11/6/2012

[4th LizzK]

• New Leader
  • After Muhammad died in 632, the Muslim community needed to make the decision on who would be their next religious leader.
  • They selected one of Muhammad's good friends, Abu-Bakr, to become the first caliph, meaning successor.
• Issues
  
  • Not everyone was very welcoming to the caliph.
  • Some tribes around the Arabian Peninsula abandoned Islam completely.
  • Others wouldn't pay taxes.
  • Some individuals even declared themselves to be prophets.
• Attempts to resolve
  
  • Abu-Bakr declared a jihad, which has two meanings.
    
    • Jihad
      
      • inner struggle with evil
      • an armed struggle against non-believers.
• Expansion by military
  
  • The Muslim community began to expand under Abu-Bakr as well.
  • The next 3 caliphers after Abu-Bakr expanded into the Sassanid and Byzantine empires.
• Reasons for success
  
  • They did very well in conquests between these empires, because they had been fighting each other for many years before this.
  • They were well disciplined, had great leaders.
  • The two empires weren't tolerant of the religions in their conquered area so their Muslims in the empires would often help the other Muslims that invaded the empires.
• Treatment of the Conquered Peoples
  
  • The Qur'an does not allow for Muslims to force others to convert to this religion.
  • Muslims allowed the Christians and Jews o practice their religions, but they couldn't spread it.
  • They made the Christians and Jews pay a tax, however, because they did not fight for the Islam military groups.
• Research
  
  • Groups of 2-4
  • Islam split
    
    • Why?
    • When?
    • Key players?
    • 3 paragraphs if two people, 4 paragraphs if 3 people, 7 if 4 people.
    • Include these:
      
      • Umayyads, Shi'a, Sunni, Sufi, and Abbasids.