Heritage of the Middle East

The World of Islam Centuries of Turmoil

Patterns of Life Imperialism and Nationalism

The Middle East

• The term Middle East did not come into general usage until after World War II.

• In reading texts written in the 19th or 20th centuries, you may come across terms such as the Near East or the Mohammedan World. These have been replaced by the Middle East.

Breakdown of Middle East

• Broadest area covered by the Middle east is a rough rectangle with the following boundaries: – Long axis

• The northwestern corner of the Atlantic coast of Mauritania and Morocco, to the northeastern corner where the Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union which touch Afghanistan. – Short axis

• Begins on the western shore of the Black Sea and ends in the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, the southern Sahara Desert.

Map of Middle East

Labels

• North Africa, sometimes called the Maghrib, is the area from Morocco to the Tunisian-Libyan border

• The Nile Valley • Palestine is a variously defined area that takes

in most of modern Israel as well as parts of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

• The Levant, is the original European term for the coastal areas of today’s northern Israel, Lebanon and Syria

Labels cont’d

• Syria is a name used since Roman times to describe the roughly rectangular region bounded today by Turkey, the Mediterranean, western Iraq, and the northern extension of the Arabian Desert

• Mesopotamia is Iraq and parts of Kuwait and Iran, a region traditionally defined by the Tigris-Euphrates River system, mountains of Turkey and Iran and the Persian Gulf

• Anatolia is the Asian part of Turkey

Strategic Waterways

• Strait of Gibraltar- named after Arab General of the 18th century, controls the link between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and between Morocco and Spain.

• Moving eastward, Suez Canal, it is a vital link between Mediterranean and Red Sea

• Sinai Peninsula –at the southern tip of the Strait of Tiran. This strait controls Israel’s access to the Red Sea-Suez Canal and its closure by the Egyptian government in 1967 was a precipitating cause for the Six-Day War.

Sample IB Question

• Why have so many problems arisen from the complex mixture of identity, history, religion, language, and ethnic heritage? What kind of difficulties challenge those who search for solutions?

“My dreams will never be fulfilled without you, oh Jerusalem”

Yasser Arafat

Population Groups

• Inhabitants of the Middle East have been known by hundreds of names over the 7,000-8,000 years of their recorded existence.

• The major groups today are identified in terms of either their religious, linguistic, or ethnic origins.

Arabs

• The largest group in the Middle East

• Most are members of the majority, or Sunni branch of Islamic religion.

• The next largest group are the Turks. About 45 million of them are living in the Republic of Turkey today.

• The Turks are almost all Sunni Muslims and speak Turkish

Iranians

• 3rd major group found in the Middle East.

• Nearly 40 million of them share minorities.

• Most are Shia (Shitte) Muslims.

• Most speak Persian

Lesson 2: Islam

• Focus Questions• Who was Mohammed and what spirtual

concerns motivated him? • How was God’s will revealed to Muslims?

What are the basic tenets of their faith? • What aspect of Mohammed’s mission

continued after his death?• What is Islam’s relationship to the Jewish

and Christian faiths?

The World of Islam

• Focus Questions – What are the basic teachings of Islam – Why did Islam split into different branches? – What are some achievements of Islamic

civilization?

Islam

• Usually translated as “absolute submission to the will of God,” has arisen and flourished in the clear sight of history.

• In contrast to its antecedents, Judaism and Christianity, the faith has a single prophet; an undisputed, divinely created scripture, the Quran, which has never been lost or revised; and a continuous history recorded by its followers and adversaries. From the birth of Mohammed to the present, there are no gaps in the record of Islam.

Mohammed

• Mohammed was born about 570 A.D.• He was a member of the Hashim clan of the

Quraysh tribe, a significant power in the government and society of the city of Mecca.

• He was orphaned at an early age and grew up following the same patterns of childhood as his contemporaries, distinguishing himself only by his desire for solitude and a noticeable concern for spiritual matters.

Young Mohammed

• He was employed in the caravan trade which probably exposed him to the various religious beliefs professed by the inhabitants of Arabia and its neighbors.

• When Mohammed was 25, he married a wealthy widow, Khadija.

• Tradition tells us that they enjoyed a close relationship for 24 years in which Khadija bore Mohammed several children , three of whom survived.

Islam

• Hold’s that Mohammed became God’s last messenger.

• He was chosen to terminate the long line of God’s prophets, which stretched from Abraham to Jesus.

• All who believed in God were to be Mohammed’s audience.

• Mohammed was a passive instrument, just a man providing a link between God and the community of believers.

Muslims

• From the fourth form of the s-l-m root which means “to embrace Islam” or “to make peace with God” became targets of persecution and abuse, which led Mohammed to send groups out of Mecca for their own safety.

Out of Mecca

• Mohammed had received an invitation to come to Yathrib, now known as Medina.– Irreconcilable tribal feud– Mohammed was believed to be the man who

could solve this based on his reputation.

• Muslim calendar – Hegira

• Mohammed is also seen as a temporal leader, political, and military commander.

Return to Mecca

• By 630, Mohammed was leading a force of 10,000 Muslims, the dominant military, diplomatic, and spiritual power in the region.

• Mecca surrendered to Mohammed in 630. – The residents converted to Islam, and

Mohammed was now the most powerful man in Arabia.

Death of Mohammed

• He returned to Medina where, his health weakened, possibly by an attempt on his life, he died in June 632.

• Islam believes that Mohammed’s death marked the end of God’s use of human prophets as messengers.

• What had been revealed to all the earlier prophets and what had been verified and reaffirmed by Mohammed was to serve as the foundation and structure of a faith-based community, the Umma.

Islamic Beliefs, Practices, and History

• Muslims contend that their religion is the one true path to salvation for those who believe in God and his messengers.

• Many elements of Islamic belief and practice are similar to those of their Jewish and Christian predecessors.

• The core of Islamic belief is embodied in the “Five Pillars” of Islam.

Holistic View

• The five pillars combined with the guidance and injunctions to be found in the Quran; Islamic law (Sharia); the example of Muhammad’s life, and the will of the Umma ---identify and lead the Muslim toward the Day of Judgement and rewards in Paradise.

Five Pillars

• The declaration of faith

• Regular prayer

• Almsgiving

• Fasting

• Pilgrimage to Mecca

Declaration of Faith (Shahada)

• It is a simple statement which is reaffirmed daily by millions of Muslims throughout the world.

• “There is no God but God and Mohammed is God’s messenger”

• Although this concept no doubt is familiar to Jews and Christians, the difference also is obivious.

• This phrase expresses absolute monotheism. There is no need to complicate the thought as occurs in the Torah’s “Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me.”

Prayer (Salat)

• Muslims must face toward Mecca and perform formal worship.

• The original orientation had been Jerusale but after an unfortunate episode in Medina, God revealed to Mohammed that the direction had been changed.

Zakat or alms

• This pillar reinforces the concepts of equality and community and emphasizes the power of God’s will in the individual’s life.

Fasting

• The month of Ramadan is set aside for a rigourous fast which requires all Muslims to abstain from food, drink, and sex.

Pilgrimage (hajj)

• Pilgrimage to Mecca had been important element of many pre-Islamic Arab tribal religions.

• God revealed to Mohammed that each Muslim was obliged to replicate this practice at least once in his or her life if physically and financially able.