Diffusion of Ideas & Systems: 600-1450

The Middle Ages in Africa & Asia

Unit 4B

Key Understanding – Interaction of different religions leads to cultural blending or conflict due to common values and beliefs or differences.

Unit 4B, Lesson 1

Muhammad – born around A.D. 570; founder of Islam

Muslims – those who worship Allah and recognize Muhammad as the last Prophet

Mecca – the Holy City of the Islamic faith

Islam - Background

Allah – Monotheistic deity; God of Abraham; Yahweh

Hijra – pilgrimage to Mecca that each Muslim is required to take within their lifetime

Islam - Background

Qu’ran/Koran – Book-writings of the prophet Muhammad

Jihad – Holy struggle; expansion of Islam and Islamic control

Islam - Background

Conversions – conquered people were allowed to keep their religions; many converted (often to avoid taxes)

“People of the Book” – Christians and Jews – their faith was “incomplete” because they did not accept Muhammad; they worked as officials, scholars, bureaucrats

Islam - Background

Interaction – Set-up trade networks between Europe, Asia, and North Africa; cultures blend – achievements in art and science

Islam - Background

The Rise of Islam

When Muhammad died there was conflict over who his successor (called the Caliph) would be.

Shiite Muslims – believed that only Muhammad’s descendants could be caliphs.

Sunni Muslims – followed a new caliph (the Umayyad Caliphate).

Islam Divides

The Umayyad Caliphs were replaced by the Abbasid Caliphs in A.D. 750.

The Abbasid Caliphate

Both the Umayyads and the Abbasids fought a holy war, called a Jihad to expand Islam.Fatimid dynasty set up in North Africa Muslims control the Maghrib along the

Mediterranean coast by 670 Berbers, who had originally been Christian and

Jewish, convert to Islam in the 600s. The empire expanded from the Indus Valley to Spain. Expansion was halted in Europe at the Battle of

Tours.

The Abbasid Caliphate

The Arab capital was moved from Damascus to Baghdad in 762.Within a century Baghdad’s population

was over a million peopleIncluded a citadel and the “House of

Wisdom”

The Abbasid Caliphate

DeclineThe Caliphate declined when invaders

entered the empire.South – Berbers and Bedouins from

Africa swept across Libya and Tunisia; they destroyed civilization in North Africa

The Abbasid Caliphate

DeclineNorth – European Crusaders entered

Palestine in 1096.East – Turks and Mongols invade and

convert to Islam.

The Abbasid Caliphate

Muslims conquer Constantinople in 1453 and establish the Ottoman Empire

The Ottomans were a nomadic group of Turkish people from Central Asia.

The Ottoman Empire

Arabic Culture

Poetry, music, danceChess, dice, backgammonPolo, archery, fencing, horse racing

Entertainment

Paper making brought in from ChinaTranslated Hippocrates, Galen, Euclid,

Ptolemy, Plato, Aristotle

Interaction

Advances in algebra and geometryContinued astronomical observationsDoctors discovered that blood moves to

and from the heart

Science and Math

Textile industryElaborate leather work and rugs

Arts and Crafts