Islamic Civilisations

Medicine: During the time of the prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) most of the Arabs believed that the “gods” caused them being ill. But when they conquered the countries Syria and Persia they found books with better ideas about medicine. Ancient Greek Scholars wrote the books. ((A doctor giving medicine to his customer)) All the Muslim doctors used a variety of drugs. The potions were made from animal and plant extracts, and chemicals like copper sulphate. In the main city Baghdad, inspectors were called to check the quality of the drugs. A chemist caught cheating his customers would be beaten up or even fined. By the year 850 Baghdad had it’s own hospital. Soon in the Muslim world there were 34 hospitals more than in all of Europe. Some special hospitals had special wards-A division in a hospital for the care of a particular group of people- for various illnesses. From 931 Muslim doctors had to take an exam to qualify as a doctor. So its not surprising that the muslim doctors were way ahead of the English doctors during the same time Medicine and health care were perhaps the highest scientific achievement of the Muslims during the Islamic civilisations. The reason that they achieved such heights was directly related to Islam itself. The Quran and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) encouraged the gaining of medical knowledge. The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) said, "Make use of medical treatment, for Allah has not made a disease without appointing a remedy for it." (Hadith) This motivated Muslim scientists to find cures. Islam encouraged health in other ways, too. The Third Pillar of Islam was Zaka`h (Charity) - to help the poor and sick. The wealth of the empire was often directed to health care, too.

| Arabia Before Islam: The cities:

In the early 600s in the Islamic empire, the main cities of Arabia were called Mecca and Medina These were the most important Cities because they were the major trading centres Tribes usually came from the dessert to trade items like wool and meat or many items that couldn’t be grown by themselves. Most of the trading took place at the holy religious shrine called the Kaabah.

The Religion: Arabia was already influenced by a number of other religions. The trade had bought many Christians and Jews to Arabia. Some Arabs had converted to these religions. But nearly all of them followed other gods. All of their other gods could be worshipped at the same place, the Kaabah, which at that time contained hundreds of Idols. People of Mecca made a lot of money from this -Arab pilgrims coming to worship idols at the Kaabah-.

The Tribes: Everyone belonged to a kind of extended family that is called a clan.A number of clans together made up a tribe. Being loyal to your tribe was strict and disputes between tribes were often settled by fighting. Some tribes such as the Quraysh were city-dwellers and Merchants. They were beginning to get more and more powerful than the other tribes, who were desert Nomads - people who travel around the desert looking for new places for their animals-. The desert tribes were skilful travellers.

The Impact of Islam The world’s most important religion is Islam. Followers of Islam are called Muslim. The way Islam started was by Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w). The Muslims were then “Arabs” and they conquered many nearby countries example: spreading the religion amongst other people so they could convert to be Muslims. Large parts of the world came under Arab and Muslim Control. As the Arabs spread, taking their religion with them they learned from the people that they took over from. They wrote down what they had learned in books, the books were then read all over the Muslim world. After this they worked to improve that Knowledge. The Muslims became very advanced in the following topics: Art, architecture, science, and mathematics. With the knowledge they built marvellous towns like Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo and Cordoba. Many features of modern Muslim countries began then. Also countries so further away like Britain learned a lot from the Muslims. The numbering system, which we all use today, came to Western Europe from the Muslim world. However later, Arab control weakened. From 1050 the Muslims around the Mediterranean fell under the control of new rules. The Turks were also Muslims and spread Islam even further. But from 1700 the Turkish Empire eventually became weak and started to break. For all of this time Islam was the main religion in that area Finally in 1918 the Turkish Empire finally broke into new countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran.

What made the Arabs so successful? There were many reasons as to why the Muslim army’s were able to conquer so much land many people believe that it was because of the solders being brave, skilful and well armed fighters but others believe that many of the Muslims were successful because: • When the Arabs were divided they weren’t a threat to anyone but when thay where united they suddenly became a major new power. That they were transformed by islam because the disipline of praying five times a day helped them take orders and co operating when fighting . • The soilders belived that if they died fighting for islam then they would go to heaven stright away. • The more lands that the muslims conquered, the more wealth they got to pay their armies and the more solider wanted to join up . • the neighbouring Byzantine and Persian empires had been fighting each other so by the time that the Muslim invaders came they were to exhausted to defend themselves. • Many people whose countries had been taken over by the Byzantine and Persian empires hated their rulers and welcomed the Muslim invaders as liberators. The following source is written by a ninth/third century Persian writer, he describes the Arab tactics and the methods that they used “ the Persians said to the Arabs, you had only cane lances, tipped with the ox-horn, and you used to ride your horses bareback in battle. The Arab lances used a solid shaft, but we know that a

hollow one is lighter to carry and gives a more powerful thrust. You used to make war in separate, unorganised bands. You do not fight at night and you knew nothing of the ambush. Nor did you know anything of the instruments of war- the battering ram, the catapult or throwing fire “ this source show that the muslim soilders were better at fighting then many other people. This picture shows a catapult drawn in the eight century but it was used as early as the fifth century. The picture bellows shows the expansion of Arabia and below that the Christian year and the Islamic year are shown along with dates that the Muslims tried to advance into other countries .

Western Europe 723/113 Advance into France but defeated by charles martel near tours

CENTERAL Europe 637/15 and 718/99 Fail to capture Constantinople despite a long siege. No progress into central Europe.

636/14

624/20

Yarmuk Opponents :Byzantines muslims attack in the middle of a sandstrom , and desroy a mixed force including armeninas and syrians. Byzantine emperor escapes back to constantinpole and abandons Syria to the arabs

Egypt capture Alexandria and its shipyards . this allows rapid expansion along north African coast and capture of Cyprus ( 648/33)

Qadisiya in iraq 637/15

Nevahead 642/20

Opponents: perisans ( the unpopular rules of iraq ) perisan rules escapes , leaving iraq to the muslims

Opponent the perisans victory opens the way for way for final victory over the perisans and for attacks northwards into azerbaijin and Armenia

China 751/133 Defeat the chinease at the battle of talas but cant advance any further

India715/95 Conquer sind, but no more progress