May 20, 2004

                                                                                   Islamic Civilization

1. Why is the Islam the fastest growing religion in the world, particularly in Asia and Africa?

2. What are the similarities between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity?

3. Why did the people of Mecca reject Muhammad's message at first?

4. Why were the Arabic people of the Fertile Crescent eager to embrace Islam in the 7th century A.D.?

5 How did the Arabs convert people to Islam?

6. What were the boundaries of Islam by 750 A.D.?

7. What is the Koran?

8. What is the Hadith?   

9. What are the teachings of the prophet Muhammad that are known as the 5 Pillars?

10. What is the Sharia?

11. How is the civil law in many Islamic countries different from the civil law in America?

12. Why was there a split in the Muslim world between Shiite and Sunni Muslims?

13. What was the name of the first Islamic caliphate in Syria? (661-750 A.D.)

14. What did merchants hold an honored place in Islamic society?

15. What advances in learning occurred during the Abbasid dynasty?

16. What were the early contacts of Islam with India?

17. How did the Mughal dynasty (1550-1750) begin?

18. How did the Muslims regard the Hindu deities?

19. Why did the Muslims reject the caste system?

20. Why couldn't India and Hinduism absorb the Muslims as they had absorbed earlier
conquerors and religions?

21 Who were the  most important Mughal rulers?

22. How did Aurangzeb undermine the good-will created by Akbar to the Hindus?

23. What group succeeded the Arabs as the dominant Islamic group in the Middle East?

24. Why did European Christian Crusaders go to the Middle east to fight Muslims (109-1290)?

25. What Turkish group finally succeeded in capturing Constantinople in 1453 and the thousand
year old Byzantine Empire?

26. What was so unusual about the legal status of the highest ranking officers in the Ottoman government
and army?

27. How did the Ottoman Empire obtain its wealth?

28. Where did the Ottoman's get their personnel to fill the ranks of the government and military?

29. How did the Ottomans govern a large and diverse empire?

30. Why were the Ottomans and Safavids often at war?