Stearns Chapter 6 Reading Guide: The First Global Civilization- The Rise and Spread of Islam
Name:_____________________________________________ Period__________________
While you read, answer questions that correspond to the appropriate section of the chapter. Remember to
keep them brief, but ample enough to answer the questions to a satisfactory level. Remember you will
use these to review at the end of the year.
DESERT AND TOWN: THE PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIAN WORLD
1. Describe the geography of the Arabian Peninsula.
2. What people made this place their home?
3. What type of animals did they domesticate?
4. What was the basis of social organization and beliefs?
CLAN IDENTITY,CLAN RIVALRIES, AND THE CYCLE OF VENGENCE
5. Describe the basics of a Bedouin life.
–importance of clans& tribes
–social structure (who is the highest & lowest)
6. What caused clans to fight? What could they lead to?
TOWNS AND LONG-DISTANCE TRADE
7. Who founded and dominated Mecca?
8. What religious significance was located there?
9. What was the importance of pilgrimages to Mecca?
10. What was Yathrib? What was its economic basis?
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA
11. What was the role and importance of women in Bedouin culture?
12. How did town life compare to Bedouin live in regards to women?
PERSECUTION, FLIGHT, AND VICTORY
13. Who saw Muhammad as a threat?
14. Where did Muhammad flee to and gain support?
15. Why were Mecca and Medina at odds with each other?
UNIVERSAL ELEMENTS IN ISLAM
16. Who originally embraced Islam?
17. What helped it win support?
18. How were all 3 major monotheistic religions related to each other?
CONSOLIDATION AND DIVISION IN THE ISLAMIC COMMUNITY
19. What was the first major crisis of the religion?
20. Who was Abu Bakr?
21. Against whom did the military commanders fight at this time? What encouraged them to expand
their conquests beyond Arabia?
THE PROBLEM OF SUCCESSION AND THE SUNNI-SHI’I SPLIT
22. What were the other things that divided them besides the successor problem?
23. What reignited the succession problem?
24. What separates the Sunnis from the Shi’a?
THE UMAYYAD IMPERIUM
25. What stopped the Muslims from taking over all of Europe? How far did they get?
26. How did they seek to rule their empire? What city was the center of their empire?
27. Who were first-class citizens and what jobs did they hold?
UMAYYAD DECLINE AND FALL
28. What were some of the internal symptoms of decline?
29. What was the external pressure that lead to their fall?
30. Who (what group) led the opposition?
31. How did they take care of any possible future opposition?
FROM ARAB TO ISLAMIC EMPIRE: THE EARLY ABBASID ERA
32. Which sect was supported by the Abbasids and which was persecuted?
33. Where would their capital be?
34. What role did the wazir play?