WHI.1

.......................................................................................................................................... **Standard WHI.2>** media type="custom" key="29532279" align="left" =On a map of the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia, identify where Islam began and trace the course of its expansion to 1500 AD.=


 * World Muslim Population More Widespread Than You Might Think. Pew Research Center (January 31, 2017)**

World Religions and Muslim Population 2012 - Timeline + interactive map of birth and expansion of world religions. Simplistic but could be a good starting point when discussion the origin and spread of world religions.

** Topics on this page **

 * Origins of Islam **
 * The Five Pillars of Islam **
 * After Muhammad: Muslim Expansion **
 * Baghdad and the Abbasid Empire **
 * House of Wisdom **
 * ** Link to World History I.5 **
 * Islamic Expansion **
 * Islamic Culture **

**Origins of Islam: The Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad**
Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet: A Timeline of the life of Muhammad from PBS As Chris Harman recounts in //A People's History of the World// (Verso, 2008, pp. 123-131), Islam began in Mecca, a trading town on the Arabian Peninsula which had been settled by nomadic clans. By the 7th century, nomadic values of loyalty to self and clan came into sharp conflict with the needs and lifestyles of living in one place as peasants and townspeople. The result was a time of chaos and social discontent.

For a more extensive introduction to Islam, see AP World History Key Concept 3.1.

//A BBC documentary about the life and times of the founder of the Islamic faith.// HNN News article on the divergence of Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
 * //BBC Documentary: The Prophet Muhammad: Part 1 and Part 2.//
 * //Islam: Empire of Faith//
 * //A PBS documentary about the origins and spread of Islam, including significant information about Muhammad's life and teachings.//
 * //A [|link] to a video that shows the spread of Islam.//

// "The rise of Islam is intrinsically linked with the Prophet Muhammad, believed by Muslims to be the last in a long line of prophets that includes Moses and Jesus. Because Muhammad was the chosen recipient and messenger of the word of God through the divine revelations, Muslims from all walks of life strive to follow his example. After the holy Qur'an, the sayings of the Prophet ( hadith ) and descriptions of his way of life ( //sunna //) are the most important Muslim texts." (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
 * For further information, see The Prophet Muhammad and the Origins of Islam.

Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures for more information on contemporary/historic Islamic cultures and the roles of women.
 * Crash Course video on the rise of the Islamic world.
 * Video of Muslim pilgrims from around the world at Mecca for Hajj.

The Quran online for perusal! (Several different translations on one site).

__**The Five Pillars of Islam**__

 * 1. The Profession of Faith** //(affirms Islam's monotheism)//
 * 2. Praye**r //(5 times per day, facing Mecca)//
 * 3. Almsgiving Zakat** //(one's bound duty to maintain social welfare)//
 * 4. Fast of Ramadan** //(one month long, during ninth month of Islamic calendar)//
 * 5. Pilgrimage to Mecca: the Haj**j //(every able Muslim is expected to make this trip in their lifetime)//

Short clip about the Five Pillars of Islam: 5 Pillars of Islam explained

5 Pillars of Islam: Hajj Documentary on the Hajj, the 5th Pillar of Islam. The Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca, which all Muslims are obligated to make during their lifetimes.

After Muhammad: Muslim Expansion to 732


After Muhammad's death, his father-in-law Abu Bakr was named his successor as the ruler of the Islamic Empire. Abu Bakr's rule would be short-lived (he died in 634), but it would be the start of a century of remarkable Islamic expansion.
 * In the mid-to-late 600s, the Muslims, under several different but united caliphates (most powerfully the Umayyad Caliphate), conquered much of what is today considered the Islamic world, including the MIddle East north of Arabia (modern-day Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, and parts of Turkey, among others) and most of North Africa.
 * This included several dramatic victories over the Christian Byzantine Empire, especially in Turkey and Egypt. In the early 700s, Islam spread still further into Europe (the Iberian Peninsula, conquered by a group of Muslims called Moors) and to the borders of modern-day India. At their greatest extent in the early 700s the Caliphates formed one of the largest empires in world history, as seen by the map above.
 * By the 8th century (720) the Umayyad Empire had collapsed and by 747 an opposition movement rose with the Abbasid Caliphate, who held a strong emphasis on centralized government, great economic prosperity, and a remarkable civilization.

The very rapid expansion of Islam into Europe was greatly resented by the native European Christian majority.
 * Europeans saw it as threatening their own faith and their way of life, and feared that it would conquer all of Europe just as it had already taken parts of the also-Christian Byzantine Empire.
 * The expansion of Islam into Europe was defeated decisively in 732 by a Christian Frankish army led by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours.
 * Some historians, like the famous 18th century English author Edward Gibbon (writer of // The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire // ), have singled this out as a transformative event in world history, preventing the conversion of all of Europe to Islam. Others see it as less important on the world stage, and just a solidification of Frankish power at home in Europe.

[|Link]to an overview of the rise and spread of Islam as well as interactive quiz questions including multiple choice, matching, and short answer response.

One of the most common misinterpretations about Islam involves the term "Jihad." Since the Iranian Revolution in the 1970s, Jihad has been explained as a declaration of war against Western ideologies; however, the Quran defines Jihad as a spiritual battle to strive to follow God's will. The greater Jihad refers to one's struggle to spread God's rule and law in the community while the lesser Jihad refers to one's struggle with their innermost demons.

Jihad and Hadiths explained

People of the Book: Religious tolerance in Ancient Islam

Timeline of Islam, a PBS teacher guide.

The Art of the Umayyad Period A virtual art gallery from the Umayyad Caliphate period from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The Battle of Tours excerpt from a History Channel documentary detailing the Battle of Tours

This [|interactive map], represents the rise of the Islamic Empire from 624 AD to 733 AD

Baghdad and the Abbasid Empire (749-1258)
Baghdad was one of the world's great cities and a hub of civilization during the Abbasid Empire. As Joan Brodsky Schur noted in "The Baghdad That Was: Using Primary Sources to Teach World History" (//Social Education//, January/February 2009, pp. 15-22), the city was founded in 762 by Caliph al-Mansur. Four Gates marked its curricular walls:
 * Basra Gate leading to the Persian Gulf[[image:http://blogs.umass.edu/p139ell/files/2012/10/alhazen-portrait.jpg width="189" height="250" align="right" caption="Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham)"]]
 * Damascus Gate leading to Syria and the Mediterranean Sea
 * Khurasan Gate leading to Persia, Central Asia and the Silk Roads
 * Kufah Gate leading to Medina and Mecca

For more about the city of Baghdad, see materials in the Internet Medieval Sourcebook produced by Paul Halsall at Fordham University.

The Abbasid Era is often considered the "Islamic Golden Age". It saw a consolidation and normalizing of Muslim power in the Middle East. In the early centuries of Abbasid rule, unparalleled splendor was experienced, because their success was based on trade not conquest. This empire gave heavy support to legal development as well as culture and the arts. However their success deteriorated rapidly from 861 to 945, ending the period of Universal Caliphates as a Shii dynasty from Persia entered Bagdahd and seized power. In the great cities like Baghdad and Mecca there were considerable advances in scientific fields, including medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and biology, and a flourishing of philosophy and the arts. Islamic scholars referenced and contributed to the great philosophical and academic tradition of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Alhazen (c. 965-1040), a Muslim philosopher and scientist educated in Baghdad, is often considered the first theoretical physicist. He made contributions to various fields as well as physics, including mathematics and astronomy. The influence of Alhazen and other great Muslim thinkers of this time is still felt today.

Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham) in the Britannica Encyclopedia. He was one of the greatest thikers of the "Islamic Golden Age". His most well-known work, Optics, was an influential early demonstration of the scientific method

Neil Degrasse Tyson: Beyond Belief 2006 speaks on the rise (and later fall) of science in the "Islamic Golden Age", explicit mention starts 5:04.

The end of this era also saw the expansion of Muslim power to India with the formation of the Delhi Sultanate, a Muslim ruling government that took the place of past-dominant Hindu rulers. India would remain under formally Muslim control (although it still had a majority Hindu population) until the rule of the British in the 18th century.

[[image:Rotating_globe-small.gif]]House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikmah)
At the center of Islamic culture in Baghdad was the House of Wisdom where Islamic scholars along with scholars from all over the world produced remarkable advances in mathematics, medicine and the arts. For more, see the picture book, __The House of Wisdom__ by Florence Parry Heide and Judith Heide Gilliland, DK Publishing, 1999.

See also The Art of Abbasid Period (750-1258) from the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.

Islamic Expansion

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**Websites for further exploration:**
@http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/hajj/hajjintro.htm @http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/isla/hd_isla.htm This is a [|link] to an interactive map with articles about "lost histories" from different parts of the Islamic world from different time periods. Hover over a region on the map and a link to an article from that region will appear along with a brief summary of the article and the time period that the article is about.

**Bibliography:**
Arberry, A.J. Translated (1996). Man and the Sacred Rituals, Oracles, Prescriptions, Devotion. Retrieved February 15, 2007, from Man and the Sacred Rituals, Oracles, Prescriptions, Devotion Web site: @http://alexm.here.ru/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/122.html

Beck, Black, Naylor & Shabaka, Roger, L., P., & Dahia Ibo (1999). //World History.// Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell Inc.

Espisito, John L. (2016). //Islam: The Straight Path.// Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, (1999). The Religion of Islam. Retrieved February 15, 2007, from The Religion of Islam Web site: @http://www.iad.org/.

Transl. Arberry, A.J. (1996). Man and the Sacred Rituals, Oracles, Prescriptions, Devotion. Retrieved February 15, 2007, from Man and the Sacred Rituals, Oracles, Prescriptions, Devotion Web site: @http://alexm.here.ru/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/122.html.

Spielvogel, Jackson J (2005). //Glencoe World History.// Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. USC Muslim Students Association Islamic Server, Syed Abu-Ala' Maududi's Chapter Introductions to the Qur'an. Retrieved February 15, 2007, from AL-FATIHAH Web site: http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/quran/maududi/mau1.html. 