Islamic Influence On The Modern World

In the 7th and 8th centuries, Islam spread from its beginnings in Arabia to cover the entire Middle East and parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe. As (Document 8) shows, by the year 750, Islam stretched from Eastern Persia in the Middle East, all the way to the westernmost edges of Spain and North Africa, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Islam expanded so rapidly because of its techniques on conquering unstable areas and converting people to Islam, preventing setbacks and obstructions. Islam had three main reasons for its eminent prosperity. The way that Muslims treated the conquered people allowed for peace throughout the empire. Tolerance, combined with the military power, a disciplined army, and an overall appealing religion of Islam, provided the template that allowed the empire to expand to encompass an enormous amount of area.

During the Golden Age of Islam, scientific and mathematical ideas were developed, later spreading through different regions. There were numerous factors that helped contribute to the spread of knowledge and ideas. Three primary factors were the education system, the production of paper and the prosperity of unification of oral language.

During the Post-Classical Age, cities and urban areas in Muslim society played critical roles in religion because Muslim people had to make religious pilgrimages to Holy Cities such as Mecca and Jerusalem, trade because the cities had huge complexes which allowed trade to flourish, and cultural advancement because the cities were filled with a variety of different people as well as there were great advancement in education.

HVIII. ARCHITECTURE: Mosques in the old days were decorated beautifully with calligraphy and tile. They also had their own kind of domes that they used on the most important buildings. Used minarets. The specific geometric forms decorating the walls (known as Arabesque) represent the infinite.

For centuries in the Muslim land the harsh and dry conditions made it hard to collect store and transport water. Most of the progress made in technology and engineering. As said in the quote "Muslim engineers also perfected the waterwheel and built underground water channels some fifty feet underground. The underground channels had manholes (openings from the street) so that they could be cleaned and repaired."(document 7) They created these inventions to help keep water and keep it clean so that they would be able to survive and thrive in where they were staying. As for astronomy most of their work was based off Hellenistic and Indian writing. This could show they were in a golden age because they took the time and effort to figure out what would work and what wouldn’t work and try and fix it. Under one of the early caliphates most Muslim scholars started learning from these writings. As said in this quote "The astrolabe, pictured, allowed people to find their precise latitude by using the position of the stars. The astrolabe was later modified to be used on ships. This innovation allowed Europeans to begin exploring the seas more safely. This lead to the Europeans finding faster trade routes to Asia by sea and Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of the New World."(Document 6) It talks about the creation and perfection of the astrolabe and how it helped people find their exact latitude using the positions of the stars. This didn’t just help throughout the Muslim time but helped other generations of people after. It helped the Europeans find trade routes faster and help Christopher Columbus “discover” the new world. Not only that but it helped people navigate through the seas more

Muhammad’s father-in-law Abu Bakr took over leadership of the umma as the successor (caliph) of Muhammad. Abu Bakr faced two main tasks: standardization of the Islamic religion and consolidation of the Islamic state. Abu Bakr successfully re-established Muslim authority over the Arabs and oversaw the compilation and organization of the Quran in book form.

Within the past twelve years, Islam has grown to be the second largest religion practiced around the world. Growing up, there weren’t many Muslim people that practiced Islam as there are now. Ten years ago, I would only see about one or two Muslims as I walked down the street, but now I see many more. In Philadelphia, there are more than 200,000 people who are Muslim, and 85% of those people are African-American. In this city when people see African-American Muslims who are garbed up they don’t discriminate against them. To be a Muslim in this society it causes controversy because people are constantly pointing out all of the flaws within them.

There are many ways that the Islam and “The West” can be seen as competing global systems between 1500 and 1800. By the late 17th century, Islamic power began to retreat while the European economic and military imperialism began to rise. The main focuses to European success, were the nation wide support systems for their naval and their very condescending warships. The Portuguese were singularly active along the West coast of India and Islamic influence remained strong because of their comparison with the native populations. Muslim control of the "Spice Islands" and many different neighboring regions was shown by the success of Acheh, an Islamic state on the northeastern part of Sumatra. It provided a counterbalance to the Portuguese existence

Before 2001, al-Qaeda, an Islamist militant organization founded by Osama bin Laden, had proven itself a security menace to both the West and the Muslim world. Achieving its height of power in 2001, the group and its Taliban allies were on the verge of taking over Afghanistan (Longest, 7). Then the group made a central mistake: It choose to wage an offensive jihad attack against the United States on American soil. For a time after 9/11, al-Qaeda appeared largely victorious from the devastation left behind of their ruthless exploit; but instead, the craven act would prove to be the beginning of the terrorist organization’s demise.

America has a long history of excluding people from society based on race, gender, class, and religion. There is a growing trend of the social exclusion of people based on phenotype, dress, and religious preference. Many Muslims in the United States are denied cultural citizenship. Today, citizenship can not be denied from a person based on these apearence. Since 9/11, the status of Muslims both within the USA and globally has garnered significant attention from scholars, researchers, politicians, and the media. The Pew Research Center pubished several reports on Muslims, from public opinion polls capturing Muslim worldviews and their attitudes toward America and Islamic extremism to the impact Islam has had on the religious and political landscape

The rise and expansion of Islam has had a significant impact on the role and rights of women throughout history. Since its origin in the seventh century until modern times, the Muslim faith has somewhat broadened, but has mostly restricted women’s rights in numerous Islamic communities. The history of Muslim women is complex, as it involves many advances and declines in numerous locations, such as Egypt, Afghanistan, and Iran, concerning several subjects, including both civil and social rights. Thus, in general, the rights of Islamic women did not improve significantly over time, instead, conditions remained the same or became worse for women as Islam evolved and spread as a world religion.

As history continues, many religions have had an over powering effect on western civilization. When the 5th century arose, the religion, Islam, had an extremely important impact on the civilization. Muhammad, an Arabic prophet founded Islam and began to introduce it the people of his time. Diplomacy, violence, warfare, public laws, and Arabic tradition played a crucial role in the building of the Islamic religion. These important aspects helped shape and build the Islam religion that is now one of the world’s most widely practiced religions.

The inclusion of the architectural notations were quite elaborate, offering the contributions to society due to engineering design brought about by the desire to have these beautiful places to celebrate God. They seemed to indicate that the Islamic Empire was the center of the scientific world at the time with all the noted scholars and scientists coming to join together to brainstorm. Much of it had to deal with documentation and the recording of events, but without proper counterpoint it is hard to say if it was in fact as critical as it appears.