Podcast for class

Brendan and LJ discuss the emergence and origins of Islam in the Middle Ages. They talk about Muhammad's background as a merchant and how he was forced out of Mecca for starting his own religion. They discuss the growth of Islam, which was facilitated by its teachings of social justice and its spread through trade networks and military conquests. They also mention the five pillars of Islam and the split into Shia and Sunni groups after Muhammad's death. They note the expansion of Islam into Egypt and Spain, as well as the conversion of Christians and Jews for fiscal reasons. Overall, they find the emergence of Islam to be fascinating. Hey Brendan. Hey LJ. So man, what's on your mind today? Uh, not much. I was just thinking about our medieval world class though. And more specifically, the emergence and origins of Islam in the Middle Ages. Oh yeah? How come? Well, initially, I was thinking about Muhammad. And man, Muhammad himself was a pretty interesting guy. Oh yeah, now I'm remembering. He was a merchant originally, wasn't he? And because of his prominence in the Quresh tribe, he was forced out of Mecca by the elders for trying to start his own religion. Then he went to Medina with his followers in 622, right? That's what marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. He ends up conquering Medina in 627. Soon after though, he returned to Mecca in 630 and even ended up taking over that, getting a lot of power and further increasing Islam's influence in the Middle Ages and medieval world. Yeah, Islam as a religion is definitely very fascinating. What do you think helped it grow so much? I mean, it has to be a number of things. First off, the teachings of Islam emphasized social justice, morality, and offered people a sense of belonging in the community. I think these values and morals allowed people to feel welcomed very easily within the community. You also have to take into account it getting spread through trade networks and military conquest, which allowed its message to be spread to a vast number of people really quickly and easily. Yeah, now that I think about it, there's a lot to love about Islam, starting with the five pillars. The first being Shahada, the idea that there's one God and one prophet, the prophet of course being Muhammad. The second one being Shalat, the idea that you must pray five times a day facing towards Mecca. The third being Zakat, the reserve of money. The fourth, Suwam, fasting during the month of Ramadan. And the last one, the Hajj, a pilgrimage taken to Mecca by all Muslims at least one time in their lives. Yeah, speaking of the Shahada by the way, and the idea of there only being one prophet, Muhammad is really respected and revered under Islam, huh? And Islam, under his rule, was doing pretty well as a religion. Yeah, it definitely was. After Muhammad though, there was a huge schism, right? The whole religion split into two groups based on who they thought should be caliph next. Abu Bakr was Muhammad's father-in-law and was elected the leader. Ali thought he should be leader though, because he was the son-in-law of Muhammad. But he wasn't elected until later, in 661. Yeah, after Muhammad though, and even with the Shia-Sunni split, with the Shia believing in the Ali line and the Sunni believing in the Abu Bakr line, Islam definitely continued to expand. Muhammad died in 632 for example, but by 639, Egypt was completely conquered. Another notable big one was when the conquest went into Visigoth, Spain in 711. Right. As they expanded their territory, they incorporated a lot of other religions too, right? Under the Umayyad dynasty, a lot of people converted to Muslim, including Christians and Jewish people, even if it was only to avoid the taxation. Uh-huh. A number of people wanted to avoid the jizya, so they ended up converting to Islam for fiscal reasons. That, compiled with the other converts for religious reasons in places where the Islamic empire had expanded, really increased the number of Muslims. At one point, they were getting so many Muslims, they didn't have enough non-Muslims to tax. Wow, they sure expanded pretty rapidly as a new religion. They sure did, and their emergence as a religion was rather fascinating.