1. UKS2 Topic: Early Islamic Civilisation Block H: Important Places Session 1

2. Is there such a thing as an Islamic city?

3. Mecca
Mecca was already a city with an important shrine to many local gods before Muhammad was born. He transformed the shrine and brought it into the new religion, Islam.

4. Medina
Medina was already a city before Muhammad travelled there in CE 622. It had originally been founded by Jews.

5. Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a sacred city to Jews, Christians and Muslims and has important religious buildings for each religion.

6. Damascus
Damascus was originally known as Dimashka and the people there worshipped various gods for two millennia before Muhammad was born.

7. Istanbul
Istanbul was founded by Greeks in 660 BC, who believed in the Greek pantheon of gods. It was then a Roman city called Constantinople and the centre of the Christian church from about CE 320.

8. Karbala
Karbala was founded on the site of a battle between Islamic armies in CE 680.
The vast majority of people who have lived there have been Muslims.

9. Discuss with your partner:
Is there such a thing as an Islamic city?
Can a city become an Islamic city?
How do you decide?
If there is, which one of this list would you say was an Islamic city?
Or, is a city just a city, and can't be described as part of one religion or another