Islam

The Arabian peninsula had had little influence up until the rise of Islam. Primarily small bands of nomadic pastoralists and 

traders, this area had few resources to allow it to rise to dominance. However, with the rise of a new religion in the 7th century, Islam, under the leadership of the Prophet Muhammad the people of this land came to quickly grow in influence, spreading both their religion and political control over much of former Rome, Persia, and Northern India.  These chapters look at the rise of this religion, how the Islamic empire grew so quickly, and the impact it had on conquered lands and people. 

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Islamic Inventions

01 - ARABIAN GEOGRAPHY

The Arabian Peninsula, or Arabia, is mostly a hot and dry desert land. Scorching temperatures and a lack of water make life difficult. But in spite of the difficulty, people have lived in Arabia for thousands of years. During this time, Arabia's location, physical features, and climate have shaped life in the region.

The Arabian Peninsula is located in the southwest corner of Asia. As you can see on the map, it lies near the intersection of three continents - Africa, Asia, and Europe. Trade routes linking the three continents have passed through the region for thousands of years. Geographers call Arabia a "crossroads" location.

Merchants carried goods such as spices, silk, and gold along the trade routes. Some of these trade routes were on land. Others were water routes along the coast or across the seas. Trade brought many different groups of people through Arabia. These people introduced products and ideas from around the world to Arabia.

Arabia's location has also shaped its physical features. It lies in a region with hot and dry air.

 This climate has created a band deserts across Arabia and northern Africa.Huge, sandy deserts cover large parts of Arabia. Sand dunes, or hills of sand shaped by thewind, can rise to 800 feet high and stretch for hundreds of miles. The world's largest sanddesert, the Rub' al-Khali, covers much of southern Arabia. Rub' al-Khali means "EmptyQuarter," a name given to the desert because there is so little life there.Arabia's deserts have a very limited amount of water. There are no permanent lakes or rivers.Water exists mainly in oases scattered across the desert. An oasis is a wet, fertile area in a desert. These wet areas form where underground water bubbles to the surface. Oases have long been key stops along Arabia's overland trade routes.Although deserts cover much of the interior of Arabia, other landforms appear along the edges of the peninsula. Mountains border the southern and western coasts, and marshy land lies near the Persian Gult. Most of the settlement in Arabia has been in these milder coastal regions.

Arabia is one of the hottest, driest places in the world. With a blazing sun and clear skies, summer temperatures in the interior reach 100°F daily. This climate makes it hard for plants and animals to survive. Desert plants do live in areas that get little rain. Many of them have roots that stretch deep or spread out far to collect as much water as possible. Just as plants have adapted to life in Arabia, so too have people found ways to live there.

02 - LIFE IN ARABIA

To live in Arabia’s difficult desert environment, people developed two main ways of life. Some people lived a nomadic life, moving from place to place. Others lived a

sedentary, or settled, life in towns.

Nomads lived in tents and raised herds of sheep, goats, and camels. The animals provided milk, meat, and skins for the nomads’ tents. Nomads traveled with their herds across the desert, moving along regular routes as seasons changed, to get food and water for their animals. They depended on camels for transportation and milk.

Among the nomads, camels and tents belonged to individuals. Water and grazing land belonged to tribes. Membership in a tribe, a group of related people, was important to nomads. The tribe offered protection from desert dangers, such as violence that often took place when people competed for water and grazing land.

While nomads moved around the desert, other people settled in oases where they could farm. These settlements, particularly the ones in oases along trade routes, became towns. Most people in Arabia lived in towns. Merchants and craftspeople lived there and worked with people in the caravan trade. A is a group of traders that travel together. Towns became centers of trade for both nomads and townspeople. Many towns had a Souk, a market or bazaar. In the market, nomads traded animal products and desert herbs for goods such as cooking supplies and clothing. Merchants sold spices, gold, leather, and other goods brought by the caravans

Arabian towns were important stations on the trade routes linking India with Northeast Africa and the Mediterranean. Trade brought Arabs into contact with people and ideas from around the world.

03 - MUHAMMAD'S EARLY LIFE

Muhammad was born into an important family in Mecca around 570. Muhammad’s early life was not easy. His father, a merchant, died before he was born; and his mother died later, when he was six. With his parents gone, Muhammad was first raised by his grandfather and later by his uncle. When he was a child, he traveled with his uncle’s caravans, visiting places such as Syria and Jerusalem. Once he was grown, he managed a caravan business owned by a wealthy woman named Khadijah (ka-DEE-jah). Eventually, at age 25, Muhammad married Khadijah.

The caravan trade made Mecca a rich city. But most of the wealth belonged to just a few people. Poor people had hard lives. Traditionally, wealthy people in Mecca had helped the poor. But as Muhammad was growing up, many rich merchants began to ignore the poor and keep their wealth for themselves. Concerned about the changing values in Mecca, Muhammad often went by himself to the hills outside the city to pray and meditate. One day, when he was about 40 years old, Muhammad went to meditate in a cave. Then, according to Islamic teachings, something happened that changed his life forever. An angel appeared and spoke to Muhammad, telling him to “Recite! Recite!” Confused at first, Muhammad asked what he should recite. The angel answered: 

"Recite in the name of your Lord who created, created man from clots of blood! Recite! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, Who by the pen taught man what he did not know."

Muslims believe that God had spoken to Muhammad through the angel and had made him a prophet, a person who tells of messages from God. At first Muhammad was afraid and didn’t tell anyone except his wife about the voice in the cave. A few years later, in 613, Muhammad began to tell other people about the messages. The messages Muhammad received form the basis of the religion called Islam . The word Islam means “to submit to God.” A follower of Islam is called a . Muslims believe that Muhammad continued receiving messages from God for the rest of his life. These messages were collected in the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam.

04 - MUHAMMAD'S TEACHINGS

Not all of Muhammad’s early teachings were new. In fact, some were much like the teachings of Judaism and Christianity. But Muhammad’s teachings challenged and upset the people of Arabia. These teachings brought changes to many aspects of life in Arabia.

Muhammad taught that there was only one God, Allah, which means “the God” in Arabic. In that way, Islam is like Judaism and Christianity. It is a monotheistic religion, a religion based on a belief in one God. Although people of all three religions believe in one God, their beliefs about God are not all the same.

Jews, Christians, and Muslims also recognize many of the same prophets. Muhammad taught that prophets such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus had lived in earlier times. Unlike Christians, Muslims do not believe Jesus was the son of God, but they do believe many stories about his life. Muhammad told stories about these prophets similar to the stories in the Torah and the Christian Bible. Muhammad respected Jews and Christians as “people of the Book” because their holy books taught many of the same ideas that Muhammad taught.

Some of Muhammad’s teachings would have seemed familiar to Jews and Christians, but they were new to most Arabs. For example, most people in Arabia believed in many different gods, a belief system called polytheism. Before Muhammad told them to believe in one God, Arabs worshiped many gods and goddesses at shrines. A is a place at which people worship a saint or a god. A very important shrine, the Kaaba, was in Mecca. People traveled there every year on a pilgrimage , a journey to a sacred place.

Several of Muhammad’s teachings upset many Arabs. First, they didn’t like being told to stop worshiping their gods and goddesses. Second, Muhammad’s new religion seemed like a threat to people who made money from the yearly pilgrimages to the Kaaba. Mecca’s powerful merchant leaders thought they would lose business if people didn’t worship their gods at the Kaaba. Another of Muhammad’s teachings also worried Mecca’s wealthy merchants. Muhammad said that everyone who believed in Allah would become part of a community in which rich and poor would be equal. But the merchants wanted to be richer and more powerful than the poor people, not equal to them.

Muhammad also taught that people should give money to help the poor. However, many wealthy merchants didn’t want to help the poor. Instead, they wanted to keep all of their money. Because many of the people in Mecca didn’t want to hear what Muhammad had to say, they rejected his teachings.

05 - SPREAD OF ISLAM IN ARABIA

At first Muhammad did not have many followers. Mecca’s merchants refused to believe in a single God and rejected the idea of equality. They even made Muhammad leave Mecca for a while. Eventually, however, Muhammad’s teachings began to take root.

Slowly, more people began to listen to Muhammad’s ideas. But as Islam began to people, the rulers of Mecca became more and more worried. They began to threaten Muhammad and his small group of followers with violence. They even planned to kill Muhammad. As a result, Muhammad had to look for support outside of Mecca.

A group of people from a city north of Mecca invited Muhammad to live in their city. As the threats from Mecca’s leaders got worse, Muhammad accepted the invitation. In 622 he and many of his followers, including his daughter Fatimah, left Mecca and went to Medina (muh-DEE-nuh). Named after Muhammad, Medina means “the Prophet’s city” in Arabic, the language of the Arabs. Muhammad’s departure from Mecca became known in Muslim history as the hegira (hi-JY-ruh), or journey.

Muhammad’s arrival in Medina holds an important place in Islamic history. There he became both a spiritual and a political leader. His house became the first , or building for Muslim prayer. The year of the hegira, 622, became so important to the development of Islam that Muslims made it the first year in the Islamic calendar.

According to Islamic belief, in Medina Muhammad reported new revelations about rules for Muslim government, society and worship. For example, God told Muhammad that Muslims should face Mecca when they pray. Before, Muslims faced Jerusalem like Christians and Jews did. Muslims recognized the importance of Mecca as the home of the Kaaba. They believe the Kaaba is a house of worship that Abraham built and dedicated to the worship of one God

As the Muslim community in Medina grew stronger, other Arab tribes in the region began to accept Islam. However, conflict with the Meccans increased. In 630, after several years of fighting, the people of Mecca gave in. They welcomed Muhammad back to the city and accepted Islam as their religion. In Mecca Muhammad and his followers destroyed the statues of the gods and goddesses in the Kaaba. Soon most of the Arabian tribes accepted Muhammad as their spiritual leader and became Muslims.

Muhammad died in 632 at his home in Medina. Although he didn’t live long after Mecca became Muslim, the religion he taught would soon spread to lands far beyond Arabia.

06 - ISLAMIC BELIEFS

The central teaching in the Qur’an is that there is only one God—Allah—and that Muhammad is his prophet. The Qur’an says people must obey Allah’s commands. Muslims learned of these commands from Muhammad.

Islam teaches that the world had a definite beginning and will end one day. Muhammad said that on the final day God will judge all people. Those who have obeyed his orders will be granted life in paradise. According to the Qur’an, paradise is a beautiful garden full of fine food and drink. People who have not obeyed God, however, will suffer.

Like holy books of other religions, the Qur’an describes acts of worship, guidelines for moral behavior, and rules for social life. Muslims look to the Qur’an for guidance in their daily lives. For example, the Qur’an describes how to prepare for worship. Muslims must wash themselves before praying so they will be pure before Allah. The Qur’an also says what Muslims shouldn’t eat or drink. Muslims aren’t allowed to eat pork or drink alcohol.In addition to guidelines for individual behavior, the Qur’an describes relations among people. Many of these ideas changed Arabian society. For example, before Muhammad’s time many Arabs owned slaves. Although slavery didn’t disappear among Muslims, the Qur’an encourages Muslims to free slaves. Also, women in Arabia had few rights. The Qur’an describes rights of women, including rights to own property, earn money, and get an education. However, most Muslim women still have fewer rights than men.Another important subject in the Qur’an has to do with , which means “to make an effort, or to struggle.” Jihad refers to the inner struggle people go through in their effort to obey God and behave according to Islamic ways. Jihad can also mean the struggle to defend the Muslim community, or, historically, to convert people to Islam. The word has also been translated as “holy war.”

The Qur’an is not the only source of Islamic teachings. Muslims also study the hadith (huh-DEETH), the written record of Muhammad’s words and actions. This record is the basis for the Sunnah. The refers to the way Muhammad lived, which provides a model for the duties and the way of life expected of Muslims. The Sunnah guides Muslims’ behavior.

07 - THE FIVE PILLARS OF ISLAM

The first duties of a Muslim are known as the , which are five acts of worship required of all Muslims. The first pillar is a statement of faith. At least once in their lives, Muslims must state their faith by saying, “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet.” Muslims say this when they accept Islam. They also say it in their daily prayers.

The second pillar of Islam is daily prayer. Muslims must pray five times a day: before sunrise, at midday, in late afternoon, right after sunset, and before going to bed. At each of these times, a call goes out from a mosque, inviting Muslims to come pray. Muslims try to pray together at a mosque. They believe prayer is proof that someone has accepted Allah.

The third pillar of Islam is a yearly donation to charity. Muslims must pay part of their wealth to a religious official. This money is used to help the poor, build mosques, or pay debts. Helping and caring for others is important in Islam.

The fourth pillar is fasting—going without food and drink. Muslims fast daily during the holy month of Ramadan. The Qur’an says Allah began his revelations to Muhammad in the month of Ramadan. During Ramadan, most Muslims will not eat or drink anything between dawn and sunset. Muslims believe fasting is a way to show that God is more important than one’s own body. Fasting also reminds Muslims of people in the world who struggle to get enough food.

The fifth pillar of Islam is the hajj (HAJ), a pilgrimage to Mecca. All Muslims must travel to Mecca at least once in their lives if they can. The Kaaba, in Mecca, is Islam’s most sacred place.

08 - SPREAD OF ISLAM

After Muhammad’s death, many of the Muslim leaders chose, one of Muhammad’s first converts, to be the next leader of Islam. He was the first , a title that Muslims use for the highest leader of Islam. In Arabic, the word caliph means “successor.” As Muhammad’s successors, the caliphs had to follow the prophet’s example. This meant ruling according to the Qur’an. Unlike Muhammad, however, early caliphs were not religious leaders. Though not a religious leader, Abu Bakr was a political and military leader. Under his rule, the Muslims began a series of wars in which they conquered many lands outside of Arabia Abu Bakr directed a series of battles against Arab tribes who did not follow Muhammad’s teachings. By his death in 634, he had made Arabia a unified Muslim state.

With Arabia united, Muslim leaders turned their attention elsewhere. Their armies, strong after their battles in Arabia, won many stunning victories. They defeated the Persian and Byzantine empires, which were weak from years of fighting.

When the Muslims conquered lands, they made treaties with any non-Muslims there. These treaties listed rules that conquered people—often Jews and Christians—had to follow. For example, some non-Muslims could not build places of worship in Muslim cities or dress like Muslims. In return, the Muslims would not attack them. One such treaty was the Pact of Umar, named after the second caliph. It was written about 637 after Muslims conquered Syria.

Many early caliphs came from the Umayyad family. The Umayyads moved their capital from Medina to Damascus and continued to expand the empire. They took over lands in Central Asia and in northern India. The Umayyads also gained control of trade in the eastern Mediterranean and conquered part of North Africa.

In the late 600s, battles with the Berbers slowed the growth of Muslim rule in North Africa. The Berbers are the native people of North Africa. After years of fighting, many Berbers converted to Islam. Following their conversion, they joined the Arabs in their efforts to spread Islam. Next the Muslims tried to expand their empire into Europe. A combined Arab and Berber army invaded Spain in 711 and quickly conquered it. The army moved on into what is now France, but it was stopped by a Christian army near the city of Tours. Despite this defeat, Muslims called Moors continued to rule parts of Spain for the next 700 years.

In continuing the expansion, a new dynasty, the Abbasids (uh-BAS-idz), came to power in 750. The Abbasids reorganized the government to make it easier to rule such a large region.

Islam gradually spread through areas the Muslims conquered. At the same time trade helped spread Islam into other areas as well. Arabia’s crossroads location gave Muslim merchants easy access to South Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Along with their trade goods, Arab merchants took Islamic beliefs to new lands. For example, merchants introduced Islam into India. Although many Indian kingdoms remained Hindu, coastal trading cities soon had large Muslim communities. In Africa, societies often had both African and Muslim customs. For example, Arabic in fluenced local African languages. Also, many African leaders converted to Islam. Between 1200 and 1600, Muslim traders carried Islam as far east as what are now Malaysia and Indonesia. Even today, Islam is a major in fluence on life there.

In addition to helping spread Islam, trade brought new products to Muslim lands and made many people rich. First, new products and inventions created by other peoples made their way to the Muslim world. For example, Arabs learned from the Chinese how to make paper and use gunpowder. New crops such as cotton, rice, and oranges arrived from India, China, and Southeast Asia. Second, traders made money on trade between regions.

In addition to trade with Asia, African trade was important to Muslim merchants. Many merchants set up businesses next to African market towns. They wanted African products such as ivory, cloves, and slaves. In return they offered fine white pottery called porcelain from China, cloth goods from India, and iron from Southwest Asia and Europe. Arab traders even traveled south across the Sahara, the world’s largest desert, to get gold. In exchange, they brought the Africans salt, which was scarce south of the desert.

As Islam spread through trade, warfare, and treaties, Arabs came in contact with people who had different beliefs and lifestyles than they did. Muslims generally practiced religious , or acceptance, with regard to people they conquered. In other words, the Muslims did not ban all religions other than Islam in their lands. Jews and Christians in particular kept many of their rights, since they shared some beliefs with Muslims.

Although Jews and Christians were allowed to practice their own religions, they had to pay a special tax. They also had to follow the rules of the treaties governing conquered peoples. Many people conquered by the Arabs converted to Islam. Along with Islamic beliefs, these people often adopted other parts of Arabic culture. For example, many people started speaking Arabic. The Arabs also adopted some of the customs of the people they conquered. For example, they copied a Persian form of bureaucracy in their government.

As Islam spread, language and religion helped unify the many groups that became part of the Islamic world. Cultural blending changed Islam from a mostly Arab religion into a religion of many different cultures.

09 - MUSLIM CITIES

The growing cities of the Muslim world reflected this blending of cultures. Trade had brought people, products, and ideas together. It had also created wealth, which supported great cultural in cities such as Baghdad in what is now Iraq and Córdoba in Spain.

Baghdad

Baghdad became the capital of the Islamic Empire in 762. Located near both land and water routes, it was a major trading center. In addition to trade, farming contributed to a strong economy. Dates and grains grew well in the fertile soil. Trade and farming made Baghdad one of the world’s richest cities in the late 700s and early 800s. The center of Baghdad was known as the round city, because three round walls surrounded it. Within the walls was the caliph’s palace, which took up one-third of the city. Outside the walls were houses and souks for the city’s huge population.

13 - ISLAMIC LEARNING

Astronomy

- created tests for doctors to pass before they could treat people- made encyclopedias of drugs with descriptions of each drug's effects- wrote descriptions of diseases- started the first pharmacy school to teach people how to make medicinesThe first Muslim public hospital was built in Baghdad. In that hospital, a doctor named Ar-Razidiscovered how to diagnose and treat the deadly disease smallpox. Another doctor, Ibn-Sina,who was known in the West as Avicenna (av-uh-SEN-uh), wrote a medical encyclopedia. Thisencyclopedia, which was translated into Latin and used throughout Europe until the 1600s, isone of the most famous books in the history of medicine.14 - ISLAMIC CULTURE

Philosophy

Many Muslim doctors and scientists also studied the ancient Greek philosophy of reason and rational thought. Other Muslimsdeveloped a new philosophy. Worried about the growing interest in worldly things, they focused on spiritual issues. Many ofthem lived a simple life of devotion to God. The focus on spiritual issues led to a movement called Sufism. People who practiceSufism are called Sufis. teaches that people can find God’s love by having a personal relationship with God. They focuson loving God and call him their Beloved. Sufism had a strong impact on Islam.

Literature

Two forms of literature were popular in the Muslim world—poetry and short stories. Poetry was in fluenced by Sufism. Some Sufis 

wrote poems about their loyalty to God. Through their poetry, the mystical ideas of Sufism spread among other Muslims. One of the most famous Sufi poets was Omar Khayyam. In a book of poems known as The Rubáiyát, Khayyám wrote about faith, hope, and other emotions. Some of his poems express deep sadness or despair.One famous collection of short stories is The Thousand and One Nights. It includes stories about legendary heroes and charactersA European compiler later added short stories that were not part of the medieval Arabic collection. Among these were some of themost famous, such as Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin, and Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves. Many of these tales came from India, Egypt,and other lands that had become part of the Muslim world.

Architecture

Architecture was one of the most important Muslim art forms. Most people would say that the greatest architectural achievements of the Muslim empires were mosques. Like the great medieval cathedrals in Europe, mosques honored God and inspired religious followers. The first mosques were simple. They were built to look like the courtyard of Muhammad’s house in Medina where he had led the community in prayer. As the Muslim world grew richer, rulers became great patrons, or sponsors, of architecture. They used their wealth to pay for elaborately decorated mosques.

The main part of a mosque is a huge hall where people gather to pray. Many mosques have a dome and a minaret, or narrow tower from which Muslims are called to prayer. Some mosques, such as the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, have many domes and minarets. Great mosques were built in major cities such as Mecca, Cairo, Baghdad, and Córdoba. In addition to the mosques, Muslim architects built palaces, marketplaces, and libraries. These buildings have complicated domes and arches, colored bricks, and decorated tiles. Muslim architecture is known for these features.

Art

Although Muslim buildings are often elaborately decorated with art, most of this art does not show any animals or humans. Muslims think only Allah can create humans and animals or their images. As a result, most Muslim artists didn’t include people or animals in their works.

Because they couldn’t represent people or animals in paintings, Muslim artists turned , or decorative writing, into an art form. They used calligraphy to make sayings from the Qur’an into great works of art that they could use to decorate mosques and other buildings. They also painted decorative writing on tiles, wove it into carpets, and hammered it into finely decorated steel sword blades.

Muslim art and literature show the in fluence of Islamic beliefs and practices. They also reflect the regional traditions of the places Muslims conquered. This mix of Islam with cultures from Asia, Africa, and Europe gave literature and the arts a unique style and character.