In this assignment, I chose to focus on a series of points that would highlight the important stages and factor of the rise and spread of Islam. While the rise and spread of Islam is a very wide and far-ranging topic, I think that there are a few points from our reading that are worth mentioning. It is important to understand the context of the religion itself in the sense that it is the third of the three Abrahamic religions, so this was the first point I focused on. Islam is a monotheistic religion, which means that it is a religion with one god as opposed to many. It is important to recognize that it was a major contrast with a number of other religious practices that were in place in the time. It is important also to understand the significance of the religion’s main prophet, Mohammed and how he contributed to the rise and spread of the religion. He was the original man to bring the Qur’an to the public attention. He also served as the first military and civil leader of the followers of the religion and thus he set the precedent of the Caliph, which was followed by later leaders. The Qur’an is the text that contains all of the holy scriptures of the religion and it is analogous to the Bible or Torah. The early beginnings of the religion are important in that it was the first time in which the followers of Mohammed engaged in armed conflict—something that would happen in multiple other instances later in history. It is important to note that the religion was spread both through civilian means—trade and cultural contact—as well as martial means—via conquest and military conflict. The religion started in the Arabian Peninsula and subsequently spread throughout the Levant, and Mediterranean, including Europe. The focus of the religion’s worship is towards mecca, specifically the Kaabah. This is done in mosques, which are the Islamic temples of worship. These were built in many locations as a mark of territory as the religion’s following spread around the Middle East. As its domain became larger and larger it became organized into a system of theocratic government which became known as the Caliphate. The Caliphate was ruled by many leaders from many locations which shifted over time. The succession of one of the leaders of the Caliphate led at one point to a rift that split the Muslim world into two main camps: Shi’ites and Sunnis. Trade with Europe was an important source of economic and cultural exchange for the Islamic world. Unfortunately, not all interactions with other—Christian—cultures. The Crusades were a series of armed conflicts in which Christians and Muslims fought for control over the Holy Land, today’s Palestine and Israel. This means that it is also important to understand the concept of Jihad, which literally means “struggle” in Arabic. This struggle is meant to be a struggle against evil, which can also be interpreted in a martial sense when other religions may be referred to as evil.

Below is the link to my Prezi presentation.

http://prezi.com/ru80vze9kppb/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

-Khaled Ahmed

http://prezi.com/3xo0wrkqkx4y/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

In addition to my presentation, I would like to provide more details into the reasoning and significance behind the key points I chose to talk about after read Silverstein’s introduction.

1. Caliphs and caliphates
   1. Following Muhammad, the caliphs were the leaders that chose the direction, metaphorically and literally, of the followers of Muhammad. It is under the thumb of caliphs that Islamic history ran its course.
2. Arabic language
   1. Arabic language was the language in which the Qur’an was written.
3. Geography – location
   1. I believe it is important to know about the geography of an occurrence to understand the context much more. For example, knowing the geography of where Islamic history took place can help create a tie to the true significance of camels. Without the camel, it would’ve been impossible to travel across any desert.
4. Muhammad
   1. Drawing a parallel with Christianity for a moment – The way Christianity is linked to Jesus of Nazareth, Islam is linked directly to Muhammad. He was the “Prophet of Allah” and the way in which Allah revealed himself to society. He is arguably the most important figure in Islamic beliefs.
5. Qur’an
   1. The Qur’an serves as the prayer book for Islam. Showcasing its relevancy today, Islamic followers still study and pray from this religious scripture. Also, the Qur’an also has a tie directly to Muhammad. Thus, it would be negligent to not share the significance of the Qur’an to someone who wants to learn about the religion.
6. Mecca and the Hajj
   1. This is a tradition that could be traced all the way back to Muhammad. This is relevant because people in the world today still take Hajjes to Mecca from all over the world.
7. Faith and Mosques
   1. When Islam would travel and takeover a new geographic region or city, they would build a mosque in the city. This impressive structure would: 1. Signify that the Islam now control the location and 2. The prestige of the structure would attract new followers.
8. Turkish slave soldiers
   1. The question of ‘Who fought in these wars?’ needs to be answered. It is interesting because the Turkish slave soldiers eventually rose to have their own caliph.
9. Sunni & Shiite Islam
   1. We see the significance of just how important caliphates truly were along with how sub-groups within Islam were formed.
10. Dynasty Rule of Islam
    1. I feel as though this is an important point to bring up considering Islamic history can be followed and studied in the categories of dynasties.
11. Conflict with Judea-Christians
    1. This is arguably a relevant topic in today’s world still. However, this can have a direct correlation of Islamic expansion and contraction (Example: Crusades).
12. Camels
    1. Much how history will have talk of shipbuilding, airplanes, automobile technology, etc. the question of transportation needs to be answered.
13. Trade
    1. Trade was a significant topic because it was a vehicle in which cultural diffusion occurred and Islamic ideas, beliefs and customers were spread.
14. Jihad
    1. I chose this topic because it is a misunderstood topic that is relevant in today’s world.
15. Taxes
    1. This answers the questions as to who actually funded much of the feats Muhammad and his followers sought after.

In this presentation, I have analyzed the ways in which Islam spread throughout the world rapidly through trade, conquest and its assimilation by various peoples of the Old World. In this presentation, I attempt to connect the ways in which the rise of Islam in the early 7th century AD led to conflicts with the western world which eventually gave way to the Crusades and the ongoing antipathy that characterizes relations between both religions. While the spread of this religion did much to interconnect trade and new ideas throughout Eurasia, there were conflicts between conquered populations and the new Muslim rulers. One example would be the conquest of Hispania by the Umayyads in the 8th century AD., relations between native Iberians and the Muslim ruling minority oscillated between harsh treatment and tolerance. I have also added information concerning how Islam was able to spread so rapidly, vanquishing large, formidable powers such as the Persian Empire and the Byzantine or East Roman Empire, with a fanatical zeal to spread the message of Allah. As a result, former Christian regions such as North Africa and Syria gradually converted to Islam, often due to the benefits in which becoming a Muslim helped concerning treatment as well as taxes. Jews and Christians were counted as “Peoples of the Book”,  a term which linked Islam, Judaism and Christianity as monotheistic faiths. This presentation also has three images which deal with Islam as a religion and its expression in art. I also highlight two textual sources which deal with European responses and views to Islam and how this religion came to bee seen as in perpetual conflict with the West and its values. To understand Islam, one must trace its roots back to where it started, thus in my analysis of its spread throughout the vast Asian continent and into parts of Europe, I have posted in my presentation the ways in which Muslims came to see themselves as having a duty to spread their religion by force of arms as well as by peaceful means such as trade. Early Christian Europeans traded with the Middle East and North Africa, in slaves as well as goods. Fears of Muslim penetration into Europe were held as early as the 7th century AD, when Islam was rapidly expanding from its base in the Arabian peninsula into Persia, Anatolia, North Africa and Iberia. The Muslim conquests were remarkable in that they occurred in a shorter time period unlike earlier empires, the Umayyad conquests may be regarded as one of the largest empires to have existed at the time.  Islam spread further into Central Asia and South Asia, reaching the borders of the Chinese Tang empire at one point, converting as well as assimilating different populations to its cause. Islam as a religion also deals with rivaling sects such as the Shiites who oppose the Sunnis which comprise a majority of Muslims. I have also incorporated into my Prezi portfolio the benefits in which Islamic culture helped preserve ancient texts which dealt in medicine and mathematics.

What is Islam? If I was asked with that question a two week, I probably would have just responded with the answer:  “A majority faith believed in the middle east” and I couldn’t have said much than that. Recognizing that I had almost no knowledge on Islam what so ever, I was intimidated by the idea of doing a project about Islam. Knowing how complex a religion could be, I choose to start off reading the smaller book “Islamic history: a very short introduction”, after I read thoroughly through the short book. I started my first point by describing the founding of Islam by Prophet Muhammad, as I figure that the founder of Islam would play a huge part of Islamic history. I described how Prophet Muhammad was expelled from his home town with polytheistic due to his monotheistic belief.

Then, I moved on to how he unified the entire Arabia under his Umma by defeating the Meccan. It’s impressive to see how Prophet Muhammad started with a few followers fleeing to a new town was able to unify the entire peninsula with only 10 years. However, even though the Prophet was an excellent commander and a brilliant religious leader, he was still not able to change the Arabian need to raid for food. Before the unification of Arabia, they could have just raided each other; however, this is no longer possible as Islamic beliefs prohibit the raiding of brethren. Therefore, this caused the Arabian to look outwards, seeking to raid their heathen neighbors. With along with raiding, I also mentioned how the Arabian camel had served Arabian well with trading, raiding, and military conquest for many years to come. As the camel raider sacked entire towns and cities of their neighboring country, this time they have left something of their own behind: Islam.

Besides mentioning the development of Islam, I also provided the description on what’s going on in the world as the prophet unites Arabia under his banner. Seeing how the political satiation around the Islamic world had even help the spread of Islam and the expansion of the Islamic world. After I mention and explain the expansion of the Islamic world, I moved on to Shiite Islam and Sunni Islam. It was basically a disputed succession of the Caliph. Since this dispute on the successor regarding the Caliph, the title of “Caliph” no longer holds the meaning that it once did. The meanings of the title are now much closer to the name of “Emperor” than a religious figure head. After I suggest some of the result of the disputed succession between Shiite and Sunni, I moved on to the internal struggle of disloyal vassal and battle of religious authority. It’s quite intriguing to see as the Islam also had to face the challenge that the catholic had faced, by comparing the Islam scholar and the Pope of the Catholic Church. I also mentioned Sufiism and how it integrates different people into the religion. At last, I brought up the subject that there are multiple “outsider” ethnicities had huge impact on the Muslim world.

Prezi Link: https://prezi.com/z-chxrihdtah/the-history-of-islam/

http://prezi.com/kzfcm1qsyyiy/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

With this presentation I wanted to give a very simple yet specific summary of what Islam is and how it rapidly spread across three continents. It’s very hard to give an overall background on Islam, especially since there are many aspects and a rich background in it. Many people do follow it for a reason and believe in the power of Islam and it’s core message of peace of mind and soul.

I mentioned the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) because he does represent Islam, especially to the western world. His birth, revelation, hajj, and death are all extremely important dates to Muslims, some of which signify religious duties and others holidays.

The 5 pillars of Islam are the most basic yet most important concepts to understand. As someone who does practice Islam, these 5 aspects dictate my life and what some of my decisions are. These 5 pillars aren’t just “rules” I must follow, but also what allows me to be peaceful and happy.

Then I focused on the very early beginnings on the spread of Islam. It is a religion that spread very rapidly, but it did only just start from Saudi Arabia. Because the Arabian people were nomadic and relied on whatever they found, they did go to neighboring countries to raid. Along the way, the brought the message of Islam to the people they were raiding and more and more people began to convert.

I wanted to focus on giving a very small and basic understanding of Islamd, there’s a lot of history but to understand why people followed it from the beginning allows someone to understand how it reached all over the globe.

https://prezi.com/7pibbb_omj67/college-project-1-key-aspects-of-islam/

I created this presentation with the history of Islam in mind. As I have come to understand the history of the region it became far too apparent to me how intertwined the religion is with their government and culture, a stark contrast to the government I’m used to with the United States. Of course it would be inevitable for everything in people lives to influence their belief systems though. This short project and presentation takes a look at some of the factors that allowed Islam to persist, and expand, though it is not in any way an in depth look at the subject; Glossing over some aspects of their growth and development not mentioned in the sources, or ignoring others because of similarities to previously made points. For this part of the world everything is about the religion, everything in effect is their gods will, and that mentality is extremism. However, it is important to note, Islam is not about peace, never in its history has it been about peace. It’s about conformity, peace for Muslims, death or discrimination towards everyone else. If it were about peace there would be no need to seek extremes, no need for modern nations to censure their media, their libraries, to oppress their women, to wage war on Infidels. There are extremists in every culture and every region, but that does not excuse the inaction of those supposed “Moderates” who allow it. Muslim culture, by its nature and its history encourages extremists. For those who would argue that it is not my culture, not my religion, not my ethics, therefor I cannot judge them, YOU ARE WRONG. There is nothing in the world that prevents me from my judgments, to say otherwise is to prove my point’s right. Muslims are defensive of their actions, their ways, for the same reason any religion ostracizes anyone who might suggest their propaganda is wrong, because they are afraid. People create groups, instinctively, naturally and seclude themselves from opposing thoughts without realizing it. But I digress, the point, lost though it may be, is that Islam, like every religion promotes both peace and conflict. That, unfortunately one cannot look at any religion without looking at the politics it controls, and creates. For the Islamic world a lot of conflict and controversy is generated by blinding opinions, by the loudest, not wisest voices.

https://prezi.com/v7nujql1qjr7/history-of-islam/

Coming into this first project I didn’t know much about Islam at all, so as I read Islamic History: A Very Short Introduction I picked what I thought were the most important key points. I felt I focused a lot on the beginning of Islam, starting with the prophet Muhammad and his flee to Medina gaining followers and taking over lands before his death in 632 AD. I also brought up how things changed after Muhammad’s death, which caused a spilt within the religion over who the next succeeder will be. There was a choice between the four Caliphs named Abu Bakr, ‘Uman, ‘Uthman and ‘Ali.

I focused on how Islam grew economically with the help of camels and caravans for trade, I found it astonishing how economically wealthy Islam became in such a short period of time. Caravans and camels helped shape muslim towns into large cities expanding and flourishing the population and wealth. The caravans made for just easy and efficient trade routes and other things. The camels were able to with stand the rough climate going days with out food or water.

I chose to focus on the religion as a whole, concentrating on mosques and the huge role they play within the culture. People go to the mosque up to five times a day to pray some even eating and sleeping there.  The largest mosque in the world is unsurprisingly the mosque in Mecca where millions pilgrim to visit every year. Up to 800 million dollars are spent to build these massive institutions.  I also found the break down of the Jihad very interesting, being spilt into two different groups with different ideas based off it. One side getting a more violent idea than others, which today leads to suicide bombing and other things. The jihad actually translates somewhat as ‘striving’ to do something against someone. Although you may read about suicide bombings and possible terrorism, the Islamic religion is one of peace and worship. The five pillars of Islam are what every Muslim must fulfill in their lifetime. They include the testimony of faith, prayer which happens five times a day, giving Zakat which is supporting the needy,fasting the month of Ramadan and finally the pilgrimage to Mecca. What you come to understand after reading about the culture and religion is that Islam is a very peaceful religion. The Arabic word salaam meaning peace has the same root as the word Islam.

There was so much in the book to pick from but I tried to pick the most basic facts for someone to understand the growth and expansion of the religion. I did not focus very much on the wars that were fought in the very beginning because I felt the religion and culture was more important to show the growth and why Islam is second largest religion in the world with 1.6 billion followers. I feel I now have a good understanding on the beginning and growth of Islam and would feel confident explaining some of the major key points and events to someone who knows nothing.

http://prezi.com/boqsyiemgthy/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Prezi

In my presentation I decided to choose these facts mostly because this is what stood out to me personally. I didn’t want to pick facts that had already been selected and retold many times. The key for me was under what title to use it and the order in which I put the facts. It was important to me for people to know the huge differences within the Arab community and religion. The true meanings of certain words and how they impact daily life for the average muslim, or how christians and muslims interacted with each other long ago. Another thing I really noticed was that in Ruthven’s short intro book the author explains Islam and its complexity before allowing the reader to give their new opinion before going into modern Islam and the issue of the jihadi movement. The reason I say that is because Islam has been so twisted in todays world that it’s true meaning is tarnished and not even acknowledged respectfully. The muslim greeting means peace and stands for it, and truly stands for good in this world. But I think today many organizations and groups of people are quick to categorize an entire religion and ethnic group because a tiny percentage of people have spit in the face of what Islam stands for, peace. In the subject of spreading a global religion, Islam has been around for a very long time. Just like Judaism and Christianity, Islam has been taught on this planet for a long time. The spread of culture starts with trade and will continue that way for as long as people have the need to learn an educate themselves. Today new ways of learning have been introduced albeit a bit more difficult. Stricter more radical forms of laws have made the learning and spread of culture more difficult but new waves in communications technology have allowed many to learn the true meaning of Islam. The images I chose were also very nice because they the paintings looked nice too and simply gave a small description of what I wanted to talk about. This is probably the first time I have done a project on this specific topic. It allows me to really understand Islam just a bit more and the real difference between a believer and being muslim. This was something I really never knew about, to submit to a god or surrender yourself to him/her or to truly believe in them. Fundamentalist have reshaped Islam as well by incorporating new ideas into traditional ways. In today’s world we throw around the word self-determination a lot and this is something every society seeks, especially in places that have not smelled a sniff of freedom in a long time. To want to choose your own path to what you believe is the right path not just for yourself but for your religion entirely  but when it entirely flips the meaning of your religion and destroys other people ways of life then maybe the right thing is not really being done.

http://prezi.com/gakma0xdgjid/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

In order to answer the two prompted questions, “What is Islam, and how did it become a global religion,” I decided to breakdown my presentation into multiple components. I created my Prezi to act as a tutoring tool that allows the user to receive quick, and key background information to the rise of Islam, the emergence and collapse of the various Caliphates, and the eventual empire building. While Silverstein and Rodriguez, the authors whom we were allowed to use in our research, provide excellent overview and context to Islamic history, they don’t discuss the religion in depth. As such, I decided to focus on the political, and historical overtones where Islam’s interactions help explain the culture, religion, as well as politics. For example, the sources highlight the importance of the Ulema’s ability to gather the Islamic community in their fight against foreign incursion. While my Prezi follows a chronological path, I pinpointed essential points that I felt were key for my viewers.

To understand the origins of Islam as a religion, the viewers needed to first start with Muhammad and the origins of his Umma. After his Hijra, Muhammad was able to get his followers to look past their traditional allegiances to their clans, and now towards a new religious entity. This indicated that even at its beginning, Islam was a communal religion.

After his death, I chose to identify the “Four Rightly Guided Caliphs.” This is important because the split between the Sunnis and the Shiites revolves mainly around the question to how many Imams there were. Sunnis supported Abu Bakr, while Shiites pushed for Ali. In many ways, this disagreement was common in tribal societies. As such, I chose to mention the Ridda Wars because Abu Bakr spent his leadership reuniting the dissipated clans.

Furthermore, disagreements towards ascension in rule eventually led to a civil war. The Fitna became a major point in Islamic history, as it was a devastating blow to Shiite Muslims. Furthermore, we begin to see a significant development of Caliphates. Islam once again is seen as a “religion of the community,” because the Caliph was considered a spiritual successor to Muhammad, and he would work with the Ulema to control his community.

From these Caliphates, my viewers can see how they became a world religion. For example, the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates controlled large swathes of territory and allowed the pursuit of scientific discovery and art. Furthermore, local groups were not persecuted, but needed to pay a tax. Rodriguez discusses the Jizra tax, and limitations on the Dhimmi status groups. It’s understandable that people would be very exposed to Islam on a global scale.

As the Crusades emerged, Caliphates needed to use every tool in their arsenal to combat this foreign threat; including using religion as a tool to fight. In fact, we begin to see an even stronger militarized Islam with the Mamluks and eventually, the Turks. However, as globalization became an increasingly present entity, Islamic groups were divided over secularization and Westernization.

Islam became a major world religion that relied heavily on its community, themes today that were present since the founding of the original Umma. Through conquest, and trade Islam spread globally.