The+First+Global+Civilization+-+The+Rise+and+Spread+of+Islam


 * 1. The Five Pillars of Islam**

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 * **Shia Islam**
 * 1) Monotheism -- Allah is alone and absolute
 * 2) Justice -- virtues and punishment
 * 3) Last Judgment
 * 4) Prophethood
 * 5) Leadership -- Imams (priests) are divinely appointed
 * Sub pillars
 * 1) Prayer / Salah -- 5 daily prayers
 * 2) Fasting / Sawm
 * 3) Pilgrimage / Hajj
 * 4) Alms giving / Zakah
 * 5) Stuggle / Jihad
 * 6) Converting / Ma'ruf
 * 7) Diverting other religions
 * 8) 2.5% tax / Khums
 * 9) Acceptance / Tawalla
 * 10) Intolerance / Tabarra
 * **Sunni Islam**
 * 1) Shahada (accepting Allah's absolute position and Muhammad as the prophet)
 * 2) Salat
 * 3) Zakah
 * 4) Sawm
 * 5) Hajj


 * 3. Five Pillars Document --- Look above for the descriptions of the Five pillars**
 * 1) **Shahada**
 * Qur'an - Contains doctrines that promote Shahada
 * Sunnah - Muhammad accepted the supreme and sole existence of Allah
 * Hadith - The creed behind Shahada is necessary to be a Muslim
 * Community - Everyone strives to form a creation with god, therefore they adhere to the pillars
 * 1) **Salat**
 * Sunnah - Muhammad did the same prayers
 * Hadith - Five daily prayers passed through generations; prayers during Ramadan
 * Community - People performed prayers together, no separation of women or men
 * 1) **Zakah**
 * Sunnah - Muhammad started Zakah by collecting fees and distributing the funds locally as alms
 * Community - Everyone participates by offering, even those who have nothing to offer give charity by warding evil
 * 1) **Sawm**
 * Qur'an - Religious festival
 * Sunnah - Muhammad and past prophets had fasted
 * Community - Everyone fasts and participates; people look to each other for support and congregate for the meal and prayers
 * 1) **Hajj**
 * Qur'an - Required pilgrimage
 * Sunnah - Birthplace of Islam
 * Community - Pilgrims from across the world go to Mecca; they wear white clothes that do not distinguish any social differences, just equality


 * 2. ESPIRIT Chart on pre-Islam Arabia (before c. 610)**


 * E || * Based on camel and goat herding
 * Trading cities near coast, especially those like **Mecca** and **Medina** near the Red Sea
 * Extensive agriculture sprouted only near the coast
 * Medina was able to grow wheat and date palms
 * There were transcontinental trade routes and vast caravan routes
 * Men paid dowries, not the women
 * Women were little more that grunt workers
 * Ka'ba produced a trading sanctuary ||
 * S || * Divided into rival Bedouin (nomadic) tribes and clans that worshiped local gods
 * Clans constituted tribes and only congregated in times of war or severe crisis
 * The harsh desert environment created strong kinships
 * There were wide disparities of wealth in clans and tribes
 * Polygamy were common
 * Shakyhs and his family --> Warriors/Mercenaries --> Slaves
 * Cities, extensive agriculture sprouted only near the coast
 * Cities were extensions of the Bedouin culture
 * Populations had kinship to nomads
 * Caravan routes were guarded by the Bedouin
 * Social organization, language, and religion were imported from nomads
 * The slightest pretext for conflict was capitalized
 * Women experienced greater social status
 * Family trees were tracked through the mother not the father
 * Property control, inheritance and divorce favored the husband
 * Autonomy varied clan to clan
 * Women were expected to be monogamous ||
 * P || * Camel nomads dominated the majority of the peninsula, only in the south did regional kingdoms rise
 * Clan councilors regulated everything from membership, water places, and grazing lands for example
 * Elected the shakyhs, clan and tribe leaders ||
 * I || * Covered by inhospitable desert
 * Encroachment to rival clan lands was pretext for conflict
 * Could be war or challenges that displayed skill
 * Usually bloody affairs that instigated never-ending vengeance
 * Constant infighting was capitalized by outside forces to weaken the Bedouins
 * Bedouin and semitic cultures could be found in Arabia
 * Medina was split between two Bedouin clans and three Jewish ones ||
 * R || * Polytheistic beliefs that varied from region to region, clan to clan
 * One of the most important religious shrines was the **Ka'ba** in Mecca
 * Animism
 * The **Quraysh,** leader tribe of Mecca, believed in the supreme god Allah but focused on lesser gods pertaining to their immediate lives
 * Religion had little impact on society
 * Ethics and morals were upheld by customs and codes of chivalry ||
 * I || * Poetry/epics were key to Bedouin cultural life
 * Bards and women wrote and recited poems
 * Oral tradition
 * Little architecture ||
 * T || * //__**No reference in the book**__// ||


 * 4. Islam Movie**
 * Nearly 1/4 of the world's population follow the Islamic faith
 * Revived/Developed from Hellenistic knowledge
 * Influenced (by providing an impetus) the Renaissance centuries before Da Vinci's birth
 * c. 570 C.E. --> Birth of Muhammad
 * Orphaned and fostered by his uncle, a leader of a clan
 * Known as al-Amin, "trustworthy", for his mdiation
 * Talked with Arabic, Christian, and Hebrew sages
 * The Arabian peninsula was a warring state between tribes and clans of Bedouins over scarce resources like grazing land and water wells
 * A single dispute could lead to generations of conflict
 * Mecca and other trade cities were influenced greatly by Western cultures; only the Bedouins truly captured and preserved the undiluted Arabian culture
 * Bedouin oral culture
 * Bards and poets retold epics and had a cultural importance to counterparts in Ancient Greece (when Homer existed and Mycenae was in its heyday)
 * People could not survive without tribal unity
 * Local polytheism
 * Surrounding the Ka'ba were totems to the pagan gods that were the patron deities of tribes
 * Inside the Ka'ba is believed to be a rock that fell from the sky and placed there by Abraham
 * Ka'ba created a sanctuary where all conflicts -- physical, tribal, commercial, etc. -- were discouraged
 * Islam
 * Muslims strive for communion with Allah
 * Social justice appeal with its preachings of equality
 * All scriptures are written in Arabic to provide this sense of enduring naturalism
 * Qur'an prevents a visualization of Allah or Muhammad
 * Itself is the representation of Allah
 * Salah = the social cement
 * Opposition
 * Reincarnation was hard to believe
 * Opposition to the Bedouin's sense of ancestry was offending
 * Tribes wanted to kill Muhammad
 * His uncle was the only thing stopping them until 619 when he died
 * Exodus
 * Mecca --> Yathrib / Medina
 * Yathrib offered refuge for Muslims if Muhammad provided mediation between the tribes
 * Year 622 AD = Year 1 in the Islamic calendar
 * The first jihad
 * Medina vs. Mecca
 * Last 3 years
 * Meccans outnumbered the Muslims
 * Over the course of three years, the Muslim success in fending off the enemy converted many followers
 * No retribution against Mecca, solely destroyed the idols near the Ka'ba

Prior Islam, the Arabian peninsula was divided into regions controlled by Bedouin tribes. They regulated everything from city life to trade and military strength. They placed a great importance on ancestry; their totems to their patron deities doubled over as tributes to their ancestors and heritage. Once Muhammad was in his prime, he began to challenge these principles. By preaching that there was only one divine god, Allah, he was undermining the power of the tribes. When his uncle died in 619 C.E., Muhammad had to flee Mecca since his protectorate had died. In Yathrib, renamed Medina, city of the Prophet, Muhammad found more success in converting people. The social justice appeal, the idea that everyone was equal spiritually and everyone should help one another, appealed to many people. Eventually, Muhammad's success reached the ears of Meccans who wanted to destroy the prophet. The first jihad, in which Muslims conquered Mecca, last three years and won the faith of many Bedouin tribes. With a powerful army behind the faith, and a powerful spiritual and social appeal as well, Islam was ready to spread rapidly throughout the world. Outside of military conquest, Mecca and Medina were trade cities with caravan routes the spread to Byzantium and Persia. The synergism of trade cities exposed people the Islamic faith and garnered many converters.
 * Summary:**

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 * 5. Notes and Reading Questions**
 * 1) **The Life of Muhammad and the Genesis of Islam**
 * The south kingdoms had fallen apart by 700 C.E.
 * ** Exposure to monotheism, caused by Byzantium and Sasanian expansions and Arabic northern migrations, caused prophethoods **
 * There were prophets preaching a monotheistic faith before Muhammad
 * **Muhammad** (578 - 632)
 * Belonged to the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh
 * Protected by the clan leader, his uncle Abu Talib
 * Gained revelations from Gabriel beginning in 610 and began preaching them in 613
 * Inter-tribal conflicts since some clans flourished from commerce while others did not
 * **1a. Persecution Flight and Victory**
 * ** The Umayyads**, a wealthy clan that shared control of Mecca, and their ancestral beliefs were threatened by Muhammad's preachings
 * ** Muhammad had to flee to Yathribb/Medina as a result, known as the hijra**
 * **Mecca-Medina (Quraysh-Muslim) war, 624-627**
 * ** Muslims win and results in the 628 Muslim-Meccan Treaty, which grants Muslims the right to use the Ka'ba during season of truce **
 * ** After the war, Muslims united many tribes with over 10,000 followers **
 * **1b. Arabs and Islam**
 * ** Islam provided a monotheistic religion that was distinctly Arabic in origin and thus, alongside its lack of religious hierarchy and sense of community (umma), appealed to the masses **
 * ** Principles of **Umma**, community of the faithful **
 * ** Universal equality and humanity **
 * **Zakat** promoted this idea
 * Adherence to morals of Qur'an by principles and law codes
 * 1) **The Arab Empires of the Umayyads**
 * Most of Arabia were Muslims by 633 C.E.
 * Most forsook Islam after Muhammad's death in 632 C.E. but were forced to believe again by military conquests
 * Muhammad did not choose or leave a process to choose a successor
 * Clans chose the political and religious successor, or **caliph**
 * **2a. Consolidation and Division in the Islamic Community**
 * Two choices for caliph were **Ali,** Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, or **Abu Bakr**, one of Muhammad's closest friends and earliest followers
 * Ali was passed over because of his age, thus Bakr ruled as caliph from 632-634
 * Bakr had limited support, thus little power
 * Though he was known for his courage, amiability, wisdom, and knowledge of tribal histories, he received no financial support from the Muslims and thus had to remain a merchant part time and left military campaigns to the military commanders with little restrictions
 * In the Ridda Wars (633-634), these commanders fended off attacks rival clans and led conquests that defeated prophets and converted the tribes to Islam
 * These victories compelled Bakr to overseer raids for plunder to the north and east
 * These raids exposed weaknesses of Byzantine and Sasanid, and combined with growing support from frontier Bedouins and confidence, led conquests north and east
 * **2b. Motives for Arab Conquests**
 * Unity = strength and confidence
 * Release valve for pent-up energies
 * Riches from plunder and taxations of conquered
 * Mass conversion were not a reason for the jihads
 * **2c. Weaknesses of the Adversary Empires**
 * Sasanid
 * Toy emperor controlled by the aristocracy that oppressed the masses
 * Zoroastrianism lost piety and undermined by **Mazdak**, a visionary reformer and prophet
 * Ineffective army
 * **Conquered by 651**
 * Byzantine
 * Coptic and Nestorian sects of Syria and Egypt defected alongside frontier Bedouins due to the heavy taxes from the Orthodoxes and the promises of lower taxes from the tolerant Muslims
 * Weakened from wars with the Sasanid
 * Lost naval supremacy of the Mediterranean
 * Lost Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Northern Africa and buffer zones to their Balkan and Asian minor heartlands
 * **2d. The Problem of Succession and the Sunni-Shi'a Split**
 * (656) Uthman**,** the 3rd caliph**,** was murdered
 * Uthman was unpopular, but a member of the Umayyad. When Ali claimed to be the successor, Umayyads refuted his claim and swore to take action against his inability to exact revenge for Uthman's murder
 * (656) **Battle of Camel** -- Arabs side with Ali after his victory
 * (657) **Battle of Siffin** -- Umayyads, under siege at Mecca and near collapse, beg for mediation with Ali accepts
 * Ali's supporters resented his decision and violent outlashes had to be physically
 * Umayyad's recovered their forces and gained support from Egypt
 * (660) **Mu'awiya**, the leader of the Umayyads, was proclaimed caliph of Jerusalem
 * (661) Ali was murdered and his son, Hasan, was pressured into accepting caliphate
 * Sunnis supported Mu'awiya and Shi'as supported Ali
 * Shi'as led by Husayn, Ali's second son, tried to rebel but were crushed at Karbala in 680
 * Split caused splinter sects with variations of belief, ritual, and law
 * ** 2e. The Umayyad Imperium **
 * Conquests continue, expanding into central Asia, as far as northwest India, and Spain, through north Africa
 * Crossed Pyrenees into the western kingdoms, but were fended off by Charles Martel and the Franks at Poitiers in 732
 * Damascus became the political center while Mecca remained the holy city
 * Caliphs created a bureaucracy from **Damascus**
 * Muslim autocracy ruled over the non-Muslims
 * Core of the military and imperial administration
 * Sole benefiters of the plunder
 * Taxed only with Zakat
 * Separated garrisons from the public
 * **2f. Converts and "People of the Book"**
 * Attempts to separate the Muslim warrior elite from the conquered failed
 * Intermarriage was increasing and so was voluntary conversion
 * Muslim converts, **mawali**, still payed the property taxes and **jizya**, head tax
 * Not fully accepted into the umma, thus conversion provided little mobility
 * People of the Book, **dhimmi,** anyone who didn't believe in Islam, had their institutions left intact
 * ** 2g. Family and Gender Roles in the Umayyad Age **
 * Muhammad's kind treatment of his wife and daughters and the teachings of the Qur'an elevated women's position
 * Marriage wasn't just a social liaison like in pre-Islamic Arabia
 * Adultery was punishable
 * Polygamy was restricted to four wives, if resources provided, and one husband
 * Legal inheritance and divorce rights were stronger for women
 * The bride-price went to the bride instead of the bride's father
 * Pursued various occupations and played active roles in the community
 * **2h. Umayyad Decline and Fall**
 * The increasing aloofness of the caliphs sparked revolts and resentment
 * Iranian frontiersmen were the warriors defending the borders and leading conquests. By the mid 700s, they had strong heritage ties to **Merv**, received less and less of the plunder they earned, and grew further contemptuous of the corrupt administrators.
 * c. 740, the Umayyads tried to introduce new warriors that invoked a revolt by the Abbasid party by 747
 * Abu al-Abbas rallied dissident groups and challenged the Umayyad army, defeating them constantly
 * **Battle of the River Zab (750)** defeats the Umayyads and their entire family is murdered except for the founder of the caliphate of Cordoba

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 * 1) **How did the death of Muhammad lead to the Expansion of Islam?**
 * After his death, the Umayyads took the mantle. They elected into power Abu Bakr who allowed military commanders great autonomy. These able commanders used their abilities to defeat rival clans and swell the ranks of the Muslims. These victories provided reasons to fuel raids into the Byzantine and Sasanid empires. Those raids paved the foundation for Islamic conquest throughout the next centuries.
 * 1) **What were the motivations for Islamic conquest?**
 * Muslims had a great deal of confidence, believing that their forces were protected by Allah and strength in numbers. Above that, Muslim early leaders channeled the pent-up energies of the tribes into plunder raids that sate their greed. Once the raids exposed the weaknesses of the empires, conquests were performed so conquer areas so that Muslims could tax them for revenue.
 * 1) **How were the Umayyads able to defeat their adversaries?**
 * The Sasanid Empire had been severely weakened by wars with Byzantine, a puppet emperor, lack of religious piety, and severe oppression. The army they amassed to fight the Arabs who converted the frontier Bedouins and dissident masses was not enough to ward off the Arabs. The Byzantines were weakened by wars with the Sasanid empire and dissident factions of the Copitcs and Nestorians. Due to their defections, Muslims were able to capture Egpyt and Syria, then Palestine, and eventually build a naval power to strip Byzantine of its control of the Mediterranean.
 * 1) **What caused the major division in Islam?**
 * After Uthman's murder, Ali posted claims to the position of caliph, but the Umayyads declined and supported its leader Mu'awiya. The two erupted into warfare. After the Battle of Camel, most of the Arabs backed Ali, and the Battle of Siffin, Ali submitted to a plea for negotiation which lost him the support of most of his supporters. With that loss, the Umayyads recovered and Ali was assassinated a year later. Hasan, his first son, submitted to pressure and accepted caliphate, but Muhammad's second son, Husayn, led a rebel force that was crushed in 680 at Karbala.
 * 1) **What was the extent of the Islamic Empire under the Umayyads?**
 * The Islamic empire spread from the Arabian peninsula to northwest India, to Spain, and islands of the Mediterranean.
 * 1) **How were people of the book treated under the Umayyads?**
 * The dhimmi were left alone. Beside taxes like the commercial and property taxes and the jizya, their institutions were left intact.
 * 1) **Explain gender structures under the Umayyads**
 * Women received strongest rights than they had in pre-Islamic Arabia. Women were given more economic benefits, such as inheritance and property rights that favored them. Marriages weren't simply tributes of tribal or clan alliances. Women also took up a variety of jobs such as scholarship, law, and commerce.
 * 1) **What factors led to the decline of the Umayyads?**
 * The increasing decadence of the caliphs in Damascus created many dissident groups. When they tried to expose new warriors to the frontiersmen in Merv, it enraged them and they rallied all the dissident groups under the banner of the Abbasid party. The forces of Abbasid party was enough to defeat and utterly destroy the Umayyads.


 * 6. ESPIRIT Chart of Abbasid Islam (750-1258 AD)**


 * E || * Mawalis did not have to pay the jizya
 * Revival of the Afro-Eurasian trading network
 * Abbasid became the western end while Tang and Song dynasties were the east
 * Joint ventures between Christians, Jews, and Islams
 * Firms could work week-long since each had a different day for Sabbath
 * **Dhows** transported goods from cosmopolitan to cosmopolitan
 * Successful commercial enterprises were rerouted to new enterprises like land speculation and construction
 * Donations and tithes funded mosques, schools, and other public buildings
 * Guild-like organizations for artisans who were poorly paid
 * Artisans created necessities to luxury goods, e.g. glassware, jewelry, and tapestries
 * Slavery
 * Subduing the slave armies, relocating the capital, funding the army and imperial court really pressed the peasantry economically by the late 9th century
 * Public works, even the age old ones, fell into disrepair
 * Agricultural sector
 * Poor/Rural women
 * Farming
 * Weaving of rugs and clothing
 * Silkworms ||
 * S || * The distinction of mawalis disappeared
 * Had social and political mobility
 * Slavery
 * Could rise to powerful positions
 * Able to buy freedom or be granted freedom
 * Some were house slaves while others were drudge laborers for fatal jobs
 * Ayans, the local landlords and aristocrats
 * Feudal system with the Ayan lords and vassal/tenant/sharecropper peasant
 * The caliph bodyguard forces were powerful forces invoking social unrest
 * Many provinces were abandoned due to spiraling taxation and pillaging
 * Declining position of women
 * Women had a less prominent role than slaves
 * Slave concubines had more autonomy
 * They didn't have to wear traditional veils, robes, headdresses
 * Allowed to go to the market
 * Usually more educated than the wives of the harem
 * Rich women had no career opportunities outside the home
 * Marriage was set legally at 9
 * Arabic was the langue of religion law, and natural sciences
 * Persian was the language of the court, literary expression, administration and scholarship ||
 * P || * New captial of **Baghdad**
 * Center of growing bureaucracy
 * **wazir**, chief administrator and to a degree, royal executioner
 * Less effective the farther away a province was -- __exactly like Han China's bureaucracy__
 * Effective in collecting taxes and maintaining peace
 * Powerful Persian families gained power as Abbasid rulers became less interested in the state
 * The rise of **Harun al-Rashid,** caliph from 786-809
 * Succeeded **al-Mahdi**, the third Abbasid caliph from 755-785
 * Couldn't reconcile differences between the Abbasids and the Shi'as
 * Became increasingly decadent
 * Used the system in which the harem helped choose the successor
 * Died as well as his eldest son
 * Only 23 when he took the throne
 * Dependent on a Persian family of advisors
 * Began the trend in which the royal court overpowered at points the caliph
 * Succeeded by a civil war that placed al-Ma'mun in power (813-833)
 * His sons created personal armies in anticipation of succession disputes
 * One of the sons created a mercenary force similar to the Roman Praetorian Guard
 * Women helped influence politics because the harem plotted with their husbands, the eunuchs, and the royal advisors to support their sons
 * __ Persian replaced Arabic in the Abbasid Court __ ||
 * I || * Tang and Song empires with trade
 * **Buyids** of Persia
 * A splinter dynasty that broke off during the decline of Abbasid Islam
 * Conquered heartland and Baghdad in 945
 * Introduced the sultan title and made the caliphs puppet leaders
 * Shi'a supporters
 * ** Seljuk Turks ** conquered the Buyids in 1055 and remained in power for the next two centuries
 * Sunni supporters
 * Suppressed all forms of Shi'ism
 * Byzantine attacked the Seljuks and lost, leading to the settlement of Anatolia and the foundations of the Ottoman Empire
 * Western kingdoms
 * **Crusades**
 * Palestine was captured, divided into Christian states, and Jerusalem went under Christian dominion during the **First Crusade 1096-99**
 * In total 8 crusades
 * **Saladin** during the late 12th century led the Arabs and reconquered Palestine
 * During his reign, there was a truce between the Arabs and Christians allowing for a synergistic world
 * Died in 1193
 * The end of the empire was facilitated by the attacks of the Mongols under Chinggis Khan, beginning in the 1220s, and under his grandson, Hulegu, during the 1250s.
 * In 1258, Baghdad was captured and sacked. ||
 * R || * Shi'ism and other dissident beliefs besides those held by the Sunnis were suppressed
 * Shi'as instigated many uprisings to disrupt and destroy the Abbasid regime
 * ** Sufism ** was a movement in which religious devotees wandered the lands trying to find communion with Allah.
 * Reaction by disillusioned Muslims against ulama impersonal and abstract depictions of Allah
 * Allah transcended mortals
 * Reputed as miracle workers and healers, militant bands who waged jihad, and common practices of Indian mystics ||
 * I || * Adopted Persian traditions of extravagance
 * Jewel encrusted thrones, marble palaces, massive harems, grand throne rooms
 * Preserved Hellenistic knowledge and translated them into Arabic in which it was introduced to the Christian world from Spain
 * Before this, only Platonic philosophy survived in the western world but after, Aristotelian philosophy, Galenite medicine, Hippocratic medicine and philosophy, Ptolemaic astronomy and mathematic, and Euclidean mathematics were revived.
 * Ideas from Hellenistic cultures were eventually opposed by orthodox scholars such as the **ulama**. They believed the Socratic and Platonic inquiries would undermine the authority of the Qur'an. Theologists like **al-Ghazali**, attempted to fuse Hellenism and Qur'anic ideas with little success at acceptance.
 * Introduced to the Indian number system
 * Reworked the number system into the Arabic number system which the majority of the Western world uses today
 * Best steel in the world, renown Damascene swords
 * Umayyad crafts were inherited
 * Architecture grew more grand and ornate
 * ** Did not try to adopt Western intellectual developments whereas the other adopted many of their ideas **
 * To reflect the growing importance of Persian, the most celebrated literary works were written in Persian, like that of the epic **Shah-Nama**, the book of Kings, by Firdawsi. ||
 * T || * Triangular **lanteen** sails that influenced later European ship designs
 * Damascene blades, e.g. scimitars
 * Arabic number and decimal system ||