Video+summary+and+Questions

Video Summary: // Islam is a religion that is considered to be the world’s first religion empire. It was based entirely on faith and the spiritual revolution launched the empire. Its history is interwoven with Western history but that fact is ignored. Was founded by Muhammad. He was the messenger who was approached by an angel in the form of man. He was born around 570 A.D in the Arabian peninsula and used to live in Mecca but at a young age was taken to live in the Bedouin tribe by his parents. Both his parents died when he was six and was taken in the care of his uncle who was the leader of a tribal clan. During this time, one needed a clan to survive. Kabbah was a sanctuary that was known as Abraham’s shrine that was a place where people worshipped their gods and people who came their let go of their feuds which made Mecca a place full of mixed cultures. Muhammad became a merchant and at the age of 25 met Haddja who proposed marriage. Haddja died at around the same time as his uncle and so he was left defenseless. However, before all that, Muhammad was interested in religion which was very uncommon and he proposed a prospect about social justice which appealed to the poor. Slowly, Islam was created and the followers of Muhammad were called Muslims which mean those who surrender to God. The Qu’aran is a book that is believed to not be corrupted and pictures of Allah were never found. The people also don’t like sculptures and even though Muhammad wasn’t divine there aren’t a lot of pictures about him and those that are there are of him as a historical figure in which the case he is hidden by a cloth. During the rise of Islam, pilgrims left the city and business survived and so the chief elders tried to get Muhammad killed and they asked his uncle whether he would give up Muhammad’s tribal protection rights which allowed them to kill Muhammad with no retribution whatsoever from the clan and the uncle said no. This made Muhammad to become very scorned by people and soon after the deaths of Haddja and his uncle he went to Medina. A place where he was invited as an arbitrator and where a safe refugee camp was found for his followers. His job was to unite the people in harmony and was looked at as a seldomic figure. Whenever, Muhammad preached about Islam he never challenged other religions because he believed that they were all part of God and they were there was a way to get people to worship him and not mere idols. Muhammad’s house was the first mosque and a freed slave was the first to call people to come for prayer. While life was going ok in Medina people in Mecca were planning on wiping out the Muslims. The Muslim army was made up of 300 old men and young boys with few weapons but while in battle they lasted three years and soon they got help from other tribal Bedouin tribes. In 630 A.D the Muslims won the war and they returned back home to Mecca and even though they expected Muhammad’s wrath they received nothing but love and the wrath ended up on the idols that he destroyed. He united separate countries and when his people conquered new countries it wasn’t by force but because they people there were fed up of the old regimes and wanted something new which Islam provided. A lot of building structures were built starting in Damascus. The Muslims though saved their biggest structure for Jerusalem and the world was changed with in a 100 years after the initial beginning of Islam but Muhammad died in 632 A.D which led to people of Medina to fall into chaos. // Questions  How did the death of Muhammad lead to the Expansion of Islam? After the death of Muhammad, there was no successor and no instructions to how to get the next person to take his place. So a lot of people left the religion and the people who had remained especially the Bedouins decided to go after the people who had left and return them to the religion. In the process they ended up conquering a lot of places. What were the motivations for Islamic conquest? The motivations for Islamic conquest were for the Muslims to stand up to the non-Arabians rulers who had judged them as barbarians from the desert wastelands. It was also a good way to release the pent-up energy of the martial Bedouin tribes they had sought to lead. However, above all they were drawn to the campaigns of expansion by the promise of a share in the booty to be won in the rich farmlands raided and the tribute that could be exacted from towns that came under Arab rule. How were the Umayyads able to defeat their adversaries? The Umayyads were able to defeat their adversaries with the support of Christians in Syria and Egypt so the empire was conquered from inside out. They were also able to put together war-fleets that astounded Byzantines. What caused the major division in Islam? The major division in Islam was caused by who should be Muhammad’s successor and because when Uthman a Umayyad became a successor people were angered because his people were Muhammad’s earliest enemies and because Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law and cousin was passed over as Caliph because he was young enough. However, the main reason came when Ali refused to avenge Uthman’s death. What was the extent of the Islamic Empire under the Umayyads? The extent of the Islamic Empire was big. It was the only one that came close to that of the Roman Empire. It extended from Spain in the west to the steppes of central Asia in the east. How were people of the book treated under the Umayyads? People of the book were treated very differently than Muslims. They had to pay proper and commercial taxes and the jizya plus they got no important positions in the army or bureaucracy there communities and legal systems remained intact which made them happy. Explain gender structures under the Umayyads The gender structures under the Umayyads weren’t as rigid as they were during the classical periods. During this time they were able to get jobs such as scholarship, law, and commerce. Women were strengthened when it came to divorce and inheritance. What factors led to the decline of the Umayyads? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"> Corruptness was a main factor that led to the decline of the Umayyads. They got lazy and greedy not wanting to share the tallies but trying to fight the people who had earned it by fighting for the expansion and defending the frontiers.