Study Guide 2

Study Guide

Fall of Rome

Western Europe vs Eastern Europe:

  • A difference between the economic structures in western europe and eastern europe was the idea of trade and how not having trade affects a civilization, because in the western part of europe they were being self-sufficient without trade happening which caused them to be bound to the land and in the eastern part of europe trade was happening globally which led the people to still live the classical lifestyle.

The Fall of Rome

When the Western Roman empire fell in 476 CE, kings and emperors were too weak to maintain order. There was a power vacuum. A power vacuum is a condition that exists when someone has lost control and no one has replaced them. With the power vacuum in the western Roman empire, Europeans began fighting for domination. In addition to the fighting between Europeans, there were constant invasions by the Vikings, Muslims, and other groups. This was a time period of danger, violence, and instability.

Byzantine:

Feudalism:

  • Feudalism was a decentralized, or loosely organized system of rule based on land ownership.
  • Feudalism developed because after the fall of the roman empire, different lords ruled different areas and had feudal contracts with the vassals land that they gave away which created mutual feudal obligations and allowed these people who were living in manoralism to be self sufficient and live off of the land.

Manorialism:

  • Manorialism was an economic system structured around the feudal manor, or the lord’s estate.
  • The advantages of having feudalism and manoralism is that when the lords go to war the vassals will protect them and fight for them. However, the disadvantages is for the people that are working and that are bound to the land because they couldn’t go anywhere and couldn’t move up in their social class.

Islam:

Founder:

Muhammad

570-630 CE

Mecca

He got a message from god through the angel gabriel, that told him that there is one god named Allah and Muhammad will be god’s messenger.  

Starting from around 600 CE a man named Muhammad who lived in the city of Mecca, saw an angel. That angel granted Muhammad the gift of being able to read and write. He also told him that he will be god’s messenger and will convince the people that there is only one god named Allah, who has everyone’s best interests at heart.

Holy Texts- The Qur’an is the holy book for Muslims, Hadith is another holy text in Islam

Beliefs and Practices-

  • Muslims are monotheistic and believe that there is only one God, Allah, which is the Arabic name for the same god worshipped by Jewish people and Christians.
  • Main Beliefs: (1) Allah is the one and only God (2) Angels exist (3) The Qur’an and Hadith are holy books (4) Belief in the prophets mentioned in the Torah and Holy Bible including Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and others and that Muhammad is the final prophet (5) Belief in the Day of Judgment when Allah will determine if you go to heaven or hell (6) Belief that Allah has the knowledge of all that will happen, but that it does not prevent humans from having free will.
  • Beliefs About Jesus: Unlike Christians, Muslims do not believe that Jesus is God or the son of God. Jesus is heavily discussed in the Qur’an as an important prophet but not as the son of God.
  • Sharia Law: Sharia Law, or Islamic Law, is a set of rules that come from the Qur’an (the Muslim holy book), the Hadith (sayings attributed to the prophet Muhammad) and fatwas (the rulings of Islamic scholars)

Islamic caliphates and mongols:

Ibn battuta:

  • Ibn Battuta (1304-1369) was a scholar of Islamic law and a traveler who left his home of Tangiers, in modern-day Morocco, on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and continued traveling for almost thirty years. Battuta traveled mostly in lands where Islam was the predominate religion and where people spoke Arabic because of the spread of the religion.

Ibn battuta’s travels reveal that the islamic world focussed on spreading their religion of islam through trade routes like Indian Ocean complex, Mediterranean Sea complex, Silk Roads, and Trans-Saharan routes. These trade routes also made it easier for the travelers like ibn battuta to see the world. The trade routes not only spread religion, but the contributed greatly to the golden ages through goods being traded for profit. Ibn battuta’s kept a record of where he traveled so he could influence people in his home land about the world he saw and the success of other civilizations in his travels.

West african empires and mansa musa:

  • The West African Trading Empires of Ghana (800-1050 CE), Mali (1235-1464 CE), and  Songhai (1464-1591 CE) were powerful and wealthy states that controlled the gold and salt trade in West Africa. Their cities were located at the intersections of trade routes.
  • One of the reasons why this area was so prosperous was because of their trading innovation. Because this area had trading happening all around them goods like cloth, arms, powder, paper, tools, hardware, sugar, tea, coffee, and tobacco.

Why were West African Empires prosperous?

  • They were prosperous mainly because they were the center for trading and many goods were available for them. With easy access to many needed goods these civilizations had a good financial situation.

Mansa musa:

  • He made mali powerful and wealthy because he used his wealth to supply mali with schools, universities, libraries, mosques, and urbanized timbuktu.He caused inflation due to stopping and spending.
  • He urbanized timbuktu, with his wealth he made timbuktu a wealthy and prosperous city.
  • Mansa musa was a devoted muslim and he took an interest in Timbuktu which was already the center of religion and learning. When he returned from his pilgrimage he had the great mosque built. He also established a major university that attracted scholars and students from all over the Islamic world.One effect of mansa musa’s rule was the spread of the muslim religion and how he used his wealth and travels to spread this religion.
  • One effect of mansa musa’s rule was the spread of the muslim religion and how he used his wealth and travels to spread this religion.
  • Another effect of mansa musa’s rule was the importance of education and how he created a              place that had many schools, libraries, mosque’s, etc.

Contextualization-

  • Explain historical circumstances or geographic context, Describe what led to and what happened before the event, connect the cause and effect “as a result”

Sourcing-

Evaluate the….

  • Point of view
  • Bias
  • Purpose
  • audience

Reliability-

  • Is the source reliable?/ Is it useful information?

I left Tangier, my birthplace, on Thursday, 2nd Rajab 725 [June 14, 1325], with the intention of making the Pilgrimage to the Holy House [at Mecca] and the Tomb of the Prophet [at Medina].

Tripoli

Some time later I joined a pilgrim caravan…Then we set out for Tripoli, accompanied for several stages by a hundred or more horsemen as well as a detachment of archers, out of respect for whom the Arab robbers kept their distance. . . . There is an uninterrupted chain of bazaars from Alexandria to Cairo, and from Cairo to Assuan [Aswan] in Upper Egypt.

Cairo

I arrived at length at Cairo, mother of all cities and seat of Pharaoh the tyrant. It is said that in Cairo there are twelve thousand water-carriers who transport water on camels, and thirty thousand hirers of mules and donkeys, and that on the Nile there are thirty-six thousand boats belonging to the sultan and his subjects which sail upstream to Upper Egypt and downstream to Alexandria and Damietta, laden with goods and profitable merchandise of all kinds. . . .The madrasas [Islamic colleges] of Cairo cannot be counted. . . .

Damascus

I entered Damascus on Thursday 9th Ramadan 726 [9th August, 1326], and lodged at the Malikite college. Damascus surpasses all other cities in beauty, and no description can do justice to its charms. The Cathedral Mosque, known as the Umayyad Mosque, is the most magnificent mosque in the world.

Mecca

I got rid of my tailored clothes, bathed, and putting on the pilgrim’s garment, I prayed and dedicated myself to the pilgrimage. The inhabitants of Mecca have many excellent and noble activities and qualities. They are good to the humble and weak, and kind to strangers. When any of them makes a feast, he begins by giving food to the religious devotees who are poor and without resources.

The customs of the Ahmadi dervishes

[Dervishes, mostly found in modern day Turkey, practice a sect of Islam called Sufism. Click here to learn more.]

I reached the establishment at noon the next day and found it to be an enormous monastery containing thousands of darwishes [dervishes]. After the mid-afternoon prayer drums and kettledrums were beaten and the darwishes began to dance. After this they prayed the sunset prayer and brought in the meal, consisting of rice-bread, fish, milk and dates…A number of loads of wood had been brought in and kindled into a flame, and they went into the fire dancing; some of them rolled in it and others ate it in their mouths until they had extinguished it entirely. This is the peculiar custom of the Ahmadi darwishes….

Cause and Effect-

  • Relating the causes of an event, and how that event or occurrence affected people, places, or things. Connect.