Islam

What were the Arabs motives for expanding?

1. The merchant leaders of the Islamic community wanted to capture profitable trade routes and wealthy agricultural regions. 2. Individual Arabs found in military expansion a route to wealth and social promotion. 3. The need to harness the immense energies of the Arabian transformation. 4. The fragile unity of the umma threatened to come apart after Mohammed's death and external expansion provided a common task for the community.

Who sided with Muhammad during this time? Who was opposed to him? Why were they opposed to him?

A few Meccan leaders, freed slaves, and member of poor clans; Mecca's elite clans; Muhammad's claim to be messenger of Allah, unyielding monotheism, his call for social reform, and apparent dis royalty to his clan.

What is the definition of jizya?

A special tax given to the Jews, Christians, and Zoroasters to freely practice their own religions.

Definition of Khadiji

A widow Muhammad marries and has six children with. She herself was a prosperous merchant.

What caused the split in the Islamic region?

As the conquest and conversion vastly enlarged so did the problems. The central problem was the leadership as to who would be the next caliph. This problem lead to lots of other problems

Describe the location and geography of Arabia?

Between Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, peninsula, scattered oases, interior mountains, and highlands of Yemen.

What is the Quran? What is itwritten in?

Book of Revelations from Muhammad; arabic

Describe Muhammad's early life

Born in Quraysh tribe in Mecca, lost his parents and was a shepherd for his uncle as a little boy, at 25 married a wealthy widow.

How is Islam different from Christianity?

Christianity has two different authorities, while Islam has one authority.

What allowed for islam to spread from medina?

Early military successes against muhammad's Meccan opponents.

Significance of muhammad

Founder of islam

What did Muhammad do in medina?

He began to create a new society and declared islam's independence from its earlier affiliation with Judaism.

How were women treated based on the Quran?

In superior, should be obedient to men, allowed to divorce, multiple husbands were not allowed

What accounts for the widespread conversion to Islam?

Islam's practices were not so different from Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism. Also from its early stages it was associated with a powerful state. Conquest called into question the power of old gods, wow the growing prestige of the Arab empire attracted many to Allah.

How was medina different from other Arab tribes?

Membership was a matter of belief not birth. All authority was concentrated to Muhammad.

How has Judaism influence Islam?

Muslims considered Allah as the Jewish high God and they considered themselves children of Abraham.

How did the Arabs build such a large empire?

Muslims were able to successfully build the Arab empire because they conquered a lot of land quickly, and then united the people of each land through the Muslim faith, also called Islam.

Who are the Bedouins and what did they believe in?

Nomadic Arabs who believed in a variety of gods, ancestors, and nature spirits.

In which direction did the Arab empire spread?

Northwest

Where is Mecca and why is it important?

Off of a long distance trade route, it is the site of the Kaaba, the most prominent religious shrine in Arabia.

What is the definition of Sufis

People who represented Islam's mystical dimension, in that they saw a direct and personal experience of the divine

What does the Quran criticize?

Prevailing social practices of an increasingly prosperous Mecca

Definition of Muhammad Ibn Abdullah

Prophet of islam

How were men and treated based on the Quran?

Superior, multiple wives were allowed, must treat each wife equally, permitted to have sexual relations with slaves

Who replaced the umayyads? What did they do?

The Abbasids; they overthrew the Umayyad dynasty

What and why was their opposition by the Shia and the non-Arab Muslims to the Umayyads?

The Shia viewed the Umayyad caliphs as illegitimate usurpers, while the non-Arabians resented their second class citizenship in the empire.

Definition of umma

The community of all Muslim believers

Look at the map on page 481. What is the map trying to show you?

The expansion and size of the area be an empire from 622 to 900 A.D.; and the rapid pace of Islamic conquest.

What happened to the Sufis?

They challenged God and tried to make it to heaven on their own. As a result they were persecuted by the Umayyads and the Abbasids

How did the Arabs feel about converting people?

They discourage conversion because they considered Islam a revelation uniquely their own.

Describe the relationship the Arabs had with the Jews, Christians, and zoroastrians

They recognize them as "people of the book" and gave them protected status within the empire

How did the Persian and Byzantine Empire is feel about the Arabs? What did the Arabs due to these empires?

They viewed Arabs as a mere nuisance instead of a threat. The Persian empire was defeated while the Byzantine Empire lost half of it southern territories through defeat by the Muslims

Who were the Umayyad family? What did they do?

They were the first Arab dynasty. They greatly expanded Arabia and moved the capital city to Damascus. They created the first Islamic dynasty

What was the jizya's purpose?

To substitute military service and encourage conversion

Read the quote from Muhammad on page 480. What does it mean?

Treat others as you would have them treat you.

What was the job of the umma? How were women treated?

Witness over the nations; they had an honored and spiritually equal place.

What specifically happened to women's rights as Islam grew?

Women's rights started to become limited. Women were asked to pray in separate parts of the mosque than men. Women headquarters in their own homes. Honor killings, veiling of women, views that women are responsible for men's actions