Worlds of Islam

 Muhammad was born in 570. He was the birth of the new religion and taught Islam.

Muhammad explored, traded and traveled as far as Syria. He meditated outside the city

and believed he was Allah’s messenger to the Arabs.  They considered Muhammad to

be the last prophet of God.

     According to Strayer (2013), in Ways of the World, “For a thousand years, (roughly

600-1600), peoples claiming allegiance to Islam represented a highly successful,

prosperous and expansive civilization, encompassing parts of Africa, Europe, the Middle

East, and Asia. While Chinese culture and Buddhism provided the cultural anchor for

East Asia during the third wave millennium and Christianity did the same for Europe, the

realm of Islam touched on both of them and decisively shaped the history of the entire

Afro-Eurasian world.”(p.412) Therefore, all types of nationalities could relate to Islam.

The word “Muslim” means one who submits. Therefore, it was easy to understand what

the Gods wanted or expected. Muslim was based on the reciting power of word not just

something to follow or read.         

     Before my readings of Afro- Eurasian Connection, I personally didn’t know too much

about Islam or Muslims.  I remembered when I was a child, they wore really nice suits

and sold bean pies on the streets in San Francisco. They were mostly in the African

American or low income neighborhoods. I was raised Catholic but as a kid, Church was

all the same. However, the birth of Muslim stood and continues to stand for more than a

following of culture, but the Islam belief and religion.

commerce and culture

History tells amazing stories. The journey of development, culture, trades, and religion

are just a few things that leads us to today. A world that exists because of the past.

History gives us examples of how different the ecological zones were. From coastlands

to highlands, even the forest and deserts produce several various desired commodities.   

The trades also depended on the roads of travel. The silk, sea and sand roads were

different and trades depended on the commodities that were in demand. For example,

and to name a few of the trading networks were China, India, Africa and the

Mediterranean Basin. They all had different and specific products that they would

trade. China traded silk, bamboo, gunpowder, paper, rhubarb, ginger, porcelain,

tea, lacquer ware, and chrysanthemums. India traded, grains, ivory, stones, cotton

textiles, spices timber, herbal medicine, and tortoiseshells. West Africa imported salt,

while East Africa had gold, ivory, iron goods, slaves, quartz, leopard skins as well as

tortoiseshells too. The Mediterranean Basin had wool and linen textile, ceramics,

glassware, wine and grape vines, jewelry, artwork, gold and gold coins, and olive oil.

     What I found to be interesting is that the ability to grow, create and produce wasn’t

for their personal community needs but the need to trade at the markets. This also

allowed them to gain things from other merchants. People back then really knew what

needed to be done to stay afloat in their realm. It was because of both travel and trade

that had a heavy influenced on how to live. They learned from the many circles of life

that they came across. This is why language, culture, religion and commodities all

became a valuable source of teaching, learning and accepting new things.