History of mankind is about history of war and most of the history is recorded by the conquerors or the colonizers. History of Africa and more specifically North Africa region has been largely ignored by scholars.(Lecture, 8/6) The countries in North African region, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and the disputed territory of the Western Sahara(Lecture, 8/6) is generally understood to be poor, weak, insignificant, uncivilized country. However, these countries played a significant role in impacting other regions of Europe, Middle East, and Africa, itself with their religion, science, cultural ideas, politics, trade and more. Clancy-Smith argues in North Africa, Islam and the Mediterranean World that North Africa served a role of being “cross-roads” and "myriad exchanges or subtle accommodations" (Clancy-Smith, 2) because of their unique, intersecting, strategic location of Islamic, Mediterranean, Atlantic, African and European region. Without closely studying their history, North African nations seem to be insignificant, only being acted upon by other superior nations and not impacting others. However, for centuries out of many elements, their religion, science, literature, political ideas, and location have been reaching other continents influencing them as never thought before.
It is a surprising fact that Islam is the second largest religion is the world today. This is due to the swift expansion of Islam in 632 through 733. Islamic countries in North Africa have expanded their faith in Allah throughout Europe, southern African and even Asia. The transformation was from a small religious community to a state. (Lecture, 8/11) Continuing on from Muhammad, Islam started to spread constantly. Built in 661, the Umay...
... middle of paper ...
...ropean Mediterranean countries suffer from low income, insufficient growth of GNP compared with their demographic growth, high inflation and unemployment, widespread illiteracy and inadequate health services” (Gold, 27) Therefore, North African countries’ significant location is noticeably influencing the European nations.
The Islamic world remains today a vast land stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with an important presence in Europe and America. (Lecture 8/6) Being colonized for a quite a long time, North African coutries wishes to live at peace with the West as well as the East but at the same time not to be dominated by them. For many centuries, they had been functioning as the “cross-roads” (Clancy-Smith, 1) of culture, politic, trade, science and many more, and it still wishes to devote its religion, resources and energies to building crossroads.
Ansary, Mir Tamim. Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes. New York: PublicAffairs, 2009. Print.
Underneath the tale of Segu is the hushed and disloyal question few people tend to voice: how did they lose the rights to use the land and resources of an entire continent? This novel explains that it was not just Europe’s greed and Christianity pretense that led to the fall of Africa. It shows that Islam was a major force that endangered Segu as well. However, aside from the tragedy’s that were outlined, there lies a captivating story about culture, spirituality, and diversity.
Europe, in the late 1800’s, was starting for a land grab in the African continent. Around 1878, most of Africa was unexplored, but by 1914, most of Africa, with the lucky exception of Liberia and Ethiopia, was carved up between European powers. There were countless motivations that spurred the European powers to carve Africa, like economical, political, and socio–cultural, and there were countless attitudes towards this expansion into Africa, some of approval and some of condemnation.
Conquest and colonization has always played a role in the history of European powers. Throughout the centuries many different European empires have attempted to make their mark on multiple different continents. Some have found success, while others have failed. One case in particular, in which European nations could not quite find stability, was in North America. Factors such as the American Revolution, U.S. westward expansion, and the Monroe Doctrine pushed European nations out of North America. Afterwards, the late 19th century marked the beginning of New Imperialism. As New Imperialism began, Africa became important to European nations in their “Scramble for Africa”.
Islam is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion alongside Judaism and Christianity. It is currently the second largest religion in the world today. Its beliefs come from the Qur'an which literally means "the recitation" which is believed to be a literal transcription of the word of God. Its main prophet is named Muhammad who began Islam by speaking with the angel Gabriel in a cave during his meditation and then acting as an instrument of God to help write the Qur’an. Muhammad then spread Islam to the scattered tribes of Arabia by becoming the leader of Yathrib and using his wonderful leadership abilities to then grow his influence over virtually all of Arabia. Muhammad is known by Muslims to be the seal of the profits because no profits after Muhammad should be considered legitimate. Muhammad also left behind the Hadith or “tradition” which is a collection of writings compiled of reports of Muhammad’s actions as leader of Yathrib. These reports are used as a more specific code of ethics in day to day life and from these reports the 5 Pillars of Islam are derived (Smith 160). Although Islam shares many similarities to Judaism and Christianity it is often viewed in the US with hate derived from preconceived notions following the attack on September 11th 2001. This paper seeks to provide an overview of Islam’s history as well as its two major sects and 5 main pillars to remove preconceived notions and provide a glance into the minds of the Islamic people.
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.
With Europe in control, “the policies of the governing powers redirected all African trade to the international export market. Thus today, there is little in the way of inter-African trade, and the pattern of economic dependence continues.” Europeans exported most of the resources in Africa cheaply and sold them costly, which benefited them, but many Africans worked overtime and were not treated with care.
Europe and Africa have been linked together in evaluating the state formation process. Both regions have similarities, strengths, weaknesses, and room for improvement. To this day both regions are far from perfect. Some light can be shed on this subject, by evaluating Europe and Africa’s state formation process, evaluating what party benefits, and briefly explaining two economic consequences of European colonialism in Africa.
Robinson, B. A. "Islam: The Second Largest World Religion...and Growing." The Religion of Islam. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, 1995. Web. 18 Apr. 2014
While the events of September 11, 2001, cast the Islam religion in an unfavorable light, this has not dampened the enthusiasm of the Muslim members, nor has it stopped the Islam religion from growing. Obviously, with over one billion members worldwide, Islam is one of the largest religions in the world today.
The spread of Islam in Africa had taken course from a number of factors, including external and internal forces. After my analyzing of the spread of Islam in Africa, I have gather three main themes that stuck out during the expansion of Islam: Islam and trade, the conversion conditions of Islam, and the economics/political development involving Islam. These three themes provide great insight on how Islam started to spread through out Africa. Through trade the culture and religion of Islam was spread to many different areas. This correlates to the conversion of different people, which helped spread Islam. By these conversions Islam was able to establish Islamic states, which played a factor in the development of strong economic and political
The spread of Islam throughout the African continent was predominantly influenced by the trading routes in North and East Africa. While Islam was very influential in the political and economic sphere of these areas, many of the original practices and traditions of Africa remained. The dominant people who facilitated the spread of Islam throughout the continent were the elite of Africa, such as the kings, and the traders themselves. While the spread of religion is typically looked at as a spreading of faith or a way to exclude yourself from warring nations, Africa’s conversion to Islam was incredibly economical and political. Primary sources from the time period, like Meadows of Gold, serve to further highlight how the effects of trade and commerce were able to have so much impact on the spread of Islam throughout the continent.
The Fatimid’s had been rumored to be tolerant, compassionate and focused on unifying Islam; however, it has been proved that this was not always the case. Orientalists have acknowledged their contribution towards the advancement of Islam and claim that the Christian and Jewish communities excelled during this time; but it did not come without its deceptions and deviations from Islamic norms and rules. This historiography will explore whether the Fatimids were actually the tolerant Muslims whose actions, belief systems and practices evidenced the growth of Islam and tolerance of other religions, or if they were merely politi...
G. Esposito, John L (2002) Islam; What Everyone Should Know. New York. Oxford University Press Inc.
An overwhelming majority of African nations has reclaimed their independence from their European mother countries. This did not stop the Europeans from leaving a permanent mark on the continent however. European colonialism has shaped modern-day Africa, a considerable amount for the worse, but also some for the better. Including these positive and negative effects, colonialism has also touched much of Africa’s history and culture especially in recent years.