Islam

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Islam
Worlds most recent major world religion
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Who Practiced It?

• followers of Mohammad within the Arabic Peninsula
  (today Saudi Arabia)

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Islam is the religion, Muslim is the person

• Islam means to submit
• God is Allah
• Holy book is the Quran (Koran)
• Arabic

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The Five Pillars

• Muslims believe salvation is achieved through
  submission to the will of God and can do this by
  following Five Pillars
• The Five Pillars
• confession of faith
• prayer five times a day
• charity to the needy
• fasting during the month-long Ramadan
• pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in lifetime

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Sunni and Shia (Shiite)

• divided over who should succeed Mohammad as
  leader of faith
• Shiabelieve the succession belonged to Ali
  Mohammads son-in-law
• Sunnibelieve that leaders of empire should come
  from broad base of people, not just hereditary
  line

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• Distribution of Islam per country. Green
  represents a Sunni majority and blue represents a
  Shia majority.

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Early Islamic Politics

• 600 CE to 1400 CE

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The Umayyads 661-750

• Muslim bureaucracy grew
• Arab language
• Caliphs powerful but unpopular
• Capital at Damascus

The Umayyad Great Mosque, Damascus
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The Abbasids 750--1258

• ? Capital moved to Baghdad 762
• ? Some outlying provinces won independence
• ? well respected

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The Fatimids 900 CE

• Conquered Northern Africa and Egypt
• 1100s defeated by Salah al-Din

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The Seljuk Turks 900-1500 CE

• Turks nomadic
• Slaves and soldiers in Arab world
• Allowed Abbasid to remain but had real control
• Had skilled use of horses and weaponsbegan to
  dominate Middle East