Download Islamic Civilization

Islam=name of the religion
Muslim=someone who practices Islam
The Arabian Peninsula

 Very harsh desert environment. Very little water
 The people there become very fierce as they compete
for scarce resources like water
Villages grow

 Villages grow up
around an oasis- places
where water naturally
comes up out of the
ground
 Villages along trade
routes between Africa,
Asia, and Europe grow
and prosper
Arabs

 Most people there are
nomadic shepherds
called Bedouins
 Bedouins are
polytheistic
 Bedouin people are often
called Arabs, especially
after they cease being
nomadic
Ishmael

 According to legend, the
ancestor of the Arabs is Ismael,
Abraham’s illegitimate son by
his wife’s slave
 Arabs therefore claim the same
origins as the Hebrews
Muhammad (Mohammed,
Muhammad)

 Muhammad is born into this
harsh Arab/Bedouin culture
around 570 AD.
 He is born in Mecca and becomes
a wealthy merchant
 He is famous for being a wise
man and very spiritual
Gabriel visits
Muhammad

 One day Muhammad
is visited by the angel
Gabriel who tells him
that Muhammad is to
be God’s prophet
 Gabriel recites the
Qur’an (Koran) to
Muhammad to
memorize since
Muhammad is
illiterate
Islam’s prophets

 Muslims believe that Muhammad is the last prophet,
but not the only one.
 Previous prophets include all the Jewish and
Christian prophets – like Moses and even Jesus (they
do not believe he is God’s son)
Koran (Qur’an)

 The Qur’an is Islam’s holy book. It
is word-for-word, the words Gabriel
told Muhammad to learn
 Also is a book of the prophet
Muhammad’s sayings called the
Hadith and a book detailing his
actions called the Sunnah.
 Together, these books are the
guiding documents for Muslims
 BTW, the Qur’an is written in
Arabic, and many Muslims believe
to truly understand it, you must
read it in Arabic
Islam

 Means “submission” (to God)
 People who practice Islam are called Muslims, which
means “one who submits” (to God)
Five Pillars

 Muslims believe in five core duties as written in the
Qur’an
Shahada
Salah
Zakat
Sawm
Hajj
• Accepting
God
• Prayer
• Alms
• Fasting
• Pilgramage
• Muslims
must face
Mecca five
times daily
and pray
• Means
giving to
the poor
• Muslims
must fast
during
Ramadan to
atone for
sins
• Ablebodied
Muslims
who can
afford it
must travel
to Mecca
• Say: “There
is no god
but Allah,
and
Muhammad
is his
Prophet”
“People of the Book”

 Christianity and Judaism are viewed as a pre-cursor
to Islam
 They are allowed to practice their faith because of
this, though they are encouraged to convert to Islam
 If they do not convert, they must pay a tax (jizyah
“tribute”)
Muslims persecuted

 The small Muslim movement is persecuted from
Mecca and forced to flee 200 miles to the village of
Medina (hijira)
 In the year 630, Muhammad returned to Mecca and
took the city.
 He spared the people there, establishing a pattern of
treating conquered people with tolerance
Islam spreads

 Islam quickly spread throughout the Arabian
Peninsula
 Get out your maps
 Label the colored section “Islam during
Muhammad’s life”
Muhammad dies

 Muhammad died in 632 AD
 In his farewell speech, he warned the Muslim
community against returning to pre-Islamic practices
 However, he did not give instructions for who
should succeed him as leader
Masjid-Al-Nabawi – Tomb of the Prophet
Jerusalem

 Among the lands the Muslims conquer are parts of
the Byzantine Empire- like Jersualem
 Jerusalem is the holiest city in Judaism and
Christianity
 The oldest and possibly best know mosque in the
world is the Dome of the Rock.
They built it on the same hill
as the King Solomon’s Templethe holiest Jewish site.
Dome of the Rock

Battle of Tours

 732 AD a Muslim army comprised of Moors from
North Africa invaded France
 They were stopped at the Battle of Tours by a
Frankish general named Charles (later Charles
Martel)
 The battle is seen as preserving Christianity in
Europe
Caliphs

 Muhammad’s successors,
called caliphs, were elected
 They worked to expand
Islam through conquering
new territories
Islam Continues to
Spread

 Under Muhammad’s successors, Islam continued to
spread, eventually including all the land from Spain
to the Indus River, and even further east to China
and Indonesia
 On your map, label this section “Extent of Islam”
Islam under the Caliphs

Ali

 Ali, was Muhammad’s
cousin and son-in-law. He
became caliph, but was
assassinated.
Umayyad Caliphate

 After the first 4 caliphs, the Umayyad Caliphate
became the dominant force in Islam
 The Umayyad's moved the capital to Damascus
(modern Syria) and began to act more like European
(Byzantine) rulers
Umayyad Mosque (Great Mosque of Damascus)
Hussein

 There were some Muslims who
believed the Umayyad’s were
corrupting Islam
 One of those was Ali’s son
(Muhammad’s grandson),
Hussein
 He refused to pay allegiance to the
Umayyad.
 At the Battle of Karbala, Hussein
was beheaded
 He is a martyr to Shi’a Muslims
Shi’a

 The people who were loyal to
Hussein believed that the
caliph should be a descendent
of Muhammad
 They are called Shi’a (Shiite) –
means “Party of Ali”
 Almost all of them live in
South-east Iraq and Iran
 Karbala is a holy site to which
they pilgrimage today
Sunni

 Those who remained loyal to the Umayyad are
called Sunni (means Majority)
 Sunni make up over 85% of Muslims today
Sufism

 The Sufi branch also
broke away during the
Umayyads
 Sufis are generally seen as
practicing a mystical type
of Islam in which they
seek to know only Allah
in all things
 This is a very small, but
highly dedicated sect of
Islam
Baghdad

 Baghdad became the
capital
 The city would
eventually have a
population of 1
million at a time
when Paris and
London counted less
than 50,000
 Baghdad was the
center of learning
Universities

 One of the earliest universities was founded in
Baghdad. These centers for learning contributed to
learning and many new Islamic inventions.
Mathematic Advances

 Arab scholars made advances in math and
astronomy
 They invented Algebra
 And, modern numerals like 1, 2, 3, 4… are Arabic
inventions
Medicine

 Muslim physicians contributed to modern medicine
by discovering the causes of certain diseases like
Smallpox
 Al Razi, the most famous Muslim physician, even
realized that patients recover better in clean
environments
Preserve classical learning

 Muslim scholars preserved
and translated many of the
Greek and Roman classic texts
 Eventually, as contact with the
Christians in Western Europe
increased, that knowledge
would pass back to Europe
Islam Today

 Get out your book to page 283, use the pie charts to
answer the following questions with your group.
Turn in your answers.
 How many Muslims are there in the world?
 In which regions are Muslims a majority (more than
50%) or plurality (more than any other group)?
 If India’s population is 1.1 billion, how many Muslims
live there?
 If the United States’ population is 3 million, how many
Muslims live there?
Masjid-al-Haram (Kabba in center)
