Guiding Questions

What are the major beliefs of Islam?

- Monotheistic, one God=Allah
- Five pillars, Quran, God spoke through prophets (Muhammad)
What is the purpose of the Five Pillars
- Outline minimal obligations required as a Muslim
How are Christianity and Judaism similar to Islam?
- Monotheistic
- Abrahamic religions
- God spoke through prophets
- Similar beliefs
Why is 622 AD significant?
- HijraMuhammad and followers LEFT Medina
What changes did Islam bring to the Arabian Peninsula?
- MonotheismALLAH
- Sharia Law
- God & prophet destroyed all deities
Why was there a split between Sunnis and Shiites?
- Sunni-Caliph should follow Muhammads example (SUPPORT Umayyad)
- Shiites-Caliph should be a descendent of Muhammad (OPPOSE Umayyad,
extremist)
Why did Islam spread rapidly after the death of Muhammad? Consider: treatment
of people, benefits of being Muslim, respect for Muhammad
- His successors, rightly guided caliphs, spread Islam (Abu Bakr=first)
- Armies well disciplined
- Byzantine/Sassanid empires vulnerable from previous conflicts
- Persecuted citizens unless they welcome Islamtaxes
- Equality, hope, easy to follow=attractive
What are the Umayyads most known for?
- 1st dynasty after rightly guided caliphs
- Spread Islam
- Capital in Damascus, Syria
- Theocracy
- Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Maghrib (North Africa )
Why were the Abbasids able to have a golden age?
-Money/Wealth enabled them to have a golden age
What were the achievements of the golden age?
- math, al jabr came up with algebra 0
- Medicine; nerve diagram, muscle map
- Education: hour of learning and prayer focused on respect of learning
- Reading and writing helped know the importance of the Quran
- Tolerance: Christians and Jews were allowed to attend universities
- They conquered people if they didn't practice their religion taxes were higher
- Astronomy: astrolabe
- Used stars to sail and used calendars

 What was the House of Wisdom?

- Established in Baghdad, Iraq
- Scholars translated all the worlds knowledge into Arabic
- Preserved much knowledge gained from Greeks, Romans, other ancient
civilizations

Why is Byzantine considered the new Rome? Consider: architecture,

government, law, location, capital city
- Byzantines capital city, Constantinople, adopted architecture based off
Romes, and played a similar role
- Same law code, but modified/extended
While Byzantine thrived in the East, what happened to the western Roman
empire?
- The western Roman empire was overrun by invading Germanic tribes
What is the purpose of the hippodromes?
- The Hippodrome of Constantinople was a circus that was the sporting and
social center of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire.
Did Byzantine benefit from the rule of Justinian and Theodora?
NO: -fiscally recklessspent too much govt money
- Took criminals homes/possessions in exchange for freedom
- Weak ruler
- Theodora=ruthless, prostitute, power behind the throne
YES: -Justinians legal code
- Built monuments
- Nika Rebellion
- Sought to return Rome to its former glory
Why did Byzantine decline and fall?
- Plague hits Constantinople, arrived in rat infested ships from India
- Thousands diehuge % of population destroyed
- Byzantine attacked from East and WestTurks
- Boundaries shrink b/c of invasians
Significance of 1453
- Constantinople falls to Ottoman Turks

Why did the Christian church split in 1054? **schism**

- Theological disputes, such as the use of icons in worship, cause the pope
and patriarch to mutually excommunicate each other
Major similarities and differences between Roman Catholicism and Eastern
Orthodoxy
RCC
Orthodoxy

-Latin
-Greek/Localized
-Pope and bishops
-Patriarch and bishops serve as group
-Priests cant marry
-Can marry
-Divorce not permitted
-certain conditions
How did Byzantine influence Russia?--CHRISTIANITY
- Olga of Kiev visits Constantinople, converts
- Vladimir has all Kiev citizens baptized in Dnieper river
What impact did Mongol rule have on Russia?
- Religious freedoms in exchange for obedience and tribute
- Collaborating with Mongols isolates Russia from rest of Europe
How did the Seljuk Turks culturally diffuse with the Persians and Abbasids?
- Give Persians key posts, including VIZIER
- Adopt Persian language and religionIslam
- Other shahs support
HAJJ: pilgrimage to Mecca
Jihad: Struggle/fight against non-Muslims; holy war
Quran:The book that Muslims believe is the direct word of God as revealed to
Muhammad
Caliph: successor to Muhammad, supreme political/religious leader of Islamic world
Hadith: Testimony recorded from Muhammads friends and associated about his speech
and actions, second only to Quran
Icon: a painting of Jesus Christ or another holy figure, typically in a traditional style on
wood, venerated and used as an aid to devotion in the Byzantine and other Eastern
Churches.
Patriarch: Leader of eastern orthodoxy, similar to Pope
Muhammad: founded Islam
Justinian: Emperor of Byzantine, sought to reinstate Romes greatness
Theodora: Empress of Byzantine, very influential
Ivan III: First ruler of Russia who broke away from Mongols
Olga of Kiev: Converts to Christianity
Vladimir: Has all Kiev citizens baptized in Dnieper river