Fill in the blanks in the text using the word bank at the bottom of the page. Use your notes, maps and Guided Nores as helps if you don? remember all of the answers Make sure to use context clues and
process of elimination
The religion of Islam first emerged in the Arabian peninsula during the 600 AD. A
nomadic herding people, called the
lived in this vast desert area. By the 500s AD
some had settled into
trading towns close to the sea, which became the centers of their culture. At
the most important of these towns, they gathered to buy, sell, and to worship. Their
religion was
meaning that it had many gods, and it most important shrine was
the stone box called the
A man named Muhammad was born into this culture around 570 AD. He was known as an honest
and intelligent man, and one highly interested in questions of religion. In 610 AD he experienced a
or words of guidance contained in a vision, from God. God, the Arabic term
for whom is
ordered Muhammad to convert his fellow Arabs to
(the worship of a single god). Also, Muhammad was to call for charity, social justice, and righteous
living in preparation for a final judgment. For his role in spreading God's word, Muhammad would come
to be known as the
or Messenger, of Islam.
Many of Muhammad's fellow Arabs reacted badly to his teachings. He was eventually driven
from Mecca to a town in the north called
As he strengthened Muslim control of
this town it came to be known as
short for "city of the Prophet." Eventually,
Meccan forces came to destroy the Muslims, but Muhammad's forces won out and began a conquest of all
of Arabia. This holy war to spread the Islamic faith was called
Muhammad died in 632 AD. Muslims who had known him quickly began to collect his stories
and sermons so that the message would stay pure. This collection of God's words through Muhammad,
which would become the Muslim scripture, was called the
Islam spread quickly after the death of Muhammad, Islamic armies, led by men called
- spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The most successful of
these leaders were the first four, known as the
At the end of this
period, however, Islam experienced a crisis. Because of a conflict over who had the authority to lead the
growing Islamic empire, Islam split into the
and
branches.
Yet Islam remained a powerful force. The Ummayad dynasty, ruling from Damascus, built a
powerful and unified state that reached as far west and north as the Christian land of
in western Europe, and as far cast as India. The Abbasid dynasty which followed built a capital to rival
any in the world at Baghdad on the Euphrates River in the modem-day country of Iraq. Kingdoms rose
and fell, but Islam remained. Its last great empire was that of the
which ruled the Middle East up to 1923, and is today the country of Turkey. Although today Islam
dominates many smaller nations rather than one great empire, it is a great world religion that spans the
regions of north
the Middle
and much of central and southern
Islam remains today as one of the world's great religions. Muslims throughout the world perform
their duties
which include faith, ritual prayer times each day,
(or giving to
those in need), foregoing food
during the day during the month of
and making a pilgrimage to Mecca called the
Word Bank: Sunni, haji, Koran, Bedouin, revelation, Yathrib, caliphs, monotheism, kaaba, Mecca,
Africa, Ottoman Turks, Alian, polytheistic, Ramadan, Allah, Shiite, five, jihad, prophet, Asia, East,
Rightly Guided, charity, Medina, fasting, Spain