Week Nine: Due October 31st

DUE OCTOBER 31:  READ Chapter 9 (The Worlds of Islam)

Chapter Nine: The Worlds of Islam: Afro Eurasian Connection

The Birth of a New Religion

The Homeland of Islam 

• Fiercely independent clans and tribes, which often engaged in bitter blood feuds with one another
• Qurayash 
• It might have seemed that Arabs w ere moving towards Judaism religiously or that Christianity, the most rapidly growing religion in Western Asia, would encompass Arabia as well 

The Messenger and the Message 

• Muhammad 
• Had a powerful, religious experience that left him convinced that he was allahs messenger to the arabs 
• Quran 

The Transformation of Arabia

• Umma - kind of super tribe 
• In medina, Muhammad not only began to create a new society but also declared his movements independence from its earlier affiliation with Judaism 
• Muhammad was not only a religious figure but also, unlike Jesus or Buddha, a political and military leader able to implement his vision of an ideal Islamic society

The Making of an Arab Empire 

• Bound by the ties of a common faith but divided by differences of culture, class, politics, gender, and religious understanding 

War, Conquest, and Tolerance 

• Arab armies engaged the Byzantine and Persian Sassanid Empires, the great powers region
• Sassanid empire had been destroyed by the arabs and the Byzantine lost southern half of territory 
• The Arab rulers of an expanding empire sought to limit the disruptive impact of conquest. The prevent indiscriminate destruction and exploitation of conquered peoples, occupying Arab armies were restricted to garrison towns, segregated from the native people 

Conversion 

• Islam was, from the beginning, associated with the sponsorship of a powerful state
• Conversion was not an automatic or easy process. Vigorous resistance delayed conversion for centuries among the berbs of North America 
• "The Persians ruled for a thousand years and did not need us arabs even for a day. We have been ruling them for one or two centuries and cannot do without them for an hour"

Divisions and Controversies 

• In the beginning this divide was simply a political conflict without serious theological or religious meaning. Overtime it acquired deeper significance
• Sunni Muslims - religious authority in general emerged from the larger community, particularly from religious scholars known as Ulama 
• Shia Muslims -  invested their leaders with a religious authority that the caliphs lacked ; infallibly interpret divine revelation and law 
• Dynastic rivalries and succession disputes common to other empires
• Despite differences, the legalistic emphasis of the ulama and Sufi spirituality never became irreconcilable versions of Islam

Women and Men in Early Islam 

• Quran specific - men and women equal 
• Social view- men have authority over the women 
• Men were strongly encouraged to marry orphans, widows, and slaves 
• Men were limited to four wives and required to treat them all equally
• Men were permitted to have sexual relations with slaves, but any children are born free
• Signs of Tightening patriarchy - honor killing of women by their relatives for violating sexual taboos 
• Negative Views of Women

Islam and Cultural Encounter: A Four-Way Comparison 

The Case of India

• Muslims usually lived quite separately, remaining a distinctive minority within an ancient Indian civilization, which they now largely governed by which they proved to completely transform 

The Case of Anatolia

• Modern Turkey
• By 1500 the population was 90 percent Muslim and largely Turkie-speaking, and Anatolia was the heartland of the powerful Turkish Ottoman Empire that had overrun Christian Byzantium
• The turkish rulers of Anatolia built a new society that welcomed converts and granted them material rewards and opportunity for high office

The Case of West Africa 

• Islamic accompanied Muslim traders across the Sahara rather than being brought by invading Arab or Turkic armies
• For African merchant communities, Islam provided an important link to Muslim trading partners, much as Buddhism had done in Southeast Asia 
• S number of West African cities had become major centers of Islamic religious and intellectual life, attracting scholars from throughout the Muslim World
• Islam remained the culture of urban elites and little into the rural areas of West Africa

The Case of Spain

• The chief site of Islamic encounter with Christian Europe occurred in Spain
• Spains agricultural economy was the most prosperous in Europe during this time and its capital was among the largest and most splendid cities in the world
• Many of the remaining Christians learned Arabic, veiled their women, stopped eating pork, appreciated Arabic music and poetry, and sometimes married Muslims
• So called golden age of Muslim Spain was both limited and brief
• Intolerance intensified as the Christian reconquest of Spain gained ground 
• After the conquest, many Muslims were forced to emigrate, replaced by Christian settlers 
• While those who remained under Christian rule were legally guaranteed freedom of worship, they were forbidden to make converts, to give call to prayer, or to go on pilgrimage 
• Thus Spain, unlike most other regions incorporated into the Islamic World, experienced a religious reversal as Christian rule was reestablished and Islam painfully eradicated from the Iberian Peninsula 

Networks of Faith

• At the core of that vast civilization was a common commitment to Islam. No group was more important in the transmission of those beliefs and practices than the ulama
• The ulama were an international elite and the system of education they created served to bind together an immerse and diverse civilization 
• Common texts were shared widely across the world of Islam
• Grand pilgrimage to Mecca
• The claims of local identities based on family, clan, tribe, ethnicity, or state never disappeared, but now overarching them all was the inclusive unity of the Muslim community

Key Achievements in Islamic Science and Scholarship

• al-Khwarazim: Mathematician; spread use of Arabic numerals in Islamic world; wrote first book on algebra
• al-Razi: Discovered sulfuric acid; wrote a vast encyclopedia of medicine drawing on Greek, Syrian, Indian, and Persian work and his own clinical observation 
• al-Biruni: Mathematician, astronomer, cartographer; calculated the radius of the earth with great accuracy; worked out numerous mathematical innovations; developed a technique for displaying a hemisphere on a plane
• Ibn Sina: Prolific writer in almost all fields of science and philosophy; especially known for Canon of Medicine, a fourteen-volume work that set standards for medical practice in Islamic and Christian worlds for centuries 
• Omar Khayyam: Mathematician; critic of Euclid's geometry; measured the solar year with great accuracy Sufi poet; author of The Rubaiyat
• Ibn Rushd: Translated and commented widely on Aristotle; rationalist philosopher; made major contributions in law, mathematics, and medicine
• Nasir al-Din Tusi: Founder of the famous Maragha observatory in Persia; mapped the motion of stars and planets
• Ibn Khaldun: Greatest Arab historian; identified trends and structures in world history over long periods of time