When Islam first started to spread over the Arabian Penninsula, the original ideology put forth by Muhammad stayed intact because he was very involved in the initial empire building. However, once he passed away and the empire grew much larger than before, these ideas started to change to fit the regional identities of conquered natives. For example, as Islam spread into India, Anatolia, Spain, and West Africa, the inhabitants kept their original beliefs, but added Muslim elements, such as parts of their language and cultural habits. In sum, Islam went from being adopted wholly by the people it conquered, to eventually only being partially adopted and integrated into other belief
Imperialism’s Effectiveness In the mid 1800s, powerful Western nations discovered a new way to gain power: imperialism. Through new imperialism, European powerhouses could seek riches and spread their ideologies to solidify their standing as a world power, and to increase their influence around the world. In spreading their Western ways, they also significantly impacted the development and evolution of far Eastern countries. The spread of imperialism in the Eastern world in the early 1900s resulted in economic gains and the spread of education, among other positive outcomes; however, the negative impacts of imperialism, such as stratification by class and race, outweighed the sum of benefical results. Through imperialism, India and Japan were forced to Westernize.
A major similarity between the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish Empire is that they both had some type of slave system. The Ottomans had the devshirme slave system and the Spanish had the encomienda system. The devshirme system was the practice in which the Ottomans recruited and then forcibly took Christian boys from their families and put them in Ottoman society. These Christian boys were called Janissaries. The Janissaries were converted to Islam and trained so that they could obtain a high position in society such as being a military leader or a high administrator.
European interest in the Islamic world was a multifaceted phenomenon, arising as it did during the age of discovery and exploration, the consolidation of vast empires and nation-states, and the beginning of European colonialism. The early modern era also saw the rise of global Christianity in the backdrop of the Reformations, as Europeans (particularly Catholic missionaries) struggled to define the relationship between Christianity and culture. All of these political, social, and cultural processes shaped the outlooks which European Catholics and Protestants brought to their interactions with Muslim men and women, as well as the attitudes that they brought to their studies of Islam, Arabic, and the Ottoman Empire. An important feature of the European encounter with Islam was how very closely intertwined the imagined and actual encounters were. Stage plays, learned treatises, and scholarly histories of the Ottoman Empire and its ruling dynasty shaped the attitudes of travelers, missionaries, diplomats, and merchants.
This journey is known in the Islamic calendar as the Hirja. The Islamic calendar begins in the year 622. After the death of Muhammad in 632, Muslims came together to choose a new leader or ‘khalifa’ (caliph) to be the successor of Muhammad. The caliph was to be the symbolic head of the Muslim community throughout the world. • A religion that began with the prophet Muhammad in the 7th century • Muhammad believed he was a messenger sent by God • Muslims follow the teachings of the holy book, the Qur’an • Muslims pray in the direction of Mecca, the centre for Islamic worship • Islam spread rapidly throughout the Middle East and beyond Photograph courtesy of SacredSites.com Science and technology in Medieval Islam The
As soon as the world, particularly during the era of European renaissance, knew this pure faith, “the followers of every religion started to provide explanation for polytheism, or aspects of polytheism and idolatry and their customs and traditions, which existed in their religious system. They used to distort it with their tongues and make an effort to express it and explain it in a way that is close to and similar to Islamic monotheism.”[1] Ahmad Amin says: Trends showing the impact of Islam appeared among Christians. In the 8th Gregorian century/2nd and 3rd Hijiri centuries, a movement appeared in Septimania[2] calling for rejecting the making of confession before a priest on the basis that a priest had no right to this. The movement said that man should supplicate only Allah to forgive him for the sins
20. The expansion began with Muhammad traveling from mecca to medina. He was able to expand his empire because of muhammads 4 rightly guided caliphates which taught people to act good and defend their country and because of the muslims offering opportunities to persecuted people. Muhammad later came back to Mecca and took over the people inhabiting it. He then built a vast and prosperous empire.
Ashwin Naglla HIST 3704 Professor Azimi November 10, 2010 Quran: Significance in the Lives of Muslims As early Arab conquerors spread Islam outside of Arabia, they established an expansive and rich culture. Islamic civilization soon encompassed the core Middle East and spread west to Spain and as far east to the Indus River. The Islamic world developed a common culture highly influenced by the Quran. This holy book was the root of many social and cultural norms in the lives of Muslims historically and today, including treatment of false beliefs and equality between men and women. The Quran says a lot about treatment of false belief.
Strengthened Empire c. Unified country under religious ideology d. Countered influence of the Sunni Ottomans e. Shi’a branch led rise of an individual Shi’a empire VI. The High Point a. Conversion to Shi’a Islam: i. Sunni Muslims, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, & followers of Sufi preachers converted to Shi’ism. ii. Most were pressured into conversion iii.
Such contacts promote widespread sharing of cultures. I agree that Western domination of the worldwide mass media is a huge influence the West has on many different cultures today. However, Western influence on the rest of the world’s cultures is actually rooted in the 19th century. Western domination of areas all over the globe left behind a legacy of Western customs and ideas. Western languages are spoken throughout the world, mainly because of Europe’s history of colonization in the Americas, Asia, and Africa.