global islam and Africa

Question 1

What is Islam?

Answer 1

A religion based on the teachings of the prophet Mohammed which stresses belief in one god (Allah), Paradise and Hell, and a body of law written in the Quran. Followers are called Muslims.

Question 2

Who is a Muslim?

Answer 2

A follower of Islam.

Question 3

Who is Muhammad?

Answer 3

Founder of Islam.

Question 4

What does monotheistic mean?

Answer 4

Belief in one God.

Question 5

What are the Abrahamic Faiths?

Answer 5

Judaism, Christianity, Islam.

Question 6

What does ‘The People of the Book’ refer to?

Answer 6

What Muslims called Christians and Jews which means that they too only believe in one god.

Question 7

Who is Allah?

Answer 7

God of Islam.

Question 8

What are the Five Pillars of Islam?

Answer 8

Faith, prayer, alms giving, fasting, pilgrimage.

Question 9

What is Hajj?

Answer 9

A pilgrimage to Mecca, performed as a duty by Muslims.

Question 10

What is Mecca?

Answer 10

The holiest city of Islam; Muhammad’s birthplace.

Question 11

What is Ramadan?

Answer 11

Month of fasting.

Question 12

What is the Quran?

Answer 12

The holy book of Muslims.

Question 13

What is a mosque?

Answer 13

A Muslim place of worship.

Question 14

What is the Ka’aba?

Answer 14

The most sacred temple of Islam, located at Mecca.

Question 15

What language is associated with Islam?

Answer 15

Arabic.

Question 16

What is a Shiite?

Answer 16

A member of the branch of Islam that regards Ali as the legitimate successor to Mohammed and rejects the first three caliphs.

Question 17

What is a Sunni?

Answer 17

A branch of Islam whose members acknowledge the first four caliphs as the rightful successors of Muhammad.

Question 18

What was the Umayyad Empire?

Answer 18

The first great Muslim dynasty to rule the empire of the Caliphate.

Question 19

What was the Abbasid Empire?

Answer 19

The second Islamic Empire. Descendants of Muhammad’s family.

Question 20

What is a Caliph?

Answer 20

A supreme political and religious leader in a Muslim government.

Question 21

What is a Caliphate?

Answer 21

Area ruled by a caliph.

Question 22

What is the Jizya Tax?

Answer 22

Tax on non-Muslims.

Question 23

What are the Mediterranean Regions?

Answer 23

Coastlines around 40°. Dry summers and wet winters.

Question 24

What is the Sahara Desert?

Answer 24

The largest desert in the world, covering most of northern Africa.

Question 25

What is the Nile River?

Answer 25

The river in which early kingdoms in Egypt were centered around.

Question 26

What are Savannas?

Answer 26

Grassy plains.

Question 27

What is The Sahel?

Answer 27

A strip of dry grasslands on the southern border of the Sahara; also known as 'the shore of the desert.'

Question 28

What is the Kalahari Desert?

Answer 28

Desert in Southern Africa.

Question 29

What are Rainforests?

Answer 29

Moist, densely wooded areas.

Question 30

What is the Great Rift Valley?

Answer 30

The Great Rift Valley is an example of a rift where land between two continents are being pulled apart.

Question 31

What is Desertification?

Answer 31

Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting.

Question 32

What was West African Trade?

Answer 32

Gold and salt were the main trade items, other items were cloth, copper, silver and slaves to Africa and Europe.

Question 33

What is the Gold-Salt Trade Route?

Answer 33

Desert had plenty of salt where the Savanna had none. Important Gold Salt Trade begins between the Sahara and the Savanna.

Question 34

What is the Trans-Saharan Trade Route?

Answer 34

Gold-salt trade; linked North and West Africa; across Sahara Desert; spread Islam; land trade.

Question 35

What was Ghana?

Answer 35

First known kingdom in sub-Saharan West Africa between the sixth and thirteenth centuries C.E. Also the modern West African country once known as the Gold Coast.

Question 36

What was Mali?

Answer 36

Empire created by indigenous Muslims in western Sudan of West Africa from the thirteenth to fifteenth century. It was famous for its role in the trans-Saharan gold trade.

Question 37

Who was Mansa Musa?

Answer 37

Emperor of the kingdom of Mali in Africa. He made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca and established trade routes to the Middle East.

Question 38

What was Songhai?

Answer 38

A West African empire that conquered Mali and controlled trade from the 1400s to 1591.

Question 39

What is the Ivory Coast?

Answer 39

Yamoussoukro.

Question 40

What is Timbuktu?

Answer 40

Mali trading city that became a center of wealth and learning.

Question 41

Who was Sundiata?

Answer 41

The founder of the Mali empire. He crushed his enemies and won control of the gold trade routes.

Question 42

Who was Ibn Battuta?

Answer 42

Moroccan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan.