Pronunciation
Islam= Iss-lam IT’S JUST LIKE THE SPELLING
Muslim (NOT MOSLEM) = Mus-lim IT’S JUST LIKE THE SPELLING
Iraq= EERAKH
Iran- I-Ran
Muhammad = Mo-haam-madd
Mecca (Makkah) = Mak-kah
Hajj = Huj (just say that out loud, trust me)
Allahu Akbar = All-aa-hu Uk-ber (Freaking don’t yell it and look like an idiot, k?)
Nice-to-know Vocab
I’d like to thank my peers’ ignorance for making this section necessary.
If you get confused reading this, just know that this study guide is mostly authored by a Muslim student who took time out of their own life to help YOU, and the Christian student who manages this website graciously helped with the commentary. So yeah, this passage technically has two authors, but you should be able to figure out who wrote what. Oh, and yes, this is 17 pages. SEVENTEEN PAGES OF PURE AWESOMENESS. And if ya’ll love it like we know you will, this is only the start. :3
Intro
By the early 21st century, Islam spread around the world rapidly, being in nearly every country in the world, and having an increased presence in world affairs. For example, 9/11, the Iranian Revolution, wars between Israel and its neighbors, and increasing prices on oil hugely affected the way the world reacted to things.
Note: Important Muslims of today:
Malcolm X: Started out as a convert to the radical Nation of Islam, a black supremacist group who apparently found something in common with the racially equal Islam. He became the right hand man of the leader, but became disenchanted with their beliefs when he went a spiritual migration and realized that white people don’t suck. He soon converted to mainstream Islam and remained a powerful civil rights activists until he was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam.
Islam is slowly trying to find its footing today in the world, after recovering from the era of colonialism. Muslims around the world are seeking to restore the religion to its state of glory around 600-1600 CE where they were one of the most dominant forces on the planet in every aspect of life. Islam became the largest and most influential third-wave civilization, starting in Arabia but rapidly spreading outwards practically everywhere it could go, gaining 22% of the world as believers by the 21st century.
Q. How does a Muslim close a door?
A. Islams it.
The Birth of a New Religion
Most religions came from established societies, but Islam and Christianity both originated in more tribal minority situations.
The Homeland of Islam
The Arabian peninsula was inhabited by nomadic people known as Bedouins, who were sheep herders, and lived in tribes that engaged in vicious warfare (kill the wrong guy- war. Marry the wrong girl- war. Pray to the wrong god- war. I’m guessing they liked war a lot...). They had a variety of different gods, but there were also some societies near the Indian Ocean that developed with agriculture and trade, directly contrasting the overwhelming pastoral majority. One city, Mecca (or Makkah) was the site of the Ka’bah, the most important religious shrine in Arabia. Tons of people came to the Ka’bah all the time to visit and do religious stuff.
After some time although, the Arabs corrupt society (and dang they were WAY worse than us (we’ll get to that later)) started to bring them down. A small class of wealthy Quraysh (The main clan, Arab mafia?) started getting all the power. (So was Muhammad (PBUH) sorta like Bernie Sanders? Tune into the next episode of Dragonball Z to find out!)
Arabia was geographically located at the time between the Byzantine Empire that was all Christian and the Sassanid Empire (Persia) that was… Persian? They were probably Magian or Zoroastrian, they had assorted beliefs. (One Muslim guy was a Magian Persian, and he was the most epic guy ever. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough time here for war history, but just imagine digging an entire trench around a freaking city and defending it for a battle. The Muslims took him up on his idea and they epically won.) So as they were in between two hugely monotheistic empires, they were starting to have larger amounts of monotheists. Especially large amounts of Christians/Jews. You’d think they’d all become Christian or something after a few years, but NOPE. Guess what happened?
An army of elephants attacking the Ka’bah led by an Axumite ruler and being defeated by a small army of flying creatures dropping rocks on them? Well that happened, but it’s not as important. Later in that same year, one of the MOST influential people in human history was born.
Let’s do a REALLY quick fly-by of Muhammad (PBUH)’s early years.
(NOTE: The (PBUH) means peace be upon him, it’s this thing Muslims say to show respect. The Arabic version is (SAS), but we’ll refer to everything in this chapter in English to make it easier for y'all.)
So Muhammad ibn Abdullah (PBUH) is born in 570 (?) in Mecca to a son of the main leader of Mecca. A few months before he was born, his dad Abdullah dies in a trading trip. His mom is sad but still sends her son out to the desert like every other infant so he can be raised by a Bedouin lady. He comes back when he’s 5 and is a strong little boy. He goes on a trip with his mom, but she gets sick and passes away. He’s 5 and an orphan. He then gets raised by his grandfather, the LEADER of the most important religious city in Arabia. His grandfather passes away when he’s 12. Around this time, Muhammad (PBUH) starts becoming a sheep-herder. He then gets raised by his paternal uncle, and this continues on until a few years after he first starts Islam.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If there’s one thing you’ll learn from this whole lecture, just know that Muhammad was considered by his fellow tribesman to be the most honest and trustworthy person (literally his nickname) in the tribe. He never lied, he never took place in their… activities… and he was always a great guy to be around. How do you think Islam got so popular? It’s cause it had an epic leader.
Q. What do you call a Muslim between two houses?
A. An Ali. BC you know.. alley, ali right? RIGHT? Ok let’s move on...
So when he’s 25, he marries this merchant lady named Khadija (RA) who is 15 years older than him. He’s an awesome merchant, and she’s so impressed they get married and have 6 kids. Both sons die in infancy, but all 4 daughters survive till adulthood, and the youngest daughter is REALLY important for the rest of this chapter.
Muhammad is pretty disenchanted with the idolatry of Mecca. He doesn’t think it’s right, and so he goes off outside the city to pray and figure out who God could be. Now Muhammad is 40. He’s spending time meditating on his own in a cave, and suddenly, one night, he gets a visit from the Archangel Gabriel (Yes Christians, he’s sort of your Gabriel, but maybe a little different)(As a different person who is a christian I bet they are the same angels.. But that’s just me…) Oh yeah, our angels don’t look like people with wings. Ours look… more interesting?... So Gabriel gives Muhammad (PBUH) the first few verses of the Qur’an, which is considered to be the direct word of God to Muslims (if a Muslim rejects this, they are literally not a Muslim. No exceptions.) Now, Muhammad (PBUH) just got visited by an angel who told him he was the last prophet of God. If there’s one thing Islam is big on, Muhammad is just a man. He is the greatest man ever, but he’s still one of us. So what’s his reaction?
HE FREAKS OUT AND RUNS FOR HIS FREAKING LIFE. No seriously, the Prophets are supposed to be wise, and this is the wisest thing to do. Think about it. So he goes home, and his wife, who’s a major figure in early Muslim history, calms him down. So once he’s calmed down, he decides that Islam is a real thing, and that’s how Islam started.
NOTE: Wanna know when all this happened? Y’all know how Muslims fast for the whole month of Ramadan? So these events happened sometime in the last 10 days of Ramadan (we don’t know for sure, thanks to some advanced Islamic concepts we don’t have time to discuss.)
See kids, that wasn’t so long was it? Wait crap that was a page. Oh well. Get used to whap.tk’s that’ll go on for a while. It’ll be worth it in the long run.
So now that Islam’s started, Muhammad has spread the word to a bunch of close friends, keeping the religion a secret. His wife, best friend, adopted son and children, and other close friends all immediately convert.
Now you’re wondering, why was it a secret? Well, now it’s time to see JUST HOW MESSED UP THE ARABS WERE
(ARE? jk it’s the christian again XD).
(Hey, the Arabs are awesome nowadays, but back then… jeez.-Muslim Guy)
So pre-Islam Arabs were… let’s make a list!
Oh yeah, we forgot to mention that the Arabs were really big on following THEIR religion, and THEIRS only. It wasn’t that great.
The Transformation of Arabia
So let’s fast forward A LOT, because this is super long! After 3 years, the Muslims come out to the public! (They came out of the closet I guess? It was awkward as heck for sure)(Christian Dude that’s not Kim Davis approved) And yep you guessed it. The Arabs weren’t pleased. Oh sure, there were daily converts. Islam was all about freeing slaves and being nice to everyone after all. But the rich dudes? Nuh uh.The only reason Muhammad wasn’t killed instantly was because that uncle who raised him was one of the leaders of Mecca. But the other Muslims had tough luck. They tortured multiple Muslims, and killed many more. The next few parts aren’t important for WHAP, but they are awesome, but they are pretty much a waste of time for ya’ll.The persecution got so bad that the Muslims had to flee in large groups to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) to stay alive. Muhammad and some followers stayed back, but a large amount left.
After some time, they gotta leave to a nearby city called Medina, which literally means city.(Well I mean we live in Round Rock… -Christian Dude) Yep. “We shall now settle down in city!” It was called Yathrib back then though, so don’t worry.
Now LET’S MOVE ON. Yeah, we took way too freaking long. So the basics of Islam (those five pillars) are summed up in the amazingly detailed vocab up there, ya’ll can just check that out. STUDY WITH THE FREAKING QUIZLET
Important info: Islam hopped up out of nowhere in a TRIBAL society and immediately took away class inequality, made both genders equal, stopped the act of burying women alive, and pretty much managed to royally tick off the elites of the city. (respect-Christian Dude)
Now in Medina, the Muslims spread like crazy.(Like White girls at starbucks-Christian Dude) They became hella powerful, and won like every battle. The one battle they lost, they still learned more from their loss, so I guess it’s kinda a victory, because we learned an important moral lesson?(WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER, FIGHT A LITTLE HARDER- Christian Dude) But basically the Muslims became powerful, expanded, did awesome, and guess what? In 630, Muhammad marches into Mecca, and conquers the whole place with an enormous army. HE DIDN’T KILL A SINGLE PERSON.(Remembers when God killed the people in the promised land… OH Shit-Christian Dude) When anyone asked for forgiveness, he gave it. Guess what? This one lady decided to chew on the liver of one uncle of his after murdering the guy in a battle. HE STILL FORGAVE HER. (That must have took guts... )(GET OUT-Christian dude) By the time Muhammad died at 632 (dont forget, he’s still a human like the rest of us)(PSH jesus BOI-Christian Dude)(PSH our Jesus is still alive- Muslim Dude)(PSH WHAT?-Christian Dude)(Yeah, they switched them out with some Simon dude on the cross. “Simon says “GET ME OFF THIS THING”-Muslim Dude) (Well I learned something new today-Christian dude)(Jesus was cool tho- Muslim Dude)(Yeah he was chill-Christian Dude)
Islam had spread across Arabia and was immensely powerful.
War, Conquest, and Tolerance
The Sassanids and Romans were idiots. Like seriously, the Romans had 150,000 guys vs 3,000 Muslims. 50v1. The Romans lost. (I wish there was a facepalm emoji) The Persians didn’t do any better. Caliphates immediately after Muhammad’s death managed to grow Islam on an insane scale. It was all great for the Muslim empire. They took out the Sassanids by 644, and weakened Byzantine hugely. Islam also conquered Spain in the 700’s, and rekt China at the Battle of Talas in 751. IT’S WHERE WE ALL LEARNED PAPERMAKING :D But we’re using our laptops now… so…(As an Indian, I be tech supporting since day one- Christian Dude)
Thanks to stuff like this, Islam had converts where?
North Africa, Arabia, Central Asia, and Spain.
Oh yeah, and Muslims are generally chill with Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians. Or at least they should be. But the world isn’t always great. But at least then, monotheists were treated fairly.(ISIS: “WE ARE MUSLIM :D” North Korea: “WE ARE THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA :D”)
Oh wait. What about the jizya tax? Jizya was a tax that Non-Muslims had to pay the government to keep their religion.(EW taxes thanks Obama- Christian Dude) Wow, so bad, right? The Muslims had to pay the zakat tax. It’s not like they had a freebie. Also, the Non-Muslims couldn’t be drafted, which sounds like an amazing advantage to me. It may have been slightly biased in the end in the Muslim’s favor, but it’s not like it was biased by much. And honestly, we need to stop focusing in history on being perfectly equal, but more on making people happy.(Sorry but people tend to like people better if they can relate to them better, WELCOME TO LIFE- Christian Dude)
Conversion
So let’s get it out of the way. Forced conversion is forbidden in Islam. It’s a big no-no. It directly says not to. Like no fancy metaphors, it just says don’t. (ISIS WE’RE LOOKING AT YOU-Sincerely every Muslim ever (and the Christian dude))
So it’s forbidden in Islam, right? So how good did the empires do? Well, no one is perfect, and some messed up a heck of a lot more than others. Most cultures slowly became Arabized, of their own will, and became copies of Arabia. Persian lands became Muslim, but kept their own qualities. So places like Iran (PRONOUNCED EERAAN) and Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most monotheists would keep their own religion, but lots of slaves and POW’s found conversion appealing.
NOTE: In case it’s important, some Persian dude called Ferdowsi wrote this 60,000 lines long story called the Shahnama (The Book of Kings). Like dang dude, we get it, you’re into poetry.(I’m jesus, and I don’t like writing thesis-Christian Dude)
Divisions and Controversies
This is not a fun topic for any Muslim. Religious Sects aren’t fun for anyone honestly. Let’s break down the sects of Islam really fast. So Islam started out all epic as Islam, right? After Muhammad’s death, we need a new leader, comprende? So who should it be? Should it be his cousin? Or his best friend. There’s a huge debate over this, so even though I’m Sunni and the first opinion, I’ll take an objective view on it.(Don’t even get started on christianity-Christian Dude)
Sunnis- His best friend should be leader. Abu Bakr was the first man to be Muslim, he was with Muhammad for every major event, he’s like the ultimate Muslim. He knows like everything that was ever taught by Muhammad about Islam.
Shias- His cousin should be teacher. We believe that a few weeks before his death, he went and declared Ali to be his successor.
So what happened? Abu Bakr was declared caliph. Things go okayish for the next two years, but Abu Bakr has to take out false prophets and rebellions. Then we get into Umar Al Khattab, who was the third best Muslim ever, and was also pretty epic. He becomes the second caliph. It’s under Omar that Islam spreads freaking EVERYWHERE, and his caliphate is pretty awesome for Islam. Next, it’s the son-in-law of the Prophet, and one of the first Muslims, Uthman bin Affan! Uthman is an awesome man, but thanks to a heck of a lot of tribal conflict, he gets assassinated. Not cool guys, not cool. So who should be the fourth caliph? This next paragraph will get fun.
So, let’s talk about Ali. As a Sunni, I’m probably looking heavily biased right now. Sorry to all the Shias if I get anything wrong, but it’s almost midnight(It’s a 11 PSH -Christian Dude) and I’m too lazy to look up exactly what happened when. So Ali here is an awesome guy. Both groups agree on that. We all love Ali. In fact, Ali was totally chill with being the fourth caliph. HE DIDN’T WANT TO BE CALIPH, BUT NO ONE ELSE WOULD BE CALIPH UNTIL HE WAS. That’s the only reason he finally became caliph. But Uthman’s been assassinated, right? Ali doesn’t want to waste resources destroying the tribes that killed him, cause tribal warfare ain’t cool. This leads to a division as a lot of prominent Muslims side with Ali and stay in Arabia, while the other half make an army and go to Syria to fight em. Ali goes with his own army to stop them, and is forced to enlist Uthman’s killers due to low numbers. So they’re finally at the battlefield, but this is basically a civil war at this point. However, they talk it out, and both sides resolve any misunderstandings, make peace, and they’re all good, right? (Gyasi and the Cops? anyone? ok…-Christian Dude)
NOPE
Them killers? They know they done dead if the armies are at peace with each other. So they sneak out in the middle of the night
And yeah, I really have a strong dislike for them. THEY ATTACK THE OTHER ARMY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. So the freaking battle actually does start. And a bunch of important people die, and while the Muslims are technically united, they’re also technically not. All the main good guys are happy with each other, but the society is falling apart. Right after Ali’s assassination, this whole split starts.
And here’s the real important part. Remember way back when I mentioned Muhammad’s youngest daughter is important?(uh-oh -Christian Dude) She’s his only child to live longer than him (by 6 months), but she was married to Ali. And she had kids with Ali.(*wink* -Christian Dude) Hasan and Husain. These are both pretty good guys. The thing is, their murders spark the BIGGEST SPLIT IN ISLAM THAT STILL CONTINUES TO DIVIDE US TO THIS DAY.(banana splits are pretty good tho…-Christian Dude)
Yep, now we have Sunnis and Shias.
So the Sunnis are the vast majority, and we’re all about the government and the community, while the Shias, the minority, see themselves as the oppressed group (which is occasionally accurate) and they believe in these imams as holding religious authority.
Now, we live in America. What do Muslims in America think about this? The general belief? Sunnis and Shias have differences, oh yeah. But they have oh so many similarities, and no matter what, we’re all still Muslim.(Amen, Hallelujah -Christian Dude) Other sects? Not so much. Remember Malcolm X’s Nation of Islam? They thought white people were created by the devil.
(I mean….. Are they wrong… bc like… slavery….. and like... you know white people jkjk didn’t mean anything bad- Indian Dude)(Well we did create bollywood…-Other Indian)
Anyways…
I kid you not. That goes kinda against Islam’s position that all races are equal.
Now it’s time for dynasties! All the super interesting parts of Islam are mostly done. There’s still fun stuff, but mostly it’s boring stuff THAT’LL BE ON THE QUIZ :D . So. Let’s start!(Christian Guy to the rescue)
After a few generations and all, Islam basically just went dynasty. The first dynasty that came up were the Umayyad’s. They ruled from 661-750. So the empire grew then, and they moved from Medina to Damascus, Syria for the capital. However, they were a mostly Arab society, and they didn’t treat other races as well. Also, they managed to tick off the Shias. They caused huge class inequalities that were really bad, and they kinda failed. (YOU HAD ONE JOB -Christian Dude) We can’t blame them, but we can say that things didn’t go perfectly. So they got overthrown, ouch, and there was a new caliphate, the Abbasids! YAY :D . I like this one a lot. Actually wait no I don’t. So the Abbasid dynasty was a failure. After a few centuries, it just broke apart into sultanates. It wasn’t pretty.
Now there’s two other things going on here. People are starting to wonder how they can really be true Muslims, cause ya know, the government is crap. So the first thing they come up with is sharia. Now, you might complain that shariah is bad, but know that like 15 different countries use 15 different sharias, and saying that all 15 are bad without knowing any of them means you shouldn’t be in WHAP (Not Rekt [ ] Rekt [✓] -Christian Dude). Shariah is basically a religious code of law and life. Separation of church and state? Sure. Just make sure to include the mosque in the state.
This second thing is this sort of religious movement, called Sufism.(SURFING IN THE USA-Christian Dude) Sufis seek to explain the more mystical aspects of Islam. They started out pretty cool learning about spiritual stuff and all, but nowadays, modern-day Sufis pretty much just twirl around in long robes and do weird mystical stuff.(EXPONO PATRONUM-Christian Dude) Oh well.
The Sufis had some interesting beliefs… they were kind of the hippies of the Muslim world.(PEACE MAN-Christian Dude) But the important thing is, the Muslims never divided over this stuff.(IT’S NOT A PHASE MOM-Christian Dude) The legalist Shariah group still remained with the mystical Sufi group. Differences of opinion should not lead to fights, and thank God (Alhamdulillah)(Armadillo?-Christian Texan) that we didn’t fight this time.
Women and Men in Early Islam
So. This is really fun for a Muslim to write about. No it freaking isn’t. God dang it. Oh well.
So in the Qur’an, men and women are equal. End of story. They’re equal. But how equal?
Well, whoever read Chapter 6, remember our friends the Bantu? They had a weird gender role society too. But theirs was considered not oppressive. Wanna know why? BECAUSE THEY MAY HAVE BEEN SEPARATE ROLES BUT THEY WERE EQUAL ROLES. Islam relies on the belief that everything is equal, but a poor man is obviously not as rich as a rich man. However, the poor man gives what he can, and the rich man gives what he can, and that makes them equal. The poor man is a good worshipper, and the rich man is a good donor.(But is the rich man a good worshipper? Illuminati confirmed - Christian Dude) This makes them equal.
Think about it like this. I’m in the weight room, and because I’m a big strong guy, I’m benching 25’s. (WEAK, Jesus supported his own body weight for like 8 hours- Christian Dude). How do I put the 25’s on the bar? Well, I can put 2 10’s and a 5 pound weight. Right? I can also put 3 5’s and a 10 pound weight. These are different set-ups, right? But they still equal out to be the same.
In an ideal Islamic society, you don’t have to be identical to be equal. What women do is important and what men do is important.(The women do cook a pretty mean curry tho-Christian Dude(That was really misogynistic)) The problem with history is that men give too much importance to their roles. The problems was never the roles themselves. Looking at that reasoning, let's look at what Islam says about women. And hell yes, this will be positively biased towards Islam.
So women can’t be buried alive, they can own property, they decide who to marry. Sounds good. They get only half the inheritance compared to their brothers. Don’t forget, that means their husbands get twice the amount of their sister-in-laws. This basically encourages marriage so you can open yourself up to a fortune of 1.5x. Also, divorce laws are way more available to guys than gals. I don’t know why, do I look like a sheikh? (Actually you kinda do- Christian Dude) And here’s the fun one. Polygamy!
So polygamy is super rare in the world.(Christian Dude stares at mormons... JKJK XD) Like seriously. Pretty much no one does it. (I can’t even manage one girl tbh - Christian Dude) One wife is enough for most of us. BUT, let’s look at Arabian history. This random guy walks in and tells you to abandon your idols, alcohol, sexual immorality, and free your slaves. He makes you give up most of your property, and pretty much takes away everything good from your life. Seems harsh, doesn’t it? Ya’ll want to know a secret? BEFORE THE POLYGAMY RULING, MOST GUYS HAD OVER 4 WIVES.(*When your homies tell you you’re 3th wife is showing a little too much ankle*-Christian Dude) THE RULING TOLD THEM TO HAVE LESS, NOT MORE. Like seriously. That and, yeah, there are rules. You can’t just go around marrying women and having a nice time. You have to treat them all equally and fairly, and a few other things. In the end, it’s so complicated that you might as well just stick with one woman.(DON’T WORRY LADIES THERE’S ENOUGH OF ME TO GO AROUND- Christian Dude) Polygamy is one of those things that’s allowed in Islam, but it’s not like anyone needs you to. (As a Christian, before you start bashing Muslims, READ THE BIBLE, and then talk to me..)
Now for the stuff that’s bad no matter what. Female Genital Mutilation! If you don’t know what it is, don’t look it up.(Actually…. Don’t-Christian Dude) If you do, you know it’s horrifying. Guess what. There is no excuse for it. It’s bad. And surprisingly, it’s not religious. It’s cultural. FGM is found almost exclusively in Africa only (not implying Africans are bad, others do messed up things also)(Like bollywood-Indian Dude) and is found in majority Muslim countries AND majority Christian countries. Honor Killing? Like dang, who the heck came up with an idea for killing your daughter for showing a little too much ankle? The whole honor killing thing is pretty stupid and forbidden in Islam, because you’re murdering the girl, no matter how you look at it. If she’s dating a guy or some crap, just talk it out. Seriously, just take a chill pill. Ya know, like ground them for a year or something,(LOL - Indian Dude) but don’t freaking kill them.
A few more things. For all of our Christian friends, ya’ll know the concept of original sin?(Eve and the Snake-Christian Dude) Here’s a major place where Christianity and Islam diverge. Christians believe the whole thing about Eve being guilty, and hey, those are your beliefs, so go for it.* Muslims, on the other hand, believe that no matter what, we’re all still responsible for the decisions we make. As such, Adam was equally guilty with Eve, and childbirth is just kinda this extra thing for the ladies. (And periods- Christian dude)...(Menstrual Cramps**-Muslim Dude)
Well actually dude Christians believe its both fault
*Not all Christians think it’s only Eve’s fault, but we’re just pointing out a difference with some.(I believe that the fault was in both) -Christian Dude
Islam and Cultural Encounter: A Four-Way Comparison
Islam spread like crazy around the world, but there were obviously different reactions to it that persist today. We’ll be looking at the stuff that went down in India, Anatolia, West Africa, and Spain.
The Case of India
Hey Christian Dude did you bring the curry?
Nah fam :( ):
No? Dammit
So Islam gets to India when the Central Asian Muslims bring it down to Northern India. The Turks are the third biggest spreader of Islam right after the Arabs and Persians. They’re all great guys I guess.
Now the Muslims kinda raid Hindu temples and make off with a bunch of loot and they destroy a lot of statues… erm…(Awkward-Christian Dude) not the greatest start in the country. Oh well.
YOU GUYS HAVE TOO MUCH SPARE TIME TO BE WRITING THIS- The Hindu Guy
TRUE DAT - The Muslim Guy
We have too much of your loot too.
(cough cough Got burnt worse than a hot curry- Christian Indian Dude)
So in 1206, Turkey establishes the Sultanate of Delhi in India, and this is the government. Pretty good I guess. People alienated by caste systems found Islam to be their true religion, and Islam grew in areas that weren’t as strictly Hindu. Also, Sufi men appealed to more religious Hindus who liked “men of god”.
However, Islam didn’t become the dominant religion of this land, surprisingly. India is special as Islam is widespread in the country to this day, but it has never truly dominated the land. This is primarily due to the fact that Islam and Hinduism are opposites. Let’s go through this fast.
Are Islam and atheism opposites? Yeah you could say so. Islam is sort of the zero on a number line. It has one god and one god only. Atheism is -1, as it has zero gods. No gods whatsoever. But there’s a third thing we’re forgetting. Hinduism is just as different from Islam as some group like Atheists. Hinduism would be that +1 (or +1E∞- Christian Dude) as it has a near endless amount of gods and ways to portray them. Islam’s biggest advantage in India was the thing that kept it a separate religion that grew, but also kept it under limits and stopped it from spreading everywhere. What was this difference? Hinduism could absorb like any religion ever. They just took another religion and made it their own every single time. (Jesus is the 11th reincarnation of Vishnu apparently - Christian Dude) But what about Islam? If there’s one thing about Islam, it’s hella strict. That doesn’t mean it’s oppressive, it just means that it’s very specific. That same attention to details leads to Hinduism being unable to absorb the ideals of a religion that runs contrary to their core beliefs of being anything. (Nothing meant as an insi
Of course, not everything was bad and terrible. Muslims and Hindus learned to live with each other quite often. Soon, people started mixing up the two (we really don’t know how you could mess up that badly) and somehow found stuff in common. Soon, we have a new major religion, the sixth largest in the world currently - Sikhism! Why is it in the Islam section? Maybe because Islam is the only religion cool enough to guarantee a section aside from Christianity (now that I can agree with wholeheartedly - Christian dude) and we probably can’t put stuff about Sikhism in the Christianity chapter. Don’t worry, we’ll have fun with Mormonism in Chapter 10. (Oh wow I’m just drowning in excitement aren’t I?- Christian Dude JK I love you mormons, except you guys are freaking racist AF)(We love all of you but Mitt Romney...)
Sikhism
Quick butt in by the Christian Guy
Sikhism came from India, and declared that there was no Muslim and no Hindu, but only one God, and all of them the children of the aforementioned God. It is a blend in with Islam and Hinduism, taking the karma and rebirth aspects from hinduism, and monotheism and devotion from Islam. It goes by the belief that everyone is perfectly equal no matter what. As in no matter what.
The Case of Anatolia
India wasn’t the only country where the Turks first attacked. I’m sure everyone knows where Turkey is, right? So the mainland of Turkey in Asia is called Anatolia. It was a mostly Christian and Greek populate ruled by Byzantines. This is where your brain will hurt, because I realized it also as I typed the first sentences of this paragraph. If the Turks were invading Turkey to colonize Turkey with the Turks, then where did the Turks come from if the Turks had yet to colonize Turkey with Turks? (My brain… how much wood could a turkey chuck if a turkey didn’t come from turkey?- Christian Dude) So this is a paradox, and instead of explaining it with actual hard facts, just take our word on it. It’s 11 pm for the second day in a row :D so we’re too lazy to look it up, but we’re assuming our Turkish friends started the great migration from the wonderful land of Central Asia. (Honestly that place should be called Stanstan (Land of Stans(Lands)) from all those Stans in the area. - Christian Dude) So to save time, Anatolia’s history with Islam is about the same thing as India. BUT, and this is a big but (NO Sir-Mix-A-Lot - Christian Dude), there’s an enormous difference in the amount of Muslims in Anatolia. Anatolia soon becomes an overwhelmingly Muslim area. How did this happen?
Well, there’s a bunch of reasons. One, there’s 8 million people in Anatolia and 48 million in India at the time. Far less people to convert, and a group of Turks can get more done in a smaller population than a bigger one. Also, the Byzantine government which was super strict and all was slowly weakened until there wasn’t really a leading state to defend Anatolia. Unlike India, which was super decentralized and could bounce back from any shot, Anatolia just didn’t know what to do and submitted to the first government it found. Also, the areas were close to each other, similarities between religions, and Muslim respect of Christian and Jews made conversion a far easier process. All of these changes paved the road for the Ottoman Empire (Was their leader called the Sofa King?- Christian Dude)(That was Sofa King stupid- Muslim Dude)(*wink wink* - Christian Dude). The Ottoman Empire was the longest reigning empire in Muslim History, starting out in 1500 and going on till right past World War I. They were actually one of the biggest powers in the fight, but they were on the side of the Axis.
The Case of West Africa
As ya’ll could tell from your fun fun fun DBQ’s, Islam spread everywhere hella fast. Like, it’s insane how fast it just jumped from place to place. There’s one special place that Islam took root in, and that period of history is of special pride to the whole continent. Yes, the Muslims were in West Africa, and yes, they made it awesome.
So Islam gets to West Africa not by armies and all, but by traders who crossed the Sahara (of course the DBQ wouldn’t have you thinking that, would they?) It helps that North Africa is mostly Muslim, and soon, most urban centers in West Africa rapidly adopt the religion. Merchants want to be connected to their Muslim trading partners, leaders want Muslim officials (who were pretty darn smart-Christian Dude) in their courts, and now that those states are becoming part of a larger world, there local religions just don’t work. Islam hops in and fills that black hole, and gives them a universal religion they can believe in that applies to all of humanity. Overall, Islam did better in West Africa than Indians do in Math (Well maybe just the two of us…-Christian Dude)
Big differences to note: Arabic was used in West Africa, but never became a main language, there was no mass migration of Arabs to West Africa, and Sufi guys didn’t convert as many people in Africa. The scholars and merchants who went to the big cities did a lot more of that. And what were the big cities like? (LIVIN IT UP IN THE CITAY- Christian Dude that listens to too much POP)
Well, there was a lot of them, and they were all hugely successful centers of learning. The most famous is obviously Timbuktu, which we should have all heard of by now (we hope- Christian Dude). Timbuktu was an enormous center of learning which had more than 150 lower-level Quranic schools and had multiple centers of higher education. We’d call schools like those colleges (WHAT ARE THOOOOSE- Christian Dude) nowadays. They aren’t exactly the same, but it’s close enough.
So some African rulers didn’t fully Islamize the place. Sonni Ali, a ruler of Songhay, conducted ancient African rituals at the same time of Ramadan and stuff. West Africa seems like a great Islamic place, and it was, but of course, it isn’t perfect.
So Ibn Battuta, the traveler dude who’s gone freaking everywhere by now (even America?- Christian Dude)(He’s even in The Martian- Muslim Dude)(OMG Yaas-Christian Dude)(He’s their spaceship- Muslim Dude) So this guy is taking a trip in West Africa, because why not, and he’s looking at all the different stuff the Africans do.(I mean it was the music video idea for This Could Be Use by Rae Sremmurd-Christian Dude) He’s freaking out about now, because all the women are about and about and are pretty much not covered that well.(BOOBS-Christian Dude) We’re not talking them showing ankles, we’re talking them showing like a ton of stuff, probably less than Muslim guys.(Did you see the ankle on that one? Man… SO hot- Christian Dude) This is because while a lot of Africans became Muslim, at the same time, they also allowed any of their subjects who followed traditional religions to follow their religions. This kind of showing off made Ibn Battuta feel REAL uncomfortable, and as such, he didn’t review it as wonderfully on Trip Advisor.
And now it’s time for Mansa Musa.(Manna? -Christian Dude) Generally this story stuff isn’t on the quizzes, but Mansa Musa is a pretty famous guy, so we’ll include him. So Mansa Musa is the ruler of Mali, an enormous empire that ranges throughout West Africa. Yeah, he’s in charge of Timbuktu. (Urban Dictionary tells me… Actually nvm…-Christian Dude) Mali nowadays is in extreme poverty, sorta like Ethiopia, but they were both epic back then. So around 1324 Musa goes from Mali all the way over to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage. The guy is a pretty devout Muslim, who builds tons of mosques, and has control of the gold trade, making him RICH RICH RICH. (UP LIKE DONALD TRUMP-Christian Dude)(Except he had a decent haircut… and 92 billion dollars- Muslim Dude) So he goes with this enormous entourage to Mecca, gives out tons of gold to everyone (literally crashing the gold economy), and becomes a better Muslim along the way. (He found out he couldn’t just get it on with any unmarried woman…( Who ain’t got no women- Christian dude)
And that’s pretty much it for Africa. (Said no white man ever-Christian Dude)
The Case of Spain
So Islam’s main contact with Christian Europe was in Spain, which Muslims called Al-Andalus. The Muslims and Berbers(Beibers? -Christian Dude)(Yes, the Muslim Beliebers conquered Spain-Muslim Dude) conquered the place in the early eighth century. By the 10th century, the place was epic. Muslim Spain was full of religious tolerance and stuff, and the Muslim rulers were always kind to the other religions and people and subjects of the land. The capital city Cordoba was super beautiful, and they got tons of knowledge in the city. By 1000, nearly 75% of the population was Muslim, and the remaining percentage started following Muslim traditions and practices. Almost every citizen spoke Arabic, and everything was awesome.
Christian Dude (To the tune of you know what):
EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME
EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME IN MUSLIM SPAIN
EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME
WHEN YOU’RE LIVING IN PEEEEEACE
1
2
3
4
Whoops. Muslim Spain fell apart in a series of rebellions and slowly lost its religious tolerance and then became conquered.
Dammit.
Now you’re probably like “Whaaaat? We were just in the middle of a karaoke match with Chris Pratt and all…” Yeah you were. And while you wasted time singing that song, the government just fell apart. In the rule of al-Mansur, (981-1002), especially, the government began straight-out persecuting Christians. That intolerance slowly increased as Christians began to regain Spain, and began to be pretty harsh against the Muslims, around 1200.(Oops? -Christian Dude) Muslims managed to hold onto southern Spain until 1492, when the Spaniards managed to get to Granada and fully reclaim Spain.
Ya’ll know what else happened in 1492? CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS SAILED THE OCEAN BLUE
In search of yellow gold funded by green profits generated by the spilling of red Muslim blood in Spain…
Now you can never look at the old Windows Logo the same again.
That being said, ya’ll can be a hero like Columbus too! Just make sure to walk into someone’s house, steal all their belongings, kill and enslave some of them, and sneeze and accidentally kill 95% of their population. Achoo! (BTW, Christopher Columbus started the STD syphilis… Which only comes from llamas so…. He did some things to them llamas if you catch my drift *wink*-Christian Dude) Oh, and he caught prepubescent girls and sold them as sex slaves. You know what, let’s forget about that guy.
So we’re not trying to defend the crappy treatment of Christians by Muslims at the end of al-Andalus, but the invading forces were much MUCH worse. They slaughtered Muslims and Jews constantly. Like they never heard of religious tolerance. It’s plain stupid to blame the sins of the past on the people of today, but it’s still important to remember history, and even its horrors. (I mean white people?.. Slavery? -Christian Dude… JK)
And that was the wonderful tragic story of al-Andalus, even though it wasn’t even really a story… We saw religious tolerance, and then we saw the exact opposite. People still pull out examples from that era to try to make crappy arguments, but seriously, I think it’s time for the Christians and Muslims to forgive each other for all the crap the other did during the era.
(I forgive you bro.-Christian Dude)
(IT’S ABOUT TIME INFIDEL-Muslim Dude)
(YOU KNOW WHAT-Christian Dude)
Whap.tk: Civil War. Coming in theaters 2016.
Whose side will you be on?
The Jews though… they got the short end of the stick every time, didn’t they… Muslim Spain is special in how it reverted from a Muslim state to a Christian one, and also served as a transition point for Europe. Remember, things weren’t looking A+ in Europe right now, but the exchange of knowledge in Spain gave Europe the boost it needed to basically be a jerk to every other region of the world. Namely, China, the Muslim World, Africa, Natives of Americas, and Australia. Colonialism went badly for everyone but the Europeans (and debatably the Indians). Oh well. So basically Muslim Spain had an enormous effect on our world as we know it. Good job everyone for succeeding in creating a tolerant society and also for utterly screwing it up!
At least it lead to the discovery of the Americas leading to the discovery of tomatoes leading to the discovery of pizza leading to the discovery of happiness. (EVERYONE COMMENT THEIR FAVORITE TOPPING)
The World of Islam as a New Civilization
After some time, the Abbasid Empire began to decline, but unlike China (and similar to Western Christianity), Islam still grew. This is because Islam had a shared religion that kept it together. However, there were major threats to the Empire from the outside.
The minor one is the Crusades, and if you don’t know what it is, it’s a bunch of Christian dudes fighting a bunch of Muslim dudes, and is often incorrectly cited as a religious war. Yes, they fought over religion, but since when are the soldiers in a battle the real fighters? It’s always been a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight, and the Crusades like any other war was about gaining land and resources.(Bush did 9/11-Christian Dude)
And this major one really gets my blood boiling (Muslims are not big fans of Genghis Khan) which is ironic considering how he’s my ancestor… but that’s after his grandson converted to Islam and their descendants ruled India… I’ll let the Christian guy take over this one. The Mongols were douchebags… AND THE EXCEPTION. They repeatedly invaded the Muslim empire, and their conquest of Central Asia and Persia was the most devastating blow to the Muslims. The Mongols were real nice guys who enjoyed charitable environmental things like slaughtering cities full of people(oh goodie) and showing no mercy to anyone (fun times) :D Technically, yes, Genghis Khan reduced climate change more than anyone else in history,(Thanks, Obama) but he did that by slaughtering millions of people, which isn’t what I would call effective. (Kingsman, anyone?) He also managed to sack Baghdad, which was the center of the world’s learning at the time (so he brought us back at least a 100 years in scientific advances), killed till the rivers ran red with blood of the citizens and black with the ink of the scrolls(reminds me of ISIS), and killed the sultan by rolling him in a rug and trampling him with horses.(OW) It gets even worse, but they finally get stopped at Egypt, as the Muslims FINALLY unite after centuries of division.
So technically, the Mongols were good for Muslims as they united them, but it was bad for humanity as it took out so much of our knowledge. Even with these threats, Islam dominated, and was freaking awesome. I mean, look at that DBQ. Just look at it. With that one document being a literal Algebra equation.
Networks of Faith and Exchange
So we last left off the Islamic viewpoints on life with the Shariah and Sufi, right? Remember how those two groups never split up, even with their differences? Well they never do split up (thank god(Alhamdulillah))(I actually saw an armadillo today -Christian Dude) but they do have a small difference in scholarship. The Shariah people, as in the majority of the Muslims call their scholars the uluma. These uluma are learned scholars who know all about Islamic law and how Islam wants Muslims to live their lives. They studied at madrassas, and created an “international elite” that shared knowledge and information, and became a highly effective revolutionizing force in our world.
FACT: During the Abbasid Dynasty, scientists were paid and celebrated as much as we pay and celebrate pro athletes nowadays.
Now the Sufis on the other hand had sheikhs (shake but a kh sound instead of a hard k). Now here came a small problem where the Sufis became so obsessed with reaching spirituality a few kinda went off on random tracks in Islam, and that’s how we got super minor negligible sects that really don’t deserve much mention. Stuff like sainthood and sacred spaces popped up, which is generally a no-go for people who are most into shariah and the practical aspects of Islam (i.e most Muslims).
The network of exchange was used to exchange goods, technologies, food products, and ideas around the world. This rapidly grew , and this was due to the centralized location in the Afro-Eurasian-world. Hajj, as well as urbanization of the Islamic civilization, only made commerce grow more. The spread of Islam also mirrored a spread a different foods. For example, when Islam hopped into India, a ton of Indian foods were introduced to the world.(BIRYANI - EVERYONE)
The only problem is that Arabs hate spices and spices are what constitute ⅔’s of an Indian’s body… (6/7 actually….-Indian) It’s a medically proven fact… trust me… I’m a high school medical student….
Islam as a whole revolutionized the whole world. We saw the addition of multiple different inventions and concepts, such as algebra, papermaking, improvements in rockets, and other things. Enormous steps forward in medicine and physics also happened. And you probably didn’t know it was an Arab scientist, ibn-Al Haytham, who created the SCIENTIFIC METHOD used by every scientist and 2nd grade Science Fair enthusiasts.
Reflections: Past and Present: Choosing Our History
Islam played a huge role in the Afro-Eurasian Societies. The history of Islam reveals to us a world of great diversity and understanding. Islam is freaking awesome. I am freaking awesome. See. It all fits together. Bye felicia-Christian Dude
THANKS EVERYONE FOR READING THIS FAR. IF YOU JUST SKIPPED AHEAD, GO BACK. TRUST US, ITS WORTH IT.(You don’t even have to read the book…) THIS 17 PAGE GUIDE IS A PRODUCT OF STAYING UP TIL MIDNIGHT THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW.
APPRECIATE US.
Nah, we’re fine.
If this study guide helped you, taught you something, interested you, entertained you, or if you have something you want to change, COMMENT IT. -Muslim Dude
YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE IT. JUST LET US KNOW WHAT YOU WANT.
Have a great day everyone! (Although it’s midnight for us :/ )
Islam= Iss-lam IT’S JUST LIKE THE SPELLING
Muslim (NOT MOSLEM) = Mus-lim IT’S JUST LIKE THE SPELLING
Iraq= EERAKH
Iran- I-Ran
Muhammad = Mo-haam-madd
Mecca (Makkah) = Mak-kah
Hajj = Huj (just say that out loud, trust me)
Allahu Akbar = All-aa-hu Uk-ber (Freaking don’t yell it and look like an idiot, k?)
Nice-to-know Vocab
I’d like to thank my peers’ ignorance for making this section necessary.
- Jihad - A struggle against one’s self. Jihad of the sword is the least common form of jihad. Instead, jihad is meant to make Muslims strive to be the best people to others possible.
- Allahu Akbar - “God is the Greatest” There is literally nothing terrorist-y about this. I will yell this out from time to time if something good happens. Honestly, anyone can yell it out, even Non-Muslims.
- Taqiyya - A concept that exists in a sect that comprises only 10-15% of the world’s Muslims. Even then, in the minority who believe in it, taqqiya represents lying to save your own life. It represents the Muslims who had to pretend they were Christian under Spanish rule and the Inquisition. It most definitely does not mean lying to further the religion. Lying for something like that is forbidden in Islam. Don’t believe us and think we’re lying? Too bad.
- Alhamdulillah - Thank God. That’s all it means.
If you get confused reading this, just know that this study guide is mostly authored by a Muslim student who took time out of their own life to help YOU, and the Christian student who manages this website graciously helped with the commentary. So yeah, this passage technically has two authors, but you should be able to figure out who wrote what. Oh, and yes, this is 17 pages. SEVENTEEN PAGES OF PURE AWESOMENESS. And if ya’ll love it like we know you will, this is only the start. :3
Intro
By the early 21st century, Islam spread around the world rapidly, being in nearly every country in the world, and having an increased presence in world affairs. For example, 9/11, the Iranian Revolution, wars between Israel and its neighbors, and increasing prices on oil hugely affected the way the world reacted to things.
Note: Important Muslims of today:
Malcolm X: Started out as a convert to the radical Nation of Islam, a black supremacist group who apparently found something in common with the racially equal Islam. He became the right hand man of the leader, but became disenchanted with their beliefs when he went a spiritual migration and realized that white people don’t suck. He soon converted to mainstream Islam and remained a powerful civil rights activists until he was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam.
Islam is slowly trying to find its footing today in the world, after recovering from the era of colonialism. Muslims around the world are seeking to restore the religion to its state of glory around 600-1600 CE where they were one of the most dominant forces on the planet in every aspect of life. Islam became the largest and most influential third-wave civilization, starting in Arabia but rapidly spreading outwards practically everywhere it could go, gaining 22% of the world as believers by the 21st century.
Q. How does a Muslim close a door?
A. Islams it.
The Birth of a New Religion
Most religions came from established societies, but Islam and Christianity both originated in more tribal minority situations.
The Homeland of Islam
The Arabian peninsula was inhabited by nomadic people known as Bedouins, who were sheep herders, and lived in tribes that engaged in vicious warfare (kill the wrong guy- war. Marry the wrong girl- war. Pray to the wrong god- war. I’m guessing they liked war a lot...). They had a variety of different gods, but there were also some societies near the Indian Ocean that developed with agriculture and trade, directly contrasting the overwhelming pastoral majority. One city, Mecca (or Makkah) was the site of the Ka’bah, the most important religious shrine in Arabia. Tons of people came to the Ka’bah all the time to visit and do religious stuff.
After some time although, the Arabs corrupt society (and dang they were WAY worse than us (we’ll get to that later)) started to bring them down. A small class of wealthy Quraysh (The main clan, Arab mafia?) started getting all the power. (So was Muhammad (PBUH) sorta like Bernie Sanders? Tune into the next episode of Dragonball Z to find out!)
Arabia was geographically located at the time between the Byzantine Empire that was all Christian and the Sassanid Empire (Persia) that was… Persian? They were probably Magian or Zoroastrian, they had assorted beliefs. (One Muslim guy was a Magian Persian, and he was the most epic guy ever. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough time here for war history, but just imagine digging an entire trench around a freaking city and defending it for a battle. The Muslims took him up on his idea and they epically won.) So as they were in between two hugely monotheistic empires, they were starting to have larger amounts of monotheists. Especially large amounts of Christians/Jews. You’d think they’d all become Christian or something after a few years, but NOPE. Guess what happened?
An army of elephants attacking the Ka’bah led by an Axumite ruler and being defeated by a small army of flying creatures dropping rocks on them? Well that happened, but it’s not as important. Later in that same year, one of the MOST influential people in human history was born.
Let’s do a REALLY quick fly-by of Muhammad (PBUH)’s early years.
(NOTE: The (PBUH) means peace be upon him, it’s this thing Muslims say to show respect. The Arabic version is (SAS), but we’ll refer to everything in this chapter in English to make it easier for y'all.)
So Muhammad ibn Abdullah (PBUH) is born in 570 (?) in Mecca to a son of the main leader of Mecca. A few months before he was born, his dad Abdullah dies in a trading trip. His mom is sad but still sends her son out to the desert like every other infant so he can be raised by a Bedouin lady. He comes back when he’s 5 and is a strong little boy. He goes on a trip with his mom, but she gets sick and passes away. He’s 5 and an orphan. He then gets raised by his grandfather, the LEADER of the most important religious city in Arabia. His grandfather passes away when he’s 12. Around this time, Muhammad (PBUH) starts becoming a sheep-herder. He then gets raised by his paternal uncle, and this continues on until a few years after he first starts Islam.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If there’s one thing you’ll learn from this whole lecture, just know that Muhammad was considered by his fellow tribesman to be the most honest and trustworthy person (literally his nickname) in the tribe. He never lied, he never took place in their… activities… and he was always a great guy to be around. How do you think Islam got so popular? It’s cause it had an epic leader.
Q. What do you call a Muslim between two houses?
A. An Ali. BC you know.. alley, ali right? RIGHT? Ok let’s move on...
So when he’s 25, he marries this merchant lady named Khadija (RA) who is 15 years older than him. He’s an awesome merchant, and she’s so impressed they get married and have 6 kids. Both sons die in infancy, but all 4 daughters survive till adulthood, and the youngest daughter is REALLY important for the rest of this chapter.
Muhammad is pretty disenchanted with the idolatry of Mecca. He doesn’t think it’s right, and so he goes off outside the city to pray and figure out who God could be. Now Muhammad is 40. He’s spending time meditating on his own in a cave, and suddenly, one night, he gets a visit from the Archangel Gabriel (Yes Christians, he’s sort of your Gabriel, but maybe a little different)(As a different person who is a christian I bet they are the same angels.. But that’s just me…) Oh yeah, our angels don’t look like people with wings. Ours look… more interesting?... So Gabriel gives Muhammad (PBUH) the first few verses of the Qur’an, which is considered to be the direct word of God to Muslims (if a Muslim rejects this, they are literally not a Muslim. No exceptions.) Now, Muhammad (PBUH) just got visited by an angel who told him he was the last prophet of God. If there’s one thing Islam is big on, Muhammad is just a man. He is the greatest man ever, but he’s still one of us. So what’s his reaction?
HE FREAKS OUT AND RUNS FOR HIS FREAKING LIFE. No seriously, the Prophets are supposed to be wise, and this is the wisest thing to do. Think about it. So he goes home, and his wife, who’s a major figure in early Muslim history, calms him down. So once he’s calmed down, he decides that Islam is a real thing, and that’s how Islam started.
NOTE: Wanna know when all this happened? Y’all know how Muslims fast for the whole month of Ramadan? So these events happened sometime in the last 10 days of Ramadan (we don’t know for sure, thanks to some advanced Islamic concepts we don’t have time to discuss.)
See kids, that wasn’t so long was it? Wait crap that was a page. Oh well. Get used to whap.tk’s that’ll go on for a while. It’ll be worth it in the long run.
So now that Islam’s started, Muhammad has spread the word to a bunch of close friends, keeping the religion a secret. His wife, best friend, adopted son and children, and other close friends all immediately convert.
Now you’re wondering, why was it a secret? Well, now it’s time to see JUST HOW MESSED UP THE ARABS WERE
(ARE? jk it’s the christian again XD).
(Hey, the Arabs are awesome nowadays, but back then… jeez.-Muslim Guy)
So pre-Islam Arabs were… let’s make a list!
- Adultery was rampant, like their marriage arrangement would make a modern divorce counselor cry, and tell their past clients that they were right. You wanna know the stuff they did? So they had normal marriages (the horror) , they had marriages where the wife was sent to get impregnated by another dude (WTH Guys- Christian Dude) they had ones where 10 guys did a girl and whoever the girl said was the dad had to raise the kid(We all know what you’re thinking RN- Christian Dude), and they had one with the whorehouse, and you can guess what happened. well then….. (DAMN-Christian Dude)
- Arabs of that time were the ultimate drunkards of the world. You think Arab, you think no alcohol? Nowadays, yeah, back then, hah you’re kidding, right? (LOLZ BEER-Baptist Christian Dude)
- Now it’s time for the really bad one. Everyone says Islam is oppressive. They don’t know crap about what women had to do before it. If you’re wondering, I mentioned earlier Muhammad was raised in the desert by a bedouin, like all the GUYS. That’s cause the girls were mostly buried alive. :D
Oh yeah, we forgot to mention that the Arabs were really big on following THEIR religion, and THEIRS only. It wasn’t that great.
The Transformation of Arabia
So let’s fast forward A LOT, because this is super long! After 3 years, the Muslims come out to the public! (They came out of the closet I guess? It was awkward as heck for sure)(Christian Dude that’s not Kim Davis approved) And yep you guessed it. The Arabs weren’t pleased. Oh sure, there were daily converts. Islam was all about freeing slaves and being nice to everyone after all. But the rich dudes? Nuh uh.The only reason Muhammad wasn’t killed instantly was because that uncle who raised him was one of the leaders of Mecca. But the other Muslims had tough luck. They tortured multiple Muslims, and killed many more. The next few parts aren’t important for WHAP, but they are awesome, but they are pretty much a waste of time for ya’ll.The persecution got so bad that the Muslims had to flee in large groups to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) to stay alive. Muhammad and some followers stayed back, but a large amount left.
After some time, they gotta leave to a nearby city called Medina, which literally means city.(Well I mean we live in Round Rock… -Christian Dude) Yep. “We shall now settle down in city!” It was called Yathrib back then though, so don’t worry.
Now LET’S MOVE ON. Yeah, we took way too freaking long. So the basics of Islam (those five pillars) are summed up in the amazingly detailed vocab up there, ya’ll can just check that out. STUDY WITH THE FREAKING QUIZLET
Important info: Islam hopped up out of nowhere in a TRIBAL society and immediately took away class inequality, made both genders equal, stopped the act of burying women alive, and pretty much managed to royally tick off the elites of the city. (respect-Christian Dude)
Now in Medina, the Muslims spread like crazy.(Like White girls at starbucks-Christian Dude) They became hella powerful, and won like every battle. The one battle they lost, they still learned more from their loss, so I guess it’s kinda a victory, because we learned an important moral lesson?(WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER, FIGHT A LITTLE HARDER- Christian Dude) But basically the Muslims became powerful, expanded, did awesome, and guess what? In 630, Muhammad marches into Mecca, and conquers the whole place with an enormous army. HE DIDN’T KILL A SINGLE PERSON.(Remembers when God killed the people in the promised land… OH Shit-Christian Dude) When anyone asked for forgiveness, he gave it. Guess what? This one lady decided to chew on the liver of one uncle of his after murdering the guy in a battle. HE STILL FORGAVE HER. (That must have took guts... )(GET OUT-Christian dude) By the time Muhammad died at 632 (dont forget, he’s still a human like the rest of us)(PSH jesus BOI-Christian Dude)(PSH our Jesus is still alive- Muslim Dude)(PSH WHAT?-Christian Dude)(Yeah, they switched them out with some Simon dude on the cross. “Simon says “GET ME OFF THIS THING”-Muslim Dude) (Well I learned something new today-Christian dude)(Jesus was cool tho- Muslim Dude)(Yeah he was chill-Christian Dude)
Islam had spread across Arabia and was immensely powerful.
War, Conquest, and Tolerance
The Sassanids and Romans were idiots. Like seriously, the Romans had 150,000 guys vs 3,000 Muslims. 50v1. The Romans lost. (I wish there was a facepalm emoji) The Persians didn’t do any better. Caliphates immediately after Muhammad’s death managed to grow Islam on an insane scale. It was all great for the Muslim empire. They took out the Sassanids by 644, and weakened Byzantine hugely. Islam also conquered Spain in the 700’s, and rekt China at the Battle of Talas in 751. IT’S WHERE WE ALL LEARNED PAPERMAKING :D But we’re using our laptops now… so…(As an Indian, I be tech supporting since day one- Christian Dude)
Thanks to stuff like this, Islam had converts where?
North Africa, Arabia, Central Asia, and Spain.
Oh yeah, and Muslims are generally chill with Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians. Or at least they should be. But the world isn’t always great. But at least then, monotheists were treated fairly.(ISIS: “WE ARE MUSLIM :D” North Korea: “WE ARE THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA :D”)
Oh wait. What about the jizya tax? Jizya was a tax that Non-Muslims had to pay the government to keep their religion.(EW taxes thanks Obama- Christian Dude) Wow, so bad, right? The Muslims had to pay the zakat tax. It’s not like they had a freebie. Also, the Non-Muslims couldn’t be drafted, which sounds like an amazing advantage to me. It may have been slightly biased in the end in the Muslim’s favor, but it’s not like it was biased by much. And honestly, we need to stop focusing in history on being perfectly equal, but more on making people happy.(Sorry but people tend to like people better if they can relate to them better, WELCOME TO LIFE- Christian Dude)
Conversion
So let’s get it out of the way. Forced conversion is forbidden in Islam. It’s a big no-no. It directly says not to. Like no fancy metaphors, it just says don’t. (ISIS WE’RE LOOKING AT YOU-Sincerely every Muslim ever (and the Christian dude))
So it’s forbidden in Islam, right? So how good did the empires do? Well, no one is perfect, and some messed up a heck of a lot more than others. Most cultures slowly became Arabized, of their own will, and became copies of Arabia. Persian lands became Muslim, but kept their own qualities. So places like Iran (PRONOUNCED EERAAN) and Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most monotheists would keep their own religion, but lots of slaves and POW’s found conversion appealing.
NOTE: In case it’s important, some Persian dude called Ferdowsi wrote this 60,000 lines long story called the Shahnama (The Book of Kings). Like dang dude, we get it, you’re into poetry.(I’m jesus, and I don’t like writing thesis-Christian Dude)
Divisions and Controversies
This is not a fun topic for any Muslim. Religious Sects aren’t fun for anyone honestly. Let’s break down the sects of Islam really fast. So Islam started out all epic as Islam, right? After Muhammad’s death, we need a new leader, comprende? So who should it be? Should it be his cousin? Or his best friend. There’s a huge debate over this, so even though I’m Sunni and the first opinion, I’ll take an objective view on it.(Don’t even get started on christianity-Christian Dude)
Sunnis- His best friend should be leader. Abu Bakr was the first man to be Muslim, he was with Muhammad for every major event, he’s like the ultimate Muslim. He knows like everything that was ever taught by Muhammad about Islam.
Shias- His cousin should be teacher. We believe that a few weeks before his death, he went and declared Ali to be his successor.
So what happened? Abu Bakr was declared caliph. Things go okayish for the next two years, but Abu Bakr has to take out false prophets and rebellions. Then we get into Umar Al Khattab, who was the third best Muslim ever, and was also pretty epic. He becomes the second caliph. It’s under Omar that Islam spreads freaking EVERYWHERE, and his caliphate is pretty awesome for Islam. Next, it’s the son-in-law of the Prophet, and one of the first Muslims, Uthman bin Affan! Uthman is an awesome man, but thanks to a heck of a lot of tribal conflict, he gets assassinated. Not cool guys, not cool. So who should be the fourth caliph? This next paragraph will get fun.
So, let’s talk about Ali. As a Sunni, I’m probably looking heavily biased right now. Sorry to all the Shias if I get anything wrong, but it’s almost midnight(It’s a 11 PSH -Christian Dude) and I’m too lazy to look up exactly what happened when. So Ali here is an awesome guy. Both groups agree on that. We all love Ali. In fact, Ali was totally chill with being the fourth caliph. HE DIDN’T WANT TO BE CALIPH, BUT NO ONE ELSE WOULD BE CALIPH UNTIL HE WAS. That’s the only reason he finally became caliph. But Uthman’s been assassinated, right? Ali doesn’t want to waste resources destroying the tribes that killed him, cause tribal warfare ain’t cool. This leads to a division as a lot of prominent Muslims side with Ali and stay in Arabia, while the other half make an army and go to Syria to fight em. Ali goes with his own army to stop them, and is forced to enlist Uthman’s killers due to low numbers. So they’re finally at the battlefield, but this is basically a civil war at this point. However, they talk it out, and both sides resolve any misunderstandings, make peace, and they’re all good, right? (Gyasi and the Cops? anyone? ok…-Christian Dude)
NOPE
Them killers? They know they done dead if the armies are at peace with each other. So they sneak out in the middle of the night
And yeah, I really have a strong dislike for them. THEY ATTACK THE OTHER ARMY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. So the freaking battle actually does start. And a bunch of important people die, and while the Muslims are technically united, they’re also technically not. All the main good guys are happy with each other, but the society is falling apart. Right after Ali’s assassination, this whole split starts.
And here’s the real important part. Remember way back when I mentioned Muhammad’s youngest daughter is important?(uh-oh -Christian Dude) She’s his only child to live longer than him (by 6 months), but she was married to Ali. And she had kids with Ali.(*wink* -Christian Dude) Hasan and Husain. These are both pretty good guys. The thing is, their murders spark the BIGGEST SPLIT IN ISLAM THAT STILL CONTINUES TO DIVIDE US TO THIS DAY.(banana splits are pretty good tho…-Christian Dude)
Yep, now we have Sunnis and Shias.
So the Sunnis are the vast majority, and we’re all about the government and the community, while the Shias, the minority, see themselves as the oppressed group (which is occasionally accurate) and they believe in these imams as holding religious authority.
Now, we live in America. What do Muslims in America think about this? The general belief? Sunnis and Shias have differences, oh yeah. But they have oh so many similarities, and no matter what, we’re all still Muslim.(Amen, Hallelujah -Christian Dude) Other sects? Not so much. Remember Malcolm X’s Nation of Islam? They thought white people were created by the devil.
(I mean….. Are they wrong… bc like… slavery….. and like... you know white people jkjk didn’t mean anything bad- Indian Dude)(Well we did create bollywood…-Other Indian)
Anyways…
I kid you not. That goes kinda against Islam’s position that all races are equal.
Now it’s time for dynasties! All the super interesting parts of Islam are mostly done. There’s still fun stuff, but mostly it’s boring stuff THAT’LL BE ON THE QUIZ :D . So. Let’s start!(Christian Guy to the rescue)
After a few generations and all, Islam basically just went dynasty. The first dynasty that came up were the Umayyad’s. They ruled from 661-750. So the empire grew then, and they moved from Medina to Damascus, Syria for the capital. However, they were a mostly Arab society, and they didn’t treat other races as well. Also, they managed to tick off the Shias. They caused huge class inequalities that were really bad, and they kinda failed. (YOU HAD ONE JOB -Christian Dude) We can’t blame them, but we can say that things didn’t go perfectly. So they got overthrown, ouch, and there was a new caliphate, the Abbasids! YAY :D . I like this one a lot. Actually wait no I don’t. So the Abbasid dynasty was a failure. After a few centuries, it just broke apart into sultanates. It wasn’t pretty.
Now there’s two other things going on here. People are starting to wonder how they can really be true Muslims, cause ya know, the government is crap. So the first thing they come up with is sharia. Now, you might complain that shariah is bad, but know that like 15 different countries use 15 different sharias, and saying that all 15 are bad without knowing any of them means you shouldn’t be in WHAP (Not Rekt [ ] Rekt [✓] -Christian Dude). Shariah is basically a religious code of law and life. Separation of church and state? Sure. Just make sure to include the mosque in the state.
This second thing is this sort of religious movement, called Sufism.(SURFING IN THE USA-Christian Dude) Sufis seek to explain the more mystical aspects of Islam. They started out pretty cool learning about spiritual stuff and all, but nowadays, modern-day Sufis pretty much just twirl around in long robes and do weird mystical stuff.(EXPONO PATRONUM-Christian Dude) Oh well.
The Sufis had some interesting beliefs… they were kind of the hippies of the Muslim world.(PEACE MAN-Christian Dude) But the important thing is, the Muslims never divided over this stuff.(IT’S NOT A PHASE MOM-Christian Dude) The legalist Shariah group still remained with the mystical Sufi group. Differences of opinion should not lead to fights, and thank God (Alhamdulillah)(Armadillo?-Christian Texan) that we didn’t fight this time.
Women and Men in Early Islam
So. This is really fun for a Muslim to write about. No it freaking isn’t. God dang it. Oh well.
So in the Qur’an, men and women are equal. End of story. They’re equal. But how equal?
Well, whoever read Chapter 6, remember our friends the Bantu? They had a weird gender role society too. But theirs was considered not oppressive. Wanna know why? BECAUSE THEY MAY HAVE BEEN SEPARATE ROLES BUT THEY WERE EQUAL ROLES. Islam relies on the belief that everything is equal, but a poor man is obviously not as rich as a rich man. However, the poor man gives what he can, and the rich man gives what he can, and that makes them equal. The poor man is a good worshipper, and the rich man is a good donor.(But is the rich man a good worshipper? Illuminati confirmed - Christian Dude) This makes them equal.
Think about it like this. I’m in the weight room, and because I’m a big strong guy, I’m benching 25’s. (WEAK, Jesus supported his own body weight for like 8 hours- Christian Dude). How do I put the 25’s on the bar? Well, I can put 2 10’s and a 5 pound weight. Right? I can also put 3 5’s and a 10 pound weight. These are different set-ups, right? But they still equal out to be the same.
In an ideal Islamic society, you don’t have to be identical to be equal. What women do is important and what men do is important.(The women do cook a pretty mean curry tho-Christian Dude(That was really misogynistic)) The problem with history is that men give too much importance to their roles. The problems was never the roles themselves. Looking at that reasoning, let's look at what Islam says about women. And hell yes, this will be positively biased towards Islam.
So women can’t be buried alive, they can own property, they decide who to marry. Sounds good. They get only half the inheritance compared to their brothers. Don’t forget, that means their husbands get twice the amount of their sister-in-laws. This basically encourages marriage so you can open yourself up to a fortune of 1.5x. Also, divorce laws are way more available to guys than gals. I don’t know why, do I look like a sheikh? (Actually you kinda do- Christian Dude) And here’s the fun one. Polygamy!
So polygamy is super rare in the world.(Christian Dude stares at mormons... JKJK XD) Like seriously. Pretty much no one does it. (I can’t even manage one girl tbh - Christian Dude) One wife is enough for most of us. BUT, let’s look at Arabian history. This random guy walks in and tells you to abandon your idols, alcohol, sexual immorality, and free your slaves. He makes you give up most of your property, and pretty much takes away everything good from your life. Seems harsh, doesn’t it? Ya’ll want to know a secret? BEFORE THE POLYGAMY RULING, MOST GUYS HAD OVER 4 WIVES.(*When your homies tell you you’re 3th wife is showing a little too much ankle*-Christian Dude) THE RULING TOLD THEM TO HAVE LESS, NOT MORE. Like seriously. That and, yeah, there are rules. You can’t just go around marrying women and having a nice time. You have to treat them all equally and fairly, and a few other things. In the end, it’s so complicated that you might as well just stick with one woman.(DON’T WORRY LADIES THERE’S ENOUGH OF ME TO GO AROUND- Christian Dude) Polygamy is one of those things that’s allowed in Islam, but it’s not like anyone needs you to. (As a Christian, before you start bashing Muslims, READ THE BIBLE, and then talk to me..)
Now for the stuff that’s bad no matter what. Female Genital Mutilation! If you don’t know what it is, don’t look it up.(Actually…. Don’t-Christian Dude) If you do, you know it’s horrifying. Guess what. There is no excuse for it. It’s bad. And surprisingly, it’s not religious. It’s cultural. FGM is found almost exclusively in Africa only (not implying Africans are bad, others do messed up things also)(Like bollywood-Indian Dude) and is found in majority Muslim countries AND majority Christian countries. Honor Killing? Like dang, who the heck came up with an idea for killing your daughter for showing a little too much ankle? The whole honor killing thing is pretty stupid and forbidden in Islam, because you’re murdering the girl, no matter how you look at it. If she’s dating a guy or some crap, just talk it out. Seriously, just take a chill pill. Ya know, like ground them for a year or something,(LOL - Indian Dude) but don’t freaking kill them.
A few more things. For all of our Christian friends, ya’ll know the concept of original sin?(Eve and the Snake-Christian Dude) Here’s a major place where Christianity and Islam diverge. Christians believe the whole thing about Eve being guilty, and hey, those are your beliefs, so go for it.* Muslims, on the other hand, believe that no matter what, we’re all still responsible for the decisions we make. As such, Adam was equally guilty with Eve, and childbirth is just kinda this extra thing for the ladies. (And periods- Christian dude)...(Menstrual Cramps**-Muslim Dude)
Well actually dude Christians believe its both fault
*Not all Christians think it’s only Eve’s fault, but we’re just pointing out a difference with some.(I believe that the fault was in both) -Christian Dude
Islam and Cultural Encounter: A Four-Way Comparison
Islam spread like crazy around the world, but there were obviously different reactions to it that persist today. We’ll be looking at the stuff that went down in India, Anatolia, West Africa, and Spain.
The Case of India
Hey Christian Dude did you bring the curry?
Nah fam :( ):
No? Dammit
So Islam gets to India when the Central Asian Muslims bring it down to Northern India. The Turks are the third biggest spreader of Islam right after the Arabs and Persians. They’re all great guys I guess.
Now the Muslims kinda raid Hindu temples and make off with a bunch of loot and they destroy a lot of statues… erm…(Awkward-Christian Dude) not the greatest start in the country. Oh well.
YOU GUYS HAVE TOO MUCH SPARE TIME TO BE WRITING THIS- The Hindu Guy
TRUE DAT - The Muslim Guy
We have too much of your loot too.
(cough cough Got burnt worse than a hot curry- Christian Indian Dude)
So in 1206, Turkey establishes the Sultanate of Delhi in India, and this is the government. Pretty good I guess. People alienated by caste systems found Islam to be their true religion, and Islam grew in areas that weren’t as strictly Hindu. Also, Sufi men appealed to more religious Hindus who liked “men of god”.
However, Islam didn’t become the dominant religion of this land, surprisingly. India is special as Islam is widespread in the country to this day, but it has never truly dominated the land. This is primarily due to the fact that Islam and Hinduism are opposites. Let’s go through this fast.
Are Islam and atheism opposites? Yeah you could say so. Islam is sort of the zero on a number line. It has one god and one god only. Atheism is -1, as it has zero gods. No gods whatsoever. But there’s a third thing we’re forgetting. Hinduism is just as different from Islam as some group like Atheists. Hinduism would be that +1 (or +1E∞- Christian Dude) as it has a near endless amount of gods and ways to portray them. Islam’s biggest advantage in India was the thing that kept it a separate religion that grew, but also kept it under limits and stopped it from spreading everywhere. What was this difference? Hinduism could absorb like any religion ever. They just took another religion and made it their own every single time. (Jesus is the 11th reincarnation of Vishnu apparently - Christian Dude) But what about Islam? If there’s one thing about Islam, it’s hella strict. That doesn’t mean it’s oppressive, it just means that it’s very specific. That same attention to details leads to Hinduism being unable to absorb the ideals of a religion that runs contrary to their core beliefs of being anything. (Nothing meant as an insi
Of course, not everything was bad and terrible. Muslims and Hindus learned to live with each other quite often. Soon, people started mixing up the two (we really don’t know how you could mess up that badly) and somehow found stuff in common. Soon, we have a new major religion, the sixth largest in the world currently - Sikhism! Why is it in the Islam section? Maybe because Islam is the only religion cool enough to guarantee a section aside from Christianity (now that I can agree with wholeheartedly - Christian dude) and we probably can’t put stuff about Sikhism in the Christianity chapter. Don’t worry, we’ll have fun with Mormonism in Chapter 10. (Oh wow I’m just drowning in excitement aren’t I?- Christian Dude JK I love you mormons, except you guys are freaking racist AF)(We love all of you but Mitt Romney...)
Sikhism
Quick butt in by the Christian Guy
Sikhism came from India, and declared that there was no Muslim and no Hindu, but only one God, and all of them the children of the aforementioned God. It is a blend in with Islam and Hinduism, taking the karma and rebirth aspects from hinduism, and monotheism and devotion from Islam. It goes by the belief that everyone is perfectly equal no matter what. As in no matter what.
The Case of Anatolia
India wasn’t the only country where the Turks first attacked. I’m sure everyone knows where Turkey is, right? So the mainland of Turkey in Asia is called Anatolia. It was a mostly Christian and Greek populate ruled by Byzantines. This is where your brain will hurt, because I realized it also as I typed the first sentences of this paragraph. If the Turks were invading Turkey to colonize Turkey with the Turks, then where did the Turks come from if the Turks had yet to colonize Turkey with Turks? (My brain… how much wood could a turkey chuck if a turkey didn’t come from turkey?- Christian Dude) So this is a paradox, and instead of explaining it with actual hard facts, just take our word on it. It’s 11 pm for the second day in a row :D so we’re too lazy to look it up, but we’re assuming our Turkish friends started the great migration from the wonderful land of Central Asia. (Honestly that place should be called Stanstan (Land of Stans(Lands)) from all those Stans in the area. - Christian Dude) So to save time, Anatolia’s history with Islam is about the same thing as India. BUT, and this is a big but (NO Sir-Mix-A-Lot - Christian Dude), there’s an enormous difference in the amount of Muslims in Anatolia. Anatolia soon becomes an overwhelmingly Muslim area. How did this happen?
Well, there’s a bunch of reasons. One, there’s 8 million people in Anatolia and 48 million in India at the time. Far less people to convert, and a group of Turks can get more done in a smaller population than a bigger one. Also, the Byzantine government which was super strict and all was slowly weakened until there wasn’t really a leading state to defend Anatolia. Unlike India, which was super decentralized and could bounce back from any shot, Anatolia just didn’t know what to do and submitted to the first government it found. Also, the areas were close to each other, similarities between religions, and Muslim respect of Christian and Jews made conversion a far easier process. All of these changes paved the road for the Ottoman Empire (Was their leader called the Sofa King?- Christian Dude)(That was Sofa King stupid- Muslim Dude)(*wink wink* - Christian Dude). The Ottoman Empire was the longest reigning empire in Muslim History, starting out in 1500 and going on till right past World War I. They were actually one of the biggest powers in the fight, but they were on the side of the Axis.
The Case of West Africa
As ya’ll could tell from your fun fun fun DBQ’s, Islam spread everywhere hella fast. Like, it’s insane how fast it just jumped from place to place. There’s one special place that Islam took root in, and that period of history is of special pride to the whole continent. Yes, the Muslims were in West Africa, and yes, they made it awesome.
So Islam gets to West Africa not by armies and all, but by traders who crossed the Sahara (of course the DBQ wouldn’t have you thinking that, would they?) It helps that North Africa is mostly Muslim, and soon, most urban centers in West Africa rapidly adopt the religion. Merchants want to be connected to their Muslim trading partners, leaders want Muslim officials (who were pretty darn smart-Christian Dude) in their courts, and now that those states are becoming part of a larger world, there local religions just don’t work. Islam hops in and fills that black hole, and gives them a universal religion they can believe in that applies to all of humanity. Overall, Islam did better in West Africa than Indians do in Math (Well maybe just the two of us…-Christian Dude)
Big differences to note: Arabic was used in West Africa, but never became a main language, there was no mass migration of Arabs to West Africa, and Sufi guys didn’t convert as many people in Africa. The scholars and merchants who went to the big cities did a lot more of that. And what were the big cities like? (LIVIN IT UP IN THE CITAY- Christian Dude that listens to too much POP)
Well, there was a lot of them, and they were all hugely successful centers of learning. The most famous is obviously Timbuktu, which we should have all heard of by now (we hope- Christian Dude). Timbuktu was an enormous center of learning which had more than 150 lower-level Quranic schools and had multiple centers of higher education. We’d call schools like those colleges (WHAT ARE THOOOOSE- Christian Dude) nowadays. They aren’t exactly the same, but it’s close enough.
So some African rulers didn’t fully Islamize the place. Sonni Ali, a ruler of Songhay, conducted ancient African rituals at the same time of Ramadan and stuff. West Africa seems like a great Islamic place, and it was, but of course, it isn’t perfect.
So Ibn Battuta, the traveler dude who’s gone freaking everywhere by now (even America?- Christian Dude)(He’s even in The Martian- Muslim Dude)(OMG Yaas-Christian Dude)(He’s their spaceship- Muslim Dude) So this guy is taking a trip in West Africa, because why not, and he’s looking at all the different stuff the Africans do.(I mean it was the music video idea for This Could Be Use by Rae Sremmurd-Christian Dude) He’s freaking out about now, because all the women are about and about and are pretty much not covered that well.(BOOBS-Christian Dude) We’re not talking them showing ankles, we’re talking them showing like a ton of stuff, probably less than Muslim guys.(Did you see the ankle on that one? Man… SO hot- Christian Dude) This is because while a lot of Africans became Muslim, at the same time, they also allowed any of their subjects who followed traditional religions to follow their religions. This kind of showing off made Ibn Battuta feel REAL uncomfortable, and as such, he didn’t review it as wonderfully on Trip Advisor.
And now it’s time for Mansa Musa.(Manna? -Christian Dude) Generally this story stuff isn’t on the quizzes, but Mansa Musa is a pretty famous guy, so we’ll include him. So Mansa Musa is the ruler of Mali, an enormous empire that ranges throughout West Africa. Yeah, he’s in charge of Timbuktu. (Urban Dictionary tells me… Actually nvm…-Christian Dude) Mali nowadays is in extreme poverty, sorta like Ethiopia, but they were both epic back then. So around 1324 Musa goes from Mali all the way over to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage. The guy is a pretty devout Muslim, who builds tons of mosques, and has control of the gold trade, making him RICH RICH RICH. (UP LIKE DONALD TRUMP-Christian Dude)(Except he had a decent haircut… and 92 billion dollars- Muslim Dude) So he goes with this enormous entourage to Mecca, gives out tons of gold to everyone (literally crashing the gold economy), and becomes a better Muslim along the way. (He found out he couldn’t just get it on with any unmarried woman…( Who ain’t got no women- Christian dude)
And that’s pretty much it for Africa. (Said no white man ever-Christian Dude)
The Case of Spain
So Islam’s main contact with Christian Europe was in Spain, which Muslims called Al-Andalus. The Muslims and Berbers(Beibers? -Christian Dude)(Yes, the Muslim Beliebers conquered Spain-Muslim Dude) conquered the place in the early eighth century. By the 10th century, the place was epic. Muslim Spain was full of religious tolerance and stuff, and the Muslim rulers were always kind to the other religions and people and subjects of the land. The capital city Cordoba was super beautiful, and they got tons of knowledge in the city. By 1000, nearly 75% of the population was Muslim, and the remaining percentage started following Muslim traditions and practices. Almost every citizen spoke Arabic, and everything was awesome.
Christian Dude (To the tune of you know what):
EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME
EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME IN MUSLIM SPAIN
EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME
WHEN YOU’RE LIVING IN PEEEEEACE
1
2
3
4
Whoops. Muslim Spain fell apart in a series of rebellions and slowly lost its religious tolerance and then became conquered.
Dammit.
Now you’re probably like “Whaaaat? We were just in the middle of a karaoke match with Chris Pratt and all…” Yeah you were. And while you wasted time singing that song, the government just fell apart. In the rule of al-Mansur, (981-1002), especially, the government began straight-out persecuting Christians. That intolerance slowly increased as Christians began to regain Spain, and began to be pretty harsh against the Muslims, around 1200.(Oops? -Christian Dude) Muslims managed to hold onto southern Spain until 1492, when the Spaniards managed to get to Granada and fully reclaim Spain.
Ya’ll know what else happened in 1492? CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS SAILED THE OCEAN BLUE
In search of yellow gold funded by green profits generated by the spilling of red Muslim blood in Spain…
Now you can never look at the old Windows Logo the same again.
That being said, ya’ll can be a hero like Columbus too! Just make sure to walk into someone’s house, steal all their belongings, kill and enslave some of them, and sneeze and accidentally kill 95% of their population. Achoo! (BTW, Christopher Columbus started the STD syphilis… Which only comes from llamas so…. He did some things to them llamas if you catch my drift *wink*-Christian Dude) Oh, and he caught prepubescent girls and sold them as sex slaves. You know what, let’s forget about that guy.
So we’re not trying to defend the crappy treatment of Christians by Muslims at the end of al-Andalus, but the invading forces were much MUCH worse. They slaughtered Muslims and Jews constantly. Like they never heard of religious tolerance. It’s plain stupid to blame the sins of the past on the people of today, but it’s still important to remember history, and even its horrors. (I mean white people?.. Slavery? -Christian Dude… JK)
And that was the wonderful tragic story of al-Andalus, even though it wasn’t even really a story… We saw religious tolerance, and then we saw the exact opposite. People still pull out examples from that era to try to make crappy arguments, but seriously, I think it’s time for the Christians and Muslims to forgive each other for all the crap the other did during the era.
(I forgive you bro.-Christian Dude)
(IT’S ABOUT TIME INFIDEL-Muslim Dude)
(YOU KNOW WHAT-Christian Dude)
Whap.tk: Civil War. Coming in theaters 2016.
Whose side will you be on?
The Jews though… they got the short end of the stick every time, didn’t they… Muslim Spain is special in how it reverted from a Muslim state to a Christian one, and also served as a transition point for Europe. Remember, things weren’t looking A+ in Europe right now, but the exchange of knowledge in Spain gave Europe the boost it needed to basically be a jerk to every other region of the world. Namely, China, the Muslim World, Africa, Natives of Americas, and Australia. Colonialism went badly for everyone but the Europeans (and debatably the Indians). Oh well. So basically Muslim Spain had an enormous effect on our world as we know it. Good job everyone for succeeding in creating a tolerant society and also for utterly screwing it up!
At least it lead to the discovery of the Americas leading to the discovery of tomatoes leading to the discovery of pizza leading to the discovery of happiness. (EVERYONE COMMENT THEIR FAVORITE TOPPING)
The World of Islam as a New Civilization
After some time, the Abbasid Empire began to decline, but unlike China (and similar to Western Christianity), Islam still grew. This is because Islam had a shared religion that kept it together. However, there were major threats to the Empire from the outside.
The minor one is the Crusades, and if you don’t know what it is, it’s a bunch of Christian dudes fighting a bunch of Muslim dudes, and is often incorrectly cited as a religious war. Yes, they fought over religion, but since when are the soldiers in a battle the real fighters? It’s always been a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight, and the Crusades like any other war was about gaining land and resources.(Bush did 9/11-Christian Dude)
And this major one really gets my blood boiling (Muslims are not big fans of Genghis Khan) which is ironic considering how he’s my ancestor… but that’s after his grandson converted to Islam and their descendants ruled India… I’ll let the Christian guy take over this one. The Mongols were douchebags… AND THE EXCEPTION. They repeatedly invaded the Muslim empire, and their conquest of Central Asia and Persia was the most devastating blow to the Muslims. The Mongols were real nice guys who enjoyed charitable environmental things like slaughtering cities full of people(oh goodie) and showing no mercy to anyone (fun times) :D Technically, yes, Genghis Khan reduced climate change more than anyone else in history,(Thanks, Obama) but he did that by slaughtering millions of people, which isn’t what I would call effective. (Kingsman, anyone?) He also managed to sack Baghdad, which was the center of the world’s learning at the time (so he brought us back at least a 100 years in scientific advances), killed till the rivers ran red with blood of the citizens and black with the ink of the scrolls(reminds me of ISIS), and killed the sultan by rolling him in a rug and trampling him with horses.(OW) It gets even worse, but they finally get stopped at Egypt, as the Muslims FINALLY unite after centuries of division.
So technically, the Mongols were good for Muslims as they united them, but it was bad for humanity as it took out so much of our knowledge. Even with these threats, Islam dominated, and was freaking awesome. I mean, look at that DBQ. Just look at it. With that one document being a literal Algebra equation.
Networks of Faith and Exchange
So we last left off the Islamic viewpoints on life with the Shariah and Sufi, right? Remember how those two groups never split up, even with their differences? Well they never do split up (thank god(Alhamdulillah))(I actually saw an armadillo today -Christian Dude) but they do have a small difference in scholarship. The Shariah people, as in the majority of the Muslims call their scholars the uluma. These uluma are learned scholars who know all about Islamic law and how Islam wants Muslims to live their lives. They studied at madrassas, and created an “international elite” that shared knowledge and information, and became a highly effective revolutionizing force in our world.
FACT: During the Abbasid Dynasty, scientists were paid and celebrated as much as we pay and celebrate pro athletes nowadays.
Now the Sufis on the other hand had sheikhs (shake but a kh sound instead of a hard k). Now here came a small problem where the Sufis became so obsessed with reaching spirituality a few kinda went off on random tracks in Islam, and that’s how we got super minor negligible sects that really don’t deserve much mention. Stuff like sainthood and sacred spaces popped up, which is generally a no-go for people who are most into shariah and the practical aspects of Islam (i.e most Muslims).
The network of exchange was used to exchange goods, technologies, food products, and ideas around the world. This rapidly grew , and this was due to the centralized location in the Afro-Eurasian-world. Hajj, as well as urbanization of the Islamic civilization, only made commerce grow more. The spread of Islam also mirrored a spread a different foods. For example, when Islam hopped into India, a ton of Indian foods were introduced to the world.(BIRYANI - EVERYONE)
The only problem is that Arabs hate spices and spices are what constitute ⅔’s of an Indian’s body… (6/7 actually….-Indian) It’s a medically proven fact… trust me… I’m a high school medical student….
Islam as a whole revolutionized the whole world. We saw the addition of multiple different inventions and concepts, such as algebra, papermaking, improvements in rockets, and other things. Enormous steps forward in medicine and physics also happened. And you probably didn’t know it was an Arab scientist, ibn-Al Haytham, who created the SCIENTIFIC METHOD used by every scientist and 2nd grade Science Fair enthusiasts.
Reflections: Past and Present: Choosing Our History
Islam played a huge role in the Afro-Eurasian Societies. The history of Islam reveals to us a world of great diversity and understanding. Islam is freaking awesome. I am freaking awesome. See. It all fits together. Bye felicia-Christian Dude
THANKS EVERYONE FOR READING THIS FAR. IF YOU JUST SKIPPED AHEAD, GO BACK. TRUST US, ITS WORTH IT.(You don’t even have to read the book…) THIS 17 PAGE GUIDE IS A PRODUCT OF STAYING UP TIL MIDNIGHT THREE NIGHTS IN A ROW.
APPRECIATE US.
Nah, we’re fine.
If this study guide helped you, taught you something, interested you, entertained you, or if you have something you want to change, COMMENT IT. -Muslim Dude
YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE IT. JUST LET US KNOW WHAT YOU WANT.
Have a great day everyone! (Although it’s midnight for us :/ )