Islam

Question 1

Who started Islam and when?

Answer 1

Mohammed, started receiving messages from Allah 610-612

Question 2

What are the appeals to Islam?

Answer 2

appealed to sophisticated b/c monotheism, community of belied > blood relationships, distinctly Arab keeping customs

Question 3

What/When was Hegira?

Answer 3

622, the flight to Medina to flee persecution. Mohammed death threats.

Question 4

What are the Pillars of Islam?

Answer 4

Creed: there is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet

Prayer: 5 times a day facing Mecca (qiblah) before dawn, midday, late afternoon, sunset, evening

Almsgiving: purity tax 2.5% to the poor

Fasting: month of Ramadan (9th month) from dawn to sunset no food, drink, smoking, sex

Pilgrimage to Mecca/Haj: once in life w/ set routine, 12th month

Question 5

What is Jihad? Kaaba?

Answer 5

Jihad: exertion or struggle, sometimes the 6th pillar of islam; associated with how sacred scripture is used & abused for extremism and terrorism in holy/unholy wars

Kaaba: shrine located near the center of the Great Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia; considered the most sacred spot on Earth

Question 6

What is the Quran?

Answer 6

114 suras/chapters and Hadith/traditions

Question 7

What are Imams?

Answer 7

the one who leads prayer in the mosque

Question 8

What are Mullahs?

Answer 8

A Muslim learned in theology and sacred law

Question 9

What is an umma?

Answer 9

references the whole Muslim world or community of believers

Question 10

What are Ulama?

Answer 10

Scholars of the religion Islam

Question 11

What is Sharia Law?

Answer 11

the divine counsel that Muslims follow to live moral lives and grow close to god; update and review laws as society progresses

Question 12

What is Dar-al-Islam?

Answer 12

the dominion of Islam; includes structure that allows free practice of Islam

Question 13

What is fitnah?

Answer 13

strife, trial, persecution referencing the first persecutions of Muslims

Question 14

Fatwah

Answer 14

legal rulings on point of Islamic law (Sharia)

Question 15

Dhimmis

Answer 15

non-Muslim subject to the Ottoman Empire

Question 16

Jizyah

Answer 16

tax paid by non-Muslim populations to their Muslim rulers (historically)

Question 17

Ijtihad

Answer 17

process of legal decision making by interpretation of legal sources (Quaran and Sunnah)

Question 18

Sufis

Answer 18

mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, asceticism, and esotericism

Question 19

What is the difference between Sunni and Shiite?

Answer 19

Sunni: declare prophet did not explicitly declare a successor and follow traditional way

Shiite: believe Prophet designated Ali as first line of hereditary Imams from the prophet’s family to lead the community after him

Question 20

Who was Ali? Hussein?

Answer 20

the cousin and son in law of Mohammed; successor

Ali’s and Fatima’s son was Hussein

Question 21

What was Karabala?

Answer 21

Where Hussein was killed in battle by Umayyad dynasty in 680

Question 22

Who were the 4 Rashiduh?

Answer 22

1) Abu-Bakr (old age death)
2) Omar
3) Uthman
4) Ali

Question 23

What is Twelver Shiism?

Answer 23

Imam descendants of Ali and Hussein stay in Medina, Imam to house arrest, 11th Imam sends son into hiding, 10k hadiths

Question 24

Why did Islam expand successfully?

Answer 24

bubonic plague, Byz-Pers war destruction, national armies w/o defense, no culture of resistance, Arabs were mobile & lived off land, Arab leadership, no pressure to convert, broke class barriers, allowed subject to join conquerors

Question 25

What were some of Islam’s internal struggles?

Answer 25

Ghazu Raids: raids against non-Muslim tribes to take loot, women, etc.

Fitnahs: civil wars or struggles that produced Shiism in Ali’s days and after 680

Abbasid dynasty slaughters Umayyads and Shiites in 750

Question 26

Who were the Seljuk Turks?

Answer 26

Abbasid caliphate shrink, Baghdad is great world city center, Turkish population increase and Arab is minority, Crusades begin as Turks control army and Al-Hakim destroys Christian Church in Jerusalem

Question 27

Who were Faylasufs?

Answer 27

practitioner of formal logic and rational demonstration; philosophers

Question 28

Who was Razes? Iban Khaldun?

Answer 28

the greatest clinical physician in Medieval world

historian