Islam: A Short History
ASSIGNMENT:
Read pages 3 - 23 from the book above and answer the following questions: [all the questions can be answered from the pages provided]:
*Don’t forget, while answering the questions:
BIG question: What was the problem that Islam was the solution for?
Read pages 3 - 23 from the book above and answer the following questions: [all the questions can be answered from the pages provided]:
- Why did Muhammad feel it necessary to 'bring the old faith in One God' to the Arabs?
- How and why did the 5 pillars of faith drive Islamic ideology?
- What is so important about the Axial Age?
- According to Karen Armstrong, what caused societies to 'evolve' during the Axial Age?
- Why did the Axial Age not have an impact on the Arabs?
- What other religion/ideology does Islam conflict with? Why?
*Don’t forget, while answering the questions:
- claim: what claim are you making, be clear and concise.
- evidence: what valid evidence do you have that supports your claim/argument?
- explanation/analysis of your claim: what is your interpretation of the evidence of HOW and WHY the evidence supports your claim?
BIG question: What was the problem that Islam was the solution for?
No religion in the modern world is as feared and misunderstood as Islam. It haunts the popular Western imagination as an extreme faith that promotes authoritarian government, female oppression, civil war, and terrorism. Karen Armstrong's short history offers a vital corrective to this narrow view. The distillation of years of thinking and writing about Islam, it demonstrates that the world's fastest-growing faith is a much richer and more complex phenomenon than its modern fundamentalist strain might suggest.
Islam: A Short History begins with the flight of Muhammad and his family from Medina in the seventh century and the subsequent founding of the first mosques. It recounts the origins of the split between Shii and Sunni Muslims, and the emergence of Sufi mysticism; the spread of Islam throughout North Africa, the Levant, and Asia; the shattering effect on the Muslim world of the Crusades; the flowering of imperial Islam in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries into the world's greatest and most sophisticated power; and the origins and impact of revolutionary Islam. It concludes with an assessment of Islam today and its challenges.
With this brilliant book, Karen Armstrong issues a forceful challenge to those who hold the view that the West and Islam are civilizations set on a collision course. It is also a model of authority, elegance, and economy.
Islam: A Short History begins with the flight of Muhammad and his family from Medina in the seventh century and the subsequent founding of the first mosques. It recounts the origins of the split between Shii and Sunni Muslims, and the emergence of Sufi mysticism; the spread of Islam throughout North Africa, the Levant, and Asia; the shattering effect on the Muslim world of the Crusades; the flowering of imperial Islam in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries into the world's greatest and most sophisticated power; and the origins and impact of revolutionary Islam. It concludes with an assessment of Islam today and its challenges.
With this brilliant book, Karen Armstrong issues a forceful challenge to those who hold the view that the West and Islam are civilizations set on a collision course. It is also a model of authority, elegance, and economy.