Transcript Diapositiva 1

Hinojo, Nicole
Macazaga, Florencia
Mastrolorenzo, Marco
M1 “A”
Arabia and the
Arabs
Government and
Economy
Mohammed
The Turks
The Faith of Islam
The Spread of Islam
End
The Penninsula of Arabia is mostly a
desert with very little vegetation. In the
past, it could only support nomadic
herds men with their flocks of sheep.
These nomadic arabs are called
Bedouins and they were organised in
tribes whose leader has absolute
power and was called the “sheik”.
Different sort of goods came form Africa
and Asia. The cities of Jidda (it was also a
port) and Mecca. From there the caravans
of traders move from their locations to
the cities to sell and buy goods.
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Mohammed was born in Mecca about 570,
orphaned at an easly age and spent his youth
in poverty. He had little formal education and
was a good caravan trader.
While he was still a young man, he began
to think more about problems of religion
and conduct. By the time the Arabs
workshipped many gods, Mohammed
became convinced that there was only one
God, whom he called Allah.
At the age of forty, he had a great religious
experience. He believed the archangel Gabriel
had ordered him to bring the Arabs religious
purity, but he did not claim to have supernatural
powers. He, like Moses, considered himself a
prophet and teacher.
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But his preaching met bitter opposition with
the rulers of Mecca. Because of this, he took
his little group of followers to a close town
called Medina. This event is known as the
Hegira, which means “flight”. It was such an
important event in his life, that this date,
622, became the first year on the Muslim
calendar.
In Medina, he made many converts, and became
the leader of these people. In a few years, he was
made the head of an army and he captured
Mecca. Thanks to toleration, wise policies and
force, he coverted the Bedouin tribes to his
religion. When he died in 632, almost all Arabia
had accepted Allah.
The name that Mohammed gave to
the new religion was “Islam” that
means “to obey God” and “to be
submissed to God”.
The people who have the belief of
Islam is called Muslim.
The Muslim people had four main obligations:
1) They have to pray to God five times a day facing the
direction of La Mecca.
2) They must make a pilgrimage to Mecca once in his lifetime.
3) They must give alms to the needy.
4) They must fast from sunrise to sunset during the month of
Ramadan. The month of Ramadan is considered the month
when Mohammed had his spiritual vision.
Mohammed considered the values of humility, tolerance, obedience, generosity
and justice as the most important once that all Muslims should have.
A Muslim man was allowed to
have up to 4 wives only if he
could offer them the same
material aspects.
The Muslim religion does not
allow to consume alcohol.
It is not allowed in this religion to
have representations or images of
God or Mohammed.
The Muslims accepted the
concepts of Holy War: in the case
the community felt threatened by
enemies, they were allowed to
declaire war and that God would
protect them.
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There are not priests, no nuns, no monks, no pope
in the Muslim religion. There is only a “Mullah”
that is a Muslim person that guides the players.
The most important religious building for the
Islamic people is the Mosque (Mezquita).
When Mohammed died in 632 AD his
successors expanded the new religion in all
Arabia, northern part of Africa and in the
Byzantine Empire.
The Muslims who live in Spain are
called Moors.
At the other end of the Mediterranean Sea
the Muslims could enter into Europe
through the straight of Gibraltar. In 711 AD
the Muslim general called Tarik defeated
the King of the Visigoths and since then
the Arab culture and people influenced
greatly in the Spanish territory.
By 732 AD the Moors who were
trying to expand over France
were defeated by the father of
Charles the Great.
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At the head of the Government there was
the supreme civil, military and religious
leader of all the Islamic Empire. He was
called Caliph.
The territory of the Empire was organised
into provinces.
Later the Empire was divided into three
parts. Each part was ruled by a Caliph: one
was in Bagdad, another in Cairo (Egypt), and
the last one was in Cordova (Spain).
Trade was the most important activity
for the Islamic Empire. There was a big
variety of goods for trading.
For the Arabs, there was development
of agriculture everywhere.
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Even though they were divided politically, the Moslem remained united in one great
civilization. At first, the Arabs were backward people but still intelligent. If they formed
ideas, customs and institutions, they were always willing to keep the best ones.
The Moslem culture was very advanced. Scientists wrote books on many
subjects their geographers and navigators were the finest in the world.
They learned paper – making from Chinesse.
Moslems had a lot of medical knowledge. In the 900’s at Bagdad, a Moslem
physician called Rhazes wrote about small pox, surgey diseases of the eye
and measles.
They were also excellent mathematicians.
Two of the contributions to maths from the
Arabs were:
1) They perfected algebra as a science.
2) The introduction to the Western world
of Arabic numerals.
There were two ways in which the
Europeans come into contact with the
Moslem culture. One was through Spain and
the other through Crusades.
The great era of the Moslem
culture lasted from 700 to 1000
AD. After that, men who believed
in “following the letter of the
Koran” became powerful in the
Moslem world. They could have
free thoughts and foreign ideas.
But invasions from the Turks and
Mongols bowered the cultural
level of the Moslems. Since Spain
was more independent, Moslem
culture flourished longer there.
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Before the 1300, the Arabs had a peaceful relationship with most of the people who
lived in their Empire.
But at the beginning of the 1300, a new group of Turks called Ottoman invaded
succesfully most of the Islamic territories.
Then Turks invaded a place that was very close to the capital of the Byzantine Empire
(Constantinople).
By 1453 they attacked Constantinople itself and made it the capital of the new Ottoman Empire.
Before that the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire asked for help to the Christian Kingdoms of
Europe to expellied “the enemies of Christianity”. This military expeditions that went to
Palestain and Eastern Asia are called “The Crusades”.
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