“Islam was simultaneously both a single world of shared meaning & interaction & a series of separate and distinct communities, often in conflict with one another.”  What evidence could you provide to support both sides of this argument? At the core of a single Islamic world was a common commitment to Islam. The ulama through education & Sufis through their associations served to bind the Islamic world together. It also cohered as an immense arena of exchange in which goods, technologies, crops, and ideas circulated widely.

“Islam was simultaneously both a single world of shared meaning and interaction and a series of separate and distinct communities, often in conflict with one another.”  What evidence could you provide to support both sides of this argument? However, Islam was separate & distinct in that is was politically fragmented. It included numerous distinct & sometimes hostile religious traditions, including Sunni/Shia & ulama/Sufi splits. It embraced distinctive cultural traditions from sub-Saharan Africa & Southeast Asia that resulted in different attitudes toward social and cultural norms, such as those concerning women.

“What changes did Islamic expansion generate in those societies that encountered it, & how was Islam itself transformed by those encounters?” However, Islam was separate. Populations of many regions converted wholly or partly to the Islamic faith. Regions of the Islamic world were tied more closely together through trade & the exchange of technologies, crops, & ideas. Older religious & political traditions were at times swept away or at least altered. Islam was transformed through these encounters, especially when the norms of those societies that converted had an impact on the social and cultural implications of the faith. The Islamic world & the understanding of Islam itself was shaped by contact with intellectual and cultural traditions like Greek philosophy.

What is the relationship between the Quran, hadiths, ulama, & sharia? RELIGIOUS TEXTS: Quran: (pron. kuh- RAHN) Also transliterated as Qur’án & Koran, this is the most holy text of Islam, recording the revelations given to the prophet Muhammad. Hadiths: (pron. hah-DEETHS) Traditions passed on about the sayings or actions of Muhammad & his immediate followers; hadiths rank second only to the Quran as a source of Islamic law. INTERPRETER OF RELIGIOUS TEXTS: ulama: (pron. oo-leh-MAH)Islamic religious scholars. INTERPRETATION OF THE RELIGIOUS TEXT = LAW: sharia: (pron. sha-REE-ah) Islamic law, dealing with all matters of both secular and religious life.

What is the difference between imams, shaykhs & caliphs? RELIGIOUS TEXTS: imams: (pron. EE-mahms) In Shia Islam, leaders with high religious authority; the twelve imams of early Shia Islam were Mohammed's nephew Ali and his descendants. shaykhs: (pron. SHAKES)Sufi teachers who attracted a circle of disciples and often founded individual schools of Sufism. caliphs: "representative" of Allah on earth. Rightly Guided Caliphs: The first four rulers of the Islamic world (632–661) after the death of Muhammad. “companions of the Prophet” RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS: Sunni Muslim = caliphs chosen by election. Shia Muslims = appointment by god, or bloodline.

What is the difference between Islam & Hinduism in India? Sufis were particularly important in facilitating conversion, for India had always valued “god-filled men” who were detached from worldly affairs. Sufi missionaries, willing to accommodate local gods and religious festivals, helped to develop a “popular Islam” that was not always so sharply distinguished from Hinduism. Sharp cultural divide between Islam & Hinduism. Islam was the most radically monotheistic of the world’s religions, forbidding any representation of Allah, while Hinduism was surely among the most prolifically polytheistic, generating endless statues and images of the divine in many forms. Muslim = equality of all believers Hindu = hierarchical assumptions of the caste system (Sufi Muslim - particularly attractive to the lower castes & untouchables) The sexual modesty of Muslims was deeply offended by the open eroticism of some Hindu religious art. The first Mughal Emperor Babur & his warriors visit a Hindu Temple.

What is the difference between Islam & Hinduism in India? Reaction against the distraction of worldly success: Sufis Renounced the material world in the pursuance of spiritual union with Allah. The ulama & Sufism weren’t entirely incompatible but there was often tension between the 2 approaches. Sufi missionaries helped to convert groups in Anatolia or India to Islam by suggesting that Christianity & Islam were merely different expressions of the same faith. The first Mughal Emperor Babur & his warriors visit a Hindu Temple.

The Sufis, sometimes called the “friends of God,” were the mystics of Islam, those for whom the direct, personal, & intoxicating experience of the divine source was of far greater importance than the laws, regulations, & judgments of the sharia. -Constituted one of the transregional networks that linked the far-flung domains of the Islamic world. -Allowed for greater participation from women.

Sikhism A hybrid of Islam and Hinduism that came together to form a new religion. During the early 16th century, a new & distinct religious tradition emerged in India, known as Sikhism: blended elements of Islam, such as devotion to one universal God, with Hindu concepts, such as karma and rebirth. “There is no Hindu and no Muslim. All are children of God,” declared Guru Nanak (1469–1539), the founder of Sikhism. Very similar to the process of how Buddhism spread into China & the Chinese people changing it to suit their needs.

Map 11.1 The Arab Empire and the Initial Expansion of Islam, 622–900 Far more so than with Buddhism or Christianity, the initial spread of Islam was both rapid and extensive. And unlike the other two world religions, Islam gave rise to a huge empire, ruled by Muslim Arabs, which encompassed many of the older civilizations of the region.

Map 11.3 The Ottoman Empire by the Mid-Fifteenth Century As Turkic-speaking migrants bearing the religion of Islam penetrated Anatolia, the Ottoman Empire took shape, reaching into southeastern Europe and finally displacing the Christian Byzantine Empire. Subsequently, it came to control much of the Middle East and North Africa as well. The Ottoman Empire becomes the most powerful Islamic state until the twentieth century. “Ottoman Empire”... get it?

Istanbul during the time of the Ottoman Empire.

The Great Mosque at Jenne This mosque in the city of Jenne, initially constructed in the thirteenth century, illustrates the assimilation of Islam into West African civilization. Islam spread especially among merchants, thanks to the inclusion of a major Islamic trading network, rather than by conquest and Islamic rule. The 14th century Arab visitor Ibn Battuta was appalled that practicing Muslims in Mali permitted their women to appear in public almost naked and to mingle freely with unrelated men. “The association of women with men is agreeable to us,” he was told, “and a part of good conduct to which no suspicion attaches. They are not like the women of your country.” Ibn Battuta also noted with disapproval a “dance of the masks” on the occasion of an Islamic festival and the traditional practice of sprinkling dust on their heads as a sign of respect for the king. In such ways, Islam became Africanized even as parts of Africa became Islamized.