Aim: What does it mean to be Muslim?

Do Now: What do you know about Islam? What would you like to know?

I How did Islam begin?A) Muhammad, a merchant (trader/businessman) as born 570 CE in Saudi Arabia.B) Most people who lived in Arabia (Arabs) were polytheistic nomads. However, Muhammad would have come into contact with Jews and Christians.

ARABIA

How Did Islam Begin? Continued…C) At 40 years old, Angel Gabriel told Muhammad he was to be God’s final

Prophet (messenger). D) Muhammad was forced out of Mecca (for fear he would overthrow the

authorities), and went to Medina. This journey was called the Hijrah “migration”. He gained an army of followers.

E) Muhammad returned to Mecca with his army in 630 CE. He successfully took the city, which became a holy place for followers of his new religion, Islam. Muhammad destroyed the idols out of the Ka'ba, leaving only the sacred Black Stone.

F) Muhammad died in 632 CE. Muhammad lives only two years after the peaceful reconciliation with Mecca. He has no son. His only surviving children are daughters by Khadija, though since her death he has married several younger women, among whom his favourite is A'isha. G) According to the Hadith (a collection of Islamic oral tradition), he flew to Jerusalem on a winged horse, and rose to heaven.

II Beliefs of IslamA) There is only one God, Allah. Islam means “Submission to the will of

God”. Followers of Islam are called Muslims.B) All Muslims believe in the 5 Pillars of Islam :

THE 5 PILLARS OF ISLAM1. There is only one God, Allah. Muhammad

was his prophet.2. Prayer five times per day.3. Give to charity.4. Fast during the holy month of Ramadan

from dawn until dusk .5. Make a hajj (a pilgrimage to Mecca) at

least once if you are able to go.

Al Haram Mosque in Mecca During Hajj Season

Hajj: the 5th Pillar of Islam

Muslim pilgrims (religious travelers on their Hajj) must circle the Kaaba stone, which is enclosed in a cube-like building in Mecca.

Hajj: the 5th Pillar of Islam

As part of the Hajj ritual, Muslims must throw stones to cast out the Devil.

Beliefs of Islam Continued…C) Muslims believe that Muhammad is the final prophet (messenger) of Allah.D) Like Christians, Muslims believe in a final day of judgment, and heaven and hell.

Which prophets do

Muslims share with Jews?

Which prophets do

Muslims share with

Christians?

III Muslim Sacred TextsA) The holiest book of Islam is the Koran (Qur’an). B) The Hadith was written after the death of Muhammad. It is a collection of Islamic oral tradition. Both the Koran and Hadith were written in Arabic.C) The Jewish Bible and the New Testament are respected, but Muslims believe the Koran is the accurate and final word of God.

IV Muslim Sacred PlacesA) Mecca is the most sacred city in Islam.B) The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is a mosque that was built on the spot where Muhammad is believed to have risen to heaven.

The Dome of the Rock is built on the Temple Mount, where the former Jewish Temple stood. How do you think this has affected the

relationship between Jews and Muslims?

V Muslim PracticesA) The Muslim place of worship is the mosque. However, 5 times a day, Muslims will stop what they are doing, and unroll a prayer rug. During prayer, you must remove your shoes.B) Inside a mosque, men and women are separated. Like synagogues, there are no images of people.C)Prayer is led by an imam. Muezzins call Muslims to prayer.

A minaret; where the muezzin calls Muslims

to prayer.

IV Women in IslamA) Some believe that Muslim women are oppressed by their religion, forced to cover themselves completely, denied education and other basic rights. It is true that Muslim women, like women all over the world, have struggled against inequality and restrictive practices in education, work force participation, and family roles. Many of these oppressive practices, however, do not come from Islam itself, but are part of local cultural traditions. B) In fact, Islam gives women a number of rights, some of which were not enjoyed by Western women until the 19th century. For example, until 1882, the property of women in England was given to their husbands when they married, but Muslim women always retained their own assets. Muslim women could specify conditions in their marriage contracts, such as the right to divorce should their husband take another wife.

Women in Islam Continued…C) Furthermore, the Quran: 1. Forbids female infanticide (practiced in pre-Islamic Arabia and other parts of the world) 2. Instructs Muslims to educate daughters as well as sons 3. Insists that women have the right to refuse a prospective husband 4. Gives women rights if they are divorced by their husband 5. Gives women the right to own and inherit property (though in Sunni Islam they get only half of what men inherit.) 6. Polygyny (a husband having multiple wives) is permissible, but the Koran states “Treat them equally... and if you cannot, then one [wife] is better”.

Women in Islam Continued…D) Many Muslim women veil (cover their head). However, the practice of veiling is due more to culture than religion.

Women in Saudi Arabia recently won the right to vote. However, they are still not

allowed to drive. Restaurants are segregated into sections for single men,

and families.

Turkey is mostly a Muslim country, but the government is not a theocracy. Notice that not all of the women are

covering their hair.

Women in Islam Continued…

One of the simplest Muslim head coverings is the hijab.

Women in Iran wear the Chador. The hair must be covered but the face is

uncovered.

Women in Islam Continued…

Women in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States often wear an abaya (a black garment that covers the body) and a

niqab that covers the face, save for the eyes.

Women in Afghanistan were forced to wear the Burka

under the Taliban.

IV Muslim HolidaysA) Muslims must fast from dawn to dusk for the holy month of

Ramadan (the 4th Pillar of Islam).B) Eid is a 3 day celebration at the end of Ramadan. Presents

and charity are given.

An Eid celebration in Peshwar, Pakistan

V Age of Conquest and DivisionA) Muhammad died in 632 CE. Islam spread from the

Arabian peninsula to North Africa and Spain.

Age of Conquest and Division Continued…B) Muhammad, the founder and prophet of Islam died in 632 CE. When he died he had not named a successor, which led to a major division within Islam.C) The Sunni branch believes that the first four caliphs--Mohammed's successors--rightfully took his place as the leaders of Muslims.D) Shiites, in contrast, believe that only the heirs of the fourth caliph, Ali, are the legitimate successors of Mohammed. E) Sufis developed separately from Shiites and Sunnis. Through meditation they try to have a spiritual connection to Allah.*Read your textbook pages 137-138.

Whirling dervishes twirl, often for hours, as an act

of ecstatic devotion.

Age of Conquest and Division Continued…F) Islam offered the possibility of an end to the feuds amongst the tribal peoples of Arabia with the proposal of an umma, or community of the faithful. Islam also offered a unifiying ethical system; all believers were seen as equal under Allah.G) Payment of the zakat, a tax for charity, was obligatory.H) Sharia law (Islamic law) regulated all aspects of a Muslim’s life.I) Under the Umayyad Dynasty, converts to Islam had to pay a tax and were not considered full members of the umma. Naturally, the number of voluntary converts was low.J) The term “people of the book” applied to Jews and Christians, and occasionally even Zoroastrians; they were monotheistic and read the Old Testament (Jews) and the New Testament (Christians). They all had to pay a tax, but they were not forced to convert.

Age of Conquest and Division Continued…

VIII Islamic DynastiesUmayyad Empire (661-750 CE)

Conquered North Africa, Iberia (Spain) and Palestine. Capital at Damascus. Built the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount (former site of the Jewish Temple). Allowed freedom of religion to “people of the book” if they paid a tax.

Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258 CE)

Conquered the Umayyad Empire. Moved the capital to Baghdad.

Tamerlane’s Empire (1398 – 1405)

Tamerlane was a Mongol and a Muslim. He conquered India and created his capital at Samarkand. Death toll approx. 19 million. He died in 1405 before he could conquer the Ming Dynasty in China.

Islamic Dynasties Continued…Ottoman Empire (1299 – 1922)

Begun by Osman. In 1453 the Ottomans captured Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul. Rulers were called Sultans. The Ottomans forced many Christian boys to convert to Islam and serve in the army; they were called janissaries.

IX International Muslim TradeA) In the Middle Ages (from the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE through the beginning of the Renaissance in the 14th century), trade in Western Europe had fallen. However..B) During the same time, Muslim led camel caravans crossed the Sahara and the Silk Road. This allowed the Muslim world to maintain a strong economy, and scientific advancements through cultural diffusion.

X Achievements in the Arts and ManufacturingA) Manufacturing:1. Steel swords from Spain2. Leather from Iberia (modern day Spain)3. Cotton textiles from Egypt4. Carpets from Persia

Leather Manufacturing In Morocco

Arts and Manufacturing Continued…B) As Muslims are forbidden from creating images of people or animals, they developed a new style of art known as arabesque; geometric patterns that resemble floral shapes.C) For the same reason, Muslims also developed a form of calligraphy.

Blue Arabesque Tiles, Samarkand

Blue Mosque, Istanbul

The Alhambra Palace, Grenada, Spain

Arts Continued…D) One of the most famous works of Islamic literature is The Thousand

and One Nights, author unknown.

The Plot: King Shahryar’s wife is unfaithful to him. He has her killed. Then, loathing all women, he marries and kills a new wife each day afterward. Shahrazad, a daughter of the King’s vizier, insists on marrying him so to end his terror. She begins to tell the king a tale, leaving it incomplete at the end of the night…which she continues to do until she has given birth to his children, when he finally abandons his plan.

XI Math and ScienceA) Muslim scholars translated Greek, Roman, and Hindu texts, preserving them. *Recall that this was before the invention of the printing press of the internet!B) Muslims spread the Hindu number system (Arabic numerals) to EuropeC) Al-Khwārizmī invented algebra D) Built astronomical observatories

Persian Telescope, 13th century

Math and Science Continued…One of the first Directors of the House of Wisdom in Bagdad in the early 9th Century was the Persian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi. He oversaw the translation of the major Greek and Indian mathematical and astronomy works into Arabic, and produced original work which had a lasting influence on the advance of Muslim and later European mathematics. Perhaps his most important contribution to mathematics was his strong advocacy of the Hindu numerical system. The Hindu numerals 1 - 9 and 0 - which have since become known as Hindu-Arabic numerals - were soon adopted by the entire Islamic world, and later throughout Europe as well.

Math and Science Continued…Al-Khwarizmi’s other important contribution was algebra. Al-Khwarizmi wanted to go from the specific problems considered by the Indians and Chinese to a more general way of analyzing problems, and in doing so he created an abstract mathematical language which is used across the world today. In particular, Al-Khwarizmi developed a formula for systematically solving quadratic equations.

Math and Science Continued…In addition to his work in mathematics, Al-Khwarizmi made important contributions to astronomy, also largely based on methods from India, and he developed the first quadrant (an instrument used to determine time by observations of the Sun or stars), the second most widely used astronomical instrument during the Middle Ages after the astrolabe.

Math and Science Continued…E) While medieval European doctors used leeches to bleed their

patients for almost every illness, Muslim doctors were performing cataracts surgery and providing small pox vaccinations!

F) Ibn Sina wrote the Canon on Medicine; an encyclopedia of all medical knowledge.

Ibn Battuta Travels in Asia and Africa1325 – 1354 (A Muslim Scholar and Explorer from Tangier, Morocco)

On the morrow he rode with me and we reached Malaqa [Malaga], which is one of the largest and most beautiful towns of Andalusia [Iberia, modern Spain]… I saw grapes… and its ruby-coloured pomegranates have no equal in the world. As for figs and almonds, they are exported from Malaqa and its outlying districts to the lands both of the East and the West. At Malaqa there is manufactured excellent gilded pottery, which is exported thence to the most distant lands… the court of the mosque is of unequalled beauty, and contains exceptionally tall orange trees.

Thence I went to on the city of Gharnata [Granada], the metropolis of Andalusia and the bride of its cities… One of the most beautiful places there is "Ayn ad-dama" [the Fountain of Tears], which is a hill covered with gardens and orchards and has no parallel in any other country… I met at Gharnata a number of its distinguished scholars and the principal Shaykh, who is also the superior of the Sufi orders. I spent some days with him in his hermitage outside Gharnata. He showed me the greatest honour and went with me to visit the hospice, famed for its sanctity… There is also at Gharnita a company of Persian darwishes [dervishes], who have made their homes there because of its resemblance to their native lands. One is from Samarqand [Samarkand], another from Tabriz, a third from Quniya [Konia], one from Khurasan, two from India, and so on...

Focus Questions1. Fill in your Period 3 religion chart for Islam. *Make

sure to specify the differences between Sunnis and Shia.

Key Vocabulary