Chapter 9: The Worlds of Islam

Chapter 9: The Worlds of Islam

        600-1500


- Most of the major cultural traditions/religions that arose in the second-wave era emerged from the core of the established civilizations like China (confucianism and daoism), India (buddhism and hinduism), Mediterranean World (greek philosophy), Persia (Zoroastrianism)
- Christianity and Islam came from the margins of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern civilizations- Christianity was found by small middle eastern peoples; jews in the province of the Roman Empire; islam found in the cities and deserts of the Arabian Peninsula
- Bedoiuns: the central region of the Arabian peninsula that was long inhibited by the nomadic Arabs
- Mecca became very important as it was where the Kaaba was found allowing for Mecca to become a wealthy area where people from all clans and tribes could be found
- Around 600 it was thought that Arabs were going to be transitioning into Judaism or Christianity (the most rapidly growing religion in Western Asia)
- Muhammad Ibn Adbullah: born in Mecca to a Quarysh family; was seen by the people of mecca religiously as "the only God", " the all-powerful Creator good", and "ever merciful" (367)
- Muhammad's practice was moved after people of wealth and power became upset with the way he wanted to create change so him and his followers moved to Medina, where they were able to create a new society that based membership on belief instead of birth which lead to a large expansion of the community. However, when some jewish groups allied with his enemies, Muhammad exiled some, enslaved some, and even killed some
- An empire eventually arose as the islam religion began to spread throughout Afro-Eurasia
- A few years after Muhammad's death, the rise of the Arab empire occurred that stretched from Spain to India, where it governed most of the land between the area, including china and Europe
- Conversion began to occur by many as it was simply more convenient- for example, people began to covert because they did not want to be taxed for being a non-muslim
- After Muhammad's death there became disconnect as there was no longer one strong presence but many powerful people in charge, which lead to a disconnect and conflicts
- According to the Quran, men and women were seen as equal as an example of this was the language that was used being inclusive towards both men and women
- However, within marriages the women were seen as inferior and subordinate to the men. Men were even allowed to have multiple wives (polygyny)
- Sometimes there were even signs of tightening patriarchy including "honor killing" of women by their male relatives for violating sexual taboos and in some places clitoridectomy took place
- I find it to be interesting that it was said that men and women were equal, even though men were allowed to do some many things that made the relationship between man and women so unequal. I also appreciate how Strayer consistently brings to light how women are treated throughout the chapters.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chapter 11: Pastoral Peoples on the Global Stage

Chapter 11: Pastoral Peoples on the Global Stage       The Mongol Moment              [1200-1500] The pastoral societies weren't as developed as other agricultural societies. They has several important features that distinguished them from settled agricultural communities and civilizations, like generally these societies had less productive economies and their need for large grazing area meant they supported smaller populations. These people often lived in scattered encampments or seasonal settlements, rather than villages or towns or cities like the more developed communities/ civilizations. The women of the pastoral societies were usually offered a higher status, fewer restrictions and even greater role in public life. Which is how this society differed from the more developed societies. Also, unlike other societies, remarriage of a widow did not carry the negative connotation that was seen among the Chinese. Women were even able...
Read more

Chapter 12: The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century

Chapter 12: The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century Even though there have been many advanced that have been made in this time for agriculture there were still gathering and hunting societies, often called the pathlolitic peoples. Includes people from all of Austria, much of Siberia, the arctic coastlands, and parts of Africa and the Americas are the groups that still took part in gathering and hunting. The Australians were also a group that still took part in gathering and hunting, even though there were peoples nearby that did have the advancements in agriculture. However, these new advances never penetrated the way the Australians chose to do their agriculture. Even without the advancement they were still able to manipulate and master the environment around them, even coming up with their own practice called "fire stick farming." "Fire stick farming"- a pattern of deliberately setting fires, which they described as "cleaning up the country" these f...
Read more

Chapter 10: The Worlds of Christendom

Chapter 10: The Worlds of Christendom     Contraction, Expansion, and Division         500-1300 Yao Hong was a women who helped with the spread of Christianity in China. As she decided to become christian after finding out that her husband was having an affair with another women. Christianity began to spread throughout other Asian countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, and parts of India. It was also being seen in the non-muslim regions of Africa during the twentieth century. By the early twenty-first century "over 60 percent of the world's Christians lived in Asia, Africa, or Latin America. Leaving Europe and North America with less christians than that of Asia, Africa, or Latin America. Events that led to the increase in christianity include: Islam. This is because with the introduction of Islam led to the rapid spread across Afro-eursia and then at the same time there was the creation of a large and powerful A...
Read more