1. How did Islam alter the history of the world?
Muhammad’s role

2. Rise of Islam in Short
7th c. Muhammad received revelations in Arabic –gathered together into a book Koran- became the basis of a new religion that we know as Islam
The Muslim community quickly expanded, uniting many tribes of Arabia
These tribes, united by the faith of Islam, swept out of Arabia to conquer the Persian and Byzantine empires

3. Portrait of Muhammad

4. Mohammed 600’s A.D. loss of much of the Eastern Roman Empire
to a new religious and political power
Islam 1

5. Middle East, ca. 600 A.D.

6. Islam Bedouin Arab named Mohammed born ca. 570 A.D.
Merchant family, Hasimites
Qurayshis tribe, who dominate Mecca
controlling much of the religious pilgrim trade
raised by relatives
-father and mother died by age six
-raised by an impoverished uncle

7. Mohammed formal education ?? We don’t know
Normally only the Poets of the Tribes could read and write
commercial agent for a wealthy widow
Khadijah
supervising caravans from Mecca, north to Jerusalem
contact with both Jews and Christians

8. Mohammed, con’t
He seems to have made an impression on his boss, because of his reputed honesty
married her and retired from commerce
to devote himself to religion
and to making society more fair and equitable

9. Origins of Mohammed’s Teachings
periods of unconsciousness are indicated: explanations
revelations from Allah by holy trances, spoken to by Gabriel
epilepsy or a similar neurological disorder?
Mohammed’s explanation:
revelations from God
Very unpleasant and painful for him

10. The Quran Record of revelations received during visions
Committed to writing c. 650 CE, compiled (Muhammad dies 632)
Under the third Caliph, Uthman ibn Affan
Tradition of Muhammad’s life: hadith

11. Nature of Revelations diverse
social, agricultural, medical, military, astronomical, etc.

12. Historical Origins of His Ideas
Arab polytheism
Hanifism: a belief in one God traced to Abraham, by tradition
Judaism
Christianity
Manichaeism: a mixture of Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Judaism, and so forth

13. Early religious career
not particularly successful
threatened the social, political, and religious structure, with his doctrine of social equity
threatened the economic basis of Mecca as a center of religious pilgrimage
particularly the Black Rock
sacred to the chief deity of the Arabs
run out of town, or at least encouraged to leave
Went to the desert with his family and lived for about a year

14. The Hijra flight from Mecca, to Yathrib (Medina)
-tradition: invited by the Jews of Medina
622 A.D.
beginning of the Islamic calendar
forms the umma (community)
welcomed, then resisted
Mohammed becomes an absolute theocrat

15. Muhammad’s Return to Mecca
Attack on Mecca, jihad
Conversion of Mecca to Islam
Destruction of pagan sites, replaced with mosques
Ka’aba preserved in honor of importance of Mecca
Approved as pilgrimage site

16. Jihad
holy war against Mecca
ten year blockade
a deal was made

17. The Deal Mecca preserved as a holy city and place of pilgrimage
to preserve the economic prosperity
the Ka’aba preserved as the central shrine
idols and icons destroyed
story of its origins emphasized the role of Abraham in its placement
pilgrimage as an act of faith, at least once in your life

18. The Ka’aba in Mecca

19. The Religion: the Koran (Qu’ran)
the Koran (Qu’ran): contains much of Mohammed recounting of Allah’s teachings
written down by his followers after his death
from notes and memories, on “stones and parchments”
Short: 114 chapters
arranged from longest to the shortest
not by subject or chronologically
length is the criterion of order for the text

20. The Koran, con’t some “Old” and “New” Testaments stories
but sometimes the story seems a bit different to Jews and Christians
parables and fables
political polemic and prophecy
“non-religious” subjects
not dissimilar to Jewish and Christian scriptures in some ways

21. Five Pillars of Islam uniqueness of God prayer five times a day
‘There is no god, but God….’
prayer five times a day
observe the month of Ramadan
give alms to the poor
pilgrimage to Mecca
If possible, once in your life

22. Additional teachings dietary laws no gambling or drinking
no sexual irregularities, as defined by tradition and custom
no infanticide
elaborate rules concerning inheritance and property
improvement in the status of women and children

23. Changing Status of Women
Qu’ran improves status of women
Outlawed female infanticide
Brides, not husbands, claim dowries
Yet male dominance preserved
Patrilineal descent
Polygamy permitted, Polyandry forbidden
Veil adopted from ancient Mesopotamian practice

24. Islamic Law: The Sharia
Codification of Islamic law
Based on Quran, hadith, logical schools of analysis
Extends beyond ritual law to all areas of human activity
This is the basis the idea of an “Islamic republic” for instance

25. Islam

26. How did Islam advance?

27. The advance of Islam
Charles Martel defeated Muslims at Tours in 732 – checked the Muslim advance into Europe
Byzantium also halted the invading armies
However, within a century, the new empire stretched from southern Spain to northern India, and from the Caucasus to the Indian Ocean.
The empire was ruled by caliphs drawn from the prophet’s family

28. What is Islamic civilization?

29. Islamic civilization
A synthesis of the religion and culture of Arabia with the great imperial traditions of the eastern Mediterranean and the Persian empire.
This synthesis molded the politics, science, literature, and arts of the people who adopted Islam
As a dominant culture of the region, it had a shaping influence on the Armenians and the Jews

30. What is the history of Islam?

31. The history of Islam
Islamic faith was linked to the expansion of Islamic rule
Muslim rulers were tolerant of those religions who faith was based on revelation, such as Judaism and Christianity, but forbade them to increase their numbers by conversion
The history of Islam is turbulent and violent:
Umayyads were overthrown
Abassids founded Baghdad, Islam’s imperial city

32. Baghdad

33. Baghdad

34. Baghdad

35. History of Islam Religious factionalism threatened the caliphate
The Muslim community divided between those who believed that the caliphate should remain in the prophet’s bloodlines (shi’ites) and those who insisted only that it remain within his clan, the Quraysh (sunnis)

36. History of Islam 1210-1220- the Islamic empire was shattered
The Mongol Chinghis Khan’s armies, which had already subjugated all of China, swept through Central Asia, and Iraq, leveling cities.
1260- Mamluk rulers of Egypt defeated the Mongols in Palestine and ended the myth of their invincibility
Baghdad lost its eminence as the chief city of Islam

37. History of Islam
The Mongol dynasties that succeeded to rule in the Islamic world converted to Islam, and accommodated themselves to Islamic norms of rule
Tamerlane, who claimed descent from the khans, led his armies from Samarkand into Iran, Turkey and Russia
The Timurids were the last powerful dynasty to originate in the steppes

38. Islam in the 15th century

39. History of Islam
The world of Islam came to be divided between the Ottomans in the west, the Safavids in Iran, and the Moghuls in India
The Ottomans launched the last great conquest, begun in the 14th c., when they expanded across the Bosphorus into the Balkans, threatening Vienna in 1683

40. Islamic literature
Islam established Arabic as the dominant language of religion, trade, and learning throughout the empire
9th c-center of translation in Baghdad
Greek science and philosophy, Indian mathematics, Chinese medicine, and Persian literature were all translated into Arabic
Arabic had become the language of all the communities of Islam
Islam had become a cosmopolitan, international culture

41. What are the characteristics of Islamic literature?
Koranic intolerance of fiction, which it categorized as ‘lying’
Prose narratives were strongly didactic or informative –moralistic beast fables
The Thousand and One Nights –popular entertainment –not welcomed into the canon
Imaginative literature was excluded from religion
10th c. with the rise of mysticism poetry became a vehicle for spirituality in Islam

42. Islam
Did Islam appreciate the great masterpieces of the Middle Eastern civilizations?

43. Islam
The Islamic cultural tradition made no effort to accept the pre-Islamic cultural traditions as its own (Greece, Mesopotamia, Palestine)
But it did keep these traditions and writings and eventually were the catalyst to bring them back to the Europeans who renewed their learning during the Renaissance.