1. On the Rise

2.  Covered by desert  Little rain, no major rivers

3.  Nomads  No permanent home  Go from place to place to find food, water, pasture  Knew of routes and oases  Worked as guides for traders  Led caravans of camels and people across the desert

4.  Oases became centers of trade  Towns and cities popped up at them  Mecca  One of these centers of trade

5.  Born on Mecca (570AD)  His great-grandfather had been a wealthy merchant  Muhammad worked on caravans  Went into a cave to pray (610AD)  Heard the voice of an angel  Said that people had abandoned the true faith  Tasked with sharing this message  Started Islam  Said people would again obey the one true God  Muslim = “a person who submits”  Muhammad preached that all were brothers and sisters in God’s community  People didn’t abandon their pagan religions

6.  Muhammad was invited to Yathrib (622AD)  North of Mecca  People there regarded him as a prophet  This migration of Muslims was called the “hijra” (“the migration)  622 became year 1 of the Muslim calendar  Yathrib’s name was changed to Medina  “City of the prophet”  Became an Islamic center  Muhammad returned to Mecca in 630AD  Died in 632AD  Islam had spread all over Arabian peninsula by this time

7.  Muezzin  Man who calls Muslims to worship  “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God”  “Allah” = God  Muslims stop and pray 5x a day  Worship facing Mecca  Mosque = Muslim house of worship

8.  Declaration of Faith  Muslims must regularly declare the belief that there is only one God, and that Muhammad is God’s messenger  Prayer  5x a day  Facing Mecca  Almsgiving  Must give to the poor  Fasting  During daylight hours in the month of Ramadan  Pilgrimage  Must make pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives if able

9.  Quran = holy book of Islam  Must be written in Arabic  Otherwise it’s just a translation of the Quran  Contains messages revealed by God to Muhammad  Includes the rules of Islam  Memorized by many Muslims

10.  Monotheistic = belief in one God  Shared by Christianity, Judaism, and Islam  “People of the Book”  Muslims count Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses as part of their religious history  Muslims believe Muhammad is the last in the line of these prophets  He is “The Prophet”  They count Jesus only as another prophet  Not the Son of God

11.  Quran teaches men and women are spiritually equal  According to the Quran, women could inherit property and receive an education  They could not be forced to marry  Had the right to divorce

12.  Uthman was assassinated in 656AD  He had been the leader of the Muslims  Muslims disagreed as to his successor  Shiites  Smaller group  Believed successor should be direct descendant of Muhammad  As God would inspire him the same way  Believed the Islamic leader should explain the teachings of the Quran  Sunnis  Larger group  Now makes up 85% of all Muslims  Believed any truly religious Muslim man from Muhammad’s tribe could lead the community  Believed no one man should tell Muslims what the Quran means  Believed a group of Muslim scholars could best explain it