What effect did the creation of an Islamic empire have on the Arabs and on Islam itself? How did the empire contribute to divisions within the Muslim world?
What will be an ideal response?
A. Effects of the Islamic empire on Arabs and Islam
1. spread of the Muslim world
a. functioned remarkably cohesively like a single empire
b. gradually spreading Islam and the Arabic language
c. a common Muslim identity wherever it went
d. introduced more or less uniform principles of law and government
e. Arabs and descendants of the Prophet's own tribe enjoyed social privileges
f. every male Muslim could share a sense of belonging to an imperial elite
g. other groups allowed rights
1. women had important rights: to initiate divorce, to own property and retain it after divorce; and to conduct business in their own right
2. Christians and Jews, though vulnerable to periodic persecution and compelled to pay extra taxes, were normally allowed to worship
3. many traditional shrines and pilgrimages were resanctified as suitable for Muslim devotion
B. Divisions among the Islamic empire
1. Islamic world was too big to remain a single empire for long
a. precepts Muhammad left his followers at his death were not intended for a large state
b. Sharia was both a religious discipline and a law code for the state
1. laws unchangeable and divinely revealed
2. problem of identifying who was caliph split Islam between rival claimants within a generation of Muhammad's death
a. The major division that developed was between Shia and Sunni
1. Shia regarded the caliphate as the prerogative of Muhammad's nephew and his heirs
2. Sunni maintained that the Muslim community could designate any member of Muhammad's tribe to hold the office
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