History
The Prophet Muhammad (570~632)
The Prophet Muhammad (570~632)
Muhammad was born in 570, in Saudi Arabia. His connection with Islam began in 610, when he was meditating in a cave, on a mountain just like any other day, an angel visited him. The angel's name was Jibreel and she told him he was chosen to be the next prophet of Islam. He at first didn't consider the angel truthful until she mentioned the name of Allah. Then he began to recite words which he believed were the words of God.
The holy book, Qur'an, are the words that were remembered and recorded from Muhammad when
he received these revelations.
The Hijrah was a movement lead by Muhammad because people from Mecca felt threatened when Muhammad began to have a massive number of followers. Mecca thought that they would loose their powers against the followers of Islam, so Muhammad decided to take his followers on a journey from Mecca to Medina in 622.
After 10years has past from the journey of Hijra, they returned back to Mecca and conquered it. Muhammad had enough followers that it was possible to conquer Mecca. After the result of the Hijrah, the followers accepted Muhammad as a true final Prophet of God, and he continued to lead his community both spiritually and earthly until his death, in 632.
Muhammad was born in 570, in Saudi Arabia. His connection with Islam began in 610, when he was meditating in a cave, on a mountain just like any other day, an angel visited him. The angel's name was Jibreel and she told him he was chosen to be the next prophet of Islam. He at first didn't consider the angel truthful until she mentioned the name of Allah. Then he began to recite words which he believed were the words of God.
The holy book, Qur'an, are the words that were remembered and recorded from Muhammad when
he received these revelations.
The Hijrah was a movement lead by Muhammad because people from Mecca felt threatened when Muhammad began to have a massive number of followers. Mecca thought that they would loose their powers against the followers of Islam, so Muhammad decided to take his followers on a journey from Mecca to Medina in 622.
After 10years has past from the journey of Hijra, they returned back to Mecca and conquered it. Muhammad had enough followers that it was possible to conquer Mecca. After the result of the Hijrah, the followers accepted Muhammad as a true final Prophet of God, and he continued to lead his community both spiritually and earthly until his death, in 632.
Expansion of Islam
Between 622 and 732, Islam spread with amazing speed. It carried to the people of Palestine and Syria and across North Africa into Spain. It went into France in 732 but was stopped by Charles Martel. THe reason why it had such an amazing spread was because of the fact that Islam didn't need a clergy or a church and that all believer are equal was an attractive factor. Arab soldiers were also united in a common cause to spread Islam and it gave them a strong sense of purpose. The weakening of the Byzantine and Persian empires also helped Islam grow. People were unhappy with former rulers and corruption. THey wanted stable and orderly governments which Muslims didn't force people to convert their religion but instead made them pay a tax which was usually used for the military.
Early Rise of Islam/Subdivision between Sunni and Shiite
At first when Muhammad died, Islam had a lot of trouble searching for the new leader. Abu Bakr, Muhammad's close friend, was chosen for the next leader or caliph, a successor to Muhammad because he fixed some problems that were going on after Muhammad's death. He had some problems with the leaders of Arab tribes, but later eventually he was able to reunite the tribes and convert them all under Islam. He also defeated Persians and took Palestine from Byzantine. Still, there were fighting going on between who should be the leader since Abu Bakr was only a caliph. Some thought that the family members of Muhammad should be the leader, and some that it didn't really matter who the leader was as long as that person was responsible and appropriate. This formed a debate and the community was split between the Sunnis and Shi'a. Sunnis believe that any good Muslim could be leader. They also believed that any male Muslim could be leader and the majority of Muslims in the world, 90%, are Sunnis. Shiites were the group of Muslims that felt that Muhammad's family member, like his son in law Ali, should be the leader. There are only 10% of Shiites around the world and they live in a dangerous places like Yemen, Lebanon, etc. The tension between the Sunnis and Shiites still exist today, trying to fight over the position of the leader. There's actually a group called the Sufis, which is the part of both the Sunni and Shiite but they don't really care about the position of the leader. They use want to be united with God through meditation, fasting, and other rituals. One of their mystics is the Whirling Dervishes where they spin around and around to put themselves into a trance
(The building in the picture shows where Muhammad was buried in.)
(The building in the picture shows where Muhammad was buried in.)
Umayyad Empire
The Umayyad Empire was a time when Islam started spread across North Africa and into Europe. The Empire were actually from a really powerful family from Mecca. Their dynasty was frrom the Sunni calpihs that ruled the Muslim empire until 750. The empire's capital was in Damascus, Syria which were also successful in capturing lands in North Africa and Spain. As mentioned before, the Umayyad Empire was where they were spreading their religion's faith and conquered lands. Since the Persian and Byzantine empires were getting weaker, since they were constantly fighting each other for so long, the Arabs were getting stronger since they were less harsher than Byzantines and Persians. Arab also had camals and horses which helped they become bold and aggressive fighters. They also allowed Christians and Jews to practice their faiths, if they paid a seperate tax that Muslims didn't need to pay. One problem was that some people who weren't Muslims didn't get a better jobs than Muslim, so a lot of the people converted their religion to Islam in order to get better jobs, and not pay the tax.
Abbasid Empire
Muslims were unhappy with the Umayyads founding a new leader in Abu al-Abbas who was a distant relative of Muhammad. He killed the Umayyad family except one person who escaped to Spain, and created the Abbasid Dynasty which lated until 1258. They stresseed the equality of all Muslims. The stopped the military conquest. Muslim civilization grew. Discrimination of non Arab Muslims that occurred in the Umayyad was stopped. Capital was moved to Baghdad where Persians were and Persian influence grew. The most important government official was the Vizier, or head of the bureaucracy. They city of Baghdad reached its peak under the caliph Harun al-Pashid. He encouraged learning. He made close ties with Western Europe and sent Charlemagne gifts. He wanted the Franks, Europeans, to join him in fighting the Umayyad ruler in Spain. He rewarded poets and artist.
Muslim Spain
Muslim culture continued to grow in Spain in cities like Cordoba and Granada. THe Alhambra palace in Granada is one of the best examples of Islamic art and architecture. Many Christians, Jews, and Muslims learned and taught side by side here. Muslims stayed in Spain until about 1492. In the 900s, the Seljuk Turks came from Central Asia and into this region. They adopted Islam and controlled Baghdad. The ruler was known as the sultan. THey fought with the Byzantine Empire and this conflict led to the Christian Crusades. In 1216, Genghis Khan led the Mongols out the Central Asia. Khan's grandson Hulagu burned Baghdad and kille the last Abbasid caliph. Mongols did adopt Islam. In the late 1300s, another Mongol leader Tamerlane, also conquered Muslim, which he eventually invaded Russia and India.