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 600s,
city of Mecca - important stopping
point for religious pilgrims, who visited a
religious site dedicated to the worship of
Abraham
 Muhammad
was born in
Mecca
 became
a businessman
 married
a wealthy
woman named Khadijah
 interested
in religion &
spent a lot of time in
prayer and meditation
 Muslim
belief - one night while Muhammad was
meditating, an angel appeared & told him that
he was a chosen messenger of god, Allah
 The Muslim word for god is Allah.
 Muhammad
began to teach that Allah was the
only god.
 People
who followed Muhammad were called
Muslims & practiced the religion of Islam,
meaning “submission to Allah.”
The 5 Pillars:
1. Faith – All Muslims make a testament of
faith, that there is only one god, Allah, and
Muhammad is his messenger.
2. Prayer – Face to Mecca and pray 5 times
each day.
3. Alms – Give money to the poor.
4. Fasting – Do not eat during daylight hours
in the holy month of Ramadan.
5. Pilgrimage – Travel to Mecca at least once
in your life if you are physically and
financially able.
 The
Qur’an is the holy book of Islamic belief.
 Only
the Arabic language is spoken in Muslim
prayer.


In 656, a Muslim caliph named Uthman was murdered.
His successor, Ali was also murdered.
A family named the Umayyads came to power. They
Moved the capital of the Islamic empire from Mecca, to
Damascus.

A group of Muslims who did not like the rule
of the Umayyad family broke away from
them. This split Muslims into two groups:
Abu-Bakr became the caliph, or religious
leader, of the Muslims after Muhammad’s
death in 632.
 Abu-Bakr declared jihad (religious war),
against people who did not follow Islam.
Jihad – used to expand the Islamic empire.
 A disciplined military & expert commanders
aided the Islamic empire in conquest.
 Muslims allowed all conquered people to
retain religious freedom.

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Abassids (Islamic group) came to power in 750
moved the capital of Islam to Baghdad (Iraq)
developed a strong bureaucracy to help manage affairs
of the empire
had separate government departments for the treasury,
the management of the military, & foreign affairs
created taxes to help fund their empire
Arabian Peninsula - crossroads between Africa, Asia,
& Europe
 New capital at Baghdad had easy access to
Mediterranean, Indian Oceans, & Silk Road trading
route that connected Europe w/ China
 Arabian Peninsula used a common language, Arabic,
& a common currency

Muhammad believed strongly in the power for
learning:
 (Medicine) Ibn Sina began working as a
doctor at age 18 & became one of Islam’s
leading medical scholars. He wrote several
books, the most famous of which are The
Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine

(Geography) Ibn Battuta was a famous
Muslim explorer. He traveled throughout
the known world (farther even than Marco
Polo). He recorded his journeys in his book
Rihla (meaning “voyage”)