UKS2 Topic: Early Islamic Civilisation

Block H: Important Places

Session 2 resource pack

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Mecca

Medina

Damascus

Karbala

Jerusalem

Istanbul

Here is a picture of Mecca from 1850. It has grown since 1721. Can you see the river?

This is a picture of the Kabbah in Mecca in 1721. Notice how there are mountains around Mecca.

City source packs

Sources about Mecca Diodorus Siculus, a Greek writer of about 40 BCE, talked about a city in Arabia and the Kabaah. “And a temple has been set-up there, which is very holy and exceedingly revered by all Arabians.” This might be the Kabaah, which is said to have been originally built by Abraham, one of the important figures of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic religions.

CE 613, Muhammad(pbuh) began preaching in Mecca to return the religion to worship of one god, rather than many.

CE 622, Muhammad(pbuh) was expelled from Mecca and went to Medina. In CE 624 Muhammad(pbuh) decided that Muslims should face towards Mecca to pray, rather than Jerusalem, which it had been beforehand.

Muhammad(pbuh), when he came back to Mecca after being expelled from there said: “By Allah! You are the most beloved portion of Allah’s earth to me, and verily you are the most beloved portion of the earth to Allah too. Verily you are the best, spot on the face of the earth. And the most beloved to Allah. If your people did not expel me, I would not have departed from you.”

After Muhammad(pbuh) died, there were wars between different factions of Islam. Mecca was besieged twice and the Kabaah burned once, it was later rebuilt.

Ludovico di Varthema, an Italian, travelled to Mecca in 1503. “On the 18th of May we entered into the said city of Mecca ; we entered from the north, and afterwards we descended into the plain. On the side towards the south there are two mountains which almost touch each other, where is the pass to go to the gate of Mecca. On the other side, where the sun rises, there is another mountain pass, like a valley, through which is the road to the mountain where they celebrate the sacrifice of Abraham and Isaac, which mountain is distant from the said city about eight or ten miles. The height of this mountain is two or three casts of a stone by hand, and it is of some kind of stone, not marble, but of another colour. On the top of this said mountain there is a mosque according to their custom, which has three doors. At the foot of the said mountain there are two very beautiful reservoirs of water. One is for the caravan from Cairo, and the other for the caravan from Damascus.”

CE 1630, there was a flood in Mecca and the Kabaah was destroyed. It was rebuilt in 1631.

Medina

This picture was drawn in 1672. Although it says Mecha on the top, this is actually an image of Medina. The building labelled A is the mosque where Muhammad(pbuh) is buried. B is the public baths. C is another mosque.

This is a photograph of Medina from the early 20th century. It shows the other side of the Nawabi Mosque, originally built by Muhammad(pbuh) and where he is buried. You can match up the minarets from the other image above.

Sources about Medina Medina was first settled about 100 BCE, but was quite small. It got bigger by CE 100. It was originally called Yathrib and was mainly a Jewish town.

CE 622, Muhammad(pbuh) arrives after being expelled from Mecca. He builds a mosque and starts preaching the new religion.

Muhammad(pbuh) said of Medina: "Medina is a sanctuary from that place to that. Its trees should not be cut and no heresy should be innovated nor any sin should be committed in it, and whoever innovates in it an heresy or commits sins (bad deeds), then he will incur the curse of Allah, the angels, and all the people."

CE 632, Muhammad(pbuh) dies and is buried in the mosque, the Masjid al_Nawabi.

Sharia law was worked out in Medina in the 8th century AD.

The city wall was built in CE 975.

There was a battle of Medina in 1812 when the Turkish Ottoman Empire gained control of the city.

Damascus

This is a map of Damascus from the 16th century. You can see where the river runs through the city. The city is surrounded by a wall at this point. The building with the tallest tower is a mosque. The building in the centre with a moat around it is a palace.

Here is a drawing of Damascus from 1677. Can you still see the river and the wall? Notice the mountain in the background.

Sources about Damascus

Archaeologists have found remains of settlement near Damascus from 3000 BCE.

Damascus is first referred to in writing in 1350 BCE in the El-Amarna letters written on clay tablets found in Egypt. Damascus is called Dimashka in the letters. The Egyptian pharaoh, Tutmose III wrote that he defeated the tribes north of Dimashka and recaptured the city for Egypt.

Damascus was conquered by the Assyrians in 732 BCE. It was then conquered by the Babylonians in 572 BC. Alexander the Great of Macedonia conquered Damascus in 323 BCE and then died there.

In 64 BC the Roman general Pompey took over Damascus for the Roman Republic. The first Roman Emperor, Augustus Caesar, built a Temple to Jupiter in Damascus around 20 BCE.

After Muhammad(pbuh) died, Damascus was conquered by the growing Muslim empire. The Great Mosque was started in CE 706.

Damascus was invaded by Mongols in 1260, but after they withdrew was taken over by Egypt.

Jerusalem

This map of Jerusalem was made in 1608. You can see the city walls and several hills inside and outside the city. The circular area with a square building in the top left is the Tower of David. The square area in the centre bottom is Temple Mount. The garden to the bottom outside the city walls is the Garden of Gethsemane.

This is a 19th century picture of Jerusalem. The Temple Mount is in the corner of the city closest to us and the Tower of David at the other side of the city. What is happening outside the city walls?

Sources for Jerusalem, Israel/Palestine Although archaeologists have found evidence of a settlement in the area of Jerusalem as far back as 3000 BCE, it might not have been continuously inhabited since then. It is mentioned in writing as far back as 1800 BCE.

Kind David conquered Jerusalem in about 1000 BCE and proclaimed it the centre of the Jewish religion. His son, King Solomon, built the first temple there.

Jerusalem was under siege by Assyrians in 701 BCE, but it wasn't conquered. It came under siege by Babylonians in 586 BC and was conquered, and the Temple was destroyed.

The Persian Empire conquered the Babylonians and took over Jerusalem in 539 BCE, and the Persian Emperor allowed Jews to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.

Alexander the Great conquered Jerusalem in 332 BCE and then the Roman general Pompey conquered it in 63 BCE.

Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem around CE 30. In CE 70 the Roman army destroys Jerusalem and its Temple and rebuild it as a Roman city.

Jerusalem is conquered by the Muslim Empire in CE 638, which built a mosque on the site of the original Temple called the Dome of the Rock from CE 691. Jerusalem was considered very important in the Muslim religion as one of the centres of worshipping Allah and was originally the way Muhammad(pbuh) faced to say prayers, rather than Mecca.

In CE 1099 the first crusaders from Christian Europe capture Jerusalem. There were more crusades after this as the Muslim Empire and Christian Europe fought for access to Jerusalem. Eventually King Richard I of England and the sultan of Egypt and Syria, An-Nasir Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, known as Saladin, came to an agreement in 1192 that Jerusalem would remain Muslim but that Christians would have the right to go on pilgrimages there.

Istanbul

This is a map of Istanbul in 1654 looking west. The city is on a peninsula that juts out and seperates the Sea of Marmarra and the Black Sea. The city is on both sides of the Bosphorus Strait, but mostly on the western side (top in the map). In the bottom left corner of the far side of the Bosphorus is the palace of the ruler of Turkey. The domed building behind that is the Hagia Sophia, which was a Christian church but later turned into a Muslim mosque and is now a museum.

Another view of Istanbul from 1657, looking north. You can see the shape of the peninsula.

Sources about Istanbul Istanbul was originally called Byzantium (and then was called Constantinople for a while in between) and is a very old city. It was founded in 660 BCE by Greeks.

According to Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer, the first name of Istanbul was Lygos.

Then in 667 BCE the Greeks founded their own city next door and called it Byzantion, which the Romans called Byzantium.

The Roman Emperor Constantine decided to rename it Nova Roma and make it the new capital of the Roman Empire, but it just got called Constantinople (Constantine's City) from CE 324.

The Hagia Sophia, an Orthodox Christian church, was started in CE 537. In CE 1453 Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Empire who were Muslim and they made the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. The city was renamed Istanbul.

Karbala

This is an aerial photograph of Karbala and the two sites of the Hussain shrine taken in the 1980s.

This is a satellite image of the Hussain Shrine taken in 2003. What has changed?

Sources about Karbala Karbala was founded on the site of a historic battle in CE 680. The battle took place between a small group of supporters and relatives of Muhammad's(pbuh) grandson, Husayn ibn Ali, and a larger military detachment from the forces of Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph. Shia Muslims revere the shrine of Husayn in Karbala as the second most holy place in the world after the Kabaah in Mecca. A mausoleum was built over Husayn's grave but it had been destroyed several times and rebuilt. A mosque was also built nearby. The present mosque was built in the 11th century, with extensive reconstruction of the walls and dome in the 14th century.

The city built up around the shrine and mosque.

A wide, tree-lined avenue, created in the late 1990s, leads from the Shrine of Imam Husayn to the Shrine of Abbas, Husayn's half-brother and the army commander who died with Husayn in the Battle of Karbala.