The Islamic World

• where islam developed
• 80% desert
• southwest corner extremely fertile
• northern parts not as fertile as they used to be
• major industdy was agriculture

• spices like frankincense, myrrh, cinnomon
• relation: one of the three kimgs gifts to jesus was frankincense

• most people who lived in the arabian
• where there was no water, people were shepherds

• nomadic people who lived in tents always on the move looking for food for their animals
• they would end up fighting eachother for water

in a battle for land, water, etc if clan 1 destroys clan 2 and there are clan 2 survivors, those survivors become slaves to clan one, however they can move up on the social scale. if clan one destroys clan 3 and there are clan 3 survivors, those survivors become slaves and the clan 2 slaves become citizens of clan 1

• a shady area with a water source such as a well
• some bedouins settled here

Yathrib and Mecca

• A town developed to meet the needs of the traders and nomads that came through
• an oasis
• muhammad later moved there and changed the name to medina

• intersection of 2 major trade routes
• not an oasis, but did have a well
• charged people for water
• focused on and made most money on people comming and going from sacred sites
• traders herders and religious fanatics passed through here

• treated very well
• were not slaves for life- could move up in social status
• citizens liked having slaves to breed with to make a bigger family

• organized into clans with extended family and tribes
• male dominated society

• leader of the tribe who has proved himself worthy by fighting, having good ideas, etc
• the Sheikh took advice from other male advisors in the clan

• women could own property
• could inherit
• main role was mother

friendly and hospitable, but land ownership and money caused fights

they offered you water comming into a town and you do not accept

• his parents died when he was young and because of the clan system his grandparents and uncle raised him in a tent in Mecca
• at 10/11 years old, he was put to work full time, bc the lifespan was shorter then
• Managed a caravan buisness for a rich widow- whom he later married and had four kids with
• -->only one child, Fatimah survived (death rate of children was 90%)
• His wife died out of complications of delivering Fatimah

• Muhammad was very persuasive and an EXCELLENT salesman-he was very charismatic
• He operated the caravan buisness out of Mecca
• --> Mecca was the home of Kabah- a religious shrine for Jews and Christians
• Muhammad was introduced to both Jewish and Christian customs
• He would dress and act like a Christian when they passed through to make them feel like he understood their religion so he would do buisness with him
• --> he did the same thing for Jews to get buisness from him
• --> he learned a lot about both religions from doing this

• he went to the hills to meditate because he was upset that a competing caravan buisness had been opened.
• he had a "life changing moment"
• Gabriel, an angel, spoke to him, and told him to pray on the hill everyday, and Muhammad did
• over the next 22 years Muhammad had many visits from Gabriel and he wrote them all down in a book that later became the Qur'an

a religious shrine for Jews and Christians

• book written by Muhammad about his religious experiences
• the holy book of islam
• the third edition of the holy book

• 1st: Thora
• 2nd: Bible- spoken to mary, Jesus, etc
• 3rd: Qur'an

• ^ another similarity between Christianity Jewdaism and Islam, holy books are similar
• the Qur'an is the best and most accurate edition because Muhammad wrote in a book, not stone like Moses did

the theory that there is only one God and you only worship one God

• felt there was only one God and everyone should obey his message
• all people should prtect the needy and the week as well as eachother
• Believed in Allah

God. Was the same god ad the Christians and Jews, just called a different name (another similarity)

• just another prophet, like Abraham, Moses, and Jesus
• he was just spreading "the word"

• made clans mad, his "connection with God" threatened authority
• he created a debate because his teachings made people question if a God or a human ruler was the highest power and the power they should listen to
• main question was "Who was the leader of men? God? Which one?"
• Jews and Christians now wouldn't go through Mecca, bc they thought Muhammad was a fraud
• -->Muhammad and the people of Mecca suffered the consequinces of this because the religious people passing through Mecca were their best way to make money

• a trip
• in this case the flight or migration from Mecca to Yathrib for Muhammad who moved

he and his followers left to act as peace keepers

• they knew him from his caravan buisness and they let him move there without a fight, even though he had 200 followers!
• --> this was one of the first documented movements without a fight

• he became the spiritual and political leader of the town
• unlike the people in Mecca (besides his followers), the people of Yathrib liked his beliefs and teachings
• Yathrib changed its name to Medina- meaning the city of the prophet
• Muhammad's first year in Yathrib became the first year of the Muslim calander

• peaceful
• nice
• positive
• persuasive
• the ray of sunshine in a bad area

an advisor to the sultan

a person of the Islamic faith

• they decided to rebel against Muhammad- they call him a con artist, scammer, trash his reputation
• --> this irritates Muhammad because he never trashed them, he embraced and learned their religions
• --> because they didn't recognize him as a prophet, he moved away from any of their teachings

• he tells them to pray facing Mecca, or facing East, the first place he talked to God.
• He literally turned his back of the Catholics and Jews

• they converted most of the people in the desert.
• after this he decides to build an army to attack Mecca- Muhammad being recognized as the leader and his religion the only in Arabia
• he was able to take over mecca, and took over trading systems. He baisically controlled the Arabian Penninsula

:)

• a power vaccuum was created because he had not chosen a successor
• --> everyone wanted to rule
• Most tribes had began following the Islam religion because they liked Muhammad and his teachings, when Muhammad died, many people moved away from the Islam faith
• --> to have any chance of those people comming back, the new leader needed to be liked

• Ali: cousin of Muhammad and married to his daughter, Fatima
• Abu Bakr: Muhammad's first convert and oldest friend. Abu Bakr was the first man that actually believed that Muhammad was connected to God in some way
• --> most followers trusted Abu Bakr due to his allegiance to Muhammad. He was chosen by other leaders

• he was Muhammad's successor
• Muhammad was the last prophet, he said. He called himself a Caliph- successor to the Prophet
• Abu wasn't a prophet, he just promoted Muhammad's teachings

leader but not a prophet

• he told people that he was in control and that he was Muhammad's right hand man. He was able to convert tribes back that had broken away from Islam
• --> this was possible for Abu because he was as charismatic and smart as Muhammad was

• he creates an army by taking the 5 strongest people from each tribe.
• -->this ensured that they would have an extremely strong army, the tribes wouldn't fight eachother because nobody wants to attack their own tribe and they would be working together, and it would make the other tribes weaker because each tribe's five strongest men were in Abu's army
• the army began attacking north (modern day Iraq and Syria)- the Persians and Byzantines- the army won, expanding Islam

• his death left his second in line long term follower, Umar, to take over. He had some blood connection to Muhammad
• Ali isn't that happy that Umar is chosen, but blows it over and doesnt make a big deal.

• he allowed the military to keep some of the gold, money, etc that they conquered during war
• --> Umar believed that the soldiers would fight harder if they were given gold and things for it
• --> This made more people want to join, because they could get wealthier
• the military was created to spread the holy word, but it just became a money source that people were looking to join to make money

• it gets bigger and stronger because of new recruits
• the military took over all of the Arabian Penninsula and some of the Nile River Valley
• the government and military are getting rich, and money causes problems

• they became slaves and such but were not forced to convert
• --> they werent forced to convert because they were considered people of the book, people who followed a holy book similar to the Qur'an (another similarity)

• he was killed by a slave that felt he wasn't treated properly (Umar was somewhat abusive to slaves)
• --> slaves punishment for killing Umar would be death

Uthman: another early convert that was chosen over Ali who was Muhammad's own cousin!

• this is where Ali begins to get aggrivated.
• he begins to question leadership for the first time

• Uthman is a horrible leader. he was corrupt and favored people in his own clan by giving them better jobs and stuff like that.
• Uthman was eventually killed by someone from Ali's clan who was mad that Ali wasn't picked as successor

• Ali was chosen... finally
• the problem was that Ali was immediately challenged by Muawiaya- the next in line for rule in Uthman's clan

that Ali had something to do with the murder of Uthman

• Ali was assasinated
• Muawiaya took over as Caliph

there was a split in the beliefs

Sunnis and Shiahs

• people who followed Muawiaya as Caliph. More strict of the Qur'an. Believed in way of the prophets, they followed the Caliphs
• they tried to follow Muhammad;s example in problem solving
• the Caliphs made the ultimate decisions

• a more loose clan. they felt superior to the Caliphs and blessed by God because they were in the bloodline of Muhammad
• they were followers of Ali
• they did not have Caliphs, they had Imams

• Ali's successors
• religious scholars who studied and interpreted the Qur'an
• pros at the Muslim faith
• typically had some sort of bloodline to Muhammad
• there were imams in each region

people liked that they had a choice of which way to go

Baghdad

• a sunni leader who lead their army
• conquered land in Asia, North Africa, Spain, southern France, and even near constantinople

• they became a "client" or second class citizen
• they werent forced to convert, but they wouldn't get as good jobs and such as the Muslims

• new leaders build that built the new capital in Baghdad
• tried to expand even more

• similar to 10 commandments (another similarity)
• the duties expected of all muslims (sunnis and shiahs)
• they were explained by Muhammad
• 1.) say the confession of faith: claiming that there is only one god. this is how they started each day
• 2.) Pray 5 times a day, facing Mecca
• 3.) Donate money to church to help poor members of society- this was called a payment of alms (happens in every major church) (similarity)
• 4.)Fast during the holy month of Ramadan- calander is different than ours so it rotates over different times of the year. (they can only eat between sunset and sunrise during Ramadan)
• 5.) Make the hajj, the pilgramage or trip, to Mecca once in your life if possible

• modern day pillar
• not everyone follows it
• talks about Jihad

• found in the Qur'an
• holy war- struggle for the faith
• soldiers may fight to expand their faith
• the rule that pushes many terrorists
• says if they are killed expanding their faith they will go to "paradise" heaven

• cant eat pork
• cant drink alcohalic beverages
• must treat their slaves well and free them after a certian amount of time
• men may have no more than 4 wives- each treated equally
• women can have only one husband

a double standard, such as if a guy sleeps with many girls he is famous but if a girl sleeps with many guys she is a slut

• spelled out by the Qur'an
• 1st son gets inheritence
• --> if no son, 1st daughters husband gets it
• --> if the daughter isnt married, the uncle holds onto it until she gets married

• religious experts that explaines what Allah would expect people to do
• when an Ulama made a decision, it became the law

• legal system that says every decision a muslim makes is influenced by the Islamic Law.
• Almost like the constitution for the muslim faith
• guided personal conduct and govronment

went from a peaceful community to a warring nation where people made money off of war

:)

• Is the Qur;an the exact word of God? or just people's interpretations to be followed?
• --> if god is omniscient (All knowing) and omnipotent (all powerful), how could people do anything without his or her ok to begin with?

that the Qur'an was the law and that Muhammad's actions were the way to solve problems. They thought, "what would Muhammad do?"

very materialistic

• a very strict new branch
• followers of sufism focused on the pure devotion to Allah and the Qur'an
• --> these people were NOT materialistic at all

• science and learning
• literature and art

• they added the greek numbers system with the Indian decimal system to create the "Arabic" number system
• muslims also developed algebra which helped in construction
• --> text books were written to teach it

• was invented by Greeks and Romans to look at the stars
• re-invented by muslims
• algebra helped muslims use astrolab and stars to map out an accurate land map, which improved trade

• doctors had to take tests
• pharmacy school developed
• public hospitals
• encyclopedias
• worked on diseases and wound care unlike western europe who only worked on wound care

• each caliph tried to out do their predecssor by paying artists to create "stuff" they will be remembered by
• -->writing new stories: caligraphy
• --> parts of the qur'an written out

• rulers of Spain
• built a huge palace in the city of Cordoba
• they were very tolerant of religions

• a multicultural city- they had arabs, africans, europeans,
• muslims realize that this is a great place to be for trade and they move there for financial gains

the trading center