Chapter 9 Flashcards
Where was the homeland of Islam?
In Arabia
The central region of the Arabian Peninsula had long been inhabited by whom?
by nomadic Arabs, known as Bedouins, who herded their sheep and camels in seasonal migrations.
How did the Bedouins live?
They lived in fiercely independent clans and tribes, which often engaged in bitter blood feuds with one another.
What did the Bedouins recognize?
a variety of gods, ancestors, and nature spirits; valued personal bravery, group loyalty, and hospitality; and greatly treasured their highly expressive oral poetry.
In scattered oases, the highlands of Yemen, and interior mountain communities practiced what?
sedentary village-based agriculture.
Which city in Arabia came to occupy a distinct role?
Mecca
What was Mecca home to?
Mecca was the site of the Kaaba, the most prominent religious shrine in Arabia.
What was the Kaaba?
the most prominent religious shrine in Arabia, which housed representations of some 360 deities and was the destination for many pilgrims
Who was Mecca’s dominant tribe?
the Quraysh who had come to control access to the Kaaba and became wealthy through taxing local trade
Where was Arabia located?
On the periphery of two established and rival civilizations of that time - the Byzantine Empire, heir to the Roman world, and the Sassanid Empire, heir to the imperial traditions of Persia
Which religions lived among the Arabs?
Many Jews and Christians, as well as some Zoroastrians and their monotheistic ideas, became widely known.
When was Muhammad Ibn Abdullah born?
570 C.E. and died in 632 C.E.
Where was Muhammad Ibn Abdullah born?
was born in Mecca to a Quraysh family
As a young boy, what happened to Muhammad?
Lost his parents, came under the care of an uncle and worked as a shepherd to pay his keep
At the age of twenty-five, who did Muhammad marry?
He married a wealthy widow, Khadija, herself a prosperous merchant, with whom he fathered six children.
What occupation did Muhammad later take that took him as far north as Syria?
he was a trader
According to Muslim tradition, when do the revelations begin?
In 610 and continued periodically over the next twenty-two years.
Where are the revelations recorded in?
Recorded in the Quran and became the sacred scriptures of Islam
On the arid mountains outside the city when Muhammad undertook periods of withdrawal and meditation, what happened?
The religious experience left him convinced that he was Allah’s messenger to the Arabs, commisioned to bring them a scripture in their own language.
What was the core of the faith, Islam? How was the Quran used?
Intended to be recited rather than simply read for information, the Quran, Muslims claim, when heard in its original Arabic, conveys nothing less than the very presence of the Divine.
How was the Quran beautiful?
Its unmatched poetic beauty, miraculous to Muslims, convinced many that it was indeed a revelation from God
How were Islam beliefs?
Religiously, it was radically monotheistic, presenting Allah as the only God, the all-powerful Creator, good, just, and ever merciful.
How was Muhammad viewed?
As “the Messenger of God,” Muhammad presented himself in the line of earlier prophets - Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and many others.
How did Muhammad fall in the line of earlier prophets?
He was the last, “the seal of the prophets, bearing God’s final revelation to humankind.
How di Islam differ from the Jews, Christians, and Arabs?
They feel that J, C, and A have deviated from the original pure faith. They see the Jews have wrongly conceived themselves as a “chosen people”; Christians made Jesus into the Son of God, and the Arabs are too polytheistic. The Quran was corrective
What was the primary obligation of believers in the Muslim world?
Submission to Allah (“Muslim” means “one who submits”) and the means of achieving a God-conscious life in this world and a place in Paradise after death.
What prevailing social practices did the Quran denounce?
the hoarding of wealth, the exploitation of the poor, the charging of high rates on interest on loans, corrupt business deals, the abuse of women, and the neglect of widows and orphans
What does the umma mean?
The just and moral society of Islam that was a community of all believers, replacing tribal, ethnic, or racial identities.
Such a society based on umma would be a “___________________,” according to the Quran
“witness over the nations”, for according to the Quran “You are the best community evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong.”
What was the umma to be, which was bound by a common belief rather than by territory, language, or tribe
was to be a new and just community
The core message of the Quran - the remembrance of God - was effectively summarized in what for believers?
5 requirements known as the Pillars of Islam.
What is the first pillar of Islam?
expressed the heart of the Islamic message: “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.”
What is the second pillar of Islam?
it was ritual prayer, performed five times a day. Which included cleansing, bowing, kneeling, and prostration, which expressed believers’ submission to Allah and provided a frequent reminder, amid the busyness of daily life, that they were living in the presence of God.
What is the third pillar of Islam?
Almsgiving reflected the Quran’s repeated demands for social justice by requiring believers to give generously to support the poor and needy of the community.
What is the fourth pillar of Islam?
established a month of fasting during Ramadan, which meant abstaining from food, drink, and sexual relations from the first light of dawn to sundown. It provided an occasion for self-purification and a reminder of the needs of the hungry.
What is the fifth pillar of Islam?
encouraged a pilgrimage to Mecca, known as the hajj, during which believers from all over the Islamic world assembled once a year and put on identical simple white clothing as they reenacted key events in Islamic history.
What is the hajj?
a pilgrimage to Mecca where believers reenacted key events in Islamic History
What was a further requirement of believers sometimes called the sixth pillar?
was “struggle,” or jihad in Arabic. Which was an interior personal effort of each believer against greed and selfishness, a spiritual striving toward living a God-conscious life
What is the more general meaning of jihad in which Muhammad referred to?
“greater jihad,” which was an interior personal effort of each believer against greed and selfishness, a spiritual striving toward living a God-conscious life
What is the lesser form of jihad?
the “jihad of the sword,” the Quran authorized armed struggle against the forces of unbelief and evil as a means of establishing Muslim rule and of defending the umma from the threats of infidel aggressors.
The teachings of Muhammad soon attracted what?
attracted the vociferous opposition of Mecca’s elite families, particularly those of Muhammad’s own tribe, the Quraysh
What teachings of Muhammad enraged the ruling and wealthy families of Mecca?
His claim to be a “messenger of Allah,” his unyielding monotheism, his call for social reform, his condemnation of Mecca’s business practices, and his apparent disloyalty to his own tribe enraged the wealthy and ruling families
What happened in 622 after the opposition of Muhammad had become so great?
In 622 Muhammad and his small band of followers emigrated to the more welcoming town of Yathrib, soon to be called Medina, the city of the Prophet.
What was the emigration to Yathrib known as in Arabic?
Known as “hijra”, or “the journey” which changed early history of Islam and marked the beginning of a new Islamic calendar
The new community called what took shape in Medina was kind of what?
Umma, which was kind of “supertribe,” but very different from the traditional tribes of Arab society.
In 630, Muhammad triumphantly and peacefully entered Mecca itself, purging the Kaaba of its idols and declaring it a shrine to the one God, Allah. What happened in 632?
Muhammad died in 632, and that was when most of Arabia had come under the control of this new Islamic state and many had embraced the new faith
How did the birth of Islam differ from that of Christianity?
The answer lay in the development of a separate church hierarchy and the concept of two coexisting authorities, on religious and one political, an arrangement that persisted even after the state became Christian, while the young Islamic community, by contrast, constituted a state, and soon a huge empire, at the very beginning of its history.
How did the Islamic community rapidly extend its reach throughout Arabia?
From its base in Medina, early military successes against Muhammad’s Meccan opponents convinced other Arab tribes that the Muslims and their God were on the rise and powerful. Also the religious appeal of the new faith, its promise of material gain, the end of incessant warfare among feuding tribes, periodic military actions skillfully led by Muhammad and the Prophet’s willingness to enter into marriage alliances with leading tribes.
Muhammad was not only a religious figure but also unlike whom, a political and military leader able to implement his vision of an ideal Islamic society.
Unlike Jesus or the Buddha
What else did Islam not give rise to although tension between religious and political goals frequently generated conflict.
nor did Islam give rise to a separate religious organization
What one law regulated every aspect of life?
One law, known as the sharia.
What does the sharia mean?
Literally, “a path to water,” which is the source of life
What was so important in the Christian world that did not exist within the realm of Islam?
a distinction between religious law and civil law
Within a few years of Muhammad’s death in 632, Arab armies engaged with whom?
engaged the Byzantine and Persian Sassanid empires, the great powers of the region
Fighting with the Byzantine and Sassanid empires gave rise to what empire?
The Arab Empire that stretched from Spain to India, penetrating both Europe and China and governing most of the lands between them.
Which two empires were weak from plague and war?
The Byzantine and Persian empires had for a century suffered epidemics and also weakend by decades of war with each other and internal revolts
By 644 which empire had been defeated by Arab forces while Byzantium, the remaining eastern regions of the old Roman Empire soon lost the southern half of its territories?
Sassinad Empire
By early 700s, Muslim forces operating on both land and sea swept what?
Swept westward across North Africa, conquered Spain and attacked southern France. To the east, Arab armies reached the Indus River and seized some of the major oases towns of Central Asia
When did the Arab armies cross the Indus River?
711
In 751, what battle did the Arab armies inflict a crushing defeat on Chinese forces?
the Battle of Talas River, which had lasting consequences for the cultural evolution of Asia
How did Muhammad’s followers refer to themselves after his death?
as “believers,” a term that appears in the Quran far more often than “Muslims”
Formal agreements or treaties recognized Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians as “ ____ __ __ ____,”
“people of the book” giving them the status of dhimmis
What were dhimmis?
A status given to Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians that protected but second-class subjects. Such people were permitted to freely practice their own religion, as long as they paid a special tax
What was the special tax called that Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians had to pay of they wanted dhimmis status?
jizya which was a substitute for military service, supposedly forbidden to non-Muslims.
To prevent indiscriminate destruction and exploitation of conqured peoples, Arab armies were restricted to what?
Garrison towns, segregated from the native population.
What was the mass conversion of the 8th century?
mass conversion of Middle Eastern peoples to what became by the eighth century the new and seperate religion of Islam
Initially people converted to Islam why?
“social conversion,” which motivated more by convenience than conviction.
Although deliberately forced conversion was rare and forbidden …
living in an Islamic-governed state provided a variety of incentives for claiming Muslim identity
What could converts avoid that in a way forced people to convert?
avoid the jizya, the tax imposed on non-Muslims
What did people aspiring to official positions find?
They found that conversion to Islam was an aid to social mobility
How did Islam help merchants?
In the expansive Arab Empire, merchants enjoyed a huge and secure arena for trade
How was conversion not an easy process for Islam?
some Persian Zoroastrians fled to avoid Muslim rule. More generally, though, a remarkable and lasting religious transformation occured throughout the Arab Empire
In which regions did converts to Islam gradually abandon their native languages and adopt Arabic?
the people of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa, “Arabized”
Although Persians became Muslim what happened to their language?
the Persian language, called Farsi in Iran, flourished enriched now by a number of Arabic loan words and written in an Arabic script
In which places were large-scale Arab migration occurded?
Places such as Egypt, North Africa, and Iraq, Arabic culture and language, as well as the region of Islam took hold. Such areas are today both Muslim and Arab, while the peoples of Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, and West Africa, for example, have “Islamized” without “Arabizing”
Many religious ideas of what found their way into Islam?
Persian Zoroastrianism, in Iran, Central Asia, India, and later the Ottoman Empire, Islam was accompanied by pervasive Persian influences.
What was the role of caliph?
the successor to Muhammad as the political leader of the umma, the protector and defender of the faith
The first four caliphs were known as what?
known among most Muslims as the Rightly Guided Caliphs, were close “companions of the Prophet,” selected by the Muslim elders of Medina
Which caliphs were assassinated?
The third and fourth caliphs, Uthman and Ali
Out of the conflict emerged what?
on of the depest and most enduring rifts within the Islamic world.
How did the Islamic world divide?
On one side were the Sunni Muslims, who held that the caliphs were rightful political and military leaders, selected by the Islamic community. On the other side of this divide, was the Shia (an Arabic word meaning “party” or “faction”) branch of Islam who felt that leadership in the Islamic world should derive from the line of Ali and his son Husayn, blood relatives of Muhammad
What did the Sunni Muslims believe?
who held that the caliphs were rightful political and military leaders, selected by the Islamic community
What did the Shia branch of Islam believe?
felt that leadership in the Islamic world should derive from the line of Ali and his son Husayn, blood relatives of Muhammad
What does imams mean?
Leaders
For many years how did the Shia view themselves?
As the underdogs, that history had taken a wrong turn, and they were “the defenders of the oppressed, the critics and opponents of privilege and power,”
The Sunni/Shia schism became what?
a lasting division in the Islamic world, reflected in conflicts maong various Islamic states, and was exacerbated by further splits among the Shia. Those decisions echo still in the 21st century.
Under which family did the Arab Empire expand and caliphs become hereditary rulers, and the capital moved from Medina to the cosmopolitan Roman/Byzantine city of Damascus in Syria
The Umayyad family from 661 to 750
The ruling class of the Umayyad family was what?
an Arab military aristocracy, drawn from various tribes
How did the Shia view the Umayyad caliphs
As illegitimate usurpers, and non-Arab Muslims resented their second-class citizenship in the empire
What followed the overthrow of the Umayyads in 750?
They were replaced by the Arab dynasty, the Abbasids
Where was the capital city of the Abbasid dynasty?
In Baghdad, the Abbasid caliphs presided over a flourishing and prosperous Islamic civilization in which non-Arabs, especially Persians, now played a prominent role
How did the Abbasid empire decline?
Long beforeMongol conquest put an official end to the Abbasid Empire in 1258, the Islamic world had fractured politically into a series of “sultanates,” many ruled by Persian or Turkish military dynasties
What was the ulama?
the development of the sharia, the boy of Islamic law developed primarily by religious scholars known as the ulama
What was a second and quite different understanding of the faith called who saw the worldly success of Islamic civilization as a distraction from the purer spirituality of Muhammad’s time?
Known as Sufis, they represented Islam’s mystical dimension, in that they sought a direct and personal experience of the Divine
Which famous Sufi poet said “Stain your prayer rug with wine?”
Hafiz, who was referring to the intoxication of the believer with the Divine Presence
