BLOG 5

BLOG # 5

CHAPTERS: 11, 12, 13

               This week’s readings were chapter 11, 12 & 13. These chapters focused on the Worlds of Islam, the Mongols and other nomadic people, and the Worlds of the 15^th century. Islam seemed to be the hot topic of this week’s readings and topics discussed in class. Here I learned that Islam is one of the largest religions so I found it very interesting how it all started and how it was spread worldwide. Unfortunately with the terrorist events that took place on 9/11 the Muslim people and the Islamic religion get a bad reputation. Although there are some groups that are extremists that believe in terrorist acts to get their point across, there are many other people out there who believe in Islamic traditions that were started from the beginning that do not deal at all with any forms of terrorism. Other stipulations that follow are the negative restrictions that are believed to be against women. Although we see some women not being able to show their faces, dress a certain way, and have certain roles in society, it has not always been this way. In the beginning, there were rules that protected the women of Islamic culture and in a sense put them higher up in society and their roles.

In this blog I am going to primarily focus on Chapter 11 since this was the one chapter I found to be the most interesting and relevant to things going on in today’s world.

The religion of Islam was started by a man named Mohammad who believed that he was the prophet of God. Like Christianity, the Islamic religion is also monotheistic (believing in one god). The god that was praised in Islam was Allah. Muhammad delivered the messages of the Quran (which is the Islamic religions scriptures; like Christianity has the Bible) in its most sacred traditional language which was Arabic. As he claimed to be the messenger of the Quran, Mohammad started to gain many followers. As a merchant he traveled all over to gain more followers that would believe in his teachings. In the Islamic tradition there are five requirements for those who believe in this faith which are called the 5 Pillars. Throughout Mohammad’s life, he gained many followers but nobody ever discussed what would happen after his death. There was great controversy on who should take over as the messenger of Allah. Some felt that it should be someone who was related to him while others thought that one of his religious advisors would be the best person to take on this task. The best idea that Islam portrayed, that should also be taken on by everyone in the world is to not look at the world and what best helps yourself; but rather what helps society and the community as a whole.

Chapter 12 focused on the nomadic people which primarily focused on the Mongols. The Mongols strategically moved around according to season but did not have a place that they could necessarily call their own. Even though they moved around from place to place they had the structure and communication skills to stay in contact and come together to protect their own. With their military, they were able to conquer Persian and Russian civilizations along with many others. The Mongols adopted religious ideas, military strategies, and the structure of prospering societies, and turned them into one. Taking bits and pieces of things that worked in other civilizations helped spread other ideas practiced by various civilizations where ever the Mongols traveled.