Sunni Islam: 610-1900

1. Sunni Islam: 610-1900 And its Impacts on the World By: Kirsten Schulz, Caroline Dickensheets and Shaina Patel

2. What is Sunni Islam? • Sunni Islam is a branch of Islam that follows the belief of having the community choose its religious leaders. • This contrasts the Shi’ite branch of Islam who believes that religious leadership should have belonged to Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, and his descendants. • The term caliphate is used to describe offices that were established to takeover the teachings of Muhammad as well as rule the Islamic empire. • Imams were considered to be spiritual leaders of Islam.

3. People of Islam • Muhammad: an Arab prophet, later the founder of Islam. • Abu Bakr: Friend and advisor to Muhammad. Muhammad chose him over Ali to succeed him. • Ali: cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad. He felt as if he should have succeeded Muhammad and not Abu Bakr. • The Umayyad Caliphate: They were the first hereditary dynasty of Muslim caliphs. They ruled from Spain to India but were eventually overthrown by the Abbasid Caliphate. • The Abbasid Caliphate: They were descendents of the prophet Muhammad’s uncle. They overthrew the Umayyad. • Osman: Founder and later sultan of the Ottoman Empire. • Babur: He was founder of the Mughal Dynasty.

4. A map showing the spread of Islam from the beginning of Muhammad to the 1700s. Woman in traditional Abaya Men during traditional prayer

5. A traditional Islamic Mosque A depiction of the Prophet Muhammad A depiction of Ali People during their pilgrimage to the sacred mosque of Mecca

6. Chronology • 610: The beginning of Muhammad's mission and revelation of the Qur'an. • 613: Public preaching of Islam begin. • 630: Led by Muhammad, the Muslims conquer Mecca. • 632: Muhammad dies and chooses Abu Bakr to be his successor. A small group favors Ali as caliph and become known as Shi’at Ali, or party of Ali. • 656: Ali becomes the fourth caliph after the one before him is assassinated. Some of the Muslims rebel against him (Sunnis). • 661: Violence breaks out among the Muslims and Ali is assassinated. • 680: The son of Ali, Hussein, marches against the army of the Caliphate at Karbala. He is defeated and the split between the Shi’ites and the Sunnis deepens. • 750: The Umayyad caliphate rules from Damascus but later falls. The Abbasid Caliphate begins. • 755: The Abbasid Caliphate rules from its capital in Baghdad. • 873: The 11th Shi’ite Imam dies and no one succeeds him.

7. Chronology (continued) • 873-940: This period was known as the Lesser Occultation . The son of the 11th Shi’ite Imam disappears and leaves his advisors as representatives of the Shi’ite faith. • 940: The Greater Occultation of the 12th Imam begins (Imam that disappeared). No Imam or representative is present. • 1258: Led by Hulagu, the Mongols destroy Baghdad, and end the Sunni Arab caliphate. • 1300: The ottoman empire begins to rise to power. Islam begins to make its way to southeast Asia. • 1453: The Byzantine empire falls to the Ottomans. • 1500s: The Safavid Dynasty is established in Persia, and it declares Shiism the state religion. The Mughal dynasty is established in India and declares Sunni Islam the state religion. • 1791: Beginnings of European Colonization. • 1820-1870: Rise of British colonization in India and French Colonization in North Africa.

8. Change Over Time • After three years of preaching only to his family and close friends, Muhammad’s teachings become public. • A split between believers of Islam occurs after the death of Muhammad and his choice of Abu Bakr to succeed him. • After the assassination of Ali, the split between Shi’ites and Sunnis grows after a defeat by Ali’s son Hussein. • Caliphates begin to establish to continue and rule the teachings of Muhammad. • Advancements in technology such as science and math. Improvements in social order, including the status of women and an increase and expansion regarding trade. • Caliphates are beginning to collapse as empires and dynasties such as the Ottoman and Mughal rise to power. • These empires and dynasties no longer have caliphates but are declared states with either Shi’ite or Sunni beliefs. • European colonization begins which drills out Islamic beliefs of those particular regions.

9. Spain (al-Andalus)

10. The Balkans

11. Southeast Asia

12. Africa

13. India

14. The Middle East

15. Direct Comparisons • All regions were similar in the sense that they were all established due to the spread of Islam and ruled by Muslim caliphates or dynasties who established Islam as the prominent religion. However they differed by the caliphates and dynasties who ruled them. • Many of the regions established schools to continue the teachings of Islam. Libraries and research centers were also established. They differed in languages due to the incorporation of pre-existing languages and the rise of new languages. There was also the introduction of poetry and literature such as the world-famous novel: 1001 Arabian Nights. • The religions of the six regions were all fairly similar due to shared Islamic beliefs, except those who followed the Shi’ite Islam faith instead of Sunni. Islam tolerated many pre-existing traditions but still discriminated against those who did not want to convert. • All built great mosques, tombs, and engaged in other monumental building. Some of the regions introduced different building techniques and materials such as coral, sundried bricks and limestone. Southeast Asia also performed shadow plays depicting the Brahmanic Age of India while the Africans enforced the use of geometric design in crafts and textiles. • There were many advances in science and math such as chemistry, astronomy and anatomy. Advances in mathematics include the founding of zero and reasoning systems. Advances in medicine and surgery occurred in the Middle East. • The expansion of trade routes throughout Asia, India, the Middle East , Africa, parts of Europe, and maritime trade began . There were advances in navigation regarding naval trade as well as the rise of new trading products such as cotton and paper. The European Renaissance was greatly impacted by trade with the Middle East who also experienced great developments in agriculture such as the introduction of new livestock and crops. • Islamic based cities were established where society greatly depended on being Muslim or not. While Spain had respect for the Jews and Christians, regions such as the Middle East and the Balkans were not as understanding and discriminated against non-Arab converts. Women also had few rights, but those who did, such as women of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, had more rights than the women of Judaism and Christianity.

16. Sunni Islam Today • About 85-90% of today’s Islamic population of 1.5 billion is Sunni. • Most of the controversial publicity that Sunni-Islam is receiving in today’s world is because of the Sunni-Shia split that exists in the Middle East. • Since the American invasion of Iraq in the 21st century, the Sunni-Shiite conflict has been aggravated in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. • There has also been a sharp increase in the number of split mosques, arguments over the population, discrimination against the Sunni in politics, economy, media and education. • Both groups have been launching terrorist attacks against one another and this poses the biggest threat to the Islamic religion today.

17. Who Did What? • Shaina Patel: PIRATES and the Direct Comparison part of 4 (1 and 4) • Caroline Dickensheets: Chronology and the Change over time part of 4 (2 and 4) • Kirsten Schulz: Pictures/Maps/Captions and Sunni Islam Today. (3 and 5) • Links: -http://www.mideastweb.org/islamhistory.htm -http://history-world.org/islam.htm (Used all different pages) -http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tsis/hd_tsis.htm -http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=articles&id=150535 -http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/india/religion.htm#Islam -http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/ihame/sec5.htm -The AP World Text Book