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ISLAM
H101 Brackett
ISLAM: EMPIRE OF FAITH
► For
Muslims, God is unique and without equal.
They attempt to think and talk about God without
either making Him into a thing or a projection of
the human self. The Koran avoids this by
constantly shifting pronouns to discourage
believers from inadvertently reifying God and
creating any physical image of Him.
► God is known in Arabic as Allah to distinguish Him
from ilah, which could refer to any of the gods
once worshiped in Arabia
The Five Pillars of Faith
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In contrast to many other religions, the basic practice of Islam is
simplicity itself. The believer worships God directly without the
intercession of priests or clergy or saints. The believer's duties are
summed up in five simple rules, the so-called Five Pillars of Islam:
Belief-"There is no god but God and that Muhammad is His
messenger." This phrase, known as the shahada, (sha-HEH-da) or
Profession of Faith, is central to Islam, for it affirms both God's
oneness and the central role of the Prophet.
Worship- worship God five times a day — at dawn, noon, midafternoon, sunset, and nightfall. All male believers are enjoined to
gather together on Friday for the noon prayer and listen to a sermon,
called a khutba in Arabic, by the leader of the community.
Fasting- abstain from food, drink, smoking, and sex, between sunrise
and sunset during the month of Ramadan, the ninth month in the
Muslim calendar.
Almsgiving- Muslims are supposed to donate a fixed amount of their
property to charity every year
Pilgrimage-to Mecca at least once in one's lifetime, if one is able,
during the first days of Dhu'l-Hijja, the twelfth month of the Muslim
calendar.
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The Koran
The two foundations of Muslim faith are God's revelations to
Muhammad, known as the Koran, from the Arabic word Qur'an,
or "recitation"; and the reports about Muhammad's life and
deeds, which are known as the hadith, from the Arabic word for
"report." The central miracle of Islam is God's revelation to
Muhammad, whose human fallibilities as a mere mortal are
repeatedly mentioned in the Koran.
The Koran as a book is comparable in length to the Gospels. It
contains 114 chapters (each called in Arabic a sura) of varying
length. It opens with the Fatiha, a beautiful short prayer that
serves as an invocation in many situations
The other chapters of the Koran follow in descending order of
length, from the 286 verses of the second chapter, known as
"The Cow," to the final two chapters, which are short prayers of
a few lines. The chapters are thus arranged neither in the order
in which the verses were revealed nor in a narrative sequence.
Traditions
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second basis of Muslim faith is the example of
the Prophet. As the perfect Muslim, Muhammad
served and still serves as the model for all
believers. His sayings and deeds were
remembered by his associates and preserved in
the Traditions, known in Arabic as hadith. These
Traditions normally take the form of a chain ("Soand-so heard from so-and-so, who heard from soand-so, that the Prophet said [or did]"), followed
by a report of what the Prophet said or did.
► The Traditions came to be considered second in
authority to the Koran and also help explain and
elaborate the circumstances under which obscure
passages in the Koran were revealed.
People of the Book
► Muslims
believe that God had previously
revealed Himself to the earlier prophets of
the Jews and Christians, such as Abraham,
Moses, and Jesus. Muslims therefore accept
the teachings of both the Jewish Torah and
the Christian Gospels.
► They believe that Islam is the perfection of
the religion revealed first to Abraham (who
is considered the first Muslim) and later to
other prophets.
► They call Jews and Christians the "People of
the Book" and allow them to practice their
own religions.
The Founding of Islamic Faith
► INTERACTIVE
TIMELINE
http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/timeline.html
► Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, was born in Mecca
around the year 570. Orphaned before he had
reached the age of six, he was raised under the
protection of his uncle. Muhammad began working as
a merchant and became known for his
trustworthiness.
► At age 25 he married Khadija, a wealthy widow whose
status elevated Muhammad's position in Meccan
society. Muhammad and Khadija had four daughters
and two sons, both of whom died in infancy.
► About fifteen or twenty years after his marriage, he
began to have visions and hear mysterious voices. He
sought solitude in a cave on Mount Hira on the
outskirts of Mecca.
night during Ramadan, the traditional month of
spiritual retreat, when Muhammad was about forty
years old, an angel appeared to him in the form of a
man and ordered him to Recite in the name of thy lord
► One
who created,
Created man from a clot;
Recite in the name of thy lord,
Who taught by the pen,
Taught man what he knew not.
► In
622 the local rulers of Mecca forced Muhammad
and his small band of followers to leave the city.
Muhammad accepted an invitation to settle in the
oasis of Yathrib, located some eleven days (280 miles)
north by camel, for the oasis had been nearly torn
apart by wars between the clans, of which many were
Jewish.
► Muhammad's
hegira from Mecca marks the
beginning of a new polity. For the first time
in Arabia members of a community were
bound together not by the traditional ties of
clan and tribe but by their shared belief in
the one true God.
► Later believers, looking back on this event,
recognized its seminal importance by
designating it as the first year of their new
era.
► In further recognition of this great event,
the oasis of Yathrib came to be called
Medina, "the city [of the Prophet]."
► Muhammad,
surrounded by his followers, lived
in Medina for ten years, slowly winning over
converts.
► Muhammad made repeated attempts to attract
the Jews to his cause, for example, he directed
that believers worship like the Jews in the
direction of Jerusalem. Ultimately these
attempts failed, and henceforth Muslims prayed
in the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca.
► Muhammad's native town, which had long
been a center of paganism, thereby became
the center of the true religion, the focal point of
the believers' daily prayer, and eventually the
object of their annual pilgrimage.
► In
628, Muhammad finally negotiated a truce with the
Meccans and in the following year returned as a
pilgrim to the city's holy sites.
► The murder of one of his followers provoked him to
attack the city, which soon surrendered. Muhammad
acted generously to the Meccans, demanding only that
the pagan idols around the Kaaba be destroyed.
► Muhammad's prestige grew after the surrender of the
Meccans. Embassies from all over Arabia came to
Medina to submit to him.
► Muhammad's extraordinary life and career were cut
short by his sudden death on June 8, 632, aged about
sixty, less than a decade since he had set off from
Mecca with his small band of followers.
BACK
IN
TIME
► The Life of the Prophet: c.
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570 to 632
c. 570: Birth of Muhammad
622: The Hegira: Muhammad
flees to Medina
630: Muhammad captures
Mecca
632: Muhammad dies.
Orthodox Caliphate (Mecca
and Medina): 632-661
Omayyad Caliphate
(Damascus): 661-750
 680: Death of Mu'awiya,
who is succeeded by his
son, Yazid.
 685-687: Shi'ite revolt in
Iraq.
 711: Conquest of Spain.
 717-718: Attempt to
conquer Constantinople.
 732: Battle of Tours.
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Abbasid Caliphate (Baghdad):
750-1258
751: Battle of Talas: Arabs learn
papermaking from Chinese prisoners
of war
765: A school of medicine is
established in Baghdad.
750-850: The Four orthodox schools
of law are established.
850-875: The Tradition is formalized.
1010: Firdawsi completes his Epic
of Kings, the great epic poem of
Persia.
1055-1250: Expansion of Islam
under the Seljuks and Christian
responses.
1258: Mongols sack Baghdad.
Abbasid Caliphate ends.
756-1031: Omayyad emirate in
Spain (Cordova)
910-1171: Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt
(Cairo)
1379-1401: Tamerlane establishes
an empire in Persia, Iraq and Syria
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1501-1723: Safavid Empire
in Persia
1501: Ismail becomes shah
of Persia, founding the
Safavid Empire
1508: Ismail conquers
Baghdad and defeats the
Uzbeks
1555: Ottoman-Safavid
peace
1587-1629: Reign of Shah
Abbas I
1638: Truce between
Safavids and Ottomans
1723: Safavid Empire
collapses
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The Ottoman Empire:
1350-1918.
 ca. 1243: Turkish nomads
settle in Asia Minor
 1299-1326: Osman I
 1402: Tamerlane defeats
Ottomans at Ankara
 1453: Constantinople is
conquered.
 1520-1566: Suleiman II the
Magnificent
 1571: The Battle of Lepanto
 1703-1730: Cultural revival
under Ahmed III
 1774: Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca
 1822-1830: Greek War of
Independences
 1853-1856: The Crimean War
 1876: The Ottoman
Constitution is promulgated
 1914: The Ottoman Empire
enters World War I
SUNNI & SHIITE
► After
the death of the Prophet Muhammad two major
positions developed about the nature of authority over
the Muslim community. One group, which came to be
called Sunni, from the Arabic word for "tradition,"
accepted the succession of Muhammad's elected
successors, who were known as caliphs.
► SUNNIS were opposed by those who believed that any
head of the community had to be a direct descendant
of Muhammad through his daughter Fatima and her
husband Ali. They are called Shiite, from the Arabic
word shia meaning "party."
► The vast majority of Muslims today are Sunnis; Shiites
form the majority only in Iran and are sizeable
minorities in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.
ISLAM TODAY
► Islam,
followed by more than a billion people
today, is the world's fastest growing religion and
will soon be the world's largest. The 1.2 billion
Muslims make up approximately one quarter of
the world's population, and the Muslim population
of the United States now outnumbers that of
Episcopalians.
► The most populous Muslim countries are
Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India. The
number of Muslims in Indonesia alone (175
million) exceeds the combined total in Egypt,
Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, the traditional
heartlands of Islam.
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are also substantial Muslim populations in
Europe and North America, whether converts or
immigrants who began arriving in large numbers in
the 1950s and 1960s.
► Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s Islam remerged as
a potent political force, associated with both reform
and revolution. Given the large number of adherents,
it is no surprise that Muslims incorporate a broad and
diverse spectrum of positions in regard to liberalism
and democracy.
► Some are secularists who want to disengage religion
from politics. Others are reformers, who reinterpret
Islamic traditions in support of elective forms of
government. Still there are others who reject
democracy entirely.
► Muslims
ISLAMIC CULTURE
believe that God is unique and without
associate, He cannot of course be represented. As He
is worshipped directly without intercessors, images of
saints, as in Christian or Buddhist art, have no place in
Islam. As the Koran is not a narrative like the Torah or
the Gospels, there is little reason for Muslims to tell
religious stories through pictures.
► Islamic religious art has focused on the glorification of
God's word, specifically by writing it beautifully, and
accompanying the Arabic script with geometric and
floral designs known as arabesques, in which plants
grow according to the laws of geometry rather than
nature.
SAMPLE
OF
KORAN
TEXT
Architecture
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The art of building was
popular in virtually all
times and places in the
Islamic lands, providing
places of communal
worship, social service,
and stately residence. The
most important type of
religious building was the
congregational mosque,
which had to provide
sufficient space for the
Muslim community to
gather for weekly worship
on Friday at noon.
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Like rulers everywhere,
Muslims also
commissioned great
palaces, such as the
Alhambra in Granada or
the Topkapi Palace in
Istanbul. These universal
types of buildings were
erected using local
materials and forms that
suited the climate and
geography.
ALHAMBRA
MOSQUE
LITERATURE
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Literature is one of the arts
most valued by Muslims.
Medieval Muslims fostered
the art known as adab,
which came to imply the sum
of intellectual knowledge that
makes a man courteous and
urbane. Based on pre-Islamic
poetry, the art of oratory,
and the historical and tribal
tradition of the ancient
Arabs, as well as the
corresponding sciences of
rhetoric, grammar,
lexicography, and metrics,
adab literature included long
compilations of poetry, works
for instruction, and manuals
for princes meant to
entertain sophisticated
audiences.
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Muslims also fostered a
thousand-year tradition of
classical Persian poetry,
ranging from short quatrains
to long epics.
With the spread of Islam to
other regions, there has
been a corresponding growth
in literature in other
languages, ranging from
Swahili to Malay.
16th century text
INNOVATION
► Medieval
Muslims made invaluable contributions to
the study of mathematics, and their key role is
clear from the many terms derived from Arabic.
► By the 14th century, Italian merchants used the
more modern numbering system of the Muslim
world, which impact the way we do math today,
especially algebra.
► Medieval Muslim scientists often focused on
practical matters, particularly hydraulic
engineering, as water was always a precious
resource in the arid lands where Islam traditionally
flourished. Engineers designed various kinds of
water-raising machines, some powered by
animals, others powered by rivers and streams.
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Bridges and dams were needed to
channel water. In addition to the
standard beam, cantilever and arch
bridges, engineers also designed
bridges of boats to span rivers.
Dams were widely used to divert
rivers into irrigation canals.
Perhaps the most ingenious
hydraulic technologies were the
distribution networks of canals and
qanats, subterranean aqueducts
that sometimes carried water for
hundreds of miles.
Cisterns and underground icehouses were used for storage.
Various instruments were used to
measure water flow, and the
Nilometer built in 861-62 still
stands on Rawda Island in Cairo.
Muslim engineers also
designed several types of
siege engines, notably the
traction and the
counterweight trebuchet.
► Their ingenuity is clear from
the many kinds of fine
machines they also
perfected, ranging from
clocks and automata to
fountains.
► Some were meant for
practical purposes but others
were designed for
amusement or aesthetic
enjoyment, and their
components and techniques
were of great importance for
the development of machine
technology.
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As in the other sciences,
astronomers in the Muslim
lands built upon and greatly
expanded earlier traditions.
Observatories
Translation of ancient texts
Muslim astronomers worked
out planetary models that
depended solely on
combinations of uniform
circular motions.
Completed astronomical
tables
Medieval Muslims
revolutionized the science
and practice of medicine, as
physicians began to question
the medical traditions
inherited from both East and
West and distinguish one
disease from another.
► discovered the minor, or
pulmonary, circulation of the
blood.
► Completed the Canon of
Medicine
► Muslims also expanded the
practice of medical schools
and hospitals
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Paper & Publishing
► Muslims
were responsible for the transfer of
papermaking from China, where it had been
invented in the centuries before Christ, to
Europe, where it fueled the print revolution in
the late fifteenth century. Muslims encountered
paper when they conquered Central Asia in the
eighth century.
► The use of paper soon spread from government
offices to all segments of society. By the middle
of the ninth century the Papersellers' Street in
Baghdad had more than one hundred shops in
which paper and books were sold.
► Medieval
Islamic society had a paper economy, where
both wholesale and retail merchants conducted
commerce on credit.
► Orders of payment, the equivalent of modern checks
were drawn in amounts upwards from one dinar (a
gold coin roughly equivalent to half a month's salary).
► By the ninth century paper was used for copying
scientific and other types of utilitarian texts, although
it took longer for Muslims to accept the use of paper
as a fitting support for God's word.
► Medieval Islamic libraries had hundreds of thousands
of volumes far outstripping the relatively small
monastic and university libraries in the West.
TREATY