Spread of Islam_alevy

Arabia before Muhammad- Mecca

1 CE

• Very diverse
• Fresh water well (not so common)
• Location of the Kaaba
• Trade stop and religious center of importance

Arabia before Muhammad- Early Arabs

50

• Arabs were Semites
• Practiced animistic polytheism
• Valued camels and swords above all
• Didn't have a strong central government
• First inhabitants were nomadic tribes called Bedouins

Arabia before Muhammad- Quraysh

100

• Powerful local tribe of Arabs
• Encouraged Arabs to put their idols in the Kaaba and would protect them for a fee

Muhammad's call to prophethood- Early life

570

• Born into 'Hashim' of the powerful Quraysh tribe
• Born sometime between A.D 570 - 580
• His father, Abdallah, died before his birth, his mother, Amina, died when e was six
• He was raised by his uncle Abu Talib
• Married and had seven children
• Had a reputation as a seeker of solitude

Life of Muhammad- Marriage

595

• When he was 25 he was hired by a wealthy widow name Khadījah Soon after, they were wed
• They had 4 daughters (most famous Fātima)
• Happy marriage, no troubles
  

Life of Muhammad- Suspecting something is wrong

610

• When he was around 40, he started suspecting there was something wrong with the way the people of Mecca lived
• Many people Including members of his own family, had grown wealthy, but didn't share their wealth with the poor, leading the tribes to be constantly at war with one another

Life of Muhammad- Suspecting something is wrong

610

• He retreated to the mountains because he was so disturbed by the problems around him
• He found a cave and spent a few days fasting and praying
• His time on the mountain is what formed the basis of the Islamic holiday, Ramadan.

Life of Muhammad- His vision & teachings

612

• On his seventeenth day in the mountains, Muhammad had a miraculous vision. The angel Gabriel appeared to him and revealed to him the sacred word of Allah
• In 612, Muhammad decided at last to share his vision, so began to preach.
• Muslims came to see him as a prophet, of God, like Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.
• Muhammad told them that Allah was the only God they should worship
• He told them Jews and Christians should't be forced to convert because they were already “people of the book.”

Life of Muhammad- First Islamic Community

616

• Muhammad began to gain followers, many were drawn to the power and beauty of his speeches
• The poetic language of his messages also drew in listeners -
• Muhammad gave voice to the revelations that he believed Gabriel the angel had spoken to him
• When it was written down by others, it became known as the “Quran,” the Arabic word for recitation

Life of Muhammad- Facing discrimination

617

• Not everyone was happy with Muhammad’s message, including the Quraysh, who were content to worship their pagan gods, the merchants of Mecca also did not approve
• In 617 Muhammad and his converts, called “Muslims,” began facing discrimination in Mecca
• The leaders of the city declared that the Muslims should be boycotted, which meant that no one could sell or give Muhammad, or his followers, food
• The boycott lasted two years

Life of Muhammad- Leaving Mecca

622

• Muhammad set out to build a Muslim city and in doing so, he set many precedents for the faith
• His home in Medina was the first mosque, Its rooms large and spacious,
• The purpose of the building was to nurture the community
• His house has been the basis for all mosques built since
• In Medina, Muhammad allowed followers of all faiths to worship freely
• He changed the direction that Muslims face for their prayers instead of towards Jerusalem like the Christians and Jews, they faced Mecca

Constitution of Medina

622

• Before he died, Muhammad put together a document called the Constitution of Medina in about 622 to establish the first Islamic state
• In the constitution he assigned Jews and Christians certain rights and responsibilities.
• He gave them freedom of religion in return for the payment of a special tax

Life of Muhammad- Medina

625

• Muhammad set out to build a Muslim city
• his house's rooms were large and spacious yet the purpose of the building was to nurture the community as a mosque, which has been the bases of all mosques
• In Medina, people of all faiths were allowed to worship freely
• Islam evolved there by having a place to practice their religion freely, without discrimination or judgment
• This was huge because finally, Muslims were allowed to pray and become a stronger more empowered community together

Life of Muhammad- Muhammad’s death and his impact

632

• By the time of his death in 632, Muhammad had united almost all of the region under his leadership and his faith of Islam
• Even after his death, Islam continued to spread around the world
• Today, there are more than 1.5 billion Muslims in the world, they are all followers of a man whose visions of God inspired a religion and way of life that has spread to every corner of the globe, a man named Muhammad

Arabia after Muhammad’s death

632

• Abu Bakr was one of Muhammad’s original followers and after Muhammad died, a council of many of Muhammad’s closest advisers decided that Abu Bakr should become the caliph,
• After Abu Bakr, the next caliphs, Caliph Umar and then Caliph Uthman were the leaders of both the religious movement and the political power that Muhammad had established

Caliph Abu Bakr

634

• Abu Bakr reunited the Muslim community, since it was starting to fall apart
• Right after becoming Caliph, he set about forcing the tribes back to Islam
• The Riddah Wars were a series of conflicts between Muslims and Arabs after Muhammad died
• He led the Wars against Arab tribes to regain their support
• He started preparing a formal record of Muhammad’s revelations that would eventually be made into in the Quran
• After the wars he conquered other territories beyond the Arabian Peninsula

Caliph Umar

644

• Umar led the Arab armies in a remarkable expansion of the Arab kingdom. They conquered lands governed by the Byzantine empire, including Mesopotamia and Syria. They also began their move into Iran and Egypt
• Umar was a great organizer who is credited with establishing the basic policies and institutions, meaning the main laws, that supported the Islamic empire for centuries

Caliph Uthman

656

• The places that Uthman conquered and expanded the Islamic empire to during his reign include Iran, North Africa, and the Caucuses
• Uthman standardized the Qu'ran, which had existed in various versions. When the official edition was complete, he sent manuscripts to all the Muslim province and required that all other copies be burned

Caliph Ali

660

• Ali is a controversial figure in the eyes of many Muslims because by the time he came to rule, he had been passed over three times
• Ali’s rise to caliph set off the First Fitnah, or civil war. It occurred from 656 to 661 in which Muslim factions fought amongst themselves to gain political leadership and created long-lasting tension within the Islamic community
• The conflict occurred because Muslims disagreed about who should be the caliph/successor to Muhammad
• Ali was assassinated in 661

Umayyad dynasty

661

• Arab expansion kept going for the next 100 years and a new set of rulers called the Umayyad Dynasty, that lasted from 661–750
• The dynasty doubled the size of the empire by conquering and adding North Africa, Spain, and parts of Central Asia
• The problem with the the empire was that the larger they became, the harder it was to govern
• In 750, rebels overthrew the Umayyad Dynasty, and a new dynasty emerged called the Abbasid Dynasty

Abbasid Dynasty

750

• The Abbasids chose to look east, unlike the Umayyads who centered their attention more on building the empire out to the West
• Their capital was established as the city of Baghdad
• Over the centuries, internal rivalries weakened the them and eventually, the Abbasid Dynasty broke into separate nonreligious dynasties that collapsed when the Mongols laid siege to Baghdad

The Crusades

1095

• The Crusades which lasted from 1095–1291 have become known as a violent act by Christian armies against Muslims
• There were nine crusades made to the modern day Israel, where a lot of holy places associated with Christianity and Islam existed
• The Crusades were extensive, as Christians tried to reclaim lands that had been captured by the Islamic Empire
• A lot of the fighting took place in Jerusalem, the holy city, but also Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and Anatolia and Islamic cities in Spain