Islamic Civilization

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Akbar the Great

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16th century Mughal ruler. Military success in youth. Very diplomatic. Identified with India-specific Sufi brotherhood.

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Isfahan

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Built as a capital of the Safavid Empire. Symbolized the restoration of the Iranian monarchy. Locus of vibrant urban economy.

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Constantinople/Istanbul

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As Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantine Empire. Conquered by Ottomans in 1453.

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Mughals

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Indo-Timurid dynasty that ruled in India from 16th to 19th century. Characterized by expansion of Persian cultural influence. Highly centralized administration.

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Mongols

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Nomadic tribe from East Aisa. Led by Genghis Khan. Brought much of the world, including Middle East under their rule by the 14th century. Led to huge demographic changes, such as Turkic migrations throughout the area, and a redistribution of power.

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Ibn Rushd

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12th century. Important medieval commentator on Aristotle. Harmonized Aristotelian philosophy with Quran. Disagreed with al-Ghazali. Believed philosophers taught that world is created from eternity.

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Ibn Sina

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Celebrated Muslim philosopher and physician. Produced unified synthesis of medical knowledge.

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Fatimids

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Offshoot of Ismaili (Shiite sect). Claimed descent from Ali's wife, Fatima. Powerful state in Egypt.

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Imam (in Shiism)

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8th century articulation. Imam only true leader of Muslim community. Must descend from family line of Muhammad.

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Cordoba

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capital of Spain under Umayyad empire

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Ijma'

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Consensus of juridical community. Allows ijtihad (speculative reasoning) to acquire binding force of hukm.

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Ijtihad

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Independent reasoning and intellectual exertion. Used to produce fiqh.

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Hadith

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traditions of the prophet. Means report or saying. Collections of hadith are the primary sources of both juridical and moral precedents and are second only to Quran.

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Sunna

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The words/habits/practices/opinions of Muhammad. Behaviors Muslims should follow. Makes up the hadith.

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Fiqh

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Knowledge of the practical rules of the Shariah. Derived from the Quran and Sunna. Rational endeavor. Provides legal rules that relate to individual's conduct, not morality. Derived from ijtihad.

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Shariah

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"The right path." Encompasses the totality of guidance given by God through his revelations to Muhammad.

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Mu'tazilites

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Religious school of thought that argued that, because God was perfect and eternal, Quran had to have been a created project.

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Umayyad Empire

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Empire following the Rightly guarded caliphs. Ruled 661-750. Capital located in Damascus. Issues of legitimacy. Major institutional and bureaucratic developments and a second phase of expansion.

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Kharijites

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"Deserters." A purist Islamic sect. Believes that the Muslim community should be ruled by the most pious. Assassinated Ali the caliph.

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Abu Bakr

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First of the Rightly Guarded Caliphs. Muhammad's father-in-law. Ruled 632-634.

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Ali

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Ruled 656-661. Muhammad's cousin and member of the Hasimites. Conflicts with the Umayyads. First civil war between him and Aisha/Meccan aristocrats; Muwaiya, Uthman's cousin; and the Kharijites. Assassinated by Kharijites.

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Qur'an

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Holy book of Islam. Generally regarded as a revealed text, although the Mu'tazilites believed it was created. Source of Shariah law.

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Husayn and Husan

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Ali's sons, both martyrs of the Shiites. Husayn was killed in the Karbala incident, masterminded by Yazid, the first of the Abbasid rulers. Husan was killed by poisoning.

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Hijra

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622 migration of Muhammad's followers from Mecca to Medina as a result of persecution from the aristocratic polytheists of Medina. Beginning of first major conflicts surrounding Islam, between the Muhajirun and the Ansar, the Jews and the New Believers, and the Quraysh of Mecca and the Madinites.

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Safavids

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Powerful Shiite empire based in what is today Iran. Espoused Persian cultural values. Capital is Isfahan. 16th-18th century.

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The Apostasy Wars (Ridda Wars)

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Wars

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Muawiyya

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First ruler of the Umayyad dynasty

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Mahdi

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The divinely designated leader who will come and fill the world with justice at a time ordained by God. Most frequently associated with Shiite eschatology. The best-known modern mahdist movement began in the 1990s and was led by Muhammad Ahmad in the Sudan.

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Shah Ismail

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Founder of the Safavid dynasty, r. 1501-1524. Responsible for creating a more centralized state from the Sufi enthusiasts.

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Five Pillars of Islam

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Presented in the Hadith of Gabriel. 1) Proclamation of faith and bearing of witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger. 2) Five prayers daily facing the direction of the Great Mosque in Mecca. Known as al-Salat, and are performed just before dawn, at noon, at mid-afternoon, just after sunset, and in the evening. The believer has to perform ritual ablution or bathe before prayer. 3) Payment of a yearly tithe to a religious official or representative of the Islamic state. Known as al-zakah (the purification) and is levied on each individual believer. Set at 1/40 % of the value of all of the believer’s liquid assests and income-generating properties. 4) Month-long fast of Ramadan, the 9th month of the Islamic lunar calendar. 5) Pilgramage to Mecca. Takes place in the 1st ten days of the month of Dhul-Hijjah (12th month of the Islamic calendar). Obligatory for all believers able to make the journey and perform the presecribed rites. Call al-Hajj.

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Qiyas

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Analogical reasoning. Used in the process of fiqh and ijtihad.

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Wahhabism

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Islamic renewalist movement that started in the 18th century by Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1791). Often equated with Islamic fundamentalism, but this is inaccurate. Started in 18th century, developed into a state (Saudi Arabia). This movement is against Sufi practices (singing, dancing). Legalist and literalist.

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Isnad

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Chain of transmission in hadith. Examines how each hadith was passed on and whether or not the source is realiable.

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Muhammad Abduh

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Islamic scholar and reformist/renewalist. Visited Europe, spent several years in colonies. Imprisoned. works addressed Western educated men. Issues with the closing of the gates of ijtihad. More conciliatory than resistant, trying to bring Western style law into sharia (sharia should respond to necessities of his day). Believed that Quran responded to a particular community in the past, but it needs to be made to work today.

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al-Afghani

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(1839-1897): shaped by anti-British feelings in Afghanistan. Father of modernism in Islam. He was anti-colonialist, but was troubled b/c of his modernist thinking (had trouble with authorities). He believed in a constitutional state and rule-of-law. Strictly against absolute monarchy.

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The Dome of the Rock

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First Islamic building: Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem (685-691)
Not a mosque. Most early mosques do not have domes. The DOR was intended to demonstrate Islamic presence in the area. Had already stood there for several hundred years (based on the Church of the Holy Sepulchur, built by the Emperor Constantine in Jerusalem).
Exterior covered with blue tiles by OE in 16th century. Interior very unique. Possesses unique Islamic characteristics
Site where Abraham was about to sacrifice his son—God stopped him. Also the place from when Muhammad ascended. Centered on a rock.

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Sepoy Rebellion

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1857, 2000 rebels slaughtered in India (Hindus and Muslims resisting British control)—marked the beginning of a real British colony in England

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Mawdudi

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1903-1979.Founder of Jaamat-i-Islami. Targets Christianity and the West as the cause of decadence of the Muslim people and the spread of secularism and irreligion, but endorses the concept of theo-democracy, which supports democracy under the condition that it is restricted and directed by God's law.

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Ayatollah Khomeini

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A member of Iran's Shiite religious hierarchy that was highly influential in the Iranian Revolution of 1978-1979. Medresa-trained cleric and advocate of ulama leadership and tradition.

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Abdul Malik Ibn Marwan

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685-705. Umayyad caliph and patron of Islamic art. Supported the building of what is considered to be the first piece of Islamic architecture, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

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Persianate culture

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The unique combination of ancient Persian/Iranian cultural traditions and Islamic cultural traditions. Articulated through the use of Persian language. Persianate culture was the hallmark of the Safavid empire, but also very important in the Mughal dynasty as well. It also had a strong influence on Ottoman courtly culture. Stimulated by the Mongol invasions.

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Sufism

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Mystical Islam. Followers of Sufism are known as dervishes. Sufis adhere to sects, such as the Mevlevi, Naksibendije, or Bektashi orders (known as tarikat, or path). Sufis have been influential figures in politics and culture in the Islamic world.

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Rumi

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Famous founder of the Mevlevi dervish order (Sufi order) and poet. Typically attributed a Persian heritage. 1207-1273. Also an influential thinker, expounding on the concept of tawhid (union with the beloved).

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Sulayman the Magnificent

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1494-1566. One of the most important rulers of the Ottoman Empire. Ruled over the OE during its 16th century apex. Responsible for conquering vast expanses of territory, instituting bureaucratic reforms, and supporting the arts.

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Ataturk

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1881-1938. Founder of the modern Turkish republic. Began as a military officer, fought against British. As president, he advocated for a secular state and instituted numerous reforms to modernize and Westernize Turkey.

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Timbuktu

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City in Mali, a country in West Africa. Important site along Islamic trade routes and a site of Islamic scholarly activity.

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Hasan al-Banna

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1906-1949. Muslim teacher, imam, and founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the largest Islamic revivalist movements. Al-Banna was critical of colonialism, Western influence, social inequity, and lack of Islamic piety, among other things. Assassinated.

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Muslim Brotherhood

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Conservative Islamic revivalist movement that aims to reinstate the Quran as a guiding principle for social, political order. Officially non-violent, particularly since the 1970s. Founded in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna.

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Syed Qutb

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Egyptian author, poet, and activist of the Muslim Brotherhood. Active in the 1960s. Lived and wrote in the US. Critical of the Muslim world and the influence of the West on it.

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Apostasy wars

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The Ridda wars were a series of campaigns set in the Middle East during the 7th century AD. After the Prophet Muhammad died, several Arabic tribes united in rebellion against the Caliph Abu Bakr in a conflict that lasted only two years. The revolts had both religious and political reasons behind them, as a backlash against the social and religious system of Medina. Also known as the Wars of Apostasy, the Ridda wars lasted only two years, during 632 and 633 AD.

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Nasser

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1918-1970. One of the leaders of the 1952 Egyptian Revolution. Played a central role in the anti-imperialist efforts in the Arab world. Second president of Egypt.

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Six-Day War

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Also known as the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. fought between June 5 and June 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt (known at the time as the United Arab Republic), Jordan, and Syria. The war began with a large-scale surprise air strike by Israel. The outcome was a swift and decisive Israeli victory. Israel took effective control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. Opinions are divided on whether Israel's attack was an act of aggression or a preemptive strike of a defensive nature.
The status of the territories captured by Israel during the war and the concurrent refugee problem are central concerns in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict, raising issues in international law, and having far-reaching consequences in global affairs.

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Uighurs

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Turkic ethnic group located in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Province in Western China. Many Uighurs are practicing Muslims, having been exposed to Islam because of Muslim traders along the Silk Road.