The document summarizes the origins and early spread of Islam from the 7th century to the 13th century. It discusses key figures like Muhammad, who founded Islam and spread its message in Arabia, and Ibn Battuta, a famous Moroccan explorer who traveled extensively throughout the Muslim world. It also describes the expansion of the early Islamic empires under dynasties like the Umayyads and Abbasids, the establishment of Islamic institutions, and the influence of Islamic civilization during its Golden Age from the 8th to 13th centuries when it saw major advances in science, philosophy and culture. Challenges to Muslim rule came from the Seljuk Turks, Crusaders from Europe, and later the Mongol invas

1. Sections 1-2
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1333 - sultan of Delhi wanted to hire educated foreigners to carry out his policies
Ibn Battuta
• a scholar visiting India from Morocco got the job and became a judge in the sultan's court.
• The greatest traveler of his day.
• By the time he reached India, he had already visited Egypt, Middle East, Eastern coast of Africa, Asia Minor,
Constantinople, Central Asia. After 8 years in India, he sailed on Southeast Asia and China. He crossed the Sahara
to tour West Africa. (~75, 000 miles all in all)
Dar al- Islam
• “Abode of Islam”
• opened routes for the transfer of goods, ideas, and technologies.
622 - Islam emerged in Arabia.
• Muhammad faced the threat of murder
• Mecca – Yathrib
• first year of Muslim calendar
Muhammad
• a good merchant
• Prophet
• born in mecca about 570
• orphaned at an early age
• raised by his uncle
• when he was 25, he married Khadija
• often went to a lonely desert cave to pray and meditate
• when he was about 40, angel Gabriel told him to “Proclaim”
Khadija
• Muhammad's wife
• a respected merchant
• a wealthy older widow
• ran a prosperous caravan business
• became the first convert of Islam
Islam
• Appeared in the Arabian Peninsula
◦ mostly desert but farming is possible in scattered oases.
• From the Arabic word “submission”
• based on strict monotheism
• Muslims believe in one all-powerful, compassionate God, whose name in Arabic is Allah.
• Religion and a way of life (Sharia + Quran :) )
• Muslims believe in heaven and hell.
• Recognizes many prophets
• Believes that Jews and Christians are “People of the Book,” spiritually superior to polytheists.
• No religious hierarchy or class of priests
• emphasized equality
Bedouins
• Nomadic herders

2. • Used camels to cross and recross the desert in search of seasonal pasture-lands
• developed a strong tradition of hospitality and generosity towards travelers
• developed a strong sense of clan solidarity
Mecca
• an oasis where Bedouins traded
• a bustling market town at the crossroads of two main caravan routes. (S. Arabia to India and Palestine to
Mediterranean coast; Mesopotamia to E. Africa)
• Silks, spices
• a thriving pilgrimage center
Kaaba
• where the Arabs come to pray
• an ancient shrine that Muslims today believe was built by the prophet Abraham
• housed statues of many local gods and goddesses.
• The pilgrim traffic brought good profits to the local merchants.
Hijra
• Leaving Mecca for Yathrib
Medina
• “city of the Prophet”
• Yathrib
630 - Muhammad destroyed the idols in Kaaba and returned to Mecca
632 - Muhammad died
Abu Bakr
• selected as the first caliph (successor to Muhammad)
Quran
• the sacred text of Islam
• the final authority on all matters
• provides a complete guide to life
• emphasizes honesty, generosity, and social justice.
• Sets harsh penalties for crimes
• in its original form, it is the 'inimitable' word of God.
• Teaches that, while Islam was God's final and complete revelation, the Torah and Bible contained partial
revelation from God.
Five Pillars
• five basic duties
1. Shahadah – declaration of faith
▪ “There is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God.”
2. Zakat – giving charity to the poor
3. Sawm – fasting from sunrise to sunset during the month of Ramadan.
4. Salat – daily prayer, often gathering in 'masjids' or 'mosques'.
5. Hajj – pilgrimage to Mecca.
Jihad
• effort in God's service.
• Mistakenly translated as 'holy war'

3. • may include acts of charity or an inner struggle to achieve spiritual peace, as well as any battle in defense of Islam.
Sharia
• Islamic system of law.
• Regulates moral conduct, family life, business practices, government and other aspects of Muslim community
• does not separate religious matters from criminal or civil law. It applies the Quran to all legal situations
Woman Rights
• Islam affirmed the equality of women and men
• The Quran prohibited the killing of daughters and ensured protection for widows.
• Inheritance laws guaranteed a woman a share of her parents' or husband's property
• Woman had to consent freely to marriage and had the right to divorce
• Woman had the right to an education
• amount of inheritance give to daughter is less than the inheritance given to the son.
• Men are permitted to marry up to 4 women as long as he can all treat them justly.
Changes
• In Persia and Byzantine:
◦ veiling women and secluding them in a separate part of home.
◦ Harem – 'haram or forbidden to violate it'
– center of activity where women planned and carried out the indoor life of the family.
• Egypt
• Egyptian judge: “a woman should leave her home in 3 occasions only: when she is conducted to the house of
her bridegroom, when her parents died, when she goes to her own grave.
Reasons for Success of Arabs
• weakness of the Byzantine and Persian empires
• efficient fighting methods
• common faith (belief in the holiness of their faith and certainty of paradise)
Treatment of conquered people
• special tax on non-Muslims
• allowed Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians to practice their own faiths and follow their own laws.
• Jews and Christians played key roles as officials, doctors, and translators.
Spain
• 700s
• rivalries among princes divided Muslim Spin politically
• Moors – North African Muslims
• one of the most brilliant corners of the Muslim world
• Alhambra – Muslim place in Granada with its elaborately decorated halls and columns, its courtyards, gardens,
and pools.
Sicily
• Middle Ages
• briefer than in Spain
Divisions
• Sunni
◦ caliph should be chosen by leaders of the Muslim community
◦ viewed the caliph as a leader, not as a religious authority
◦ believed that inspiration came from the example of Muhammad

4. ◦ majority branch within Islam
◦ 90% of Islams
• Shiite
◦ the only true successors to the Prophet were descendants of Muhammad's daughter and son-in-law, Fatima
and Ali.
◦ Believed that the descendants of the Prophet were divinely inspired
◦ admired martyrdom as a demonstration of faith
◦ Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen
• Sufi
◦ Muslim mystics who sought communion with God through meditation, fasting, and other rituals.
◦ Respected for their piety and miraculous power
◦ Rabiah al-Adawiyya rejected marriage and devoted her life to prayer.
◦ Helped spread Islam through missionary work
Ali
• the fourth caliph
• assassinated in 661 in a struggle for leadership
• his son was killed also
Umayyad
• set up a dynasty that ruled the Islamic world until 750
• capital: Damascus in Syria
• had to adapt from desert life to ruling large cities and huge territories
• relied on local officials, including Jews, Greeks, and Persians
• Byzantine and Persian traditions influenced Arab rulers.
• Hated by Shiites because of defeating Ali and killing his son
• non-Arab Muslims had fewer rights than Arab ones
Abbassids
• Abu al-Abbas captured Damascus in 750
◦ killed all Umayyads through one of his generals by inviting them in a banquet.
◦ Only one Umayyad escaped to Spain, where he set up an independent caliphate at Cordoba.
• Lasted until 1258
• ended Arab dominance and helped make Islam a truly universal religion
• empire of the caliphs reached its greatest wealth and power
• golden age
• “City of Peace”
◦ caliph: al-Mansur
◦ new capital: Baghdad, a small market town in present-day Iraq.
▪ Persian traditions strongly influenced Arab life, but Islam remained the religion and Arabic the language
of the empire.
▪ Poets, scholars, philosophers, and entertainers
▪ title: “City of Peace, Gift of God, Paradise on Earth”
◦ muezzin – crier
Harun al-Rashid
• 786 – 809
• ruled an empire larger than Charlemagne
• a model ruler and a symbol of wealth and splendor
• Fadhl – treasurer

5. Seljuks
• 900s
• Seljuk Turks migrated into the Middle East from Central Asia
• adopted Islam and built a large empire across the Fertile Crescent.
• 1055, a Seljuk sultan, or authority, controlled Baghdad, but he left the Abbassid caliph as figurehead
• threatened the Byzantine empire.
The Crusaders
• 1099
• Christian crusaders captured Jerusalem, a city holy to Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
• Salah al-Din or Saladin (Muslim general) pusted Christians from Jerusalem in1187. They regained it after his death
in 1244.
Mongols
• 1216
◦ Genghiz Khan led the Mongols out of Central Asia across Persia and Mesopotamia.
• 1258
◦ Hulagu, grandson of Genghiz, burned and looted Baghdad, killing the last Abbassid caliph.
• Adopted Islam
• 1300s
◦ Timur the Lame or Tamerlane (another Mongol leader) led his armies into the Middle East.
▪ A Muslim whose ambitions led him to conquer Muslim as well non-muslim lands.
▪ His armies overran Persia and Mesopotamia before invading Russia and India

6. SS – Sections 3 & 4
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• Caliph al-Mamun
◦ dreamed of Aristotle
◦ had scholars collect and translate the great works of the classical world into Arabic.
◦ In 830, he had set up the “House of Wisdom” - a library and university in Baghdad
• Slaves~
◦ from Spain, Greece, Africa, India, Central Asia.
◦ Muslims could not be enslaved
◦ When non-Muslim slaves convert to Islam, their children do not become slaves
◦ If a female slave married her owner, she will gain freedom
◦ Most slaves worked as household servants
◦ Some were skilled artisans.
◦ The Abbassids used slave-soldiers who fought loyalty for the caliph.
◦ Slaves of rulers sometimes rose to high positions in the government.
◦ Islam law encouraged the freedom of slaves
◦ Many slaves bought their freedom.
• Merchants~
◦ honored in the Muslim world because Muhammad had been a merchant.
◦ Built a vast trading network across the Muslim world and beyond, to spread Islam peacefully in their wake.
(750 – 1350)
◦ brought Arabic numerals from India to the western world
◦ carried sugar from India, and papermaking from China.
◦ Sakk – the Arabic word which is the origin of “check”
• Manufacturing~
◦ Steel swords from Damascus
◦ leather goods from Cordoba
◦ cotton textiles from Egypt
◦ carpets from Persia
• Agriculture~
◦ sugar cane, cotton, dyes, medicinal herbs, fruits, vegetables, fruits, vegetables, and flowers
◦ The more arid regions of the Muslim world were basically divided into two kinds of land, “the desert and the
sown”
◦ small farming communities faced a constant scarcity of water
• Design and decoration~
◦ Muslim religious leaders forbade artists to portray God or human figures in religious art.
◦ Arabesque – an intricate design composed of curved lines that suggest floral shapes, appeared in rugs,
textiles, and glassware
◦ Calligraphy – they worked the flowing Arabic script.
◦ In nonreligious art, some Muslims painted human and animal figures
• Architecture~
◦ adapted the domes and arches of Byzantine buildings
◦ In Jerusalem, they built the “Dome of the Rock” - a great shrine capped with a magnificent dome.
◦ Domed mosques and high minarets dominated Muslim cities
◦ Outside many mosques lay large courtyards, with fountains used by the faithful to perform ceremonial
washing before prayer.
• Literature~
◦ Quran – the great poetic work of Islamic literature
◦ Arabs had a rich culture of oral poetry
◦ Bedouin poets chanted the dangers of desert journeys, the joys of battle, or the glories of their clans. And

7. most important, chivalry and romance of nomadic life.
◦ Rabiah al-Adawiyya – expressed Sufi mysticism.
◦ Firdawsi – wrote in Persian using Arabic Script. Masterpiece: the Shahnamah/King's Book of Kings tells the
history of Persia in 60 000 verses.
◦ Omar Khayyam – a scholar and astronomer, best known to westerners for “The Rubaiyat”
◦ The Thousand and One Nights by fictional princess Scheherezade, is the best-known collection.
• Learning~
▪ Baghdad – the greatest Muslim center of learning.
◦ Philosophy
▪ Muslim scholars translated the works of the Greek philosophers, as well as many Hindu and Buddhist
texts.
▪ Muslim scholars tried to harmonize Greek ideas about reason with religious beliefs based on divine
revelation.
▪ Ibn Rushd – known in Europe as Averroes; put all knowledge to the test of reason.
▪ Ibn Khaldun – set standards for the scientific study of history
◦ Mathematics
▪ Muslim scholars studied both Indian and Greek mathematics before making the original contributions.
▪ al–Khwarizmi – the great Muslim mathematician whose work pioneered the study of algebra
▪ al-jabr – where the word Algebra came from
▪ In 800's, al-Khwarizmi wrote a book that became a standard mathematics textbook in Europe
◦ Astronomy
▪ al-Khwarizmi developed a set of astronomical tables based on Greek and Indian discoveries.
▪ At observatories from Baghdad to Central Asia, Muslim astronomers studied eclipses, the Earth's
rotation, and calculated the earth's circumference to within a few thousand feet.
◦ Medicine
▪ Muhammad al-Razi – the most respected doctor in Baghdad. He was given the task of choosing the site
for a new hospital. By putting up pieces of raw meat, he identified the best place where he could put up
the hospital. He was the head physician at Baghdad's chief hospital. He wrote many books on medicine,
including the study of measles and smallpox. He thought that if a doctor made hopeful comments, the
patients would recover faster.
▪ Under the caliphs, physicians and pharmacists had to pass a test before the could practice medicine.
▪ The hospitals had different wards for women
▪ Physicians traveled to rural areas to provide health care to those who could not go to the city, and some
visited jails.
▪ Ibn Sina – the Persian physician known in Europe as Avicenna. He was already a doctor by the age of 16.
His great work was the “Canon on Medicine”, a huge encyclopedia of what the Greeks, the Arabs, and he
learned about the diagnosis and treatment of disease. The book includes a list of more than 4000
prescriptions, made with such ingredients as mercury from Spain, myrrh from E. Africa, and camphor
from India.
▪ Muslim eye surgeons developed a way to treat cataracts, drawing fluid out of the lenses with a hollow
needle.
▪ Arab pharmacists where the first to mix bitter medicines into sweet-tasting syrups and gums.
• Sultan Mahmud
◦ Sultan of Ghazni.
◦ Led his armies in to northern India in 1001.
◦ Smashing and looting Hindu temples, he used the fabulous riches of India to turn his captives into a great
Muslim center.
• Sultan of Ghur
◦ defeated Hindu armies across the northern plain in 1100
◦ made Delhi his capital and his successors organized the Delhi sultanate which lasted from 1206-1526 which
marked the beginning of Muslim rule in northern India.
• Muslims won because...
◦ Turkish mounted archers had far greater mobility than Hindu forces riding slow-moving war elephants.

8. ◦ Hindu princes wasted their resources battling one another instead of uniting against a common enemy.
• Delhi Sultanate
◦ During Mongol raids of 1200's, many scholars and adventurers fled from Baghdad to India, bringing Persian
and Greek learning.
◦ In 1398, Tamerlane invaded India. He plundered the northern plain and smashed the Delhi.
◦ Tens of thousands of artisans were enslaved and marched off to build Tamerlane's capital at Samarkand.
• Hindu-Muslim Differences
◦ Hindu: many gods and goddesses
◦ Muslim: monotheist
◦ Hindu: many sacred texts
◦ Muslim: a single sacred text
◦ Hindu: evolved over thousands of years
◦ Muslim: newer faith
◦ Hindu: prayed before statues
◦ Muslim: statues and carvings are offenses to the one true God.
◦ Hindu: accepted differences in caste status
◦ Muslim: equality
◦ Hindu: celebrated religious occasions with music and dance
◦ Muslim: condemned celebrations
• Interactions
◦ Muslim scholars argued that behind the many Hindu gods and goddesses was a single god.
◦ Hinduism was accepted as monotheistic
◦ Hindus remained as 2nd class citizens but as long as they paid their non-Muslim tax, they could practice their
religion
◦ Some lower caste Hindus converted to Islam because of equality
◦ Some higher caste converted to Islam because of monotheism and Muslim government
◦ Indian merchants were attracted because of strong trade network
• Cultural Blending
◦ Indian Muslims absorbed elements of Hindu culture, such as marriage customs, and caste ideas
◦ Urdu – a new language which evolved as a marriage of Persian and Hindi.
◦ Local artisan applied Persian art styles to Indian subjects
◦ Nanak – an Indian holy man who sought to blend Muslim monotheism and Hindu beliefs.
◦ Sikhism – a new religion in India which rose from Nanak's teachings.
◦ The Sikhs later organized military forces that clashed with the powerful Mughal rulers of India.
• Mughals
◦ In 1526, Turkish and Mongol invaders again poured through the mountain passes in India
◦ Bahur – claimed descent from Genghiz Khan and Tamerlane. (“Memoirs”)
◦ Sultan Ibrahim – led the huge army Babur met.
◦ Babur swept away the remnants of the Delhi sultanate and set up the Mughal dynasty which ruled from
1526-1857
◦ Akbar – The chief builder of the Mughal empire (Babur's grandson)
◦ He created a strong central government (1556-1605) on the subcontinent, earning the title “Akbar the Great”
◦ Akbar – a leader of unusual abilities. A Muslim, but he won the support of Hindu subjects through his policy
of toleration. He opened government jobs to Hindus of all castes and treated Hindu princes as his partners in
ruling. He ended the tax on non-Muslims and himself married a Hindu princess. He could not read or write,
but consulted leaders of many faiths, including Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians. Like Asoka, he
hoped to promote religious harmony through tolerance. By recognizing India's traditional diversity, he placed
Mughal power on a firm, stable footing. To improve government, he used paid officials in place of hereditary
officeholders. He modernized the army, encouraged international trade, and introduced land reforms.
◦ Akbar's successors~
▪ Jahangir – Akbar's son which was a weaker ruler than Akbar. He left most details of government in the

9. hands of his wife, Nur Jahan.
▪ Nur Jahan – an able leader whose shrewd political judgment was matched only by her love of poetry and
royal sports. The most powerful woman in Indian history until this century.
▪ Shah Jahan – Akbar's grandson. During his reign, the high point of Mughal literature, art, and
architecture.
▪ Mumtaz Mahal – Shah Jahan's wife who died at age 39, after giving birth to her 14 th child.
▪ Taj Mahal – a stunning tomb built for Mumtaz Mahal. It was designed in Persian style, with spectacular
white domes and graceful minarets mirrored in clear blue reflecting pools. Perhaps the greatest Mughal
empire monument.
◦ Decline~
▪ 1600's, Aurangzeb – resumed persecution of Hindus.
▪ Heavy taxes, discontent revolts against Mughal rule.