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Flashcards in The Islamic World Deck (28)
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1
Q

Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, what did the Eastern Roman Empire come to be called?

A

The Eastern Roman Empire came to be called Byzantium after the former name of its capital, Constantinople.

Although Byzantine residents continued to call themselves Romans and use Roman law, the Empire was profoundly influenced by Greek ideals, from culture to language.

2
Q

Which Byzantine Emperor attempted to re-conquer the lands of the Western Roman Empire, beginning in the 530s?

A

Justinian, with the aid of his able general Belisarius, attempted to re-conquer the lands lost to the barbarians. Justinian’s forces re-conquered North Africa by defeating the Vandals, and Spain, by defeating the Ostrogoths. Byzantine forces even took back parts of Italy, but were forced to retreat when a plague wiped out most of Justinian’s troops.

Procopius, an historian in Justinian’s court, claimed that Justinian had a habit of removing his own head and carrying it around under his arm. Modern-day historians question Procopius’s account.

3
Q

What led Byzantine Emperor Alexius to call for help from the Christian states of Europe in 1095?

A

Byzantine forces had suffered significant military reverses for centuries, as Muslim forces conquered much of the Middle East, and Seljuk Turks pressed the Empire from the Central Asian steppes. In desperation to save his Empire, Alexius called for assistance from the Christian states of Europe, resulting in the Crusades.

4
Q

What was the result of the Fourth Crusade, which lasted from 1202 to 1204?

A

Originally intended to land in Egypt and march northward to retake Jerusalem, the Fourth Crusade instead invaded and sacked Constantinople, dealing the Byzantine state a blow from which it would never recover.

5
Q

Who founded Islam in the seventh century?

A

In 610, Muhammad, a merchant from Mecca, a town on the Arabian Peninsula, founded Islam. While meditating in the mountains near Mecca, Muhammad had a spiritual encounter with the angel Jibril, during which Jibril revealed the word of Allah (God) to him. Muhammad returned to Mecca and began preaching to a small band of loyal followers.

6
Q

Define:

Hegira (or, alternatively, Hijra)

A

In 622, Muhammad and his band of followers were forced to leave Mecca and flee to Medina, a city in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula. Muhammad’s journey is known as the Hegira. Ten years later, Muhammad and his followers returned and were successful in converting the city. By the time of Muhammad’s death in 632, the entire Arabian Peninsula had been converted.

7
Q

Define:

People of the Book

A

People of the Book is an Islamic term for Jews and Christians. Islam pays great respect to Jewish and Christian leaders, such as Moses and Jesus.

8
Q

What religious text contains the teachings of Muhammad?

A

The Koran (Qur’an) contains the teachings of Muhammad as well as the revelations of God to Muhammad through Jibril.

9
Q

Islam prescribes Five Pillars of Faith. What are they?

A

The Five Pillars of Islam are:

  1. there is no god but Allah
  2. daily prayer in the direction of Mecca
  3. fast during the month of Ramadan
  4. giving alms
  5. pilgrimage to Mecca at least once
10
Q

Define:

Sharia

A

Sharia is the codification of Muslim law and bars such activities as eating pork and drinking alcohol. It requires Muslim women to veil themselves in public. Under Sharia, however, Muslim women have the right to inherit and own property.

11
Q

What is the Umma?

A

The Umma is the religious, social, and political community of Muslims. Especially in early Islam, no distinction was made between religious affiliation and social allegiance.

12
Q

Who was the first Caliph?

A

Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law, served as the first Caliph (leader of the Umma).

After Muhammad’s death in 632, Abu Bakr and his successors led the Muslims in wars of religious conquest; by 661, Muslim forces had conquered Egypt, the Middle East, and Persia, destroying the Sassanid Empire.

13
Q

What caused the Muslim community to split into two factions: the Sunnis and the Shiites?

A

In 656, two factions were competing for the title of Caliph. The Sunnis believed that Abu Bakr was rightfully named Caliph, that the Caliph should be chosen by believers, and that the Umayyad family were his rightful successors. The Shiites believed that Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, was his rightful successor and that the Caliph was determined by descent from Muhammad.

Most Muslims were (and are) Sunnis, although approximately 20% are Shiites. Although the Sunnis were triumphant and established the Umayyad Caliphate, the rift continues to this day.

14
Q

What city was the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate?

A

The capital of the Umayyad Caliphate was at Damascus, where the Caliphs directed the continual military expansion of Islam.

By the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750 after a series of internal revolts, Islam had expanded throughout North Africa into Spain and conquered both Armenia and the area of modern-day Afghanistan.

Besides their military conquests, the Umayyad made Arabic the official language of Islam and instituted a tax on those who did not convert.

15
Q

Define:

Sufism

A

Sufism is an Islamic religious group that stresses Islam’s mystical traditions and places an emphasis on meditation, fasting, and devout prayer.

Sufism arose during the Umayyad Caliphate out of a reaction to the increased worldliness of the Caliphs.

16
Q

What caliphate followed the Umayyad Caliphate?

A

Following the Umayyad Caliphate, the Abbasid Caliphate was established in Baghdad under Abu Abas, a descendant of one of Muhammad’s uncles.

The Abbasid Caliphs gradually became disassociated with the day-to-day running of the government and public functions like leading prayers.

Most governmental functions were carried out by viziers, a system of bureaucracy inherited from the Persians. Under the Abbasid Caliphate, Baghdad became a center for culture and learning, attracting scholars from as far away as Europe.

17
Q

Who were the Mamlukes?

A

The Mamlukes were Turkish horsemen who arrived in Asia Minor as mercenaries against the Byzantine Empire. They converted to Islam and a large group of them moved south to Egypt, where they established a kingdom in 1250.

18
Q

Who was Ibn Rushd?

A

Ibn Rushd (also known as Averroës) was an Islamic philosopher who was born in Cordoba in Muslim Spain. During the Abbasid Caliphate, Ibn Rushd taught in Baghdad, arguing that philosophy and religion could both be true.

According to Rushd, religion taught truth to the masses via signs and symbols, while philosophy taught truth directly to those educated enough to perceive it. If the two conflicted, Ibn Rushd contended that philosophy should triumph. Ibn Rushd’s commentaries on Aristotle were widely read in Europe, where they prompted much debate.

19
Q

A Spanish rabbi living in Cairo, ______ wrote The Guide for the Perplexed.

A

Maimonides

The Guide for the Perplexed was Maimonides’s attempt to reconcile Jewish theological thought with the Greco-Roman philosophical tradition. Although Jewish, Maimonides rose to prominence in the Arab world, benefitting from the freedom and toleration that Cairo’s Muslim rulers gave to the People of the Book.

20
Q

In 1055, the _____ _____ conquered Baghdad, ending the Abbasid Caliphate’s temporal rule.

A

Seljuk Turks

The Seljuk Turks were nomads, who’d converted to Islam and unified the Turkic tribes of the Central Asian steppes. Although the Seljuk Turks took over the governmental functions of the Abbasids, they did allow the Caliphs to continue their religious functions. In 1258, the Abbasid Caliphate would formally end when the Mongols captured Baghdad and executed the last Abbasid Caliph.

21
Q

Who was the most well traveled man of the 1300s?

A

The title of most well traveled man belongs to Ibn Battuta, who journeyed to the Arabian Peninsula, Mesopotamia, Persia, Central Asia, Anatolia, China, Sumatra, and even to Timbuktu.

Battuta’s record of his journeys, known as Travels, continues to be a valuable resource for historians.

22
Q

Omar Khayyám composed his ______, a collection of poetry composed of quatrains.

A

Rubaiyat

Omar Khayyám’s poetry is at once bittersweet and contemplative, and he remains one of Iran’s best beloved poets. Khayyám was also a mathematician and challenged many of the tenets of Euclidian geometry, proposing theories related to the actions and behaviors of parallels.

23
Q

Which classic of Arabian literature consists of a large collection of short stories told to amuse a king?

A

The Arabian Nights consists of 1001 short tales, composed in Arabic and framed as an attempt on the part of Scheherazade to amuse her royal husband. Many of the stories are folk tales originating from South Asia.

24
Q

How did Islam arrive in Sub-Saharan Africa beginning in the 900s?

A

Along the Indian Ocean, Islam was spread by traders arriving from the Middle East by ship or by caravan route through the Sahara.

In the west, Berber traders in Morocco were early converts to Islam. As their trading empire extended southward, Islam went with it. One of the early states to convert was Ghana, which was along Africa’s western coast.

25
Q

What trading center in Mali was one of the most powerful commercial outposts in the 1300s?

A

Timbuktu was the chief commercial center of Mali, where merchants from the Arab states of the north gathered to trade gold, slaves, ivory, and most importantly salt, gathered from throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.

Mansa Musa, Mali’s most successful ruler, earned a reputation as one of the world’s wealthiest monarchs, in part because of the vast amounts of wealth gathered at Timbuktu.

26
Q

One of Africa’s most famous epic poems, the _____-_____ recounts the exploits of the founder of Mali’s empire.

A

Son-Jara

Composed in the late 1200s, the Son-Jara tells the tale of the many exploits of Sundiata, who established the Mali state.

27
Q

Which Central African city became wealthy beginning in the 1250s, thanks to large supplies of gold?

A

Great Zimbabwe, a city of 20,000 people based along the Zambezi River, owed much of its success to the gold trade. Zimbabwe’s gold was shipped east, where it entered the Indian ocean trade system.

28
Q

City-states such as Mombasa and Zanzibar rose during 1300s and 1400s in response to the presence of what trading system?

A

Mombasa, Zanzibar, and other cities along the East African coast arose due to the Indian Ocean trade complex, which circulated goods from as far away as China in the 1400s.

Chinese ships are even known to have visited the cities directly, and African goods have been found in Chinese archeological digs.