Transcript The Worlds of Islam

The Worlds of Islam
600-1500
Tribal Feuds
• Prior to Islam:
* Arab world organized by tribal groups
*Bedouin groups
*bitter feuds clashing over access
to trade centers and oases
--peninsula part of routes betx Mediterranean
and Indian Ocean= economic growth
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Mecca
• Important pilgrimage site
– *home of Kaaba= shrine with 100s of tribal
gods
– Quraysh tribe dominate city
*become wealthy from taxing pilgrims
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Contact with Byzantine and
Sassanid Empires
• Arabian Peninsula next to both these
powerful empires
• Variety of people (Christian and Persian)
lived on peninsula
• Contact with Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians
spread idea of monotheism in the
polytheistic world
Messenger Story
• Muhammad Ibn Abdullah (570-632)
• ------see Ms K’s story board---• The revelations were actually a call to
return to a pure faith in Abraham
--purge corruptions and errors
*Jews wrongly saw themselves as chosen people
*Christians wrongly turned their prophet into a god
*Arabs were wrongly polytheistic and idol
worshippers
Some other Terms/Faith items
• Umma= a new community of the faithful
where the poor and vulnerable would be
protected
• Jihad
*greater Jihad= struggle within one’s self to
overcome greed and sinful desires
*lesser Jihad= struggle of the sword to
protect the community from external threats
Transformation of Arabia
• Membership in the Umma was not based on
family but upon faith
• Came into conflict with neighbors
• Most of peninsula unified under the Islamic
state
• Sharia= law system = no distinction
between religious and civil law
Making an Arab Empire
• Armies rapidly spread out of peninsula=
conquered Spain= invaded France= reached Indus
River= invaded Egypt= Persian Sassanid Empire
fell= And much of Byzantine lands
• Battle of Talas (751)
*defeated the Chinese in central Asia
*Turkic people become a widespread Islamic
culture
Economics
• Part of rich trade routes
• Productive farmlands
--increasing wealth of the new empire
• Dhimmis= “people of the book”=
Jews/Christians/Zoroastrians = can keep
own religion but required to pay a tax
instead of military service= Jizya
• Tolerance allowed these faiths to continue
Conversion
• Many early converts were prisioners of wr or
slaves or due to avoiding paying the tax
• Merchants found it helpful to form connections
with the community
• Arabic language and culture adopted by converts
in Africa/Mesopotamia
• East of Tigris River areas did not adopt Arabic
(Turks, Persians, Indus Valley kept traditional
languages)
• Persian culture, in fact, spread into the wider
Muslim world (architecture, administration, art)
Women and Men
• During the revelations Muhammad created rules
that protected women and gave them some control
over their property/rt to divorce.
• Even though men were still allowed multiple
wives (limit 4) all were to be cared for equally
• Devout women would receive Allah’s blessings
just as men would
Restrictions
• After the prophets death Arab empires established
increasing restrictions on elite women
• Veiling and sequestering were traditions in the
pre-Islamic world
• Segregated in the mosque but not excluded (Some
Jewish sects and Christian denominations also
segregated women inside the worship space)