Chapter 10: The Muslim World

Chapter 10: The Muslim World

Chapter 10.1: The Rise of Islam

• Only a small strip of the Arabian Peninsula can support agriculture.

• The remainder of the land is desert, which in the past was inhabited by nomadic Arab herders.
• The Arab nomads, the Bedouins, were organized into tribes and groups called clans.

• The class provided security and support for a life made difficult by the extreme conditions of the desert.
• The Bedouin ideal of courage and loyalty to family, along with their warrior skills, would become part of the Islamic way of life.

• The areas with more fertile soil and the larger oases had enough water to support farming communities.

• By the early 600s, many Arabs had chosen to settle in an oasis or in a market town.

• Larger towns near the western coast of Arabia, became market towns for local, regional, and long-distance trade goods.

• Traded routes ran from the extreme south of the peninsula to the Byzantine and Sassanid empires to the north.

• Merchants from these two empires moved along the caravan routes, trading for goods from the Silk Roads of the east.
• They transported spices and incense from Yemen and other products to the west.
• They also carried information and ideas from the world outside Arabia.
• During certain holy months, caravans stopped in Mecca, a city in western ARabia.

• They brought religious pilgrims who came to worship at an ancient shrine in the city called the Ka’aba.

• They associated this house of worship with Abraham, a Hebrew prophet and and believer in one God.
• The ka’aba contained over 360 idols brought by many tribes.

• They concept of belief in one God called Allah in Arabic, was known on the Arabian Peninsula.

• Many Chiritians and Jews lived there and practiced monotheism.

• Around AD 570 Muhammad was born.

• He was born into the caln of a powerful Meccan family.
• He was raised by both his grandfather and his uncle/
• He received little schooling and began working in the caravan trade as a very young man.

• At the age of 25 he became a trader and business manager for Khadijah.

• They later got married, and it was both a good marriage and a good business partnership.

• Muhammad took great interest in religon and often spent time alone in prayer and meditation.

• At the age of 40 a voice called to him while he meditated in a cave outside Mecca.
• According to Muslim belief, the voice was that of the angle Gabriel who told Muhammad that he was a messenger of Allah.

• He was convinced that he was the last of the prophets.
• He taught that there was only one god with was Allah, and that the other gods must be abandoned.

• People who agreed to this were referred to as Muslims.

• By 613, Muhammad began to preach publicaly in Mecca.

• Many Mccans believed his ideas would lead to neglect of the traditional Arab gods.

• They feared that Mecca would lose its position as a pilgrimage center if people accepted monoteistic beliefs.

• After some of his followers had been attacked, Muhammad decided to leave Mecca in 622.

• He moved to the town of Yathrib, which was over 200 miles to the north of Mecca.

• This migration became known as the Hijrah

• This marked a turning point for Muhammad.
• He attracted many devoted followers.
• Yathrib was renamed Medina.

• In Medina Muhammad displayed impressive leadership skills.

• He fashioned an agreement that joined his own people with the Aras and Jews of Medina as a single community.

• These groups accepted him as a political leader.
• As a religious leader, he drew many more converts who found his message appealing.
• He also became a military leader in the growing hostilities between Mecca and Medina.

• In 630, the Prophet and 10,000 of his followers marched to the outskirts of Mecca.

• Mecca’s leaders surrendered.
• The prophet entered the city in triumph.

• He destroyed the idols in the Ka’aba and had the call to prayer made from its roof.

• Most Meccans pledged their loyalty to Muhammad and many converted to Islam.
• Muhammad dies two years later at the age of 62.

• The main teaching of Islam is that there is only one God, Allah.

• Islam teaches that there is good and evil, and that each individuals is responsible for the actions of his or her life.
• To be a muslim all believer have to carry out 5 duties, these are known as the 5 pillars 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.
•  Prayer Five times a day, Muslims face toward Mecca to pray. They may assemble at a mosque (mahsk), an Islamic house of worship, or wherever they find themselves
• 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
• 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
• Pilgrimage All Muslims who are physically and financially able perform the hajj (haj), or pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once. Pilgrims wear identical garments so that all stand as equals before Allah.

• Carrying out the Five Pillars of Islam ensures that Muslims live their religion while serving in their community.
• Believers are forbidden to eat pork or to drink intoxicating beverages.
• Friday afternoons are set aside for communal worship.
• Islam has no priests or central religious authority.
• Every Muslim is expected to worship Allah directly.
• Islam has a scholar class called the ulama.

• It includes religious teachers who apply the words and deeds of Muhammad to everyday life.

• The original source of authority for Muslims is Allah.

• According to Islamic belief, Allah expressed his will through the angel Gabriel, who revealed it to Muhammad.

• While Muhammad was alive, his followers memorized and retired the revelations he received from Gabriel.

• Soon after his death it was suggested that the revelations be collected in a book.

• This book is called the Qur’an, the holy book of the Muslims.

• It is written in Arabic, and this is the version that is considered to be the true word of Allah.
• Only Arabic can be used in worship.

• To Muslims, Allah is the same God that is worshiped in Chrisitanity and Judaism.

• Muslims view Jesus as a prophet, not as the Son of God.
• Muslims believe that the Qur’an perfects the earlier revelations.

• To them it is the final book.

• All three religions believe in heaven and hell and a day of judgement.
• Muslims refer to Christians and Jews as “people of the book”

Chapter 10.2: Islam Expands

• In 632, Abu-Bakr became the first caliph, a title that means “successor” or “deputy”

• He had known Muhammad , and he used him as guides to leadership.
• He is known as the “rightly guided” caliphs.

• His rule was called a caliphate.

• He promised the muslim community he would uphold what Muhammad stood for.
• Shortly after the Prophet’s death, some tribes on the Arabian Peninsula abandoned Islam.

• Others refused to pay taxes, and a few individuals even declared themselves prophets.

• For the sake of Islam Abu-Bakr invoked Jihad.

• Jihad: means “striving” and can refer to the inner struggle against evil.

• The word is also used in the Qur’an to mean an armed struggle against unbelievers.
• For the next two years, Abu-Bakr applied this meaning to encourage and justify the expansion of Islam.

• When he died in 634, the Muslim state controlled all of Arabia.

• Under Umar, the second caliph, Muslim armies conquered Syria and lower Egypt, which were part of the Byzantine Empire.
• They also took parts of the Sassanid Empire.
• The next two caliphs, Uthman and ali, continued to expand Muslim territory.

• By 750 the Muslim Empire stretched 6000 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indus River.

• The Muslim armies were well disciplinened and expertly commanded.         

• The success of the armies was also due to weakness in the two empires north of Arabia.
• The Byzantine and Sassanid empires had been in conflict for a long period of time and were exhausted militarily.

• Aronther reason for the Muslim success was the persecution suffered by people under Byzantine or Sassanid rule because they did not support the official state religions, Christianity or Zoroastrianism.

• The persecuted people often welcomed the invaders and their cause and chose to accept Islam.
• They were attracted by the appeal of the message of Islam, which offered equality and hope in this world.
• They were also attracted by the economic benefit for Muslims of not having to pay a poll tax.

• Muslims allowed conquered peoples to follow their own religion.

• Christians and Jews “as people of the book” received special consideration.

• They paid a poll tax each year in exchange for exemption from military duties.
• They were also subject to various restrictions on their lives.

• They were not allowed to spread their religion, but they could be officials, scholars, and bureaucrats.

• The Muslim community had difficulty maintaining a unified rule.

• In 656, Uthman was murdered, starting a civil war in which various groups struggles for power.
• In 661 Ali too, was assassinated.

• A family known as the Umayyads then came to power.

• They moved the Muslim capital to Damascus.
• This location was away from Mecca, and it made controlling territory easier.

• The Arab Muslims felt that it was too far away from their lands.

• They abandoned the simple life of previous caliphs and began to surround themselves with wealth and ceremony similar to that of non-Muslim rulers.

• These actions, gave rise to  fundamental division in the Muslim community

• The majority of Muslims accepted the Umayyads rule.

• A minority continued to resist.
• This group’s developed an alternate view of the office of caliph.

• In this view, the caliph needed to be a descendant of the Prophet.
• This group was called Shi’a, meaning the “party” of Ali.

• Members of this group are called Shi’ites.

• Those who did not outwardly resist the rule of the Umayyads later became known as Sunni, meaning followers of Muhammad’s example.
• The Sufi, rejected the luxurious life of the Umayyads.

• They pursued a life of poverty and devotion to a spiritual path.

• Vigorous religious and political opposition to the Umayyad caliphate led to its downfall.

• Rebel groups overthrew the Umayyads in the year 750.
• The most powerful of those groups, the Abbasids took control of the empire.

• The Abbasids ruthlessly murdered the remaining members of the Umayyad family.

• One prince named Abd al-Rahman escaped the slaughter and fled to Spain.

• There he set up an Umayyad caliphate.

• Spain had already been conquered and settled by Mslims from North Africa, who were known as Berbers.

• They Berber armies advanced north to within 200 miles of Paris before being halted at the Battle of Tours in 732.

• They then settled in Southern Spain, where they helped form an extraordinary Muslim state in al-Andalus.

• To solidify power, the Abbasids moved the capital of the empire in 762 to a newly created city, Baghdad, in central Iraq.

• The location on key trade routes gave the caliph access to trade goods, gold, and information about the far-flung empire.
• The Abbasids developed a strong bureaucracy to conduct the huge empire’s affairs.

• A treasury kept track of money flow/
• A special department managed the business of the army.
• Diplomats from the empire were sent to courts in Europe, Africa, and Asia to conduct imperial business.

• To support this bureaucracy, the Abbasids taxed land, imports and exports, and non-Muslims’ weath.

• The Abbasid caliphate lasted from 750 to 1258.

• The Abbasids increased their authority by consulting religious leaders.
• They failed to keep complete political control of the immense territory

• Independent Muslim states sprang up and local leaders dominated many smaller regions.

• The Fatimid caliphate was formed by Shi’a Muslims who claimed descent from Muhammad’s daughter Fatima.

• It began in North Africa and spread across the REd Sea to western Arabia and Syria

Chapter 10.3: Muslim Culture

• Muslim society had a sophistication mathched at that time only by the Tang Empire of China.

• That cosmopolitan character was most evident in urban centers.
• Until the construction of Baghdad, Damascus was the leading city.

• It was the cultural center of Islamic learning.
• It impressed all who saw it, at its peak, it approached 1 million.

• The population was made up of different cultures and social classes, this was typical for a large Muslim city in the eigth and ninth centuries.
• It was made up of 4 social classes.

• The upper class included those who were muslims at birth.
• Converts to Islam were in the second class.
• The third class consisted of the “protected people” and included Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians.
• The lowest class was composed of slaves.

• Slaves were prisoners of war, and all were non-Muslim.
• They most frequently performed household work or fought in the military.

• The Qur’an says “Men are the managers of the affairs of women,” and “Righteous women are therefore obedient.”

• It also declares men and women as believers, are equal.
• The shari’a gave Muslim women speific legal rights concerning marriage, family, and property.
• Muslim women had more economic and property rights than European, Indian, and Chinese women of the same time period.

• Muslim women were still expected to submit to men.
• When a husband wanted to divorce his wife all he had to do was repeat three times, “I dismiss thee.”

• The divorce became final in three months.

• Responsibilities of Muslim women varied with the income of their husbands.

• The wife of a poor man would often work in the fields with her husband.
• Wealthier women supervised the household and its servants.

• They had access to education, and among them were poets and scholars.

• Rich or poor, women were responsible for the raising of the children.
• In the early days of Islam, women could also participate in public life and gain an education.

• Over time, they were forced to live increasingly isolated lives.

• When they did go out in public, they were expected to be veiled.

• Muslims had several practical reason for supporting the advancement of science.

• Rulers wanted qualified physicians treating their ills.
• The faithful throughout the empire relied on mathematicians and astronomers to calculate the times for prayer and the direction of Mecca.

• Their attitude also reflected a deep-seated curiosity about the world and a quest for truth.

• The Phrophet’s emphasis on study and scholarship led to strong support of paces of learning by Muslim leaders.

• After the fall of Rome in AD 476, Europe entered a period of upheaval and chaos, an era in which scholarship suffered.

• In the early 800s, Caliph al-Ma’mun opened in Baghdad a combination library, academy, and translation center called the House of Wisdom.

• Here,scholars of different cultures and beliefs worked side by side translating texts from Greece, India, Persia and elsewhere into Arabic.

• Scholars at the House of Wisdom included researchers, editors, linguists, and technical advisors.

• They developed standards and techniques for research that are a part of the basic method of today’s research.

• Literature had been a strong tradition in Arabia even before Islam.

• Bedouin poets, reflecting the spirit of desert life, composed poems celebrating ideals such as bravery, love, generosity, and hospitality.

• These themes continued to appear in poetry written after the rise of Islam.

• As the Muslim Empire expanded, the Arabs entered regions that had rich artistic traditions.

• Muslims continued these traditions but often adapted them to suit Islamic beliefs and practices.

• Since Muslims believe that only Allah can create life, images of living beings were discouraged.
• Many artists turned to calligraphy, or the art of beautiful hand writing.

• Others expressed themselves through the decorative arts, such as woodwork, glass, ceramics, and textiles.

• Muslim contributions in the sciences were most recognizable in medicine, mathematics, and astronomy.

• A Persian scholar named al-Razi was the greatest physician of the Muslim world.

• He wrote an encyclopedia called the Comprehensive Book that drew on knowledge from Greek, Syrian, Arabic, and Indian sources as well as on his own experience.

• Muslim scholars believed that mathematics was the basis of all knowledge.

• Many of the advances in mathematics were related to the study of astronomy.
• Muslim observatories charted stars, coments, and planets.