1. Diffusion of Ideas & Systems: 600-1450 The Middle Ages in Africa & Asia

2. Key Understanding – Interaction of different religions leads to cultural blending or conflict due to common values and beliefs or differences.

3. Muhammad – born around A.D. 570; founder of Islam Muslims – those who worship Allah and recognize Muhammad as the last Prophet Mecca – the Holy City of the Islamic faith

4. Allah – Monotheistic deity; God of Abraham; Yahweh Hijra – pilgrimage to Mecca that each Muslim is required to take within their lifetime

5. Qu’ran/Koran – Book-writings of the prophet Muhammad Jihad – Holy struggle; expansion of Islam and Islamic control

6. Conversions – conquered people were allowed to keep their religions; many converted (often to avoid taxes) “People of the Book” – Christians and Jews – their faith was “incomplete” because they did not accept Muhammad; they worked as officials, scholars, bureaucrats

7. Interaction – Set-up trade networks between Europe, Asia, and North Africa; cultures blend – achievements in art and science

9. When Muhammad died there was conflict over who his successor (called the Caliph) would be. Shiite Muslims – believed that only Muhammad’s descendants could be caliphs. Sunni Muslims – followed a new caliph (the Umayyad Caliphate).

10. The Umayyad Caliphs were replaced by the Abbasid Caliphs in A.D. 750.

11. Both the Umayyads and the Abbasids fought a holy war, called a Jihad to expand Islam. Fatimid dynasty set up in North Africa Muslims control the Maghrib along the Mediterranean coast by 670 Berbers, who had originally been Christian and Jewish, convert to Islam in the 600s. The empire expanded from the Indus Valley to Spain. Expansion was halted in Europe at the Battle of Tours.

13. The Arab capital was moved from Damascus to Baghdad in 762. Within a century Baghdad’s population was over a million people Included a citadel and the “House of Wisdom”

14. Decline The Caliphate declined when invaders entered the empire. South – Berbers and Bedouins from Africa swept across Libya and Tunisia; they destroyed civilization in North Africa

15. Decline North – European Crusaders entered Palestine in 1096. East – Turks and Mongols invade and convert to Islam.

16. Muslims conquer Constantinople in 1453 and establish the Ottoman Empire The Ottomans were a nomadic group of Turkish people from Central Asia.

18. Poetry, music, dance Chess, dice, backgammon Polo, archery, fencing, horse racing

19. Paper making brought in from China Translated Hippocrates, Galen, Euclid, Ptolemy, Plato, Aristotle

20. Advances in algebra and geometry Continued astronomical observations Doctors discovered that blood moves to and from the heart

21. Textile industry Elaborate leather work and rugs