Islam (570 C.E. - 1500 C.E.)

Muhammad is a prophet of God’s message of ethical monotheism, within the Islamic faith. The Qur’an is considered to be the word of God that provides basics not only of the Islamic faith but also principles of government, law, and social cohesion. The teachings of the Qur’an and of Muhammad’s life have been fulfilled with the creation of the umma, the community of believers. Islam has made for some of the greatest Cosmopolitan Culture within the last ten centuries. The Five Pillars of Islam are revealed in the Qur’an are five ritual expressions that define orthodox Muslim religious belief and practice: declaration of the creed, recitation of prayers five times daily while facing the Mecca, alms donated to the poor in the community, the observation of Ramadan by fasting each day, and the Hajj (a pilgrimage to Mecca to be taken at least once in a lifetime). A sixth pillar is considered to be the jihad, or sacred struggle. Some scholars interpret jihad as a call to physical warfare to preserve and extend the dar al-Islam, the political rule of Islam. The division of Sunni v. Shi’a is as followed: the Shi’a wanted a caliph to represent Islam’s religious principles rather than imperial aspirations (they would only recognize descendants of Ali as imam), while the Sunnis regard the caliph as primarily a political official (they accept the rule of the Umayyads). In 750 CE, Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah initiated the Abbasid Caliphate, signaling new policy directions and moving the capital of Arabia to Baghdad. When Delhi’s power was diminished, numerous Muslim rulers controlled other regions of India. These regional governments encouraged the development of regional languages and provided new opportunities to Sufis, Muslim mystics and teachers, to spread Islam. For Turkey, the Seljuk family would lead them to enter central Asia, conquer Afghanistan and Iran, and seize Baghdad in 1055.

The personnel of the Islamic legal system are the ulama. They are religiously