Download umayyad and abbasid caliphate compared

Post Classical Take Home Test
MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the
question.
1) Why did the Arab warriors not want to convert large numbers of people to Islam?
A) Conversion would have slowed down the process of conquest.
B) They would have had to share their booty and would have lost tax revenues.
C) Muhammad specifically stated that Islam could only be spread among the Arabs.
D) They wanted to keep high religious offices among themselves.
E) They lacked the political organization to govern them and feared insurrection by non-Arabs.
2) The Abbasids moved the political center of their empire to
A) Jerusalem.
B) Merv.
C) Baghdad.
D) Constantinople.
E) Damascus.
3) When did Muhammad receive the first revelations that were eventually written down in the Quran?
A) 550 C.E.
B) 622 C.E.
C) 711 C.E.
D) 610 C.E.
E) 632 C.E.
4) What was the nature of the material culture of bedouin society?
A) The bedouins constructed numerous temple complexes featuring monumental architecture in the form of pyramids.
B) Except in the sedentary agricultural communities of the south, there was little art or architecture; and the chief focus
of cultural creativity was oral poetry.
C) Mecca was a major center for the development of art and architecture, but the desert bedouin produced little of
cultural value.
D) Although their nomadic lifestyle did not permit the development of monumental architectural forms, the bedouins
were skilled painters and sculptors.
E) The bedouins preserved the learning of classical cultures.
5) The term for non-Arab Muslim converts is
A) dhow.
B) umma.
C) jizya.
D) mawali.
E) dhimmis.
6) Which of the following statements concerning inter-clan relationships in bedouin society is most accurate?
A) Inter-clan violence over control of water and pasturage was common.
B) Violence in Bedouin society was generally limited to slave uprisings.
C) Clans within the same tribe almost never engaged in warfare, but violence between different tribes was common.
D) Inter-clan violence was regulated by a universally recognized code of law imposed by the Quraysh in Mecca.
E) Arabic society was too mobile to result in many contacts between clans, therefore violence was minimal.
7) What was the nature of citizenship within the Umayyad Empire?
A) The Umayyads recognized all residents of their empire, whether Muslims or "peoples of the book" as full citizens.
B) All converts to Islam, regardless of their ethnic origins, were full citizens and members of the elite.
C) Malawi were accorded full rights of citizenship.
D) Only Muslim Arabs were first-class citizens of this great empire.
E) Arabs rapidly lost their dominance in the Umayyad Empire to the native residents of Persia.
8) Which of the following statements most accurately describes the status of women in bedouin society prior to Islam?
A) Women were regarded as little more than property with neither rights nor status.
B) Women were permitted to take more than one husband.
C) Women were the equal of males in the rugged society of the desert bedouin.
D) Descent in bedouin tribes was strictly patrilineal.
E) Women in pre-Islamic bedouin culture enjoyed greater freedom and higher status that those of the Byzantine and
Persian Empires.
9) Which of the following cultures found in the Arabian peninsula was most significant in shaping the development of
Islam?
A) urban
B) sedentary agricultural villages
C) bedouin
D) medieval
E) hunting and gathering
10) Which of the following statements concerning bedouin society is NOT accurate?
A) Bedouins were rarely found living in urban areas.
B) Bedouins lived in highly mobile tent encampments.
C) Clans were commonly congregated together in larger tribal groupings.
D) Bedouin herders lived in kin-related clan groups.
E) Arabian society fostered strong dependence on loyalty and cooperation with kin.
11) Which of the following regions was NOT affected by Islam in the millennium after 600 A.D.?
A) South America
B) North Africa
C) Asia
D) Europe
E) Sub-Saharan Africa
12) The political and theological faction within Islam that recognized only Ali and the descendants of the family of
Muhammad as rightful rulers was called
A) Sufis.
B) Shi'is.
C) Kharij.
D) Sunnis.
E) Fiqhs.
13) What was the date of Muhammad's flight to Medina from Mecca?
A) 610 C.E.
B) 622 C.E.
C) 635 C.E.
D) 711 C.E.
E) 570 C.E.
14) Which of the following statements concerning the ethical system of early Islam is NOT correct?
A) Islam stressed the dignity of all believers and their equality in the eyes of Allah.
B) It recognized the truth of similar ethical ideas in Judaism and Christianity.
C) Islam stressed the responsibility of the wealthy and strong to care for the poor and weak.
D) The teachings of the Prophet and the Quran were not formally incorporated into a body of law.
E) A tax for charity was obligatory in the new faith.
15) What was the nature of Islamic religion that developed in Southeast Asia?
A) Because Islam was carried to Southeast Asia from China, it bore many of the characteristics of Buddhism.
B) Because Islam was carried by conquering warriors from India, it rejected the native Buddhism and Hinduism in
preference for more conservative Islamic orthodoxy.
C) It was based on Islamic science and rationalism.
D) Because Islam came to Southeast Asia from India and was spread by Sufi holy men, it developed a mystical nature
that incorporated much of indigenous religion.
E) Because most of the missionaries were ulama from Arabia, the religion most closely resembled Islam as practiced in
the first generations after Muhammad.
16) What group successfully captured Baghdad in 1055?
A) Buyids
B) Berbers
C) Ghazni
D) Mongols
E) Seljuk Turks
17) Why were the practices of seclusion and veiling seen as essential in Islamic society?
A) Veiling was seen as a means of halting the practice of concubinage.
B) Women were believed to be possessed of insatiable lust from which men had to be protected.
C) Veiling allowed women to hide their identities and to avoid the rash of dynastic strife.
D) Women were only permitted to engage in business if their identities were hidden.
E) Veiling discouraged contacts between Muslim women.
18) What was the Shah-Nama?
A) the title given to the oldest son of the Caliph
B) the name given to the first wife of the Caliph
C) the title of the commander of the slave mercenaries
D) a set of romantic stories
E) the history of Persia from creation to the Islamic conquests
19) In general, how did Islam spread in Southeast Asia?
A) Most of Southeast Asia was converted to Islam after the military victories of Qutb-ud-din Aibak.
B) Port cities were points of dissemination to other links in trading networks.
C) Trade to Southeast Asia from Africa and Persia established Islamic centers on the mainland from which conversion
took place.
D) Islam was carried to Southeast Asia from China.
E) Isolated regimes were visited by dervishes.
20) What accounts for the success of the First Crusade?
A) the contemporary emergence of the Christian Seljuk Turks in Baghdad
B) the support and cooperation of the Jewish community of the Holy Land
C) the overwhelming military superiority of western military technology
D) the power of the Byzantine Empire
E) Muslim political fragmentation and the element of surprise
21) What was the impact of the Crusades on the Christian West?
A) There was no Muslim influence on the Christian West.
B) The Crusades interrupted the trade of the Mediterranean and cut off the West from Islam until 1293.
C) Christians rejected most Muslim influence, although they did gain a taste for Muslim wines and liquors.
D) Christians adopted military techniques, words, scientific learning, and Arabic numerals among other things.
E) The Crusades led to an extension of Feudalism.
22) In what year was Jerusalem captured by Christian Crusaders?
A) 1245 B) 985 C) 1258 D) 1099 E) 1142
23) What was the attitude of the Abbasids toward the institution of slavery?
A) The dynasty permitted slavery of Muslims, but forbade the enslavement of members of other religions.
B) The local custom determined the status of slavery.
C) The dynasty forbade all slavery except for the mercenary armies loyal to the Abbasids.
D) The Abbasid elite demanded growing numbers of both male and female slaves for concubines and domestic service.
E) The Abbasid dynasty forbade slavery in general.
24) Which of the following statements concerning the ulama is most accurate?
A) It stressed withdrawal from the rest of the community of believers and the creation of Islamic monasteries.
B) It brought mysticism into Islam and emphasis on evangelism.
C) It stressed an increasingly restrictive conservatism within Islam, particularly with respect to scientific inquiry.
D) It embraced the full consequences of fusing Greek and Quranic traditions willingly.
E) It favored a type of Byzantine worship.
25) Who was the Muslim leader responsible for the reconquest of most of the territories belonging to the Christian
Crusaders?
A) Saladin
B) Firdawsi
C) Muhammad ibn Qasim
D) al-Ghazali
E) Umar
26) What region of Africa was first converted to Islam by 700 A.D.?
A) South Africa
B) Central Africa
C) West Africa
D) North Africa
E) East Africa
27) The African traders associated with the Mali empire were called
A) griots.
B) Jenne.
C) Juula.
D) Zimbabwe.
E) Soninke.
28) To what extent did Islam successfully penetrate the populations of East Africa?
A) Islam penetrated very little into the interior among the hunters, pastoralists, and farmers, and even the areas near the
trading towns remained relatively unaffected.
B) Few literate people converted to Islam.
C) Most of clans and the most important lineage groups outside of the East African cities were converted to Islam in
order to participate in trade.
D) As in Asia the conversion of the coastal cities led to almost complete conversion of the populations lying inland.
E) Islam spread from the cities to the hinterland in such a way that eventually the countryside was more Islamic than
were the cities.
29) What was the form of political organization of the Kingdom of Kongo?
A) The Kingdom of Kongo was a strongly centralized empire ruled by a divine king in Great Zimbabwe.
B) The Kongo was part of a universal Islamic empire.
C) The Kingdom of Kongo was a confederation of smaller states brought under the control of the king and divided into
eight provinces.
D) The Kingdom of Kongo was organized into a number of city-states ruled from Ile-Ife.
E) The Kingdom of Kongo was part of the Mali Empire.
30) What accounted for the downfall of Songhay?
A) the collapse of the irrigation system on which the agricultural economy depended
B) defeat and incorporation within the Mali Empire
C) invasion by the Portuguese
D) the rise of the Swahili coast
E) invasion by a Moroccan Muslim army equipped with firearms followed by internal revolts
31) What monarch is credited with beginning Malinke expansion and creating the Mali Empire?
A) Mahmud of Ghur
B) Mansa Kankan Musa
C) Takrur
D) Sunni Ali
E) Sundiata
32) What was the common cultural trait of the urbanized trading ports of the East African coast?
A) Bantu-based and Arabic-influenced Swahili language
B) a single ruling family from the Malinke tribe
C) the artistic style of the Nok culture
D) membership in the Soninke tribe
E) descent from shiraz in Persia
33) The study of population is referred to as
A) political science.
B) geography.
C) demography.
D) populism.
E) positivism.
34) What does the phrase "equality before God and inequality within the world" mean?
A) It refers to the powers exercised by the African rulers.
B) It refers to the equality that all clan heads enjoyed within African society.
C) It means that Africans favored a variety of socialism.
D) It refers to the Islamic emphasis on equality of all believers, but the continued acceptance of social stratification.
E) It refers to the indigenous African religion's emphasis on social equality.
35) How did contact with the Muslim world affect the African slave trade?
A) Because of the Muslim emphasis on equality of all believers, early Muslim rulers suppressed the slave trade.
B) Despite the Muslim acceptance of slavery and its widespread use in Islamic society outside of Africa, Muslims
generally refused to accept black slaves.
C) With the Muslim conquests of North Africa and commercial penetration to the south, slavery became a more widely
diffused phenomenon and the slave trade developed rapidly.
D) Slavery was unknown in African society until the Muslims introduced it.
E) Muslims forced southern Africans to give up slavery.
36) Which of the following is most correctly seen as a direct continuation of the Roman Empire?
A) Ottoman Empire
B) Holy Roman Empire
C) Abbasid Empire
D) Byzantine Empire
E) Frankish Empire
37) What was the great church built in Constantinople by Justinian ?
A) St. Peter's
B) Hagia Sophia
C) St. Basil
D) The Cathedral of St. Dimitri
E) Sts. Cyril and Methodius
38) Which of the following statements concerning the merchant class of the Byzantine Empire is most accurate?
A) There was a large and wealthy merchant class in the Byzantine Empire, but it never gained significant political
power because of the power of the bureaucracy.
B) Because of its lack of export products, Byzantine commerce was controlled completely by foreign merchants.
C) By comparison to western Europe, the merchant class was relatively small.
D) Byzantine merchants, because of their wealth, rapidly became the most powerful force in the government of
Constantinople and the empire.
E) The Byzantine merchant class never recovered from the loss of territories to the Muslims and was not a significant
factor within the empire.
39) What group of peoples were responsible for the conquest of Kievan Russia after 1236?
A) Seljuk Turks
B) Safavid Persians
C) Mongols (Tartars)
D) Huns
E) Ottoman Turks
40) Byzantine cultural life centered on the secular traditions of
A) Islam.
B) Norse Legends.
C) Hellenism.
D) Confucianism.
E) Ancient Egypt.
41) Which of the following practices was NOT adopted a feature of the Russian Orthodox Church?
A) an active monastic movement
B) use of Greek and Slavic languages
C) emphasis on almsgiving
D) clerical celibacy
E) veneration of icons
42) What emperor became renowned in the eleventh century as the slayer of the Bulgars by defeating the Bulgarian
kingdom and restoring Byzantine rule in the Balkans?
A) Michael III
B) Justinian
C) Ivan IV
D) Anastasius
E) Basil II
43) Which of the following statements concerning urbanization within the Byzantine Empire is most correct?
A) Constantinople began to decline in population in the later years of the Byzantine Empire and was surpassed by the
growth of other urban centers.
B) Most people in the Byzantine Empire lived in five great cities: Constantinople, Nicaea, Smyrna, Rome, and Athens.
C) Constantinople controlled the economy and grew to enormous size, but other cities were relatively small.
D) Constantinople was never a center of trade, but dominated the Empire culturally.
E) Like China, the Byzantine Empire was heavily urbanized with many cities numbering more than 100,000.
44) The post-classical period in Western history between the fall of the Roman Empire and the fifteenth century is
referred to as the
A) Middle Ages.
B) Modern Era.
C) Age of Discovery.
D) Baroque.
E) Renaissance.
45) Which of the following areas was NOT one of the regions into which expansion from western Europe took place?
A) northern Africa
B) Spain
C) Iceland and Greenland
D) eastern Germany and Poland
E) Asia Minor
46) Where was the greatest concentration of urbanization after the tenth century?
A) France and the Holy Roman Empire
B) Spain and Poland
C) England and France
D) Italy and the Low Countries
E) England and Scandinavia
47) The members of the military elite who received land in return for military service in the bands of the greater lords
were called
A) serfs.
B) lords.
C) fiefs.
D) vassals.
E) benefices.
48) What was Muhammad's teaching with respect to the revelations of other monotheistic religions?
A) Muhammad accepted the validity of earlier Christian and Judaic revelations and taught that his own revelations
were a final refinement and reformulation of earlier ones.
B) Muhammad stressed that only his own revelations had merit and that others were works of the devil.
C) Muhammad taught that monotheistic religion was compatible with polytheism.
D) Muhammad accepted the earlier Judaic revelations, but rejected completely any influence from Christianity.
E) Muhammad accepted the earlier Christian revelations, but rejected completely any influence from Judaism.
49) What was the nature of pre-Islamic bedouin religion?
A) Most of the bedouin were Christians.
B) The bedouins had no religious beliefs.
C) The bedouin were strictly monotheists who worshipped Allah.
D) Most of the bedouin were Jews.
E) Bedouin religion for most clans was a blend of animism and polytheism focusing on the worship of nature spirits.
50) What was the Umayyad response to Muhammad's migration to Medina and subsequent success there?
A) The Umayyad rulers of Mecca ignored Muhammad as long as he was content to remain in Medina.
B) War broke out between Mecca and Medina resulting in the eventual victory of Muhammad and the Medina clans.
C) Reluctantly but peacefully, the Umayyads were converted to Islam.
D) The Umayyads eagerly converted to Islam.
E) War broke out between Mecca and Medina resulting in the eventual victory of the Umayyads.
51) What was the result of the first civil war between Ali and the Umayyads?
A) Ali was killed in the conflict, but his son Hasan was named Caliph and won a great victory over the Abbasids.
B) Despite early successes, Ali's faction disintegrated leading to an Umayyad victory and Ali's assassination.
C) Ali suffered a disastrous military defeat at the Battle of Siffin, and the Umayyads emerged victorious.
D) Islam remained firmly united behind the heirs of Husayn.
E) Ali was able to defeat the Umayyad clan and reduce them to political insignificance.
52) What happened after Muhammad's death in 632?
A) Many of the bedouin tribes renounced Islam.
B) Islam remained unified.
C) A military commander, Khalid ibn al-Walid, was chosen as leader of Islam.
D) Islam ceased to exist until it was reestablished under the Umayyad dynasty at Damascus.
E) After a lengthy period of grief, the tribes selected a new leader based on the established principle of succession in
the Quran.
53) How did the political center of Islam change after the Mongol invasions?
A) Mongolian became the language of politics and commerce.
B) The center of Islam passed with the withdrawal of the invaders into the steppes of central Asia.
C) The political center of Islam was removed to sub-Saharan Africa.
D) Baghdad remained the capital of Islam, but under the control of successive Mongol dynasties.
E) Baghdad became a provincial backwater, supplanted by Cairo to the east and soon thereafter Istanbul to the north.
54) What was the level of trade in the Abbasid Empire?
A) As a whole, long-distance trade along the traditional caravan routes virtually ceased during the Abbasid Empire.
B) Long-distance trade with Africa, the Mediterranean, India, and China continued to flourish despite periodic
interruption.
C) The economy shifted to a focus on trading only with other Muslims.
D) Trade with the East grew, but the Crusades eliminated the western trade routes.
E) Trade with Africa and the Mediterranean continued to expand, but the wars in India disrupted the eastern trade
routes.
55) The puritanical reform movements of the Almoravids and Almohadis arose among what groups of people?
A) the inhabitants of the empire of Mali
B) the Arabs during the conquest of North Africa
C) the Ethiopians and the Coptic Christians
D) the Berbers, native desert dwellers of North Africa
E) the Nubians of the early Sudan
56) Many African societies unaffected by either Christianity or Islam developed states without
A) systems of government.
B) borders.
C) monumental architecture.
D) much success.
E) systems of writing.
57) Between 800 and 1500 as the frequency and intensity of contact with the outside world increased, what was the
most significant impact on sub-Saharan Africa?
A) the arrival of Christianity
B) the arrival of Chinese merchants
C) the arrival of the Mamluks
D) the arrival of the Portuguese
E) the arrival of Islam
58) Which of the following regions was converted to Orthodox Christianity?
A) Hungary
B) Slovak territory
C) Russia
D) Czech territory
E) Poland
59) In which of the following ways were the Byzantine bureaucracy and the Chinese bureaucracy similar?
A) Emperors played little role in either government.
B) There was an extensive state exam system in both.
C) There was no linkage of the bureaucracies to local administration.
D) Both bureaucracies were open to talented commoners, not just aristocrats.
E) They were driven by the authority of the church.
60) Which of the following was a result of the Hundred Years War during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries?
A) an English victory
B) kings reduced their reliance on feudal forces in favor of paid armies
C) replenishment of natural resources
D) major battles resulted in enormous loss of life over the course of the war
E) mounted knights continued their dominance over foot soldiers and archers
61) During the eleventh century, what new architectural style featuring pointed arches and flying buttresses became
dominant in western Europe?
A) Romanesque
B) Structuralism
C) Gothic
D) Baroque
E) Turkic
62) Which of the following groups was NOT a component of bedouin society?
A) shaykhs
B) slaves
C) free warriors
D) herders
E) artisans
63) What was the most significant of the transformations brought about by the Abbasids' rise to power?
A) the destruction of absolutism within Islamic government
B) the destruction of Sunni influences within Islam
C) victory in the Crusades
D) the final defeat of the Byzantine Empire
E) the admission of the mawali as full members of the Islamic community
64) What was the fictional account of life at the court of the Caliph al-Rashid?
A) Rubaiiyat
B) Shah-nama
C) Analects
D) The Thousand and One Nights
E) The Treasure of Ali Baba
65) What was the social and political function of the griots?
A) Griots were the classes of people of the conquest states of the Mali kings who were consigned to labor within the
empire's mines.
B) Griots were religious diviners whose function was to foretell the future and guide the decisions of kings.
C) Griots mastered the oral traditions of the Malinke and by knowing the past were considered excellent advisors of
kings.
D) Griots were Malinke merchants who served as trade middlemen throughout Africa.
E) Griots were Islamic church leaders in African empires.
66) Which of the following issues was a cause for the split between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches after
1054?
A) polygamy among Orthodox priests
B) the insistence of the patriarch of Constantinople on supremacy within church councils
C) the absence of monasticism in Roman Catholicism
D) the Roman Catholic practice of requiring celibacy for its priests
E) the Orthodox church's lack of bishops
67) In what way was the educational system of the medieval West different from that of China?
A) University education was literacy-based.
B) The West abandoned its classical heritage.
C) The West lacked a formal system of education.
D) In the West, there were no state bureaucracies to hire university graduates.
E) The universities were not tied into a single bureaucratic system.
68) What was the result of inter-clan rivalries?
A) It allowed for intermarriage between clan groups, thus preventing social isolation.
B) It weakened the bedouin in comparison to neighboring peoples and empires.
C) It kept population down in a region that could support few people.
D) It strengthened them and enabled them to challenge their neighbors.
E) It prevented mobility and migration that would have debilitated efforts at more complex social organization.
69) Which of the following statements concerning Great Zimbabwe is NOT correct?
A) By the fifteenth century, a centralized state had begun to form centered on Great Zimbabwe.
B) Great Zimbabwe was both the capital of the kingdom and a religious center.
C) "Zimbabwe" actually refers to the stone buildings that were typical of the culture.
D) Great Zimbabwe was constructed by Arab Muslims who were trading with the Bantu residents of the region.
E) Sofala was the entrepot for Zimbabwean goods.
70) Which of the following represents a difference between the spread of civilization in eastern and western Europe?
A) Only the east faced the threat of an Islamic invasion.
B) They produced different versions of Christianity, culturally as well as organizationally separate.
C) Eastern Europe retained less fully the culture of the later Roman Empire than did the West.
D) Only eastern Europe developed north-south commercial ties.
E) Centralized government and well-organized bureaucracy was more a feature of western Europe than eastern Europe.