Chapter 8: The Islamic World, ca. 600-1400 Flashcards

Question 1

Q

Muhammad and the basic tenets (beliefs) of Islam

(6)

Answer

A

1) Late 6th-early 7th C.E., Middle East, Southwest Asia 
3) Muhammad (late 6th-mid 7th CE) was a traveling merchant who urged people to give up their idols and submit to Allah (1 true god) 
4) Muhammad's followers published the Qur'an (the sacred book of Islam) in the mid 7th century 
5) Five Pillars of Islam- Islamic belief of how to live life 
a) Profession of faith in Allah and the prophet Muhammad. 
b) Had to pray 5x a day. 
c) Fasting and prayer during the holy month of Ramadan. 
d) A pilgrimage to Mecca once in a person's life. 
e) The donation of alms (money, food, or other donations) to poor Muslims. 
6) Hadith was the collections of the sayings of and anecdotes about Muhammad 
7)Comparison: Muhammad and Confucious both traveled & preached.

Question 2

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Early Muslim leaders and their accomplishments

(6)

Answer

A

1) Early to Mid 7th century C.E., Middle East 
2)Abu Bakr (early 7th) sent out military expeditions, collected taxes, dealt with tribes on behalf of the entire community, and led the community in prayer. 
3) Umar (early 7th) succeeded in exerting his authority over the Bedouin tribes 
4) Uthman (mid 7th) asserted the right of the caliph to protect the economic interests of the umma and published the definitive text of the Qur'an. 
5) opposition united around Ali who was chosen to succeed Uthman after assassination.

Question 3

Q

<p style="text-align: center;">
	Umayyad Caliphate (state of the caliph/head of Islam and Muhammad&#39;s successor)</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">
	(5)</p>

Answer

A

1) late 7th-mid 8th CE., Capital was at Damascus in Syria; Southwest Asia, Middle East. 
2) founded by Mu'awiya in the late 7th century. 
3) Mu'awiya (late 7th CE) was the 5th caliph. 
a) Created the hajib (an official/chamberlain) that restricted access to the caliph. 
b) Sought to enhance the authority of the caliph by making the tribal leaders dependent on him for concessions and special benefits. 
c) Forced tribal leaders to accept his son Yazid as heir. 
4) Caliphs were Sunnis (Muslims who stayed loyal to the Muslim community). 
5) CC: similar to the Seljuk Turks and the Sultanate of Rum who were both Sunnis

Question 4

Q

Sufism

(6)

Answer

A

1) 9th-10th centuries C.E., Middle East, Southwest Asia. 
2) Sufis; 
a) Were ascetics (a person who restricts oneself from certain aspects of life). 
b) Wanted a personal union with God. 
c) Were dedicated to fasting, prayer, meditation on the Qur'an, and the avoidance of sin. 
3) Rabi'a (early 8th-early 9th century) refused marriage so that nothing would distract her from a total commitment to God 
4) A "whirling dervish" was a ritual of Sufi brotherhoods inducing a hypnotic or ecstatic trance, through constant repetition of certain prayer or physical exertions 
5) Ibn al'-Arabi (late 12th-early 13th), a Spanish Sufi wrote 
a) The Meccan Revelation 
b) The Interpreter of Desires 
c) The Bezels [Edges] of Wisdom, which were all important Sufi documents

6) Arose as a popular reaction to the materialism of the Umayyad regime

Question 5

Q

| Administration of Islamic Territories (8; slave soldiers, emirs, qadis, shari'a, diwan, vizier)

Answer

A

1) 600-1400 C.E., Middle East, Southwest Asia 
2) Slave Soldiers: 
a) created by Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim 
b) response to the shortage of able men 
c) Turks had military skills superior to the Arabs 
d) al-Mu'tasim trusted the Turks more than the Arabs, Persians, Khurasans, and other recruits 
3) Arab emirs (governors)--given the responsibility for the maintenance of the armed forces and tax collection 
4) Shari'a--Islamic law as interpreted by the ulama that covered social, criminal, political, commercial, and ritual matters 
5) Qadis (judges)--carried out the judicial functions of the state 
6) the diwan (the central administration)--collected the taxes that paid the soldiers' salaries and financed charitable and public works 
7) Vizier--the caliph's chief assistant who advised the caliph on matters of general policy, supervised the bureaucratic administration, and oversaw the army, the provincial governors, and relations with foreign governments

Question 6

Q

<p style="text-align: center;">
	Fatimid Kingdom (5)</p>

Answer

A

1) early 10th-late 12th century C.E., North Africa 
2) Shi'ite dynasty that claimed descent from Muhammad's daughter Fatima 
3) conquered the Abbasid province of Egypt and founded the city of Cairo as their capital 5) lost control of Egypt to the Ayyubids in the late 12th century

Question 7

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| Ayyubids and Mamluks in Egypt (5)

Answer

A

1) Ayyubids (late 12-early 14 century C.E.), N. Africa 
2) Mamluk Sultanate (mid 13th-early 16th century C.E.), N. Africa 
3) Ayyubids: 
a) took control of Egypt from the Fatimid Kingdom in the late 12th century C.E. 
b) ruled Egypt until the mid 13th century C.E. 
4) Mamluks: 
a) replaced the Ayyubids as rulers of Egypt in the mid 13th century C.E. and ruled until the early 16th century 
b) were originally slave soldiers

Question 8

Q

<p style="text-align: center;">
	Ibn Battuta (4)</p>

Answer

A

1) 14th century, Islamic World: North Africa, Middle East, India, Central Asia, West Africa 
2) an explorer well-known for his extensive travels 
3) published the novel Rihla (Journey) which contained the accounts of his travels 4) CC: similar to Marco Polo and his novel, Travels about E. Asia and his own voyages

Question 9

Q

| Mozarabs (7)

Answer

A

1) 8th-12th century C.E., Middle East, North Africa 
2) Christians who adopted some Arabic customs but did not convert 
3) did not place much importance on the doctrinal differences between Islam and Christianity 
4) faced criticism from both Muslim scholars and Christian clerics 
5) had to live in special sections of cities 
6) could not learn the Qur'an, employ Muslim workers or servants, or build new churches 8) CC: Similar to Jews in ghettos throughout Europe, and restrictions on their rights.

Question 10

Q

<p style="text-align: center;">
	Abbasid Caliphate (9; al-Abbas, al-Mansur, al-Rashid, al-Mutasim) </p>

Answer

A

1) mid 8th-mid 13th century C.E., Middle East, Southwest Asia 
2) founded by al-Abbas in the mid 8th century 
3) al-Mansur (r. late 8th)--founded the city of Baghdad and made it his capital in the late 8th century 
4) borrowed heavily from Persian culture 
5) caliphs claimed to rule by divine right 
6) al-Rashid (r. late 8th-early 9th C.E.)--established a library that translated Greek medical and philosophical texts 
7) al-Mutasim (r. early 9th)--developed the use of slave soldiers in military service 
8) CC: use of divine right by caliphs was similar to the Mandate of Heaven in China and the divine right of kings in Europe

Question 11

Q

| Mongol invasion and rule within the Islamic lands

Answer

A

1. Early 13th to early 14th, the Middle East

2. Chinggis Khan began invasions in the early 13th century

a. slaughtered residents and enslaved them and sent them back to Mongolia

b. Destoryed the irrigation systems in this region

3. Another early 13th century campain conquered the city of Isfahan (not under Chinggis Khan though)

4. Hulegu (a Mongolian ruler) attacked the Abassids

a. Sacked Baghdad and killed the caliph in the mid 13th century,

b. Conquered Dmascus in the mid 13th century

c. Lost to Mamluks in Egypts at Ayn Jalut (creditited for saving Muslim lands in North Africa, Egypt and also Spain)

5. By the late 13th century,Ghazan embraced Islam and worked for the revival of Muslim culture

Question 12

Q

| Seljuk Turks and their society (7)

Answer

A

1) early 11th-early 13th century C.E.; Middle East, Persia, Anatolia 
2) overran Persia in the early 11th century 
3) defeated Baghdad in the mid 11th century and the Abbasid caliph became a puppet of the Turkish sultan 
4) became Sunnis and led a campaign against Shi'ites 
5) broke through Byzantine border at the battle of Manzikert in the late 11th century 
6) set up the Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia that lasted until the early 13th century 
7) CC: similar to the Umayyad caliphs who were also Sunnis

8) COT: Change b/c it went from native to foreign rule and manipulation (can be used as a pivot point in the COT b/c after that the Islamic lands fall under the control of the Mongols, another set of foreigners)

Question 13

Q

| Sunni versus Shi'ite beliefs (5)

Answer

A

1) 7th-15th century; Islamic World 
2) Sunnis 
a) adhered to the practice and beliefs of the umma (a community of those who share a religious faith and commitment) based on the precedents of the Prophet 
b) when a situation arose for which the Qur'an offered no solution, Sunni scholars searched for a precedent in the Sunna 
c) claimed interpretation of Qur'an Sunna came from consensus of ulama (group of Muslim scholars) 
3) Shi'ites 
a) were supporters of Ali and emphasized their blood descent from Ali 
b) insisted that the imam (the leader in community prayer) should be the one to interpret the Qur'an and the Sunna 
4) CC: similar to Christianity in that different branches of Christianity also arose in its early (division between between Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox in 1056) and later (divisions between Catholics and Protestants in 1500s) years 5) CC: Sunnis and Shi'ites both follow the Islamic faith; however, in contrast, Sunnis and Shi'ites have conflicting opinions about the succession to Muhammad

Question 14

Q

Muslim intellectual life and great Muslim thinkers (10; al-Khwarizmi, al-Razi, Ibn Sinaaka Avicenna, al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Ibn Rushidaka Averroes)

Answer

A

1) 600-1400 C.E.; Middle East, North Africa 
2) madrasa--the school for the study of Muslim law and religious science 
3) al-Khwarizmi (d. mid 9th century)--produced astronomical tables that formed the basis for later Eastern and Western research and wrote a textbook on algebra 
4) al-Razi (late 9th-early 10th)--produced an encyclopedic exposition on medicine and was the first physician to make the clinical distinction between measles and smallpox 
5) Ibn Sina, aka Avicenna (late 10th-early 11th)

a) codified all Greco-Arabic medical thought , described the contagious nature of tuberculosis and the spreading of diseases, and listed about 800 pharmaceutical drugs in his al-Qanun 
b) maintained that the truths found by human reason cannot conflict with the truths of revelation in the Qur'an 
7) al-Kindi (late 9th)--sought to integrate Islamic concepts of human beings and their relations with God and the universe with the principles of ethnic and social conduct discussed by Plato and Aristotle 
8) al-Farabi (mid 10th)--wrote a political treatise describing an ideal city whose ruler is morally and intellectually perfect and who has as his goal the citizen's complete happiness 
9) Ibn Rushid, or Averroes (12th)--insisted on the right to subject all knowledge, except dogmas (an official system of principles or tenets concerning faith, morals, or behaviors) of faith, to the test of reason and on the harmony between religion and philosophy 
10) CC: similar to the Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle; different from Enlightenment writers (Locke, Jefferson) who rarely wrote about religion.

Question 15

Q

| Reasons for the spread of Islam (7; jihad)

Answer

A

1) 600-1400 C.E.; Middle East, North Africa 
2) Jihad--holy war against unbelievers living in territories outside Muslim community 
3) Qur'an suggested that Muslims have the obligation, as individuals and a community, to spread Islam 
4) Muslim practice of establishing garrison cities (any military post where troops are stationed) or camps 
5) Muslim armies sought to convert or recruit warriors from conquered peoples 
6) some regions contained sites important to the Islamic faith such as Syria which contained both Jerusalem and Hebron were targets and motivation for expansion 
7) CC: the Muslim jihad was similar to the Crusades launched by Christians between the 11th and 13th centuries C.E.

Question 16

Q

| Muslim versus Christian conflicts and interactions (12)

Answer

A

1) 600-1400; Europe, Middle East 
2) Christian Europeans and Middle Eastern Muslims shared a common cultural heritage from the Judeo-Christian past 
3) Islam had the greatest cultural impact in Andalusia in southern Spain 
4) mozarabs (assimilated Christians) did not put much significance on the doctrinal differences between the two religions, but Christians always remained an infidel 
5) Muslims who converted to Christianity were immediately sentenced to death 
6) European's perception of Islam as a menace helped inspire the Crusades of the 11th through the 13th centuries 
7) al Tabari (d. early 10th century), al-Safa in the 11th century, and al-Jabbar (d. early 11th century) all wrote sympathetically about Jesus from a Muslim perspective 
8) von Eschenbach's Parzival and Langland's Piers the Plowman displayed a sympathetic view of Islam from a Western perspective 
9) Dante (late 13th-early 14th century) in his epic poem, Inferno portrayed Muslims as Europe's most dreadful enemies and guilty of every crime 
10) during the Crusades, Muslims adopted Frankish weapons and methods of fortification 
11) Christians in contact with Muslim scholars recovered ancient Greek philosophical texts that survived only in Arabic translation

Question 17

Q

| Trade and commerce in Islamic World (7)

Answer

A

1) 600-1400 C.E.; North Africa, Middle East, India, East Africa 
2) Islam had a highly positive disposition (natural mental and emotional outlook) toward profit-making enterprise 
3) waterways served as the main commercial routes 
4) the Mongol invasion in the 13th century led to the decline of Iraq and the rise of Egypt as the center of Muslim trade 
5) the medieval Muslim economy had capitalistic features: private ownership of the means of production, the production of goods for market sale, profit as the main motive for economic activity, competition, a money economy, and the lending of money at interest 
6) the spread of useful plants was one byproduct of Muslim trade. 
7) CC: in contrast to the social values of the medieval West and the Confucian East, Muslims tended to look with disdain (to look upon or treat with contempt; despise; scorn) on agricultural labor

Question 18

Q

| Cordoba and the remnants of the Umayyad Kingdom (7)

Answer

A

1) mid 8th-early 11th century C.E.; Iberian Peninsula, Spain, North Africa 
2) in the mid 8th century an Umayyad prince fled to Spain to set up an independent regime at Cordoba 
3) in 800 the emir in Tunisia in North Africa set himself up as an independent ruler 
4) in the early 9th century, Tahir was rewarded with the governship of Khurasan because he had supported the caliphate, but once there, Tahir ruled independently of Baghdad 
5) see Ayyubid and Mamluks in Egypt and Fatimid Kingdom flashcards 
6) CC: Similar to breakup of Charlemagne's Holy Roman Empire to 3 sons at Treaty Of Verdun. 
7) COT: continued the political instability in the Middle East as a result of the rapid and decline of numerous kingdoms and caliphates

Question 19

Q

| Pre-Muhammadic northern Arab society versus Pre-Muhammadic southern Arab society (6)

Answer

A

1) 6th-7th century C.E.; Middle East, Arabian Peninsula 
2) Bedouins 
a) migratory 
b) known for their toughness, solidarity, fighting tradition, possession of horses, and ability to control trade and lines of communication 
3) for all Arabs, the basic social unit was the tribe 
4) northern Arabia 
a) tribal confederations with their warrior elites were dominant 
b) depended on their fighting skills 
5) southern Arabia 
a) religious aristocracies tended to hold political authority 
b) religious aristocracy depended on its cultic and economic authority 
c) possessed a stronger economic base than the warrior-aristocrats of the north 
6) CC: like the Germanic peoples (Franks, Visigoths) in the age of their migrations, Arab tribes were not static (showing little or no change) entities but continually evolving groups

Question 20

Q

| Social roles and minorities in Muslim empires (12; harem and veiling, dhimmis)

Answer

A

1) 600-1400; Middle East, North Africa 
2) in the Umayyad period had classed society (top to bottom): caliph's household and the ruling Arab Muslims> converts> dhimmis or protected peoples (Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians)> slaves 
3) the seclusion of women in harems protected their virtue, harem was guarded by eunuch guards 
4) Arab tribal law gave women no legal status 
5) women in Arab society were sold into marriage by their guardians, could have their union terminated at will by their husbands, and had virtually no property or succession rights 
6) in the late Umayyad period the status of women declined in 3 ways: in the relationship of women to their husbands, in the practice of veiling women, and in the seclusion of women in harems 
7) wearing the veil distinguished free women from slave women and indicated respectability and modesty 
8) CC: like the Jewish tradition, Muslim law permitted divorce 
9) CC: in contrast to the Christian view of sexual activity as something inherently shameful and even with marriage only a cure for the sexual desire, Islam maintained a healthy acceptance of sexual pleasure for both males and females 
10) CC: as in medieval Europe, and traditional India and China, marriage in Muslim society was considered too important to be left to romantic emotions, so families identified suitable partners and finalized the contract 
11) CC: in contrast to China where only the emperor could have eunuch servants, in the Muslim world, the well-to-do could purchase them to guard their harems 
12) CC: slavery in the Islamic world differed from the slavery later practiced in South and North America: 
a) Muslims did not identify slavery with race as Europeans did in the Americas 
b) slavery in the Islamic world was not the equivalent of commercial plantation agriculture as practiced in the southern United States, the Caribbean, and Brazil in the 18th and 19th centuries

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Chapter 8: The Islamic World, ca. 600-1400 Flashcards

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