Deck 1: The Rise and Expansion of Islam

Question 1

Which of the following enabled empires (such as the Acheminid Empire) to dominate increasingly extensive territories?

A) Improvements in agriculture and military technology
B) Improvements in transportation and communication
C) The development of social and administrative organizations
D) All of the answers are correct

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following was NOT a source of the Byzantine Empire's decline?

A) Warfare with rival empire(s)
B) Increased taxation of subjects
C) Sectarian differences within Christianity
D) Incompatibility of Christianity with Zoroastrianism

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Why does Muhammad's wife Khadijah hold an honored place in Islam?

A) She helped Muhammad to write the Quran
B) She received revelations from God
C) She was the first convert to Islam after Muhammad
D) She is used an example of an ideal Muslim in the first Sura of the Quran

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Who transmitted God's message to Muhammad on the Night of Power?

A) Gabriel
B) Khadijah
C) Ali
D) None of the answers is correct.

Question 5

What does the first year of the Muslim calendar (622 CE) mark?

A) The hijrah: the migration of Muslims from Mecca to Medina
B) The year Muhammad first received revelations from God
C) The year Muhammad and his followers conquered Mecca and proclaimed the Ka'ba a sacred shrine of God
D) The year of Muhammad's birth

Question 6

Which of the following was NOT a caliph of the Abbasid Empire?

A) al-Mansur
B) Harun al-Rashid
C) Mu'awiyah
D) al-Ma'mun

Question 7

How did Muhammad bring Mecca into his expanding Islamic community?

A) He preached there and attained many followers
B) He destroyed the Ka'ba and other idols, and he took the city
C) In 630, he led a force of 10,000 men to Mecca and negotiated the city's surrender
D) In 630, he led a force of 10,000 men to Mecca and destroyed the city

Question 8

Which of the following best describes a caliph?

A) The religious and political leader of the Islamic community
B) The rightful heir to Muhammad Ali
C) The religious and political leader of a nomadic tribe
D) The wisest and most knowledgeable man within a community.

Question 9

Which of the following most accurately describes the Rashidun?

A) The pre-Islamic inhabitants of the Hijaz
B) Abu Bakr and his three successors, who are known as the rightly guided caliphs
C) The martyrs of the Arab conquests of the seventh century
D) Members of monotheistic religions (peoples of the book)

Question 10

The period of the Arab conquests and the building of an Islamic empire began with which caliph?

A) Abu Bakr (632-634)
B) Umar (634-644)
C) Uthman (644-656)
D) Ali (656-661)

Question 11

Within 100 years of Muhammad's death, Arab forces had reached all of the following EXCEPT

A) India
B) Spain
C) Tunisia
D) the Balkans

Question 12

Which of the following most accurately describes dhimmis?

A) Muslim warriors of the Arab conquests
B) Non-Muslim members of tolerated religions who were allowed to practice their own religions if they paid a special poll tax
C) Members of monotheistic religions who converted to Islam during the Arab conquests
D) The prominent tribe of the Hijaz of which Muhammed was a member

Question 13

How did the Abbasid Empire address the issue of political authority?

A) Political authority was placed into the hands of an absolute monarch
B) Political authority rested entirely with a religious leader
C) Autonomous religious groups within the empire held complete political authority
D) The Abbasid Empire embraced a secular king

Question 14

Chapters of the Quran are called

A) Sunnah
B) Qasidah
C) Suras
D) Hadith

Question 15

Before the birth of Islam, the settled lands of the Middle East were ruled by two imperial states: the Roman-Byzantine Empire and the .

A) Abbasid Empire
B) Sasanian Empire
C) Umayyad Empire
D) Seljuk Empire

Question 16

Which of the following was characteristic of pre-Islamic society in the Arabian Peninsula?

A) Codified legal systems
B) Hierarchical state structures
C) Kin-based political systems
D) Centralized armies

Question 17

Which of the following is NOT a reason why Ali is such a significant figure in Islam?

A) He was Muhammad's cousin
B) He was the husband of Muhammad's daughter Fatima
C) He represented a broad coalition of interests calling for greater equality among all Muslims, both Arab and non-Arab
D) He was the uncontested successor to the caliphate

Question 18

Which of the following was NOT characteristic of the Umayyad dynasty?

A) It borrowed administratively from the Byzantines
B) It sought the continued expansion of Islam
C) It moved the capital from Mecca to Constantinople
D) It accrued vast levels of wealth from conquests

Question 19

What was most stunning about the Arab conquests of the 600s?

A) The number of men involved in these conquests
B) The level of sophistication in the tactics used in the conquests
C) The durability of these conquests
D) The lengthy amount of time it took for these conquests to be completed

Question 20

In which years did the Abbasids reign?

A) 710-850
B) 1258-1326
C) 732-1258
D) 750-1258

Question 21

Muhammad's role as Prophet of Islam is believed to begin at birth.

Question 22

The office of the caliphate remained with the Abbasids from 750 to 1258.

Question 23

Mu'awiyah founded the Abbasid Empire.

Question 24

Upon conquering Mecca, Muhammad reconstituted the shrine of Ka'ba as the most sacred Islamic shrine.

Question 25

The Abbasid Empire practiced "Arab exclusivism."

Question 26

By the time of the Arab-Islamic conquest, most of the inhabitants of the Middle East belonged to one of three __________________ faiths.

Question 27

Prior to the birth of Islam, Mecca was in a state of transition between vanishing tribal ways and nascent urbanism, spawned by _______________.

Question 28

Muhammad's religious vision that would lead to the emergence of a universal monotheistic religion is known as the __________________.

Question 29

Prior to the rise of Islam, settled lands of the Middle East were ruled by two imperial states: the Roman-Byzantine Empire and the __________________.

Question 30

The Abbasid Empire transferred the imperial capital from Damascus to __________________.

Question 31

Describe some strengths of the Abbasid Empire (750-1258).

Question 32

Why did many non-Greek Orthodox inhabitants of the territories that were conquered during the Arab conquests welcome the arrival of Muslim rulers?

Question 33

Why was Arabia an unlikely spot to produce a world religion and empire?

Question 34

Despite the Abbasids' numerous successes, it would seem no empire is perfect. Can you identify any potential weaknesses of the Abbasid caliphate?

Question 35

Describe Muhammad's prophethood in both Mecca and Medina.

Question 36

Was Mecca a significant city before the birth of Islam? Explain.

Question 37

What forces of unity existed in pre-Islamic Arabia?

Question 38

Why did Muhammad and his followers move from Mecca to Medina?

Question 39

Arab conquests were swift, expansive, and durable. To which religious reasons might we attribute this?

Question 40

Even more stunning than the speed and extent of the Arab conquests was their durability. What political factors contributed to the durability of the conquests?

Question 41

Explain the transition from Arab exclusivism under the Umayyad Empire to universalism under the Abbasid Empire.

Question 42

When Muhammed died he left behind no sons and no clear instructions for how a successor should be chosen. How has this ambiguity affected Islam throughout its history?