• Mostly seen in mosques

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Muslim Medicine

• al-Razi
• Considered greatest physician of Muslim world by
  Europeans
• Wrote an encyclopedia and wrote the Treatise on
  Smallpox and Measles
• Ibn Sina
• Wrote Canon of Medicine, a standard medical
  textbook used in Europe until the 17th century

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Muslim Math and Science

• New Ideas
• Reliance on scientific observation
  experimentation
• Ability to find mathematical solutions to old
  problems
• Science
• Muslim scientists preferred to solve problems by
  conducting experiments in laboratory settings
• Math
• Al-Khwarizmi
• Mathematician who wrote a textbook explaining
  the art of bringing together unknowns to match a
  known quantity
• This was called al-jabr today called algebra

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Muslim Geography

• Ibn Battuta
• Traveler and historian
• Visited most of the countries in the Islamic
  world, including cities like Timbuktu and other
  cities in Mali
• He learned he could travel without fear of crime
  and praised people for their study of the Quran,
  but criticized them for not strictly practicing
  Islams moral code

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Muslim Philosophy

• Scholars translated works of Greek philosophers
  into Arabic
• Ibn Rushd
• Tried to blend Greek views with those of Islam

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The Crusades

• Cause
• 1093
• Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus sent an appeal
  to Robert, Count of Flanders asking for help
  against the Muslim Turks threatening to conquer
  his capital, Constantinople
• Pope Urban II also read the letter and issued a
  call for a holy war, or a Crusade to gain
  control of the Holy Land

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The Crusades

• Goals
• Stop Muslim aggression regain Holy Land
• Pope wanted to reclaim Palestine reunite
  Christendom (the Schism in 1054)
• Put a stop to the fighting between knights by
  uniting them in a common cause

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The Crusades

• First Crusade (1096)
• Reasons
• Gods will
• Tax relief
• Riches in Palestine

• Result
• Conquered Jerusalem in 1099
• Slaughtered Muslims Jews

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The Crusades

• Second Crusade (1144)
• Reasons
• Same as First Crusade

• Result
• Muslim Turks re-take part of the Holy Land
• 1187 Saladin recaptures Jerusalem

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The Crusades

• Third Crusade (1189)
• Reason
• Recapture Jerusalem

• Result
• Richard the Lion-Hearted and Saladin fought many
  battles
• Agreed to a truce in 1192

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The Crusades

• Fourth Crusade
• Reasons
• Recapture Jerusalem (what else??)

• Result
• Knights did not even reach the Holy Land and
  instead ended up looting Constantinople

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The Crusades

• Fifth Eighth Crusades
• All to recapture Jerusalem, all failed

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The Crusades

• Childrens Crusade (1212)
• 30,000 children under the age of 18 set out to
  conquer Jerusalem
• Most died of cold or starvation on the trip there
• The rest drowned at sea or were sold into slavery
• This illustrates the power the Church had because
  people believed in the teaching so much that they
  allowed their children to embark on a dangerous
  journey

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The Crusades

• Spanish Crusade
• Reconquista
• Long effort by the Spanish to drive out the
  Muslims in Spain (called Moors) were eventually
  successful

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The Crusades

• Spanish Crusade
• Spanish Inquisition
• Under the direction of Ferdinand and Isabella
• Goal was to unify Spanish Christians and suppress
  heresy
• Many Jews Muslims converted during the late
  1400s
• Person suspected of heresy might be questioned
  for weeks and even tortured. Once they confessed,
  they were often burned at the stake.

Next slide has pictures of some torture methods
used
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The Crusades

• Effects of the Crusades
• Social
• Women could manage affairs on the estates or
  operate shops and inns (because they were the
  ones left at home)
• Led to the growth of trade, towns, and
  universities in medieval Europe benefits both
  Christians and Muslims
• Economic
• Merchants who lived in Crusader states expanded
  trade between Europe and SW Asia
• Political
• Failure of later crusades lessened the power of
  the Pope
• Weakened feudal nobility
• Increased power of the kings
• Fall of Constantinople weakened the Byzantine
  Empire

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The Crusades

• Impact on the Islamic World
• Intolerance and prejudice displayed by Christians
  in the Holy Land left behind a legacy of
  bitterness and hatred that continues to the
  present

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Links Between Religions

• To Muslims, Allah is the same God worshiped in
  Christianity Judaism
• Muslims view Jesus as a prophet, not the Son of
  God
• Quran is the word of Allah as revealed to
  Muhammad in the same way the Torah and Gospels
  were revealed to Moses and the New Testament
  writers
• Believe Quran perfects earlier revelations, it
  is the final book, and Muhammad is the final
  prophet

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Links Between Religions

• All three believe in heaven, hell, and a day of
  judgment
• Jews do not place as much emphasis on hell
• All trace their ancestry to Abraham
• Muslims refer to Christians and Jews as people
  of the book
• Sharia law requires Muslim leaders to extend
  religious tolerance to Christians Jews
• Ten Commandments can be found in Judaism,
  Christianity, and Islam as a code for behavior