Chapter 11- The Muslim World
by: Kristina Giambrone Pd. A
Sec1- Rise of Islam
Sec2- Islam Spreads
Sec3- Golden age of Muslim civilization
Sec4- Muslims in India
Sec5- The Ottoman and Safavid Empires
Section 1: Rise of Islam
I- The prophet Muhammad
A: Geographic setting
- Islam emerged in the Arabian Peninsula in an Oasis: a fertile area in a
desert
- Many Arabs were nomad herders, called Bedouins.
- Mecca was a bustling market town at the crossroads of two main
caravan routes. It was also a thriving pilgrimage center.
B: Muhammad's Vision
- Muhammad was born in Mecca, who was a successful merchant in his
youth
- When he was 40 he went to a cave to meditate, and heard a voice
saying “Recite!”, this was the voice of the angel Gabriel
- He then started to spread Islam in the word of Allah
-As Muhammad spread his teachings he was threatened with murder
and took a journey to Yethrib known as hiijra: Muhammad's flight from Mecca
to Medina.
- Muhammad died in 632, but the faith of Islam became one of the
world’s major religions.
II- Teachings of Islam
- Islam is Monotheistic: belief in one god, and the Quaran is the
sacred text of Islam, which says:
- God is all-powerful and compassionate
- people are responsible for their own actions
- there is no official priest
- All Muslims accept five basic duties, known as the five pillars:
- The first is a declaration of faith “ There is no god but God,
Muhammad is the messenger of God”
- Daily prayer, people may pray wherever but they often gather in
houses of worship or masjids or Mosques
- Give charity to the poor
- Fasting from sunrise to sunset during the holy month of Ramadan.
- The last pillar is the hajj, or the pilgrimage to Mecca. All Muslims who
are able to visit the Kaaba at least once in their life.
- Jihad: Effort in God’s service
Mosque----
III- A way of life
A: Sharia
- Islamic system of law is called a Sharia, which regulates moral conduct,
family law, business practices, government, and other aspects of a Muslim
community.
- The Sharia helped unite many people that switched to Islam.
B: Impact of Muslim on women
- Most women in Arab society varied in position. They could not inherit
property, and things like that.
- Islam affirmed the equality of women and men. They won greater
protection under the law
Section 2: Islam Spreads
I- An age of conquest
- Caliph: Successor of Muhammad, Abu Bakr was a caliph
- Under the first 4 caliphs Arab armies marched from victory to victory
conquering great chunks of the Byzantine empire.
- The reason for these astonishing victories is due in part to two reasons: 1the weakness of the Byzantine and Persian empires 2- the common faith
Muhammad gave is people.
A- Treatment of Conquered people
- Muslim leaders imposed a special tax on non-Muslims, but allowed
Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians to practice their own faiths and follow their own
laws.
- Islam had no hierarchy or class of priests.
II- Movements within Islam
- The split between Sunni and Shiite Muslims had a profound impact of
Islamic history.
- The Sunni felt that the caliph should be chosen by the leaders of the
- The Shiites on the other hand, argued that the only true successor to the
prophet were descendants of Muhammad's daughter and son- in law Fatima and Ali.
- A third tradition in Islam emerged with the Sufis, Muslim mystic who sought
communion with God through meditation, fasting, and other rituals.
III- Empire of the Caliphs
- The Umayyad family set up a dynasty that ruled the Islamic world until 750, in
their capital of Damascus in Syria.
- Shiites hated the Umayyad family, and under the Umayyad the Arabs had
fewer rights.
- A leader Abu al- Abbas, who invited the Umayyad family to a banquet- and
killed them all. He then found the Abbasid dynasty.
A- Splendors of Baghdad
- The Abbasid dynasty chose their capital in Baghdad, a small market town in
present day Iraq.
- In Baghdad many gardens, dotted with fountains, gleamed in the sunlight.
- Minarets: slender towers of Mosques.
- Muezzin: Mosque official that went to the top of the minaret and called people
for prayer.
IV- Decline of the Caliphate
- As the Caliph power faded, civil wars erupted, and Shiite rulers took over
parts of the empire.
A- Seljuk
- In the 1900;s the Seljuk Turks migrated into the middle east from Central Asia
adopted Islam and built a large empire across the fertile crescent/
- Sultan: Authority
B- Mongols
- Genghis Khan led the Mongols out of Central Asia across Persia and
Mesopotamia, and killed and burned Baghdad and the last caliph leader.
- Tamerlane or Timur the lame was another Mongol leader that led his armies in
to the middle east.
Minaret
Section 3- Golden age of Muslim
Civilization
I- Society and the economy
A- Social classes
- People enjoyed a certain degree of social mobility: the ability to move up in
social class.
- They would improve their social rank through religious, scholarly, or military
achievements.
- In the Muslin world slavery was a common institution, the slaves were brought
from conquered lands in Spain, Greece, Africa and etc, but Muslims could not be
enslaved.
- Most slaves worked ad household servants.
B- An international trade network
- Merchants were honored in the Muslim because Muhammad was a Merchant.
- Muslim cities were typically organized by guilds, in which guilds were chosen
by there members.
- The Muslim world was divided into 2 kinds of land: “The desert and the sown”
II- Arts and Literature
- Muslim art and literature reflected the diverse traditions of the people under
Muslim rule
A- Design and decoration
- Arabesque: An intricate design composed of curved lines that suggest floral
shapes, appeared in rugs, textiles and glassware.
-Calligraphy: The art of beautiful handwriting
-Dome of the rock: A great shrine capped with a magnificent dome.
- Omar Khayyam was famous In the Muslim world as a scholar and astronomer
III- The world of Learning
- A philosopher Ibn Rushd also known as Avveroes, put all knowledge except
the Quran to the test of reason.
- Greatest Muslim mathematician al-Khwarizmi, pioneered the study of algebra.
A- Medicine
- Ibn sina, known as Avicenna was a Persian physician who wrote the Canon
on Medicine: A huge encyclopedia of what Greeks, the Arabs about the diagnosis
and treatments of diseases.
Section 4: Muslims In India
I- The Delhi Sultanate
- Sultanate: Land ruled by a sultan
- Castes: Social groups from which they could not change
II- Muslims and Hindus
A- Muslim-Hindu difference
- Hinduism was an ancient religion that had evolved over thousands of years,
and they had many sacred texts and prayed before status representing many Gods
and goddesses.
- Islam, by contrast, was a newer faith with a single sacred text.
- Muslims were devout Monotheists who saw the statues and carvings in Hindu
temples as an offense to one true God.
- Hindus accepts differences in caste status and honored Brahmans as a
priestly caste.
-Muslims taught the equality of all believers before God and had no religious
Hierarchy
B- Interactions
- Rajahs: Or local Hindu rulers
- People who converted to Islam did so because it benefited their lifestyle. For
example, Indian Merchants liked Islam because of the strong trade network across
Muslim lands.
III- Mughal India
- Babur: Claimed descent from Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, who was a
military genius, and a poet.
- Babur swept away the remnants of the Delhi Sultanate and set up the Mughal
Dynasty.
A- Akbar the Great
- Akbar: Babur’s grandson, who created a strong central government earning
the title, Akbar the Great.
- He ended the tax on non-Muslims and married himself a Hindu Princess.
- Taj Mahal: Tomb that Akbar made for his wife when she died.
Section 5: The Ottoman and Safavid
Empires
I- Expanding the Ottoman Empire
- The Ottomans were another Turkish- speaking nomadic people who migrated
from central Asia.
- Suleiman : Ottoman Sultan who was known to the people as “ Lawgiver”. He
extended the empire in many new directions.
II- Ottoman Culture
- Suleiman had absolute power, but he ruled with the help of a council.
- Ottoman law was based on the Sharia, supplemented by royal edicts.
Government officials worked closely with religious scholars who interpreted the law.
A- Social Organization
- The Ottomans divided their subjects into four classes, each with a appointed
role.
- At the top were “ men of the pen” such as scientists lawyers and judges.
- Below that are the “Men and sword” soldiers who guarded the Sultan and
defended the state.
- Below them were “ Men of negotiation”, such as merchants, tax collectors,
and artisans.
- The last class are “men of husbandry”, farmers and herders who produced
food for the community.
- Millets: Religious communities
B- Janizaries
- Ottoman empire levied a tax on christian families, requiring them to turn over
young sons to the government. They were converted to Islam and began to train.
- Janizaries: The elite force of the Ottoman empire.
- Like the boys, non-Muslim girls were brought to serve as slaves.
- By the 1700’s the Ottoman empire declined.
III- The Safavid Empire
- The Safavid Empire is engaged in constant warfare, religion played a major
role In the conflict.
- The Safavid’s were Shiite Muslims who enforced their beliefs throughout their
empire, and the Ottomans were Sunni Muslims who despised the Shiites as heretics.
A- Abbas the Great
- Shah: King( Abbas the great was the shah)
- To strengthen the economy, Abbas reduced taxes on farmers and herders and
encouraged the growth of industry.
- Isfahan: Magnificent new capital that was the center of international trade.
B- Decline
-Safavid glory slowly faded after the death of Abbas.
- One cause of the decline was continuing pressure from Ottoman armies.
- A new dynasty, the Qajars, won control of Iran and made Tehran there new
capital.
Test your Knowledge
1.) Which activity occurred during the Golden age of Muslim culture?
A- Destruction of books containing Greek and Roman ideas
B- Beginning of pilgrimages to Mecca
C- Opposition to freedom of thought and foreign ideas by rulers
D- Major discoveries in mathematics and science
2.) The contributions of the golden age of Islamic civilization include
A- Advances in mathematics
B- Irrigation systems
C- Polytheistic beliefs
D- Gunpowder and guns
3.) A major feature of the Golden Age of Moslem culture was the
A- Political and economic isolation of the Arab world
B- Development of the foundations of modern science and mathematics
C- Adoption of democratic government
D- Persecution of Jews and Christians
4.) Which factor helps explain the scientific and literary achievements of the Muslims
during their Golden Age (A.D. 800-1300)?
A- Expansion of trans-Atlantic trade
B- Innovations introduced by the Europeans during the Renaissance
C- Cultural diversity accepted by many Islamic governments
D-legal equality of all people in the Islamic empire
5.) Mansa Musa’s journey to Mecca in the 1300’s is evidence that
A- The Crusades had a great influence on western Africa
B- Most African leaders were educated in the Middle East
C- European culture was superior to the cultures of western Africa
D- Islam had a major influence on the Mali Empire
Check your answers
1.) D- Major discoveries in mathematics and science
2.) A- Advances in mathematics
3.) B- Development of the foundations of modern science and mathematics
4.) C- Cultural diversity accepted by many Islamic governments
5.) D- Islam had a major influence on the Mali Empire
Bibliography:
- www.regentsprep.org