Mid-term Review 600-1450

1. Mid-term Review 600-1450

2. What was bedouin society? Bedouin society was made up of nomadic peoples who migrated through the deserts to find grass and water for their animals. The Bedouin organized themselves in family and clan groups. Individuals and their immediate families depended heavily on their larger kinship networks for support. Because the Arabian desert was such a harsh environment to live, cooperation with kin often made the difference between death and survival. Bedouin people developed a strong sense of loyalty to their clans. Clan identities and loyalties survived for centuries after the appearance of Islam.

3. How did Muhammad and Islam address the fundamental problems in bedouin society? • Muhammad’s followers recorded his revelations into written texts that became known as the Quran, or holy book of Islam. • Muhammad stressed the rejection of idolatry and promoted monotheistic faith. • In Medina, Muhammad organized his followers into a unified group called the umma, or community of the faithful. • He provided the community with a legal and social code. • Muhammad led the community in daily prayers to Allah. • He look after the economic welfare of the umma by organizing commercial ventures. • He made almsgiving a prime moral virtue. • Muhammad and his followers conquered Mecca and forced elites to adopt the faith. They destroyed pagan shrines and replaced them with mosques.

4. What are the basic beliefs of Islam? Five Pillars • Acknowledge Allah as the only god and Muhammad as the only prophet. • They must prayer to Allah daily while facing Mecca. • Observe a fast during the daylight hours of the month of Ramadan. • They must contribute alms for the relief of the weak and poor. • Make at least one pilgrimage to Mecca in life time.

5. What motivations led Islam to transform itself from a nomadic society to a global civilization? • Islam offered detailed guidance on proper behavior in all aspects of life. • It drew its inspiration from the Quran and the early historical account of Muhammad’s life. • It offered guidance on marriage, family life, inheritance, slavery, business, and commercial relationship. • Islam became more than a religion; it became a way of life with social and ethical values based on Islamic religious principles. • Islamic society drew much of its prosperity from commerce, i.e. overland trade, development of banks, etc.

6. What were the major characteristics of the Abbasid Caliphate? (750-1258) • Showed no special favor to Arab military aristocracy • No longer conquering, but the empire still grew • Abbasid administration • Relied heavily on Persian techniques of statecraft • Central authority ruled from the court at Baghdad • Appointed governors to rule provinces

7. What were the major characteristics of the Abbasid Caiphate? (750-1258) • The Abbasids built magnificent capital at Baghdad, which became one of the great cultural centers of the world. • The architectural style of the dynasty was unique and beautiful. It is best represented by the mosque built in Cordoba, Spain.

8. How did the position of women in Islamic society change from Muhammad to the Abbasid Empire? • With the establishment of the Quran between 651 and 652, women were treated with more dignity and were considered equal before Allah. Also, infanticide was strictly forbidden. Women gained more influence within the home. • Under the Abbasid dynasty, however, women lost their influence in public life and, in a large part, in the home. This happened as a result of expansion into the Byzantine empire.

9. What was Islam’s attitude toward slavery? • The Quran makes numerous references to slaves and slavery. • Like numerous passages in the Hebrew bible and the New Testament, the Qur’an assumes the permissibility of owning slaves, which was an established practice before its revelation. • The Qur’an does not explicitly condemn slavery or attempt to abolish it. It does, however, provide a number of regulations designed to improve the situation of slaves.

10. To what extent was Islam successful in converting India to Islam? • Between 600 C.E. and 1200 C.E., India was not unified. The Gupta Empire, the last state to provide any sort of unity, collapsed in 550 C.E. • Muslim invaders reached the Indus Valley and Afghanistan in the 700’s and converted it to Islam. • In 1022, Muslim armies began the conquest of northern India. • In 1206, the Muslims captured the city of Delhi and most of northern India fell into their hands. • Muslim generals established the Delhi Sultanate. • Islam did not displace earlier faiths like Hinduism and Buddhism but joined them as one of the country’s major religions.

11. To what extent was Islam successful in converting Southeast Asia to Islam? • As the coastal trade and shipping of India came to be controlled (from the 8th century onward) increasingly by Muslims, elements of Islamic culture began to filterinto Southeast Asia. • Almost everywhere in the islands of the region, trading contacts paved the way for conversion. Muslim merchants and sailors introduced local peoples to the ideas and rituals of the new faith and impressed on them how much of the known world had already been converted. • The first areas to be won to Islam in the last decades of the 13th century were several small port centers on the northern coast of Sumatra. • There were large Muslim communities in the cities, but not in the rural areas due to the trade networks.

12. What were the characteristics of the Swahili city-states? Swahili dominated east African coast from Mogadishu to Sofala Spoke Swahili, a Bantu language, supplemented with some Arabic words Trade with Muslim merchants became important by the tenth century The Swahili city-states chiefs gained power through taxing trade on ports Ports developed into city-states governed by kings, eleventh and twelfth centuries Kilwa: good example of busy city-state on east coast; exported gold

13. What were the characteristics of theGreat Zimbabwe? Zimbabwe was powerful kingdom of east Africa By the ninth century, chiefs began to build stone residences (Zimbabwe) Magnificent stone complex known as Great Zimbabwe in the twelfth century Eighteen thousand people lived in Great Zimbabwe in the late fifteenth century Kings organized flow of gold, ivory, and slaves

14. What were the characteristics of the Byzantine Empire? The eastern Roman Empire, centered in Constantinople, became the highly centralized government known as the Byzantine Empire; whereas in the west, the empire collapsed. The Byzantine Empire was a lot more centralized and organized than the western empire.

15. What were the characteristics of the Byzantine Empire? • The Byzantine Empireused the Greek language; its architecture had distinctive domes; its culture in general had more in common with Eastern cultures like those of Persia; and its brand of Christianity became an entirely separate branch known as Orthodox Christianity. • Throughout Byzantine history, the emperors treated the church as a department of state. Under Justinian, who reigned from 527 to 565, the period is known for the flowering of the arts and sciences, evident in the construction of major buildings and churches, most notably Hagia Sophia, an enormous cathedral that still stands today.

16. What accounts for the decline of the Byzantine Empire? • In the 11th century, vigorous economic development in western Europe supported a remarkable round of military and political expansion. • The Normans (Scandinavian people who had seized Normandy in northern France) took control of southern Italy and expelled Byzantine authorities there. • During the 12th and 13th centuries, the Normans and other western European peoples mounted a series of Crusades and took the opportunity to carve out states in the heart of the Byzantine Empire. • As Europeans invaded into Byzantine territory from the west, nomadic Turkish peoples invaded from the east. • By the 12th century Islamic invaders had seized much of Anatolia. • The loss of Anatolia- the principal source of Byzantine grain, wealth, and military forces—sealed the fate of the Byzantine empire.

17. Byzantine Empire

18. Byzantine Empire and Russia • Mid-ninth century, Russians started to organize a large state: Kiev • The conversion of Prince Vladimir, 989 • Kiev served as a conduit for spread of Byzantine culture and religion • Writing and literature and Orthodox missions spread Byzantine culture • Byzantine art and architecture dominated Kiev: icons and onion domes

19. Byzantine Empire and Russia • Princes established caesaropapist control of Russian Orthodox church • Russian culture flourished from eleventh century • Moscow claimed to be world's "third Rome" • Sent out many missionaries from sixteenth century on

20. What was Feudalism? • Historians once used the term “feudalism” to refer to the political and social order of medieval Europe. It was based on a neat hierarchy of lords and vassals, who collectively took charge of political and military affairs. • Increasingly, scholars are abandoning this term because it distorts and oversimplifies the understanding of a complicated society. • Medieval Europe was a society in which local political and military elites worked out various ad hoc ways to organize their territories and maintain order in the absence of effective central authorities.

21. What was Manorialism? • A manor was also a piece of land under the control of a single LORD. The lord was given this manor land from the king, usually for his devotion to the king. • Because the lord was away from his manor sometimes, he hired VASSALS to help him run the manor in his absence. • Everything was produced on the manor. Cattle were raised for milk and meat. Sheep were raised for wool. Several fields were used to grow a variety of foods like potatoes, corn and wheat. Blacksmith workshops, bakeries, a mill, markets, and even a church or chapel was present. • PEASANTS and SERFS lived in huts or very small homes around the edges of the manor. Most of the work on the manor was done by the peasants and serfs. • During the early Middle Ages, the institution of serfdom encouraged the development of manor as the principal form of agricultural organization in western Europe.

22. What was the role of women during the Middle Ages? • Women were subservient to men. • Women of lower classes cared for the household, bore children, and raised them. • One of the few peasant women to leave an individual mark on medieval Europe was the French war leader Joan of Arc (1410-1431). • In most parts of medieval Europe, women had some property rights. They could own and inherit land and property. • Women had protection, although no always equality, before the law. • Women could enter religious life, but they could not become priests. • Aristocratic women could exert much information political and cultural influence.

23. What were the causes of the Crusades? • Religious fervor on the part of Muslims and Christians. • Geopolitical conflict between Europe and the Middle East • The Europeans’ desire to become more involved in the international trade network stretching from the Mediterranean to China. • Personal ambitions of Europeans hoping to gain wealth and land in the Middle East. • Racial and religious prejudice.

24. What was the impact of the Crusades? • Worsening of the relationship between the Muslim and Christian worlds. • Greater awareness of the wider world, especially the lands of the east, that the Crusades stimulated among the Europeans. • Increased knowledge of and desire for the economic wealth to be gained by greater interaction with the Middle and Far East. • The Crusading ideal—the notion that Christian warriors were fighting a holy war on behalf of a sacred cause

25. What were the basic characteristics of the Olmec? Large wave of humans traveled from Siberia to Alaska around 13,000 B.C.E. By 9500 B.C.E., humans reached the southernmost part of South America Early agriculture: beans, squashes, chilis; later, maize became the staple (5000 B.C.E.) Agricultural villages appeared after 3000 B.C.E. Olmecs, the "rubber people,"lived near the Gulf of Mexico (1200 B.C.E. ) Elaborate complexes built The colossal human heads--possibly likenesses of rulers Rulers' power shown in construction of huge pyramids Trade in jade and obsidian Influence of Olmec: maize, ceremonial centers, calendar, human sacrifice, ball game

26. What were the characteristics of the Tang and Song Dynasties? See Sarah and Linda’s documentary.

27. What was the role of women in the Tang and Sang Dynasties? Strengthened patriarchy authority explained the popularity of foot binding which spread among privileged classes during the Song era. Like the practice of veiling women in the Islamic world, foot binding placed women of privileged classes under tight supervision of their husbands or other male guardians, who managed the women’s affairs in the interests of the larger family.

28. What was Neo-Confucianism? How did it change the political and social nature of China? • Buddhist influence on Confucianism • Early Confucianism focused on practical issues of politics and morality • Confucians began to draw inspiration from Buddhism. • Buddhism offered a tradition of logical thought and argumentation but also dealt with issues, such as the nature of the soul and the individual’s relationship with the cosmos, not systemically explored by Confucian thinkers. • Zhu Xi (1130-1200 C.E.), the most prominent neo-Confucian scholar

29. Describe Japan during the Heian era. 794-1185 C.E. Japanese emperors served as ceremonial figureheads and symbols of authority. Effective power in the hands of the Fujiwara family. Emperor did not rule, which explains the longevity of the imperial house . Chinese learning dominated Japanese education and political thought. The Tale of Genji was written by a woman, Murasaki Shikibu .

30. How was Genghis Khan able to build one of history’s largest empires? He formed an alliance with a prominent Mongol clan leader in the late 12th century. He mastered the art of steppe diplomacy which called for displays of personal courage in battle, combined with intense loyalty to allies, as well as a willingness to betray allies to improve one’s position. He mistrusted the tribes and broke up the tribal organization. He forced men of fighting age to join new military units with no tribal affiliations. He chose high military and political officials not on the basis of kinship or tribal status, but rather because of their talents or their loyalty to him. He establish a capital at Karakorum, present-day Har Horin and built a luxurious palace. The early Mongol armies were large. They were also talented cavalrymen and archers. They were also quick to adopt military technology.

31. What was the impact of Mongol conquest? By Genghis Khan’s death in 1227, the Mongols controlled a large state encompassing present-day Mongolia, much of Central Asia, and northern and Western China. From 1237-1240, the Mongols conquered most of Russia and Ukraine. The Mongols invaded the Middle East in the 1250’s, toppling the Abbasid Caiphate in 1258 and advancing until 1260. Mongols imposed a single political authority, encouraged economic exchange, made travel conditions safer, and imposed legal order. The Silk Road flourished, and cities like Samarkand became crucial economic centers, with merchants, missionaries, and travelers of all professions and ethnicities passing through. Many historians refer to this brief semi-unification of Eurasia as the Pax Mongolica, or Mongol Peace.