The Worlds of Islam

600-1500

Tribal Feuds

• Prior to Islam:

* Arab world organized by tribal groups

*Bedouin groups

*bitter feuds clashing over access to trade centers and oases

--peninsula part of routes betx Mediterranean and Indian Ocean= economic growth

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Mecca

• Important pilgrimage site – *home of Kaaba= shrine with 100s of tribal

gods– Quraysh tribe dominate city

*become wealthy from taxing pilgrims

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Contact with Byzantine and Sassanid Empires

• Arabian Peninsula next to both these powerful empires

• Variety of people (Christian and Persian) lived on peninsula

• Contact with Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians spread idea of monotheism in the polytheistic world

Messenger Story

• Muhammad Ibn Abdullah (570-632)• ------see Ms K’s story board----• The revelations were actually a call to

return to a pure faith in Abraham--purge corruptions and errors

*Jews wrongly saw themselves as chosen people*Christians wrongly turned their prophet into a god*Arabs were wrongly polytheistic and idol

worshippers

Some other Terms/Faith items

• Umma= a new community of the faithful where the poor and vulnerable would be protected

• Jihad*greater Jihad= struggle within one’s self to overcome greed and sinful desires*lesser Jihad= struggle of the sword to protect the community from external threats

Transformation of Arabia

• Membership in the Umma was not based on family but upon faith

• Came into conflict with neighbors

• Most of peninsula unified under the Islamic state

• Sharia= law system = no distinction between religious and civil law

Making an Arab Empire

• Armies rapidly spread out of peninsula= conquered Spain= invaded France= reached Indus River= invaded Egypt= Persian Sassanid Empire fell= And much of Byzantine lands

• Battle of Talas (751)

*defeated the Chinese in central Asia

*Turkic people become a widespread Islamic culture

Economics

• Part of rich trade routes• Productive farmlands--increasing wealth of the new empire• Dhimmis= “people of the book”=

Jews/Christians/Zoroastrians = can keep own religion but required to pay a tax instead of military service= Jizya

• Tolerance allowed these faiths to continue

Conversion

• Many early converts were prisioners of wr or slaves or due to avoiding paying the tax

• Merchants found it helpful to form connections with the community

• Arabic language and culture adopted by converts in Africa/Mesopotamia

• East of Tigris River areas did not adopt Arabic (Turks, Persians, Indus Valley kept traditional languages)

• Persian culture, in fact, spread into the wider Muslim world (architecture, administration, art)

Women and Men

• During the revelations Muhammad created rules that protected women and gave them some control over their property/rt to divorce.

• Even though men were still allowed multiple wives (limit 4) all were to be cared for equally

• Devout women would receive Allah’s blessings just as men would

Restrictions

• After the prophets death Arab empires established increasing restrictions on elite women

• Veiling and sequestering were traditions in the pre-Islamic world

• Segregated in the mosque but not excluded (Some Jewish sects and Christian denominations also segregated women inside the worship space)