The purpose of Living History is to provide parents a history text in story form (the method used by the Savior in His teachings) from which to teach their children, blending the secular and religious together, and putting God back into history. Students are bored with history if all they learn about are facts and figures. But our faith in God is the main motivating factor why we do much of anything. That is the “why” we study history, and that is what makes it more interesting. Islam is the name given to the religion preached by the Prophet Mohammed in the 600's. Those who believe in the one God and accept Mohammed as His messenger are called Muslims. Islam is one of the world’s largest religions. The once great Muslim empires no longer exist, but Muslims are still united by the faith of Islam, which forms a common bond of culture among them.

1.         Every Muslim believes there is only one God, Allah, that there are angels of God, that there are holy books and prophets of God, that Allah controls the world and history, and there will be a day of judgment. The heart of Muslim belief is that Allah is all-powerful. They teach that God is just and merciful, and wishes people to repent and purify themselves so that they can attain Paradise after death. He cannot be pictured, therefore there are no images of God nor of any being in God's creation. There are ninety-nine names for God. That is why Muslims often carry strings of ninety-nine beads, or strings with thirty-three beads (which can be repeated over three times in prayer) for the names of God. Muslims believe that the angels of God are holy beings created out of light. The chief angel is Gabriel. There was also a bad angel who was put out of heaven. He is called Iblis or Shaitan.

2.         There have been four holy books, the Book of the Laws of Moses (Torah), the Psalms of David (Zabur), the Gospel of Jesus (the New Testament or Injil), and the Koran. They believe the Koran supersedes the other revelations of God. They believe the true Injil or New Testament was taken back to heaven by Jesus and so the New Testament Christians have today is not the real New Testament. Any conflict in doctrines between the Koran and these other scriptures are always deferred to the Koran. Muslims believe that in those incidences the other three scriptures are corrupted, and that the Koran teaches the correct doctrine. Mohammed and Muslims in general interpret two passages from the Bible as predicting the birth of the Prophet; Deut. 18:15- 19, John 16:12-15. Latter-day Saints see the first scripture as pertaining to Joseph Smith, and the second concerning the Holy Ghost.

The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. (Deut. 18:15-19)

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (John 16:12-15)

3.         The Koran was handed down to Mohammed over a period of twenty-three years. When Mohammed died his followers gathered the sayings together about 650 A.D. They believe the Koran is an exact copy of the original Koran which is in heaven. It was handed down to Mohammed in Arabic, therefore, no translation of the Koran in other languages is the true Koran. Muslims everywhere learn and recite the Koran in Arabic.

4.         Muslims also have the Hadith or "Tradition," said to be a collection of the teachings and rulings of Mohammed. These were not revealed to Mohammed in a vision and are not part of the Koran. Many of them were added much later by other leaders of Islam. They are important to Muslims because they show them how to meet situations for which there is no instruction in the Koran.

5.         Muslims say there have been 224,000 prophets of God although only twenty-two are mentioned in the Koran. The chief prophets were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jonah, Jesus, and Mohammed. Only Abraham, Moses, and Jesus were considered by Mohammed as having spoken the word of God. Hence Muslims are required to accept the Old Testament and the Gospels as inspired scriptures. Where they differ with the Koran, the Koran supersedes all previous revelations. Jesus, they say, did not die on the cross. At the last minute someone was substituted for Jesus and God took Jesus directly to heaven. Mohammed is the apostle of Allah. He is the most important of all the prophets. He was also the last prophet.

6.         On the Day of Judgment, the souls of the dead will cross a long, narrow bridge. Some will fall off into the fires of hell. Others will reach paradise. Here they will lie on silk-covered couches, in lovely gardens, by flowing rivers. They will be waited on by beautiful maidens and will eat the finest of foods. Islam teaches that life on earth is a period of testing and preparation for the life to come. The angels in heaven record a person's good and bad deeds. On Judgment Day is when everyone will receive the record of his or her deeds on earth. The record is placed in the right hand of the good, who then go to heaven. It is placed in the left hand of the wicked, who go to hell.

The Five Pillars of Islam

The Koran--The word Koran means "lecture" or "recitation." It is about equal in length to the New Testament and is divided into 114 surah (chapters), which range anywhere from a few lines to several pages, the longest chapters coming first. It is not in chronological order or thematic, but is a collection of speeches or fragments of speeches given by Mohammed in his twenty or so years as leader of the Islamic faith. After the prophet's death, his followers tried to gather and write down all that he had proclaimed as the speech of God. At least four collections of his revelations appeared and were all considered authentic. It was not until the reign of Uthman ibn- Affan (644-656), the third caliph, or successor of Mohammed, before a definitive edition of the Koran was prepared.

It is important to understand that in the Islamic view, scripture is a record of divine speech to be read aloud, to be chanted, or to be heard as God's continuing message to humanity. Even when Muslims silently meditate on the Koran, they typically describe their experience as the internalization of a speech occurrence. The poetry, rhythms, wordplays, and much of the repetition are intended to be spoken and heard as well as read. For the Muslims, the marvel of the Koran is not only what is said but how it is said.

The Koran is believed to be one of the eternal attributes of God, being that of eternal Speech. The physical book in the hands of human beings and the sounds of the Koran in human speech are concrete expressions of God's Speech. The Koran cannot be viewed, or in any way produced or constructed, as Mohammed's personality, but as a divine content bestowed on him and transmitted to humanity through him. Written words are not the only means of divine communication to man. Historical events, the wondrous procession of the universal order, miraculous departures from the normal, and the abilities of the human soul are all signs of God's Speech to mankind. The message of divine speech places all other signs in their proper perspective and gives them their true meaning.

The principal obligations of a life of submission to God and the foundations on which it rests are the obligations of divine worship, known as the five pillars of Islam. The Koran repeatedly contrasts those who believe with those who do not. The true Muslim is first of all one who believes and trusts God and his Word. External obedience to Islamic ordinances is a mere hypocritical display if it is done without the first pillar, which is belief, faith and trust. The Koran denounces usury, (lending money at excessively high interest rates) games of chance, and the consumption of pork and alcohol. It forbids lying, stealing, adultery, and murder. It permits slavery but encourages them to be set free, and also allows a man to have as many as four wives under certain circumstances.

The fifth surah, or chapter, of the Koran, entitled The Table, designates punishments for specific wrongdoings in verses 35, 37, and 40, but also offers forgiveness for the repentant.

“Those that make war against God and His apostle and spread disorder in the land shall be put to death or crucified or have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, or be banished from the country. They shall be held up to shame in this world and sternly punished in the hereafter: except those that repent before you reduce them. For you must know that God is forgiving and merciful....

“As for the man or woman who is guilty of theft, cut off their hands to punish them for their crimes. That is the punishment enjoined [ordered] by God. God is mighty and wise. But whoever repents after committing evil, and mends his ways, shall be pardoned by God. God is forgiving and merciful.

“Did you not know that God has sovereignty over the heavens and the earth? He punishes whom He will and forgives whom He pleases. God has power over all things.” (Turning Points in World History, The Spread of Islam, page 64)

The Profession of Faith (Shahada)--A person can outwardly declare a faith that they do not really hold to, but authentic faith or conviction drives its holders to declare themselves. Public testimony or confession of faith is an inherent part of the structure and reality of faith itself. The simplest declaration of faith is to state that "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is the messenger of God," or "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is His Prophet." To repeat this confession many times a day is to reaffirm a religious relationship that is complete and binding.

Ritual Prayer (Salat)--Five times a day, before dawn, at noon, in the afternoon, in the evening, and again at night, Muslims focus all their attention on the One who gives proper meaning and direction to all of life. The most dramatic physical act of the ritual prayer is the full prostration in which believers touch their foreheads to the earth, symbolizing total submission to the One who has created them from dust. Ideally it is an intimate conversation with God, in which the worshipers' intentions, words and actions are heard, seen, and accepted by the One to whom they are offered. Every day a Muslim says in Arabic "La ilaha il-Allah, Mohammed-un Rasula-llah." ("There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is His Prophet.")

The word mosque is derived from an Arabic word meaning "place of prostration" before God. It is a building that is built for this purpose as a place of worship. It is considered preferable for Muslims to perform the prayer ritual in a mosque, among a community of believers. At the appointed times of required prayers, a summons is issued to the surrounding community to prayer. According to Islamic tradition, the first summons was performed by a former Ethiopian slave named Bilal, who sang forth the call to prayer from the roof of the prophet's house in Medina. With the expansion of Islam outside the Arabian Peninsula, a tower is built near each mosque from which the call is issued. Before he prays, a Muslim washes his feet, his hands, and his arms up to his elbows. He recites passages from the Koran. He begins his prayer in a standing position but during his prayer he also sits, kneels, and stretches himself out on the ground with his forehead on a small prayer stone. If a Muslim cannot go to a mosque he may spread his prayer rug out wherever he is and pray. In the desert, where there is no water, he may wash with sand.

Wherever Muslims pray, they face toward Mecca, thus producing a geographical symbol of the unity of the worshiping community and of the object of their worship. In the beginning, Muslims faced Jerusalem until Mohammed captured Mecca, and the Jews of Mecca rejected him as a prophet, then all faced Mecca for prayer. A special effort is to be made by all to go to a mosque for the noon prayer on Friday. One of the peculiarities of the Friday noon observance is the giving of a sermon that accompanies the ritual prayer. No priest is needed to declare worshipers fit to approach God in prayer or to mediate between ordinary worshipers and God during the act of worship. The individual believer has both direct access to an intimate conversation with the Lord and the personal responsibility to seek that intimacy.

A mosque is a building used for Muslim worship. Some mosques are simple assembly halls for prayer. Cathedral, or Friday, mosques are large, elaborate buildings designed to house all the adult believers in a community. Mosques also have served as places of religious instruction, as tombs, and as temporary homes for traveling scholars. A typical mosque has a courtyard surrounded by four halls called iwans. In most cases, there is a fountain or well for ceremonial washing in the courtyard. The inner wall closest to the holy city of Mecca has a decorative niche or arch called a mihrab, which indicates the direction Muslims must face when praying. In numerous mosques, flat surfaces are decorated with painted or tile patterns or with scriptural quotations in elegant handwriting called calligraphy. Most mosques have from one to six towers called minarets, from which muezzins [criers] call the faithful to prayer. Many mosques contain a pulpit, called a mimbar. (Mosque, World Book Encyclopedia, 1990)

The Ramadan Fast (Saum)--Ramadan is the name of the ninth lunar month on the Islamic calendar. It is sacred for two reasons; it was during this month the first revelations were received by Mohammed, and it was the month the Battle of Badr took place. It does not fall on the same day each year as the lunar calendar differs from the solar calendar. Daily, throughout Ramadan, every Muslim whose health permits it, must refrain from food, drink, tobacco, and sexual activity between the time of first light and the onset of full darkness. Travelers, the sick, nursing mothers, and soldiers on the march are exempt, but must make up the days missed by fasting later.

It is a time to restrict the flesh. The carnal appetites are not only a part of this life, but at times they threaten to dominate it, becoming little idols that enslave human health and energies. Ramadan is a time of freedom from the satisfactions of the flesh and a time for freedom from the reality of life. The desire for God to rightfully dominate and direct every other desire and to live this truth is the meaning of the fast. Properly pursued, the fast gives Muslims the means of glimpsing into the plight of those who are hungry, not by choice, but because of poverty. Ramadan is followed by one of the great feasts of the Muslim year, the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast. For three days there is great feasting and rejoicing.

Almsgiving (Zakat)--Islam instructs its members to give part of their worldly wealth to help those in need and to further the cause of truth. Persons who have received abundance should respond in gratitude, and in imitation of God they should return to him part of that abundance. This giving back to God is accomplished by helping those whom God commands us to help and by serving as his appointed agents in sustaining the needy.

They will question thee concerning what they should expend. Say: "Whatsoever good you expend is for parents and kinsmen, orphans, the needy, and the traveller; and whatever good you may do, God has knowledge of it." (Koran 2:211)

An upright Muslim gives alms to help widows and orphans, the sick and the poor. The Koran says a man should give a fortieth of his money to charity. He should give a tenth of his grain and fruit if his land is well watered, but need give only a twentieth if he has to irrigate his land. The enjoyment of material blessings is purified only by a thankful acceptance of the social responsibilities that the giver of all good things imposes on us. The alms required by civil law is 2½ percent of a person's wealth each year as a trust fund for the needy. It is not to be regarded as a free private gift by the individual but instead is a mandatory minimum tax on various categories of wealth. The payment of alms through taxes is considered the minimum expression of believers in giving to the community as a whole.

The Pilgrimage to Mecca--This is the last and most elaborate of the five pillars of Islam. This pilgrimage must be performed on certain days of the twelfth Lunar month. Most pilgrims are men, but women and children can also participate. The traditional attire of male pilgrims approaching the sanctuary in Mecca consists of two pieces of seamless white cloth. The pilgrims enter a state of ritual purity during which time they do not shave or cut their hair. The plain clothes of the pilgrim symbolizes that a person's standing with God has nothing to do with his or her worldly success or lack of it. This pilgrimage is called a hajj. Muslims believe a person who makes the hajj secures great religious merit. Such a person is called a hajji and is held in high esteem.

Arriving at the Great Mosque in Mecca, pilgrims perform their washings and then enter the most sacred of mosques. There they perform their worship before the Kaaba, which is a cube- shaped building at the center of the open air mosque. Surrounding the Kaaba is an arcade, or a series of arches supported by pillars. Walking through these arches a person enters a large open court, in the center of which is the Kaaba. This rite consists of running around the Kaaba seven times, three times fast and four times slowly. Each time the person stops to kiss the Black Stone or to reach out and touch it, if the crowd is too great for them to get close to it. They believe that if they went around the stone seven times and kissed it, the heavens would bless them. Prior to the days of Mohammed, the Kaaba housed many of the idols worshiped by the Arabs. One was Allah, and three others were Allah's daughters, Al-Uzza, Al-Lat, and Manah.

According to Islamic legend, the Black Stone was delivered to Abraham by Gabriel, the angel of revelation. Believed to have originally been white, the stone has been blackened over time by the sins of humanity. It is also believed that Abraham and Ishmael built the Kaaba to house the sacred stone, which lies in the wall in the eastern corner of the building, five feet off the ground, just the right height for kissing. The Kaaba is a slightly rectangular building, measuring forty feet long and thirty-five feet wide, made of alternating stone then wood layers, and has a flat roof. The door to the building is also five feet off the ground to make it more difficult for intruders to get into the building. The building used to house the idols of Pre-Islamic Arabs who often tried to raid the building to take the prized idols for themselves. The Kaaba is draped with a dark cloth made with zigzag stripes, and stands about fifty feet high. The significance of the Black Stone, according to Muslim scholars is interpreted as symbolizing that part of Abraham's posterity, meaning Ishmael and his offspring, as the people rejected by Israel and being the forefathers of the tribe of Arabs that brought forth Mohammed and the true worship of God. They back up their claim that they are the true way of God with two scriptures from the Bible.

The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. (Psalms 118:22-23)

Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. (Matt. 21:42-43)

After circling the Kaaba seven times, the pilgrims then run between two low hills near the Kaaba, which hills are about 420 yards apart. The Bible tells us that Sarah, the wife of Abraham, was unable to bear the patriarch a son, and so she gave him Hagar as a concubine for the purpose of producing an heir. Later Sarah out of jealousy persuaded Abraham to expel the concubine and her son Ishmael. The Muslim account states that Hagar and Ishmael wandered in the wilderness until they came to the site where the Great Mosque in Mecca is located today. They were dying of thirst, and Hagar ran back and forth between the two low hills, Safa and Marwa, crying out for divine assistance. The well of Zamzam, the water of which is much sought by pilgrims, was the miraculous answer to her prayers. Ishmael was desperately digging in the sand for water when suddenly out gushed a steady stream of water from where he was digging. The well is next to the Kaaba in the center of the Great Mosque. The repeating of Hagar's running thus became a symbol of humanity's desperate need and of God's ready response. Ishmael is said to have been the founder of Mecca and the father of the Arabs.

The culmination of this pilgrimage does not take place at Mecca but at Arafat, a plain fourteen miles east of Mecca. Pilgrims must be at Arafat by noon on the ninth day of the twelfth month. Here all of them perform the rite of standing before God in worship, experiencing, according to their own testimony, an overpowering sense of the divine presence and of their unity with all other believers. It was on a hill adjacent to the plain of Arafat, the so called Mount of Mercy, that the prophet addressed the people on his farewell pilgrimage shortly before his death. At that time God revealed through his prophet that Islam was now complete. The rite lasts from noon until sundown, and during that time the Mount of Mercy is covered with pilgrims, all facing Mecca and united in prayer.

At a place called Mina, on the road back to Mecca from Arafat, the pilgrims throw seven stones at three pillars. This custom is symbolic of resistance to the devil, who appeared to Abraham and Isaac at the sites marked by the pillars and tempted them to resist the divine command that Abraham sacrifice his son. Isaac and his father scorned the devil, and the stoning is a symbol of individual and communal resistance to temptation. God then permitted Abraham to sacrifice an animal instead of Isaac, an event commemorated by the sacrifice of huge numbers of animals by the pilgrims on the tenth day of the twelfth month. All over the Muslim world, this is a festival of joy and feasting, which lasts three days. Every Muslim is supposed to make the Pilgrimage to Mecca once in his or her lifetime, though the blame for failing in this obligation falls only on those who have the means and the freedom to perform the rites.

Islamic scholars have attempted to classify all human actions under the following categories as they relate to Islam: (1) acts that are absolutely required, (2) those that are recommended but not required, (3) those that are indifferent, (4) those that are discouraged but not forbidden, and (5) those that are absolutely forbidden. Scholars also commonly divide the divine requirements of the first category into duties owed to God and duties owed to other human beings.

The Koran was not the first book given to humanity and often calls Jews and Christians "the People of the Book." Because of their possession of scripture, Mohammed expected Jews and Christians to respond positively to his mission. The Koran designates Mohammed as "the apostle of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets" (33:40). Almost all Muslims have held that Mohammed was the last of the prophets and that the Koran was the last scripture to be sent down to humanity. Since revelation is now complete, there is no need for further prophecy; rather, what remains is for people to accept, understand, and live the revealed Truth.

According to the Muslims, the Koran is the supreme scripture by which all others are to be judged. Problems of conflict do not spring from the revelations that gave rise to Judaism and Christianity but rather reflect Jewish and Christian unfaithfulness to the pure truth of their origins. Muslims regard the Koran as the work of God and offers humanity the ultimate statement of divine unity and the ultimate possibility of personal and social integration of human beings, and a clear vision that Judaism and Christianity have lost. From the Muslim perspective, Abraham marked a new stage in the history of divine revelation. Through his son Isaac he was the progenitor of the people of Israel among whom Judaism and later Christianity had their origins. Through his other son Ishmael, Abraham was the ancestor of the Arabs, and according to the Koran (2:121), they founded the religious sanctuary of Mecca, the Arabian town in which Mohammed began his prophetic career.

Although the people of Israel were blessed by many prophets, they repeatedly fell away from the God of Abraham. Moses called them back to the true path, but instead of seeking to bring humanity together, the Jews became introverted and exclusive. In Mohammed's time the Jews were described as adhering to an increasingly corrupt version of the way of Moses. They were descendants of the same Jews who rejected Jesus and his universal message, declaring him to be a liar and a fraud. For Muslims Jesus was a true messenger of God, called to preach a religious message that was able to unite a large part of the human race. However, the Muslims view Jesus as a human, and believe that the Christians deviated from the true path that Jesus taught by elevating him to a God, which power they feel belongs to Allah only. Muslims regard the Christian argument of Jesus' role as the savior of the world as a violation of their view that each person alone is responsible to God, and cannot rely upon the works or good graces of another to establish themselves in the good graces of God.

The Expansion of Islam

Mohammed left no instructions for the leaders after him, nor did he publicly designate a successor. While no one had regarded the Prophet as immortal, neither had anyone foreseen his removal from them or thought to face its consequences. All edicts of law, all acts of government, all strategic decisions had been Mohammed’s alone. In traditional Arab society, tribal leaders were chosen by consensus. A clan’s elders met and hammered out an agreement whereby one of them would be named sheikh, but Islam, in theory at least, superseded clan allegiances. In the confusion after Mohammed’s death, a number of rival groups claimed preeminence.

One group of Muslims thought the leadership should be chosen from the people who had been especially close to Mohammed, those who were called the Companions. Another group thought the new leader should be a descendant of Mohammed. They called themselves Legitimists.

Later on Mohammed's own tribe, the Quraysh tribe, said that they should decide who should be leader. Those who followed Mohammed in the leadership of the Muslims was called a Caliph, which means successor. The first four caliphs all had been early converts to Islam and trusted Companions of the prophet throughout most of his career. No caliph is considered a prophet as Mohammed was, but are mere leaders of the movement, holding the office of chief executive, commander-in-chief, chief justice and leader.

The first caliph was Abu Bakr (632-634), a Companion, and the father-in-law of Mohammed. He spent his two year reign consolidating and expanding Islamic power in the Arabian Peninsula. The tribes of Arabia maintained they had pledged their loyalty to Mohammed, not an ideology, and at the prophet's death they considered themselves released from further obligation. However, the shrinking of Islam's influence at this crucial moment would have been disastrous for Mohammed's successors. So the new caliph sent his best generals to bring the defectors back into the fold. The main emphasis now was to hold together Islam's growing community by turning outward the aggressive energies of the Arab tribes in a campaign of rapid and enormously profitable conquest. The prophet had suggested this strategy toward the end of his life, and under Abu Bakr the move to the north gathered momentum. By 634, after two years of bloody conflict, the banners of Islam flew triumphantly across the full length and breadth of Arabia and beyond, to the border lands of Syria and Iraq.

Umar ibn-al-Khattab (634-644), another Companion, came to the caliphate at a time favorable to Arab ambitions. For centuries the Christian Byzantine Empire and the Zoroastrian Persian Empire had been in military conflict with each other, and the last round of this struggle, coming on the eve of the rise of Islam, had left both empires exhausted. The buffer states maintained by both empires to screen and influence the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula were failing because of corrupt and oppressive policies toward them by the two empires. These buffer states were closely identified with Arabia through race and ethnic practices, so the first waves of Islamic expansion outside the peninsula were seen more as a liberation by the people than as a conquest by the buffer states. Besides spreading the faith, an expansionist policy became a call to jihad, or "holy war". A jihad implied a battle of conscience against the temptations of Satan, meaning a holy war, to uphold the principles of Islam, a struggle in the way of God, against the infidels of Judaism and Christianity.

The concept of jihad, or holy war, has provided one explanation for the rapid expansion of Islam. Verses 74 and 75 of the fourth sura, or chapter, of the Koran explain the purpose of jihad.

“Let those who would exchange the life of this world for the hereafter, fight for the cause of God; whoever fights for the cause of God, whether he dies or triumphs, We shall richly reward him.

“And how should you not fight for the cause of God, and for the helpless old men, women, and children who say: ‘Deliver us, Lord, from this city of wrongdoers; send forth to us a guardian from Your presence; send to us from Your presence one that will help us’?

“The true believers fight for the cause of God, but the infidels fight for the devil. Fight then against the friends of Satan. Satan’s cunning is weak indeed.”

(Turning Points in World History, The Spread of Islam, page 75)

After the death of Umar, control of the Caliphate began to be a center of conflict and intrigue. Political factions and secret combinations began to contend with each other, trying to position their man to be in control of the highest office in Islam. The third caliph, Uthman ibn-Affan (644-656) was accused over the years of his reign with treachery, corruption, undue influence by his kinsman and associates, and a return to the idolatry and tendencies of pre-Islamic behaviors. He was finally assassinated in his own house, and the history of Islam changed. Now they had fallen into the same system of armed conflict for control of the highest seat of government, just like any other political system, but now it was done in the name of Allah.

In time, there developed two divisions in Islam, centered around who should be the leader of the people. The larger party, claiming 80% of the followers of Mohammed, are called Sunnites (SOON' eyets), the smaller group is called the Shiites (SHEE' eyets). The Sunnites accept the order in which the leadership of Islam passed down upon the death of Mohammed, and that was to Abu Bakr, whereas the Shiites claim that Mohammed had chosen his cousin and son-in-law Ali, the husband of his daughter Fatimah, as the rightful heir to the leadership of Islam. Ali did become the fourth leader of Islam in 656 A.D. The leader under the Sunnites is called the Caliph, and the leader under the Shiites is called the Iman, which means leader. Throughout Islamic history there has been great hostility between these two groups that has often led to persecution and repression of one group by the other. Iran is the only Islamic country with a large Shiite majority, though there are large minorities in Iraq. This hostility between these two parties is one of the root causes of the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980's.

When the first waves of Arabs overran the non-Muslims outside the Arabian Peninsula, they imposed by the sword Arab-Muslim political and monetary laws, but not Islam itself. The conquered territories were seen as a source of revenue for the expanding movement. During the last years of the prophet's life, Mohammed had made treaties with Jewish and Christian groups in Arabia, granting them Muslim protection in return for monetary tribute and political subjection.

The next group of Islamic rulers were known as the Umayyad Dynasty, ruling Islam from 661-750 A.D. It was during this period of time that, even though there was civil war among various factions of Islam, the movement was able to take control of northern Africa, and cross the Mediterranean into Spain. A problem arose with the increasing number of foreign subjects who converted to Islam, however.

So many non-Arabs embraced the new faith that they soon outnumbered their Arab rulers, who thus found themselves in an embarrassing double bind.

Mohammed had directed his message to his fellow Arabs; yet he also had decreed that all believers should be treated as brothers. How could an Arab have a non- Arab brother? And how could an Arab Muslim retain his lofty status if he had to share it with everyone else? There was also a financial complication: While Muslims paid zakat [a minimal tax], non-Muslims were subject to heavier taxes, including a head tax and various levies on property, that provided most of the state’s funding. Many conversions, in fact, were prompted by the hope of escaping these fees. But without them, the state would go bankrupt. So new land taxes were imposed without regard to whoever owned the property, Arab or non- Arab, Muslim or nonbeliever. In other respects, the mawalis, or non-Arab Muslims, remained second-class citizens.

Farther down the social pyramid were the Jews and Christians – the “People of the Book,” as the Koran called them. They were given full religious freedom and, on payment of the head tax, exemption from military service – a benefit later extended to the monotheistic Zoroastrians of Persia. The people from the desert could only marvel at the cultural sophistication possessed by these three groups, who tended to fill the ranks of government officialdom but socially were the Arab’s inferiors. Finally, at the bottom of the pyramid were the slaves – Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Berbers [fair-skinned people of North Africa], and black Africans who were taken in conquest and generally sold for profit. (TimeLife Books, TimeFrame A.D. 600-800, The March of Islam, page 45)

Under the Umayyads a new wave of conquests was launched, extending the empire to its greatest size, and was not stopped until Charles Martell turned them back after the Muslims had crossed the Pyrenees mountains from Spain into France in 732 A.D. at the Battle of Tours. This group of Muslims in Spain would be called the Moors, and the defeat of them in 1492 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain would open the doors for Spain to be able to finance the historic voyage of Columbus to the New World.

Eastern Persia, like Iraq, had always been particularly restless under Umayyad rule. Its Arab conquerors had intermarried with the local Sassanian (sas SĀ nē en) aristocracy and adapted to Persian manners and traditions. The influence of the local mawalis in both government and intellectual circles ran unusually strong. The region was a hotbed of Shiite adherents. Consequently, when the Abbasids (e BAS ids), in the honored tradition of the “rightly guided” caliphs, posed as Islam’s true champions and raised their black banner of revolution, the entire eastern Muslim world fell in behind it. The Abbasids quickly gained control of central Iraq in 747, and by 749 had claimed a new dynastic family in control of Islam. In 750, they ousted the last caliph of the Umayyad dynasty, and moved the Islamic capital to Baghdad, Iraq.

The Abbasids soon established themselves in Persian splendor instead of the Arabic simple ways. They took on extravagant titles – such as Shadow of God upon the Earth – and some Abbasid officials built lavish villas along the Tigris River, where they drank Persian wines, kept Persian mistresses, and entertained themselves with the charms of perfumed slave girls singing Persian songs. Yet for all their worldly indulgences, the Abbasids showed great support for the institutions of Islam. They built mosques throughout the empire, schools for studying the Koran, and hospitals. Government grants expanded the courtyard surrounding the Kaaba and established guard posts and wells along the pilgrimage routes.

Under the Abbasids the empire prospered as never before. Baghdad became the center of a vast commercial enterprise. Caravans and sailing ships fanned out to bring gold from Nubia (the area of present day Egypt and the Sudan), linens from Egypt, carpets from Armenia (between Turkey and Iran), rubies from India, and spices from the East Indies. From China came peacocks, horses, and slave girls. Scandinavia and Russia supplied wax, amber, and pelts of fox, beaver, and ermine. The glory of the Abbasids would hold power over Islam until 1258 when other rival factions would remove them from power. It would be the Abbasids dynasty which would also deal with the Christian invaders of the Dark Ages known as the Crusaders.

The World After Christ, an LDS Perspective, volume 3, pages 65-75