Religion of Islam
Tomb of Ali, the first Imam and the fourth caliph, in Iraq (it was rebuilt about 1500 AD by the Safavids) Where did Islam come from? Medieval Islam was closely related [...]
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The Ka’aba and the hajj – Islamic religion
Mohammed praying at the Ka'aba (in an Ottoman book from 1388 AD) - the Ka'aba and the hajj What is the Ka'aba? The Ka'aba, or Cube, was a big black [...]
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Medieval Islamic women
Mohammed with his daughter Fatima (she's in the front) Mohammed's views on women Mohammed loved and admired the women in his life. He tried to give women more rights than [...]
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Who are mawali? Medieval Islam
Shiite shrine at Karbala (from the 1800s AD): the tomb of Ali's son Hussein: Mawali history What are mawali? Mawali is the Arabic name for people all over the Islamic Empire who [...]
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Maktab – Medieval Islamic schools
Boys in Mauretania learning Quran verses in a maktab from wooden tablets Schools in the Islamic Empire In the Islamic empire and in Africa, as in West Asia before Islam, most kids never went to [...]
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Madrassa – Islamic colleges
Shirij Madrassa, Fez, Morocco, about 1350 AD Who went to a madrassa? If you had done well at your maktab (elementary school), your parents might decide to send you on to a [...]
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Ethnicity in Medieval Islam
A plate from the Fatimid period (1000s AD), Egypt Some Islamic rulers bought or captured young Turkish, Mongol, Kurdish and Christian boys. The rulers took these boys away from their families to be special slaves. [...]
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Medieval Islamic people
Medieval Islamic people: A plate from the Fatimid period (1000s AD), Egypt Children in the medieval Islamic world Children in the Islamic Empire generally did what their parents did (as many [...]
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Medieval Islamic families
Medieval Islamic families: The Birth of Mohammed (Iran, about 1315 AD, now in Edinburgh) Did men have four wives? According to the Quran, Muslim men could have as many as four wives if they were [...]
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07, 2017
Sinbad the Sailor – Arabian Nights
An island turned out to be a whale Sinbad was (as Sheherazade told the story) a trader from Baghdad. He sailed his trading ships all around the Persian Gulf and [...]
