Chapter 11: The Worlds of Islam

I really enjoyed how this chapter tied in the history of Islam and the rise of the Muslim Religion. It touched based on why women were inferior to men. I have a coworker who is Muslim, and whenever she saw my cross necklace, it's was uncomfortable for her which now, I know why. It's also explains why she has assimilated to a new culture but still obeys her husband and is almost always covered up. The reason I talk about her is because she said she could only look beautiful for her husband. I knew Arabic women were considered inferior to their men. What I didn't know was that Allah had made it that way because the man is the one who supports the women therefore she is less and must obey him. I also didn't know, that a man can have up to four wives with the condition that they all be treated the same. I knew about multiple wives, but not it's terms and conditions. I'm taking a Mystic Religion class in which I have read about Rabia and the Sufi's. It was very beneficial, to get a different yet elaborate further definition of what Sufi's were and how mystic were seen in the Islamic culture. This chapter was long yet fascinating because it correlated with a class I'm currently taking. I'm actually really grateful seeing I have a five-page paper due this Friday. "The Muslim culture was not to be seen as a new religion but as the book pointed out, it was merely a returning to the old and pure religion of Abraham from which Arabs, Jews and Christians alike had deviated. (Strayer, 305)". This chapter touched based on the Islamic religion, gender and their views of marriage. I found it interesting that marriage was seen as a contract which hence the large amount of arrange marriages, yet divorce wasn't seen negative. A woman could divorce her husband because he will not have sex with her after a while. It just sounds different. Muslim were migrated to India where Hinduism was pretty big. It also mentioned the differences it had with Christianity. Priest had to hide the crosses and Pay higher taxes. The five Pillars of the Islam basically described what a Sufi lives by and the chapter talks about how the Muslim faith rapidly spread and as well as their Empire. As they expanded and Mecca grew wealthier the Persian Empire declined. Which ties the big we learned in class as well as the classical era.