Historic Encounters I: Islam Philosophy and the Spread of Islam

Question 1

Where did Islam originate?

Answer 1

The Arabian Peninsula

Question 2

Who was considered the last prophet in the Abrahamic traditions in Islam?

Answer 2

Muhammad

Question 3

What happened after Muhammad’s death in 632 in terms of leadership?

Answer 3

Muslims were ruled by four caliphs (successors) to the Prophet

Question 4

Who ruled the Muslim world beginning in 661?

Answer 4

The Muslim world was ruled by two hereditary dynasties: the Umayyad and the Abbasids.

Question 5

What type of religion is Islam, like Christianity?

Answer 5

a missionary religion

Question 6

What did Muslims believe of the message of their faith?

Answer 6

Intended for all human kind; to be practiced in a community that transcends geographic, cultural, and liturgics borders.

Question 7

True or False: The Qur’an sanctions forced conversion.

Answer 7

False

Question 8

What is dhimmi status?

Answer 8

Jews and Christians living under Muslim territories were protected under dhimmi status: Dhimmi: protected people.

Question 9

How did Conversion to Islam happen?

Answer 9

Gradually through living examples, trades, spiritual and intellectual encounters, and not through military conquest.

Question 10

Why was the idea of not converting Christians and Jews to inseam tactical?

Answer 10

Because they needed the tax to fund military. They could not get tax from Muslims in this case…could only get 2.5% of annual income. Was not enough to fund military.

Question 11

When were former Roman territories in North Africa conquered by the Umayyad?

Answer 11

since th early 8th century

Question 12

What was once the centre of Arab Islamic culture in the Mediterranean

Answer 12

The city of Qayrawan (Tunisia) in North Africa

Question 13

Which region produced scholars, philosophers, mystics (Sufis) who were instrumental in creating this place’s heritage?

Answer 13

North Africa

Question 14

What happened in the 19th and 20th centuries with North African Muslims?

Answer 14

North Africa Muslims, especially the Sufis, played a crucial role in the region’s struggle for independence from colonial powers.

Question 15

What did Muslim presence in Western Europe begin with?

Answer 15

The establishment of the Umayyad dynasty in Southern Spain in 711.

Question 16

True or False: In Western Europe, Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in mutual tolerance for centuries.

Answer 16

True

Question 17

When were Muslims driver out of Spain?

Answer 17

1492 because Medieval Europe would not tolerate a permanent Muslim community on their soil.

Question 18

Who did Muslims engage in commercial, political, and cultural relations with when in Western Europe?

Answer 18

with both Latin and Byzantine states.

Question 19

Are contemporary Muslim communities in Western Europe a relative recent phenomena?

Answer 19

yes

Question 20

When did Muslims arrive in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Answer 20

As early as the 8th century

Question 21

What was instrumental in establishing Muslim communities and adapting Islam in the region of Sub-Saharan Africa?

Answer 21

trades, preachers, jurists

Question 22

Specifically in East Africa, who played important roles in spreadingIslam along the coast?

Answer 22

the traders

Question 23

What is an important elements of East African Muslim community? When did they migrate there and from where?

Answer 23

An important element of East African Muslim has been the Khoja community who migrated from India in the mid-1800s.

Question 24

How did the Khoja community end up in east Africa?

Answer 24

they were brought by the British

Question 25

The British and___helped expand Islam.

Answer 25

Reconquista

Question 26

What is Central Asia and Iran home to?

Answer 26

Prominent Muslim scholars, hadith collectors, historians, philosophers and theologians.

Question 27

What contrived to the established of Islam learnings, institution, and literature in Central Asia and Iran?

Answer 27

different dynasties that ruled the region

Question 28

What are the Saljugs? Where did they rule?

Answer 28

One major Turkic population from Central Asia, the Saljugs, established dynasty, ruling from Iran to Anatolia.

Question 29

When did the Ottomans reach the peak of their power? Where did they all rule?

Answer 29

One Runic family, the Ottomans, reached the peak of their power in the sixteenth century, ruling the Balkans, the Levant, and former roman territories in North Africa.

Question 30

How long have Muslims seen in China?

Answer 30

since the 8th century, but Muslim community only established int he 13th century.

Question 31

In China, which two leaders did Muslims prosper under?

Answer 31

the Mongols and Ming

Question 32

What cut off Chinese Muslims from the rest of the Muslim world?

Answer 32

The decline of the overland trade with Central Asia

Question 33

How many Muslims are there in China today?

Answer 33

approximately 80 million

Question 34

When did Islam become an integral part of Indian life?

Answer 34

since the 8th century

Question 35

When Muslim ruled most of India, the majority of the population remained___.

Answer 35

Hindu

Question 36

How many Muslims are in India today?

Answer 36

100-120 million

Question 37

Scholars speculated tat West African Muslims may have sailed to America long before___. Others suggest that when Muslims were driven out of___, many fled to America

Answer 37

- Columbus | - Spain

Question 38

What percent of slaves were Muslims?

Answer 38

at least 20%

Question 39

In the middle of the___century, many Muslims migrated to___; some escaped persecutions, some of them were students who decided to stay.

Answer 39

- 20th | - America

Question 40

What is the relationship between African Americans and Islam?

Answer 40

Among African Americans, Islam began as a religion of Black people only. Soon, African American communities drew their faith closer to the mainstream.

Question 41

How many Muslims are estimated to be in North America? How many are estimated to be in Canada, specifically?

Answer 41

- 6-7 million | - 600 000

Question 42

When did Muslims begin to cultivate interests in Greek philosophy, science, and medicine?

Answer 42

After their encounters with Hellenized Jews and Christians in Syria and Mesopotamia.

Question 43

When did the quest for knowledge reach its peak in Islam?

Answer 43

under the Abbasid clip, al-Ma'mum

Question 44

Who is credited with bringing scholars (Jews, Christians, Muslims) to share information, ideas, and culture?

Answer 44

al-Ma'mun

Question 45

What is the House of Wisdom that al-Ma'mun established?

Answer 45

A major learning centre, library, and translation institute.

Question 46

What did Muslims' encounters with Greek philosophy precipitate?

Answer 46

discussion about these of reason to support Islamic belief (theology)

Question 47

What is theology?

Answer 47

discourse about God, God's attribute, God's creations. It is also concerned with human free will and predestination (the meaning of destiny); the problem of evil and human suffering.

Question 48

What were the 3 characters of early Muslim philosophers?

Answer 48

1) Aristotelian in its logic, physics, and metaphysics 2) Platonist in its political and social aspects 3) Neo-Platonic in its mysticism and theology

Question 49

Who did the following: - used philosophical methods to defend fundamental Islamic teachings, such as the existence and the essence of God - voiced the idea of creation out of nothing, and the necessity of prophet to humanity

Answer 49

Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Kindi

Question 50

Who did the following: - Platonist; rejected the ideaa of creation of out nothing - argued that the universe evolved from its primal matter - will turn to its primeval state sometime in the future

Answer 50

Abu Bakr al-Razi

Question 51

Who was dubbed the "second teacher" after Aristotle?

Answer 51

Abu Nasr al-Farabi

Question 52

What is emanation? (acc. to Abu asr al-Farabi)?

Answer 52

From God's self-knowledge emanated the first intellect, which generated the heavily spheres, and a second intellect, which repeated the process.

Question 53

Who's encyclopedia manual of medicine and philosophical treatises were studied and became the standard texts in many medieval universities until the 1650s?

Answer 53

Avicenna (Ibn Sina)

Question 54

Who introduced the epistemological theory of being, which pre-dates dEscartes' similar theory ("I think, therefore I am") approximately six centuries earlier.

Answer 54

Avicenna (Ibn Sina)

Question 55

True or False: There were Islamic philosophers who questioned authority of prophets and scripture.

Answer 55

True