Chapter Ten:  The Islamic World:  Religion and Culture

I.                  The World’s Youngest Major Religion

A.      Born among the tribal peoples of the Arabian peninsula

1.      Muhammad (ca. 570-632 C.E.)

2.      unifying force for first global civilization since Rome

a.      geographic bridge between Europe and Asia

b.       historical link between classical and modern eras

c.       stretched from Andalusia (Al-Andalus—Spain), across North Africa, on into India

B.      Drew on the cultures of Arabia, SW Asia, Persia

C.     Controlled Mediterranean

1.      defined borders of Western Europe

2.      Muslim scholars copied Greek manuscripts

3.      preserved classical literature

4.      many new innovations

D.     Today

1.      world’s fastest growing religion

2.      one billion adherents

II.               The Religion of Islam

A.      the Kaaba at Mecca

1.      life of Muhammad

2.      proclamations:  There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is His messenger

3.      five pillars of faith

a.   declaration of central belief

b.    recitation of prayers five itmes daily

c.    charitable contribution

d.    fasting from dawn until sunset during Ramadan

e.   make the hajj, pilgrimage, to Mecca, Muhammed’s birthplace

B.      Links to Judaism:  Abraham

C.     Medina:  hijra or hegira, migration

1.      conversions, conquests:  spiritual and political leader

2.      622 is the date of the beginning of the first year of the  Muslim calendar

D.     The Quran

1.      recitation

2.      suras reveal nature of God, inevitability of judgment and resurrection

3.      condemns drinking wine, eating pork, all forms of gambling

4.      polygyny limited to no more than four wives

5.      men a “degree higher than women”

6.      pre-Islamic tradtion for women to veil their bodies

a.   dijballah, abaya

7.      necessary to learn Arabic to truly memorize the Quran; primary text for study of the Arabic language

E.      The Spread of Islam

1.   contrast of Quran promise of garden, rivers, fruit trees, shade, liquids vs. punishments of Hell—hot, dusty desert

2.   at the outset: religious, political, military goals allied

3.   plus rules of conduct easy to understand and follow

4.   free of dogma and liturgy, no priestly hierarchy

5.   no intercessors

6.   all embracing ethical code of conduct:  sharia [path to follow]

7.   imams as prayer leaders, mullahs -- trained scholars

8.   unified tribal population of Arabia

9.   sense of historical mission

10.                  jihad evangelical counterpart, religious struggle

11.                  drive toward religious and moral perfection

12.                  holy war and self-control a “just cause” as Augustine struggled with as well

13.                  Islam succeeded more through economic opportunities than through the militant coercion of people

14.                  experts in navigation, trade, commercial exchange

15.                  bitter struggle after Muhammad’s death led to

a.      Sunni – “the tradition of the Prophet”

-         90% of Muslim faithful

-         religious leaders chosen by the faithful

b.       Shi’ites –

-         live primarily in Iran and Iraq today

-         claim descent through Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law

16.                  the first four caliphs after Muhammad, carried Islam outside Arabia, established a Muslim empire quickly

a.      Damascus (Syria)      634

b.       Persia (Iran)              636

c.       Jerusalem                  638

d.       Egypt                         640

e.      North Africa, Spain     710

17.                  resistance at Constantinople (Byzantium) and Tours (defeat by Charles Martel) 732

18.                  Muslim traders commanded the trans-Saharan network linking West Africa to Cairo through Asia via the Silk Road to China

19.                  Islam spread rapidly through Africa, mingled with native belief systems in Mali, Ghana, and Songhai

20.                  Muslim scribes and jurists; builders

21.                  Damascus became the political center of the Muslim world between 661 and 750; then capital shifted to Baghdad in Iraq (a multiethnic city)

22.                  Read:  Al-Yaqubi’s visit to Baghdad

23.                  culture, cosmopolitan, wealth

24.                  Mongol and Turk invasion 1258 destroyed Baghdad; Córdoba became center of culture & edu

25.                  Mongols converted to Islam, carried it to India, China, Egypt to become dominant faith of Asia and Africa

III.            Islamic Culture

A.      Diversity

B.      Scholarship in the Islamic World

1.      Muhammad’s dictum: “seek knowledge”

2.      few Westerners could read, write, or decipher Greek or Latin, so Arab scholars preserved ancient Greek manuscripts

a.   copied them on paper (paper from China)

b.    codified religious teachings that had been oral

c.    produced new types of literature:  treatises, cookbooks, poems, tales

d.    medical, botanical, astrological lore

e.   translated logic, natural philosophy from Aristotle

3.       stimulated rebirth of learning that led to the Renaissance in the West

a.    Hindu numbers became “Arabic numbers”

b.    block printing

c.    gunpowder

4.      plus original contributions to mathematics, medicine, optics, chemistry, geography, philosophy, astronomy

5.      spherical geometry led to accurate lunar calendar

C.     Islamic Poetry

1.      lyrical due to Arabic and Persian

2.      sensual power of love, “lovesickness,” courtly love

D.     Sufi Poetry [from suf – wool garments they wore

1.      visionary experience, intense physical sensation

2.      whirling dances, ecstasy through union of senses and spirit

3.      similar to Christian and Buddhist mystics

E.      Islamic Prose Literature

1.      Shahrasad (Scheherazade)’s Thousand and One Nights

2.      Tale of Behram and Al-Datma

F.      Islamic Art and Architecture

1.      muezzins and minarets; mosque, mihrab, minbar

2.      hexafoil arch design, rhythmic design

3.      resistance to image-making

4.      avoided symbols

5.      arabesque – linear ornamentation from plant & flower

6.      calligraphy – beautiful writing—takes precedence over human form in Islamic art

7.      Dome of the Rock—oldest surviving Islamic building

8.      Kufic  inscriptions --- earliest form of Arabic script

9.      illuminated manuscripts w/red dots for vowels

10.Islamic palaces feature water gardens, parks, fountains, pools, irrigation canals

11.Alhambra in Granada, Spain; Cordoba

G.     Music in the Islamic World

1.      chant of the Quran

2.      call of the muezzin to prayer

3.      therapeutic uses of music

4.      songs of desert nomads

5.      single melodic line, unaccompanied or instrumental

6.      use of microtones and improvisation

7.      bells, tambourines, flutes, drums: light, portable accompaniement

8.      development of the lute (forerunner of the guitar)

9.      development of the orchestral music may have occurred during Muslim rule in Spain

a.      first conservatory of music at Cordoba

b.       wide range of love songs of complaint & yearning

IV.            Summary

“And, in our own time, Muslim countries and their populations have reassumed positions of world-wide consequence” (Fiero, Book II, 65).