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 1: The Middle East
 What do we think of when we say, “the Middle East?”
 Religious and ethnic conflict?
 Fervent beliefs and devotion?
 Pilgrimages to Mecca?
 American troops in an often hostile land?
 What else?
 Oil?
 Terrorism?
 The beginnings of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity?
 Biblical lands?
 Desert?
 …
 Where is the Middle East? Map:
 Geography of the Middle East
 Why is it called “the Middle East?”
 It is to the east of Europe, but not the “Far East.”
 Hot and dry climate.
 Earliest governments may have formed to organize water management.
 Protection against nomads.
 Crossroads
 Accessible
 Constant flow of people (invaders), goods and ideas
 Resources
 No grassy plains
 Deforestation
 Ex: Lebanon
 Scarce drinking water
 Oil
 Important only since 1945
 Only a few countries (Persian Gulf area)
 Non-renewable
 People
 Diversity
 Various peoples, beliefs, languages, and cultures
 But–
 90% of population: Muslim
 Half the people speak Arabic
 Also Turkish or Persian
 Spread of universal culture
 Via modern technology
 2: The Middle East
Before Muhammad
 Three broad periods of Middle East history:
 Ancient
 Medieval
 Modern
 The Ancient Middle East:
 Main breakthroughs to civilization happened there:
 staple food crops
 farm animals
 Earliest agricultural villages
 World’s oldest cities
 First governments, religious and legal systems
 Writing and preservation of records
 Between two empires:
 Roman Empire to the west
 The Mediterranean world
 Romans expanded to the east
 Absorbed various Middle Eastern beliefs
 Including Christianity
 Persian Empire to the east
 Iran, Iraq, and surrounding area
 Zoroastrianism
 Roman Emperor Constantine
 (313-337 AD)
 Converted to Christianity
 Made the Roman Empire officially Christian
 Built Constantinople
 The “Byzantine Empire”
 The Persians: Rome’s great rival
 Centered in what is now Iran
 Not Arabs
 Parthian and Sassanid Dynasties
 Zoroastrian
 Scholars
 Persian influence spread
 The Arabs
 Where did they come from?
 Semitic
 Nomadic peoples (bedouins)
 Domesticated the camel
 The Arabian Peninsula
 Dry, isolated, protected
 springs and oases
 Arabs organized into clans and tribes
 Arab tribes
 Strong defense of honor and freedom
 Tribes: councils and shaykhs
 Income derived in part from:
 Raiding other tribes
 “protecting” caravans
 Serving in Roman or Persian armies
 Setting up trading cities
 Farming and camel breeding
 Arabian Culture
 Warlike
 Nomadic nature:
 Little art… except:
 Poetry
 Embodied Arab codes of moral principles
 Mecca
 Important city:
 Trade
 Poets’ fair
 Ka’bah
 Housed idols
 
 The Quraysh
 A “sedentarized” tribe
 Rulers of Mecca
 Shifted the centers of Middle Eastern power
 The prime cause:
 Muhammad
 A Meccan of the Quraysh
 3: The Prophet of Mecca
 Muhammad’s Early Life
 Mecca
 Orphan
 Objected to Meccans’ paganism
 View of Jewish and Christian beliefs:
 Useful for Arabs?
 First Revelation
 610
 Ramadan
 Gabriel
 Five main points of the message:
 God is good and all-powerful.
 Judgment Day.
 Worship
 Share
 Muhammad’s role
 Prophet to the Arabs
 Then– God’s final prophet to all humanity.
 Books
 The Quran is “God’s perfect revelation.”
 Partly about divine judgment
 Partly about personal behavior
 It “corrects corruptions” in the Gospels & Torah
 Christians and Jews are “People of the Book”
 The Quran
 Contains laws, stories from the past, and devotional pieces.
 114 chapters of rhymed prose.
 Parts were revealed by God at different times.
 It was revealed in Arabic.
 Semantics
 “Muslim” = “one who submits” to God’s will.
 “Islam” = “the act of submission.”
 This became the name of the religion.
 The Hijra
 Sept. 622: “the Hijra” to Medina
 United his followers
 “Umma”
 Now both a religious and political leader
 Prophet and lawgiver
 Islam as both a faith and a sociopolitical system
 The last prophet
 Expected Jews to recognize him as God’s messenger
 629: Conquers Mecca
 By 632, nearly all Arab tribes were Muslim
 Muhammad’s death
 Muhammad died in June 632
 Seen by Muslims as exemplar of Muslim virtues
 Often has been judged harshly by non-Muslims
 But clearly a brilliant leader, strategist, and diplomat
 and one of the most important people who ever lived.
 And, to Muslims worldwide, the last Prophet of God.
 Islam
 No bishops or priests.
 Free to choose whether and how to submit to God’s will.
 All Muslims are equal
 except in their obedience to God’s will.
 A faith and a way of life.
 God is all-powerful and all-knowing.
 Predestination vs. free will.
 Angels
 Most powerful servants of God
 Gabriel
 When we die, we are questioned by two angels
 Jinns: spirits (pre-Islamic; “genie”)
 Al-Shaytan
 Messengers
 Prophets:
 Muhammad
 Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jonah, Job, Jesus
 Agree Jesus was born of Virgin Mary and will return
 Deny he was crucified or was the son of God
 Judgment Day
 All living people will die
 Join those already dead, before the heavenly throne,
 to be judged for their acts
 Paradise as a shaded garden
 Hell is filled with torment
 The Five Pillars of Islam
 1. Witness
 “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is His prophet.”
 The Five Pillars of Islam
 2. Worship
 Ritual prayer
 5 times a day
 Wash first
 Men as a group
 Women at home
 Friday noon worship at mosques
 The Five Pillars of Islam
 3. Fasting
 Month of Ramadan
 Daybreak to sunset
 Refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and sex.
 Extra time praying.
 The Five Pillars of Islam
 4. Tithing (or sharing)
 To help the needy.
 Wealthy give additional gifts to the poor, sick, young, etc.
 5. Pilgrimage (Hajj)
 At least once in a Muslim’s life, if able.
 Journey to Mecca during the twelfth month of the year.
 Various rites
 These acts bring Muslims together
 and break down various societal barriers among them.
 Jihad
 “The sixth pillar of Islam”?
 “Jihad” = “Struggle in the way of God”
 Controversial even within Islam:
 Holy war?
 But Islam also decrees tolerance.
 Some Muslims define it as defending Islam.
 Prohibitions
 No intoxicating liquors, mind-altering drugs, gambling, or usury
 No eating of flesh of pigs
 Men may not wear silk clothes or gold jewelry
 Harsh penalties for murder, theft, and other crimes
 Prohibition against idols
 Sexual relations:
 should not occur outside of marriage
 Marriages:
 Most arranged by parents
 Varying rules about separation of the sexes and the appropriate covering of women.
 4: The Early Arab Conquests
 Succession
 Muhammad
 chose no successor
 Who would rule?
 Leaders chose Abu-Bakr
 Father-in-law
 Not blood relative of Muhammad
 Abu-Bakr
 “Caliph”
 “Successor of the messenger of God”
 Faces rebellion by the tribes
 “Ridda” wars
 Initial Conquests
 Umar
 Turns the tribes toward Jihad. Conquest!
 Attack both the Romans (Byzantines) and the Persians!
 Capture territory from Byzantines-- in only a decade
 Absorb entire Persian (Sassanid) Empire in a generation
 Effects of Early Conquests
 Muslim armies extended from Spain to borders of China
 in only one century!
 Europe?
 Christianity loses Holy Land
 A new empire and civilization grows
 Diverse—
 Combining North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Persia under Arab control
 How did the Arab armies win?
 Small armies—
 More cohesive units
 Large rewards (spoils)
 Use of horses and camels
 Use of desert terrain and weather
 Persians and Byzantines both in decline
 Islamic Government
 Need for a more sophisticated system of government
 Local civil administration left untouched
 Lower taxes
 Governmental languages remained local
 Jews and Christians protected
 Uthman, 3rd Caliph (644-656)
 After Umar is assassinated.
 Issues single authoritative version of Quran.
 Lacked Umar’s forceful personality
 Amassed wealth- corrupting influence?
 Arab troops:
 Turn to internal disputes again.
 Revolt– Uthman is killed by rebels.
 Ali, 4th Caliph (656-661)
 Related to Muhammad
 Pious and generous,
 but a weak leader
 “Fitna” (time of temptation)
 Challenged by rivals
 And by Aisha (M’s youngest wife)
 “Battle of the Camel”
 First time two Muslim armies fought each other
 Challengers killed
 Aisha sent back to Medina
 Ali and his sons
 Ali’s defeat
 Challenged by Mu’awiya
 Uthman’s cousin
 Kharijites rebel
 Murder Ali
 Last of the “rightly guided” caliphs
 Mu’awiya
 Establishes Umayyad Dynasty
 Dominant clan in Mecca
 Lax in their Muslim faith
 Solidified the Arab empire
 Adopted a more imperial, bureaucratic style of government
 “Worldliness”
 Damascus
 “fitna” ends
 Mu’awiya
 Followers agree that Mu’awiya’s son Yazid will succeed him as Caliph
 Establishes hereditary caliphate
 Husayn’s Rebellion
 But: some Muslims believed only a descendent of Muhammad should be caliph.
 Husayn (grandson) survived
 Refused to recognize legitimacy of Yazid
 Convinced to rebel
 72 against 10,000 troops of Yazid
 Karbala, Iraq, October 680
 All 72 are killed
 Shi’ism
 Husayn’s supporters:
 vowed never to recognize legitimacy of the Umayyads
 “Shi’at Ali”
 (party of Ali)
 and then “Shi’is” or “Shi’ites”
 Now the 2nd largest Muslim sect
 1st is the Sunnis
 Some religious differences
 Umayyads consolidate rule
 Defeat various challengers
 Capital will be Damascus, not Mecca
 Caliphate now hereditary
 Held by a Meccan merchant clan
 Most of the Caliphate’s subjects– not Muslim