Developments in DAR-AL-ISLAM [AP World Review—Unit 1 Topic 2]

• Dar al-Islam, meaning "the house of Islam", was the region where Islam was the majority religion around 1200
• Historian: '"a big old honking house"'
• Major religions that interacted during this period


  • Judaism
  • Christianity
  • Islam
• Judaism


  The ethnic religion of the Jews, originated in the Middle East, monotheistic
• Christianity


  Established by the Jewish prophet Jesus Christ, who claimed to be the Messiah, early Christians were a persecuted minority until the Roman Empire adopted Christianity
• Islam


  Founded by the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century, Muhammad claimed to be the final prophet, salvation through righteous actions like alms giving, prayer, and fasting
• After Muhammad's death in 632, Islam spread rapidly throughout the Middle East, North and sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and South Asia, creating Dar al-Islam
• Dar al-Islam


  The "house of Islam", the region where Islam was the majority religion
• Islam facilitated trade connections and the rise of large empires within Dar al-Islam
• Abbasid Caliphate


  Founded in the 8th century, ethnically Arab, experienced a Golden Age of advancements in science, mathematics, literature, and technology
• By 1200, the Abbasid Empire was fragmenting and losing its position as the center of the Islamic world
• Several new Islamic empires began to rise, largely composed of Turkic peoples, not Arabs
• New Turkic Muslim Empires

  • Seljuk Empire
  • Mamluk Sultanate
  • Delhi Sultanate
• New Turkic Muslim Empires

  • Military was in charge of administration
  • Implemented Sharia law
• Ways Islam expanded


  1. Military expansion

  2. Merchant activity and trade

  3. Efforts of Muslim missionaries, including Sufism
• Sufism


  • Emphasized mystical experience, available to anyone regardless of class or gender, opposed by Islamic scholar class
• Innovations in Dar al-Islam

  • Developments in mathematics, including invention of trigonometry by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
  • Establishment of the House of Wisdom library in Baghdad, which preserved and translated Greek philosophy
• The Arabic translations of classical Greek texts from the House of Wisdom were later transferred to Europe, forming the basis for the Renaissance