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Kohn WH > Islam & the Modern Middle East > Flashcards

Islam & the Modern Middle East Flashcards

1
Q

Who founded the religion of Islam?

A

Muhammad

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2
Q

What was Muhammad before he became the last great Prophet of Islam?

A

Muhammad was a merchant.

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3
Q

Why did the people of Mecca kick Muhammad out of their city?

A

They kicked Muhammad out because he tried to convert the people of Mecca to Islam, and those people didn’t want to be converted.

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4
Q

Where did Muhammad go after the kicked him out of Mecca?

A

Muhammad went to Medina, where he found people who were interested in becoming followers of his religion.

Less than 10 years later, Muhammad and his thousands of followers went back to Mecca.

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5
Q

What did Muhammad do when he and his followers went back to Mecca after being kicked out?

A

Muhammad and his followers went into Mecca and destroyed all of the polytheistic shrines devoted to the “false gods”. No blood was shed when he returned to Mecca.

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6
Q

What is the holy book of Islam?

A

The Quran

The Quran is to Muslims what the Bible is to Christians

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7
Q

What is the holiest place for Muslims?

most holy place = most important for religious reasons

A

The Kaaba which is located in Mecca

The Kaaba was a polytheistic shrine but after Muhammad returned to Mecca with his followers, Muhammad said that it was the house that Abraham built on instructions from Allah(God).

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8
Q

What is Shahadah?

A

Shahadah refers to the pillar of faith in Islam where Muslims are required to “profess” their faith.

It’s basically a statement of faith

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9
Q

What is Salat?

A

Is one of the Pillars of Islam where Muslims pray 5 times a day in the direction facing Mecca

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10
Q

What is Zakat?

A

Is one of the pillars of Islam where there is mandatory charity to poor people.

This means that Muslims are required under Islamic law to give money to the poor

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11
Q

What is Sawm?

A

Is a pillar of Islam where Muslims are required to fast in the month of Ramadan

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12
Q

What is Hajj?

A

Is one of the pillars of Islam where Muslims are required to make a pilgrimage (religious journey) to Mecca (the holiest city of Islam)

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13
Q

Who are the people of the book?

A

Christians and Jews are considered people of the book.

People of the book are also called “Dhimmis”

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14
Q

What is the Rashidun Caliphate?

A

It is a Caliphate that includes the first four Caliphs

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15
Q

What is a Caliph?

A

A Caliph is the main leader of Islam

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16
Q

What is the main difference between Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims?

A

Sunni Muslims believe that the next Caliph should have been Abu Bakr.

Sunnis also believe that anyone can be a Caliph, assuming they are faithful enough and passionate enough about the teachings of Islam

Shia Muslims believe that the next Caliph should have been Ali.

Shias also believe that the only people who could hold the title of Caliph are blood relatives of the Prophet Muhammad

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17
Q

What is a Theocracy?

A

A Theocracy is a form of government where the religion decides what the laws are.

The Rashidun Caliphate, Umayyad Caliphate, and Abbasid Caliphates were all Islamic Theocracies!

18
Q

What is a significant difference between the Umayyad Caliphate and the Abbasid Caliphate?

A

The Umayyad Caliphate was Sunni Islam, whereas the Abbasid Caliphate was Shia Islam.

19
Q

Who are Mawali?

A

Mawali are people who are non-Arab converts to Islam.

For example, if you converted to Islam right now, you would be considered Mawali.

The Umayyad Caliphate looked down on Mawali and did not give them rights in society.

The Abbasid Caliphate would treat Mawali as equals with normal Arab Muslims.

20
Q

How were women treated in the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates?

A

Women in the Umayyad Caliphate would be treated with more equality. Women will be allowed to own property and be treated with more respect

Women in the Abbasid Caliphate will lose their respect in society, forcing them to adopt the veil, covering their faces.

21
Q

What is the Jizya?

A

The Jizya is the tax that the Caliphate forced non-Muslims to pay.

Under the Umayyad Caliphate, even if you converted to Islam (like the Mawali), you still had to pay the Jizya along with Christians, Jews, and anyone else who was not Muslim

Under the Abbasid Caliphate, the Mawali were not forced to pay the Jizya, only the non-Muslims had to pay the Jizya.

22
Q

What is a major accomplishment of the Umayyad Caliphate?

A

The Umayyad Caliphate was the first caliphate to establish Arab as the official language.

Out of all the Caliphates, the Umayyad Caliphate was the Caliphate that conquered the most land.

Most of the intellectual accomplishments of the Umayyad Caliphate came from translating Greek and Roman texts into Arabic

23
Q

What are the major accomplishments of the Abbasid Caliphate?

A

Out of the two Caliphates, the Abbasid Caliphate traded more.

As a result, more knowledge came to the Abbasid Caliphate than the Umayyad Caliphate. Because of all the knowledge and books, the Abbasid Caliphate created the Baghdad House of Wisdom.

The Baghdad House of Wisdom was the first international learning center dedicated to learning for the sake of learning.

24
Q

Who are the Turks?

A

They are a group of people that came from Central Asia.

These people would go on to create the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire. These empires would exist AT THE SAME TIME.

25
Q

What makes the Ottoman Empire different than the Safavid Empire?

A

The Ottoman Empire, much like the Umayyad Caliphate, was a majority Sunni population.

The Safavid Empire, much like the Abbasid Caliphate, was a majority Shia population.

Both the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire were theocracies, governments controlled by religion.

26
Q

What are Janissaries?

A

Janissaries are the soldiers that served in the Ottoman army.

The Ottomans would go and kidnap Christian boys (specifically children) from Christian areas and bring them back to the Ottoman Empire where they would convert to Islam and become educated.

Sometimes the boy’s parents would willingly give up their child so that they could have a better life.

27
Q

What is the difference between the Ottoman Sultan and the Ottoman Vizir?

A

Ottoman Sultans were the rulers of the Ottoman Empire. Think of them like the Ottoman Empire’s version of an Emperor.

Over time, the Ottoman Sultans would get lazy, as they would mostly stay in their marble mansions, pleasure gardens, and harems.

Eventually, the Sultans would assign someone called a “Vizir” to handle most of his job. While the Sultan would relax, the Vizir was in charge of the day to day tasks of being a Sultan

28
Q

What is a Shah?

A

A Shah is another way of saying, Emperor. Shahs existed only in the Safavid Empire. They are like the Ottoman Sultans.

29
Q

Where did the Safavid Empire get their slave soldiers from?

A

The Safavids got their slave soldiers from Russia.

These slave soldiers helped to modernize the Safavid, showing them new military technology.

30
Q

Which ethnic group came to dominate the Safavid Empire after the Turks?

A

The Persians (which are an ethnic group that started with the Persian Empire) were the main ethnicity that was found in the Safavid Empire.

The reason the Persians were the majority ethnic group of the Safavid Empire is that the Safavid Capital was near the old Persian Capital where lots of Persians still lived.

31
Q

What was the similarity between the decline of the Ottoman and the decline of the Safavid?

A

The Ottoman Empire would lock up the princes who were set to take the throne after the Sultan was going to die. They did this to protect the princes from being killed.

Similarily, the Safavids would also lock up the princes who were going to be the next Shah, for fear that the princes might die early.

As a result, the princes were not ready for the real world and where very bad rulers that were easily manipulated

32
Q

What happened to the Safavid Empire when it collapsed in the 1700s?

A

The Safavid Empire collpased around the same time as the QING DYNASTY in China was just starting.
Once taken over, it would be taken over by minor Shahs and their families until formally becoming the country of Iran, with a King, in 1925.

33
Q

What happened to Iran in the 1950s?

A

The Prime Minister(the President) of Iran, who was named Muhammad Mosaddegh, was assassinated by the British Government and the US government. After doing this, the US and Britain supported leaving the King(Shah) in charge.

34
Q

Why did the British and US government assassinate the Prime Minister of Iran?

A

Iran had lots of oil, and the Prime Minister, who was elected by the people of Iran, wanted to nationalize the oil industry so that the people of Iran could enjoy the benefits.

When a country wants to “nationalize” something, it means that the government wants to take it over.

British and American oil companies (and their rich owners) owned the oil fields in Iran, so all the oil money was going to them.

So when Prime Minister Mosaddegh decided to “nationalize” the oil industry, it meant that they were taking back the oil from the British and Americans, which angered the governments because the corporations helped control the governments.

35
Q

What was the “official reason” for killing Prime Minister Mosaddegh, according to the British and US Governments?

A

They claimed that the Prime Minister, by nationalizing the oil industry, was trying to “spread communism”.

Because this was during the Cold War, when the US (capitalist country) was going against the USSR (a communist country) the US took any spread of Communism as a major threat.

36
Q

What happened to Iran in the 1970s?

A

The people of Iran got tired of living under the Shah’s (King) rule. The Shah would kill anyone who spoke out against him and would send the secret police to find and kill people.

The people of Iran overthrew the rule of the Shah and brought back a Shia Islamic Theocracy. This time though, instead of calling the leader a Caliph, they called their Islamic leader the “Ayatollah”.

37
Q

What is Iran like today?

A

Iran is currently designated as a supporter of terrorism by the US government.

Iran is still a Shia Islamic Theocracy, but they do have a Prime Minister who does most of the day to day work of the government.

Iran is currently trying to develop nuclear weapons so that they can destroy the country of Israel, which is where most of the Jews today currently live.

Because they are trying to develop a nuclear weapon, the US has placed “economic sanctions” which basically means that if you want to do business with the USA, you cannot do business with Iran. This means that Iran’s economy is really REALLY bad right now!

38
Q

What happened to the Ottoman Empire when it collapsed in the early 1900s?

A

The Ottoman Empire ended because they supported the losing side during World War I.

As a result of losing World War I, the Ottoman Empire collapsed and a new country, Turkey, was born.

Turkey would be a secular Republic, as the United States is today. This means that their government would not favor one religion, and would completely stay out of religion.

The guy who helped to create modern day Turkey is called Ataturk.

39
Q

What happened to Turkey in the 1950s?

A

Turkey joined NATO.

NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It’s just basically a group of countries who are all supposed to be BFFs. They are BFFs because they are all capitalist countries who opposed Communism and the Soviet Union.

Because Turkey is part of NATO, if Turkey is ever attacked by another country, the USA and all NATO countries would HAVE to defend Turkey.

40
Q

What is Turkey like today?

A

Although Turkey is still a secular Republic, Turkeys current ruler, Erdogan(thats his last name), is behaving more and more like a dictator.

In 2016, the people of Turkey tried to overthrow him as President. He survived, and now he throws into prison the people who disagree with him.

Most outside observers consider Erdogan to be a dictator.

41
Q

Who controls the Arabian Peninsula where Mecca and Medina are today?

A

The country of Saudi Arabia controls it.

Saudi Arabia is a Sunni Islamic Theocracy with a King who is unquestioned in his power.

People who speak out against the King are usually killed, even if those people don’t live in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has lots of power because they have a lot of the world’s oil

Kohn WH (7 decks)

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