Practices and Beliefs
Origins of Islam
Islamic Empires
Crusades
Islam in West Africa
100
This word means "one who submits or surrenders to God" in Arabic.
What is Muslim?
100
According to Islamic teachings, Muhammad is God's messenger, also known by this term, because he received and shared the teachings of God.
What is prophet?
100
Muslims applied this term to Jews and Christians because they shared a monotheistic belief in the same God.
What is People of the Book?
100
The Crusades were ostensibly a war to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslim control,but Crusaders were also hostile to Jews. Violent persecution, destroying synagogues, and forcing Jews to relocate were all examples of this type of discrimination.
What is anti-Semitism?
100
The king of this African empire did not convert to Islam, but he did allow Muslim merchants to build settlements, resulting in the development of a thriving Muslim community.
What is Ghana?
200
This is the name for the body of Islamic law designed to help Muslims live by the teachings of the Qur'an.
What is shari'ah?
200
Now one of Islam's holiest sites, in pre-Islamic Arabia, this structure housed idols from numerous nomadic tribes, but when Muhammad conquered Mecca, he destroyed the idols in an act of iconoclasm.
What is the Ka'aba?
200
Under this caliphate, the Islamic empire enjoyed a golden age of scholarship and innovation.
What is the Abbasid caliphate?
200
This city is sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Pope Urban II called for a crusade to drive out the Muslims and reclaim this city for Christianity.
What is Jerusalem?
200
This king of Mali was the first West African leader to become a devout Muslim and became renowned for making the pilgrimage to Mecca known as the hajj.
Who was Mansa Musa?
300
This is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, when, according to Islamic teachings, God first revealed his message to Muhammad.
What is Ramadan?
300
Muhammad's first wife, she was a successful merchant and became the first convert to Islam.
Who was Khadijah?
300
This caliphate moved the Islamic capital from Mecca to Damascus in modern-day Syria and expanded the Muslim empire across North Africa and into Spain, as well as into central Asia and northwestern India.
What is the Umayyad Caliphate?
300
This was a series of wars in Spain whose object was to retake the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims.
What was the Reconquista?
300
This key trading center on the Niger River was famous for its community of Islamic scholars during Mali and Songhai rule.
What is Timbuktu?
400
This word literally means "to strive" in Arabic.
What is jihad?
400
This journey from Mecca to Medina undertaken by Muhammad and his followers in 622 CE represents Year 1 in the Islamic calendar.
What is the hijrah?
400
In 1453, this Muslim empire captured Constantinople, effectively bringing an end to the Byzantine Empire.
What is the Ottoman Empire?
400
In 1076, this rising Muslim power conquered Jerusalem and began to encroach on the Byzantine Empire, eventually prompting the Byzantine emperor to ask for help from Pope Urban II.
Who were the Seljuk Turks?
400
This increased significantly after the introduction of camel caravans in approximately 300 CE.
What was trans-Saharan trade?
500
These are the five pillars of Islam.
What are faith, prayer, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage?
500
This is the term for the successor to Muhammad: the religious (and sometimes civil) leader for Islam. The first person to hold this position was Abu Bakr.
What is the caliph?
500
During the 13th century, this exceptional group of people first conquered Muslim lands in central Asia, destroying cities and killing many Muslims, but later converted to Islam, rebuilt cities they had destroyed, and adopted Persian as the language of government.
Who were the Mongols?
500
These two men were the leaders of the Third Crusade, which ended with a peace treaty in which the Muslims agreed to allow Christian pilgrims to enter Jerusalem.
Who were King Richard I and Sultan Salah al-Din?
500
Ibn Battuta, known for his extensive travels throughout the medieval Muslim world, wrote accounts of his travels which were published in this book.
What is the Rihla?
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