Chapter 6 Islamic World

What do you see?

Shi’a (dark green) & Sunni (light green) What do you see?

Rise of Islam Muhammad began to meditate in the hills because he became troubled by the gap between the honesty of most Makkans and the greediness of trading elites in the city.

Muhammad, the main prophet of the religion Islam believed Allah’s teachings were revealed to him through the angel Gabriel. The Quran, the Islamic scriptures, came from these revelations. Muslims were considered followers of Islam.

According to Islamic belief, Muhammad is the prophet of Allah. For Muslims, obeying Allah’s will means following the Five Pillars of Islam.

The Five Pillars of Islam are acts of worship: 1.There is no God but Allah 2.You must pray five times a day 3.Give part of your wealth to the poor 4.You must fast from dawn to sunset during Ramadan 5.And you must make a pilgrimage to Makkah once in your lifetime called the hajj.

After Muhammad’s death, Muslim scholars drew up the shari’ah, which is a law code that provides believers with a set of practical laws to regulate their daily lives. In addition to the Five Pillars, Muslims must obey the shari’ah, which forbids them to gamble, eat pork, drink alcoholic beverages, or engage in dishonest behavior.

Arab Empire and Its Successors After Muhammad’s death, some of Muhammad’s closest followers chose Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law as the new leader. He was named the first caliph, or successor to Muhammad.

To spread the Muslim movement, Abu Bakr took part in the “struggle in the way of God,” or jihad. In 661 general Mu’awiyah became caliph. He was a rival of Ali (Muhammad’s son in law) and was known for one major virtue: –He used force only if necessary.

He made the office of caliph (caliphate) hereditary and began the Umayyad dynasty. A revolt led by Hussein in the early Umayyad period led to the split of Islam into two groups, the Shiites and the Sunnis. The groups disagreed on who should be the rightful caliph. Muslim Shi’a (Shiite) Sunni

Resentment against Umayyad rule grew because non-Arab Muslims did not like the way local administrators favored Arabs. Eventually, the Abbasids replaced the Umayyad dynasty.

Growth of Abbasid Dynasty

During the Abbasid dynasty, a prime minister known as a vizier led the council that advised the caliph. It was during Abbasid dynasty that the Christian Crusades started in Christians feared the Muslim Empire that had gained control of Palestine and Jerusalem.

For the next 200 years Crusaders fought Arab Muslims for control of the territory. Saladin eventually took control of the territory in 1187 by destroying the Christian forces in Jerusalem.

The Crusades had little lasting impact on Southwest Asia, except to breed centuries of mistrust between Muslims and Christians. A far more important threat had emerged from the Mongols.

The Mongols who seized Baghdad in 1258 eventually blend with the Muslims who lived there because many of the Mongols converted to Islam. They intermarried with the local people. Over time, the Mongols rebuilt the cities they destroyed during the invasion.

Islamic Civilization With a population of two hundred thousand, Cordoba was Europe’s largest city after Constantinople. A crucial part of every Muslim city or town was the bazaar, which was a covered market.

The Quran granted women spiritual and social equality with men, and women could own and inherit property. But, men dominated in the Arab Empire.

Every woman had a male guardian. Women were secluded at home and kept from social contacts with men outside their families.

Culture of Islam It was through the Muslim world that Europeans recovered the works of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers.

Omar Khayyám is most famous for his literary works, especially the Rubaiyat. Muslim scholar and scientist Ibn Sina wrote a medical encyclopedia that was translated into Latin and became a basic textbook in Europe.

The minaret is the tower from which the crier, or muezzin, calls the faithful to prayer five times a day. Most decorations on Islamic art are of repeated Arabic letters, plants, and abstract figures. These geometric patterns are called arabesques.

Most importantly, no representations of the prophet Muhammad adorning mosques because the Hadith warns against any attempt to imitate God by creating pictures of living beings.

Abbasids or Umayyad?