India map

Chinese Influence in East Asia

Harun al-Rashid

         This is a mediocre quality source. The organization of the page is simple though it is not evenly written. It appears that the writer or writers were negatively biased towards the life of Harun al-Rashid. The anecdotes given that have details are negatives against al-Rashid. His life is portrayed as a man who makes stupid decisions like marrying his sister to his friend and expecting them to act unmarried. Then al-Rashid's brutality is shown when he kills and displays Ja'far publicly.

          After reading this entry, I'm intrigued by the stories that surround him. How did he manage to rule his empire? And have a prosperous reign? The Wikipedia page answers the basic questions about who he is, but for more details I would google his name along with different key words like Ja'far or Bayt al-Hikma to find out the role he played in different aspects of his lifetime.

          Lastly, Harun al-Rashid sparks imagination because of the wild stories that surround his life. The variety of experiences he had leads to a wide variety of references that add to his fame. I think the Wikipedia page does not do justice to the largeness of his presence.

Benjamin of Tudela's on Bagdad

          Benjamin of Tudela's description of Bagdad is biased. As a Spanish rabbi who has visited many cities, I think he has the ethos to discuss these cities, but he lets his viewpoint affect his descriptions. He describes the different ways that the city is prosperous, like the place, the riches and the caliph's lifestyle. Benjamin seems to be dazzled and enchanted by the city and writes a biased description. He likes Constantinople better because he does not mention any negatives in that description; in his description of Bagdad, he mentions the hospital for sick people and he shows a negative side to the city.

Expansion of Dar-Al-Islam Map

The Quran on Allah and His Expectations of Humankind

          Compare the Quran's teachings on the relationship between Allah and human beings with the views of Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians discussed in earlier chapters.

          Zoroastrian teachings in the Gathas recognize both Ahura Mazda as a supreme deity who is the creator of all good things and six lesser beings who represented the forces of evil. Ahura Mazda's teachings allowed human beings to enjoy the world in moderation. The Jews' Hebrew scriptures recognized Yahweh as the single supreme deity. The Christians' Old and New Testaments recognize the trinity as their single deity. The Muslim's Quran recognize Allah as the single supreme deity who created the world. Human beings who obeyed Allah would receive mercy and blessing, but those who rejected Allah would suffer eternal punishment.
          All four beliefs have the concept of an after life in which there is either blessing and rewards or eternal suffering. The Jews, Christians and the Muslims believe that their god is the one deciding who gets what. This is different in Zoroastrianism where the amount of good and bad in a person determine their fate and the gods are only rooting for good or evil. Also they share the general idea that there is one good god. Once again, Zoroastrianism is the outlier where there are also six lesser gods who are evil. The Christians can also be considered different because of their belief in the trinity which is made up of three beings, rather than only one god.

Foltz on Bentley's 3 Patterns of Conversion

Richard C. Foltz's discussion on the expansion of Islam helps prove Bentley's three patterns of voluntary association, syncretism, and pressure to spread religions. Foltz explains the three patterns though another example, Islam. He says that that "Arab Muslims had strong reason not to want non-Arabs to join the faith"(228) due to economic reasons, yet the domination of Muslim domination in commercial activity led non-Muslims to voluntarily convert. People also converted to Islam due to assimilation like the incorporation of the religion into "succeeding generation[s]"(231) where the converts will have seen the way of "the father's new community" and not "his original one"(231). This suggests that the "new community" is more applicable to the new generations and therefore is accepted more widely. This change of religion from original to improved is the spreading of Islam by assimilation. Lastly "Muslim rule over the western half of the Silk Road"(230) gave them the power to impose their religion on others. Foltz uses the same three patterns as Bentley to describe the spread of Islam.