ISLAM
Islam
Geography:
– Middle East = desert with few oases and some fertile
land in the south
– Crossroads of trade
Bedouins, desert nomads, lived there
•Bedouin – desert nomad
•Sheikh – chief of tribe
Islam
A Bedouin named Muhammad heard the
voice of the angel Gabriel who told him a
message that there is one god called
Allah and he was the last of the prophets
He started Islam in Mecca
Islam
Islam means “submission to the will of
Allah”
Muslims mean “one who has submitted”
Islam
Muhammad began preaching, but was not
well received
He left Mecca and went to Yathrib
This retreat was called the Hijrah
Yathrib was renamed Medina (city of the
Prophet)
Medina
Islam
Muhammad came back and took Mecca
and made it his holy city with the Kaaba
as a holy object
Mecca
Kaaba
Kaaba
Two sons of Abraham Isaac and Ishmael
Islam
Beliefs of Islam:
Holy Book is the Qur’an or Koran
Each Muslim is responsible for his actions
and will be judged
Islam
To become a true Muslim you must carry out 5
duties called the 5 Pillars
Faith: You must say and believe this statement,
“There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is
the Messenger of Allah”
Prayer: 5 times a day towards Mecca
Alms: Give money to the poor
Fasting: During the month of Ramadan, you
cannot eat or drink when the sun is up
Pilgrimage: called a hajj, you must travel to
Mecca once in your lifetime
Islam
Way of Life:
– No pork
– No alcohol
– Friday afternoon worship
Islam
To read the true word of Allah, you have
to read the Qur’an in Arabic
For proper living, Muslims follow the
Sunna (Muhammad’s example)
Law of Islam is written in the shari’a
Islam
Links to Christianity and Judaism
– Allah is the same god as God and Yahweh
– Abraham is the father of all 3 (his other son
Ishmael started Islam)
– Qur’an perfects the word of God (the Torah
and the Bible were the other versions)
– Christians and Jews were “people of the
book” and tolerated
– Jesus was a prophet and Muhammad is the
last prophet
ID’s
You answer the following questions for a
topic in world history
– Who?
– What?
– When?
– Where?
– How?
– Why?
– Significance? (Why is it important?)
Islam
Muhammad and Bedouins
•Who-
5 Pillars
•What-
•When- 600 AD
•Where- Arabian Peninsula
•How- By the sword and war
•Why- To give the Bedouins a monotheistic religion
•Significance Major religion today and united the Arabs
Islam
Muhammad died in 632 CE
The successor of Muhammad was Abu-
Bakr by election
His title became caliph
He and his successors rule was called the
caliphate
Islam
Using the sword and spear, the Muslims
conquered all of Arabia and started to
spread Islam
Muslims then took over North Africa and
parts of Persia
They were helped by 2 weak neighbors:
Byzantium and Persia
Islam
Muslims would have
took over Europe, but
were stopped at the
Battle of Tours
Islam
Many conquered people converted to
Islam because they would not have to pay
a tax
However, the Qur’an forbid forced
conversions, so many religions were
tolerated and taxed
Islam
Some Muslims disliked the Caliphate and
believed the caliph should be related to
Muhammad
They were called the Shi’a or party of Ali
Those who did not resist the Umayyads
were called the Sunni
Some Muslims became devoted to the
spiritual path and were called Sufi
Islam
A monarchy government under the Umayyads
began
They moved the capital from Mecca to
Damascus to govern more easily
They also surrounded themselves with wealth
unlike the previous caliphs
Islam
The Umayyads were
overthrown and the
Abbasids took over
Islam
Cities grew under the Muslims and Baghdad was
the greatest city of the time
Islam
Social:
4 classes in Muslim society
– Upper class are Muslims at Birth
– 2nd class were Muslim converts
– 3rd class were the protected people
– Lowest class were slaves
Muslim women are equal and had more
rights than European women
– They could divorce and could work
Islam
Muslims preserved many Roman learnings and
opened the House of Wisdom for learning
Islam
Science:
– Muslims started to experiment
– They created Algebra
– Today we use the Arabic numbers
– Muslims discovered Optics to help reading and
to build telescopes to study the stars
– They were also great astronomers
Islam
The Muslims created the Astrolabe to
navigate using the sun and stars
In literature, The Thousand and One
Nights was written which included the
story of Aladin
Only Allah could create living beings, so
no drawing of people=all art went to
calligraphy (art of handwriting)
Arab Calligraphy
Islam
Architecture:
Beautiful mosques or Islamic churches were
created.
In mosques:
– Minarets
– Pools for cleansing
– Domes