Marshall Hodgson And Islamic Civilization

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.

During the Post-Classical Era, the leadership of Prophet Muhammad aided in the creation of the religion of Islam. Unlike any other religion, Islam spread exponentially through trade routes, appealing to the needy and conquest of new areas. As the religion began to gain massive coverage across Afro-Eurasia, it impacted the Post- Classical World both politically and culturally. During the Post-Classical Era, the spread of Islam led to significant political effects such as rise of caliphates, sultanates and empires that expanded to new areas. Furthermore, the spread of Islam had various cultural contributions such as spread of new traditions and arts.

In its Golden Age, Islam’s influence reached all the way to Spain, Anatolia, West Africa, and India, among other regions. While these regions were all, in a way, united under a common religion, each of them both altered and were altered by Islam in their own unique ways. Although there were similarities that existed with the spread of Islam to each of those places, many more differences prevailed. Differences and similarities existed in the forms of the role of migration, role of trade, role of cultural exchange, methods of conversion to Islam, and the unique cultural developments in each region.

Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.

The Islamic civilization spread to encompass such an extensive empire by using their resources and becoming a peaceful civilization with peaceful people.

In this essay I will talk to you about different things such as,what the Islamic people did and how they became more successful and expanded their empire. Now that, that's said I hope you enjoy and stay open-minded about my ideas.

During the early modern period, two great Islamic states were created. One, covered most of the Middle East, while the Balkans covered the remaining majority of India. The two major Islamic Empires, the Ottomans and the Mughals, both brought major new influences to these regions as well. The Ottoman and Mughal Empires’ influences included great political and military strength, amongst other things. During the early modern period, these two empires established very large territories and new boundaries, resembling Russia’s rule. Also similarly to Russia, both of these empires included a diverse population made up of different linguistic, ethnic, and religious groups. Both the Ottoman and Mughal Empires, while similar, followed their own, separate paths during most of the early modern period. In doing so, they avoided Western civilization and the rest of the world, for the most part. However, contact with the West did increase with time as by the late 17th to early 18th century, “a more substantial Western presence began to affect internal developments”.

Throughout the entirety of the Islamic faith, Islamic civilizations have contributed ideas and characteristics of their culture that have spread throughout the world. Also, Islamic civilizations have helped to develop a variety of ideas and caused fields of industry and facets of culture to advance. These fields include but are not limited to education, medicine, mathematics, technology, literature, architecture and trade. Although every industry in the Islamic civilization has an important role in society, education, medicine and trade prove to be the three most important aspects of Islamic achievements.

1. Summary of the Islamic worldview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

The book that we have chosen to review is titled “Lost History, the Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers and Artists”. The author of the book is Michael Hamilton Morgan. The book was published in the year 2007 and also holds the same copyright date. The book is a non-fiction. The main subject matter of the book is the history of the Islamic civilization from the birth of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)

The region of the Middle East and its inhabitants have always been a wonder to the Europeans, dating back to the years before the advent of Islam and the years following the Arab conquest. Today, the Islamic world spreads from the corners of the Philippines to the far edges of Spain and Central Africa. Various cultures have adopted the Islamic faith, and this blending of many different cultures has strengthened the universal Islamic culture. The religion of Islam has provided a new meaning to the lives of many people around the world. In the Islamic world, the religion defines and enriches culture and as a result the culture gives meaning to the individual. Islam is not only a religion, it is in its own way a culture. It may be this very

The Muslim people made many exceptional achievements and great contributions that spread to and affected the entire world, particularly Europe. Several factors encouraged them to pursue experimentations and developments in different fields.

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

Middle East considers one of the most studied areas in the world due to its rich history of politics, social, economic, and its culture and civilization. Its borders are still arguable geographically, generally in the west it starts from morocco until Iran in the east, however, many scholars don’t agree on including Turkey either as a Middle Eastern or as a European country (Milton-Edwards, 2006. P: 4). The origin of the name was invented by the colonies as a necessity to describe the place geographically, which was the era of bringing “Middle East” the language of academic writings and political scientists. Changes, innovations, and new ideologies create gaps between the transformations of any perspectives to a different