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The Worlds of
Islam
Consider …

By the start of the twentieth century, Islam had acquired a significant presence
in the US

1200 Mosques and about 8 million Muslims

Second half of the century saw the growing international influence of Islam

Islam had already been prominent in the world between 600 and 1600


Encompassed parts of Africa, Europe, ME and Asia

Enormously significant in world history

Creation of new and innovative civilization

Largest and most influential of the past civilizations

Islam’s reach generated major cultural encounters
In the year 2000, there were 1.2 billion Muslims in the world (22 percent of the
world’s population)
1.
Birth of a new religion

2.
Story of Muhammad, revelations, radical new teachings, pillars of Islam, jihad,
transformation of the Arabian peninsula
Making of an Arab empire

4.
Homeland- Arabia, nomadic, Bedouins, Mecca, kaaba, influence of Judaism,
Christianity, and Zoroastrianism
Messenger and the message

3.
Outline:
Expansion, war and conquest, conversion, divisions, rise of the caliph, women and men
is Islam
Islam and cultural encounters

Comparison of India, West Africa, Spain, and Anatolia

Networks of exchange and networks of Faith

Two travelers: Ibn Buttuta and Marco Polo
Birth of a New Religion
 Homeland of Islam
 Arabian Peninsula, nomadic Arabs (Bedouins)
 Independent, clans and tribes
 Harsh, desert environment, scarcity of water Oasis
 Arabia important location as trade center
 Mecca and the Kaaba (religious shrine)
 On edge of Byzantine and Sassanid empires
 Influence of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity
The Messenger and the Message



Prophet was Muhammad

Orphaned

Merchant

Withdrawal and meditation
Revelations and visions

Recorded in Quran (actual word of God)

Sacred language of Arabic convey presence of the divine
Radical new teachings

Monotheistic

Muslim=“one who submits”

Creation of new society of social justice, equality, care for others (umma)
Core Message


Five Pillars of Islam

Profession of One God

Prayer five times a day

Help community/charity

Fasting during Ramadan

Pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj)
Jihad
 “Sixth Pillar”
 “greater jihad”= Personal spiritual striving
 “lesser jihad”= armed struggle against unbelief and evil
 Interpretation has varied over time
Transformation of Arabia



Muhammad attracted small following and opposition from Meccan elites

Emigrated to Medina (the hijra or hegira) in 622 =new calendar

Created Islamic community (umma)

Broke from Judaism
Rapid expansion throughout Asia

Military successes=alliances

Large-scale conversion

Consolidation of Islamic control throughout Arabia by death of M in 632
Fundamental differences between birth of Christianity and Islam

Islam not persecuted religion

Islam did not separate church and state (sharia law)
 Muhammad was religious, political, and military leader
 no professional clergy
The Making of an Arab Empire
 Grew to include all or part of Egyptian, Roman/Byzantine,
Persian, Mesopotamian, and Indian civilization
 Many converted
 Arabic culture spread quickly
 Islam becomes its own civilization
 War and Conquest
 Long-term raiding pattern
 Political organization=greater mobilization
 Byzantine and Persian empires weakened
**Reasons for Expansion
1.
Economic: Capture trade routes and agricultural regions
2.
Individual: Arabs sought wealth and promotion
3.
Communal: conquest helped hold the umma together
4.
Religious: bring righteous gov’t to the conquered
5.
1.
Did not impose Islam
2.
Arabs though Islam was their religion and then later sought converts
3.
Protected “people of the book”
4.
Non-Muslims paid special tax but could practice own religion
Conquest was too destructive
1.
Arab soldiers were restricted to garrison towns
2.
Local elites and bureaucracies were incorporated into empire
Conversion to Islam
1.
Initial conversion was social not spiritual
2.
Kinship to Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism made it attractive
3.
Associated with new beginning=powerful state= Allah good God to have on
your side
4.
State provided incentives for conversions
1.
Earliest were slaves and POWs
2.
converts-=no tax
3.
Islam favored commerce
4.
Social mobility increased by conversion
5.
Resistance= Berbers of N. Africa, some Spanish Christians, some Persians
6.
80 percent of Persia converted between 700-900
7.
Regions (Egypt, North Africa, and Iraq) converted to Arabic culture and
language
Divisions in Muslim World
 Central Problem: who should serve as successor to Muhammad
(caliph)?
 First four caliphs (Rightly Guided Caliphs) were companions of
Muhammad
 Arab tribal rebellions and false prophets
 civil war
 Result: Sunni/Shia split
 Began as political conflict but became religious
 Over time caliphs became absolute monarchs
Sunni
Leadership passes to
caliphs (leader of dynasty)
elected from Muslim
families
Support rule of Bakr, Umar,
and Uthman (“Rightly
Guided Caliphs”)
Direct relationship to Allah
Religious authority comes
from community (ulama)
Majority
Shia
Leadership=
descendants of Muhammad
Muhammad
is prophet
Quran is
word of
God
5 pillars
Support Ali
Reject “Rightly guided
Caliphs”
(first four)
Imam=spiritual connection to
Allah; only one who can
interpret Quran
Opponents of privileged
Leaders martyred- leaders
will return as Messiah figures
Umayyad Dynasty (661-750)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258)
1. Overthrows Umayyad in 750 due
Great expansion
to lack of religious focus and
Caliphs became hereditary rulers
opulent living of rulers
Capital moved to Damascus, Syria
2. New Capital in Baghdad
Arab military aristocracy ruled
3. “Golden Age” =great cultural
Unequal treatment on non-Arabs
achievements
Opulent living
4. Cosmopolitan culture: Mixing of
Persians, Jewish, and Arab culture
5. Harem and the veil; decreasing
women’s status
Sufism

A second understanding of the faith emerged among those who
saw the worldly success of Islamic civilization as a distraction and
deviation from the purer spirituality of Muhammad’s time
-Known as Sufis, they represented Islam’s mystical
dimension, in that they sought a direct and personal
experience of the divine
-Through renunciation of the material world, meditation on the
words of the Quran, the use of music and dance, the veneration of
Muhammad and various “saints,” Sufis pursued the obliteration of
the ego and spiritual union with Allah
-To describe that inexpressible experience, they often resorted to
metaphors of drunkenness or the embrace of lovers
Sufism

After spreading to many areas in South Asia Islam became infused
with many mystical strains and incorporated animism, Hindu and
Buddhist elements.

Spread into SE Asia and varied widely in personality and approach.

Established mosques and schools and traveled to preach faith

Sufism became widely popular by the ninth and tenth centuries and
was sharply critical of the more scholarly and legalistic practitioners of
the sharia

Converts were allowed to keep pre-Islamic beliefs and practices,
became inportant in regulating social interactions women retained
stronger poistion,

Orthodox religious scholars, Sufi ideas and practices verged on
heresy, as Sufis claimed to be one with God, to receive new
revelations, or to incorporate religious practices from outside the
Sufis
Whirling Dervishes
What does it mean to be Muslim?
1. Islamic law=sharia
1.
Addressed most aspects of religious and social life
2.
Correct behavior
3.
Creation of four Sunni schools of law
2. Reaction against the distraction of worldly success
1.
Sufis were mystical seeking direct experience of the divine
2.
Renounced material world
3.
Considered heretics by ulama (religious scholars)
4.
Sufis critical of sharia and Quran
3. Hadiths: saying of Muhammad or a report about something
he did
Conclusion Questions…
1.
In what ways did the early history of Islam reflect its Arabian origins?
2.
How does the core message of Islam compare with those of Judaism
and Christianity?
3.
In what ways was the rise of Islam revolutionary, both in theory and
in practice?
4.
Why were Arabs able to construct such a huge empire so quickly?
5.
What accounts for widespread conversion to Islam?
6.
What's the difference between Sunni and Shia Islam?