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place?
The Rise and Spread of
Islam
 Geography
• The Arabian Desert is harsh and dry
• Very difficult life for people living there
 People of the Arabian
Peninsula
• Nomad – person with no permanent
home…..Followed their food source in
area they live
• Bedouin – Nomadic people that llived in
the Arabian Desert. Acted as guides and
traders along trade routes.
Bedouins
Trade Caravan
 Trade Routes
• Mecca was a “Crossroads for Trade” in
the Arabian Desert.
• Traders would travel to the Mediterranean
Sea or across the desert to Iraq (very
dangerous route)
 Trade Goods
• Spices (Asia)
• Gold (Africa)
• Ivory (Africa)
• Perfume (Asia)
• Silk (Asia)
 Bedouins
• Lifestyle was very rough. Little to look
forward to in life.
• Bedouins would often raid trade caravans
in the desert. Merchants had to provide
security for their goods which cost them
money. (Merchants had to find a way to
stop the raids)
 Islam is the Answer
• Merchants learn of Islam in the cities
(Mecca)
• Bedouins and merchants come to an
agreement: Merchants will provide Islam
and allow bedouin’s to pray at the
Kabah….. Bedouins will agree not to raid
caravans
 Salvation
• Islam offered bedouins the one thing they
needed most….salvation (afterlife)
• Islam gave meaning and significance to
their lives (difficult life, but hope for
salvation)
 Islam Spreads
• Traders would preach the religion of Islam
to bedouins as they traveled.
• People were eager to accept the religion
because their lives were hard and they
were fearful of the Byzantine & Persian
Empires
• Islam united the Arabian Peninsula
 Islam
• A tolerant religion that accepted Christians
and Jews as “Protected People”
• Islam recognizes the prophets and holy
people of the Bible and Jewish scripture.
• People saw Islam as a tolerant, peaceful,
forgiving, and sensible religion.
 Islam
• Islam unified the entire Arabian Peninsula.
• Arab world no longer worried about other
empires
• The Muslim Empire would begin to grow.
 Muhammad
• Known as ‘The Prophet’
• Born in 570 to a poor family, was an
orphan at age 7 and was raised by an
uncle.
• He worked in the caravan trade and
traveled throughout the region.
• He visited the Byzantine Empire and was
exposed to a Monotheistic religion.
 Muhammad
• Because of his travels he was exposed to
many different types of people and the
daily problems they faced.
• He became very tolerant of different
people and different beliefs.
• He married Khadijah, a wealthy widow,
and managed her family caravan
business.
 Muhammad
• He would often walk alone in the hills
outside Mecca praying about the
problems he saw.
• During one of these walks an angel
commanded him to spread the word of
God and Islam was born.
 The Hijra
• Muhammad’s journey from Mecca to
Yathrib (Medina)
• The traders in Mecca did not like
Muhammad’s message and saw him as a
threat to their wealth. They thought a new
religion would weaken Mecca’s value as a
trade city.
• They persecuted Muhammad and his
followers
 The Hijra
• In 622, Muhammad was FORCED to flee
Mecca and go to Yahtrib where he was
welcomed as the Prophet.
• Hijra means, Migration and the year 622
becomes year 1 on the Islamic calendar.
• Yahtrib was renamed Medina which
means, ‘City of the Prophet’
 Muhammad
• Returns to triumphantly to Mecca in 630
and dies in 632.
• By this time, the entire Arabian Peninsula
was Islamic.
• Within 100 years of his death Islam
spread to North Africa, Southern Europe,
and Northern India and China.
Grand Mosque - Mecca
Kabah