Transcript Chapter One

Chapter Six
The Rise & Spread of
Islam
6th Century Arabia
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Bedouin life
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– Polytheistic
– Women had important role
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Muhammad
Camel dependent nomads dominated Arabia.
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Alliances/warfare among tribes/clans
Pressures for change came from the Byzantine
and Sassanid empires and from the presence
of Judaism and Christianity.
Muhammad - member of the Banu Hasim clan
of the Quraysh, was born about 570.
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Orphan
became a merchant
resided in Mecca
married a wealthy widow, Khadijah
Encountered monotheistic ideas
dissatisfied w/material gain and went to
meditate in the hills
– In 610 - received revelations transmitted from
God via the angel Gabriel
– collected in the Qur’an - basis of Islam
Arabia – time of Muhammad
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Persecution, Flight, and Victory
– Umayyads felt threatened - Ka’ba god
– Invited to Medina - 622
– Return to Mecca - 629
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Arabs and Islam
Umma – community of the faithful
Universal Elements in Islam - 5 Pillars
1. Faith--acceptance of Islam
2. Prayer towards Mecca 5 times daily
3. Fasting during Ramadan
4. Payment of zakat (charity tax)
5. Hajj—pilgrimage
Strict moral code - temperance, humility, justice,
generosity, tolerance, obedience, and courage; a
ban on alcohol and pork; polygamy - permitted,
with four wife limit
Slavery was practiced, but Muhammad
encouraged the freeing slaves
Day of Judgment
Sacred books: the Koran; the Hadith - sayings of
the Prophet; and the Shari’a - Islamic law
Muhammad
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Explain the
5 pillars of
Islam
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Islam’s
Appeal
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What
accounts for
the
popularity of
Islam?
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Monotheism
Legal code - Religion & politics mixed
= holy war – or Jihad
Egalitarianism
Communal
Built upon Judaism & Christianity –
did not claim that J & C were incorrect
– just that Islam was a refinement of
those earlier religions
No institutionalized church or clergy or
elaborate ritual
Mosque - place of worship & teaching
by scholars
no statues or religious images
No need to accumulate great wealth
like Catholic Church
Consolidation & Division in the Islamic
Community
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Was the
caliph a
political or
religious
leader?
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No procedure for selecting a new leader
Abu Bakr – early convert; friend of Muhammad;
divorced 1st wife b/c she would not convert to Islam
Chosen as caliph - leader of the Islamic
community
Ridda Wars – rival tribes & prophets defeated
restored Islamic unity
Motives for Arab Conquest
Islamic Conversions & Booty
Sassanian (Persian) Empire - easily defeated
Byzantium - Arabs quickly seized western Iraq, Syria,
Palestine, and Egypt.
By the 640s - Arabs - naval supremacy in the eastern
Mediterranean; extend into north Africa and southern
Europe
Expansion of the Islamic Empire - 7th and 8th Centuries
The
Problem of
Succession
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What
caused
the
Sunni
- Shi’a
split?
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Uthman
3rd caliph - murdered
Ali
Rejected by Umayyads
lost the support of his most radical adherents,
the Umayyads won the renewed hostilities
The Umayyad leader, Mu’awiya, was proclaimed
caliph in 660.
Ali was assassinated in 661
His son, Husayn, was killed at Karbala in 680.
The dispute left a permanent division within
Islam.
The Shi’a, eventually dividing into many
sects, continued to uphold the rights of
Ali’s descendants to be caliphs
Sunni – Umayyads
Shi’a – Ali’s descendants
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The Umayyad Empire’s push west
– Stopped by Franks at Poitiers, 732
– Retain Iberia
Converts
 People of
the Book
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Fall of
Umayyad
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Mawali, non-Arab converts
Dhimmi, people of the book
– Jews, Christians
– Zoroastrians and Hindus
Umayyad Decline and Fall
Revolts
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Abassid revolt
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750, Umayyads defeated by Abassids
The First Encounter of Muslims & Indian culture -Buddhism
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Commercial relations between India and Mesopotamia began as early as
3000 BCE and between India and Egypt, through intermediary ports of
Yemen
In 255 BCE, the Indian Mauryan emperor, Ashoka (r. 273 - 232 BCE),
sent Buddhist monks as ambassadors to establish relations with
Syria, Egypt & Macedonia.
Communities of Indian traders, both Hindu and Buddhist, settled in some
of the major sea and river ports of Asia Minor, the Arabian Peninsula and
Egypt.
Indians of other occupations soon followed.
The Syrian writer, Zenob, wrote of an Indian community, complete with
its own religious temples, in modern-day Turkey, and a Greek, Dion
Chrysostemos (40 – 112 CE), wrote of a similar community in Alexandria,
Egypt.
With the decline of Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations much
of the trade between India and the West came through Mecca,
birthplace of Muhammad (570 - 632 CE)
Indian communities established themselves in the Arab world – Jats (of
modern-day Basrah, Iraq) The Prophet’s wife, Aisha, was once treated by
a Jat physician.
Muhammad was undeniably familiar with Indian culture.
The Early Abassid Era
Sunni rule – less tolerant; rulers more authoritarian
– repressed Shi’a
– New capital - Baghdad
 Islamic conversion increased (WHY?) & Mawali accepted
 Urban expansion - growth in wealth and status of
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merchant and landlord classes
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– Muslim merchants moved goods from W. Mediterranean to the
South China Sea
– increased artisan handicraft production
– skilled artisans formed guild-like organizations to negotiate wages
and working conditions
Ayan – rural, landowning elite
Peasants – tenants farmers - had to give most crop to landowner
Slaves - unskilled laborers & servants to caliphs & high officials
**Few slaves held powerful positions & gained freedom**
Most unskilled slaves, many of them Africans, worked under terrible
conditions.
Growth of Islamic Learning
Under the Abbasids - mosques & palaces built
 Religious, legal codes, philosophy, sciences and
mathematics records written
 Arab scholars recovered & preserved the
works of Greeks & passed them to the
Christian world (during Crusades)
 Introduced Indian (“Arabic”) numbers to
Mediterranean world
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Islamic
learning
1st global
civilization
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The Turkish people converted to Islam
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Arabs had created the first global civilization,
incorporating many linguistic and ethnic groups
into one culture through Islam - one of the great
universal religions.
In both religion and politics, Muslims
adopted much from earlier & contemporary
civilizations
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Chart
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Compare women in the Islamic world
with women in India, China, and the
Byzantine Empire.
– Legal rights
– Marriage Family Life
– Education/Economic role