By occupying Constantinople, the capital of their Christian allies, in the Fourth Crusade, the Crusaders achieved what the Arabs had been trying to do from the early days of Islam. The First Crusade began in 1095 after the Byzantines - threatened by Seljuk power- appealed to Pope Urban II for military aid. At that moment the favor of God descends upon Muslims and, in a spirit of joyous achievement, they begin the three days of celebration called 'Id al-Fitr, the Feast of the Breaking of the Fast. Men fought for their religion, the prospect of booty and because their friends and fellow tribesmen were also doing it. For a time the Fatimids aspired to be rulers of the whole Islamic world, and their achievements were impressive. For gold, once the vast quantities in the treasuries of the conquered countries were exhausted, they turned to several sources. To Him belongs all that is Photo: Books of fables, often illustrated, served a dual purpose to instruct and to entertain. Called the Five Pillars of Islam, they are: the profession of faith (shahadah), devotional worship or prayer (salah), the religious tax (zakah), fasting (sawm), and the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj). As a result of Arab rule many northern Africans were converted to Islam. Towards the end of the Ottoman Empire, this talent fossilized into bureaucracy - and a moribund bureaucracy at that. All this can be part of the 'umrah or "lesser pilgrimage," often a prelude to the hajj but not an integral part of it. Conflict among Greek Orthodox, Syrian Monophysites, Copts, and Nestorian Christians contributed to the failure of the Byzantines - always regarded as intruders - to develop popular support, while the tolerance which Muslims showed toward Christians and Jews removed the primary cause for opposing them. For these necessities the 'Abbasid traders exchanged a wide variety of products: pearls, livestock, paper, sugar, and (a specialty of the Islamic world) luxurious cloth. In Lebanon missionaries from several countries founded a network of schools and universities. The surahs themselves are of varying length, ranging from the longest, Surah 2, with 282 verses, to the shortest, Surahs 103, 108, and 110, each of which has only three. All seemed quiet on these two fronts until the sudden rise of Islam early in the 7 th century. The Fatimids built the Mosque of al-Azhar in Cairo - from which developed al-Azhar University, now the oldest university in the world and perhaps the most influential Islamic school of higher learning. Islam has helped to shape the culture from the language, to customs, to business, to . 622-632 - Islamic Empire under Mohammad. Asia is home of 65 percent of the world's Muslims, and Indonesia, in Southeast, is the world's most populous Muslim country. . Agricultural advances are also part of the Muslim legacy. The Ottoman Empire reached its peak in size and splendor under the sultan called Suleiman the Magnificent, who ruled from 1520 to 1566 and was known to the Turks as Suleiman the Law-Giver. Even more imaginative is what may be called pictorial calligraphy, in which the text (usually the profession of faith, a verse from the Quran, or some other e phrase with religious significance) is written in the shape of a bird, animal, tree, boat, or other object. Although the Umayyads favored their own region of Syria, their rule was not without accomplishments. In it he stresses the responsibilities of the ruler: for example, if a man is killed because a bridge is in disrepair, it is the fault of the ruler, for he should make it his business to apprise himself of the smallest negligences of his underlings. Photo: The most impossing of the many fortresses built by the crusaders, the elegant krak des Chevailers in Syria held out against the Muslims for over a century and a half. The amount varied with the importance of the individual noble or administrator, and he could use it as he saw fit. ", Meanwhile, outside Granada, the Christian kings waited. Islam spread so quickly because of the message the message it was so strong to spread so quickly ( Document B). They affirm the Last Judgment, when God, the Judge, will weigh in the balance the faith and works of each man, rewarding the faithful and punishing the transgressor. This policy was to prove successful everywhere. A year after Yarmuk, 'Umar, in the military camp of al-Jabiyah on the Golan Heights, received word that the Byzantines were ready to surrender Jerusalem and rode there to accept the surrender in person. The standing is not the end of the hajj, but is the culmination of a Muslim's devotional life. The fact that the prophet Muhammad had been a merchant made the role of merchants in Islamic society even more important, as there was now increased respect for the position. Systematized in the second and third centuries of the Muslim era (the eighth and ninth centuries A.D.), the shari'ah later developed into four major schools of jurisprudence: the Hanafi School, founded by Abu Hanifah; the Maliki School, founded by Malik ibn Anas; the Shafi'i School, founded by Muhammad al-Shafi'i; and the Hanbali School founded by Ahmad ibn Hanbal. It was such a series of steps that ended with France occupying Tunisia in 1881 and Britain taking control of Egypt in 1882. The art of calligraphy is still very much alive in the Arab world and wherever the Arabic alphabet is used. Not only does it educate people's understanding of the world around them but also has rules and obligations which influence what people can or can't do. The languages of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are all written in the Arabic alphabet, as was the language of Turkey until some fifty years ago. As is well known, the Arabs made no attempt to impose their faith on their new subjects, and at first in fact discouraged conversions on the part of non-Arabs. From the earliest days it has always been recited aloud or, more accurately, chanted. Islamic calligraphers have experimented endlessly and have been extremely imaginative. If you hold fast to this you will never go astray.". But sharp ideological and ethnic differences within the region create conflict today. Some of the tribes decided that as their loyalty to Islam had been primarily to Muhammad himself, his death allowed them to end their allegiance to Mecca and to Islam. Judaism dates from about 1200 B.C. But this mixture of motives combined to form a process that forged Islamic and Arab ideals and communities into a fast-growing religious and political identity. In addition, all Muslims are encouraged to make voluntary contributions to the needy called sadaqah. However, the sharifs of Mecca and Medina are virtually independent. Another significant difference is that the Arabic script has been used much more extensively for decoration and as a means of artistic expression. Photo: Persia's greatest contribution to ornament, gloriously colored enameled tile, faces the dome and stalactite portal of Shaykh Lutf Allah Mosque, built in the early 1600s on Isfahan's vast royal plaza. The scholars at Bayt al-Hikmah also contributed to geometry, a study recommended by Ibn Khaldun, the great North African historian, because "it enlightens the intelligence of the man who cultivates it and gives him the habit of thinking exactly." Later, he consolidated the support of the tribes within the Arabian Peninsula and subsequently funnelled their energies against the powerful empires of the East: the Sassanians in Persia and the Byzantines in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. Confined to the coast, they ruled small areas until their final defeat at the hands of the Egyptian Mamluks at the end of the thirteenth century. In addition to having administrative abilities, he was an accomplished stylist whose book on statecraft, Siyasat-Namah, is a valuable source for the political thought of the time. Muhammad help to spread the religion of Islam. According to the chronicles of the day, the city had 700 mosques, some 60,000 palaces, and 70 libraries - one reportedly housing 500,000 manuscripts and employing a staff of researchers, illuminators, and book binders. Because the circumstances of each revelation were thought necessary to correct interpretation, the community, early in the history of Islam, concluded that it was imperative to gather as many traditions as possible about the life and actions of the Prophet so that the Quran might be more fully understood. Some sultans later regained power through political maneuvering and by playing off factions against one another, but as a result administration was paralyzed. Abu Bakr died in 634 and was succeeded by Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph, who ruled until 644. The revelations he received at this time and those he did so later are all incorporated in the Quran, the Scripture of Islam. In the years following 861, the Turks made and unmade rulers at will, a trend that accelerated the decline of the central authority. It is the essence of Islam. In the eighth century, all of northern Africa, the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), India, and Indonesia became . Only Granada survived. Enraged, the Meccans set a price on Muhammad's head and set off in pursuit. The first four caliphs had been without exception Companions of the Prophet - pious, sincere men who had lived no differently from their neighbors and who preserved the simple habits of their ancestors despite the massive influx of wealth from the conquered territories. Al-Razi, for example, was a philosopher and a mathematician as well as a physician and al-Kindi, the first Muslim philosopher to use Aristotelian logic to support Islamic dogma, also wrote on logic, philosophy, geometry, calculation, arithmetic, music, and astronomy. In 1820 Great Britain imposed a pact on Arab tribes on the coast of the Arabian Gulf; in the 1830s France occupied Algeria; in 1839 Britain occupied Aden, at the strategic entrance to the Red Sea; and in 1869 Ferdinand de Lesseps, with the backing of the French emperor, completed what would become, and still is, one of the key shipping arteries of the world, the Suez Canal. The Qur'an has a number of passages that support military action against non-Muslims, for example: But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war) Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book Other passages confirmed the rightness of the ancient military tradition of looting from the defeated, and specified how the booty should be divided. According to the aforementioned historians, tens of thousands of Arabs were put to the sword until their tribes re-submitted to Islam. An exemplary leader, he lived simply, assiduously fulfilled his religious obligations, and was accessible and sympathetic to his people. The result was the text that is accepted to this day throughout the Muslim world. Still other intellectuals, such as the Egyptian Muhammad 'Abduh and his Syrian disciple Rashid Rida, undertook to reform the Muslim educational system and to restate Islamic values in terms of modern concepts - needs deeply felt by most Muslim thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Islam is based on the belief in one God (Allah) and the teachings of Muhammad as recorded in the Quran, the holy book of Islam. 'Uthman achieved much during his reign. The demands on trade also generated development of crafts. Life section is all about Society, Art, Culture, History, Sports, Food, Music and much more. But then, in 1380, a new Turko-Mongol confederation was hammered together by another world conqueror: Tamerlane, who claimed descent from Genghis Khan. In the meantime, the Mongols, like so many of the peoples who had come into contact with Islam, had begun to embrace it. Arabic calligraphy therefore came to be used not only in producing copies of the Quran (its first and for many centuries its most important use), but also for all kinds of other artistic purposes as well on porcelain and metalware, for carpets and other textiles, on coins, and as architectural ornament (primarily on mosques and tombs but also, especially in later years, on other buildings as well). A caliph such as Umar seems to have regarded himself, first and foremost, as the leader of the Arabs, and their monotheistic creed as the religious component of their new political identity. As scientific research and translation of medical texts from India and possibly even China expanded the earlier pharmacopoeia, ingredients for medicines were brought from all over the known world and also reexported. Sectarian conflict is becoming entrenched in a growing number of Muslim countries and is threatening to fracture Iraq and Syria. 1. Allah is viewed as the sole Godcreator, sustainer, and . To a degree almost incomprehensible in the West it shapes and colors broadly, specifically, and totally the thoughts, emotions, and values of the devout Muslim's life from birth to death. Earlier, before the Hijrah, the city had sent envoys to Mecca asking Muhammad to mediate a dispute between two powerful tribes. In the wake of the Balfour Declaration, and during the British mandate, Jewish immigration increased. It covers day to day World Affairs, Politics & News. At the Battle of the Trench, also known as the Battle of the Confederates, the Muslims scored a signal victory by introducing a new defense. Established by the prophet Muhammad, the religion of Islam unified a diverse cultural region that spans several countries. After Muhammad had preached publicly for more than a decade, the opposition to him reached such a high pitch that, fearful for their safety, he sent some of his adherents to Ethiopia, where the Christian ruler extended protection to them, the memory of which has been cherished by Muslims ever since. It also helped to give the Ottoman government more effective control over its territories in western Arabia. And if it was a new and upstart faith, its administration by simple and honest men was preferable to the corruption and persecution that were the norm in more civilized empires George F. Nafziger, Mark W. Walton, Islam at War: A History, 2003. In addition, the early Muslims tended to oppose figural art (and in some cases all art) as distracting the community from the worship of God and hostile to the strictly unitarian religion preached by Muhammad, and all four of the schools of Islamic law banned the use of images and, declared that the painter of animate figures would be damned on the Day of Judgment. This essay looks at the spread of Islam into Southeast Asia and how religious belief and expression fit with extant and modern polictical and economic infrastructures. By the twelfth century kufic was obsolete as a working script except for special uses and in northwest Africa, where it developed into the maghribi style of writing still used in the area today. After the battle of Siffin, 'Ali - whose chief strength was in Iraq, with his capital at Kufa - began to lose the support of many of his more uncompromising followers and in 661 he was murdered by a former supporter. 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