LOCATION:  North Africa--Atlantic Ocean to Pakistan including Maylasia, Indonesia, West China, Balkans, southern border regions of the Old USSR [Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajhkistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan]

• founder= Mohammed.  d. 632 AD
• monotheistic faith or belief in one god as compared to the polytheistic religions
• taught brotherhood of all Arabic peoples
• sacred text= Koran or Quran;  actual Word of God revealed through the archangel Gabriel to the Prophet of Islam during a 23 year period;  revealed in the Arabic language and cannot be translated correctly into any other religion
• organization= very loose collection of congregations united by very conservative tradition;  theoretically, "the state" and the "religious community" are one and the same  Theocracy.

Basic Beliefs:

•  Monotheistic [one God] the creator of the universe
• Man is God's highest creation
• Man is misled by Satan and the evil spirit
• God revealed the Koran to Mohammed to guide men to the truth
• those who repent and sincerely submit to God can return to the state of sinlessness
• in the end the sinless go to Paradise, a place of physical and spiritual pleasure and the wicked burn in Hell

Basic Practices or Five Duties of the Faithful

• 1. "I believe that there is no God but Allah and that Mohammed is his prophet."  God was discovered by the Jews, sent the prophet jesus to reveal His views and finally sent Mohammed to reveal the Truths to human kind
• 2.  Pray five times per day and face Mecca
• 3.  Fast for the Month of Ramadan
• 4.  Give alms to the poor and to help the needs of the community
• 5.  Make pilgrimage to the city of Mecca or the hajj which is the journey of a lifetime
• Generally speaking, Muslims commanded to exhort others to perform good acts and to abstain from evil.  "None of you is a believer until you love your brother what you love yourself."
• Jesus and Mary

The Hajj ----  Holy Sites and Photos

• once in a life-time obligation of adults
• before leaving home, redress all wrongs, pay all debts, plan to have funds for journey and for maintenance of family while away;  in the past The Hajj might take a person ten years
• people from at least 70 states descend upon the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• clothing:  ihram worn by men is a white seamless garment made up of two pieces of cloth or toweling; one covers the body from the waist to the ankle and the other is thrown over the shoulder; women wear a simple white dress and head covering but not a veil; symbol of purity and the renunciation of evil and mundane matters; white indicates equality of all people in the eyes of God;  all people dress the same---the rich and the poor--- so all will be equal in the eyes of Allah
• several days of meditating, praying, and visiting religious sites near Mecca to remind themselves of the Day of Judgment
• visit to and circle the Ka'bah; 7 times circle= symbol of God's oneness an implies that all human activity must have God at its center; symbol of unity of God and man
• may kiss the black stone of the Ka'bah; oval stone first mounted in a silver frame late in the 7th century;  according to tradition, the sole remnant of the original structure built by Abraham and Ishmael;  the Prophet also kissed the stone; stone not seen as an object of worship

Divisions or Sects:
 

• Sunni the orthodox and the Shi'ite who believe in 12 perfect teachers who guide the faithful from Paradise.  Shi'ite tends toward being overpowered by emotion as grief, joy, passion whereas Sunni are more simple;  Shi'ite sect affirms man's free will to make decisions;  Sunni are more deterministic
• Shi'ite accept Ali or son-in-law of Mohammed as the Iman or guide and rightful successor of Mohammed
• Sunni approve of the 1st four caliphs [secular and religious leaders] as the rightful successor of Mohammed and the Sunna as a supplement to the Koran

Geographic Significance of Islam

• "Diffusion" or movement of people due to population pressures on the land; missionaries, travelers, traders, wars that forced religion upon the people
• Expansion into Southern Europe [Spain, former Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Southern former USSR], North Africa, Middle East, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Southeast Asia [Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Borneo
• Moslem expansion halted at gates of Vienna, Austria or Central Europe
• Moslems ruled Spain from 711 to 1492;  influence from the Abbasid dynasty from Baghdad, Iraq;  Moslem army brought no women so intermarried with women of Iberia or Spain;  Spain= no other European area [other than former Yugoslavia] so influenced in language, customs and cultural forms of Islam;  today Spain = 4000 castles of which 25% were built by the Moors; Moorish architecture with cool water gardens, arcade patios, stucco domes, intricate mosaic design

Granada, Spain-- Moorish Influence


 

• Development of nation states in Europe as with the unification of Spain that created a strong army to drive out the Moors or Moslems
• Strength of Hinduism in India -- Islamic influences in India.  Taj Mahal, by Emperor Shah Jahan, at Agra, India, 1630 to 1653.
• Rainforest of Africa which reduced mobility of Arab horsemen
• Interest and trading Asia rather than searching out a new route to Asia
• Effects of Islam Upon Other Cultures:
• Arabic TOPONYM or Arabic place names in spain
• Preservation of classical culture and knowledge of Greece and rome during the time of the "Dark Ages" of Europe
• Development of Medicine
• 900's described and treated smallpox
• 900's used alcohol as an antiseptic
• 1000 diagnose and treat meningitis, synthesize all the medical writings of the Greeks from 300BC and become the final authority for European medical books for 600 years
• Discover and use of "Arabic numerals" that we use today
• Mecca became the center of the religion and brought people from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans to one place where ideas are exchanged;  Arabic became the written language of the Muslim world.
• Words with Arabic foundation:  admiral, adobe, alcove, algebra, amber, artichoke, atlas, banana, cable, camel, coffee, cotton, giraffe, lemon, lute, magazine, mask, monsoon, orange, rice, safari, saffron, sofa, sugar, syrup, troubadour, zero
• Islamic Militancy
• Militants today either born into poverty and despair experienced by dispossessed rural Moslems in the cities or are university-educated that have been unable to advance up the economic ladder in un-developed countries that have a surplus of educated people
• some countries have small but militant minority that seeks to return to pure Islamic law and rule that includes strict traditional dress, strict moral codes and ultra conservative religious observances;  reject European and American influences as un-holy and the work of the devil
• grinding poverty causes urban poor to seek new answers; militant islamic groups claim to have answers in return to traditional values and being religious;  leadership by disaffected intellectuals who often cannot find work suitable to their educational training and ego
• first generation migrants to cities have large families; rural values retained in tight family households that exist in relative isolation within unfamiliar and strange cities; simple religious people unable to return to less complicated country life and less stressful days of the past;  prospective converts to the Jihad movement
• Issue of Israel and Palestine... "stateless peoples" with little hope for the future
• Religion simply used as a cause or reason to expel European and American ideas and customs

---

    a. Islamics

    b. Muslims

    c. Arabs

    d. Hindus

2. True or False. The largest community of Islam followers is in Iran.

3. During Ramadan, the followers of Islam celebrate

    a. their great harvest

    b. their financial abundance

    c. the gift of the Koran

    d. the gift of the Holy Bible

4. During Ramadan, those who practice Islam are expected to

    a. fast for 29 or 30 days

    b. cover their body except for their eyes

    c. donate all their money to their church

    d. read the Koran 4 times

5. In the 7th century, Islam began when revelation was given to

    a. Ghandi

    b. Buddha

    c. Confuscius

    d. Muhammed

6. True or False. The followers of Islam refer to their god as Allah.

7. True or False. There are 8 pillars of Islam.  List these

8. True or False. There are less than 7million followers of the Islamic faith.

9. True or False. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.

10. The word "Islam" means

    a. doing good to all man

    b. submission to God

    c. followers of Christ

    d. men of Muhammed