Download Heritage of the Middle East

Heritage of the Middle East
The World of Islam
Centuries of Turmoil
Patterns of Life
Imperialism and Nationalism
The Middle East
• The term Middle East did not come into
general usage until after World War II.
• In reading texts written in the 19th or 20th
centuries, you may come across terms
such as the Near East or the
Mohammedan World. These have been
replaced by the Middle East.
Breakdown of Middle East
• Broadest area covered by the Middle east is a
rough rectangle with the following boundaries:
– Long axis
• The northwestern corner of the Atlantic coast of
Mauritania and Morocco, to the northeastern
corner where the Central Asian republics of the
Soviet Union which touch Afghanistan.
– Short axis
• Begins on the western shore of the Black Sea
and ends in the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean,
the southern Sahara Desert.
Map of Middle East
Labels
• North Africa, sometimes called the Maghrib, is
the area from Morocco to the Tunisian-Libyan
border
• The Nile Valley
• Palestine is a variously defined area that takes
in most of modern Israel as well as parts of
Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
• The Levant, is the original European term for the
coastal areas of today’s northern Israel,
Lebanon and Syria
Labels cont’d
• Syria is a name used since Roman times to
describe the roughly rectangular region bounded
today by Turkey, the Mediterranean, western
Iraq, and the northern extension of the Arabian
Desert
• Mesopotamia is Iraq and parts of Kuwait and
Iran, a region traditionally defined by the TigrisEuphrates River system, mountains of Turkey
and Iran and the Persian Gulf
• Anatolia is the Asian part of Turkey
Strategic Waterways
• Strait of Gibraltar- named after Arab General of
the 18th century, controls the link between the
Atlantic and the Mediterranean and between
Morocco and Spain.
• Moving eastward, Suez Canal, it is a vital link
between Mediterranean and Red Sea
• Sinai Peninsula –at the southern tip of the Strait
of Tiran. This strait controls Israel’s access to the
Red Sea-Suez Canal and its closure by the
Egyptian government in 1967 was a precipitating
cause for the Six-Day War.
Sample IB Question
• Why have so many problems arisen from the complex
mixture of identity, history, religion, language, and ethnic
heritage? What kind of difficulties challenge those who
search for solutions?
“My dreams will never
be fulfilled without you,
oh Jerusalem”
Yasser Arafat
Population Groups
• Inhabitants of the Middle East have been
known by hundreds of names over the
7,000-8,000 years of their recorded
existence.
• The major groups today are identified in
terms of either their religious, linguistic, or
ethnic origins.
Arabs
• The largest group in the Middle East
• Most are members of the majority, or
Sunni branch of Islamic religion.
• The next largest group are the Turks.
About 45 million of them are living in the
Republic of Turkey today.
• The Turks are almost all Sunni Muslims
and speak Turkish
Iranians
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3rd major group found in the Middle East.
Nearly 40 million of them share minorities.
Most are Shia (Shitte) Muslims.
Most speak Persian
Lesson 2: Islam
• Focus Questions
• Who was Mohammed and what spirtual
concerns motivated him?
• How was God’s will revealed to Muslims?
What are the basic tenets of their faith?
• What aspect of Mohammed’s mission
continued after his death?
• What is Islam’s relationship to the Jewish
and Christian faiths?
The World of Islam
• Focus Questions
– What are the basic teachings of Islam
– Why did Islam split into different branches?
– What are some achievements of Islamic
civilization?
Islam
• Usually translated as “absolute submission to
the will of God,” has arisen and flourished in the
clear sight of history.
• In contrast to its antecedents, Judaism and
Christianity, the faith has a single prophet; an
undisputed, divinely created scripture, the
Quran, which has never been lost or revised;
and a continuous history recorded by its
followers and adversaries. From the birth of
Mohammed to the present, there are no gaps in
the record of Islam.
Mohammed
• Mohammed was born about 570 A.D.
• He was a member of the Hashim clan of the
Quraysh tribe, a significant power in the
government and society of the city of Mecca.
• He was orphaned at an early age and grew up
following the same patterns of childhood as his
contemporaries, distinguishing himself only by
his desire for solitude and a noticeable concern
for spiritual matters.
Young Mohammed
• He was employed in the caravan trade which
probably exposed him to the various religious
beliefs professed by the inhabitants of Arabia
and its neighbors.
• When Mohammed was 25, he married a wealthy
widow, Khadija.
• Tradition tells us that they enjoyed a close
relationship for 24 years in which Khadija bore
Mohammed several children , three of whom
survived.
Islam
• Hold’s that Mohammed became God’s last
messenger.
• He was chosen to terminate the long line of
God’s prophets, which stretched from Abraham
to Jesus.
• All who believed in God were to be
Mohammed’s audience.
• Mohammed was a passive instrument, just a
man providing a link between God and the
community of believers.
Muslims
• From the fourth form of the s-l-m root
which means “to embrace Islam” or “to
make peace with God” became targets of
persecution and abuse, which led
Mohammed to send groups out of Mecca
for their own safety.
Out of Mecca
• Mohammed had received an invitation to
come to Yathrib, now known as Medina.
– Irreconcilable tribal feud
– Mohammed was believed to be the man who
could solve this based on his reputation.
• Muslim calendar
– Hegira
• Mohammed is also seen as a temporal
leader, political, and military commander.
Return to Mecca
• By 630, Mohammed was leading a force of
10,000 Muslims, the dominant military,
diplomatic, and spiritual power in the
region.
• Mecca surrendered to Mohammed in 630.
– The residents converted to Islam, and
Mohammed was now the most powerful man
in Arabia.
Death of Mohammed
• He returned to Medina where, his health
weakened, possibly by an attempt on his life, he
died in June 632.
• Islam believes that Mohammed’s death marked
the end of God’s use of human prophets as
messengers.
• What had been revealed to all the earlier
prophets and what had been verified and
reaffirmed by Mohammed was to serve as the
foundation and structure of a faith-based
community, the Umma.
Islamic Beliefs, Practices, and
History
• Muslims contend that their religion is the
one true path to salvation for those who
believe in God and his messengers.
• Many elements of Islamic belief and
practice are similar to those of their Jewish
and Christian predecessors.
• The core of Islamic belief is embodied in
the “Five Pillars” of Islam.
Holistic View
• The five pillars combined with the
guidance and injunctions to be found in
the Quran; Islamic law (Sharia); the
example of Muhammad’s life, and the will
of the Umma ---identify and lead the
Muslim toward the Day of Judgement and
rewards in Paradise.
Five Pillars
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The declaration of faith
Regular prayer
Almsgiving
Fasting
Pilgrimage to Mecca
Declaration of Faith (Shahada)
• It is a simple statement which is reaffirmed daily
by millions of Muslims throughout the world.
• “There is no God but God and Mohammed is
God’s messenger”
• Although this concept no doubt is familiar to
Jews and Christians, the difference also is
obivious.
• This phrase expresses absolute monotheism.
There is no need to complicate the thought as
occurs in the Torah’s “Thou shalt have no other
Gods before Me.”
Prayer (Salat)
• Muslims must face toward Mecca and
perform formal worship.
• The original orientation had been Jerusale
but after an unfortunate episode in
Medina, God revealed to Mohammed that
the direction had been changed.
Zakat or alms
• This pillar reinforces the concepts of
equality and community and emphasizes
the power of God’s will in the individual’s
life.
Fasting
• The month of Ramadan is set aside for a
rigourous fast which requires all Muslims
to abstain from food, drink, and sex.
Pilgrimage (hajj)
• Pilgrimage to Mecca had been important
element of many pre-Islamic Arab tribal
religions.
• God revealed to Mohammed that each
Muslim was obliged to replicate this
practice at least once in his or her life if
physically and financially able.