Unit 5 lesson 2 power point

The Rise of IslamFounding a religion and

building an empire

The Arabian Peninsula

•Desert Land

•Earliest Arabs moved frequently to find water. We call them nomadic for they were always on the move.

•Communities developed along trade routes

•Most early Arabs were polytheistic, but Allah (Arabic for “God”) was the supreme God.

•They traced their ancestry to Abraham and his son Ishmael, who were believed to have built a shrine called the Kaaba (pictured below) at the city of Makkah (Mecca).

Early Arab Religion

•Muhammad was born into a merchant family in Makkah. •Muhammad was deeply troubled by the gap in his area between the rich merchants, who he thought were greedy and the poor.

•He went to the hills to meditate on the matter.

The Founding of Islam

•While meditating, Muslims believe, Muhammad received revelations from God.

•Muhammad came to believe that Allah had revealed himself partially through Moses (Judaism) and Jesus (Christianity), and that Allah’s final revelations were to him.

•The Quran, the holy scriptures of Islam, came out of these revelations. It contains the ethical guidelines for Muslims, those who practice Islam.

The Founding of Islam Cont.’

•Muhammad set out to convince the people of Makkah that his revelations were true. •In 622, he and some of his followers moved north to Yathrib, later renamed Madinah (Medina; “city of the prophet”).

•This journey is known as the Hijrah, and 622 is the first year of the Muslim

•As more followed Muhammad, he became more powerful and began to assemble communities of Muslims and an army.

•After many military victories, even more people turned to Muhammad as their leader.

•Though Muhammad later died, Islam continued to spread

•After the prophet’s death, Muslim scholars drew up a law code called the shari’ah. •It provides guidelines for daily living, and much of it comes from the Quran.

•Muslims must follow sound principles, such as honesty and justice. •Muslims may not gamble, eat pork, drink alcoholic beverages, or be dishonest.

Muslims and Islam

The Five Pillars of Islam

•Islam stresses the need to obey the will of Allah.•The Five Pillars of Islam represent Allah’s will

They are:1.Belief in Allah and Muhammad as his prophet2.Pray 5 times a day 3.Giving alms, such as food or money, to the poor4.Observance of the holy month Ramadan, including fasting from dawn to dusk5.Making a pilgrimage (hajj) to Makkah at least once in a lifetime

Creation of the Arab Empire

•Muhammad did not leave a successor, so when he died, people were unsure of who to follow•Many of his followers chose Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law, and named him caliph, or successor to Muhammad

•The Arab Empire and Islam grew under Abu Bakr

•Abu Bakr instructed his followers to raid enemy villages to expand the religion of Islam•This is known as jihad – or “struggle in the way of God”

•By 650 C.E., Muslims had conquered all of north Africa