Name:
Islamic Empires Book Notes
Directions: Use pages 256 - 301 in your textbook to answer the following questions.
1. Where and how did Muhammad come to establish the religion of Islam (257)?
Where?
How?
2. What role did a caliph play in ancient Islamic societies (257)?
A Caliph’s role was to…
3. What is Sharia law? What effect did it have on civilizations (258)?
Sharia law is…
Effect(s):
4. In what ways was Islam beneficial to Arab women? In what ways did they still lack equality (258 – 259)?
(+)
(-)
5. What were four reasons the Arab Muslims were able to conquer so much territory so quickly in the 7th and 8th
centuries (261 – 262)?
6. Why did the Sunni/Shiite split occur within the Islamic faith (263)?
7. How far did the Umayyad caliphate stretch at its peak (from what modern country, to what modern country?) (264)?
8. Why is the Abbasid dynasty considered a golden age (264)?
9. Whose invasions prevented political unity among the Islamic world between 900-1400AD (265)?
10. Which Empire reunited most of the Middle East during the 15th and 16th centuries? How were they able to do this
(276 – 277)?
11. Where was the Safavid Empire located and what were some of its major achievements (278)?
12. What were some of the achievements of the Delhi Sultanate and why did it come to an end (273)?
13.What type of religious beliefs did Indonesia and African nations have before the arrival of Islamic traders (299-300)?
14. What were some of the great African civilizations that existed during the Middle Ages (289 – 290)?
15. Why is ancient Mali considered to be West Africa’s greatest Islamic civilization (299)?
16. Why is Ibn Battuta such an important historical character (254)?
17. How was the Islamic World (Middle East) different than Christendom (Europe) between 700AD-1200AD?
18. How were the Islamic world and Christendom similar between 700AD-1200AD?
19. In which Western European country (and cities) did Islam have the largest influence? Through what process did
Europeans remove this influence (262)?