Traditional Origin

Muhammad
- born in 570 A.D.
- married to Khadijah, 15 years older than him, belonging to the Quraysh
tribe
- became a camel driver as it was the family business, and learned about
Judaism and Christianity in the process

Mecca - place where the Ka'aba stone is located. The Ka 'aba stone is believed to
have been given by the Archangel Gabriel to Abraham (Ibrahim)

622 A.D. - hegira / hijrah - tradition of Muhammad's flight to Medina with

hundreds of Arab slaves and followers to avoid persecution of the
Quraysh

630 A.D. - Muhammad captured Mecca, rushed to the Ka'aba sanctuary and
smashed the 360 idols and exclaimed: "Truth hath come, falsehood hath
vanished!"
- Prophet Muhammad founded Islam as a distinct, unified, and
independent religion with him as temporal and spiritual head.

Jerusalem - once revered as the holy place before Mecca was instituted after the
persecution of the Jews
- believed to be the place where Muhammad ascended to heaven

I. Four Medinian Caliphs (632-661 A.D.)

Caliph - temporal and spiritual head of the Islamic civilization, supposed to
be descendants of Muhammad

1. Abu Bekr / Abu Bakr (632-634)

2. Omar / Umar (634-644)

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•

I. Basic Doctrines
• La ilaha illa-l-Lah - There is no god but Allah (God).
• Muhammad is the rasul (messenger) and the nabi (prophet) of God.
• Qur'an / Koran is the Word of God.
• Hierarchy of Angels headed by Gabriel
• Nature of sin in its moral and ceremonial aspects
• Immortality of the Soul, everlasting life
• End of the world and the resurrection of the body

II. Five Pillars of Islam - five religious duties ofa Muslim:

1. Profession of faith expressed in the double formula: "No god whatever but
Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah" or "There is no god but
Allah, and Mohammed is His prophet."
2. Prayer (oriented towards Mecca) five times a day in its formal type. Friday
noon prayer is the only congregational worship.
3. Almsgiving - regular tax on personal property and other forms of income
._ 4. Fasting - abstinence from food, drink, smoke, and sexual .intercourse from
•• dawn until sunset
• ~Holy war or Jihad between Islam dar al-Islam, "the abode of peace" and dar
al-harb, the abode of war .
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*Allah - God
*Isa - Jesus who is recognized as benevolent prophet, born of the Virgin Mary,
and will come again as "Mahdi" or saviour of humankind

"Ramadan - month on which the Qur' an was revealed

*Hajj - title of a Muslim who has completed the pilgrimage rituals in Mecca
- prevented from cutting nails, hair, slaying animals, relations with women,
and uprooting plants

*jihad - heart, mouth, and sword

shahid - martyr
lath - conquest, "opening the path for Islam"
dhimmi - "people of the book or Scriptuaries," Christians and Jews

Sufism - sect that believed that salvation could be attained by meditation alone
- originated from Baghdad, and popularized in India
 and Transoxiana
3. Othman / Uthman (644-656)
4. Ali (656-660)

- one deputy governor for Sindh and Punjab

661 A.D. - Assassination of Ali leading to division:
3. Hejaz, covering almost all of Arabia

>Shi'ites I Shi'a - Muslims who believed that the right to the caliphate is
deserved only by the descendants of Muhammad's
cousin-in-law, Ali; deposed Othman, the third caliph
believes that the previous caliphs were usurpers
follows in the strictest tenets of the Quran, and tradition
coming from Ali and his descendants alone
believed that pilgrimage to Mecca can be fulfilled by a
representative, or by visiting tombs of holy men of
Islam
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4. 4. Egypt , ' , , ' , ,

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, >Sunnites I Sunni the other division believing in the legality of the three , , ,
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considered the orthodox division
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Sunna body of tradition surrounding concerning Muhammad "!;. ,> • ,

5. 5. North Africa, with capital at Kairwan

.: II. Ummayad I Ommeyad Caliphate (661 - 750

A.D.)
A. Political Administration

a. Executive / Administrative

CentralGovemment - centered at Damascus .: \'

-' based on the provincial system of the Byzantine and Persian ";: ' "
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empires
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Viceroyalties:
1. Syria and Palestine
2. Iraq, Persia, and Eastern Arabia, with capital at Kufa
Iraq - one deputy go~ernor with capital at Mary, covering East Persia

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Amir of Spain - ruled independently, but nominally under the Governor
General of North Africa

b. Armed Forces
- composed originally of Bedouin (an Arabian tribe) troops
- Meccans and Medinese composed the leadership
- later composed ofNeo-Moslems and Christians

B. Social Conditions

Four major classes: Arab Muslims, natives, neo-Muslims, and slaves

Christians and Jews

- given protected rights as "people of the book"
- occupied tanning, shoemaking, dyeing and money changing,
banking, and medical practice

Moors - Islamized Berbers who ruled North Africa and Spain

C. Economic Conditions

Major Production Centers

• Iraq - wheat, barley.and rice

• Persia - mutton, sugar, dates, pomegranates, rose water,
raisins, honey, and slaves
• Syria - weaving establishments
• Egypt -linen
• Eastern Persia - cotton from India
• Byzantium and Persia - silk

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 • Armenia and Persia -rugs
• Syria and Persia - steel for weapons
• Baghdad - center of trade

Trading of Goods - made through camels and mules; boats for river-crossing

711 A.D. - Muslims occupied Spain

732 A.D. - Expansion halted at the Battle of Tours by Charles Martel

III. Abbasid Caliphate (750 - 1258 A.D.)

A. Political Administration

Executive / Administrative

Central Government - situated at Baghdad

Vizir - prime ministers of the caliphs

- first vizir was son of a Buddhist priest (barmak)
- became hereditary by the Barmakids until the tenth century

Caliphs - descended from the Abbas family

763 A.D. - Court moves to Baghdad

Empire - divided into 24 provinces

B. Cultural Achievements

Centers: Baghdad and Spain

Literature:
1. A Thousand and One Arabian Nights
2. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
3. Aladdin

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 4. Sinbad the Sailor
Mathematics and Science: Sultan
Saladin -
1. Al-Jabr / Algebra,
most
2. alkali, powerful
3. alcohol Turkish
4. astronomic observatories ruler

Medicine:
1. Canon of Medicine by Avicenna (Ibn Sina 980 - 1037)
IV. 2. Philosophical works of Averroes (Ibn Rushd 1126- 1198)
3. Scientific works of Malm on ides (1135- 1204)
4. eye surgeries and operations

Islamic Empires
Architecture:
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1. minaret ,,
Mamluks in Egypt
2. horseshoe arches - formerly slaves turned amirs, later a
permanent dictatorship in Egypt \.
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- almost successfully repelled Portuguese domination of ;I

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Indian Ocean
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- subjugated bitterly by the Ottomans in 1517

Safavid Empire in Persia

Mogul ','}' J,

Dynasty 1220 A.D. - Genghis Khan invades the Muslim empire I

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in India 1258 A.D. - Baghdad falls to the Mongols, Last Caliph executed
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Minor Caliphates Co-existent · with The ,

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Abbasids V. The Ottoman ;

Empire
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1095 - Series of Crusades waged against the \: .. I': Turks to: . I;:,1
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1. Capture (and recapture) Jerusalem and the Holy Land ."

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2. Secure the cooperation of the Byzantines in reuniting the Eastern

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Orthodox Church with the Western [Roman] Catholic Church I.,

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3. Prevent further Turkish incursion into Europe , ,' ,'

4. Secure the vital eastern trading routes captured by the Turks

1453 - Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire collapsed to the
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forces
1492 - Fall of Granada to the combined forces of King Ferdinand of Aragon, and
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 Queen Isabella of Castile ends Muslim hold in Spain
1529 - Siege of Vienna fails, but Ottomans gained control of parts of Austria,
Hungary, Poland, and Russia
1553 - Last Ottoman naval attempt to rout Portuguese in the Indian Ocean
1571- Don John Of Austria sinks the Ottoman Fleet at Lepanto