Chapter 7 Reading Guide
1. How did the Abbasid caliphs lose control of the empire? Give specific examples.
2. What other internal problems was the empire having? Give examples.
3. Who were the Buyids of Persia and the Seljuk Turks and what did they do?
4. What was the impact of the Christian Crusades?
5. What intellectual and artistic achievements did the Abbasids make? Which ones affected other
civilizations? Give examples.
6. How did women’s social status decline in this era?
7. What was the Mongol effect on the empire?
8. Who were Sufi mystics and what did they do?
9. How did Islam get to India and how did India react to Islam?
10. How did Islam spread to Southeast Asia? How did it adapt to its new environment (in other
words, did it change?)?
11. How did the spread of Islam affect each civilization as it moved from the Arab heartlands to
south and Southeast Asia?
12. How was Islam a bridge between different peoples of the world?