Chapter 8: The Rise of Islam, 600-1200

Question 1

What is Islam?

Answer 1

Islam is a monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one incomparable God (Allah) and that Muhammad is the messenger of God

Question 2

What is a Muslim?

Answer 2

A follower of Islam/ one who makes “submission”/ Islam to God.

Question 3

What is hadith?

Answer 3

a collection of reports containing supposedly precise sayings of the prophet Muhammad that, with accounts of his daily practice (the Sunna), constitute the major source of guidance for Muslims apart from the Koran.

Question 4

What is the ulama?

Answer 4

a body of Muslim religious scholars recognized as having specialist knowledge of Islamic sacred law and theology.

Question 5

What is the hijra?

Answer 5

Muhammad’s migration from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE in order to escape persecution, prompted by the opposition of the merchants of Mecca and marking the consolidation of the first Muslim community. It represents the starting date of the Muslim calendar/ era.

Question 6

What is the umma?

Answer 6

A community defined solely by the acceptance of Islam and Muhammad as the “Messenger of God.”

Question 7

What is sufism?

Answer 7

a mystical Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God.

Question 8

What is jihad?

Answer 8

a struggle or fight against the enemies of Islam/ “Holy War”

Question 9

What is sharia?

Answer 9

Sharia is a faith-based code of conduct that is inseparable from the practice of Islam

Question 10

Before Muhammad, most people in the Arabian peninsula lived how?

Answer 10

As farmers or sailors, and in farming villages since there was great rainfall during monsoons.

Question 11

What was the “Empty Quarter?”

Answer 11

an enormous sea of sand that isolated southern regions.

Question 12

What did the invention of camel saddles contribute to?

Answer 12

The rise of Arab-dominated caravan cities and Arab pastoralists becoming the main suppliers of animal power

Question 13

Arabs accompanying caravans led to what?

Answer 13

Their familiarity with the cultures and lifestyles of the Sasanid and Byzantine empires. Those who pastured herds on imperial frontiers adopted Christianity.

Question 14

What was Mecca?

Answer 14

A caravan city in a barren mountain valley between Yemen and Syria. It was settled by the nomadic kinship group the Quraysh, who controlled trade. It achieved prosperity far from other civilizations, and thus experienced no attack.

Question 15

What was the Ka’ba?

Answer 15

A cubical shrine with idols and a sacred precinct prohibiting killing, which led to the emergence of Mecca as a pilgrimage site.

Question 16

Who became the caliph after Muhammad and what did he do?

Answer 16

Abu Bakr- an early believer and father of his favorite wife A’isha. He confined religious practices into the Five Pillars of Islam.

Question 17

What were the five pillars of Islam?

Answer 17

1. There is one God and Muhammad is the messenger.
2. Prayer 5 times a day
3. Fasting during Ramadan
4. Paying aims
5. Pilgrimage to Mecca once during lifetime

Question 18

Under Abu Bakr, the caliphate expanded rapidly due to what?

Answer 18

A professional garrisoned military and they taxed but didn’t try to convert conquered people.

Question 19

What were motives for Arab conquests?

Answer 19

• unity for new faith gave a new sense of a common cause and strength vs. non- Arab rulers
• leaders saw it as a good way to release pent up energies against someone starting with a B who i couldnt write down cuz she changed the slide
• they promised a share in booty

Question 20

The Arabs’ success in conquering was due to what?

Answer 20

• the exhaustion of Rome and Persia
• nationalist sentiments in Egypt and Syria
• arguments among Christians
• the size of armies
• easiness to convert to Islam

Question 21

What were some consequences of Arab expansion?

Answer 21

• loss of oldest and most central Christian land
• aided ascendancy of bishop of Rome
• the virtual collapse of Zoroastrianism in the Sasanid Empire

Question 22

What happened when the Umayyads were displaced by the Abbasids?

Answer 22

The capital was moved from Damascus to Baghdad which caused culture to shift.

Question 23

What contributed to Abbasid decline?

Answer 23

It came from within and without.
Local revolts- smaller Muslim states didn’t pay taxes or homage to caliphs in Baghdad
Turkish slave troops/ Mamluks were not paid well, and took control.
It was FRAGMENTED
It officially ended due to the Mongols

Question 24

The Umayyad clan started as a what to Muhammad?

Answer 24

An enemy. They are defeated at Mecca by his forces, but are later embraced by him and lead the faith after him.

Question 25

After the first 3 caliphs, the followers of Ali Bakr did what?

Answer 25

Formed the Shiites, who think caliphs should be related to Muhammad.

Question 26

The Umayyads lead the remaining vast majority of Muslims who were what?

Answer 26

Sunnis. They think caliphs should be chosen from among all Muslims.

Question 27

The Umayyads did not force conquered people to what?

Answer 27

Convert to Islam.

Question 28

The Umayyads governed as what?

Answer 28

Arab elite from Damascus who looked down upon non-Arab converts known as Mawali. They used an ethnic Arab military and bureaucracy. The caliphs were resented by the soldiers on the frontier for leading non-Islamic lavish lifestyles.

Question 29

The Umayyads set up a what?

Answer 29

Theocracy in which religious and political law were the same. Their inspiration for all law was the Koran, and the laws were known as Sharia Law.

Question 30

Umayyads did not seek to convert who?

Answer 30

“People of the Book”- Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, etc. because they had to pay a higher tax, making their status as non-Muslims profitable.

Question 31

Trade flourished under the Umayyad Caliphate because of what?

Answer 31

It was controlled by Muslims under standardized Sharia law. They were in a central location that linked trading networks.

Question 32

What was the status of women like in the Umayyad Caliphate?

Answer 32

They had advantages and a higher status compared to those in the Abbasid Caliphate.

Question 33

What led to the decline of the Umayyad Caliphate?

Answer 33

The wealthy lifestyles of the elite were considered by many in the army to be non-Islamic. They were also tired of being posted on the frontier of the empire. Revolts began, and Abu al-Abbas overthrew and murdered most of the Umayyad clan.

Question 34

How did Abu-al-Abbas gain power?

Answer 34

He, a Sunni, allied with many Shiites in the northeast of the empire. He killed many of the Umayyad family and betrayed and persecuted his Shiite allies.

Question 35

What was the Abbasid government like?

Answer 35

It was a bureaucracy of absolute authority under Sharia law, but was soon governed by mostly Persian bureaucrats in the Persian bureaucratic style. Persians soon took control of the empire. The capital moved to Baghdad.

Question 36

The Abbasid Caliphate split into what that did what?

Answer 36

Smaller Muslim kingdoms that still recognized the religious authority of the Abbasid Caliph but not necessarily the political authority. The capital was moved to Baghdad.

Question 37

The Abbasids encouraged what?

Answer 37

Conversion of the “People of the Book” to Islam

Question 38

How did urbanization increase under the Abbasid Caliphate?

Answer 38

Through trade and growing cities. Farmland was soon controlled by a noble landed class and most peasants were tenant farmers.

Question 39

What increased during the Abbasid Caliphate?

Answer 39

Slavery. Many slaves converted to Islam because Muslims were not allowed to enslave a follower of Islam.

Question 40

What happened to the status of women in the Abbasid Caliphate?

Answer 40

They lost status due to urbanization as Islamic culture copied the traditional gender restrictions in their conquered areas. Women were not allowed to go out unaccompanied, except for slaves.

Question 41

Who ordered the writing of the Quran?

Answer 41

Abu Bakr

Question 42

What did the Shi’ites think?

Answer 42

The caliphs should be successors to Muhammad

Question 43

What did the Sunnis think?

Answer 43

The caliphs should be chosen by the Islamic people.

Question 44

How did Islam spread?

Answer 44

trade, appeal to unprivileged peoples such as women and the lower class, frequent military campaigns, and raiding other lands.

Question 45

The Umayyad caliphs ruled over what type of empire?

Answer 45

An ethnically defined Arab realm that used Sasanid and Byzantine administrative practices.

Question 46

Gradual conversion to Islam in conquered populations led to what in the Abbasid Caliphate?

Answer 46

The fading of social discrimination against non-Arabs. Arabs lost a strong connection to kinship and ethnic identity.

Question 47

What is the Abbasid Caliphate referred to as?

Answer 47

A Muslim Golden Age. There were advancements in:
-science: Astrolabe, astronomy
Trade: in b/w China and Europe
Math: Algebra, Trigonometry, Engineering
Literature: Paper, Poetry, Translation and copying of books
Art: Calligraphy
History
Learning: Paper, TRANSLATED GREEK TEXTS
Architecture and Cities: Cordoba, Spain- blended styles due to large Christian and Jewish population
Medicine: hospital, disease, surgery