We are leaving the ancient era of world history and moving into the middle ages, roughly 600 to 1500. Today you will be learning about Islam and the middle East. Like Judaism, and Christianity, Islam is a monotheistic religion. Around 600, in the trading city of Mecca in the what is today Saudi Arabia, a man named Muhammad, claimed to have received revelations for God (Allah in Arabic) through the angel Gabriel. These revelations contained in the Muslim holy book, the Quran, guide Muslim faith. There are 5 main points or pillars of the the Islamic religion, you will learn about these in the information below. One of these pillars is that all Muslims should fast during the month of Ramadan and should make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once to see the Kaba.
Islam grew slowly but soon after several military wins more and more Arabs converted from polytheism to Islam. Later, Islam would spread from the Arabia all over the Middle East and North Africa. The land of Israel, once home to the Jews, was conquered by the Muslims as well as parts of Christian Europe. Despite this for much of its history Jews and Muslims got along well. Christians and Muslims would continue to be at odds with one another for military and economic power. The high level of culture and science of the Muslim world will eventually be overturned by armies of European Christians during a series of wars called the Crusades. We will discuss the crusades later.
As allways, when we learn about religions my goal is to introduce you to other peoples beliefs while teaching to respect your own.
learn more about Islam
http://www.islam101.com/
This is a video with song from the letters of the Arabic alphabet that teaches Islamic terms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L-GOHa5-YQ
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