Imagine a scene in which thousands of earnest worshippers gather at a massive, ornate religious building to pray. For many people, this scene serves as a distinct image of Islamic culture, but its contributions to the world extend far beyond religion. During the seventh and eighth century in the Arabian Peninsula, Islamic culture flourished, which lead to its contributions and great impact on the world. The Islamic golden age was a time period of peace which allowed the Muslims to advance in three different categories: architecture, hospitals, and libraries. Primary cities of trade such as Mecca, Medina, Cordoba, and Baghdad also contributed to the advancements in Islam. Among its lasting achievements, Islamic culture influenced the world by …show more content…
Between the seventh and thirteenth century in Arabia, Muslims advanced in the arts by developing in architecture, calligraphy, geometric floral design, and textiles. Muslims artists and architects painted and designed buildings such as mosques. Mosques are religious buildings for Muslims to pray in and they are decorated with calligraphy and geometric designs. These special places of Muslim worship in are significant to both the modern world and Islam because it affects both of these worlds tremendously. According to Wendy Frey “A particularly important type of building was the mosque, the Muslim house of worship,” supporting the fact that the contribution of the mosques were very influential to Islam and the modern day world because it was the “Muslim house of worship” and the mosques served as an example for present day architects when they are building their own structures (107). Mosques contributed to Islamic culture because if the Muslims did not have a place to pray to Allah in, they would lose part of their religion, thus losing part of their culture since religion is culture. Mosques have impacted the world enormously by influencing modern artists and architects on how to design their buildings. For example, Muslims built many impressive mosques such as the Blue Mosque in Turkey and the Taj Mahal in India, which later on served as a model for other architects to create their own buildings. …show more content…
Starting from the eighth century, Muslims advanced in education in many different ways such as the House of Wisdom and libraries. To Muslims, education was very important because the prophets like Muhammad encouraged and promoted knowledge. This caused the Muslims to start building libraries and places for scholars to study in Arabia. In these libraries, Muslim scholars studied and translated ancient Greek works. The authors Stanley and Shek claim, “They [Baghdad] also built a library that was used as a university and housed Arabic translations of many ancient Greek works” (84). This means that the libraries had a numerous amount of translations of ancient Greek works, which conveys that Muslims did preserve Greek works, which is significant to Islamic culture because it allowed them to interact with other cultures. Libraries influenced the world by providing resources and ideas for people today. The styles of libraries were motivated by Muslims, but the main reason libraries are an important part of the modern world is because without libraries, people would have a difficult time finding information and reliable resources which makes life for people more convenient with libraries. For these reasons, libraries have changed Islamic culture and the world
For example, the spread of Islam to the Byzantines and the Persians. The other caliphs (Umar, Uthman and Ali) expanded the Islamic empire rapidly and grew faster than any other religion. The Muslims conquered a massive amount of land from the Indus River, across North Africa and into Spain. There were many factors that helped Islam succeed; for example, people would rather fight for God and their salvation instead of fighting for a king, the use of military force by the Muslims and how easy it was to convert to Islam.
The Muslim empire expanded vastly from 622 CE to 750 CE. This empire could be compared to the Holy Roman Empire, one of the greatest in the world. There are three main reasons to explain how the Muslim empire reached its height; battling for land, signing peace treaties, and granting stipends. Every Muslim who were in the military fought against other civilizations for land. After that, they made an agreement, or a peace treaty, to the people of the land they conquered. The Muslims would also give gifts called stipends to conquered people who helped the Islam’s. The next paragraph will be explaining how Muslims fought for land and how that was important.
“In 622, a small community of Muslims gradually migrated from Mecca to Medina” (Cleveland 11) they were in effect kicked out of Mecca because their leader, Muhammad “posed a challenge to the social, economic, and religious structure of the city” (Cleveland 10). By 750, this small group of outcasts had gained power over “an empire that stretched from Morocco to India” (Cleveland 17). The religion of Muhammad, Islam, grew even beyond this first empire and became the driving force behind future expansions for a millennium. There are quite a few factors that played into the initial success of these Islamic empires and by extension, Islam. However, the strength of its empires was not only in their ability to gain power but also in their ability to sustain it. As each Islamic empire grew, the number cultures and religions within it grew as well. The Koran provided some guidance on how to manage these different regions in addition; each empire devised creative methods of dealing with the immense diversity. The strength of these Islamic empires lied in their ability to maintain a strong centralized government firmly based in Islam, while adapting to accept vastly different cultures.
The Islamic Empire contributed to globalization during the Islamic Golden Age, when the knowledge, trade and economies from many previously isolated regions and civilizations began integrating through contacts with Muslim (and Jewish Radhanite) explorers and traders. Their trade networks extended from the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea in the west to the Indian Ocean and China Sea in the east. These trade networks helped establish the Islamic Empire as the world’s leading extensive economic power throughout the 7th–13th centuries.
The Islamic Golden Age is century at which Muslim rulers established one of the largest empires in history. “Golden Age. The period 900-1200 A.D. represents the approximate apogee of Muslim science, which flourished in Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Cordoba, among other cities. Significant progress was made in such areas as medicine, agronomy, botany, mathematics, chemistry, and optics. As Muslims vied with Chinese for intellectual and scientific leadership, Christian Europe lagged far behind both.” (source 1). The Muslims gained the Golden Age because the Prophet (Muhammad) created a religion that untied his people (Muslims) and into one group. That changed
Thesis: Islam and The Islamic Empire started suddenly and spread rapidly over a 500+ year period because of political, cultural, and religious reasons.
As the Qur’an was written in Arabic, it created a common language in the Islamic empire, making communication and trade easier. The economy benefited from the increase in trade which spread goods as well as Islamic ideas, culture, and knowledge. Islam attracted many scholars to big cities like Baghdad, where they studied at the House of Wisdom — a library and academy that included a huge collection of books and manuscripts in a variety of languages. Religion also gave rise to new discoveries such as the invention of the lunar calendar and astronomy because Muslims needed to know the direction of Mecca in order to complete their pilgrimage. Similar to Islam influencing the east, Christianity also shaped medieval Europe.
The Islamic Golden Age began in the 7th century to the end of the 13th century. The Islamic Golden age is the era in which the Muslims created one of the largest empires. The Golden Ages started with the Prophet Muhammad. There were two Islamic Golden Ages. The first Golden Age lasting about two centuries from the 7th century to the 9th century. In the first Golden Age, society is being integrated in political, social, and moral dimensions in Islam (Lapidus 14). The second Golden Age lasted about five centuries from the 9th century to the 14th century. During the second Golden Age the state and religious institutions were separate, leaving the political and religious elites divided (Lapidus 13). Muhammad, not an immense influence starting out,
Natural philosophy might have played a much smaller role in Islamic science but is not to be overlooked. Al ma’mun built observatories as high as three stories in order to gain a better understanding of the cosmos. With these tools, Islamic astronomers made accurate descriptions of the heavens and created their own geocentric views of the orbits of the heavenly bodies. Attached to many of these observatories were great libraries. Islamic libraries contained a wealth of knowledge which was taken from other civilizations and translated to Arabic such as the House of Wisdom. These libraries had upwards of 2 million books, a massive accomplishment considering they did not have movable type. The Islamic Empire also saw great advances in mathematical understanding with the creation of trigonometry and algebra.
Somehow omitted and forgotten are the fruitful scientific collaboration and theological discussions which occurred in Baghdad in the 9th and 10th centuries, where Christians and Muslim scholars worked together to translate and comment upon Greek philosophy and science. Omitted is the fact that under the Nordic rule in Sicily, the first translation of Arab philosophy was accomplished which would have profound effect and influence on the works of Albert the Great and the famous Christian scholar Thomas Aquinas.
...is one of the most popular religions in the world. They influenced us greatly because a religion that we practice today is a root from Judaism and we call it Christianity. They started the whole monotheistic movement. The Arabs conquered the Zoroastrinists who then began to live in the hills and practice their religion very discreetly. Then Islam came into play with the Arabs. Islam is the most populated religion in the world today. Without these two religions we still may have been a polytheistic society and praying to a god for everything we see.
Islamic civilization began in Arabia, but it spread to many areas in the proximity of the peninsula. It spread as far as Spain, as well as many areas between the two locations. The civilization reached the Eastern Roman Empire, Persia, Egypt, and Africa. The Muslim warriors were extremely courageous, and their religious zeal aided in the conquests of many empires surrounding Arabia. However, the weakn...
...ts and knowledge from other nations and made sometime improved it or added to it and passed it on to other nations, which strengthened the belief of Islam even more to people. All in all, the rise and spread of Islam was very significant during the Postclassical Era.
Adas, Michael, Marc Jason Gibert, Peter N. Stearns, and Stuart B. Schwartz. “Abbasid Decline and the spread of Islamic civilization to south and south Asia.”World civilizations. The Global Experience. 6th ed.Vol combined. New Jersey: Longman, 2011. 270-90. Print.
The Achievements of The Islamic Civilization Islam, one of the most successful religions was started by Muhammad in Arabia and had a massive impact on the world. If it weren't for Islam the world would have been a very different place to live in. Muslims didn't always invent things; sometimes they improved on other people's inventions e.g. the number system, the astrolabe and much more. The first Muslims were Arabs and they went on to conquer many countries.