Rise and Spread of Islam

-Islam as a religion is based on the monotheistic religious traditions that

originated and spread from Middle East in the 7th century CE.
-The followers of Islam are known as Muslim, meaning 'one who submits to the
will of Allah'.
-The Muslims believe that God revealed the Quran —the holy book, to
Muhammad through Angel Gabriel.

PRE-ISLAMIC TIMES: CONDITIONS IN ARABIA

-Before the birth of Muhammad, Arabia was inhabited by nomads called Bedouin.
-Arabia was at that time an economically underdeveloped region.
-These nomads were divided into several tribes which moved from place to place
in search of food and water.
-They often fought among themselves.
-Muhammad belonged to the powerful Quraysh tribe.
-Thus, before the birth of Islam, the Arabs lacked a unified religious system.
-They worshipped large number of gods.
-Each tribe had its own God generally symbolized by sacred stones.
-In Mecca, there was an ancient square shrine called Kaaba.
-The Kaaba served as a holy place of annual pilgrimage for the Arabic tribes.
- Muhammad was born in 570 AD in the Arabian city of Mecca.
-In 610 AD, he had a spiritual experience and became a prophet.
-He united the different tribes of Arabia, who used to fight with each other under
the banner of Islam.
-The word Islam means 'submission or complete surrender to God'.
-Arabic word for God is 'Allah'

Early Life of Muhammad

-Muhammad was orphaned at a very young age and brought up by his uncle
Abu Talib.
-As a teenager, Muhammad started accompanying his uncle on trade travels to
Syria.
-He became popular as a sincere and honest person. After a few years, a wealthy
widow, Khadijah, employed him as an agent to travel with her trade caravans.
Muhammad returned with huge profits from these trade travels.
-Impressed by his work and good character, Khadijah sent a marriage proposal to
Muhammad, which he accepted.
-He was married at the age of 25.
-As a young man, Muhammad had come in contact with the Christians and the
Jews during his trade travels.
-He was impressed by their monotheist religious beliefs and practices.
-But, he did not like idol worship and other polytheist religious practices followed
by the people in Arabia.

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-With the passing of time, Muhammad turned to spiritualism and started going to
the hills around Mecca for meditation.
- During one such meditation in Cave of Hira in 610 AD, Muhammad, then 40,
had a 'vision' of Angel Gabriel giving him the message (or revelation) of God.

The Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, is the most sacred site in Islam

-After series of revelations, Muhammad formed a new view about religion whose
main points were:
• There is only one God who is Allah.
• •⁠ ⁠People must submit to the will of Allah.
• Allah has chosen Muhammad to be his messenger or prophet.

-Angel Gabriel is believed to have visited Muhammad many times over 23 years
after the first revelation at Cave of Hira.
-All the verses that Gabriel revealed to Muhammad are compiled in the Quran.
-The Arabic word Quran means 'recitation' or 'reading'.

revelation: something that is considered a sign or message from God

Know This
-The Hijri is a lunar calendar and isdenoted by AH.
-It has 19 ordinary years of 354 days and 11 leap years of 355 days in a 30-year
cycle.
-Each Hijri century is equal to 97 years of the Gregorian or Christian calendar.

Opposition to New Religion

-Three years after receiving the first revelation, Muhammad started preaching his
views about the new religion to the people of Mecca.
-Impressed by his preaching, many people converted to the new religion.
-However, the leading citizens of Mecca opposed Muhammad's idea of one God.
At that time, the Kaaba was under the control of the Quraysh tribe to which
Muhammad belonged.
-Muhammad wanted the Kaaba to be dedicated to the worship of only one God. -
This was rejected by the Quraysh tribe.
-Besides, the wealthy Arab merchants also feared huge losses due to the reduced
number of pilgrims visiting the Kaaba because of the idea of following one God.
-Therefore, they forced Muhammad and his followers to flee to Medina in
622 AD.
-The migration of Muhammad to Medina is known as Hijra or Hijrah.
-It marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar called Hijri.
-In Medina, Muhammad united the warring tribes and won considerable support.
-He had a band of faithful supporters who were ready to die for Islam.
-They fought with the Meccan tribes for eight years and finally conquered Mecca.

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-Muhammad returned to Mecca.
-Thereafter, the people of Mecca accepted Islam.
-When Muhammad died in 632 AD in Medina, almost the entire Arabian peninsula
had accepted Islam.
- Muhammad had succeeded in uniting the tribes of Arabia into a single religious
polity.

Five Principles or Pillars of Islam

Muhammad preached the observance of the Five Principles or Pillars of Islam by
Muslims.

These are listed below.

1. Shahada: There is only one God or Allah, and Muhammad is the Prophet of
Allah.
2. Sawm: Muslims must observe fast from dawn to dusk in the holy month of
Ramzan.
3. Zakat: Muslims must give a certain portion of their wealth as alms to help the
poor.
4.Haj: Muslims must go on the pilgrimage or Haj to Kaaba in Mecca at least once
in their lifetime.

Recap
1.⁠ ⁠Prophet Muhammad was the founder of Islam which is the second largest
religion in the world.
2.⁠ ⁠Muhammad was orphaned at a young age and brought up by his uncle. At the
age of 25, Muhammad agreed to marry his employer Khadijah, who was a
wealthy widow and was impressed by his honesty.
3.⁠ ⁠Muhammad was not happy with the idol worship that the Arabs practised at the
Kaaba in Mecca. He turned to spiritualism and meditation. During a meditation in
Cave of Hira, he had a vision of Angel Gabriel giving him the message of God.
4.⁠ ⁠All the revelations of Gabriel to Muhammad are compiled in the Quran.
5.⁠ ⁠The leading citizens of Mecca opposed Muhammad's idea of one God. They
forced Muhammad to flee to Medina in 622 AD. The migration of Muhammad to
Medina is known as Hijra or Hijrah.
6.⁠ ⁠In Medina, Muhammad united the warring tribes. He collected a band of
faithful supporters who fought with the Meccan tribes for eight years and
conquered Mecca. Thereafter, the people of Mecca accepted Islam.

CALIPHATE AND SPREAD OF ISLAM

-After the death of Muhammad, the caliphate was established.
-The caliphate represented the political leadership of the Muslim Ummah.
-The head of the caliphate was known as caliph or khalifa.
-He was considered the successor of Muhammad.
-He became the religious and political head of the Muslims.

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-The first caliph was Abu Bakr, a close friend of Muhammad.
-Under the leadership of Abu Bakr began the spread of Islam outside the Arab
peninsula.
-The Arab armies swept across new regions, spreading the word of Islam among
the people there.
-Islam removed the barriers of race and nationality by embracing people of other
cultures.
-Abu Bakr and his three successors —Umar, Usman and Ali ruled from
632 AD to 661 AD.
-After the death of Ali, Muawiyah Umayyad became the caliph and with him
began the reign of the Umayyad Caliphate or dynasty.

ummah: it is an Arabic word; in the context of Islam, it means the whole Muslim
world

Rise and Spread of Islam

The Umayyad Dynasty

-The Umayyad dynasty ruled from 661 AD to 750 AD.
-Their capital was Damascus in Syria.
-The Umayyads continued to win new territories and spread Islam in all directions.
-By 733 AD, their Islamic empire stretched from the Indus Valley in the east to
Spain in the west.
-It also included many African territories along the Mediterranean coast.
-The Umayyads made Arabic their official language.
-They also constructed famous buildings such as the Dome of the Rock at
Jerusalem and the Umayyad Mosque at Damascus.

The Abbasid Dynasty

-The Abbasid dynasty overthrew the Umayyads in 750 AD.
-Under the Abbasids, the caliphate emerged as a large prosperous and powerful
empire in the world.
-They ruled for about 500 years.
-The Abbasids shifted the capital from Damascus to Baghdad.
-The reign of the Abbasids is also termed as the Islamic Golden Age.
-During this period, Muslims made great progress in the fields of science,
mathematics, literature, art, medicine, architecture and other disciplines.
-The political power of the Abbasids started declining at the end of the 9th
century.
-One reason for the decline was the purchase of Turkish slaves by the caliphs to
help them manage their large empire.
-Many provinces of the empire were administered by the Turkish slave officers and
soldiers.

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-But as the number of Turkish slaves grew in the Abbasid administration, they
became unmanageable.
-Gradually, the provincial Turkish slave governors became powerful and
independent.
-They turned the provinces into their kingdoms, thus reducing the power of the
Abbasid caliphate.
-Finally, the Abbasid rule ended with the capture of Baghdad by the Mongols in
1258 AD.

-Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is an shrine located on the Temple Mount in the
old city. The architects were Raja Ibn Haywah, Yazid Ibn Salam.

Impact of Islam
• The Abbasids established the 'House of Wisdom' in Baghdad.
Here both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars translated the ancient
Greco/Roman, Indian and other works of literature, science, mathematics,
etc. into Arabic.

• By saving ancient knowledge from extinction, Muslim scholars and

scientists paved the way for scientific progress by the Europeans in later
centuries.

• In literature, the Islamic Golden Age great works such as Rubaiyat by

Omar Khayyam, Shahnamah by Firdausi and One Thousand and One
Nights (also called Arabian Nights) which is a collection of folk tales,
are significant.

• Medieval Muslim engineers and inventors came up with a number of

inventions. Some of these inventions were: soap bar, toothpaste, coffee,
pinhole camera, first parachute, chess, chemistry, quilt, Islamic arches,
surgical instruments, Minch mills, vaccine, numerals, Persian carpets,
flower gardens, fountain pen, etc.
• They learnt and improved upon the Chinese techniques of paper-making,
ceramics and silk-weaving.

• Many modern educational and scientific institutions have their origins in the
early Islamic world. The public hospital and psychiatric hospital, the public
library the academic degree-granting university, the astronomical
observatory, etc.

• The contribution of the Islamic civilization in the field of mathematics

includes the development of algebra and algorithms, the beginning of
algebraic geometry by Omar Khayyam.

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 • I⁠ slam added a new dimension to the art of calligraphy. For Muslims,
calligraphy is the art of the spiritual world. Their holy book, the Quran, has
played an important role in the development of calligraphy in the Arabic
alphabet.

• Muslim cities had advanced domestic water systems with sewers, piped
drinking water supplies and private and public toilets.

• ⁠Muslims developed a beautiful style of architecture that is reflected in the

impressive mosques, forts.

Know This
-The institution of caliphate continued in modern times till 1924 when it was
abolished by the first President of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk.

Know This
-In the medieval Islamic world, the first universities which issued diplomas were
the Bimaristan Medical University-Hospitals.
-The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes the University of Al
Karaouine in Fez, Morocco as the oldest degree-granting university in the
world.

calligraphy: decorative handwriting

Recap
1.⁠ ⁠After the death of Muhammad, the caliphate was established to represent
the political leadership of the Muslim world. Its head, caliph, was considered the
successor of Muhammad.
2.⁠ ⁠Under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties, the caliphate rule extended over a
large Islamic empire.
3.⁠ ⁠The Umayyads expanded the Islamic empire from the Indus Valley in the east
to Spain in the west.
4.⁠ ⁠During the reign of the Abbasids, Muslims contributed to the development of
science, mathematics, literature, art, medicine and other disciplines. The Abbasid
reign is termed as the Islamic Golden Age.
5.⁠ ⁠The Abbasid caliphs started employing Turkish slaves for managing their large
empire. But, gradually, the provincial Turkish slave governors became independent
rulers, thus reducing the power of the caliphs.
6.⁠ ⁠The Abbasid rule ended with the capture of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258
AD.
7.⁠ ⁠The Islamic Golden Age is known for the achievements of Muslims. One
notable contribution of this age was was saving ancient knowledge from extinction

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by Muslim scholars and scientists. Later on, Europeans used this information for
further advancement in science and other fields.

Key Terms
1. Islam: submission or complete surrender of oneself to God or Allah

2. Shahada: the first pillar of Islam according to which

'There is one God or Allah, and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah'

3. Hijra or Hijrah: migration of Muhammad to Medina Hijri: the Muslim

calendar which began with the migration of Muhammad to Medina

4. Bedouin: desert-dwelling Arabs (previously nomadic,

presently settled)

5. Caliphate: an institution that represented the political leadership of the Muslim

world after the death of Prophet Muhammad

6. Caliph: the head of the caliphate and the successor of

Prophet Muhammad

7. Quran: the holy book of the Muslims

A. Fill in the blanks.

1.⁠ ⁠Muslims believe that God revealed the Quran through Angel -Gabriel
2.⁠ ⁠Kaaba was under the control of the - Quraysh tribe.
3.⁠ ⁠The migration of Muhammad to Medina is Known as - Hijra
4.⁠ ⁠The first Caliph was Abu Bakr
5.⁠ ⁠Arabian nights is a collection of folk tales and other stories.

Answer the following questions.

1. What was the Kaaba?
- In Mecca, there was an ancient square shrine called Kaaba.
-The Kaaba served as a holy place of annual pilgrimage for the Arabic tribes.

2. Why did Muhammad and his followers flee to Medina?

-Muhammad wanted the Kaaba to be dedicated to the worship of only one God. -
This was rejected by the Quraysh tribe.
-Besides, the wealthy Arab merchants also feared huge losses due to the reduced
number of pilgrims visiting the Kaaba because of the idea of following one God.
-Therefore, they forced Muhammad and his followers to flee to Medina in
622 AD.

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3.⁠ ⁠Which dynasty's rule is called the Islamic Golden Age? Why?
-The reign of the Abbasids is also termed as the Islamic Golden Age.
-During this period, Muslims made great progress in the fields of science,
mathematics, literature, art, medicine, architecture and other disciplines.
-The Abbasids established the 'House of Wisdom' in Baghdad.
Here both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars translated the ancient Greco/Roman,
Indian and other works of literature, science, mathematics, etc. into Arabic.
-Muslim scholars and scientists paved the way for scientific progress by the
Europeans in later centuries.
-In literature, the Islamic Golden Age great works such as Rubaiyat by Omar
Khayyam, Shahnamah by Firdausi and One Thousand and One Nights (also called
Arabian Nights) which is a collection of folk tales, are significant.
-They learnt and improved upon the Chinese techniques of paper-making, ceramics
and silk-weaving.
-Many modern educational and scientific institutions have their origins in the early
Islamic world. The public hospital and psychiatric hospital, the public library the
academic degree-granting university, the astronomical observatory, etc.

4. How did the Turkish slaves harm the Abbasid Caliphate?

-The political power of the Abbasids started declining at the end of the 9th century.
-One reason for the decline was the purchase of Turkish slaves by the caliphs to
help them manage their large empire.
-Many provinces of the empire were administered by the Turkish slave officers and
soldiers.
-But as the number of Turkish slaves grew in the Abbasid administration, they
became unmanageable.
-Gradually, the provincial Turkish slave governors became powerful and
independent.
-They turned the provinces into their kingdoms, thus reducing the power of the
Abbasid caliphate.