WW Chapter 9: The Worlds of Islam - Afro-Eurasian Connections

     We start off with a neat quote from Malcolm X where he states how he had never seen, or expected to see, such a great unity of everyone around the world, regardless of color, race, backgrounds, etc. This was part of the Muslim pilgrimage to the Mecca.

     First of all, I'd like to say that it's nice to see a change once in a while where history is not necessarily always about fighting. The fact that every color was represented through this pilgrimage makes it that much more special. This is why we need history. To learn from the past and learn what we did right and what we did wrong.

     The introduction to the chapter goes on to explain how Islam, so far throughout the twenty-first century, has really begun to take form as part of the United States. This is kind of surprising to me. I thought that by now that, as a planet, we would be really diverse everywhere, in terms of religion and beliefs. Then again, we are reminded of the previous wars in the middle east and the attacks of September 11. This is a huge factor as to why Islam was not as huge as it would have been. 

     Islam really set its mark around the world back between 600 and 1600. It was spread throughout the world in places such as Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Islam resulted in the creation of new civilizations unlike anything ever seen before. It was arguably the largest third wave civilization, as well as the most influential. It has definitely stood the test of time as there were around 1.2 Billion Muslims in the world during the beginning of the twenty-first century.

     Islam originated from marginal error. The Arabian Peninsula served as the home for Bedouins. The people tended to be in tribes and sought to be independent most of the time. They believed in a huge variety of Gods.

     Arabia was located on many important trade routes that connected the East to the West. Mecca went on to become a really important trade center. The Quraysh tribe ended up being the ones that controlled local trade and pilgrimage.

     Arabia happened to be located at the edge of the Byzantine and Sassanid Empires. As a result, some of the people from Arabia were very much familiar with the way these Empires worked and what their customs were. In addition to that, Judaism, Christianity, among other religions, spread amongst the Arabian peoples.