Origins
What city in Arabia was Muhammad born in?
Mecca
What is the Muslim place of worship called?
Mosque
What is a caliph?
Political and religious leader after Muhammad
What did scholars translate and study at the House of Wisdom?
Greek, Persian, and Indian texts
What is the name of Muhammad’s journey from Mecca to Medina in 622?
Hijrah
Name any two of the Five Pillars of Islam.
Faith, prayer, charity, fasting, pilgrimage
Which group of caliphs ruled first from Damascus?
Umayyad
Which scholar is known as a father of algebra?
Al-Khwarizmi
What is the name of the holy book of Islam?
Quran
What is the Hajj, and where does it take place?
Pilgrimage to Mecca
What city became the capital under the Abbasids?
Baghdad
What tool did Muslim scientists improve to help navigators find their location?
Astrolabe
Why was Mecca an important place even before Islam?
Trade center and pilgrimage site; the Kaaba was there
Which two branches of Islam split over who should lead after Muhammad?
Sunni and Shia
Give two reasons the Muslim empire spread so quickly.
Trade routes, strong armies, shared language and faith, tolerance toward conquered peoples
Why is calligraphy used so much in Islamic art?
Images of people and animals are avoided in religious art, so decorative writing became a major art form
Long answer! Describe two reasons the Hijrah was a turning point for Muhammad and his followers.
they faced persecution and hostility from leaders who felt threatened by the new message
could practice freely in Medina
1st Muslim cmty took place and Mohammed became the leader
622 is the first year of the Islamic calendar
Long answer: Choose any three of the Five Pillars of Islam, and explain what a Muslim does to follow each one
Faith (declaring belief in one God and Muhammad as his prophet), prayer (five times a day, facing Mecca), charity (giving a portion of wealth to those in need), fasting (no food or drink from dawn to sunset during Ramadan), and pilgrimage (making the Hajj to Mecca at least once if able)
Explain how trade and conquest each helped the Muslim empire grow, and name one way the two worked together.
Conquest brought huge amounts of territory under Muslim rule, from Spain to Central Asia.
Trade carried goods, ideas, and the Arabic language along routes like the Silk Road and across the Indian Ocean.
Pick two achievements of Islamic civilizations (in science, math, medicine, art, or architecture) and explain why each still matters today.
algebra from al-Khwarizmi (the basis of modern math), Ibn Sina’s medical encyclopedia (used in Europe for centuries)
the astrolabe (improved navigation),
the House of Wisdom (preserved and expanded knowledge from many cultures)
Islamic architecture like the Alhambra or domed mosques