... have been virtually discarded after its leader's death. Instead, the Rashidun, the "rightly guided" Muslim leaders who were closest to the prophet, namely Umar, Uthman and Ali, took the reins of Islam, beginning a campaign that would, within two centuries, make Islam the dominant religion in the Middle East. This was not an easy or untroubled undertaking. Middle Eastern leadership, prior to Mohammed, was ... Muslims. His right to rule was contested by Mu"awiyah, then the governor of Syria. This led to Islam's first civil war. Both agreeing to let Allah decide, they battled at Siffin. Wh...

• Word Count: 2157
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... sultan where the leader was not only considered a political but a military leader where his legitimacy as a leader was proven through his ability to fulfill his divine mission of spreading Islam by conquering new territories for the empire. A chief without ability was deposed of and while an incompetent chief may remain in position due to his family's political influence, his authority ... , thus ensuring social stability. Social stability, a prerequisite for expansion, would thus allow for the possibility of social development in the ottoman society. Besides social development, the integ...

• Word Count: 4027
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... of Portuguese with artillery and musketeers, while Adal received help from Ottoman Muslims with artillery and musketeer support in Yemen. However, Adal Muslim power was later destroyed after several years of fierce battles and the Christians prevailed. However, In Adal's place, the Ottomans gained control ... belonging to nonbelievers were permissible to confiscate. He thought that by taking nonbelievers land, they would be persuaded to convert to Islam under his proper Muslim rule. He spent several decades striving to bring India, including Maratha, under his rule. However, he was not su...

• Word Count: 1984
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... not have to convert the people. (Ringrose, 2001) The people must only recognize their Muslim authority. This method was effective because the conquered people more readily accepted rule under the local elites and therefore made Ottoman authority more tolerable. Sometimes, regional elites would eventually convert to Islam after conquest. Ottoman rule was easy for Christian communities to accept because it did not ... that contributed to the dominance of the Ottoman Empire was their success in integrating non-Muslim communities into their own. Less than half of their population in the 150...

• Word Count: 1306
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... prophet Mohammed. Both the Byzantine and Islamic worlds were defined by their use of a monotheistic religion in governing their empire 's, a first in Western history. Islam began in Mecca in 610 AD, but the start of the Muslim era is marked by the prophet Mohammed 's journey from Mecca to Medina in 622. The new religion quickly spread through the Arabian Peninsula and in ... the century that followed, Arab armies carried Islam to all the way from India to Spain. After 661, under the Umayyad caliphs, Islam dominated one third of the Old World ... , was distinguished by an impressive cult...

• Word Count: 879
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... of Sasun and continued through almost every town with a credible Armenian population. It is important to note that these massacres were not spontaneous, but rather a calculated daily military operation. A Muslim sheikh summarizes the hatred shown toward Christians, commanding to "cut their throats after the Mecca rite of sacrificing sheep,"5 as if the Armenians equaled livestock. Perhaps the worst ... an extremist branch of the Young Turks, the Committee of Union and Progress seized control of the government. They introduced a policy of Turkification, encouraging non-Turkish citizens to ...

• Word Count: 1964
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... young Christian boys to the Ottoman service. They would take these children to Istanbul or another central part of the Ottoman Empire, and convert them to Islam.2 After being positioned as a janissary in the Ottoman Imperial administration, Mehmed demonstrates he is a "brave officer at the Sultan's court" ... being affected regardless of which religion or ethnicity they belong to. An example of this is when Alihodja, a Muslim, has his ear nailed to the bridge by another fellow Muslim simply for not wanting to partake in a stand against the Austrians. This is great example of how Muslims,...

• Word Count: 1230
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... into the Balkans. It was in 1389 at the Battle of Kosovo Polje that set the modern ethnic divisions and strife in motion. Christian Serbs and Croats were defeated by Muslim Ottoman Turks and claimed the entire region as a sovereign conquest. In the late 15th century, the majority Orthodox populated Bosnia and Herzegovina also fell to the Ottoman Turks. Gradually ethnic ... Albanians and to a lesser extent Serbs became converted to Islam. However, the majority of Albanians and Serbs were still Orthodox Christians, and due to Turkish military victories, began centralizing in and around th...

• Word Count: 2293
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... , meaning joyful. The harem in which Roxelana was installed was a social institution with a long history in the Middle East, where polygamy had been a tradition practice long before the region became Muslim. The nomadic, pre-Islamic, Turkic tribes frequently engaged in warfare, and Turkic women often fought side-by-side with the men and otherwise enjoyed considerable equality; Turkish culture prized girls ... dominate the former Byzantine Empire, one of the Persian customs they adopted was the rigid segregation of women, a social convention that actually overcame religious teaching to br...

• Word Count: 1508
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate