Islamic Empire Flow Chart
Bedouin Problems In Arabia Part 1
Most people living in the Arabian Peninsula around the year 600 CE were nomads called Bedouin who herded animals for a living. Since the Arabian Peninsula is at the intersection of trade routes connecting Europe, Africa and Asia, merchants were also common. Since the Red Sea was infamously stormy, many merchants preferred to unload their trade goods from ships and carry them by camel along the southern coast of the peninsula. This drew some of the Bedouin into towns where they settled and began to trade; one of the most important trade towns was Mecca. Mecca took advantage of the trade to make money, but trade in Arabia faced serious problems from some widespread problems that plagued Bedouin society.
Bedouin Problems In Arabia Part 2
Males were affected by the endless round of blood-feuds that caused continuous
fighting between tribes. Any insult to a Bedouin demanded a response or the
individual would lose their honor; this almost always meant an act of physical violence
that ended in death. Of course, murder must be responded to, and so began a never-
ending cycle of murders that put most Bedouin men in a state of high-alert for potential
attackers; imagine how hard it would be to trade looking over your shoulder with a
spear in one hand. Females were affected by the Bedouin preference for male
children, as males usually bring wealth into the family when they’re married, but
females mean you are sending money out of the family when they’re married. In an
effort to raise the number of male children in a family, many female babies were taken
to the desert and buried alive. Most mothers as you would expect, were not very
happy with this practice.
Muhammad & Early Islam Part 1
Muhammad was a merchant who lived in Mecca and began to have visions about the age of 40 that told him to start worshipping only one God (Allah) instead of the many gods that the Bedouins already had. As he began to tell people outside of his family about his revelations, he began to attract followers of his beliefs. Muhammad and his followers started to irritate the rulers of Mecca because they preached about monotheism to the polytheistic Bedouins coming into Mecca to trade. Since this affected their income from trade, the rulers began to persecute (in two words- torture & murder them) Muhammad’s followers to get them to stop.
Muhammad & Early Islam Part 2
Eventually the rulers decided to go after Muhammad himself and he was
forced to flee Mecca (Muslims count this flight as the beginning of their
religious calendar). Muhammad and his followers settled in the town of
Medina where he built the first mosque for prayers and set up the first Islamic
society. After 10 years of alternating peace & war between Muhammad & the
people of Mecca, he returned & established the Ka’aba as the most sacred
site in Islam.
Struggles Over Leadership
Only two years after Muhammad returned to Mecca, he died. Controversy over who should lead the Muslim community began almost immediately over who should be the leader. Some people said Muhammad had said that the community should pick someone capable from the entire community, while others insisted that Muhammad had said leadership should go to his cousin and son- in-law Ali. The split in the community caused fighting that eventually led to Ali’s murder, as well as that of Ali’s son. Controversy over this caused one of the leaders to move the center of government from Mecca in Arabia to Damascus in Syria to avoid further blood feuds; this was the beginning of the Umayyad Caliphate.
UMAYYAD CALIPHATE PART 1
Islam expanded rapidly during the Umayyad Caliphate into the neighboring Byzantine and Sasanid Empires, where many people converted because they were unhappy with their treatment in those societies. Muslims adopted cultural practices from them like veiling women and keeping them in seclusion. While Muslims were in charge of these newly conquered areas, they did not try to convert everyone. People who worshipped monotheistic religions like Judaism, Christianity and sometimes even Zoroastrianism were allowed to keep their beliefs, but expected to pay a special tax called the jizya. This is how the Umayyads made most of their money, but Arab Muslim soldiers were kept separate from conquered people in fortresses like the new city of Cairo.
UMAYYAD CALIPHATE PART 2
Even though the Umayyads let many non-Muslims keep their religions, the non-Arabs who converted (called mawalis) were treated worse than ArabMuslims. As there is nothing written in the Qur’an about Muslims being different from one another, the new non-Arab (Egyptian, Persian, Turkish) Muslims revolted against the Umayyads and took control of the government. To avoid further fighting, they shifted the center of Muslim government from Damascus in Syria to Baghdad in what is now Iraq. This was the beginning of the Abbasid Caliphate.
ABBASID CALIPHATE
The Abbasid Caliphate was recognized as the “Golden Age” of Islam. The empire stretched from North Africa to the borders of India and included SW Asia and most of Central Asia. Learning in science and achievement in art were at their height during this period. Ideas and innovations were quickly exchanged within the Caliphate as Muslims were required to go on pilgrimage to Mecca and would bring their new ideas with them. For nearly 500 years the Abbasid Caliphs were the center of power in Islam, but in the mid-1200’s the Caliphate was destroyed when the Mongols invaded and murdered the last caliph.
FRAGMENTATION
Even though the Mongols destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate and ended the overall political unity of Islam, most Mongols eventually converted to Islam and some even spread it into Russia. Other Muslims had taken Islam south into India and even as far away as East and West Africa, and trade brought Islam into Southeast Asia. Today more Muslims live outside of Arab countries than in the original Islamic heartland. Powerful Islamic empires developed later like the Ottoman Empire, the Safavid Empire, and the Mughal Empire. Conflict with the European Christians came with the Muslim takeover of Christian sites like Jerusalem and the slow decline of the Christian Byzantine Empire at the hands of Muslim Turkish warriors.
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Transcript
Islamic Empire Flow Chart
Bedouin Problems In Arabia Part 1
Most people living in the Arabian Peninsula around the year 600 CE were nomads called Bedouin who herded animals for a living. Since the Arabian Peninsula is at the intersection of trade routes connecting Europe, Africa and Asia, merchants were also common. Since the Red Sea was infamously stormy, many merchants preferred to unload their trade goods from ships and carry them by camel along the southern coast of the peninsula. This drew some of the Bedouin into towns where they settled and began to trade; one of the most important trade towns was Mecca. Mecca took advantage of the trade to make money, but trade in Arabia faced serious problems from some widespread problems that plagued Bedouin society.
Bedouin Problems In Arabia Part 2
Males were affected by the endless round of blood-feuds that caused continuous fighting between tribes. Any insult to a Bedouin demanded a response or the individual would lose their honor; this almost always meant an act of physical violence that ended in death. Of course, murder must be responded to, and so began a never- ending cycle of murders that put most Bedouin men in a state of high-alert for potential attackers; imagine how hard it would be to trade looking over your shoulder with a spear in one hand. Females were affected by the Bedouin preference for male children, as males usually bring wealth into the family when they’re married, but females mean you are sending money out of the family when they’re married. In an effort to raise the number of male children in a family, many female babies were taken to the desert and buried alive. Most mothers as you would expect, were not very happy with this practice.
Muhammad & Early Islam Part 1
Muhammad was a merchant who lived in Mecca and began to have visions about the age of 40 that told him to start worshipping only one God (Allah) instead of the many gods that the Bedouins already had. As he began to tell people outside of his family about his revelations, he began to attract followers of his beliefs. Muhammad and his followers started to irritate the rulers of Mecca because they preached about monotheism to the polytheistic Bedouins coming into Mecca to trade. Since this affected their income from trade, the rulers began to persecute (in two words- torture & murder them) Muhammad’s followers to get them to stop.
Muhammad & Early Islam Part 2
Eventually the rulers decided to go after Muhammad himself and he was forced to flee Mecca (Muslims count this flight as the beginning of their religious calendar). Muhammad and his followers settled in the town of Medina where he built the first mosque for prayers and set up the first Islamic society. After 10 years of alternating peace & war between Muhammad & the people of Mecca, he returned & established the Ka’aba as the most sacred site in Islam.
Struggles Over Leadership
Only two years after Muhammad returned to Mecca, he died. Controversy over who should lead the Muslim community began almost immediately over who should be the leader. Some people said Muhammad had said that the community should pick someone capable from the entire community, while others insisted that Muhammad had said leadership should go to his cousin and son- in-law Ali. The split in the community caused fighting that eventually led to Ali’s murder, as well as that of Ali’s son. Controversy over this caused one of the leaders to move the center of government from Mecca in Arabia to Damascus in Syria to avoid further blood feuds; this was the beginning of the Umayyad Caliphate.
UMAYYAD CALIPHATE PART 1
Islam expanded rapidly during the Umayyad Caliphate into the neighboring Byzantine and Sasanid Empires, where many people converted because they were unhappy with their treatment in those societies. Muslims adopted cultural practices from them like veiling women and keeping them in seclusion. While Muslims were in charge of these newly conquered areas, they did not try to convert everyone. People who worshipped monotheistic religions like Judaism, Christianity and sometimes even Zoroastrianism were allowed to keep their beliefs, but expected to pay a special tax called the jizya. This is how the Umayyads made most of their money, but Arab Muslim soldiers were kept separate from conquered people in fortresses like the new city of Cairo.
UMAYYAD CALIPHATE PART 2
Even though the Umayyads let many non-Muslims keep their religions, the non-Arabs who converted (called mawalis) were treated worse than ArabMuslims. As there is nothing written in the Qur’an about Muslims being different from one another, the new non-Arab (Egyptian, Persian, Turkish) Muslims revolted against the Umayyads and took control of the government. To avoid further fighting, they shifted the center of Muslim government from Damascus in Syria to Baghdad in what is now Iraq. This was the beginning of the Abbasid Caliphate.
ABBASID CALIPHATE
The Abbasid Caliphate was recognized as the “Golden Age” of Islam. The empire stretched from North Africa to the borders of India and included SW Asia and most of Central Asia. Learning in science and achievement in art were at their height during this period. Ideas and innovations were quickly exchanged within the Caliphate as Muslims were required to go on pilgrimage to Mecca and would bring their new ideas with them. For nearly 500 years the Abbasid Caliphs were the center of power in Islam, but in the mid-1200’s the Caliphate was destroyed when the Mongols invaded and murdered the last caliph.
FRAGMENTATION
Even though the Mongols destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate and ended the overall political unity of Islam, most Mongols eventually converted to Islam and some even spread it into Russia. Other Muslims had taken Islam south into India and even as far away as East and West Africa, and trade brought Islam into Southeast Asia. Today more Muslims live outside of Arab countries than in the original Islamic heartland. Powerful Islamic empires developed later like the Ottoman Empire, the Safavid Empire, and the Mughal Empire. Conflict with the European Christians came with the Muslim takeover of Christian sites like Jerusalem and the slow decline of the Christian Byzantine Empire at the hands of Muslim Turkish warriors.