Download The Growth of Islam

The Growth of Islam
By Abdullah Azim
Period 5
The Life of Prophet Muhammad
The Prophet Muhammad was born into a powerful and wealthy
Meccan family in A.D. 570. When he was 25, he married a woman
who was 40, because they were in the same business, caravan trade.
The prophet was orphaned when he was young.
One day, while Muhammad was praying the angel Gabriel came
out to Muhammad and told him, “You are the Messenger of Allah”.
Soon, he started preaching to the Meccans that the idols of Mecca
were useless and had to be rejected. He also told them about the
only god, Allah. A lot of people rejected the idea of Muhammad’s
message, and he had little success at first. His wife believed him and
became the first Muslim. Islam, the religion of Muhammad, means
peace through submission to the will of God. Most people ignored him
in Mecca, so he went on the Hijrah to Medina with his followers. The
point of the Hijrah was to go to the city of Medina and preach to the
people. When he started preaching, he had a lot of success and had
many converts to Islam. People found his message appealing, and
wanted Muhammad to be leader. When Muhammad came back, the
Meccans still rejected him, they fought, and they forced the city to
surrender. Muhammad forgave the Meccans and dedicated the
Ka’aba to Allah. Muhammad was a powerful Islamic leader who had
hope. After his death in 632 A.D, the word of Islam spread across the
Arabian peninsula.
The Rightly Guided Caliphs
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In June 632, after Muhammad’s (PBUH) death, Abu Bakr, a trusted
friend of Muhammad, became the first caliph, or successor of
Muhammad.
He used armed forces to unite the lands of Iraq and Syria, under the
Muslim lands.
He elected Umar, Uthman, and Ali as the next successors, in order
after his death.
In 634, Umar’s highly disciplined armies dominated Syria and lower
Egypt from the Persian Empire.
Uthman and Ali conquered Persia’s conquest, and kept expanding the
Muslim territory.
By 661, they had enlarged the size of the Muslim empire by nearly four
times by captures or treaties.
The empire stretched from Southwest Asia to Northern Africa.
Muslims saw the empire expansion as help from Allah, and were willing
to fight for their religion.
Caliphate Rule Map
Islam
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The main teaching of Islam is that there is one God, Allah and his
messenger is the prophet Muhammad.
Muslims, the people who follow Islam, believe Muhammad got his
revelation, the Qur’an, through the angel Gabriel, from Allah.
The Qur’an is the Islamic holy book, in Arabic, which contains sacred
writings to the prophet Muhammad when he was in Mecca and Medina.
Muhammad preached and followers listened to him. Muslims follow the
Sunnah, or Muhammad’s words and deeds, that were and are used as a
guide for living.
The confusion of the caliphs lead to a split in Islam. Two sects formed called
the Sunni and the Shi’a. The Sunni accepted whoever was caliph, but the
Shi’a declared that whoever is a descendant of Ali shall be successor.
Muslims also follow the five pillars of Islam, the first pillar of Islam, which is
Faith, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.”
Next, comes prayer, which is done five times a day, at specific times, and
people face Mecca.
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Then comes alms, or giving money to the poor.
Then comes fasting during the Islamic month of Ramadan each year,
where Muslims avoid food and beverages from sunrise to sunset.
The last pillar of Islam is pilgrimage, also known as Hajj, when Muslims
make a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, and visit the holy Ka’aba.
Muslims, Jews, and Christians have a lot of things in common. Some things
include the belief in heaven, hell, and a judgment day. These people are
viewed as the “People of the Book” by Muslims, because the religious
books share similar teachings.
Muslims, Jews, and Christians all believe that Abraham was a prophet of
God. They worship the same God, but Muslims do not view Jesus as the
son of god.
Muslims are forbidden to eat pork or drink alcoholic beverages.
Muslims gather at a mosque on Fridays to worship Allah, as Christians go
to church on Sunday.
Abbasids
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Once the Abbasids took power, they built a huge standing army which were stationed at
military posts throughout the empire.
The most loyal people to the government, lived close to Damascus, which was also close
to Baghdad, where it was a massive trading center.
Baghdad included of precious metals, stones, silk, fabrics, spices, furs, porcelain from
China, India, Africa, and northern Europe.
In the early 800’s, the population was 900,000 in Baghdad, and repairs began to take place
in the city to make it beautiful. Farming and irrigation developed and farmers grew a variety
of things.
The economy made the Abbasids approach a golden age, and the people supported art
and knowledge. People used plant life, geometric patterns, arabesque and calligraphy.
Calligraphy was a fancy style of writing used in books. The Abbasids learned how to make
paper from the Chinese and were influenced by the works of Aristotle and Pluto, who were
intelligent Greek thinkers.
The Abbasids accepted every race of people to come and make Baghdad a better place,
which was cultural.
The Persians were good with medicine, and they wrote books with cures, and opened
hospitals throughout the empire. The origin of algebra also began in Baghdad.
Around the 850’s, factions, or people who opposed other groups, challenged them. The
caliphs ignored the government, which hurt the economy, they also faced attacks.
One opposing group destroyed and attacked places that were threatening them, and in
1071 the faction capture Jerusalem.
The Abbasid Rule, 850 A.D.
Umayyads
 In 661, the Umayyads came to power and establish the capital in Damascus.
 They begin conquering new lands such as Asia, Africa, and Europe , in less than
a hundred years and stretched the borders throughout central Asia.
 By 710, they controlled land from the Nile River to the Atlantic Ocean in the
west.
 Around 711, they go north into the Iberian Peninsula, and conquered the area
using military force, but got stopped by the Christians and then retreated to
Spain.
 The Umayyads used bureaucracy to win lands from the Byzantine Empire.
 To unite the lands, the current caliph, Abd-Al-Malik, declared Arabic the official
language and made coins for the whole empire in 685.
 Some Muslims thought that the Ummayad’s weren’t following the Islamic rules,
so they protested against them.
 The Abbasids, one of the opposing groups, gained popularity, took power in
750.
 As a result, the Umayyads got murdered, but only one person survived named
Abd-Al-Rahman, who fled to Spain, and spread the Umayyad culture.
 Therefore, the Muslim empire permanently split into east and west portions.
The Umayyad Rule, 750 A.D.
Spain
 Abd-Al-Rahman defeated the factions in Spain, became emir in AlAndalus, also known as Muslim Spain, and chose the capital city Cordoba.
 The Umayyad loyalists joined him to make his army even stronger, but
they faced several threats, and he died in 788.
 In 912, the 8th emir named Abd-Al-Rahman III, faced rebel groups, attacks,
and invaders coming in from North Africa.
 Therefore, he built a huge standing army, and used mercenaries from
Europe to push the invaders back. In 929, he declared himself caliph of
Cordoba; also known for his power.
 Cordoba was a beautiful city with gardens and lights at night. 500,000
people lived there.
 There were fountains, decorated shops with silk, leather, carpets,
weapons, and glass from Asia.
 There was many knowledgeable resources in the area too. There were
400,000 books in Latin.
 Scholars studied complicated mathematics, made accurate calendars, and
maps. Doctors published several volumes of medical encyclopedias with
medical information. Intelligent people from all around the globe came to
make Spain a better learning place from Baghdad.
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The Jews who lived in Spain, faced persecution from the Umayyads. The other
group of Muslims accepted the Jews to take high places in government.
Maimonides, a highly respected Jewish scholar, was young when an opposing
group called the Almohads, conquered and seized the area. His family settled in
Cairo later on. He grew up to be a great doctor and philosopher.
In 1204, Al-Andalus began to fall. Factions fought the Muslims, the Christians
attacked and took over the Iberian Peninsula. It lead to a civil war, and many
groups started reaching for control.