Photo: Purity of line characterizes the late twelfth century Kutubiyah Mosque of the Berbers in Marrakesh. In the eighth century, all of northern Africa, the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), India, and Indonesia became . Islam, in Arabic, means "submission" - submission to the will of God. Yet these advances were, in fact, of enduring significance to mankind as a whole. Although rigorous, however, the fast, by Quranic injunction, also admits of a warm compassion. Important advances in agriculture were also made in the Golden Age. Palestine, they pointed out, had been part of the Islamic world almost continually for twelve centuries; from 636 to the First World War. Another factor was that the Janissaries became too strong for the sultans to control The sultans were further weakened when it became customary to bring them up and educate them in isolation and without the skills necessary to rule effectively. The Mamluks had been recruited by the Ayyubids and then, like the Turkish mercenaries of the 'Abbasid caliphs, had usurped power from their enfeebled masters. Just a short time before, Muhammad had to leave the city of his birth in fear of his life. On the contrary, the Muslims permitted Christians and Jews to practice their own faith and numerous conversions to Islam were the result of exposure to a faith that was simple and inspiring. Read more. One important addition by the Ottoman calligraphers was the script called diwani, so called from the word diwan (meaning state council or government office) since it was at first used primarily for documents issued by the Ottoman Council of State. He wrote (originally cited in Robert Gottfried's Black Death):. Although it led to an improvement in Egyptian-Israeli relations which resulted in Israeli evacuation of some occupied Egyptian territory and the opening of the Suez Canal to Israeli ships, however, this separate peace treaty did nothing to bring about withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights of Syria and left untouched the root cause of the entire problem- that is, the status of the Palestinians. In the meantime the Crusaders - or Franks, the Arabs called them - had extended their reach to the borders of Egypt, where the Fatimids had fallen after two hundred years. These problems were not unmanageable while Mu'awiyah was alive, but after he died in 680 the partisans of 'Ali resumed a complicated but persistent struggle that plagued the Umayyads at home for most of the next seventy years and in time spread into North Africa and Spain. One of its most famous scholars was Hunayn ibn Ishaq, Ishaq's father - known to the West as Joanitius - who eventually translated the entire canon of Greek medical works into Arabic, including the Hippocratic oath. Nor do they encompass anything of His knowledge The Merciful, the Compassionate; Finally, Muhammad recited the words of what are now the first five verses of the 96th surah or chapter of the Quran - words which proclaim God the Creator of man and the Source of all knowledge. These successes, however, were qualified by serious administrative weaknesses. Each of these men, all exceptional scholars, wrote or dictated long and learned commentaries upon which their schools of law were founded. For all that, the Umayyads, during the ninety years of their leadership, rarely shook off their empire's reputation as a mulk - that is, a worldly kingdom - and in the last years of the dynasty their opponents formed a secret organization devoted to pressing the claims to the caliphate put forward by a descendant of al-'Abbas ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib, an uncle of the Prophet. Islamic Empire to 750 CE. By the end of the 1970s the Arabs, having assumed control of their own destinies, had emerged as full and independent participants in the affairs of the world. Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds; Important books were written on soil analysis, water, and what kinds of crops were suited to what soil. We feature each theme with a beautiful image. The volunteers - a mixed assemblage of kings, nobles, mercenaries, and adventurers - had to cross thousands of miles of unfamiliar and hostile country and conquer lands of whose strength they had no conception. Expansion in the East to 750 CE (with arrows, years . The three most influential monotheistic religions in world history are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all of which began in the Middle East. Ironically, they also put an end to the centuries-old rivalry between the Arabs and Byzantines. They were polytheistic and reaped all the political problems associated with polytheism. To the west, they took North Africa, in a continuation of the campaign led by 'Uqbah ibn Nafi' who founded the city of Kairouan - in what is now Tunisia - and from there rode all the way to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. The coming of Islam saw a general decline in the status of . Several Western nations have attempted mediation, a Palestinian spokesman has argued the matter before the General Assembly of the UN, and in 1977 President Sadat of Egypt traveled to Jerusalem and appeared before the Israeli parliament in an unprecedented peace initiative. In the Middle East-North Africa region, medians of more than half favor strict criminal penalties (57%) and the execution of those who convert from Islam to another faith (56%). Established by the prophet Muhammad, the religion of Islam unified a diverse cultural region that spans several countries. Only one man of importance escaped the disaster - 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiyah al-Dakhil, a young prince who with a loyal servant fled to Spain and in 756 set up an Umayyad Dynasty there. Although a member of the Umayyad family, 'Umar had been born and raised in Medina, where his early contact with devout men had given him a concern for spiritual as well as political values. The important office of wazir or vizier, chief counselor, may well have developed from Sassanid models. Later, after Ibn al-Ahmar's death, Granada itself was rebuilt and became, as one Arab visitor wrote, "as a silver vase filled with emeralds. The Islamic empire began to expand beyond the Arabian Peninsula after the death of the prophet and founder of Islam, Mohammed, in 632 CE. As Muslims throughout the world perform identical sacrifices on the same day, the Muslims at Mina in effect share their pilgrimage with Muslims everywhere. Completed in 1908, it permitted thousands of Muslims to make the pilgrimage in relative comfort and safety. The Ridda Wars ended around 634. The Mongols were raiders, clan warriors, and rulers of a transcontinental empire in the thirteen century. Islam spread from the Middle East to take hold across North Africa during the second half of the 7th century CE when the Umayyad Caliphate (661-750 CE) . In the countries that use the Arabic alphabet, on the other hand, calligraphy has continued to be used not only on important documents but for a variety of other artistic purposes as well. After the last circuit the pilgrims worship in the courtyard of the Mosque at the Place of Abraham, where the Patriarch himself offered prayer and, with Ishmael, stood while building the Ka'bah. Many also make the sa'y or running, a reenactment of a frantic search for water by Hagar when she and Abraham's son Ishmael were stranded in the valley of Mecca until the Angel Gabriel led them to water in the Well of Zamzam. It is therefore understandable that many observers predict the rapid decay of Islamic influence in the Middle East. Emergence of Islam; Umayyad and Abbasid Empires. Influences on Islamic medicine. The Islam to spread because of the forgiveness of Muhammad that he help the people. Leading to hate and conflicts. After the death of his grandfather, Muhammad was raised by his uncle, Abu Talib. In short, he demonstrated the viability of the Muslim state. Non-Muslims are often struck by the range of styles found in the Quran. At a later period the Janissaries became so powerful that they made and unmade sultans at their will, and membership in the corps was a sure road to advancement. His death, nevertheless, had little effect on the dynamic society he had created in Arabia, and no effect at all on his central mission: to transmit the Quran to the world. The greatest scientist of the medieval world was a 10th century Arab by the name of Ibn al-Haytham. Islamic medicine built upon the legacies of Greek and Roman physicians . In the meantime, the Mongols, like so many of the peoples who had come into contact with Islam, had begun to embrace it. The Ottomans were not content merely to improve and develop the types of script that they inherited from the Arabs and Persians but also added a number of new styles to the calligrapher's repertoire. Of much greater importance to Islam, however, was 'Uthman's compilation of the text of the Quran as revealed to the Prophet. Photo: The Hijaz Railway, completed by the Turks in 1908, linked Damascus with Medina, eight hundred miles to the south. Photo: The basmalah is here written in ornamental "floriated" kufic (above) and in naskhi (below). Perhaps, this is the most notable impact of Islam at the coast of East Africa. It is an extremely graceful and very decorative script, with strong diagonal flourishes, though less easy to read than some other styles. Does one religion have the monopoly on truth? By occupying Constantinople, the capital of their Christian allies, in the Fourth Crusade, the Crusaders achieved what the Arabs had been trying to do from the early days of Islam. The famous theologian al-Ghazali whose greatest work, the Revival of the Sciences of Religion, was a triumph of Sunni theology taught for a time at the nizamiyah schools at Baghdad and at Nishapur. Although the Byzantine Empire continued until 1453, when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, it never recovered its former power after the Fourth Crusade, and subsisted only in the half-light of history during its remaining years. Elsewhere, Muslim leaders such as the Mahdi in the Sudan and 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi in Algeria took direct action. It was probably during the reign of Orhan that the famous institution of the Janissaries, a word derived from the Turkish yeni cheri ("new troops"), was formed. Click on these beautiful images & start exploring the theme/value behind it. The first four caliphs had been without exception Companions of the Prophet - pious, sincere men who had lived no differently from their neighbors and who preserved the simple habits of their ancestors despite the massive influx of wealth from the conquered territories. The first verses were revealed to him in or about 610, and the last revelation dates from the last year of his life, 632. Here ornamental kufic is used on a Quranic page that typifies the marriage of calligraphy and illumination, an art that reached its zenith in the fourteenth century. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. During this period scribes began the modification of the original thick and heavy kufic script into the form employed today for decorative purposes, as well as developing a number of new scripts derived from the more cursive naskhi. But their opponents also had firm ideological commitments and there is no reason to assume that individuals were likely to be any less brave. The most stable of the successor dynasties founded in the ninth and tenth centuries was that of the Fatimids, a branch of Shi'is. Because of administrative paralysis, local governors became increasingly independent and, eventually, revolts broke out. The Qur'an has a number of passages that support military action against non-Muslims, for example: But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war) Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book Other passages confirmed the rightness of the ancient military tradition of looting from the defeated, and specified how the booty should be divided. They were polytheistic and reaped all the political problems associated with polytheism. By mid-century they had taken Russia, Central Europe, northern Iran, and the Caucuses, and in 1258, under Hulagu Khan, they invaded Baghdad and put an end to the remnants of the once-glorious 'Abbasid Empire. An important part of this framework was the millet system - essentially a division of the empire into a communal system based upon religious affiliation. The Prophet, in another Hadith, once said that nine-tenths of all rizk (the bounty of God, which includes income) is derived from commerce. As he could no longer rely on the loyalty of his army, al-Mu'tasim recruited an army of Turks from Transoxania and Turkestan. Among many instruments that arrived in Europe through the Middle East are the lute and the rahab, an ancestor of the violin. Elsewhere in the Arab world, meanwhile, the last vestiges of European political dominance were being eliminated. The second caliph, 'Umar- appointed by Abu Bakr in a written testament - continued to demonstrate that viability. The conflict came to a climax in 657 at Siffin, near the Euphrates, and eventually resulted in a major division between the Sunnis or Sunnites and the Shi'is (also called Shi'ites or Shi'ah), the "Partisans" of 'Ali- a division that was to color the subsequent history of Islam. 'Uthman also, through his cousin Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, the governor of Syria, established an Arab navy which fought a series of important engagements with the Byzantines. What the Revolution did, however, was to give voice to Islamic activism as a potential force in governance. At this point, it must be noted that by the time Muhammad was born in Mecca (570 AD,) Persia and Byzantium had exhausted their resources, having fought . Like prayer, zakah is considered a form of worship. From ta'liq, in turn, another script called nasta'liq was derived which combines the Arabic naskhi and the Persian tailiq into a beautifully light and legible script. But none of them were as successful as . The next Ottoman leader was Bayazid I, who besieged Constantinople and routed the armies dispatched by an alarmed Europe to raise the siege. As a result, Granada fell ten years later. Muslims believe that Muhammad is the last in a line of prophets that includes Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, and that the Quran is the . Although the Umayyads favored their own region of Syria, their rule was not without accomplishments. In recent times its enormous deposits of oil have made the Middle East more important than ever. Other translations included a book On mathematical theory by Nichomachus of Gerasa, and works by mathematicians like Theodosius of Tripoli, Apollonius Pergacus, Theon, and Menelaus, all basic to the great age of Islamic mathematical speculation that followed. These territorial acquisitions brought the Arabs into contact with previously unknown ethnic groups who embraced Islam and would later influence the course of Islamic history. In the heavens and the earth; Another was the development of Arabic, by the ninth century, into the language of international scholarship as well as the language of the Divine Truth. In innumerable, almost indescribable ways, it is also the central fact of Muslim life. The Alhambra was begun in 1238 by Muhammad ibn al-Ahmar who, to buy safety for his people when King Ferdinand of Aragon laid siege to Granada, once rode to Ferdinand's tent and humbly offered to become the king's vassal in return for peace. Soon everyone concurred and before dusk Abu Bakr had been recognized as the khalifah of Muhammad. Realizing that the original message from God might be inadvertently distorted by textual variants, he appointed a committee to collect the canonical verses and destroy the variant recensions. So, in proportion did sporadic strife between Arabs and Jews. It was a necessary move, but also difficult - particularly when Ferdinand called on him to implement the agreement by providing troops to help the Christians against Muslims in the siege of Seville in 1248. But its confidence was not misplaced. They also organized a bureaucracy able to cope with the complex problems of a vast and diverse empire, and made Arabic the language of government. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. He astounded them still further when he set their fears at rest by negotiating a generous treaty in which he told them: In the name of God you have complete security for your churches which shall not be occupied by the Muslims or destroyed. After Muhammad had preached publicly for more than a decade, the opposition to him reached such a high pitch that, fearful for their safety, he sent some of his adherents to Ethiopia, where the Christian ruler extended protection to them, the memory of which has been cherished by Muslims ever since. The most imposing of the many fortresses built by the Crusaders the elegant Krak des Chevaliers in Syria (top) held out against the Muslims for over a century and a half. It was at this point in history that Tamerlane and his Mongols advanced into Anatolia and very nearly crushed the Ottomans forever. The Middle East is a colonial invention "serving the West's Eurocentric purpose" to extend its sphere of influence through "civilising" the Orient (Bilgin 2004: 26). His death is still commemorated every year during the Islamic month of Muharram. Photo: The peak of Mogul architecture and possibly the most famous work of all times and cultures is the dazzling Taj Mahal mausoleum built at Agra in 1629. Islamic calligraphers have experimented endlessly and have been extremely imaginative. The result was the text that is accepted to this day throughout the Muslim world. Photo: Cursive script on Quran stand of wood, dated 1360, a fine example of Mongol art from western Turkestan. But he also introduced much needed reforms. Such rights were also given to some administrators or governors in place of, or in addition to, salaries, thus insuring a regular collection of revenues and reducing record keeping. However, the sharifs of Mecca and Medina are virtually independent. Many, too, have adopted Western legal codes, have accepted international and regional organizations and international courts as means of dealing with other nations, and have organized and equipped their armed forces along Western lines. It is largely owing to the existence of these traditional methods of recitation that the text of the Quran was preserved without error. To cement social bonds further, Islam has instituted zakat al-fitr, an obligatory levy in the form of provisions or money for the poor, so that they can share in the joy of 'Id al-Fitr. 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how did islam impact the middle east