Africa & Islam

UNIT 5

http://quizlet.com/_fy4ubQuizlet:

CONCEPT QUESTIONS1. What are the historical origins and central beliefs of

Islam and Sikhism?

2. What caused the development of the Islamic empires and what effects did these developments have on civilization?

3. What were the political, economic, and social effects of the spread of Islamic culture?

4. What role did trade ply in the spread of Islam and the diffusion of ideas and technology?

5. What were the achievements of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals?

ISLAM

Arabian Peninsula:

crossroad of 3 continents

Bedouins

– desert tribes, nomads to oasis settlements

Crossroads to trade & ideas

Silk Road connection

Mecca – central trade city•Ka’aba – center of worship (360 idols)•Many practiced monotheism

•Allah as God•Muhammad was born here in 570 A.D.

THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD

Meditated & vision of angel Gabriel from Allah (God) @ 40

Muhammad believed he was last of the prophets

Believers: Muslim = one who has submitted

Islam = “submission to the will of Allah”

Muhammad flees to Medina, 622

Hijrah: his flight from Mecca to Medina

622, Beginning of the Muslim calendar

Drew many followers (converts)

630 his return to Mecca

Ka’ba becomes the “House of God”

Umma = Muslim religious community

632 Muhammad dies

BELIEFS & PRACTICES OF ISLAMMain belief: one God, Allah

Holy book: Qur’an (Koran)

Five Pillars:

1. Faith: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”

2. Prayer: 5 times a day, facing Mecca ; Mosque

3. Alms – special religious tax for poor

4. Fasting: in holy month of Ramadan

5. Pilgrimage: hajj –to Mecca

Governments are theocracy

Daily life and religion are same

Other beliefs:

May not eat pork

Friday afternoons – communal worship in a mosque

•Has no priests or central religious authority

Follow Sharia law – system of law made up of Sunna and Quran

Sunna – Muhammad’s example – model for living

Sharia – regulates moral conduct, family life, business practices, government. Applies the Qur’an to all legal situations

Sunni and Shi’a sects interpret differently

THE SPREAD OF ISLAM

After Muhammad’s death: ruled by Caliph = successor

“Rightly guided” Caliphs – 1st 4 caliphs had known Muhammad

Civil wars for control after last of 4 “Rightly Guided” caliphs died

Caused split in Muslims

Sunni – majority: supported Umayyad as caliph

Shi’ite (Shi’a)- minority: thought caliph should be blood kin to Muhammad

SPREAD OF ISLAMTrade, warfare and missionary activities of Sufis (Pursued a life of poverty and spirituality)

Asia

Abbasid caliphate – grew from a religious community in Southwest Asia to a political empire with interactions with Persian, Turkish and Indian cultures

Spread along the Silk Road

Europe

Umayyad caliphate – established control over Spain, preserved Greek and Roman heritage, invasion halted at the Battle of Tours in 732

Spread ideas and technology, revived trade and helped end the Middle Ages

Africa

Fatimid caliphate - Merchants in port cities mixed Arabic with African Bantu to create Swahili, spread with the gold-salt trade into sub-Sahara

MUSLIMS HUGE EMPIRE,

MUSLIM SOCIETYCreated urban centers – Damascus (oldest)

• Baghdad (Abbasid capital), Cordoba (Umayyad capital), Cairo (Fatimid capital),

4 social classes: upper – Muslims by birth 2nd – Islam by conversion 3rd – “protected people of the book” Jews & Christians, Zoroastrians 4th – slaves, all non-Muslims

Quran forbade forced conversionConquered who adopted Islam exempt from taxesPersecuted people often welcomed themIslam appealed to lower classes

MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP

House of Wisdom in Baghdad

Medical advances, Math & Science

• Astrolabe to navigate

• Translated scientific and medical documents into Arabid

• Used experiments in laboratory settings

– Al-Khwarizmi – created algebra, bringing together unknowns to match known quantities

– Ibn al-Haytham – study of optics used to create telescopes

ART & ARCHITECTURE

Islam forbade depiction of living beings

(only Allah can create life)

Artists used calligraphy for expression (beautiful handwriting)

Architecture: cultural blendGreat Mosque of Damascus

ARCHITECTURE

ROLE OF WOMEN: Women had legal rights under shari’a; educated, protected by laws, allowed divorce and inheritance,

Women lived in seclusion

Upper-class women were veiled

Influential w/in the family, but not in public

Allowed more freedoms in Muslim Africa

Location and ruling sect has much to do with the day to day rules for women

LINKS TO JUDAISM & CHRISTIANITY:

Allah is same God of Christians & JewsSee Qur’an as same as Torah & Bible

Qur’an was final book and Muhammad was final prophet

All 3 religions believe in heaven, hell, & day of judgmentMuslims trace ancestry to Abraham, same as Jews & ChristiansChristians & Jews are “people of the book” & Shari’a law required toleration

THE DOME OF THE ROCK:• Jerusalem

• oldest Islamic monument

– rock from which Muhammad ascended to heaven

THE MIDDLE EAST TODAY:

World Book Online: Middle East

WEST AFRICAN KINGDOMS• Ghana

• Production of iron weapons enabled them to control West Africa’s trade routes

• Gold-Salt trade

• Taxed all trade through their area

• System of feudalism

• Invaded by Muslims – never fully recovered

• Mali

• Conquered old Ghana area

• Rulers adopted Islam (not majority)

• Gold-Salt wealth

• Leader Mansa Musa – traveled to Mecca, brought back Muslim scholars

• Timbuktu – great learning center

• Ibn Battuta – Arab traveler impressed by wealth, respect for law and ruler’s power

• Songhai

• Rich from trade

• Continued Timbuktu as learning center

• Fell to Morocco, but they were unable to hold it from great distance

• Ended the great West African kingdoms

• Other States

• Traded precious goods and slaves from the interior of Africa with Muslims along the coast

GOLD-SALT TRADE• The shaded portion indicates the empire of Mali in the fourteenth century, and the dashed

lines trace the main trans-Saharan routes of the period.

GOLD-SALT TRADE• Gold, sought from the western and central Sudan, was the main commodity of the trans-

Saharan trade.

• The traffic in gold was spurred by the demand for and supply of coinage.

• Leaders of the ancient kingdom of Ghana accumulated wealth by keeping the core of pure metal, leaving the unworked native gold to be marketed by their people.

• Although local supply of salt was sufficient in sub-Saharan Africa, the consumption of Saharan salt was promoted for trade purposes.

AFRICAN SLAVERY

• Originated with Muslim merchants

• Traded goods for slaves

• Muslim African rulers enslaved non-Muslims

• Had legal protections

• Could earn freedom through conversion

THE MUSLIM WORLD EXPANDS: OTTOMANS BUILD A EMPIRE

• Turks in Christian Byzantium

– Ghazis – warriors for Islam (like knights)

– “infidels” –people not Muslim

• Osman or Othman - his followers are called: Ottomans

– Successful use of technology-gun powder and muskets

– 1st to use cannons to destroy walls

– Treated conquered people kindly

– Constantinople becomes Istanbul

– Conquer Mecca, Medina, Cairo

– Controlled trade in the Mediterranean

– United the Muslim world - Turkish descent but practiced Islam – not all Muslims are Arab

Suleiman the Lawgiver (Magnificent):

- Brought Ottoman empire to its peak size

- Controlled all of eastern Mediterranean- Forced Christian Europe to find alternative trade

routes (avoid paying the “middle men”)- Caravanserai – roadside network of hotels to

provide safety for merchants- Trade routes brought vast amount of goods and

ideas (cultural diffusion), as well as diseases (black plague)

– Respected other religions, allowed them to be ruled by their own people (millets) – self governing communities, paid special taxes

– supported great works of art, literature, music (Mosque of Suleiman)

SULEIMAN’S EMPIRE: 1520-1566

• Janissaries: elite force of 30,000

• Conquered Christian territories

• Policy of devshirme – army took boys, educated them, converted to Islam, trained as soldiers (what al-queda & terrorists are doing today in Iraq/Afghanistan and parts of Africa)

• able to rise to high positions within the Ottoman Empire

EMPIRE DECLINES

• Suleiman killed his ablest son, exiled another, weakest son became sultan

• Customary to kill rivals for the throne and keep sons locked away, they became ignorant leaders later

• Finally ended after WWI

MUSLIM-HINDU INTERACTIONS• Although introduced by Arab merchants during the late 7 th c., Islam became more

prevalent in India through the Muslim conquests beginning in the 8 th c.

• Invaders regarded the Hindu people as similar to the Mushriks of pre-Islamic Arabia, the idol-worshiping polytheistic tribes against whom Muhammad had waged wars, and for whom religious tolerance is not prescribed by the Quran

MUSLIM INVASION OF INDIA

• Conquered the region - Delhi Sultanate established in Northern/Central India

• Killed many Hindus, destroyed temples

• Ruled for 300+ years, Islam became official religion

• Hinduism still the dominate religion

• Islam resented by upper class

• Tamerlane (Mongol)

• Destroyed Delhi, murdered its people to end the Delhi Sultanate

• Allowed the return of traditional Hindu beliefs and customs

SIKHISM

• Originated in Punjab (northern India)

• Guru Nanak Dev

• Developed out of Hindu Muslim interactions

• Reincarnation with one God

• All are equal in eyes of God

• No discrimination between classes, genders or faiths