Culminating Activities Unit 2 Summary

Pre-Islamic Arabia was a culture knit together by kinship. In this society there was no emperor or ruling elite. The people of pre-Islamic Arabia were bound together by nomadic tribes who made profit by trading and most importantly “raiding”. These raids were often described as small-scale warfare and were instrumented by tribal leaders in order to increase the wealth and power of the tribe (Gordon 5). This was the society in which Islam came to power. Warfare and raiding were essential in order to be successful in pre-Islamic Arabia. The integration of warfare into the Islamic religion created a similarity among Muslims, those who follow Islam, and non-Islamic Arabian people. This relationship and common interest established by the prophet Muhammad helped in the rise of Islam among non-Islamic

Beginning with Muhammad’s age from the start of 7th century Islam, Islamic culture and politics have gone a great many events and occurrences. Throughout all of its years, it has boasted both a rich culture and technological/intellectual advancements. The preservation of the Quran, developments in mathematics, and the continued emphasis on respect and charitable nature are just some examples of Islamic achievement. However, as with any growing civilization, Islam has evolved beyond what it originated as. The cultural and political life of Islamic civilization beginning in the 7th century to the end of the Abbasids of the 13th century underwent many changes such as the deteriorating view of women in society and the shift from elected caliphates to dynastical caliphate. But, one aspect that persisted were the religious beliefs and traditions followed by the Islamic people.

The Saudi Arabia history dated back to the early biblical days. Saudi Arabia has the land mass that covers two million square miles and the residents of this country of twenty six million people. The Islam religion has started in Saudi Arabia where the two holy areas are in Mecca and Medina mosques. Saudi Arabia has the world oil reserved that consist of seventeen percent. Ibn Saud was the first Saudi King back in 1932 when was the Kingdom was founded.

In post-classical history, Islam was recognized for its loyalty to Allah and its precise rules of religion. Muhammad, founder of Islam, was born from a nomad-merchant class, giving a pulse to the traveling trait of Islam and its literal veins of expansion throughout the Eurasian borders. While keeping the classic code of Muhammad’s original law underway, Islam’s expansion during 600- 1200 C.E. introduced advanced authority and systems of economic control.

In the case of politics in Africa and India, both were completely different because of how they were ruled by the European nations. In Africa the natives thought they had political power, but the reality was that all politics, and decisions were made by the European’s. The natives thought that the leaders, and chiefs were making the decisions, but the indirect governing style the Europeans were using on their territories was to do exactly this. They tricked the public to keep the peace and avoided any revolts or rebellion from taking place in the country. The same cannot be said about India though. In India the direct governing style was in place. This meaning that all the previous leaders, and officials were replaced by the European officials,

The East, the land of cotton, fine silks, and rich coffee, was the land of three of the most powerful empires to ever grace the surface of the earth. The Mughal, Safavid, and Ottoman Empires were known as the gunpowder empires, and they were feared throughout Europe because of their horsemanship, their power, and their armies. They dominated the stage for centuries, but, as with all things, history moves on. It stops for no man, and all goods things eventually come to an end. So it was with the powers of the East. As Europe prospered from exploration and improved though revolution, the Middle East suffered from poor weather, internal dissent, and a currency crisis that sucked the rulers in like quicksand. And so it was that the epicenter of the world shifted; Europe took the title of midpoint between East and West (Lecture, 09.09.).

A desert peninsula in 6th century was the cross roads of the world, the bridge between Europe, Asia and Africa. Arabia was a vacant wasteland of desert, rarely seeing any life besides that of the trade caravans. City states dominated the political life and the only form of centralized government was in chaos. This was Arabia in the 6th century, this even though Christian was to become the staging ground for the growth of the 2nd largest religion that exists today. This is where the "Prophet" Muhammad was born in the city of Mecca.

During ancient times, the middle east was divided into many different kingdoms where the Arabian peninsula was the best place to live. During the early 600s, Arabia was never expected to become a powerful nation in the Middle East. Arabia was used mainly as a place where goods could be transported between European nations and the Middle East. Arabia had a society that was a mixed population of nomadic Bedouins and the Mecca that housed the Kaaba which holds a meteor. One of the most influential Arab figures is the prophet Muhammed. Muhammed was born to the Mecca tribe of Quraysh and was orphaned when he was 6 years old. Muhammad was married to a wealthy widow named Khadijah, they had only one child who bore grand children named Fatima. When

 In northern and central arabia , warrior aristocracies held power , south religious aristocracies tended to rule . Outside the towns were BEDOUINS   nomadic tribes that migrated  place to place with the livestock: sheep , goats and camel. (important

The Arabian period included the main periods: ancient period (1st BCE), the middle period( 1st to 4th century AD), and the late period (‘Monotheistic period’ or the later 4th century). [ ]The Hejaz peninsula consisted of various beliefs including polytheistic faiths, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. The historical period of pre-Islamic era is known as “the period of Jahiliyyah” or the period of ignorance. In this period, men had all control of their women. The women in pre-Islamic Arabia had no rights, the rights came with the status of their husbands or their fathers or their family and their status in the city. The women in the society had no choice for chosen

The religious, social, political and economical climates of seventh century Arabia, also known as pre-Islamic Arabia, contributed immensely to the emergence of Islam.

The Muqaddimah is a thirteenth century historical and sociological work that was written by one of the greatest historians at the time, Ibn Khaldun. His work was used all the way up until the 19th century because no other work has given so much in-depth detail to the history and society of the Middle East in the Middle Ages and prior to that. Ibn Khaldun has read more first-hand references to what really did happen, and understands how the Caliphates fell within the Middle East. He is very critical of other historians, but this is what makes him so accurate at this point in time. He comes up with theories

Then, in the mid 1700s, Saudi ruler Muhammad ibn Saud, from the Saud dynasty, forged an alliance with a religious reformer named Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was discontent with the growing disregard for Islamic teachings in Arabia. He taught that the people should return to strict observance and practice of Islamic laws. Adherents to this belief, called Wahhabis, were backed by the armies of the Saud dynasty, and together, these forces began a movement. Areas that converted to Wahhabi beliefs were taken over by the Saud family, thus increasing the size of the Saudi State. However, by 1891, most Saudi control of Arabia was taken by tribal chiefs and by the Ottoman Empire. Then, in 1902, a young Saudi leader named Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud began to reclaim land that his ancestors had lost. He also sought diligently to revive the Wahhabi movement, which heavily emphasized the Islamic beliefs and strict adherence to them. In 1932, Ibn Saud unified the regions he conquered into one state- an Islamic state that he dubbed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

     India was an ancient civilization that had many rulers and empires. The first rulers were the Harappans. They ruled from 3500 BC through 1500 BC. The Aryans took over the Harappan empire around 1500 BC. Then, Alexander the Great came and took over control of India. After ruling for only a couple of years, he died. A few years later the Mauryan Empire took over. Next was the Ashoka. Finally, the Guptas ruled from 320 BC through 535 AD.     

India is the biggest democracy in the world, with a government type of federal republic. The country’s form of government mimics the United States with its federal structure. The federal government consists of executive, legislative, and judicial branches. In addition, India has adopted the a British style parliamentary system that allows for it its central government to have great power in relation to its states, according to US Department of State- Background Notes website (The Office of Electronic